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It’s no secret that we are in a completely digital age. In fact, did you know that 93.5% of global internet users have purchased products online? Almost everyone and their grandmother has made some type of online purchase.
If you have a business in this decade and it doesn’t have an online presence you will eventually lose the race to your competitors. In fact, by the year 2040, it’s expected that 95% of all purchases will be made through e-commerce (Nasdaq). That is simply mind-blowing when you think about it.
However, it’s not enough just to have an online presence, as the need for e-commerce grows so does your competition, so it would make sense to have a plan in place that guarantees that you are noticed online wouldn’t it? Yes. Yes, it would.
One of the best ways to maintain a strong online presence is email marketing. Email marketing provides a complete system that has the possibility to not only generate you more leads but also nurture these leads and convert them into life-long customers.
I just gave you two things that every business owner should master when building their online business, email marketing, and e-commerce. Imagine combining the two, it would be MAGIC!
A couple of weeks ago I came across a marketing tool that does just that, it’s called Sendlane. Sendlane expertly combines both email marketing and e-commerce systems in order to create a platform that is the all-in-one marketing solution.
Related: The 9 Best Email Marketing Tools of 2020!
Table of Contents
What is Sendlane?
In a nutshell, Sendlane is a marketing automation tool designed for e-commerce stores. Sendlane specializes not only in email marketing but also in a wide range of other services like SMS while giving you all the tools needed in order to automate your entire marketing campaigns. Needless to say, they have some really amazing features and benefits that I will be going into detail later down in this article!
Founded in 2013 by Jimmy Kim, Zakaria Meftah, and Anik Singal, Sendlane was built in order to help small and medium-sized businesses achieve their marketing goals in the most efficient and effective way possible!
To date Sendlane has sent over 6 billion emails and has helped over 40,000 brands achieve their marketing goals, these brands include American Standard, Nutralife, SkyBound, JJVirgin, and LifeBoost.
Here’s what Charles Livingston, CEO of Lifeboost had to say about Sendlane:
“We saw an instant boost of 22.5% in our email marketing revenue… and a 35% increase in deliverability.”
Now that we have all of the boring stuff out of the way let’s take a closer look at the features that have made Sendlane an industry leader in such a short space of time.
Click HERE To Try Sendlane For Free For 14-Days!!
What are Sendlane’s best features?
Sendlane is packed with some decent features that have made it a major player in the email marketing game. Here is the list of Sendlane’s best features:
- Ease of Use and User Experience
- Email Marketing
- Marketing Automation
- SMS Marketing
- Experiments – Split Testing
- Sendlane Beacon
- Real-Time Analytics
- Segmentation
- Intelligent Pop-ups
- Deep Data Integrations
Now let’s take a deeper look at each of these features!
Ease of Use and User Experience
User Experience is hands down one of the most important parts of any software. I personally don’t take a chance with ANY software unless it is easy to use and has an amazing user experience. So when I did my research on Sendlane I left no stone unturned.
Sendlane offers one of the cleanest and most modern user interfaces I have ever seen. Compared to other platforms like Ontraport where the dashboard is basic, Sendlane succeeds in providing an interface that is not only easy to use but also visually appealing.
Despite the fact that when you enter the dashboard you are set to learn by yourself it is still easy to grasp since it’s quite intuitive, in fact, if you have ever used another email marketing tool in the past I can guarantee that you can find your way around it!
The best part is that if you are ever lost or you have trouble navigating the platform you can check out their HUGE resource library. There is a 9/10 chance that you will find what you are looking for given that there are unlimited resources to check out.
Click HERE To Try Sendlane For Free For 14-Days!!
Email Marketing
Now I know this is what you came for. Sendlane is primarily an email marketing tool so it would make sense if they had amazing email marketing features and thankfully they do.
The first one being the drag-and-drop email builder. I’m not lying when I say that this was one of the best drag-and-drop editors that I have ever seen before. You need coding experience at all in order to take full advantage of this tool. However, I would love to see more templates that would be there at my disposal to use.
Needless to say, that means you have a campaign up and running in no time at all!
Sendlane also incorporates amazing technology that is dedicated to improving your overall conversion rates. For example, Sendlane automatically tracks when every email is opened to guarantee that your emails are sent exactly when your contact plans on opening his or her email.
Moreover thanks to the real-time reporting tools you can see your open rates and click-through-rates instantly. This gives you the power to see what is really working in your campaigns and what isn’t so you can put the steps in place to improve!
Sendlane also detects how users interact with particular workflows in order to initiate different actions, for example, you can automatically send out abandoned cart emails once a potential customer leaves an item in their cart without purchasing.
Marketing Automation
This has to be hands down the most CRUCIAL part of Sendlane, in fact, I dare say that the entire software runs on its ability to successfully execute automation campaigns. This is where the magic truly happens and you start seeing the real value of the software.
