3 Email Marketing Platforms For Small Businesses
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When you’re just starting your business, you learn about the importance of building your email list. But when you try to figure out which email platform you should use, you find that there are lots of options.
I know, because I’ve been there. I have no idea of how many hours I spent googling about this, back before I launched my business. I started many free trials, but only one platform had what I was looking for (and it was easy to manage for a newbie like me, with no knowledge of email marketing back then).
So to make it easier for you to decide which platform you should use, I wrote this blog post comparing 3 email marketing platforms for your small business.
Grab a cup of your favorite beverage (I have my cup of coffee here ☕), and let’s start.
What are the best email platforms for small businesses?
Today I’m going to share with you three well known and reliable email marketing platforms:
- Flodesk, which is the one that I use to manage my email list. If you’re a creative entrepreneur and you need a platform focused on visuals, this may be the one for you. You can also sell your digital products and subscriptions in an aesthetic way.
- Kit (formerly ConvertKit), which is focused mostly on text-based emails (although they’ve been introducing changes to their visual editor lately, and now you can get some templates).
- GetResponse, which is also focused mostly on text-based emails. It helps you create your email list, send and automate emails to your subscribers, and build landing pages.
For the sake of illustrating the differences between the three email marketing platforms in terms of email layout, I designed the same email (I’ll share the screenshots in another section in this blog post, so keep reading).
Do small businesses need email marketing?
Yes, they do. If you have an email list, you can contact your audience directly, and you know that your emails will reach your audience’s inbox.
In the case of social media, if you’ve been using it for a couple of years, you’ve seen the decline of organic traffic and engagement. You can’t make sure that your followers will see your posts, because the social media platform decides who gets to see your posts and who doesn’t.
The whole message on social media platforms nowadays is: Want more people to see your posts? Pay ads (for traffic that you would have gotten organically a couple of years ago on the same platforms).
With social media, you’re playing in someone else’s land instead of your own.
That’s why I just focus on SEO, Pinterest, and my email list nowadays. Social media was a lot of work for something that got practically no results for my business.
Can I do email marketing for free?
It depends on your business needs. Some platforms have free plans, but they all have restrictions.
Here’s what you can do for free on Flodesk, Kit, and GetResponse:
- Flodesk has a free plan that allows you to create unlimited signup forms, landing pages, and link in bio pages, but you can’t send emails in this plan. In that case, you can start a 14 day free trial. You’ll get 25% off during the first year of your subscription with my affiliate link or with my discount code SOULFULGIRLS at checkout.
- Kit has a free plan that allows you to manage an email list of up to 10,000 email subscribers, BUT you can only create one basic visual email automation and one email sequence. If you’d like to build more automations and sequences, and access third-party integrations in the Kit App Store, you need a paid plan. Also, if you have a free plan on Kit, you can’t opt out of the newsletter referral system, which means that you may get subscribers who are not really interested in what you do.
- GetResponse has a free plan for up to 500 subscribers that allows you to send newsletters and up to 2500 emails per month. But you can’t schedule your emails, create automations, or send emails only to segments in your list (and not your entire list).
How much does email marketing cost for small businesses?
Here’s the difference in pricing between Flodesk, Kit, and GetResponse.
Flodesk pricing
If you use my Flodesk affiliate link, you can start a 14 day free trial. You’ll also get 25% off during the first year of your subscription.
If you’ve already started a free trial on Flodesk but you don’t have a discount yet, you can use my coupon code SOULFULGIRLS at checkout before you start paying a subscription on Flodesk.
Free plan
It allows you to build unlimited landing pages, signup forms, popup forms, and link in bio pages. You also get access to templates, custom fonts, personalized links, audience segmentation, analytics, integrations, and customer support.
However, you can’t send emails.
Lite Plan
You have access to the free plan features, plus unlimited emails, custom layouts, personalization fields, resend to unopens, email scheduler, API access, and one workflow automation (limited time bonus).
