Email marketing is a critical component of many businesses' marketing strategies. Assessing the effectiveness of your email campaigns and determining if they are achieving the desired results can be a challenging task.
A benchmark email review is a comprehensive analysis of the performance of your email campaigns, compared to industry benchmarks and best practices.
A benchmark email review can help you to identify areas where your campaigns may be falling short and provide valuable insights into how you can improve your email marketing performance. By analyzing metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and more, you can gain a deep understanding of how your campaigns are performing and how they compare to industry benchmarks.
A benchmark email review can help you to do just that, providing you with the insights you need to create campaigns that resonate with your audience and drive real results for your business.
The Key Features of Benchmark Email You Should Know About
While Benchmark email is commonly used for sending newsletters, it offers a range of other features that marketers can take advantage of. These features include automated triggered campaigns, email list building tools, welcome emails, and more. In this article, we'll explore the most essential features of Benchmark email marketing software.
- Easy-to-use Drag and Drop Editor: With an intuitive block design and email previews, the editor is straightforward and simple to use.
- Wide range of Email Templates: There are over 200 templates available, with smart categorization and templates available in multiple languages.
- Marketing Automation: Benchmark offers an excellent range of automations for sending emails and managing contacts, with a smart visual builder to streamline the process.
- A/B Testing: The platform allows you to test subject lines, copy, CTAs, and send times to determine which elements perform best for your campaigns.
- Landing Page Builder: Benchmark also provides a simple landing page builder, offering a range of content options although not as many templates.
- Extensive Integrations: The software integrates with over 1500 popular technologies.
- Responsive Customer Support: Benchmark offers responsive customer support via phone, email, and live chat, with a helpful team ready to assist you.
Benchmark Review
Upon signing up for Benchmark's free platform, they claim that you can send your first email within 15 minutes – a bold promise indeed! While the accuracy of this claim may be debatable, the platform's user-friendly interface certainly makes the process feel incredibly effortless. Upon launching Benchmark for the first time, you'll be greeted by a getting started dashboard that provides helpful wizard prompts throughout every step of the process. With the option to “start building” immediately, you can quickly begin drafting your first email. Check out our full list of top email marketing tools if you're looking for more.
Sending Emails
To begin sending emails with Benchmark, you'll have access to a range of features specifically designed for email marketing purposes. These include the ability to create newsletters, RSS/blog emails, autoresponders, recurring emails, date-triggered emails, and automated email campaigns. The email editor provided by the platform is user-friendly and straightforward, allowing you to easily create engaging email content. To experience Benchmark's email editor firsthand, simply dive in and give it a try yourself.
Email Templates
Creating a new email with Benchmark is a straightforward process that starts with selecting a template from the platform's collection of 221 free email templates. With templates categorized by type, occasion, and industry, you can easily find the right one for your needs. A handy feature allows you to preview any template in detail simply by hovering over it. Additionally, the platform provides templates specifically designed for use with tools like eBay, Etsy, and Surveymonkey, which become available once you connect those tools to your Benchmark account.
For those who prefer to create their own designs, Benchmark also offers a code editor that enables you to import any HTML design you've made. Impressively, the platform's template collection includes designs in many foreign languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish, demonstrating Benchmark's commitment to meeting the needs of its global user base.
Email Editor
Once you have chosen a template for your email campaign, you can directly enter the email editor in Benchmark. You can edit both text and images in real-time using the user-friendly interface of the editor.
Benchmark's email designer offers a smart drag-and-drop feature that lets you select pre-made blocks such as “image card” or “image groups” and add them to your email. This combo of elements makes the email design process much simpler and faster, particularly for beginners who can skip a few steps and focus on the email content.
In the editor, you can preview and edit the whole email on one canvas, which makes it easier to move or delete blocks. You can also use the duplicate block function to copy an existing block and modify the text or images.
The email editor provides a pre-send and spam check feature, which is one of the favorite features of many users. The “test” roll-up menu at the bottom of the screen allows you to send test emails to up to five contacts and get a spam score and recommendations to improve your email's deliverability.
Another great feature of the editor is the Inbox Checker, powered by Litmus, that shows you how your email campaign will look on different email clients. Benchmark provides 100 inbox checks for free when you sign up, and you can get additional checks for a small fee. Additionally, you'll receive a 15% discount on the annual plan and a free list verification for your list.
Email Marketing Automation Tools
Let's dive into marketing automation with Benchmark, which offers two tiers: Automation Lite, which is free for all plans and allows for basic trigger-based emails.
There are three types of triggers available:
- List triggers: send an email when someone signs up
- Timed emails: such as birthday or anniversary emails
- Drip campaigns: for follow-ups, membership renewals, or marketing campaigns
Timing is key in automations, so Benchmark allows you to time the delivery of your email by adding delays and choosing the day of the week or specific time zone for optimal delivery.
Automation Lite is excellent for simple email marketing automation, but for more control and options, Automation Pro is recommended.
With Automation Pro, you can:
- Customize your subscriber’s experience based on their behavior on your site and emails
- Target contacts from multiple lists or segments in one automation
- See how your customers are interacting and converting along their journey and make adjustments to improve
Benchmark offers 11 pre-made automation templates with Automation Pro, including abandoned cart and retargeting campaigns.
