According to Oberlo, for every $1 spent on email marketing, the return is $42. That is quite an impressive return, especially in today’s highly competitive world where a marketer needs the highest possible return on investment (ROI).
However, to take advantage of this lucrative marketing strategy, you need the assistance of the best email marketing plugin for WordPress.
Now you might be wondering why we are just focusing on WordPress email marketing plugins and not any other platform. The reason is that WordPress is the most popular platform in the world
Let’s have a much more detailed look into WordPress and why you should prefer it over other CMS.
Why WordPress?
WordPress is the most popularly used CMS across the internet globe. It has a 60.4% market share to its name, which means that around 33.5% of all active sites use WordPress as their CMS.
The United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia are the top three countries using WordPress CMS and we have more than 35 biggest and most popular brands that have opted for it, including TechCrunch, The Wall Street Journal, Beyonce, etc.
The process is fairly easy and hassle-free for anyone looking to build a website or online store on WordPress. All you have to do is download the free software from WordPress.org and buy a domain name with a WordPress host.
Easy customization with thousands of free templates and plugins to choose from makes website management and design on WordPress the easiest.
What is a WordPress plugin?
For WordPress beginners, a plugin is an addition to their vocabulary. It is a term frequently used when we talk about WordPress CMS and it is only sensible to have a thorough understanding of it before we proceed.
A plugin for WordPress or any other CMS is a piece of software for added functionality. They are a stash of coded language that you “plugin” to your WordPress site to get better features, customization options, and improved functioning.
Fortunately, enterprising developers have created thousands of free plugins that can work with minor tweaks and changes. You can use them to create a fully functioning e-commerce store, a social site, or a forum among other things.
You can download the free plugins available on the official WordPress plugin directory to perhaps add an Instagram feed link to your website or help improve its search engine ranking on Google.
Why use WordPress Email Marketing Plugins?
Now we know the advantages of WordPress over other platforms, let’s dig into another pertinent question.
Why email marketing? Won’t we get a much better ROI from social media marketing or other forms? Who reads emails nowadays?
To answer all these questions, let’s have a look at some facts.
According to Radicati Group, around 2.5 billion people worldwide use emails and there are about 196 billion emails sent across daily. This number of email senders is expected to increase up to 2.8 billion in the next two years.
Out of the total emails sent, a massive 109 billion emails are business emails. If those figures are telling you anything, it is that emails are extremely popular today.
They are a powerful tool to connect which is why, so it only makes sense that businesses today employ them as a primary marketing strategy.
Email marketing is the strategy of reaching out to your potential customers to engage, influence, and make them want more. There are numerous benefits of email marketing if it is done correctly.
Much more effective than social media
Research has proven email marketing to be more effective than social media. It can be personalized and customized, is more action-oriented, economical, measurable, and mobile-friendly.
Going into detail, there are various other advantages of using compelling email marketing tactics that we can discuss later sometime.
While it is true that the Return on Investment (ROI) of email is far better than that of social media marketing, it doesn’t underplay the other forms of digital marketing channels.
So, coming back to the topic; let’s explore the ten best email marketing plugins for WordPress which you can integrate into your WordPress website in a bid to improve your turnover.
10 Best Plugins for Email Marketing on WordPress
HubSpot
More like the “hotspot” for the growth of businesses, HubSpot is the exclusive arsenal of business growth from where brand owners and marketers can take their pick of highly effective tools.
The HubSpot plugin has more to it than just email marketing and inarguably, is the best email marketing plugin for WordPress. It has an integrated CRM, ad management, forums, live chatbot and chats, reporting, and much more.
The HubSpot plugin is easily the most popularly downloaded free plugin for WordPress websites.
Since we have countless websites of agencies, businesses looking to expand, and service companies, HubSpot brings a premium solution to cater to all diverse requirements from one access point.
There is an easy drag-and-drop builder that you can use to customize your marketing approach. Ideally, the HubSpot plugin allows users to send as many as 2,000 emails for free.