Pricing starts at $25 per month for up to 1,000 subscribers. If you have more than 25,000 subscribers, you’ll have to choose another plan.
Pro Plan
You have access to the Lite plan features, plus unlimited workflow automations and one checkout (limited time bonus) with payment processing, upsells + bonus offers, subscriptions, discount codes, instant deliveries, buy now pay later, and sales tax processing.
You also have the option of getting a dedicated IP as an add-on.
Pricing starts at $28 per month for up to 1,000 subscribers.
Everything Plan
You have access to the Pro plan features, plus unlimited checkouts with payment processing, upsells + bonus offers, subscriptions, discount codes, instant deliveries, buy now pay later, sales tax processing, and payment plans.
You also have the option of getting a dedicated IP as an add-on.
Pricing starts at $54 per month for up to 1,000 subscribers.
Kit pricing
Newsletter (free plan)
Up to 10,000 subscribers, one basic email automation, and one email sequence. You can create unlimited landing pages, opt-in forms, email broadcasts, audience tagging and segmentation, and run paid newsletters and subscriptions.
However, you can’t opt out of the newsletter referral system (that is, the free recommendations feature) or remove the Kit branding at the bottom of your emails. Third-party integrations in the Kit App Store are only available on paid plans.
Creator
All the Newsletter plan features, plus unlimited visual automations, unlimited email sequences, option to opt out of the newsletter referral system, remove Kit branding, third-party integrations with the Kit App Store, RSS campaigns, and polls.
Prices start at $39 per month for up to 1,000 contacts.
Creator Pro
All the Creator plan features, plus newsletter referral system, Facebook custom audiences, edit link in sent broadcasts, subscriber engagement scoring, deliverability reporting, and insights dashboard.
Prices start at $79 per month for up to 1,000 contacts.
GetResponse pricing
Free plan
Up to 500 email subscribers and up to 2,500 emails per month. You can send newsletters to your entire list (not to segments), but you can’t create automations or schedule your emails.
Starter
This plan includes unlimited newsletters, autoresponders, websites and landing pages; one custom automated workflow, email and landing page templates, signup forms and popups, and 24/7 chat support.
Prices start at $19 per month for up to 1,000 contacts.
Marketer
This plan includes all the features from the Starter plan, plus unlimited marketing automation (predesigned and custom workflows), abandoned cart recovery, newsletter revenue statistics, promo codes, email delivery scheduling, advanced segmentation, sales funnels, contact scoring, and unlimited web push notifications.
Prices start at $59 per month for up to 1,000 contacts.
Creator
This plan includes all the features from the Marketer plan, plus unlimited courses, up to 500 students, mobile app for students, quizzes and certificates, a creator profile, premium newsletters (paid newsletter subscriptions), website builder, webinars, and no transaction fees.
Prices start at $69 per month for up to 1,000 contacts.
Design comparison between Flodesk, Kit, and GetResponse
In order to create this blog post, I made a design exercise. I tried to recreate the same email on Flodesk, Kit, and GetResponse.
In the section below, I’ll share with you what I experienced while I was designing these emails in each email marketing platform.
Design review for Flodesk
- You can start your email with your logo, or you can add an image block and upload an email banner. You also have the option to create a banner with a layout from Flodesk.
- You have personalization options, like adding your subscriber’s first name. If there isn’t a first name available, you can choose an alternative word (for example, “friend”). You don’t have this second option on Kit or GetResponse.
- You can save your brand’s color palette, with up to ten colors. This is a huge time saver. This feature is also available on Kit, but not on GetResponse.
- You can modify any font in any block in your emails. In the case of text blocks, you can only use Flodesk system fonts (to make sure that the fonts will be displayed in different email providers). You’re not limited to selecting the same font for paragraphs, buttons, and the footer.
- You can upload custom fonts and use them in layout blocks and forms. All the layouts render as images, so your custom fonts will be displayed beautifully on all emails, no matter the email provider.
