Email is embedded in the foundation of all good marketing strategies.
Chances are, whatever industry you’re in, you use email to communicate, promote, raise awareness, educate, and even drive revenue for your business. This is especially applicable to anyone selling online courses who is looking to get people interested in their course, form a relationship with them, and keep them coming back for more.
The key lies in email.
According to Nielsen’s annual marketing report, half of the marketing professionals worldwide rated the perceived effectiveness of spending on the email channel as “extremely/very effective,” more than native advertising (48%) or podcasts (45%).
Email marketing has been and will remain one of the most effective channels for reaching and converting potential customers. But it’s not as simple as it sounds. To see true results from your strategy, you’ll need to invest in an email marketing platform that gives you the power to design beautiful emails, manage your email list, segment groups of subscribers based on their interests and behaviors, and automate all communications to reach the right people just as they’re on the verge of opting into your online course.
In this article, we’ll go over the seven best email marketing platforms for course creators and break down their key features and pricing while looking at what real users are saying. By the end, you’ll be able to choose the platform that suits your business’s unique needs.
This is our list of the top seven email marketing platforms for course creators:
• ActiveCampaign
• ConvertKit
• Mailchimp
• GetResponse
• MailerLite
• AWeber
• Brevo
What is an email marketing platform?
An email marketing platform allows businesses to create, send, and manage email campaigns. It helps you design emails, segment your audience, automate email sequences, track performance, and ensure your messages reach your subscribers’ inboxes, all of which are crucial in growing your audience and incentivizing them to come back.
Did you know that over 80 % of small businesses rely on email as their primary customer acquisition and retention channel? There are few things more important to a course creator than attracting new customers and then being able to keep them around for future launches. But, there are a few things…
For online course creators, an email marketing platform offers a variety of benefits:
- Audience segmentation: Tailor your messages to specific groups of subscribers based on their interests, behavior, or stage in the course, ensuring more relevant and engaging communication.
- Automating your campaigns: Set up automated email sequences to welcome new students, send course updates, and remind them of important deadlines or upcoming events, saving you time and effort.
- Boosting customer engagement: Keep your students engaged with regular newsletters, tips, and exclusive content, helping to build a strong relationship and community around your course.
- Performance tracking: Monitor the success of your email campaigns with analytics that show open rates, click-through rates, and other key metrics. This allows you to refine your strategy for better results.
- Promotional opportunities: Use email marketing to promote new courses, offer discounts, and announce special events or webinars, driving enrollment and increasing revenue.
- Collecting relevant feedback: Send surveys and feedback forms to gather insights from your students, helping you improve your courses and meet their needs more effectively.
It’s clear that email is a major lever for any business, entrepreneur, or independent creator. Let’s take a look at the seven platforms that online course creators will benefit more from.
ActiveCampaign
G2 rating: 4.5
Free trial: Yes
ActiveCampaign is the must-have intelligent marketing automation platform, with email at the very heart of the product. The platform’s automation-first approach helps the course creator deliver stronger, more personal experiences for every customer—whether you have one or one million.
Key features of ActiveCampaign
Course creators looking for an email marketing platform will enjoy a large number of features when they sign up for ActiveCampaign:
Advanced email marketing: ActiveCampaign knows it’s all about getting the right content to the right people at the right time. Generate more clicks by sending each contact highly relevant email content every time, swapping out subject lines, previewing copy and hero images for each segment, and finding the most effective option. Automate your email campaigns and have peace of mind that things like reminders, follow-ups, and promotional emails will go out at the right moment.
Dynamic content: ActiveCampaign’s personalization tags and dynamic content features make sure you’re always ready to resonate, engage, and convert. This helps you send the right content to each contact based on their actions and interests, increasing open rates. Plus, the platform boasts world-class deliverability, ranking #1 in all email marketing platforms by Emailtooltester.
Segmentation: ActiveCampaign segmentation helps you find more effective ways to reach your audience based on their unique preferences and behavior. Get more out of your audience data by using it to build stronger campaigns that drive more conversions.
