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How much does email marketing cost for a small business? What email marketing budget does your business need?
Something any good marketing strategist will encourage you to think about is:
How much are your marketing efforts costing you? Are the results you’re getting (or plan on getting) worth the time, money, and effort you’re putting in? Or – if you’re into corporate marketing speak – what is the return on investment from each of your marketing channels?
Let’s find out if email marketing will cost you more or less than what you might be thinking…
How much will email marketing cost you?
Let’s start with some good news. When it comes to email marketing cost for your business, you can get started with any email marketing budget. Whether that’s zero dollars, $50, hundreds of dollars, or even thousands, as long as you have the time to create an email, there’s an email marketing platform out there for you.
What will the ability to send an e-newsletter cost you? What about the ability to send email sequences? Let’s explore some popular and powerful email marketing platforms to lay it all on the table for you.
Klaviyo pricing starts at $0
However, this only allows you to have a maximum of 250 contacts and send 500 emails per month. If you’ve got over 500 subscribers, you’re looking at a minimum cost of US$30 per month and for over 1,000 subscribers that minimum cost jumps to US$70 per month.
Klaviyo is more expensive than other options but it remains one of my most recommended email marketing platforms – if you can afford it. Why? Because it provides best-in-class email and SMS marketing capability, enables smart subscriber segmentation and it’s scalable, meaning it’s a great option for beginners and for those with more advanced email marketing chops
ActiveCampaign pricing starts at $12 per month
However, this only allows you to store a maximum of 500 contacts. For over 1,000 subscribers, you’re looking at a minimum cost of $40 per month (AUD), and that jumps to $68 per month if you want advanced features like the ability to integrate your Facebook Ads or e-commerce store.
ActiveCampaign is another one of the more expensive email marketing platforms for small businesses but (surprise, surprise) it’s also another one of my favourites for many of the same reasons as Klaviyo.
Flodesk pricing starts at US$35 per month
Flodesk keeps things simple with a single price point that, unlike most other email marketing platforms, isn’t based on the number of subscribers you have or emails you send, which is awesome for easily factoring into your monthly or annual budget.
Looking for more free email marketing options?
MailerLite pricing starts at $0
In my view, MailerLite’s pricing and functionality makes it the best budget-friendly email marketing option currently available.
Free for up to 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month, MailerLite gives you the ability to create smart email sequences and newsletters, automate your subscriber segments, and design nice-looking emails.
Once you exceed 1,000 subscribers or want to send more than 12,000 emails per month? You’ll be looking at a minimum cost of US$15 per month.
How much does Mailchimp cost in comparison?
Of course, Mailchimp offers a free email marketing option, too. And while it may have an edge on MailerLite in its maximum subscriber count (you can store up to 2,000 subscribers for free), its limited capability in the email sequence department and steep pricing increases tarnish some of its appeal.
For over 2,000 subscribers, you’ll be looking at a minimum cost of US$34 BUT for the ability to create sequences with multiple emails and smart segmentation options like dynamic content, you’ll be looking at US$59 per month.
If all these platform comparisons have your head spinning, here’s a permission slip to stop stressing now. We’ve created a free email marketing platform matchmaker quiz for this very reason. We’ve compared over 60 email marketing plans and carefully crafted a short list of questions to help you find the perfect email marketing platform for you.
Is it worth it? Email Marketing Stats for Australia
So now you know how much email marketing can cost. But how much can it make for your business?
A study of 400 Australian businesses found that, on average, businesses achieved a 20.89% open rate, 6.46% click rate and received $22.78 ROI for every $1 spent on email.
The same study also found that businesses who invested 20% or more of their marketing budget in email were 8x more likely to see sales boosted by 50%.
So, yeah – we like to think it’s worth it!
