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Best Email Marketing System for Authors

– Choosing an Email Marketing System –

In this article, I compare 8 email marketing systems geared towards small businesses and then tell you which email marketing system I ultimately chose for Dreamers Creative Writing.

Email Marketing System, the best email marketing system for small businesses

3 important things

Writers often set-up websites to promote their publications. Many even run small businesses, offering writing and editing services or promoting their writing workshops.

If you’re running a website, there are three important things you should always do:

  • Post useful and relevant content on your site. Book reviews, samples of your writing, blogs about writing, etc. Well-written content is the best way to generate strong organic search traffic.
  • Ask people to subscribe to hear from you. The main call-to-action on any content-based website should be a subscribe option.
  • Send emails. Use email to tell your subscribers about any new content you post. This will bring repeat visitors to your site. Start with a monthly email newsletter.

When I was preparing to launch the Dreamers website, one of the first things I did was compare the email marketing systems geared towards small businesses. In the end, I chose what I feel is the best email marketing system for my small business.

Here’s a chart showing the results of that comparison:
 Base PackageNext Step UpAutomation? HTML?
AWeber$19/mo, list size up to 500$29/mo, list size 501-2500YESYES
Constant Contact$15/mo, list size up to 500$35/mo for list size 501-2500PLUS plans only @ extra cost.YES
ConvertKit$29/mo, list size up to 100$49/mo, list size 1001-2000NONO
DripFree, list size up to 100$41/mo, list size 100-2500YESYES
GetResponse$15/mo, list size up to 1000$49/mo, list size 1001-5000YESYES
Mad Mimi$10/mo, list size up to 500$42/mo, list size 501-10000NOYES
MailChimpFree, list size up to 2000$30/mo, list size 2001-2500YESYES
VerticalresponseFree, list size up to 300$11/mo, list size 301-500YESYES
What is Email Automation?

Some of these email marketing systems only distribute email, they don’t automate it. Automation includes such things as automatically distributed welcome emails, empty shopping cart emails, birthday emails, emails triggered based on specific activities completed on your website, etc. Basically, you create these emails, set your automation parameters, and the emails are sent automatically as people qualify for your automation stream. For example, if someone downloads an article from your website, you can automatically thank them for reading and point them to other relevant articles on your site.

Enterprise and CRM Solutions

I looked at other solutions as well, including Ontraport, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email Studio (formerly ExactTarget), Pardot, Marketo, Zaius, Blueshift, and Hubspot, but concluded that these email marketing systems are more geared towards large organizations or B2B companies. However, if you’re a B2B company, I’ve used Pardot in the past and I strongly recommend it. Alternatively, if your business has unlimited money and you only want the very best, go with Marketo.

What email marketing system did I choose?

Ultimately, I chose MailChimp as our email marketing system. Its free base plan offers room to grow without a significant upfront investment. It also scales well. And, it offers all the automation solutions we need, plus it has simple HTML template tools and easy administration. It’s a nice, user-friendly email marketing system that lets me send beautiful emails.

In my opinion, MailChimp is the best email marketing system on the market for small businesses!

Check out these other email marketing resources:

SVM Solutions – 7 Steps To An Effective Email Marketing Campaign

D5 Creation – How to make a Great Writer Portfolio Website

*This article was originally published on January 7, 2018 and updated March 1, 2021.


Kat McNicholAbout the Author

Kat McNichol is the Co-Editor for the Journal of Integrated Studies and the Editor-in-Chief of Dreamers Creative Writing. She is also a Director of Marketing-Communications in Waterloo and has spent the past 12+ years writing marketing copy for the high-tech industry. She holds a B.A. in English Literature, an MAIS in Writing and New Media, and Literary Studies, and she is completing a PhD in Career Writing.


Writing a book or producing an anthology? Check out this comprehensive list of marketing activities for promoting a book or anthology.

Interested in marketing your work? Find out why content marketing is the best form of marketing for writers!

*This article about the best email marketing system for small businesses was last updated on June 21, 2019.