Should You Consider Free Email Marketing Software?

Is it wise to be considering free email marketing software for your company? To answer this question it is important to clarify what is meant by the term "free.". There are two forms of software tools that make use of this terminology. The first is software that has no month-to-month expenses associated with the product and the second is a service that has no associated costs for a trial period, typically thirty days.

Many new marketers often get fixated on price above all other considerations when choosing their systems. Often times, this is the motivation that leads people to utilize free email marketing software that has no continuing monthly charges. While this may sound attractive at first, there are a few points that need to be understood about with this particular arrangement. For starters, most companies offering a free service place advertising on the outgoing emails sent by their users. Since they are not charging a monthly usage fee, their expenses are covered through the placement of paid advertisements on all outgoing emails. These services also have limitations on the functionality of the free account. For example, a company may restrict a free account to having not more than 500 email recipients. Anything above that number incurs an ongoing monthly cost or requires the migration to a paid service. Yet another restriction often present with these sorts of services is the number of online email marketing pieces that can be sent on a monthly basis. Along with these drawbacks there are other functionality limitations in areas of design, tracking and split testing.

Free email marketing software is often offered on a limited time trial basis. In this type of arrangement the full performance of the application is unlocked for the end user, so they can effectively evaluate the performance and functions of the program. A limitation on the total number of subscribers and the total number of emails that can be sent are generally the only limitations seen in this type of arrangement. Unlike the arrangement mentioned previously, trial period software contains no third party promotion. All functionalities of the system are available for testing and the functionality of the software can be effectively measured.

It is critical that anyone serious about utilizing email marketing as a business building tool take a long term perspective, even though saving money on the front end may seem like a good idea at first. With the traffic generation tools that are available to a marketer today, the ability to grow a mailing list of over 500 people in a short time is well within reach. Having to go back and move that email list to another service later on is not just a hassle, but it creates a way to lose a large number of subscribers, simply because they do not subscribe to the new email marketing service. In the long run, the headaches caused by using this type of free email marketing software may become more costly than any financial savings that could be realized.

It is a much more sensible strategy to use free email marketing software as a test drive for a paid service. The paid service will provide much greater functionality to their clients and will also have greater flexibility for tailoring email campaigns to the needs of the business that is being promoted. The best use of this trial period is to learn the functions of the system, so that it is being fully maximized once the account moves from a free trial to paid subscription status.

Free email marketing software is a great tool for gaining familiarity with a paid marketing platform; however, it is not recommended that it be used as the primary tool for an email marketing strategy.

Being equipped with the best email marketing tools begins with choosing a great email marketing provider. Mailigen offers free email marketing software for businesses both large and small to effectively evaluate their services.