When you select a template, Benchmark explains what the automation does, including a video to explain all the steps. The user-friendly automation builder allows you to trigger emails, add contacts to different lists, send SMS, and more.
While other automation-focused email software may offer dynamic emails and complex flows, Benchmark keeps it simple and to the point.
Lead Generation
Benchmark Email has several lead generation and email capture tools available. While some users may already have these features, they can be incredibly useful for those who do not.
Opt-in forms are available in various forms, including embedded forms, pop-ups, and third-party form integration. The embedded form builder allows for customization of the form's title, image, and styling options, as well as the ability to add as many fields as needed.
The form sends a standard autoresponder, or you can automate triggered follow-up or nurture emails. By selecting the contact list as a trigger in an automation and adding all the follow-up emails, it's easy to set up.
Designing a pop-up is similar to building an embedded form, but with additional global settings to control how the pop-up appears and grabs visitors' attention. While Benchmark has done an excellent job with email templates, it could benefit from adding more form templates. For now, users can integrate with third-party apps to create customized forms.
Landing Page Builder
Benchmark has made their landing page builder easy to use, similar to their other features. To start building, you can choose one of three layouts or select from seven pre-designed templates. The drag and drop editor allows you to customize the design with various layouts and content blocks. Compared to other landing page builders, even with a limited number of templates, the editing experience is great.
The landing page builder also provides options to add elements such as columns, images, videos, text, buttons, navigation bars, forms, social media widgets, and more. Switching between desktop and mobile views is effortless, ensuring that your landing page appears flawlessly on all types of devices.
Additionally, it's important to measure your landing page's performance by tracking it using tools like Google Analytics, Tag Manager, and Facebook Pixel. Furthermore, landing pages can be displayed on your own domain to make them appear as part of your website.
Reporting and Analytics
To evaluate and enhance the effectiveness of your email campaigns, it's essential to analyze the results. Benchmark provides standard email metrics such as open rates, click rates, and unsubscribe rates. Additionally, they offer a geolocation graph that illustrates email opens by country.
For a more detailed analysis of how each link in an email performs, Benchmark has a link performance stats overview, along with an hourly performance graph and an email heatmap.
If you require further insight, you can integrate with tools such as Google Analytics for a more comprehensive performance review.
In addition to email reports, the Benchmark dashboard also provides useful reports on automation, A/B testing, complaints, surveys, and polls. For landing pages, you'll receive statistics on visitors, conversions, and conversion rates.
While there is no direct view to track sign-up numbers, you can cross-check the email list they signed up for to obtain those figures.
Benchmark presents these KPIs and stats in an easy-to-interpret format that allows you to take actionable steps based on the data. You can also export most of the data into CSV or XLS files for custom data handling.
Integrations
Benchmark stands out among other email service providers in terms of integrations, with over 1500 integrations available for email verification tools, text marketing platforms, CRMs, ecommerce tools, and project management platforms. Popular integrations like Google, Facebook, Zapier, Shopify, WordPress, Paypal, and Zendesk are included.
You can find your API key under Account > Settings > Integrations > API Key. If you need an integration that is not available, you can contact Benchmark and they will assist you in making the connection.
Customer Support
Benchmark provides excellent customer support that is both friendly and responsive. They offer phone support for the UK, US, and an international hotline.
Even with a free plan, Benchmark encourages users to contact them for setup assistance. You can get in touch with their support team through email, live chat, or phone call, and they are available 24/7. Additionally, Benchmark has a library of ebooks, webinars, and videos covering various topics to help you get the most out of their platform.
Benchmark Pricing Plans
Benchmark offers four pricing plans: Free, Lite, Pro, and Enterprise. You can start with the Free plan and upgrade to a paid plan when you are ready. The Lite plan starts at $8.00 USD and the price increases as your contact list grows. If you have more than 25,000 contacts, you can opt for the Enterprise plan. For those who have over 2 million contacts, custom pricing is available upon request.
If you're interested in a great deal with Benchmark Email, you're in luck. By signing up for the free plan today and choosing the annual option, you can enjoy a 15% discount. Additionally, you'll receive free list verification for your list and 100 inbox checkers powered by Litmus at no extra cost. Take advantage of this offer and sign up for Benchmark Email today. If you're not satisfied with Benchmark, you can check out our Benchmark Alternatives to find the best email marketing tool for your business.
Pros
- With Benchmark's free plan, you can send up to 3,500 emails per month to a list of up to 500 contacts.
- Benchmark offers over 1,500 integrations, and if you can't find what you need, you can create your own.
- Whatever your business, Benchmark has you covered with a wide range of email templates to choose from.
- With Benchmark's user-friendly interface, creating professional-looking email campaigns is a breeze.
- Benchmark's list cleaning features help you maintain high-quality, engaged subscribers for better deliverability and engagement.
Cons
- The option to have extra media storage is available at an additional cost.
- It would be great to have more templates for the pop-up forms.
Bottom-line
In conclusion, Benchmark Email offers a comprehensive set of features that make it a solid choice for businesses of any size looking for an email marketing solution. Creating professional-looking email campaigns is made easy with Benchmark's user-friendly interface, wide range of integrations, and impressive collection of email templates. Additionally, their strong list cleaning options and reporting features provide valuable insights to optimize your campaigns. While there are some limitations, such as the paid option for extra media storage and a need for more templates for pop-up forms, the overall package that Benchmark Email offers is competitive and worth considering.
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