There’s no doubt that having email subscribers is one of your most valuable marketing assets. Social platforms and algorithms can change, and this can dramatically reduce your website traffic. Email marketing should be one of your top priorities early on to engage with potential customers. Content is still the king for driving awareness, lead generations and more.

“To grow your subscriber base through email marketing, content is king. Timely, genuinely helpful or entertaining content keeps subscribers engaged so they continue to maintain a relationship with your brand. Gate-keeping your highest quality content, or letting subscribers see it before the general public is a great way to add exclusivity.

Social media is a low commitment way to let the audience sample what you’re all about. However, I’d caution on relying solely on social media as part of your acquisition strategy. Email marketing allows for more robust customization to really tailor your sales message to the user, depending on what actions they take or where they are in the customer journey.” — Katherine Wong Too Yen Marketing Director at Adro

Startups need to focus on building their growth strategy early on and own their audience. Owning your audience is the best thing to do for your startup.

“Email marketing is SUCH an important part of any startup’s growth strategy. With other channels, like social media, you don’t own your lists, and that can put you in a vulnerable situation should those companies make a change. With email, you own the list, how you commute with your contacts, and what segmentation and value you’re able to provide.From there, you don’t need a giant budget to get started – solutions like Mailchimp, Klavio, and Hubspot offer startup-friendly pricing for email marketing.

Email marketing is so much more than customer newsletters – you’re able to grow your leads and customers with targeted lead magnets, providing real value to your potential customers. From webinar signups, to checklist downloads, paid ad landing pages, and how-to videos – linking all of those back to your email database gives you an opportunity to not only give real value to your contacts, but nurture and grow those contacts into revenue-generating customers!” — Kasey Bayne Fractional CMO at KB Consulting

If you’re looking to build up your email list you need to have the right software. Here are top email softwares to use in your marketing stack:

13. MailChimp

MailChimp is one of the oldest email marketing software out there. The platform has evolved since its early days to tailor towards small businesses and growing companies.

12. Sender

Sender is a relatively new player in this space that offers an effortless email marketing experience and free 15,000 monthly emails.

11. beehiiv

Beehiiv has the advantage new monetizations for creators as they have an ad network. So think creators can get paid for their newsletters.

10. Moosend

Moosend is an email marketing software based out of London, designed for business growth.

9. SendFox

SendFox is by AppSumo. This is one of the most affordable options for early stage startups. It has a one-time purchase fee as supposed to subscriptions.

8. Mailjet

Mailjet brings all the email tools you need to hit the inbox. It also offer automation and other tools to grow your audience.

7. ConvertKit

ConvertKit has been one of the ultimate tools for creators. The platform has evolved to be much more than email marketing software.

6. MailerLite

MailerLite’s motto is create email marketing that your audience will love. The platform is UX friendly and designed for growing brands.

5. Flodesk

Flodesk provides a modern interface for email marketing software. The platform is not based on number of subscribers.

4. Tiny Email

TinyEmail is one of the few options out there that is not based on number of subscribers. This is a relatively new player in the market with a growing customer base.

3. Loops

Loops is a Y-combinator backed startup, which is one of the newest players in the market. It is striving for simplicity and elegance for email marketing.