Looking for a way to reach your customers? Email marketing remains one of the most effective channels for businesses to communicate with their customers.
With a high return on investment (ROI) and a personalised approach, email marketing helps brands build relationships, drive sales, and engage their audience.
For businesses in Australia, finding the right email marketing platform is crucial for success. This blog will explore the benefits of email marketing, the best email marketing platforms in Australia and provide a detailed analysis, including the pros and cons of each platform.
Whether you’re a small business owner or managing a large enterprise, choosing the right platform is key to optimising your email marketing efforts.
5 Best Email Marketing Platforms
1. Klaviyo
Klaviyo is a top-tier email marketing platform, especially popular with ecommerce businesses. Its robust integration with platforms like Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce makes it a favourite for online retailers looking to boost their customer retention and improve their email campaigns with data-driven insights.
At Margin, we are a Klaviyo partner agency, meaning we can help you make the most of this platform and drive results for your business.
Key Features:
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Data Integration: Seamless integration with ecommerce platforms allows Klaviyo to collect behavioural data from users, helping businesses send highly targeted and personalised emails.
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Automation: Klaviyo offers advanced automation features such as abandoned cart emails, welcome series, and post-purchase follow-ups.
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Segmentation: Klaviyo’s segmentation options are highly detailed, allowing users to divide their audience based on specific behaviours, demographics, and shopping patterns.
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A/B Testing: This feature allows businesses to test different elements of their email campaigns (subject lines, images, call-to-actions) to optimise for the highest conversions.
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Analytics: In-depth reporting and analytics give businesses valuable insights into the success of their campaigns, including revenue attribution.
Pros:
- Ecommerce focus: Ideal for online businesses, Klaviyo is built to help ecommerce brands drive sales and retain customers.
- Advanced automation: Klaviyo's automation workflows are easy to set up and incredibly powerful, helping to save time and drive results.
- Rich data integration: The platform collects and uses data efficiently, enabling hyper-personalised campaigns.
- Scalability: Suitable for businesses of all sizes, from startups to large enterprises.
Cons:
- Price: Klaviyo can become expensive as your contact list grows, making it less suitable for small businesses with limited budgets.
- Learning curve: Due to its rich feature set, it may take some time for users to get fully accustomed to the platform.
- Limited design templates: Klaviyo offers fewer email templates compared to some other platforms, although users can create custom designs.
2. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is one of the most well-known email marketing platforms globally, including in Australia. It’s particularly popular among small businesses, freelancers, and startups because of its easy-to-use interface and flexible pricing plans.
Key Features:
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Ease of Use: Mailchimp’s drag-and-drop email builder and intuitive interface make it simple for beginners to design professional-looking emails.
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Marketing Automation: Mailchimp offers basic automation features like welcome emails, birthday messages, and abandoned cart reminders.
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Template Library: The platform has a vast collection of customisable email templates, so businesses can find something that suits their style.
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CRM Functionality: Mailchimp has a built-in customer relationship management (CRM) tool to help businesses manage and grow their contact lists.
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Reporting: It provides real-time performance tracking and analytics to measure the success of campaigns.
Pros:
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User-friendly: Perfect for beginners, Mailchimp is one of the easiest platforms to use, with its straightforward design and drag-and-drop editor.
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Free Plan: Mailchimp offers a free plan for up to 500 subscribers, making it an ideal option for startups and small businesses.
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Wide integration: Mailchimp integrates with over 200 apps, including ecommerce platforms, social media, and other marketing tools.
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Comprehensive template library: Users have access to numerous pre-designed email templates to make campaigns visually appealing.
Cons:
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Limited advanced features: While Mailchimp is great for beginners, it lacks the advanced automation and segmentation features that larger businesses may need.
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Price jumps: As your contact list grows, the pricing can increase significantly, and the features available at higher tiers may not justify the cost.
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Basic reporting: Mailchimp’s analytics are relatively simple compared to platforms with more robust data tracking.
3. Campaign Monitor
Campaign Monitor is an Australian-based email marketing platform known for its beautiful email designs and simplicity. It caters to both small businesses and large enterprises, offering a balance between ease of use and functionality.
Key Features:
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Beautiful Email Templates: Campaign Monitor offers a wide variety of professionally designed templates that are easy to customise.
