Email marketing: Mailchimp vs Kartra

  • Date: 23 September 2019
  • reading time: 7 Minutes
  • Blogger: Francisca Zimmermann


Can you think or anyone who doesn't have an email address? Probably not. Almost everyone uses email. For business, for private messages, and for shopping.

This creates an incredible opportunity for marketers. With a list of email addresses, we can reach our leads at the right moment, with a custom offer that will convince them to become a customer.

enamel marketing

In this blog, we will tell you all about email marketing. We will look at the main advantages of this type of marketing and tell you more about two of our favorite email marketing platforms: Kartra and Mailchimp.

Why Email Marketing?

Compared to other forms of marketing, email marketing has a few significant advantages.

Probably the most important one: It can be free, for both the sender and receiver. A marketer can use email to send out any type of marketing material. A deal, a discount code, an ebook, or just a friendly thank-you message. This means endless opportunities, without any need to spend money.

A second advantage is the fact that most people like to receive emails. And if they don’t, they can simply unsubscribe to your mailing list. Through sign-up forms and a clear sign-out option, a business can make sure to only target people who actually like to receive news from you. This means if you do it right, great results!

Are you not convinced yet? Oberlo did a study on the effectiveness of email marketing and found some very impressive numbers. 91% of their research participants use their email at least daily, and 44% of their participants check their email looking for a deal from a company they know. The ROI calculated by Oberlo was shocking: ‘3800%, for every 1$ spent, expect an average of 38$ in return’.

Email marketing in the sales funnel

A little while ago, we wrote a blog about the sales funnel and two of the most common tools that help us guide our leads from absolute strangers to loyal customers: Kartra and Clickfunnels.

As explained in our blog, email marketing can have a prominent role within the sales funnel. Collecting email addresses with (for instance) a lead magnet can help you narrow down your funnel and get closer to your leads.

Further on in the funnel, you can convince your leads with great content, a personal offer, or - for those who have purchased already - an invite to purchase again or leave a review.

kartra

MailChimp vs Kartra

With this in mind, let’s take a look at two of the email marketing platforms we have worked with: Mailchimp and Katra.

Let’s start with Kartra

Let us tell you a bit about what Kartra does. As explained in our recent blog, Kartra is an All-In-One Marketing Platform and sales funnel tool. With sales funnels as a main focus, the platform offers its users absolutely everything needed to run the sales & marketing side of your business smoothly and effectively. The package includes a website builder, checkout pages, an artificial intelligence feature to track leads, extensive affiliate marketing options, helpdesk services, business email hosting, and much more.

With all these services in one, all sections of (and around) your funnel work together perfectly. Through lead scoring and marketing automation, your leads will receive the right email at the right time.

Karta Mail

Kartra lets you design wonderful emails on the platform, which are sent out through marketing automation software. What does this mean? Based on user interactions and lead scoring, Kartra sends out pre-designed emails for you.

kartra conditions

This works with a clever 'IF and THEN system.' Think of this example:

You have been in touch with a list of leads for a while. Some of these leads have been clicking on the links you sent them, and some haven't. Only for those leads who have shown interest in your content, a special offer gets send out. Kartra does this for you, so you won't have to spend time tracking interactions and emailing manually. For instance: IF a lead clicks on a certain link, THEN an offer gets send out. This way, you only target the leads that have been moving down the funnel and are likely to be interested in an offer.

Kartra Features

A few cool features of Kartra are, for instance:

 

Is Katra free?

Kartra pricing

 

Kartra offers not only email marketing but a full All-In-One Marketing Platform. For the complete pricing (Starter) package, you pay $79/month.

And then MailChimp…

MailChimp might be the most popular email marketing platform. And for a good reason: It’s an affordable platform that offers excellent features.

Just like Kartra, Mailchimp is an All‑In‑One Marketing Platform. It offers the possibility to create landing pages, collect audiences, analyze results, and even offers basic CRM features.

However, the main focus of Mailchimp (as the name already shows), is email. MailChimp wants to make email marketing accessible for everyone, which they do really well. With their free plan, you can create an email list with up to 2000 subscribers and send out 10.000 emails each month.

Just like Kartra, Mailchimp has an automation feature too. But instead of the 'IF and THEN setup,' you can choose from a list of preset choices. Think of 'wishing leads a happy birthday, sharing blog updates, and more.

mailchimp

Source: https://mailchimp.com/help/create-an-automation/

Features

A few cool features of Mailchimp are, for instance:

Pricing

MailChimp offers a free package, one for $9,99/month, one for $14,99/month, and one for $299/month. For those only looking for basic templates and the possibility to send e-mails to their list, the free package is more than sufficient.

However, if you are looking for more extensive design options, A/B testing, retargeting ad options, or multivariate testing, then you will have to go for one of the paid packages.

Who wins?

That depends.

If you are looking for a complete marketing package that offers your business absolutely everything you need, then Kartra will be the best and most affordable option.

Are you only looking for a basic email solution and do you have the rest of your marketing features (website, funnel, etc.) already set up? Or are you looking for a free option to collect email addresses and send out emails? Then you may want to go for MailChimp. MailChimp is easy to work with, and if you don’t need too many features or automation, then it’s a great solution.

We personally love working with Katra, because the platform works really well and includes a lot of services that are usually way more expensive than any of Kartra’s packages.

The below example shows a few different tools that offer the features that Kartra includes, separately.

An incredible $327,99 in total. That is a lot more than all Kartra’s packages cost ($79/month for the Starter Pack, $149/month for the Silver Package or $250/month for the extremely complete Gold Package).

*Please note that the price of MailChimp’s most complete package (Premium) is much higher than the Standard Package we have included in this example. The price for MailChimp Premium is $299/month.

And even on just email, Kartra offers more features than MailChimp does. Especially Kartra's automation options are a great advantage since they allow for seamless integration into a sales funnel. Setting up emails with the 'IF and THEN setup' saves a marketer a lot of time and assures that emails will be sent to the right people at the right moments.

For a comparison of the features offered by both platforms, take a look at the below list by Capterra. Keep in mind that not all of the below features are included in MailChimp's free package.

ailchimp vs kartra

Source: https://www.capterra.com/marketing-automation-software/compare/184946-110228/Kartra-vs-MailChimp

Need help?

Are you looking for help setting up - or running an email marketing campaign? Or are you interested in learning how to incorporate email into your digital marketing strategy and funnel? We would love to help you out. Feel free to contact us for a FREE strategy call so we can discuss the possibilities for your business.

For those who made up their minds and would like to test out working with Kartra, you can sign up for a Start Trial here. This is a great way to make sure Kartra is the right choice for you.

Are you interested in learning more about social media, then our Social Media Gids Community may be a great place for you. Here you can find many helpful resources and join the conversation with other students and experts. Our FREE e-books and our Social Marketing class, for instance, are very popular among our community members.

Want to post a comment? Join the conversation in our community.

  • Blogger: Francisca Zimmermann
  • E-mail: [email protected]
  • Social media manager & content creator at Social Media Gids
  • Francisca Zimmermann is a social media expert with a background in research and a love for learning new things. She travels the world looking for beautiful places and interesting cultures, while she dives into the world of her clients to be able to write about them and their interests as a real 'insider'.
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