Through marketing automation, you can take care of your prospects throughout the entire customer journey from the time they first hear about your business to making their 10th purchase with you.
You can create campaigns that will trigger events to happen depending on the actions that they take which gives you the upper hand in creating a customer journey that is unique to every prospect. Moreover, Sendlane gives you pre-built e-commerce funnels to give you a much-needed headstart!
Automation gives you an extra layer of confidence in your campaigns. By using the event-based automation offered by Sendlane you can send personalized messages as soon as a contact decides to purchase your product or subscribe to your list.
It is also key to note that they’re two different types of automation and these are auto-responders and workflows.
Auto-responders are the simple emails where you just state the time you want the emails sent out and boom it’s done. Workflows on the other hand are where things begin to get interesting, this is where customizability comes into play.
The best part is that this entire automation is intuitive so all you have to do is click and boom your automation is fully set up!
Click HERE To Try Sendlane For Free For 14-Days!!
SMS Marketing
As of June 2019, 96% of Americans own a cellphone of some kind and most of them respond to texts in minutes! That being said, it’s clear how often people use their smartphones so building a strategy that is geared at phone users is critical!
Through Sendlane you can develop a marketing campaign around sending your message to the device that no one leaves their home without. Cool right? RIGHT.
Thanks to the pop-up builders (we will be discussing this feature later down in this article) you can customize forms in order to collect phone numbers in one of the most efficient and effective ways possible.
Moreover, you can add these personalized SMS messages to your funnel to improve the overall experience and outcome of the workflow.
Experiments – Split Testing
I live by the motto DATA IS KING!! Every decision that I make is completely data-driven and one of the best ways to make a decision based on the data is by split testing.
Sendlane allows you to test up to 4 different email variations so you can determine what is working and what isn’t. You can test everything from the content of your email to the subject line, there are tons of possibilities.
Moreover, setting up the split tests is simple, all you have to do is select the audience that you want to test and set the goal of the campaign and this is where the automation begins.
This will give you a birds-eye view of how different elements of your campaign are impacted by different variables so you can see how the smallest changes impact your campaign’s success.
Click HERE To Try Sendlane For Free For 14-Days!!
Sendlane Beacon
This is another feature that is offered exclusively by Sendlane, the Beacon.
How does the Sendlane Beacon work? Well, the Beacon follows your contacts throughout their customer journey and collects their data based on their behavior so you can build campaigns in the future that are tailored specifically for them.
Moreover, by taking full advantage of tracking pixels, Sendlane gives its users the power to run ads to their potential customers through social platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Needless to say, all of this data is providing on one platform so you can manage everything from one central hub.
Real-Time Analytics
If it wasn’t for reports every decision you make would be blind decisions. You need to have data behind the decisions that you make. Sendlane provides a dashboard that provides real-time analytics on all of your campaigns.
You will see all the basic metrics that are needed in order to make a smart decision about your next move with your marketing campaigns. You will get access to all the basic information such as open rates, bounces, number of unsubscribes, click rates, and links. It also goes a step further by telling you the return-on-investment of every email and SMS message that you send out.
By utilizing these insights you will be on your way to fully optimizing your future email campaigns!
Click HERE To Try Sendlane For Free For 14-Days!!
Segmentation
Segmenting your list can prove to be incredibly powerful if done correctly. By segmenting your audience you can determine which customers are going to be the most profitable and which ones may not be worth the hassle.
Segmenting also allows you to develop different marketing campaigns for different areas of your audience, after all, it isn’t a one size fits all type of situation.
By utilizing these tactics you can develop a strategy directly inside Sendlane that is aimed at targeting these segments with the right message at the right time.
Moreover, Sendlane has over 100 data points built into its marketing automation platform so you can seamlessly set up various revenue-driven segmentations for your brand or company.
Intelligent Pop-ups
The average pop up conversion rate is 3%, that means you have an additional 3% chance of collecting a lead on your website. Pop-Ups have become increasingly important and you should definitely take advantage of them if.
With Sendlane you are given 4 different types of Pop-ups to choose from. These are:
- Inline – You can embed this pop-up code anywhere on your website you would like it.
- Pop-ups – Here the pop-ups only popup when you get a website visitor.
- Floating top or bottom banners – These banners stay with your website visitors as they scroll through your web-page.
- Floating box – This floating box takes up the whole page forcing your website visitors to complete the signup form before moving on.
There is also a drag and drop form builder (Not the best I have seen) that allows you to create forms efficiently and effectively.
However, Sendlane doesn’t just offer Pop-ups, thanks to the other features that come equipped with Sendlane your pop-ups are seamlessly integrated with your entire workflow which directly improves your customer’s entire buying journey.