- You can save font styles (another time saver). Let’s say that you want to use different font styles for paragraphs, layouts, buttons, quotes, the call to action section, and the footer. Just save the font styles, and you’ll be able to automatically replicate them in any email on Flodesk.
- You can save blocks, which is awesome. This is useful if you decide to modify the call to action section in your emails, and you have a dozen workflow automations. All you have to do is to modify this section in one email, save it as a favorite block, and then open the emails in your automations where you want to change that section. Once you delete the old section, add a favorite block and select the modified one. And that’s it. I’ve done it myself to modify the call to action section and the link bar in all my workflow automations recently.
- There are different layouts available. In these layouts, you’re able to select your custom fonts or system fonts on Flodesk (in this case, there are many more options than for text blocks, which only allow web-safe fonts). You can choose layouts to share blog posts, products, testimonials, sales, discounts, and more. There are layouts available on Kit, but not on GetResponse.
- Countdown timers are available, with beautiful layouts. You can choose between a personalized timer (that is activated when a subscriber opens your email), or a fixed timer (that counts down to a specific date and time, in a timezone of your choosing). This feature is available on Kit (only the fixed timer, with less customization options), but not on GetResponse.
- You have different poll layouts available. In this case, you can only use web-safe fonts. This feature isn’t available on GetResponse.
- You can include a link bar with up to six links. This is a good option for the footer section in your emails.
- You can include social media links with your brand colors.
- The address block and the unsubscribe block are two different blocks (on Kit and GetResponse they’re just one block). You can style these sections any way you want. In the case of the unsubscribe block, you can choose friendly and predetermined unsubscribe messages from Flodesk, or you can write a custom message.
Design review for Kit (formerly ConvertKit)
- You have personalisation options, like adding your subscriber’s first name. But if there isn’t a first name available, you can’t choose an alternative word (for example, “friend”), like you can do on Flodesk.
- If you create a broadcast, and you want to change the font of any paragraph or heading, you won’t be able to. You’ll have to go back to the template that you’re using to write a broadcast, and change the font there. This doesn’t happen with layout blocks. On Flodesk and GetResponse you can change any font in the same email that you’re writing.
- You can save your brand’s color palette, with up to ten colors. This is a huge time saver. This feature is also available on Flodesk, but not on GetResponse.
- You don’t have as much freedom with fonts as you do with Flodesk and GetResponse (and out of the three platforms, Flodesk is the one that gives you more options). And I’m only talking about system fonts, not custom fonts.
- The font that you choose for paragraphs will be displayed in buttons, the quote block, your address, and the unsubscribe section. In this case, you can’t use different fonts (something that you can do on Flodesk and GetResponse).
- If you want to create text sections with a background color and a different font, you’ll have to add a layout (a blank one column layout).
- Countdown timers with a fixed date are available. There aren’t many customization options, though. I don’t know if there was a bug when I was designing the email for this blog post, but I couldn’t view the timer (I got the message “fetching timer image”), even in preview mode. So I had to send a test email to see if it was working.
- In order to use a pretty font for the signature section, I had to upload an image (this happened on GetResponse too). On Flodesk, you can add a layout called “Add some beautiful text with a custom font” and use a script font on Flodesk or a custom script font that you can upload to your account.
- If you want to add a link bar, you’ll have to choose a layout that looks like a link bar. (If you select “link group”, each link will be displayed in a separate block.) In the case of this layout, you can’t modify the font (the default font is the paragraph font).
- I had to delete the social media icons, because apparently the icon images weren’t available on Kit or they were not loading (I had added Pinterest and Instagram links).
- You can’t modify the text of the unsubscribe block. The address block and the unsubscribe block are part of just one block. In this example, the only platform that allows you to have both blocks separately, modify the text of the unsubscribe section, and style both blocks to your liking is Flodesk.
