7 Best Pay-As-You-Go Email Marketing Services

Companies have been using email marketing since the early days of the internet. While some of the technology and functionality around these services has improved, the basic purpose has not and with good reason. Email marketing is effective. In fact, even with the explosion of social media, according to a study by McKinsey & Company, “Email marketing is up to 40 times more effective than social media.”

However, not all businesses need to devote equal time and effort to email marketing. For businesses that only need occasional or infrequent email campaigns, paying a monthly subscription fee for a service you may only use a handful of times in a year may not seem worth it. Luckily there are several quality pay-as-you-go email marketing services that are perfect for businesses that don’t send out a lot of emails. These services charge you when send emails, not on a monthly basis regardless of whether you sent emails out or not.

I love that I can use one of these email services because I don’t send out emails very often. My email list size is about 5000 subscribers, but I only send out – at most – one email per month. I don’t want to pay for a monthly plan, $70 in the case of Aweber, for sending occasional or seasonal emails. The emails plans listed here are perfect for my needs because there are no monthly fees and you only need to renew your plan when you are running short of credits.

Moosend

Moosend is a popular free and pay-as-you-go email marketing service. They are great for big and small businesses alike with tons of professional looking templates and an intuitive drag and drop editor. They offer flexible plans and transparent pricing so you know exactly what you are getting and can budget accordingly. To pay-as-you-go, you must purchase credits with Moosend. However, unlike some of the other services on our list, these credits do not expire.  

Moosend offers A/B testing to help you improve click through, open, and conversion rates. See which templates and messages your clients respond to most to help improve communications. Moosend also has excellent data analytics so you can better understand your business. They have advanced reporting as well as website and user tracking that allows you analyze the stats of any workflow in just a few clicks. Moosend helps you easily personalize your emails with segmentation and because it’s completely scalable, it easily grows along with your subscriber list.

Customers love Moosend’s responsive customer support team. They have informative video tutorials and tons of articles in their knowledge base to help answer any questions and learn new tricks.

Cost: $100 for 10,000 emails

SendPulse

SendPulse is another pay-as-you-go email marketing service for low volume emailers. This is the service that I currently use and they offer you all the functionality I need. Like Moosend, they have a convenient and intuitive drag and drop email editor and over 100 ready-made templates that are customized to look as good on a mobile device as they do on a desktop.

SendPulse’s most popular features include a resend function that automatically replaces the subject line and resends to subscribers who did not open the first email. They also allow you to personalize email and segment them according to gender, geographic location, or interest. With A/B testing, you can try different headlines or text to see which receives better results.

We especially love that SendPulse seamlessly integrates into your CRM or CMS system. You can send emails directly from your own project and easily track your campaign. They also offer useful data analytics so you can understand each email’s performance. With the SendPulse app, you can take your email marketing on the go. Add new subscribers, send emails, and view data from anywhere in the world.

With SendPulse, you can choose any of their pricing plans and still only pay as you go so you get all the features you want without a flat monthly fee.

Cost: $30 for 10,000 emails

Sendinblue

Sendinblue is an email marketing service that offers several different packages at different price points to fit most budgets and needs. Their free and pay-as-you-go services give you everything you really need without unnecessary bells and whistles.  They have sleek templates that are easily customized with a handy drag and drop editor.  Sendinblue allows customers to customize and personalize emails so you can be sure to send the most relevant and dynamic content people will read. Their automation processes help you to save time and headaches and boost performance. There pay-as-you-go plan gives you the basic features you’ll likely need but email credits do expire after 12 months.

Sendinblue is an all-in-one marketing solution with SMS marketing tools, dedicated landing pages for each marketing campaign, chat support and set up as well as a shared inbox feature.  With Sendinblue, you can easily add more subscribers as your business continues to grow. It’s a great service for anyone looking for solid functionality at competitive prices.

Cost: $74 for 10,000 emails

Mail Chimp

Mail Chimp is a popular email marketing service that relatively recently (2019) introduced a pay as you go plan for businesses that send emails infrequently. Under this plan, you still get all the same features as Mail Chimp’s Essentials plan like a choice of themes and layouts, pre-built segments, and basic data reporting. You’ll also get features like an intuitive drag and drop editor, A/B testing, marketing automations and real time analytics.

Mail Chimp has 24/7 support as well as an extensive Knowledge Base and Marketing Glossary. They also boast 250+ app integrations so connecting with your favorite apps and web services is easy.

To use Mail Chimp’s pay-as-you-go plan, you need to purchase email credits. These credits are then used as payment for each email sent. You have an entire to use credits before they expire. The pricing plan for this service is easy to understand and reasonable and allows you to only pay for emails you send. Their helpful customer support team can help you verify which features are included in their pay-as-you-go plans.

Cost: $200 for 10,000 emails

Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor positions it’s email marketing services as a more human approach to email. They use data to better understand how to personalize your content. Then using detailed lists and smart segments, create messages that drive more engagement. Campaign Monitor’s is easy to use with a drag and drop email builder. They offer hundreds of polished templates that look great on any device. However, they also allow customers to build a fully customized and completely new template.

Campaign Monitor directly imports all your branding information like colors and logos, so you save time creating engaging content. They have a link review tool to ensure no broken links end up in your email as well as fun features like a countdown timer to bring a sense of urgency and improve conversion rates.

Their pay-as-you-go options is straightforward and affordable. There is no monthly subscription or subscriber limits. Simply pay when you’re ready to start a new campaign.

Cost: $100 for 10,000 emails

Vertical Response

Vertical Response is all about saving you time so you can focus on your business, not marketing. They have all the features you need to create a successful email marketing campaign like customizable professional templates, automated follow up emails, autoresponders, advanced reporting tools, landing page builders, A/B testing, test kits, and surveys.

Their templates are quick and easy to populate. You can even pull images and graphics from their library, so you don’t have to waste time searching the internet. Their follow up email feature allows you to reach up to 40% more of your audience by replacing the subject line and resending. With Vertical Response, you can set up automated email series so, for example, new subscribers automatically receive a welcome email.

The Vertical Response reporting tools provide you relevant data that’s easy to understand so you can quickly make adjustments to your marketing strategy. The A/B testing and test kit ensure you feel confident that the emails you’re sending with get opened, read, and convert. Through surveys, they offer the opportunity to use valuable customer feedback to improve and grow.

In addition to a pay-as-you-go option, Vertical Response offers several other pricing packages and options.

Cost: $175 for 10,000 emails

SendX

SendX is another service that helps you create personalized emails with customizable templates. Their drag and drop editor requires no special technical skills and will have you up and running in minutes. They offer a library of images and graphics, countdown timers, audience segmentation, A/B testing and reports to track how well your campaign is doing.

Their pricing information is clear and affordable, especially if you’re just starting to grow your business. However, to get information about their pay-as-you-go plan, you must contact customer support. Be sure you understand what features are included and if there are any hidden fees in this pricing model.

For many small businesses, email marketing campaigns are essential. However, many businesses find they only need to send emails a few times per year – perhaps to raise awareness about seasonal offerings or deals. Paying a monthly subscription fee can be costly, especially when you don’t need tons of features or functionality.

These pay-as-you-go email marketing services provide everything you need to run a successful email marketing campaign without breaking the bank.