Email marketing is still one of the most profitable ways for businesses to connect with prospects and customers. But, like all digital marketing channels, email marketing is not immune to change, and the right email marketing tools make all the difference. A great email campaign should reach your inbox with more than creativity, clean design, and concise copy. By 2022, careful collection, segmentation and personalization of first-party data will be key to generating revenue.

Email Marketing in the First Party Data World

Third-party cookies have been mainstream in digital marketing for decades. Recent statistics show that over 80% of marketers rely on third-party cookies to improve the user experience, track web visitors, collect data for ad targeting, and create a personalized site experience.

Third-party cookies are ringing, and the cookie-free Internet era is upon us. Your web browser may restrict the use of third-party cookies. Safari did so in 2017, and Google Chrome, its biggest player, announced that it would end third-party cookie tracking by 2023.

As these changes sweep the marketing landscape, marketers must find other ways to drive lead acquisition, lead generation, and personalization. Leah Lloyd, Tinuiti’s Senior Director of CRM and Email, advises marketers to hone their first data strategy.

OperationsAly’s founder, Dr. Ada Barlatt shares similar feelings. “Having a first-party data strategy in place is a great way to prepare for these new privacy measures,” she assumes.

61.9% of brands are heeding this advice and increasing their first data collection, and 67.3% have built a customer data platform. E-mail is growing in importance as it remains one of the best ways to support first-party and zero-party data collection. Popular uses of email marketing include:

• Asking customers to provide feedback after interacting with them
• Send targeted pop-ups requesting contact information to customers
• Share surveys and quizzes via email to get to know your customers better

Best Email Marketing Tools in 2022

For your zero and first party data strategy to work properly with email, you need to use the right email marketing tools. The best tools to use in 2022 are:

BenchmarkONE

BenchmarkONE is an all-in-one customer relationship management and marketing software solution. A scalable solution built for small and growing businesses, BenchmarkONE provides a streamlined CRM and sales automation platform.

But what does that have to do with email?

CRM data integrates directly with BenchmarkONE’s email marketing system, allowing you to manage email lists, create stunning templates and contact customers right from the interface.

It also provides marketing automation features that allow you to set up notifications and actions to contact you when leads click on certain links or visit certain pages. BenchmarkONE is a powerful and affordable option. The free plan includes unlimited users, 250 contacts, and 500 emails per month. Paid plans start at $29/month.

hub spot

Hubspot offers free CRM, but it’s not the place to go for email marketing.

Check out our Marketing Hub to quickly and easily create beautiful, personalized emails for your brand. What sets Hubspot apart is that its marketing platform integrates with all areas of inbound marketing, not just email. Manage your company’s blogging and landing pages from one software, and include them in your marketing emails.

Hubspot is your one-stop inbound marketing shop for $800/month. If you just want email design and automation, pricing starts at $50 per month.

Benchmark Email

Benchmark’s claim to fame is an easy-to-use platform that allows small business owners to create marketing emails, manage automation, and easily register on their website. Their A/B testing and in-software analysis provide beautifully designed graphs that are easy to summarize and help owners visualize email trends with ease.

Benchmark is priced based on email subscribers. Their pricing starts free for unlimited subscribers and 250 emails/month. Features and pricing start at $15/month.

Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor has been a fixture in email marketing for many years and has earned a good reputation. The drag-and-drop email builder is one of the best in the industry with beautiful templates and an intuitive interface.

Automation and personalization can be intimidating to new users at times, but Campaign Monitor makes it easy to incorporate compelling elements into your emails and send them at the perfect time or trigger.

Campaign monitors are priced by volume and start at $9 per month.

Email on Acid

Email on Acid is not an email builder. Email checker. Have you ever wondered how your emails look on different browsers, operating systems, and mobile phones? With Acid on Email, you simply communicate your email design and your customers see exactly what they see.

You can hit the Send button with confidence that all of your customers are having the exact same experience you intended them to be.

Their premium service can test emails for spam analysis to ensure that visual elements and words don’t trigger major spam filters. This means more emails are sent to the intended inbox.

Acid’s emails start at $99 per month.

Edison mail

If you want to handle multiple inboxes from multiple providers and want to manage them all in a one-stop shop, Edison Mail can be a good choice. It’s not a CRM (it’s more of an email organizer), but it’s a huge time saver for busy professionals with a burden on their inbox. If you’re looking for a lot of sales or leads via email or LinkedIn, you’ll be happy to know that Edison Mail syncs with LinkedIn so you can find contacts with just a few clicks. Edison Mail boasts “faster, simpler, smarter” key advantages, and it’s definitely the pick of these boxes.

Email marketing is always evolving. It is important to identify the tools and services that can improve your marketing efforts. After all, if you have an innovative tool that you don’t use, it’s likely a competitor.

So, stay ahead of the curve and experiment with new email marketing tools. Test, test and test your changes to your campaign.