Design review for GetResponse
- You have personalisation options, like adding your subscriber’s first name, but with the same limitations as on Kit. If there isn’t a first name available, you can’t choose an alternative word (for example, “friend”), like you can do on Flodesk.
- You can upload custom fonts to use in any section, BUT that doesn’t mean that they will be displayed in your email, depending on the email provider. In any case, you have to add a fallback font from GetResponse’s system. In my opinion, this is just double work. It doesn’t make sense. I just prefer to choose one font that I’ll know will be available in most email platforms.
- You can’t save your brand’s color palette to access it easily while you’re designing any email. That means that you have to write the hex codes again and again. I can’t tell you how much this frustrated me while I was designing just one email (sorry GetResponse team. You have this feature available in the website builder. Please add this in the email editor too, because it’s a huge time saver). Flodesk and Kit allow you to save a color palette with up to ten brand colors.
- There are no layout blocks available, like you can find on Flodesk and Kit (though Flodesk is the one that gives you more possibilities in layouts. For example, you can add your custom fonts in different layouts and be sure that they will be displayed in any email provider).
- I couldn’t include a countdown timer. At the moment, GetResponse doesn’t have that kind of block available in emails.
- In order to use a pretty font for the signature section, I had to upload an image (the same thing happened on Kit). On Flodesk, you can add a layout called “Add some beautiful text with a custom font” and use a script font on Flodesk or a custom script font that you can upload to your account.
- There isn’t a link bar block available. In order to recreate the link bar that I have in my emails on Flodesk, I had to add a text block, highlight each word to insert a link, and create space manually between each link with the spacebar.
- You can choose between different social media icons, but you can’t modify the colors.
- You can’t modify the text of the unsubscribe block. The address block and the unsubscribe block are part of just one block (the same thing happens on Kit). In this example, the only platform that allows you to have both blocks separately, modify the text of the unsubscribe section, and style both blocks to your liking is Flodesk.
- The language of the unsubscribe text depends on the language of the email list linked to the email. In this example, I didn’t have an email list connected (because I manage my list on Flodesk), but my address is in Argentina, so the footer is automatically displayed in Spanish and I can’t change it.
Design review conclusions
Out of these three email marketing platforms, Flodesk is the most intuitive one for designing pretty emails easily.
Surprisingly, even though GetResponse doesn’t have as many block options as Flodesk and Kit, designing an email was pretty easy (though the fact that you have to manually add your brand colors each time you want to change something is a bit annoying, but that may change if the platform gives the option to save brand colors).
In the case of Kit (formerly ConvertKit), even though there are more options to design your email on the platform nowadays (and they are working on creating a better platform in terms of design), sometimes it feels like you have to figure out how to design what you want.
More Email Marketing Resources
Free Flodesk template
Design pretty emails in Flodesk with my free Flodesk template
Free Flodesk form template
Create a beautiful sign up page in Flodesk with this free Flodesk form template
Flodesk 25% off discount code
Get 25% off in the first year of your Flodesk subscription, and a 14 day free trial
Flodesk email template tutorial
How to design an email template in Flodesk for your creative business
Flodesk link in bio tutorial
How to design your own link in bio in Flodesk
Flodesk template shop
Get pretty done-for-you Flodesk templates in our Flodesk template shop
Email banner tutorial
Learn how to design an email banner for free on Canva with this step by step tutorial.
Kit free plan vs. paid plan comparison
Read about the differences between Kit (formerly ConvertKit) free plan vs. their paid plans.
I hope you found these recommendations to choose an email marketing platform for your small business useful! Cheers to starting and growing your email list. 🥳
With all my love,
Giselle
Get my free Flodesk form template
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Meet the author
Hi, beautiful! I’m Giselle.
I provide female entrepreneurs, like you, beautiful and soulful images, Flodesk templates, and Canva templates that they can use in their personal brands.
I also write resource tutorials and reviews to make your blogging life easier, and have fun designing and selling printable planners.