Click HERE To Try Sendlane For Free For 14-Days!!
Integrations
In order to create an even better experience not only for your customers but also for you, I am positive that you may need to integrate with various platforms. Before Sendlane took some hits for having a “lack of integrations”, today they boast of having over 1400 different integrations! These include some of your favorite brands like:
- Shopify
- WooCommerce
- ClickFunnels
- ClickBank
- Zapier
- LiveChat
- Privy
My favorite integration is definitely Zapier since that gives me access to a ton more apps!
Sendlane Pricing: How much does Sendlane cost?
Sendlane’s pricing solely depends on the number of contacts that you have. Now, these plans are on the pricier side as compared to other email marketing tools that I have reviewed in the past. There are 3 plans that are offered by Sendlane, these are the Growth plan, the Pro plan, and the Starter plan. The pricing below is based on if you have at least 5000 contacts.
The Growth plan costs $99 per month but you are only limited to 5000 contacts per month.
The Pro plan starts at $150 per month once you have 5000 contacts are higher
The Starter plan costs $497 per month and that’s a one time fee but you are limited only up to 5000 contacts. In fact, the Starter plan contains all of the features of the Growth plan.
If you decide to pay annually you will save 17%. So if you pay for the Growth plan on an annual basis you will be charged $79 per month for the Growth plan and $125 per month for the Pro plan. The Starter plan remains the same since this is a one-time fee.
The best part about these plans is that there are no contracts or set up fees! Moreover, despite the fact that there is no Free plan there is a 14-day free trial that you can take full advantage of which gives you the ample time needed in order to test out the email marketing platform yourself to see if it’s the right fit for you!
If you are looking for a cheaper alternative I would suggest checking out AWeber or GetResponse.
Click HERE To Try Sendlane For Free For 14-Days!!
Sendlane Customer Support
Despite Sendlane being a platform that’s easy to use and fairly straight-forward there may come the time where you might need that additional help that’s where the customer service representatives come into play!
Sendlane has an entire resource library that was built in order to guide you through your journey with the email marketing software. This resource library has blogs, podcasts, access to a Youtube Channel, tons of ebooks, and even case studies. Moreover, they recently introduced a resource that was essentially a step-by-step marketing course for e-commerce marketers.
There is also an excellent knowledge base that has every resource that you will need to get your dollars worth out of Sendlane. If that is not enough they also offer phone and email support.
If you have read any of my reviews before on the best email marketing platforms of this decade then you would know that one of the deal-breakers for me is a live chat box option. Luckily, Sendlane has a 24/7 live chat. That was music to my ears!
Sendlane Pros and Cons
Like every other email marketing tool out there Sendlane has its fair share of pros and cons. Here’s a list of Sendlane’s pros and cons.
Pros:
- The entire platform is user friendly and actually pretty simple to use and utilize. The interface is also extremely modern.
- They have mind-blowing support and a wide library of resources that are designed to provide you with overall amazing customer experience. Needless to say, they offer 24/7 live customer support.
- Building landing pages and emails are actually quite simple thanks to the easy to use drag-and-drop editors.
- They have amazing automation (workflows) which gives you the power to automate the parts of your business you don’t like to do so you can focus on the things that you actually like to do!
- You can easily and accurately track everything that happens in your campaigns through Sendlane.
Cons:
- When it comes to price Sendlane is definitely one of the most expensive email marketing tools as compared to its competitors.
- Unlike some of its competitors, there is no free plan.
- The email templates could be improved a bit as they seem dated but hey they might work perfectly for you!
- The form builder could also do with some improvement as well as I have seen better and more intuitive ones.
- You need to be manually approved before you can begin sending out your first emails to your subscribers, this can be a complete pain and makes the migration process a headache.
Who is Sendlane for and is it worth it?
Sendlane is an amazing and highly efficient and effective email marketing platform. I would recommend Sendlane to the business owner who has an e-commerce store that believes that email marketing is a crucial part of their success. It is also a very efficient tool in a digital marketer’s toolbox.
Due to the high price tag of Sendlane, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who is just looking to maybe send out a couple of emails here and there without the intention of monetizing them. Sendlane was not made for the blogger or the local non-profit organization. It was specifically designed to give eCommerce business owners the upper hand!
Furthermore, Sendlane is also quite a new platform and despite it being relatively new it has done an excellent job in ensuring that it is consistently growing its customer base.
All in all, thanks to the automation (workflows), the wide range of features Sendlane and the intuitive interface, it’s no secret that Sendlane can get the job done in the best way possible.
If you’re still unsure whether or not Sendlane is the perfect marketing automation software for you then you can check out the 14-day free trial! This will give you ample time to make a decision on whether or not it is the best step for you to take.
Click HERE To Try Sendlane For Free For 14-Days!!