CRM: ActiveCampaign’s CRM keeps your entire sales process moving smoothly. Automate contact management, score leads, monitor deals and pipelines, and track tasks. Built-in automation takes care of it all, eliminating tedious tasks so you can focus on selling.
Landing pages: ActiveCampaign’s drag-and-drop landing page builder makes it simple for anyone to get started right away. Choose from hundreds of landing page templates and create unique pages for any use case. Plus, you can track your page performance and get real insight into what is and isn’t working.
Forms: Whether you need sign-up forms, questionnaires, lead magnets, or anything else, the ActiveCampaign form builder tool helps you to frictionlessly gather the right data and start turning it into revenue. Create and embed forms across your ActiveCampaign landing pages and your own sites.
No matter what plan you end up choosing, you’ll enjoy features like:
• Accelerated onboarding
• Contact migration
• Chat and ticket support
• Customer enablement workshops
• And video tutorials
ActiveCampaign pricing
ActiveCampaign’s entry-level plan starts at $15 per month, paid annually. This Starter plan helps you get off the ground with personalized marketing campaigns and gives you access to features like:
• Automation triggers and actions
• Multi-step marketing automation
• Email and landing page templates
• A/B testing on emails
• Basic segmentation functionality,
• AI-powered automation builder
• 900+ automation recipes
• 900+ integrations (including e-commerce integrations like Shopify, Square, and WooCommerce)
• Site tracking
ActiveCampaign has four plans, Starter, Plus, Pro, and Enterprise, with Pro being the most popular choice at $79/month. With the Pro plan, you’ll unlock full omnichannel marketing automation and have up to three users on one account. Enjoy all the features of the Starter plan, plus more features like conditional content, predictive sending, advanced segmentation, attribution and conversion tracking, and an enhanced CRM as an available add-on.
If you’re still unsure, take a look at a quick (but comprehensive) demo of what you can achieve with ActiveCampaign.
What do real users think?
When looking at real user reviews on G2, many reviewers say ActiveCampaign is user-friendly for all experience levels and offers impressive automation features that helped them scale their business.
Incredibly robust, user-friendly, and affordable.
“ActiveCampaign is a program I’ve used for years in my own businesses and for clients, and the robust yet simple to navigate automations are fantastic. Although I use my expertise to set up complex custom automations for my clients, they can easily modify and use the automations afterward. There are fantastic and essentially unlimited integrations, making this a great platform for businesses and nonprofits. Not to mention their customer support is unparalleled and will help you solve anything!”
— Calion W., Email Marketing and Automation Specialist for Non-Profits
I’ve been using ActiveCampaign for over three years and it’s still great.
“The great thing is that you can create an unlimited number of automations. These automations run seamlessly in the background, generating new sales effortlessly. The built-in CRM feature is also excellent for moving leads through the pipeline and boosting sales. The community around the product is great (emails, webinars, guides, calls), and new features (including AI features) are constantly being rolled out, including a mobile app for on-the-go management.”
— Rafal R., Digital Marketing Manager
ConvertKit
G2 rating: 4.4
Free trial: Yes
ConvertKit is an email marketing platform designed specifically for creators, such as bloggers, podcasters, and online course instructors. It focuses on helping you grow and engage your audience through personalized email campaigns and automation.
Key features of ConvertKit
- Visual automation builder: Create advanced email sequences with a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface.
- Subscriber tagging and segmentation: Organize your audience by tagging subscribers based on their actions and interests.
- Landing pages and forms: Build custom landing pages and opt-in forms to grow your email list.
- Broadcast emails: Send one-time emails to your entire list or specific segments.
- Integrations: Connect with popular tools and platforms like WordPress, Shopify, and Teachable.
- E-commerce capabilities: Sell digital products and subscriptions directly through ConvertKit.
- Detailed analytics: Track email performance with comprehensive reports and insights.
ConvertKit pricing
ConvertKit’s entry-level pricing starts with a free Newsletter plan for up to 1,000 subscribers, allowing you to access core features like unlimited landing pages and forms, email broadcasts, and subscriber tagging.
As your list grows, their Creator Plan begins at $25/month, billed annually. It offers advanced automations, integrations, and additional support, making ConvertKit an accessible and scalable option for creators at various stages of their business.