The cherry on top is the fact that users can access an integrative native WordPress plugin from HubSpot which is a tool exclusively designed to tailor professional, cutting-edge emails for your business.
Emails connected to the inbuilt free CRM, you can address relevant emails easily based on the data you have such as website activity or form submissions.
In a nutshell, it enormously helps you with customer management without consuming too much or effort so that you can put that energy into other places.
Pros
HubSpot plugin for WordPress is an all-in-one marketing weapon with 300 integrated tools. It has a user-friendly interface for hassle-free functioning. The various tools integrated with this plugin help keep your entire database organized for optimal customer management. Subsequently, you can hit the jackpot with your action-packed emails.
Cons
It’s tough to come up with a downside in the case of the HubSpot plugin. However, if you require marketing automation for your company, this plugin might not be the best choice for that matter.
SendInBlue
SendInBlue is another full-scale email marketing service with integrated tools to help elevate user experience. The plugin includes various marketing features such as email statistics, automation, and campaign builder.
The official WordPress plugin is SendInBlue subscribe form and WP SMTP. This plugin can get all your email marketing services accessed right from the WordPress dashboard of your website.
The other features of SendInBlue make email management and list building simpler for users. Small to medium-sized businesses can use its email statistics and drag-and-drop email campaign builder to tailor relevant details and optimize them to propagate their services.
While it is not exactly a piece of cake for less advanced users, SendInBlue has been a popular WordPress plugin for as long as we can remember. It has been used extensively for blogs, e-commerce websites, service companies, and even non-profit organizations.
From small-scale to large industries, users get to access advanced options other than the basics. It allows creating customized subscription forms, segment and automate newsletters, and providing real-time tracking metrics of your emails.
The number of clicks opens, unread(s), or spammed clicks provides real insights into the actions of your subscribers’ list. Ultimately, you can create new and improved emails, choose from a template, or update the existing ones to get better conversion rates.
What’s more; the SendInBlue plugin has up to 9,000 free emails per month!
Pros: SendInBlue makes it the best free email marketing plugin for WordPress due to its advanced functional options, statistical tracking capability, and responsive email design templates.
Cons: There are a lot of price limitations for the plugin. While 300 emails per day is not a bad bet, the other advanced, premium plans cost up to $25/month with heavier features and limits. The other two plans are $39 and $66 per month respectively and they allow you to send as many as 120,000 emails per month!
Moreover, the SendInBlue plugin is not exactly what we call “beginner-friendly” as compared to other options, and it may lack third-party integration options.
MailChimp
Mailchimp is another very popular email marketing service. If you are using this platform, the MailChimp plugin for WordPress is the best plugin you can use to optimize your business growth.
There is a lot you can do using this plugin. It includes pre-built and mobile-friendly customizable sign-up forms that as a service-based business, you can integrate to your website to rope more leads in.
Additionally, MailChimp has an extensive knowledge base that you can access to get more information, how-to articles, and plugin integration links. These include a wide variety of tools that e-commerce businesses actively use on their websites.
Being mobile-friendly, it makes great use for creative services, non-profit organizations, and marketing or advertising agencies. With MailChimp, you can create customized, professional emails or take help from the several designs available.
Ideally, MailChimp is actively used by industries looking to create highly personalized integrated email campaigns. As your lists start to grow, you need not worry about switching because MailChimp can also scale your email requirements should the need arise.
In a nutshell, it is the best free email marketing plugin for WordPress websites with a free plan offering up to 2,000 emails and 12,000 emails per month. The paid plans start from only $10 a month, thereby allowing maximum users to get the best of its features at nominal costs.
However, the highest tier paid plan of MailChimp is slightly pricier but absolutely justified. If and when your business grows with the email subscribers surpassing a milestone, you can invest a certain amount to purchase the heavier plan for added profits and better features.
