Last week, Facebook broke the news that starting in January the social media juggernaut will no longer limit pages’ promo posts. This is in light of many issues that have effected digital marketing in the last few years, including some algorithms that just basically make it harder for small business’ to reach their audiences.

There are many reasons for these recent changes. Among others is the ability to produce organic material and link it back to your website, creating more traffic and hopefully leads and revenue. Yes, we all know we want to make money from our business; that is a given. How, you ask? The spectrum of knowledge is so wide it couldn’t be covered in a hundred posts. So we will break it down and tell you what you need to know right now. Since Google and Facebook are changing the way we reach our customers and even associates, we have to change our game as well. Relying on just social media can be a huge downfall and even though it seems like you are reaching those that you need to, honestly they aren’t your customers. You don’t own the platform and they are Facebook’s customers. It’s the truth and Facebook has complete control over when and how your customers see your business. That is not cool. Never let someone else control your relationships or your cash flow.

Now we come to the big secret: How do we control this? In one word… emails. Email blasts have become the norm and are really the only way to make sure that every piece of advertisement literature gets to its purposed audience. Make sense? You can send out 1,000 Facebook posts but who knows who sees them (besides Facebook)? You send out 100 emails but who knows who sees them? Oh, that’s right. You do!

Here are 3 email marketing services for you to check out and see what is best for your digital marketing campaign:

*prices based on 5,000 subscribers

1. Constant Contact: $75 (cloud-based, free trial) – While Constant Contact can seem pricey, it does offer some services that other email marketing software companies don’t and that is a personal marketing coach. If you are new to email marketing then this is a very useful tool as set-up can be somewhat daunting. If you are a bit of an email blast veteran, then Constant Contact’s pricing might seem silly and interface outdated. The service does try to create a one-stop shop for companies with tools for event registration, forms for gaining reviews and feedback and even surveys. They are trying but you might want to try a cheaper option first.
2. Sendy: $59 one-time fee & $0.001 per email (self-hosted, no free trial) – Sendy is by far the cheapest email marketing service option out there by using Amazon’s SES (Simple Email Service). While it is a very basic option, the big disadvantage of using a self-hosted service like this is you must install it on your website’s server and create a subdomain (like email.yourwebsite.com) on which you will upload the installation files from sendy.co. So, while it is simple and cheap as far as interface, it is a little harder to set up the actual software.
3. GetResponse: $45 per month (cloud-based, 30 days free) – With beautifully designed email templates and user-friendly tools, GetResponse definitely tends to lead the pack in preferred email marketing services. The automated emails can even venture into responsive connections like being delivered to a new customer upon purchase or after specific website activity like sign-ups. GetResponse also has A/B testing which can test and analyze all aspects of your email from the subject line to the time emails are sent to make your marketing dollars that much more effective.

There seem to be thousands of options for email marketing and with this new phase of limited social media connection, businesses can expect to only have more in the future. Get on the ball now and learn how email marketing can boost your business and is really the best and only real option for connecting to your contacts on a regular basis and change your company’s digital marketing game!