What do real users think?
Perfect for creators!
“I like how it lets me split my email list into different parts. This way, I can send specific emails to certain people, which has helped me connect better with my audience. The automatic email feature is also pretty cool. I can set up a bunch of emails that get sent out on their own when certain things happen. Overall, I loved the simple interface.”
—Sahil J., Co-founder
I never thought that email marketing would be this easy.
“This is such a User-Friendly Email Marketing tool. The main application of this tool is that it helps users create and manage email campaigns, build landing pages, automate email sequences, and build Email lists. The platform is easy to use, allowing users to create beautiful and engaging emails without coding knowledge. Users can create email sequences using a drag-and-drop editor and also use a wide range of templates and customization options.”
—Tejasvi, Operations Manager
Mailchimp
G2 rating: 4.3
Free trial: Yes
Mailchimp is a comprehensive email marketing platform that helps businesses of all sizes create, send, and analyze email campaigns. It’s known for its user-friendly interface and powerful features, making it super easy to design professional emails, automate marketing efforts, and gain insights into campaign performance.
Key features of Mailchimp
- Email designer: Create visually appealing emails with drag-and-drop tools and customizable templates.
- Audience segmentation: Organize and target your contacts based on various criteria for personalized campaigns.
- Marketing automation: Set up automated workflows to nurture leads and engage customers at the right time.
- A/B testing: Test different email elements to optimize performance and improve results.
- Integrations: Connect with various apps and platforms like Shopify, WordPress, and Salesforce.
- Analytics and reporting: Gain insights into campaign performance with detailed analytics and reports.
- Landing pages and forms: Build custom landing pages and signup forms to grow your email list.
- Multichannel marketing: Extend your reach with social media ads, postcards, and more.
Mailchimp pricing
Mailchimp offers a free plan for users with up to 500 contacts, which includes basic email marketing features, single-step automations, and limited templates and reporting.
Their Essentials Plan starts at $13 per month for 500 contacts and offers additional email templates, multi-step automations, 24/7 email and chat support, limited reporting, A/B testing, forms, and landing pages.
What do real users think?
A pretty powerful and innovative marketing assistant.
“I like how Mailchimp now uses generative AI to create and optimize marketing campaigns. It can generate content, personalize my messages, and provide insights and recommendations based on my customer and financial data. It also understands my natural language prompts and can do tasks for me with ease.”
—Claude H., Experienced Associate – Consulting & Risk Services
Makes bulk email marketing a breeze.
“I like how easy it is to synch a contact list to Mailchimp. It makes it very easy to send emails to a very long list of contacts. We used it to contact all of the people who came through our open houses.”
—Verified G2 user – Real Estate
GetResponse
G2 rating: 4.3
Free trial: Yes
GetResponse is a versatile email marketing platform that helps businesses manage and optimize their email campaigns. It offers a range of tools for creating emails, automating marketing processes, and analyzing results, making it suitable for businesses of all sizes.
Key features of GetResponse
- Marketing automation: Create advanced workflows with a visual builder to automate your marketing processes.
- Landing pages: Build and publish high-converting landing pages to capture leads.
- Webinars: Host and manage webinars directly within the platform to engage your audience.
- Autoresponders: Set up automated email sequences to nurture leads and drive conversions.
- List segmentation: Segment your audience based on behavior, demographics, and other criteria for targeted campaigns.
- A/B testing: Test different email elements to optimize your campaigns and achieve better results.
- Analytics and reporting: Track and analyze the performance of your campaigns with detailed reports and insights.
- E-commerce integration: Connect with popular e-commerce platforms to streamline your marketing and sales efforts.
GetResponse pricing
GetResponse’s entry-level pricing starts with the Basic Plan at $13.20/month, billed annually. It includes unlimited newsletters, autoresponders, websites and landing pages, email and landing page templates, signup forms and popups, and 24/7 live chat support.
You can upgrade to their most popular plan, the Marketing automation plan. It costs $41.10/month billed annually and gives you access to additional features like marketing automation, event-based workflows, webinars, advanced segmentation, contact scoring, sales funnels, and more.