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Automation: The platform provides automated workflows for welcome emails, abandoned carts, and more.
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Segmentation: It allows for easy audience segmentation based on various factors like location, engagement level, and purchase history.
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Analytics: Detailed reporting on email performance, including open rates, click-through rates, and engagement levels, helps businesses optimise their campaigns.
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Personalisation: Campaign Monitor enables businesses to send personalised content tailored to individual subscriber preferences.
Pros:
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Design-focused: Campaign Monitor is known for its visually appealing emails, making it a favourite for brands that want to create professional, attractive campaigns.
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Ease of use: The platform is user-friendly and easy to navigate, even for beginners.
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Great customer support: Campaign Monitor has a reputation for excellent customer service, offering support through chat, email, and phone.
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Automation: While not as advanced as Klaviyo, Campaign Monitor offers good automation features for the average user.
Cons:
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Limited advanced features: The platform may lack some of the more sophisticated automation and segmentation tools needed by larger businesses.
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Price: Campaign Monitor’s pricing model can become expensive, particularly for businesses with large contact lists.
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Limited A/B testing: Unlike some competitors, Campaign Monitor’s A/B testing is somewhat limited, restricting the ability to optimise campaigns thoroughly.
4. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is a powerful email marketing platform with a strong focus on automation and customer relationship management (CRM). It’s ideal for businesses of all sizes, offering a range of tools to streamline email campaigns and engage customers more effectively.
Key Features:
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Automation: ActiveCampaign excels in marketing automation, offering a visual workflow builder for creating complex, multi-step automations.
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CRM: The built-in CRM allows businesses to track leads, manage customer interactions, and integrate email marketing efforts with sales pipelines.
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Segmentation: Advanced segmentation options enable businesses to target customers based on behaviour, purchase history, and engagement levels.
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Personalisation: The platform offers a range of personalisation options to create dynamic content tailored to individual recipients.
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A/B Testing: ActiveCampaign supports A/B testing for subject lines, email content, and more, helping businesses optimise their campaigns.
Pros:
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Advanced automation: ActiveCampaign’s automation features are among the most sophisticated in the industry, making it an excellent choice for businesses that want to automate complex workflows.
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CRM integration: The built-in CRM is ideal for businesses looking to combine email marketing with customer relationship management in one platform.
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Detailed reporting: The platform offers comprehensive reporting and analytics, providing businesses with insights to improve future campaigns.
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Personalisation: ActiveCampaign’s robust personalisation options help create highly targeted and relevant email content.
Cons:
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Steep learning curve: While powerful, ActiveCampaign’s automation features can be difficult for beginners to master.
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Price: ActiveCampaign’s pricing is on the higher end, especially for businesses with large subscriber lists or those looking to use its full suite of features.
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Limited design options: The email design features aren’t as intuitive or visually impressive as some other platforms, making it harder to create stunning emails without coding.
5. Brevo
Brevo, previously known as Sendinblue, is a versatile email marketing platform that provides businesses with a full suite of digital marketing tools, including SMS marketing, CRM, and marketing automation. It’s a great option for small to medium-sized businesses that want an all-in-one solution at an affordable price.
Key Features:
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All-in-One Marketing Tool: Brevo combines email marketing, SMS campaigns, chat, and CRM, offering a comprehensive solution for businesses.
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Marketing Automation: The platform provides marketing automation features to send personalised emails based on customer behaviour and actions.
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Transactional Emails: Brevo offers features to handle transactional emails (order confirmations, receipts) along with marketing campaigns.
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Segmentation: Businesses can segment their audience based on demographics, engagement, and other factors to create targeted campaigns.
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Affordable Pricing: Brevo's pricing is based on the number of emails sent rather than the number of contacts, which can be cost-effective for many businesses.
Pros:
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Affordability: Brevo is one of the most cost-effective platforms, making it a great choice for small businesses and startups.
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Multi-channel marketing: In addition to email, Brevo offers SMS and chat functionalities, allowing businesses to diversify their marketing efforts.
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Automation: Brevo's automation features are easy to use and cover most essential marketing workflows.
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Unlimited contacts: Unlike most platforms, Brevo doesn’t charge based on the number of subscribers, which can save costs as lists grow.
Cons:
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Limited design customisation: While Brevo offers a drag-and-drop builder, it’s less advanced than some competitors, making it harder to create intricate designs.
