The pros and cons of free email Marketing tools

If you’re just starting out in email Marketing, or even trying to save some cash in your business, choosing a free email plan can seem like a great deal.

However, similar to SEO software or web hosting, ‘free’ tools aren’t always worth the hype. So it is worth assessing each platform with caution.

Learn from the email experts here at EcoSend, on what to watch out for.

Free Email Plans Are Aimed At Beginners

Hear us out. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being an email marketing newbie. Everyone has to start somewhere, after all.

But if you are looking to really scale your email Marketing efforts (which is absolutely possible, since email has a $42 average ROI for every $1 spent!), then you won’t be able to do this with a free plan that’s aimed at those just starting out.

If you’re just starting out with email Marketing, then a good email free plan will allow you to:

• Send from a registered email domain
• Set-up an email capture Form
• Build out email campaigns with no-code drag and drop functionality

That’s definitely enough to get you off the ground! Collect your first sign-ups, and send out your first few editions to build out your email Marketing muscles.

Without A Custom Domain – Your Emails Don’t Look Professional

This is an absolute must-have. If your email free plan only has a generic domain, this is a big no-no.

Generic domains only feature the name of the email provider in your email address.

An email ending in ‘gmail.com’ or ‘yahoo.com’ is fine for sending emails between friends or family.

But for your mailing list, a business using a generic email provider can look suspicious. That’s because purchasing an email plan and choosing a domain is much like having a professional website. If a company hasn’t done this, it’s questionable why not.

Instead, when your emails are sent with your company name in the domain name, the sender is instantly recognisable. This ensures your emails look genuine and trustworthy, which makes them more likely to be opened and engaged with.

With the EcoSend free plan, registered domain names are included, so your email domains is verified automatically with SPK and DKIM to help ensure the best rates in deliverability.

Privacy Concerns

Have you ever heard the term, ‘If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product’?

Many respectable email platforms will offer a free plan option. But if an email platform only has a free option, this might be questionable.

Free email providers have to make their money somehow. Rather than allowing you to use their services out of the goodness of their own heart, they may do any of the following:

• Make money from showing you ads in your inbox
• Sell your user data, email content and contacts to third parties
• Use your data to train AI models
• Not offer any security tools to protect personal data

As a business, you also have a responsibility to keep your customer’s data safe.

If customer’s details are sold or shared with third parties without their permission, this can land your business in hot water due to GDPR. It can also harm the reputation of your business.

Restrictive Features

One point to keep in mind is that a free email platform will restrict the features you can use.

Common restrictions set by free email providers include:

• The number of seats
• Monthly email sends
• Email list size
• Email automation
• Migration services
• Personalised onboarding
• Custom templates
• Email analytics and reporting

If you’re new to email marketing, these feature restrictions are not a big deal. In fact, having a more simplified platform may actually help you get up & running, without getting distracted by excess bells and whistles.

Then as you grow, you can look to upgrade to paid plans to unlock the features, when you need them

You may also like: How To Get Your Share Of The $8.5bn Email Is Generating Every Year

Hidden Paywalls

The email plan is advertised as free. But is it actually? Or is it just the actual signing up that’s free?

For instance, Reddit users have recently been discussing Mailchimp’s hidden paywalls on its free plans.

What’s been happening is that Mailchimp advertises the plan as being free, only for users to discover key features they need are not. Instead, Mailchimp requests payment to allow access to things such as email automation.

Since the email plan is advertised as free, the provider can spin that as they like. If this means getting you to sign up for ‘free’ and then encouraging you to pay for an annual plan by paywalling all the key features, then so be it.

P.S. Mailchimp too expensive? Check out our guide on how to reduce Mailchimp pricing.

Limited Support ‍

One point to keep in mind with an email free plan, is that customer support options may not be available.

This is understandable, and you may not need support to get your first campaigns sent.

Some providers will offer a limited period of support, such as the team here at EcoSend, who offer email support for your first 7 days.

But with any EcoSend paid email plan, dedicated customer support comes as standard. So when you are ready to start scaling up to more complex campaigns, we’ll be here to help!

No Sustainable Email Features Or Carbon Offsetting

Did you know email has a carbon footprint?

Over 300 billion emails are sent per day, and unless your email provider is doing something about the problem, your campaigns could be increasing the carbon footprint of your business.

Few email providers, let alone those which offer free plans, are tackling the environmental impact of email.

At EcoSend, we power our servers with renewable energy sources and plant trees based on the number of emails you send.

Try our free email carbon calculator to see your email CO2, plus how switching to EcoSend could lower your email-based emissions!

In Summary: Start free, scale to paid

We hope that has given you a helpful summary of some of the considerations to keep in mind when assessing whether to choose a free or paid email plan.

At EcoSend, we offer a free plan for up to 250 contacts, which is perfect for entrepreneurs or companies looking to get started with email Marketing.

Our paid plans then gently scale up from £15/month, according to your profile and email sending needs.

Any level of paid plan gives you access to all key EcoSend features, as well as unlimited Agent Users, and trees planted at each subscription level!

Ready To Make Your Emails Successful And Sustainable? Choose Your EcoSend Plan Today

EcoSend is the world’s first email platform created to address the carbon footprint of email marketing.

Crucially, we’ll still give you all the features you need to succeed at email marketing, from our template builder to advanced segmentation and much more!

We’ll also give you a free 7 day trial on all of our plans to ensure EcoSend is a great fit for your business.

Please drop us a message if you have any questions. We look forward to welcoming you aboard!