How Was Email Invented

Ray Tomlinson was a computer engineer who developed a new system of sending messages between computers in 1971. His system became popular in the US Department of a defense system that became the basis for the internet.”

In 1972, Larry Roberts worked on the first email management system that allows users to list, select, forward, and respond to messages.

In 1989, Lotus Notes email software was released, and 35,000 copies were sold in the first year. In 1996, Microsoft released a free email service called Hotmail with the Internet Mail and News 1.0, a feature of its third release of Internet Explorer. The service was later called the Outlook. The time was the birth of the internet email.

Email has become an integral part of our lives. We have been using it for business purposes, personal correspondence, and everything in between. With that being said, many companies have associated email marketing into their company strategy. However, some companies still do not realize the magnitude of their effect. The difference between a successful marketing campaign and a futile one lies in the correct use of email marketing.

Sending mass emails is a great asset for companies. Like it or not, people do open these emails, and it does not matter how much we hate email ads. And what does this email opening do to the business? The answer is simple, boosting traffic to the site and revenue.

A Brief History of Email Marketing

Gary Thurek was the pioneer in incorporating mass emailing into the company advertising. In 1978, he emailed 400 subscribers to promote DEC devices. The result was confounding, as the sales increased by 13 million dollars. Emails have been an efficient and successful tactical action since the beginning.

With the advent of emails, our lives have dramatically changed and these changes are still ongoing. Emails have overtaken telephone marketing and more traditional methods like direct mail marketing. The question is why emailing has become so popular? It is clear that an email can reach a broader audience in shorter time, and much cheaper in comparison to other traditional methods.

Free Email Marketing Tools

You might be wondering what free email marketing tools we can utilize. In this article, we have tried to gather as many free tools as possible, but you should know that as the best tools in the market, they are not entirely free.

Sender

It is one of the best articles in email marketing, which notifies you when the email is delivered to the recipient. The good news is you do not need any background knowledge of HTML, and the platform allows you to customize your newsletters with your favorite photos, videos, and text messages to sound more impressive.

However, it is not the end. The better parts are yet to come. The powerful analytics equips the user with efficient and effective statistics like the open rate, time spent on the message by the receiver, and many other figures that stun you. Still, what is the use of all these statistics? In fact, these numbers contribute to making an accurate customer profile, and more importantly, optimizing your campaign strategy. Well, the costs are economical:

• Free plan: up to 2500 subscribers and 15000 emails per month
• Paid plan: start from approximately 10 dollars per month

Sendinblue

The platform allows users to create a landing page and CRM. The software contains over 70 beautiful templates. Moreover, the designs are all responsive, and it is easy to preview how your design looks on different screens. Other practical functions include A/B testing and receiver’s segmented list to help you engineer an ideal campaign for your target customers.

• Free plan: 300 emails per day
• Paid plan: start from 25 dollars a month

Omnisend

The software is known as a sophisticated digital marketing platform whose free plan includes email marketing, and the free plan can address quite a few of the SMEs’ needs. You can customize the time of sending emails, send discount coupons, gift boxes, and scratch cards to your emails.

• Free plan: up to 15000 emails per month and 2000 mails per day
• Paid plan: start from 16 dollars per month

SendPulse

The software is recognized as a multi-channel platform, but its email marketing service is more popular than other services. The editing is simple; you can use a drag-and-drop function to customize your emails.

The rating system is a beautiful feature to know your best subscribers. The statistics are also insightful for you. The platform provides opening rate, read, or unread rate. Additionally, you can add text fields like name, gender, date of birth, age, and job role to personalize your message more.

• Free plan: Up to 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails per month
• Paid plan: Starts at $7.88 per month

Benchmark Email

The platform provides functions, including various stickers, photos, and effects. Plus, prefabricated templates are categorized based upon the business type, occasion, and industry to choose from. The users who have background knowledge of HTML can easily use the editors to design their customized emails.

• Free plan: Up to 2,000 subscribers and 14,000 emails per month
• Paid plan: Starts at $13.99 per month

Mailchimp

The main advantage of this platform is its smart recommendations about the customers to optimize their marketing actions. Sending welcome, order confirmation, and unfinished shopping cart messages are available on this platform.

• Free plan: Up to 2,000 subscribers and 10,000 emails per month
• Paid plan: Starts at $9.99 per month

MailerLite

This service contains a wide range of functions, from creating landing pages to customized pop-ups. Moreover, the comprehensive reports and the variety of tests the software provides, makes the software stand out from the crowd.

• Free plan: Up to 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month
• Paid plan: Starts at $10 per month

Mailjet

You are able to integrate your CRM with this software. Its instant reports are wonderful.

• Free plan: Unlimited contacts and up to 6,000 emails per month
• Paid plan: Starts at $8.69 per month

Zoho Campaigns

The cloud-based software enables you to send follow-up emails and compare the results of different campaigns.

• Free plan: Up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month
• Paid plan: Starts at $3 per month

Moosend

Superficially, this software might not look as wonderful as the other programs, but Moosend gives you an option to remove its logo from your emails.

• Free plan: Up to 1,000 subscribers per month and unlimited campaigns
• Paid plan: Starts at $10 per month

EmailOctopus

The only feature that makes this platform outstanding is the unlimited number of emails you can send.

• Free plan: Up to 2,500 subscribers and unlimited emails per month
• Paid plan: Starts at $19 per month