What to consider when choosing an email marketing tool for your business in Ethiopia
- agnes2718
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
According to the 2023 State of Email Workflows report, 87% of businesses have ascertained that email marketing is very critical to their digital marketing and business success.
Making the choice to commit to an email marketing platform is not just about features anymore because the wrong choice can cost you highly, limiting your growth and forcing you to migrate to another platform which will cost you time and more money.
The right tool should fit how you plan to grow, monetize and communicate to your clients and prospects over the next few years.
How to choose an email marketing tool
Ethiopian businesses should assess their email marketing needs and goals, and this is made easier when you
Evaluate your business size; small businesses want budget-friendly tools that will easily create, segment and automate while larger teams would prefer platforms with advanced automations, segmentations and analytics tools.
Identify the type of emails you want to send; promotional / marketing (newsletters, promotions, product updates or transactional (creating new account, resetting password, purchasing an item). Most platforms support promotional, but not all offer transactional email support.
Define your email marketing goals. Is it lead generation? Product sales? mail Monetization? Multi-channel campaigns? Each goal will help you choose which platform serves that goal.
Consider industry specific requirements, for example, the creator or media industry will need a platform with inbuilt growth and monetization tools, e-commerce stores will need a platform that easily integrates with your online stores, allows you to showcase products in the email and tracks revenue from the campaigns to make revenue attribution easy.
Consider your budget; having narrowed down to a few options, consider their pricing plans and your budget to help you finally decide.
KEY FEATURES TO CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING AND EMAIL MARKETING PLATFORM
The previous outline was an eye opener to factors you have to consider even before asking for platform features, just to make the selection process smooth.
Now, we highlight the key features to consider when choosing an email marketing platform that will elevate your marketing campaign.
Ease of use
Many Ethiopian businesses, especially SMEs, may not have a dedicated marketing personnel, making ease of use very essential.
It's important to check how
Intuitive the interface is. Drag and drop email builders is non-negotiable.
Pre-designed email templates make it easy to get started.
This will ensure that you focus on what is important, publishing emails.
Audience management
This involves segmentation and personalization to avoid sending the same email to everyone on your list.
The platform should have sign up forms and a website builder for collecting new subscribers.
It should also have a segmentation feature to group these subscribers for running personalized, targeted campaigns.
Ethiopian businesses that have more complex needs should look out for the ability to automatically segment users based on their behavior.
Automation
Triggers and actions that need to be automated include
Welcoming new subscribers
Promoting an upcoming event or product launch
Educating customers on product features among others.
This is great for businesses that are planning to launch multiple email automated series.
Pro tip: Check out the platform's automation template library to comprehend the extent to which it can fit your needs.
A/B Testing
Platforms with this feature let you test different versions of an email to see which one performs best. The one that performs best is sent to the rest of the contacts on the list.
Other areas to test besides content could be
Subject line
Sender name
Send time
This kind of testing breeds hope for better campaign results.
Integration with other business tools
The platform selected should be able to connect with
your CRM tool. If it has an in-built CRM, the better for Ethiopian SMEs that may still use traditional data storage apps like Excel.
E-commerce sites like shopify, WooCommerce
Social media
Ad platforms for easy lead generation.
Good integration ensures smooth workflows and better data management across your business.
Analytics and reporting
Most platforms provide basic email metrics like
Open rates
Click through rates
Bounce rates
Unsubscribes
Conversion rates
Some platforms go further to offer industry - specific insights, for example,
-E-commerce tailored platforms show revenue generated from the emails.
-Platforms tailored for creators and media companies let you visualize your most effective audience growth channels.
Multi-channel communication
Whereas email marketing will create the visibility that you need, Ethiopian businesses will benefit more from platforms that offer more than one channel of communication but extend to SMS and WhatsApp for a wider reach.
Email deliverability
This element shows the percentage of email that will land in the recipient's inboxes and not spam folders. The higher the deliverability, the better.
Look out for platforms that support
Email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)
Spam testing and inbox placement tools
Reputation monitoring which helps to see if its users are complaining about it.
This ensures that marketing efforts translate into real engagement and sales.
Pricing
As a business, if you're budget is tight, there are options
look for free plans that will let you use basic features and run email campaigns for a smaller audience.
As your list grows check out see if they can actually accommodate your list and still fit within your budget.
Growing companies may opt for monthly subscriptions to ensure unlimited consistency and effectiveness since most free platforms are limited to a certain extent.
Customer support
A good email marketing platform should have responsive customer support via your preferred channels.
Onboarding video tutorials are helpful to help the user get acquainted with the platform.
Some of the email marketing platforms available for Ethiopian businesses
Tool | Best for | Key features | Customer support | Pricing |
Trembi | Mid-sized companies in various industries looking for all in-one sales and marketing platform | Lead generation, Built - in CRM, email builder, automations, multi-channel communication, personalization | Contact support team through email and WhatsApp | Pay for what you use, and monthly subscription in case of need for additional features like lead generation |
Mailchimp | Marketing teams looking for all in-one marketing platform | Marketing and transactional emails, social media scheduling and ads management | Live chat, email and phone support | Free plan but limited and paid plan |
Mailerlite | Small business on a budget | A/B testing for emails, signup forms and landing pages | Live chat and email support | Free plan is available, pain plan includes unlimited emails |
Active Campaign | Running advanced email campaigns and nurturing B2B leads. | Supports advanced segments and automation, in- built CRM for qualifying and nurturing leads | Ticket and chat support | No free plan |
What matters most by Use case
If you run B2B marketing
Prioritize CRM integration, lead generation and nurturing, segmentation and multi-channel communication (SMS, Email and WhatsApp).
If you run ecommerce
Prioritize deep integrations, behavioral segmentation, automation flows and revenue reporting
If you run a small business
Prioritize ease of use, templates, simple automation and pricing that will scale with you.
In conclusion:
Choosing the right email marketing tool is about finding a solution that fits your business needs, budget and business environment in Ethiopia.
Focus on the key features depending on your industry and growth plans, like ease of use, automation, integration and scalability as you commit to one selected platform to help you communicate better with your audience for sustainable sales growth.
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