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Basic reporting: The platform’s reporting features are less detailed compared to those of more advanced platforms.
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Limited integrations: Brevo doesn’t integrate as seamlessly with ecommerce platforms or third-party apps as some of its competitors.
Why use Email Marketing?
Email marketing continues to be one of the most effective and reliable digital marketing strategies, offering businesses a direct line of communication with their customers. Here’s why you should consider making email marketing a key component of your marketing mix:
1. High Return on Investment
One of the biggest advantages of email marketing is its impressive return on investment. According to industry studies, the average ROI for email marketing is around $36 for every $1 spent. This high return is largely due to its relatively low cost and high engagement potential, especially compared to traditional advertising channels like TV or print.
2. Direct and Personal Communication
Email marketing allows businesses to send tailored messages directly to a user’s inbox, providing a level of personalisation that other digital marketing channels can’t match. With segmentation and automation tools, businesses can send relevant content based on users’ behaviours, preferences, or past interactions. This personal touch fosters stronger relationships and drives engagement, leading to higher conversion rates.
3. Targeted Messaging and Segmentation
Unlike social media or paid advertising, where content is broadcast to a broad audience, email marketing enables precise targeting through segmentation. Email platforms allow you to divide your audience based on demographics, purchasing behaviour, location, or engagement, ensuring that your messages are delivered to the right people at the right time. For example, you can create separate campaigns for new customers, repeat buyers, or dormant subscribers, each with relevant offers and content.
4. Cost-Effective
Compared to other marketing strategies, email marketing is highly cost-effective. There are no major overhead costs, and most email marketing platforms offer flexible pricing plans that scale based on the size of your email list. Many platforms offer free tiers for small businesses, making email marketing accessible to startups and growing companies.
5. Automation & Efficiency
Modern email marketing platforms come equipped with powerful automation features, allowing businesses to set up automated workflows. Whether it’s sending welcome emails, follow-ups, or abandoned cart reminders, automation saves time while ensuring that customers receive timely, relevant messages. This increased efficiency allows businesses to nurture leads, retain customers, and drive sales with minimal manual effort.
6. Measurable Results
Email marketing provides clear, measurable results, allowing businesses to track the success of their campaigns in real time. Most platforms offer in-depth analytics, such as open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, and conversion tracking. These insights enable businesses to continuously optimise their email strategies, refine content, and improve performance over time.
7. Increased Customer Retention
Email marketing is an excellent tool for maintaining relationships with existing customers. Through regular newsletters, promotional offers, or personalised recommendations, businesses can keep customers engaged and informed, increasing the likelihood of repeat purchases. Sending out customer appreciation emails or loyalty rewards can also boost customer satisfaction and long-term loyalty.
8. Scalability
Email marketing can easily scale with your business. Whether you have a small list of 100 subscribers or a large database of 100,000, email marketing remains an effective way to reach your audience. As your business grows, you can expand your campaigns and segmentations to accommodate new audiences without needing to overhaul your strategy.
9. Improves Website Traffic & Sales
Emails are a great way to drive traffic to your website or online store. By including clear calls to action (CTAs) in your emails, you can encourage recipients to visit your site, browse products, or complete a purchase. Regular email campaigns featuring new products, special discounts, or exclusive content can significantly boost website traffic and sales.
10. Builds Brand Awareness
Email marketing helps businesses build and maintain brand awareness. Regularly showing up in a customer’s inbox keeps your brand top-of-mind. Even if a recipient doesn’t immediately act on an email, the consistent presence can increase brand recall, making it more likely that they’ll engage with your brand in the future.
Summing Up
Choosing the right email marketing platform depends on your business’s specific needs, goals, and budget. For ecommerce businesses in Australia, Klaviyo offers advanced automation and segmentation tools, making it a top choice for driving revenue through personalised emails.
Mailchimp remains a solid option for beginners and small businesses with its free plan and ease of use. Campaign Monitor excels at design, while ActiveCampaign is the go-to choice for those needing advanced automation and CRM functionality. Lastly, Brevo is an affordable option with multi-channel marketing capabilities, making it ideal for budget-conscious businesses.
Need help with your email marketing? Talk to us! Our team of email marketing experts have the tools and experience to ensure your campaigns will be a success.
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