Is Email Marketing Software Right for You? Exploring the Pros and Cons

Email marketing is the online equivalent of direct mail marketing. It’s the digital upgrade of traditional mailers with coupons, flyers, newsletters, and the like. With email marketing, businesses transmit messages directly to a customer’s inbox, with complete analytics capabilities available to the company.

This is far more efficient, effective, and efficacious than paper mail since there is no failsafe way to garner helpful information through traditional means.

Email marketing can be used in myriad ways. With multiple use cases, email marketing is highly effective at finding new customers, building loyalty, and generating repeat business. In email marketing, many options abound, notably full-service, email marketing agencies, and DIY email marketing. By 2025, it is estimated that some 376 billion emails will be transmitted globally daily. This data – courtesy of Statista – indicates 1.3724 x 10^14 emails sent annually.

With so many emails being transmitted daily, making every marketing email count is essential. There are many email marketing software systems; one notable option is MailChimp. However, far superior MailChimp alternatives offer enhanced CRM capabilities and better pricing.

Consider that MailChimp increased its prices by 16% in 2022 and as much as 14.5% by November 2023 (depending on the plan). However, the drawbacks of this email marketing software system are the limited customer support, costly contact lists, and the fact that transactional emails are not included. From a user-satisfaction perspective, MailChimp only scores 1.3/5 on Trustpilot.

Next, we turn our attention to the pros and cons of email marketing software:

Pros:

Email marketing has a high ROI – return on investment. Based on statistics from leading research firm LITMUS, email marketing has a 3,600% ROI. Email marketing is more effective than social media, videos, and display advertisements.
Email marketing serves as an essential way to attract customers’ attention, whether through an online business or a traditional business.
Email marketing allows businesses to identify important analytics regarding sent messages. For example, disabled addresses, open rates, emails deleted on receipt, click-through rates, etc.
Email marketing advertisements are far more likely to be seen by customers and potential customers. This is especially true compared to social media posts, which do not have the same visibility and attention-grabbing appeal. In social media feeds, customers tend to scroll through at a rapid pace, realizing that many messages are generic. Email marketing is a personalized service available to customers.

Cons

Technology is a bugbear for many companies. Given the rapid, unprecedented advancements in email marketing technology, complete with audio-visual elements, templates, and multimedia enhancements – it’s imperative to stay abreast of the latest tech advances to compete with the best of the rest.
Tend to get glossed over because there are often too many similar emails. This usually has nothing to do with the quality, persuasive appeal, or message of the marketing manager.
Despite companies’ best intentions, email marketing is often considered spammy. This is a problem that many reputable marketing agencies contend with daily. Many email marketing messages tend to go unanswered, get deleted, or be instantly relegated to spam folders. Companies understand that customers and potential customers are being bombarded with email marketing messages from scores of other companies. When viewed in perspective, this can increase the likelihood of email marketing being considered spammy.

Email marketing campaigns take on many forms, including newsletters, promo, and invitation emails. Other helpful marketing tools and resources include catalog, survey, and lead nurturing emails.

Beyond basics, transactional emails are sacrosanct. These include emails post-purchase to confirm that the transaction met expectations. It’s also a great way to show appreciation, build brand loyalty, and strengthen the connection between a company and a customer.

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Carla Schroder

Carla Schroder is a self-taught Linux and Windows sysadmin who laid hands on her first computer around her 37th birthday. Her first PC was a Macintosh LC II. Next came an IBM clone--a 386SX running MS-DOS 5 and Windows 3.1 with a 14-inch color display--which was adequate for many pleasant hours of Doom play. Then around 1997 she discovered Red Hat 5.0 and had a whole new world to explore.

Somewhere along the way she found herself doing freelance consulting for small businesses and home users, supporting both Linux and Windows users and integrating Linux and Windows on the LAN, primarily Linux servers and Windows clients. She is the author of the Linux Cookbook, Linux Networking Cookbook, and the Linux Cookbook 2nd Edition for O'Reilly, and has written hundreds of Linux howtos for various publications, .

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