Omnisend is an email marketing platform that caters to small and medium size eCommerce companies. We think it’s a great option. It was founded in Lithuania in 2014 which is likely why it is more popular Internationally than in the US. It’s a user friendly email marketing tool but is more robust than other user friendly tools like Mailchimp. We recommend it for smaller eCommerce companies that have ambitions to scale. On the higher end, it competes directly with Klaviyo and Sendlane. Like those platforms, Omnisend was purpose built for eCommerce and offers email and SMS marketing in one platform (although we recommend choosing point solutions for email and SMS). Omnisend is a solid choice. We think it will be a step up from other entry level tools, however, as your brand grows, you will likely migrate to a competitor. Compared to competitors like Klaviyo and Sendlane, Omnisend has fewer enterprise size clients. You will eventually want something that has more integrations, more automation and A/B testing capabilities, and better dashboards. However, It will likely be cheaper than Klaviyo, so we recommend it if price is your number one concern.
Read our full guide on: Email Marketing Tools ✉️
Best for: Small (0-$10M annual revenue) and Medium ($10-30M) size businesses.
Omnisend is primarily an email marketing platform that also offers SMS (text message) and push notification marketing tools.
Omnisend was founded by Rytis Lauris and Justas Krisciunas in Lithuania in 2014. The pair met while running their own businesses - Rytis a digital marketing agency and Justas a PR agency. They realized they both had ambitions to build global businesses and saw an opportunity to improve on the email marketing tools available at the time. Omnisend began as an email marketing platform called Soundest. In 2017, it rebranded as the omnichannel marketing automation platform Omnisend with a mission to "Make Marketing Relevant" and expanded beyond email. They added SMS functionality in 2018. Today, they are one of the largest email marketing platforms for small and medium size businesses.
Omnisend covers all of the fundamentals of email marketing well.
Email collection / list building
Step one in an email marketing program is collecting email addresses. Omnisend provides you with all of the tools necessary to do that well. It has a customizable email popup form builder that can be customized to fit your brand. It supports a 'wheel of fortune' or spin to win pop up format that we personally loathe but wont judge since it likely increases email signups. It offers control over where and when to show the email collection modal. Its form builder supports multi-step forms so that you can collect both email and phone numbers. Omnisend's forms also integrate with other marketing tools, such as Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel, to help businesses track their performance and optimize their campaigns. Custom properties can also be added to collect specific information that isn't included by default that will improve your personalization efforts (e.g., shoppers could enter their breed of dog or select whether they are shopping for mens or womens clothing). Finally, Omnisend provides forms reports so you can track the performance of your signup forms and improve over time.
Email builder
Omnisend's email builder allows businesses to create attractive emails easily. It offers a variety of features to help businesses create on-brand, shoppable emails quickly. Some of the features include a library of ready-made and mobile-first templates, multi-column layouts, Google Fonts, inline editing, autosave, and the ability to add products right from the store without loading times or the need to manually import anything. The Email Builder also allows businesses to test what their audience responds to by testing subject lines, sender names, and has recently added the ability to test email content (although this feature is limited).
Single platform
Like its name implies, Omnisend is designed to help businesses communicate across channels combining email, SMS, and push notifications in a single platform. For those looking to simplify their retention marketing efforts this is an attractive proposition.
Automations
Omnisend gives users all of the tools necessary to set up all of the core eCommerce automations. Their automations have 25 pre-built workflows for every step of the customer journey, including cart recovery, welcome messages, customer reactivation, and more. The automation editor is a no-code tool that allows you to easily build and customize automated messages to your customers. The editor includes drag-and-drop functionality, which allows you to adjust the sequence, add and remove additional channels, clone messages, include splits, and fully customize their automation. Omnisend's automation feature also can leverage your third-party data to expand the scope of your personalized messaging. Custom workflows can be built using custom events and data from loyalty and reward programs, help desks, review programs, shipment tracking services, and more. Overall, Omnisend's automation features are more robust than other email platforms designed for small businesses.