At the bottom line, all of it will ultimately provide a fancier return on your investment. MailChimp plugin for WordPress is the perfect means to start small to medium businesses looking to expand their audience.
Pros: It is streamlined, easy-to-use, packed with information, and an effective email-crafting plugin. A better free tier plan and the cheapest “Growing Business” advanced plan make MailChimp the popular choice for countless WordPress websites.
Cons: Inserting native subscription forms into your website would require some advanced CSS knowledge which is not always the case with ordinary users. Compared to the rest, the “ProMarketer” version of MailChimp might feel a shade pricier to some.
Email Subscribers & Newsletters
Email subscribers & Newsletters is an all-inclusive solution for all your email marketing needs. From collecting subscribers to managing and scheduling your newsletters, trust the Email Subscribers & Newsletters plugin for catering to your customized requirements single-handedly.
Serving several bloggers, marketers, service companies, and businesses, the plugin has quite a potential for automated options such as sending automated welcome emails or triggered blog posts.
It includes a subscription box to be embedded anywhere on your site, receive notification alerts on new subscribers, and view basic data of time-stamps. There’s a double opt-in feature that screens the interested readers from the disinterested ones.
Anyone looking to get a powerful, full-fledged email marketing solution without unnecessary hassle, Email Subscribers & Newsletters is the plugin for you.
Pros: Popularly the best plugin for email marketing on WordPress for small to large businesses, its premium version is as economical as it can get starting from $9/month. There’s no external assistance required and has great automation potential for users.
Cons: The Captcha function might not work at times which means users can get tons of spam
Newsletter
Our next best email marketing plugin for WordPress is Newsletter – the perfect solution for designing, crafting and sending newsletters to your subscribed email list.
A newsletter is the next big plugin integration that you can access from your WordPress dashboard after having it installed. It is an exclusive tool for collecting email addresses and dispatching professionally designed newsletters to make your list grow long.
The Newsletter plugin has an advanced tracking option, with an easy-to-use drag-and-drop email composer. Users can get better functionality with many extensions that help enhance the overall performance.
As newsletters are primarily a marketing tool for blogs, SMBs, and small-scale community websites, it has a dedicated segment for targeted audiences to which you may want to send specific messages.
For easy monitoring, there is a central status panel from where you can operate and keep a check on your newsletter campaigns sent out to the readers.
Pros: The free version of the Newsletter has excellent, customizable email templates in responsive designs. Users can also integrate free extensions, for instance, to archive or lock premium content. It has awesome segmentation options to keep your data organized.
Cons: It might not really be a downside of the Newsletter plugin, but worthwhile to mention that other versions of the plugin with better functionality are “Blogger” for $45 and “Agency” for $129 (respectively named to indicate respective purposes).
You may purchase them collectively for up to 3 websites at $76.59, or $298.60 for an unlimited number of websites.
Furthermore, Newsletter plugins have fewer automation options as compared to others.
MailPoet
Another newsletter WordPress plugin for email marketing is MailPoet. Built as a native WordPress free extension, MailPoet allows you to integrate it into your WordPress website and jump on the bandwagon of premium email marketing tactics.
It is easy-to-use, easy to customize, schedule, and send emails to your subscribers’ list along with managing the entire process effortlessly.
The free version of MailPoet includes adding a custom widget for sign-up forms, a drag-and-drop email composer to create from scratch, or choosing from various responsive templates.
In addition, your MailPoet plugin will manage your email list within your site and sends automatic signup notifications every time a visitor subscribes. The customized ‘welcome’ emails are also automated for subscribers.
The best part about the MailPoet plugin is that it can be integrated with Google Analytics and works well with WordPress multisite. MailPoet’s premium plans allow you to scale up when your list grows.
Pros: It is easy to access with gorgeous email templates to choose from. The free tier of MailPoet supports up to 1000 subscribers.