What do real users think?
My experience with GetResponse has been AWESOME!
“There’s a minimal learning curve and anytime I am stuck or unsure of something, there’s immediate, live help available with a wonderful staff! I had to move two websites over, and it was done with ease! I am running most of my services through this system, and there’s little need for additional systems or software. I use GetResponse daily and have so much fun creating newsletters, landing pages, and websites.”
—Angela J., Small Business Owner
An email marketing tool for every level.
“Get Response is a very user-friendly e-mail marketing software that is suitable both for beginners and for advanced users. The interface is simple to navigate and the email builder is easy to use. For what concerns more advanced features, GR is great also for automations, landing pages, and pop-ups and thanks to the AI generator, it’s possible to quickly set up emails and campaigns.”
—Verified G2 user – Information Technology and Services
MailerLite
G2 rating: 4.7
Free trial: Yes
MailerLite is a user-friendly email marketing platform designed to help businesses create, send, and optimize their email campaigns. Known for its simplicity and effectiveness, MailerLite offers a range of tools to support businesses in growing and engaging their audience.
Key features of MailerLite
- Drag-and-drop editor: Design professional emails easily with customizable templates and a user-friendly editor.
- Automation: Set up automated workflows to nurture leads and engage customers.
- Landing pages: Create and publish high-converting landing pages to capture leads.
- Subscriber management: Organize and segment your audience for targeted campaigns.
- A/B testing: Test different elements of your emails to optimize performance.
- Analytics: Track and analyze campaign performance with detailed reports and insights.
- Integrations: Connect with popular apps and platforms like WordPress, Shopify, and Zapier.
- Pop-ups and forms: Build custom pop-ups and forms to grow your email list.
- RSS campaigns: Automatically send updates to your subscribers from your blog or website’s RSS feed.
MailerLite pricing
MailerLite offers a free plan for up to 1,000 subscribers, providing access to core features like their drag-and-drop editor, email automation builder, websites, ten landing pages, comparative reporting, signup forms, and pop-ups.
For more advanced features and higher subscriber limits, the entry-level price starts at $9/month, billed annually. You get 3 users instead of 1, unlimited monthly emails (up from 12,000), and features like dynamic emails, auto resend campaigns, the ability to sell digital products, unlimited templates, unlimited websites and blogs, unsubscribe page builder, multivariate testing, and more.
What do real users think?
It just works.
“Easy to implement and integrate with APIs. The interface is very intuitive – it’s easy to see what you need to do and how automations and subscriber lists interact. It’s incredibly easy to use, even if you aren’t familiar with how lists and automation work. Plus, customer support is fast and helpful. I’ll admit, I’m still fairly new, but I was able to get four lists up and running in a week with only minimal customer support questions.”
—Lauren D., Small Business
Customer support is fast, polite, and on point, especially when it’s a user error!
“I’ve been using MailerLite for years and set up all new clients on it. Has a good number of features on its free plan and even more on its paid plan. The features are not fluffy, they are features that are necessary as part of any successful email marketing plan. I do have to admit that the quality of support is one of the main reasons why I love MailerLite so much.”
—Gisele G., Website Designer and Coach
AWeber
G2 rating: 4.2
Free trial: Yes
AWeber is an established email marketing platform designed to help businesses create and manage their email campaigns. It offers a range of tools to design emails, automate workflows, and analyze performance, making it a reliable choice for marketers looking to grow and engage their audience.
Key features of AWeber
- Drag-and-drop email builder: Create professional emails with customizable templates and an easy-to-use editor.
- Automation: Set up automated email sequences to nurture leads and engage customers.
- Subscriber segmentation: Organize your audience into segments for targeted and personalized campaigns.
- A/B testing: Test different email elements to optimize your campaign performance.
- Analytics and reporting: Gain insights into your email campaigns with detailed reports and metrics.
- Integrations: Connect with various apps and platforms like WordPress, Shopify, and Zapier.
- Landing pages: Build and publish landing pages to capture leads and drive conversions.
- Sign-up forms: Create custom sign-up forms to grow your email list.
