G2 Crowd announces Winter 2015 rankings of the best email marketing tools, based on user reviews
Five platforms earn Leader status while Salesforce Marketing Cloud tops overall satisfaction rankings in crowdsourced report
CHICAGO, Jan. 12, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The updated Grid(SM) report for email marketing platforms, published today by leading business software review platform G2 Crowd, ranks 16 products to help purchasers in their selections.
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The Winter 2015 report is based on more than 720 reviews written by business professionals.
The Grid(SM), which is created from G2 Crowd's software review engine, factors in customer satisfaction reported by users and vendor market presence determined from social and public data to rank products.
Email marketing platforms are designed to directly distribute a commercial message using email to acquire new customers, increase customer engagement, or share promotional materials. Email marketing platforms that integrate with CRM or website analytics products can enhance the segmentation capabilities of the platform.
Email marketing is often purchased as part of a broader marketing automation suite. This Grid(SM) report includes only "best of breed" email marketing products. For more information on the email marketing capabilities provided by the marketing suite vendors, please see G2 Crowd's Grid(SM) on the best marketing automation tools.
To qualify as a Leader, a product must receive a high customer satisfaction score and have substantial market presence. Salesforce Marketing Cloud, MailChimp, dotmailer, iContact and Oracle Responsys were named Leaders. High Performers have high customer satisfaction scores with a smaller market presence than Leaders. Maropost, ExpressPigeon, Launchpad and 10inBox were named High Performers. Salesforce Marketing Cloud earned the highest overall customer satisfaction score.
In addition to the main category Grid(SM), the Winter 2015 report contains three additional Grids(SM), segmented by the reviewer's company size. Each Grid(SM) has unique Leaders, High Performers, and satisfaction leaders. They are:
Small Business (reviews from users at companies with 50 or fewer employees):
- Leaders: dotmailer, MailChimp, iContact
- High Performers: Maropost, ExpressPigeon, Salesforce Marketing Cloud
- Highest customer satisfaction score: Maropost
Mid-Market (reviews from users at companies with 51-1,000 employees):
- Leaders: MailChimp, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Constant Contact
- High Performers: dotmailer
- Highest customer satisfaction score: MailChimp
Enterprise (reviews from users at companies with 1,001+ employees):
- Leaders: Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Oracle Responsys
- High Performers: dotmailer
- Highest customer satisfaction score: Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Across all email marketing tools, reviewers reported the product they use meets their requirements at an average rate of 85%, and on average reviewers said they were 84% likely to recommend the product they use.
Some highlights from the email marketing software reviews on G2 Crowd:
"From the day we signed up, the customer service and support have been outstanding. [Salesforce Marketing Cloud] gives due consideration to enhancement requests from its users in addition to relying on its own staff for advancement. We have never experienced a deliverability problem."
- Nancy Weaver, Senior Manager, eBusiness at AAA Ohio Auto Club
"MailChimp is very easy to use, so it is perfect for the beginning email marketer. The campaign [setup] wizard walks you through every step of the process, and using the design templates, you can create campaigns quickly. I think even the first time I worked my way through it, I had a sample email ready to test in less than an hour."
- Krista Garver, Digital Content Manager, Co-Founder Realize Content
"What I like best about dotMailer is that it just works - like 100%. It takes the most up-to-date knowledge in the sector and incorporates it in to a simple, intuitive platform that makes targeted digital marketing something anybody can do. If only all my marketing tools were this reliable."
- Michael Morrison, Digital Marketing at Energy Saving Trust
"We have way too many contacts to keep track of through an in-house system and we don't distribute all information to everyone. iContact creates simplicity where there would otherwise be chaos."
- Steven Pearce, Marketing & Communications Coordinator at NCEast Alliance
"[Oracle Responsys] is very robust, and always at least a step ahead of what I am trying to accomplish. The platform is very flexible in handling any data source needed for segmentation. It is easy to create different testing scenarios, automated programs, dynamic content, reusable segments and more and also have real-time reporting around campaigns."
- Shenea Edison, Digital Marketing Manager at Callaway Golf
"I've have tried just about every ESP out there, and Maropost has the most elite level of service in the business, hands down. Coupled with the fact that their delivery is also the best I've experienced, they are an easy recommendation for those who want the best results without the headaches."
- Joel Marion, Co-Founder, Co-CEO at BioTrust
"[ExpressPigeon] has an [easy-to-use] design for navigating all the different functions including how to create, send, add contacts and review results. The overall usability is great for someone who has never used an email marketing service before but also is robust enough to create unique and customized designs without being limited to templates."
- Alexandra Kocoj, Senior Digital Marketing Associate at SoMe Connect
"[Launchpad] is a totally user-friendly program. There was hardly any training required by our staff. It is a perfect solution for testing by small clients...The flexibility in making selections (and the variety of very targeted selections) add great value to what we can offer our clients."
- JoAnn Alberts, Director List Brokerage at Crosslists, Cross & Company
"10inBox provides comprehensive analytics on how all our email [campaigns] perform. It is a good email campaign starter, and easy to upload/generate a mailing list and content."
- Lisa White, Self-Employed HR Professional
Of the more than 80 software vendors listed in G2 Crowd's Email Marketing: Best of Breed category, the 16 ranked products each received 10 or more reviews to qualify for inclusion on the Grid(SM).
Satisfaction rankings are generated from the user reviews, and market presence is calculated from vendor size, market share, and social impact. Based on a combination of these scores, each software solution is categorized as a Leader, High Performer, Contender, or Niche.
Premium research access can be purchased on the site for $599. These offers the original data for filtering and weighting, as well as individual profiles of each platform with the most helpful positive and negative email marketing platform reviews, detailed company information, user satisfaction ratings, feature scores and customer metrics. Future refreshes of the Grid(SM) will provide updated rankings based on the latest reviews and social data.
Be sure to check out the new Grid(SM) for the best email marketing platforms and subscribe to the premium research.
About G2 Crowd, Inc.
G2 Crowd is the leading business software review platform, leveraging its more than 22,000 user reviews to drive better purchasing decisions. Technology buyers, investors, and analysts use the site to compare and select the best software based on peer reviews and synthesized social data. Co-founded by the founder and former executives from SaaS leader BigMachines and backed by more than $4.5 million in capital, G2 Crowd aims to bring authenticity and transparency to business technology research. For more information, go to G2Crowd.com.
SOURCE G2 Crowd, Inc.
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