Best Software for Newsletters: Top 20 Picks for 2023

Sending emails is easy — you probably do it every day. But it becomes a lot more challenging when you’re trying to create a newsletter that readers will look forward to receiving and open with enthusiasm. Luckily, there are lots of apps that can help you create beautiful and effective email marketing campaigns.

Here's a list of the best software for newsletters in 2023. We'll give you a brief overview of each option and tell you what makes them stand out from the rest. So whether you're just starting out or looking for an upgrade, we've got you covered!

Why Do You Need Email Newsletter Software?

Why should you invest your time in learning how to use any of these tools?

Because a well-designed, attractive email campaign is one of your company's best marketing tools. It allows you to effectively reach out to your target audience, stay connected with customers, and keep them up-to-date on the latest news.

Here are some reasons top businesses depend on email newsletter software to stay in touch with prospects:

• Social media channels come and go. Building your own email list is one of the best ways to ensure that you have direct contact with your customers and prospects — even if your favorite social media channel goes the way of MySpace.

• Email lets you build relationships over time. For example, you can start with a welcome message, fill in your prospects on your brand story, and then continue the conversation by sending emails that provide helpful information or special offers. Those relationships help you bring more of your prospects into your sales funnel.

• Email campaigns can be tailored to your audience. You can segment your list by interests, location, or stage in the buyer's journey. Plus, you can send emails that best meet their needs. This helps you build trust with those prospects and quickly turn them into customers.

• You can measure the success of each email campaign. With the right email software, you'll be able to track who opened the messages, which links they clicked on, and other metrics. This helps you refine your campaigns over time to best reach your target audience.

• Details matter. Sending out emails with grammatical errors, poor headlines, or rough images doesn't leave a good impression on your prospects. The tools listed below will help you create captivating, professional-looking emails that draw attention and ensure your message is worth reading.

• Many of these tools are free! That's great news if you're just getting started with email newsletters. You can test out the best way to reach your target audience without spending money on expensive software.

If you use email newsletters as a marketing tool, the right software can save you a lot of time and help you get the best return on your marketing investment.

Now let's take a look at some of the best software for newsletters in 2023.

Best Software for Newsletter Graphics

Creating graphic elements for your emails can be time-consuming, but it doesn't have to be. With the right software, you can create professional graphics quickly and easily.

1. Quickly create branded graphics: Canva is an excellent option for creating beautiful email newsletter graphics. Their library of templates makes it easy to create stunning visuals without any design skills required. Plus, they offer many features to help you customize your graphics and make them unique. Canva offers a feature-rich free version, and the pro version starts at $12.99/month.

2. Organize your image collection: Google Photos is the best option for organizing your images into a searchable database. Did you know you can search Google Photos using words like “red door” or “dog” and go straight to what you’re looking for? Google Photos also gives you quick editing tools to improve lighting, crop, and resize images. Google Photos is free for the first 15 gigabytes; after that, plans start at $1.99 per month for 100 GB of storage.

3. Enhance your photos: Adobe Photoshop is an expensive choice with a higher learning curve, but it's a powerful tool for creating marketing visuals. With its advanced features, you can create eye-catching graphics that will grab your reader's attention and keep their eyes glued to the page from top to bottom. Photoshop plans start at $20.99 a month — a 7-day free trial is available.

4. Create graphics from templates: Adobe Express is an excellent tool for creating stunning visuals quickly. Their library of templates gives you lots of options to choose from as well as tools to help you customize each one. Adobe Express offers a “free forever” plan, or a premium plan priced at $9.99/month.

5. Find stock images: Pexels offers hundreds of free, high-quality stock photos you can use in your newsletters. The searchable database makes it easy to find exactly the images you need to illustrate your ideas. Pexels is free.

Best Software for Newsletter Writing

Content is king, as the saying goes. So it's vital to fill your emails with well-written copy that is grammatically correct and easy to read. These apps offer everything from content creation to editing.

1. AI Writing: Jasper is an AI-powered writing assistant that helps you create high-quality content quickly and easily. All you have to do is enter your topic, and Jasper will generate a draft. It also includes tools to help you optimize your content for SEO, improve existing copy, rewrite and repurpose your content, create compelling sales copy and headlines, and more.

2. Grammar Check: Grammarly is one of the best proofreading tools out there. It's easy to use and can help you catch mistakes or typos before you send your newsletter. Grammarly goes way beyond simple spell-checking, however. The app can also check for grammar, syntax, punctuation, and sentence structure. The free version is very powerful and meets the needs of most businesses.

3. Find Relevant Content: Need help finding useful information to share with your audience? Feedly is an excellent content curation tool for finding relevant news and updates. You can create custom feeds based on a keyword or topic, which makes it easy to find information related to your newsletter topics.

4. Collaborate with your team: Google Docs is the perfect app for writing your newsletter content. It's free and easy to use, and you can easily share documents to leave notes, suggest edits, and discuss ideas with your team. Google Docs also helps you quickly find relevant links and spell-checks your work as you type.

5. Analyze your headlines: Headlines make your newsletter content scannable, and effective headlines draw the reader into your stories and keep them reading. This free headline analysis tool checks your headline ideas for readability, SEO, and sentiment to help you write more powerful headlines and subject lines for your newsletters.

