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Did you know that, according to Finances Online, email marketing is in the top 59% of leading increasing ROI, beating out all the other marketing tools such as social media (21%), display ads (14%), and video (5%)?
Considering how powerful this type of marketing can be, you might be wondering, “How much does email marketing cost?”
If you don’t have the answer to this question, this can be stressful because you won’t be able to know how much using email marketing will cost your small business.
Fortunately, in this article, we’ll review what average email marketing costs. Finally, you can use email marketing to reach more customers and your business can be more successful than ever. Read on to learn more.
Average Email Marketing Cost
While the cost of email marketing for small businesses can vary depending on what features business owners decide they need, there is an average cost. For a basic software package, the cost will be somewhere between $10 and $25 monthly.
However, prices can go up as high as $1,190 monthly, if additional features are added.
Factors That Will Impact Email Marketing Cost
There are several factors that will impact the cost of this type of marketing. These include templates and design, list size and quality, campaign automation tools, monthly email volume, support and reporting, user number, and more.
Templates and Design
One of the most important email marketing strategies is to have a design that’s clear, engaging, and reflects your business’s brand. This involves finding an email design or template that can use your brand’s color scheme, typeface, and logo—as well as being appealing to the recipient’s eye.
Some email software programs will have more than 60 templates available, whereas others will have over 200.
Additionally, if you hire someone to design your email layouts for you, this will have an additional cost.
When choosing the right email marketing company for you, consider how important templates and design are for you so you can decide how much you want to pay for these features.
List Size and Quality
One of our email marketing tips is that you maintain a list of contacts, often in segmented lists, so that you’re emailing the right people when you’re sending out an email. A list, too, will have an impact on email marketing cost—depending on list size and quality.
Many email marketing software companies will have a minimum number for the contacts you send your emails out to.
Additionally, they’ll likely have a maximum that falls somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000. Some will make it possible for your lists to be unlimited, but these are rarer.
Do you expect your list size to grow? In this case, it might be better to go with software that makes it possible for your list contacts number to get much higher.
In addition to list size, you’ll want to think about whether list segmentation is something you need.
For example, if you have two different customers types who buy two totally different product types, it might be worth paying more for this email marketing feature.
Campaign Automation Tools
When you’re doing an email marketing campaign, many tools can help you run it more effectively. These include basic task automation, customer profiles, send-time optimization, conversion tracking, and A/B testing.
When you use features such as these, you (and your team) have far less work to do, making it possible for you to focus on more complex tasks related to both email marketing and to running your business generally.
Look at these tools in-depth to decide which ones will be most helpful for you. Then, decide how much it’s worth spending on them so you can determine how much they’ll add to your email marketing’s total cost.
Monthly Email Volume
Monthly email volume also has an impact on how much your email marketing will cost. To get an idea of how much this volume might be, multiply the number of emails you’ll send to each contact every month with the number of contacts you have.
Additionally, remember that if you have segmented lists the math will be slightly more complex.
Once you’ve made this calculation, you’ll know what minimum number you need for monthly email volume.
Keep in mind that, if you think your company is going to grow, you should go for a higher number. Note that unlimited email volume is also available, too.
The price range can vary significantly for email marketing costs depending on the monthly email volume, from $25 to $1,915 a month. Making these calculations will help you figure out which cost is best for you.
Support and Reporting
One of the aspects you should consider when figuring out email marketing costs is how much support you’ll get. There are many features that can be considered support, such as a customer support team that’s responsive on many channels.
Other types of support options include online resources you can consult, for example, online knowledge centers or community forums where you can discuss issues with other users.
When it comes to live support, this might include live chat, phone, email, or a combination of these.
In addition to support, reporting will have an impact on cost. What do we mean by this?
When you get an email marketing solution, you’ll have the option to have different access to viewable data or editing abilities. This depends on whether you’re the owner, admin, manager, author, or viewer.
Different providers will provide different levels of access. This feature will be an additional potential cost.
Campaign Management
Another cost that might impact the cost of your email marketing is campaign management. If you hire a company that does this for you, then you can add this to your cost. Consider, before making this decision, what the opportunity cost would be for you to do this yourself.
After all, if your team is managing your business’s email campaign, they’re spending less time on other campaigns and marketing responsibilities.
For this reason, it’s worth considering adding this cost so that you have someone else managing your campaigns for you.
Lead Nurturing
One of the other email marketing costs is lead nurturing. This is the process during which you build relationships with the people you’re contacting so you can eventually convert them (into customers). Some software has this available.
This is an additional cost that can be worth it if you don’t want your team to have to spend too much time nurturing leads.
Drip Email Marketing
One of the best automation tools available is drip email marketing. With this tool, you can send emails automatically to contacts when certain events occur (these events trigger the emails). For example, say someone has signed up for your business’s newsletter.
A week or several later, you might want to send them some additional information about your business. This will remind them that they signed up, tell them a little about your business, and improve your branding.
With drip email marketing, this occurs automatically. This means you won’t have to stress about sending out these emails. Additionally, you won’t accidentally forget to send them.
As a result, you’ll both be less overwhelmed and will do a better job at staying in your contacts’ minds and making it more likely that they’ll end up converting.
A Note on Email List Purchasing
Even though it’s possible to purchase email lists, it’s usually not a good idea to do this. This is because this move is frowned upon, and it’s more likely to make your monthly email volume higher than to actually boost engagement.
This said — you can use referral programs, website pop-ups, or advertising to build up your list.
Additionally, it’s possible to integrate your social media with the email marketing software you’re using to get more readers who are already enjoying the online presence your business has.
Need More Information?
Now that you’ve learned about the average email marketing cost and what factors add to the cost, you might need more information. Maybe you want to learn more about different types of campaign automation tools or about which designs might work best for your business.
Whatever information you need, we can help. At Vertical Response, we’re experts when it comes to email marketing.
We also offer email marketing software. To learn more about this software, get more information now.
© 2022, Chris Duncan. All rights reserved.