Cons: The statistics and reporting features are available only in premium plans which cost $99. Plus, you do not have a lot of templates to choose from and may need to do some tweaking for the required specifications.
Sumo List Builder
Trusted by over 600,000 business owners, Sumo List Builder is an awesome addition to your WordPress site. It is an advanced drag-and-drop email builder and has an in-built Smart Mode pop-up technology.
Sumo List Builder has an easy integration option with other email marketing services like MailChimp, so small and large businesses along with marketing agencies and non-profit organizations popularly use this plugin.
The free version has a variety of pre-made templates for creating newsletters, click-induced pop-ups, and a simple user interface. If you’re looking for a tool to optimize your email marketing strategy, no matter the size of your business, Sumo List Builder is your go-to solution.
Pros: It is free for up to 500 subscribers and has a super-simple interface. It only requires simple tweaking to cater to your specific requirements.
Cons: Other plans include “Professional” for $24/month, “Small Business” for $59/month, and “E-commerce” for $199/month – relatively, a tad bit costlier than the premium plans of other plugins.
Mailster
Mailster is a stand-alone email marketing automation plugin for WordPress. Despite its heavy feature-set, it comes at number 7 in the list because it is premium-only – there’s no free version.
However, Mailster does not require third-party assistance. It is a WordPress native integrated plugin with super-friendly customer support and a mobile-optimized interface.
Creating optimized newsletters, either by scratch using the easiest drag-and-drop tool or choosing from the vast library of templates, was never easier.
The premium-only option makes Mailster a far better option than free plugins for those who can afford it because it has a wide range of features. These include receiving detailed analytics on a centralized dashboard, automation, segmentation, and much more.
With Mailster, you can easily customize your emails and have it work with other services such as Amazon SES to make sure your email newsletters are ending up in the inbox folders, and not spam. The premium Mailster plugin is worth $59 for one website.
Pros: Easy-to-use with an autoresponder, unlimited subscription forms, mobile-ready designs, high compatibility, and detailed analytical report of your subscribers.
Cons: Feasible for those website owners who can afford the upfront cost.
OptinMonster
OptinMonster is not an email sending service itself. Instead, it is a popup software tool that works with practically any email marketing plugin service alongside its own features.
Ranging from basic plans to professional, OptinMonster free service has over 65 pre-made responsive email designs to choose from and create new leads.
Pros: It is user-friendly, easy to use, and has an advanced segmentation engine with analytics options. Importantly, it is highly compatible and can be integrated into any e-commerce platform.
Cons: The free and ‘Basic’ versions of OptinMonster are limited in feature-set. Investing in more money would give access to better options.
Remarkety
Conclusively, the last pick of the best email marketing plugins for WordPress is Remarkety – an automation email marketing tool specifically built for the WooCommerce platform.
Remarkety offers a range of added features such as A/B testing, customer segmentation, behavior tracking, in addition to an excellent email marketing tool.
There are more advanced plans with a 14-day trial period alongside a free version. If you’re an e-commerce website just beginning or seeking a better email marketing plugin, Remarkety is your answer.
Pros: Extremely functional for e-commerce websites to segment customers based on their behavior and personalize email marketing campaigns respectively.
Cons: It sets limitations for other websites not using the WooCommerce plugin primarily. Moreover, there are only a handful of options in its free version, meaning that demands more money invested. Subsequently, it is the priciest plugin of all.
Email Marketing is the future
This brings us towards the end of the list of 10 email marketing automation plugins for WordPress
Using subscription boxes neatly placed on your website enables you to turn visitors into subscribers, and ultimately into consumers. An email marketing plugin for WordPress, in that case, is essential.
Moreover, you read earlier that surprisingly email marketing brings in more results than social media. As such, this form of marketing is worth trying.
Whether you design a creative, eye-catching email or a customized sign-up form, make sure you pick the best from the list above that can help you scale better in the future as your subscribers grow!
So which plugin is your favorite? Do share your thoughts in the comments below