- RSS-to-email: Automatically send emails to your subscribers with updates from your blog or website’s RSS feed.
AWeber pricing
AWeber offers a free plan for up to 500 subscribers, which includes basic features like the drag-and-drop email builder, landing pages, dynamic content, sign-up forms, email and landing page builder, and e-commerce functionality.
For more advanced features and higher subscriber limits, you can upgrade to their most popular plan, the Plus Plan. This plan starts at $20/month billed annually and gives you access to features like unlimited landing pages and automations, advanced subscriber and message insights, priority 24/7 support, and an unlimited subscriber limit.
What do real users think?
AWeber – complete email marketing solution!
“AWeber is comparatively an easy solution for email marketing and can also be used for some basic e-commerce marketing needs. We choose this platform for our marketing department because it is easy for us to work with, it comes with all fundamental features required for a successful marketing, and it is quite market competitive and I would say fairly priced software.”
—Malik T., Marketing Manager
I have used AWeber for years and won’t change.
“AWeber has a variety of tutorial videos and webinars that are very helpful for helping me organize my traffic needs. I have used AWeber to build my list for years. When my VA wanted me to use a different autoresponder, I told her I did not plan on switching. She dumped everything in my lap because she didn’t know how to use AWeber. I still wouldn’t switch. I’m using the database of questions and answers as well as the videos and webinars. Help has been offered when asked, too.”
—Patricia Jean Z., Owner Zito Global Enterprises, LLC
Brevo
G2 rating: 4.6
Free trial: Yes
Brevo, formerly known as Sendinblue, is a digital marketing platform that provides tools for email marketing, SMS campaigns, marketing automation, and more. It allows businesses to manage all their marketing efforts from one platform.
Key features of Brevo
- Email marketing: Design and send professional emails with an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor and customizable templates.
- SMS marketing: Reach your audience instantly with personalized SMS campaigns.
- Marketing automation: Create automated workflows to engage and nurture leads based on their behavior and interactions.
- CRM: Manage and segment your contacts with an integrated customer relationship management system.
- Landing pages: Build and publish landing pages to capture leads and drive conversions.
- A/B testing: Optimize your campaigns by testing different email elements.
- Transactional emails: Send order confirmations, shipping notifications, and other transactional emails.
- Integrations: Connect with popular apps and platforms like Shopify, WordPress, and Salesforce.
- Analytics and reporting: Track the performance of your campaigns with detailed reports and analytics.
Brevo pricing
Brevo does offer a free plan that includes up to 300 emails per day and essential features like marketing automation, SMS campaigns, customizable email templates, a drag-and-drop editor, transactional emails, and more.
If you need to upgrade, their Starter plan runs $9/month and offers 5,000 emails per month, no daily sending limit, no Brevo logo, basic reporting and analytics, 24/7 email support, and more. Their most popular plan is the Business plan built for marketing managers and e-commerce pros. It costs $18/month and offers even more features, like predictive sending, multi-user access, and A/B testing.
What do real users think?
The value for money is almost unbeatable for this email marketing platform.
“It’s now been a year since we moved from different platforms to manage all our mailings to Brevo. The implementation was quite easy and we were pleased to be able to have many solutions centered in one place. Creating email templates is easy and components can be re-used in different templates. The fact they force us to send GDPR-compliant emails is a plus!”
—Matthieu T., Full Stack Developer
Affordable email marketing for individuals, freelancers, and solopreneurs just starting out.
“As a freelancer, with a small audience, it’s great to have an email marketing tool that allows segmentation and lists. Other tools have it but for a cost. When you’re just starting out, you can’t afford a lot of tools. If you’re wanting to try it out, it’s also great for that as well. It’s easy to use, customer support is crazy responsive and helpful. I’ve totally enjoyed using this tool on the free plan and would recommend it.”
—Sue-Jan N., Personal Coach
It’s your choice
Email should be a pillar of your marketing strategy if you’re a course creator. With the facts laid out, we hope you feel confident selecting an email marketing platform and understand which tool will work best for your specific needs as a course creator.
Ready to test drive one of the best email platforms available? Sign up for a free trial of ActiveCampaign.
