Why email marketing is here to stay

As web traffic grows exponentially, businesses must utilize email marketing to reach customers in order to remain competitive in the eCommerce space. Online search traffic grew by a whopping 22% throughout 2020 alone according to Semrush.

jdp is committed to ensuring that Shopify store owners have the tools they need to engage their customers. That’s why we’ve put together a list with our top 5 email marketing platforms that operate best with Shopify.

5. Constant Contact and Shopify

Constant Contact has been a popular email marketing engine for the SMB space for quite some time. It often competes with MailChimp and is an affordable solution. Pricing ranges from $20/month for a maximum of 500 subscribers to $335/month for up to. 50,000 subscribers. According to Shopify’s website, it’s a “price-conscious tool” for email marketing.

Pros

Constant Contact is an ideal email marketing platform for merchants who send a lot of newsletter-style campaigns to their customers. It communicates directly with Shopify’s online platform, and you can insert products directly from your store into your email marketing campaigns. According to Constant Contact’s website a new feature has been released that will also allow you to send branded abandoned cart emails. In order to recapture sales that may have been otherwise lost. There are also a number of pre-built email templates that really expedite the design process and allow you to find something that works well for your target audience.

Cons

The revenue tracking features are not very robust, which isn’t exactly ideal in the e-commerce space. Spam testing has also not yet been released on this platform, which can affect the open rate on the email marketing campaigns that you are sending.

4. SendInBlue and Shopify

Despite the fact that SendInBlue is a relatively new email marketing platform, it has become a favorite among users in the eCommerce space including Shopify. The entry point is extremely affordable, as the free plan allows you to send up to 300 emails per day, and the lite plan charges only $25 a month for up to 40,000 emails.

Pros

SendInBlue has a built-in plugin with Shopify which can allow users to sync over all contacts and orders from SendInBlue to Shopify.

According to SendinBlue’s website, marketers can also go beyond email marketing with multi-channel communication including the ability to “send both transactional and marketing SMS directly from the Shopify back office.”

Cons

Many users report a poor level of support related to SendInBlue’s customer service. Their customer service team does not operate on a 24/7 model, making it hard for users to contact them for support if they are in a different time zone.

3. Klaviyo and Shopify

Klaviyo was built to work side by side with platforms like Shopify. Klaviyo will collect and store all of your customer data, to enable you to send out more personalized and targeted email marketing campaigns. The pricing for Klaviyo is based on the number of subscribers, not the volume of emails, which is ideal for those with a small targeted customer base. The paid plan starts at $20 a month for up to 300 subscribers, an unlimited number of email sends.

Pros

Klaviyo offers unlimited A/B testing. The APIs offered by Klaviyo make it a seamless platform, as it connects with email marketing, social media, and other 3rd party applications. According to the Shopify app store, “You can integrate your Shopify data with a single click.”

Klaviyo offers over 100 pre-built integrations with top eCommerce tools, no coding required.” Klaviyo focuses on data analytics to drive the ideal customer experience based on their buying patterns and needs.

Cons

According to TrustRadius, users reported that Klaviyo can be more expensive compared to other competitive platforms in the email marketing space with similar functionality. It also noted that their customer service team can be slow to respond and that the user interface could still be designed in a more intuitive way.

2. Rare.Io and Shopify

Rare.Io is an outlier from a lot of the conventional email marketing platforms, in that focuses heavily on Artificial Intelligence. Its focus is on personalized emails that are tailored to the individual. They have a team that spans internationally to assist users that have customer bases that span multiple continents.

Pros

The platform is much more personalized with features that include order follow-up and abandoned cart emails, as well as smart timing.

According to Rare.Io, “Smart Timing sends emails based on when your customers are most likely to click, open or buy your product.” It also contains a segment builder which allows you to drill into your shop data for more personalization around buying habits.

Cons

The free plan will cap you at 249 contacts. However, you still have access to an unlimited number of campaigns and automation as part of the free plan.

1. Omnisend and Shopify

Coming in at number 1 (drum roll, please….) is Omnisend! Omnisend takes pole position largely based on the fact that it was built solely for merchants selling on numerous channels.
Their Standard Plan comes in at just “$16 per month for up to 5,000 subscribers (60,000 emails per month), with pricing increases based on subscriber count tier.”

Pros

The integration with Shopify is seamless and allows for dynamics, sign-up boxes, and landing pages that can connect between both platforms. According to Omnisend, it “is the top-rated email & SMS marketing automation platform on Shopify.” Omnisend also has a product analytics feature that focuses on the product preferences of a customer and which products have the best chance of being sold.

Cons

Ominsend is limited in its ability to customize templates. It is also one of the pricier options on this list, but as the old saying goes, “You get what you pay for!”

Let’s take your eCommerce business to the next level!

We hope that this list helps you to understand what email marketing platforms are available to you, how they integrate with Shopify, and how they can accelerate your eCommerce business.

At jdp, we have expertise in understanding the challenges faced by eCommerce businesses. From building eCommerce websites that connect with your customers to refining your business language in your email marketing campaigns, our team can take the wheel and set you on course for success.

Get in touch for a free 15-minute consultation and we’ll discover the best next steps for your business.