One of the best email marketing perks is to connect directly with potential leads but that comes at a cost.
To give you a general idea, basic software packages cost $10 to $25 per month.
At other times, it can cost more for a larger volume of emails you want to send and the number of contacts you’d like to send to.
At the same time, email marketing has an extremely high ROI, for every $1 you spend, you get $44.
In this article, you will learn about how much you should pay for email marketing services.
Keep reading to learn more about the cost of email marketing.
I) How much do email marketing services cost?
Basic Plan
$300 / month
1 email
Lead generation reports
Campaign and target strategy
Split testing subject lines
Market Leader Plan
$600 / month
Up to 2 emails
Lead generation reports
Campaign and target strategy
Split testing subject lines
II) What factors impact the cost of email marketing?
When choosing an email marketing plateform, the only factor that truly matters is the number of contacts on your list.
For example, some email marketing plateforms may require at least 500 contacts before they’ll consider selling your product.
The type of plan you choose defines the number of contacts you can add.
Email marketing software offers a limited number of contacts.
The average wage is between 10,000 and 50,000.
Some email marketing software offers unlimited contacts, while others have limited contacts.
As your list grows over time, your email marketing plan will need updating too.
So, make sure to choose a marketing service that will be affordable even when you reach your one-year or three-year target for list growth.
Another practical feature is segmentation.
Segmentation helps you break your entire list down into sub-groups.
For example, you could send an email to your regular buyers, so you don’t bother them with emails about new products.
Opt-in forms help you to weed out possible spam leads before even landing in your email lists.
Design Templates Used
When it comes to email, design is no joke.
Your design, style, logo, typeface, and color palette will create a familiarity between your brand and your audience.
Every high-quality template needs to be responsive and readable across all mobile and desktop operating systems, as well as all email clients.
What might seem to work on Gmail probably won’t work on Hotmail.
Email marketing software have a selection of templates, along with easy drag-and-drop editors.
The standard template library holds 75-200 templates.
There is also the A/B testing feature.
A/B testing feature gives you the chance to create two different email headlines or templates.
These two different versions will define which one collects the most clicks or conversions.
If you have a thousand of templates, it will not matter if it doesn’t bear results.
Therefore, A/B testing is the smartest way to learn.
Monthly Email Volume
Here is the way to know the optimal volume of emails you need to send each month:
Multiply your total contact list size by the number of emails each contact will receive. In case you have sub-lists make sure to add them too.
There is also the option to have an unlimited email volume. It’s a very common thing in the email marketing world.
You can find unlimited email volume under plans from Constant Contact, ActiveCampaign, GetResponse, and Moosend.
There are other options you can check like:
- Sendinblue start at 5,000-10,000, and go as high as one million
- Mailchimp goes as high as three million
- HubSpot goes as high as 20 million
Campaign Automation Tools
Email marketing automation has a wide set of email marketing tools to automate your workflow.
Automation tools are like A/B testing, conversion tracking, send-time optimization, customer profiles, or any basic task automation.
One of the perks is an automated campaign is that the more automated your process is, the less work for your marketers.
Automation functionality is according to the price plan you choose. For an example:
Constant Contact’s lowest plan is $15.58 per month.
Constant Contact’s automation tools start at $35.06 per month.
Other email marketing services’ automation have affordable plans, like Sendinblue’s month plan costs $22.50.
Support Reporting
The bare minimum is to have a responsive customer support team, online resources to consult through a variety of channels.
There are email marketing services who offer:
- An online knowledge center
- A community forum
- Peer-to-peer feedback on common issues
Customers support services’ should have live support available that includes phone and live chat. It depends on the channel of your choosing.
More resource-intensive phone customer support depends on the plan you choose.
Like Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Campaign Monitor, and GetResponse have a limited phone support to only their highest paid plan.
These services’ highest paid plan range prices from $65 per month to $299 per month.
These services’ user levels offer premium security and fine-tuned reporting.
Within each account, you can be assigned different levels of access to editing abilities or viewable data.
This depends on if the user is a viewers, authors, managers, or admins.
Number of Users
Users is the number of separate accounts that can access the same platform to make emails and view historical data.
There are options for just two or three users or large email marketing teams of a dozen or more users.
Several services have an unlimited number of users across all plans, like:
- Moosend
- MailerLite
- Campaign Monitor
Each its own, there are services that offer a limited number of plans for one or two users. Wherein there unlimited plans that go as high as five, 10, or an unlimited number of users.
III) Costs associated with email marketing
For your business to leverage email marketing, you need an email service provider.
On the other hand, email automation sends emails to your bottomless email lists of subscribers in professional-looking emails.
An email service provider will provide you with professional email templates, email marketing tools to help you grow and manage your email list, and tracking features that show the engagements rates of your email marketing campaigns.
An email service provider will guaranteed delivery rates, to be sure you’re reaching the right people.
IV) Compare email marketing to traditional marketing channels
Traditional marketing channels, like direct mail costs were much higher than today.
The return on investment (ROI) from email marketing is higher than direct mail, where you have to pay a freelance designer, a printer, postage, etc.
Direct mail takes forever to reach your customers.
While when you hit “Send”, you reach your emails contacts instantantly.
Another traditional marketing channel is the word-of-mouth. But word of mouth travels slowly. Email travels fast.
You can make referrals with the click of a button when your potential customers forward your emails to friends and family.
V) Outsourcing Email Marketing
Outsourcing is when you hire an email marketing agency to handle your business’s email marketing needs.
Outsourcing removes the risk of overburdening your marketing staffers.
Outsourcing allowes you access to specific industry expertise.
Outsourcing also allowes you to expand your contact list size and increase your ROI on the contacts you already have.
Email marketing agencies are an investment, and not for everyone.
Here are the factors for you to know if an email marketing agency right or wrong for you:
Hire an agency if:
- You have a large contact list
- You have strong growth
- You need strategy insights or a content calendar
Use an email marketing software if:
- You have a small contact list size or small business
- You have an average growth
- You know or can learn the basics of email marketing
An agency can be your call if your email marketing campaigns have a strong growth and engagement.