Best Email Newsletter Software for Building Your List

Scaling your newsletter is essential. Most newsletter-building apps — including those in the next section — offer subscription forms and other essential list-building elements. But here are some extras you might want to consider if you're serious about building your list.

1. Referral program: A referral program is a great way to build an email list quickly and easily. All you have to do is set up a rewards system that encourages your existing customers and followers to refer their friends and family to join your newsletter. This functionality is built into beehiiv and works without any integrations or other tools needed.

2. Recommendation Network: Imagine the power of other publications with a similar audience recommending your newsletter for free. beehiiv lets you easily create your own network — just search for relevant (but noncompeting) newsletters to recommend, and invite them to reciprocate.

3. Quizzes: Interact lets you build appealing quizzes that generate leads and segment your list at the same time. For example, a travel company could create a "What is your perfect travel destination" quiz and segment the leads gathered based on a question about travel budget.

4. Transcription software: Want to create a lead magnet? Why not publish a white paper or ebook based on your podcasts or presentations? Otter.ai offers instant written transcripts of your audio and video content, so you can quickly create a lead magnet and grow your list.

5. Create your own integrations: Want to use list-building tools that aren't already integrated with your newsletter creation software? Zapier lets you easily connect all your favorite tools to build a powerful lead-generation system.

Best Email Newsletter Software for Creating and Sending

Now we've come to the heart of the matter — the apps you might use to create and send your newsletter. The software you choose should offer an array of features, such as analytics, templates, testing tools, and more.

Here are a few of the best email newsletter software options for 2023.

1. beehiiv: This is the newsletter platform of choice for growth-oriented brands. You can design beautiful emails, archive your content on beehiiv's servers, send automated messages to segmented lists, and track email performance — all from one place. However, where beehiiv really excels is in its host of growth tools. We already mentioned their built-in referral program and recommendation network, but they also have tools to help you understand and even monetize your audience.

2. MailChimp: This is a popular choice for beginners. MailChimp is best known for having a user-friendly email builder, segmentation and reporting features, and templates. MailChimp also offers automation tools to help you send the right messages at the correct times.

3. Constant Contact: Constant Contact is best for small businesses and nonprofits who are just getting started with their email marketing efforts. Constant Contact offers email templates, list segmentation, pre-built campaigns, reports to help you track performance, and more.

4. MailerLite: This is another good choice for those just starting with email marketing. It has a drag-and-drop editor, customizable templates, and automation tools to help you send your messages at the best times.

5. iContact: If you're looking for an enterprise-level solution to your email marketing needs, iContact is a solid option. It offers customizable templates and powerful automation tools to create complex campaigns quickly and easily. Plus, it integrates with Salesforce, which makes it an ideal choice for larger teams.

Creating a Workflow with Email Newsletter Software

Creating a workflow is easy with the right tools. For example, many newsletter creators use a process similar to this one:

1. Create an outline: Sketch out the issue's content using Google Docs, and invite team members to suggest their ideas.

2. Write the content: You might do this yourself, hire a writer, or use an AI interface like Jasper.

3. Edit the text: Some companies hire an editor. Others have an in-house staff member who is a great proofreader. Tools like Grammarly are very helpful in this process.

4. Create graphics: If your company has a library of images stored in Google Photos, it's easy to search for precisely what you want and quickly edit your photos. Or, you can create original branded graphics using the templates in Canva or Adobe Express.

5. Add business-building features: Once the editing and design work is done, it's a good idea to look back over the email through a marketing lens. This includes checking that headlines are persuasive, your calls to action are clear, and that you've asked your subscribers to take actions like referring their friends or signing up for a webinar.

6. Send a test email: Before you hit send to your entire list, make sure that everything looks great by sending a test email to yourself or another staff member.

7. Go live: Once you know the email looks good, it's time to launch!

Email Newsletter Software: Key Components

When you're evaluating any software for your team, you'll want to consider the features that best meet your needs. Here are some of the most critical components:

• Price point: You'll want to choose a program that best meets your budget requirements and offers value for the money you spend on it. Free apps are great, but you should be willing to spend money on the features that will help you build your business.

• Integration: You'll want tools that can work together as much as possible.

• Collaboration: Whether it's a team of two or twenty, having the ability to collaborate on email campaigns is essential. Look for features like shared task lists, comment threads, and permission settings so you can assign tasks to specific team members.

• Ease of use: How easy is the program to use? Can you figure it out without reading the instructions, or do you need help every step of the way?

• Flexibility: How easily can you adapt the software to your own needs? Does it offer a lot of customization options, or are you limited to the templates provided?

• Scalability: Finally, you'll want to consider how well the software can grow with you as your team and audience expand.

These are just a few key components when evaluating email newsletter software options. Depending on your specific needs, you may need to consider other features before making your final choice.

Choosing the Best Software For Your Newsletter

You probably already have a good idea of which aspects of your newsletter you're interested in automating with the right software. For example, maybe you want some help generating content, something to help you create powerful images, or a hand-building your subscriber list.

No matter what your needs are, there's an app that can help you. With so many options available, deciding which is best for your team can be tough. But by considering the key components we've outlined, you'll be able to make a decision that fits both your budget and your business goals.

beehiiv offers a robust list of built-in features to help you build your audience, create beautiful designs, and deliver compelling content to your list. You’ll also find a powerful set of tools to analyze and segment your market. Check out beehiiv to see why it’s the best platform to grow and scale your email marketing efforts.