Additional unique benefits
Omnisend has invested heavily in their unique discount code features. Omnisend's discount code feature is integrated with its automation workflows, allowing businesses to create targeted campaigns to drive sales. Omnisend also offers a variety of discount types, including percentage-based, fixed amount, and free shipping. Additionally, Omnisend's discount codes can be customized with expiration dates, usage limits, and minimum order values.
Omnisend has also developed international SMS capabilities that far exceed competitors. If you operate in many different countries and rely on SMS, you should strongly consider Omnisend. It supports all country codes for SMS (text-only messages) sending, allowing businesses to reach their international customers and drive conversions from anywhere in the world. Other competitors limit SMS sends to certain major international markets.
Scalability
The major drawback we see with Omnisend is its scalability. It’s an easy to use platform that will be a step up from other entry level platforms in terms of features, but businesses will reach a point where they will likely need to migrate platforms for more advanced features. Compared to competitors like Klaviyo and Sendlane, Omnisend has fewer Enterprise size clients. You will eventually want something that has more integrations, more automation and A/B testing capabilities, and better dashboards.
Omnisend pricing is based on list size. It has a free plan that supports up to 250 contacts and 500 email sends per month. The Standard plan starts at $16 per month and supports up to 500 contacts and 6,000 emails per month. The Pro plan starts at $59 per month and supports up to 2,500 contacts and unlimited emails. The main difference between the Standard and Pro plans is unlimited email sends supported in the Pro plans (to limited list sizes) and more SMS sends. Standard plans only include de-minimis monthly SMS sends (60 per month).
SMB Tools - Small & Medium Size Businesses ($0-$50M+ annual revenue)
Enterprise Tools ($50M+ annual revenue)
Note: Don’t consider these options unless you have reached enterprise level sales ($50M+) and have an in-house email team of 4-5+ people. They will come at a significant price premium to the SMB tools and will likely require enterprise-level agencies to support and implement. It will take a huge amount of implementation effort just for these tools to reach feature parity with the more advanced SMB tools. Many enterprise-size companies use or are considering using the SMB tools given the cost and complexity of the enterprise tools that outweigh any marginal benefits. Frankly, many of the enterprise tools don’t have more advanced features than the SMB tools.
Pardot (Salesforce Marketing Cloud)
Marketo (Adobe) & Adobe Campaign
What is Omnisend used for?
Omnisend is primarily an email marketing platform that also offers SMS (text message) and push notification marketing tools.
Is Omnisend free?
Yes, it has a free plan that supports up to 250 contacts and 500 email sends per month.
Is Omnisend any good?
We think Omnisend is a great option. It’s easy to use but has more features than other easy to use competitors like Mailchimp. It won't be as fully featured as a tool like Klaviyo, so if your brand scales, you will likely eventually switch to another platform.
What are the advantages of Omnisend?
Omnisend has many advantages. It covers all of the basics of email marketing well (list growing, email building, etc.) and has more advanced automations than other easy to use competitors. It’s fairly priced relative to other email marketing companies that cater to enterprise customers. It also supports all international markets with SMS so is great if your business operates in many different markets.
What are the disadvantages of Omnisend?
Its integrations are less numerous than competitors, its reporting tools aren’t the most advanced, its A/B testing is limited, and its automations lack some advanced features. We think it’s a step up from a Mailchimp but lags behind competitors as your brand scales.
What brands use Omnisend?
Omnisend customers include Hallmark, Naked and Famous, Tabs Chocolate, and Cotopaxi.
How to use Omnisend with Shopify?
Omnisend has a great Shopify integration. The easiest way is to add Omnisend from the Shopify App store. Then sign up for an account on Omnisend's website and connect it to your Shopify store.
Is Omnisend better than Mailchimp?
Omnisend has a couple of advantages over Mailchimp. It was specifically designed for eCommerce, so if that is your business, it will have advantages. It also has more robust automations than Mailchimp, so will be better for more advanced companies that can capitalize on that functionality.
Does Omnisend work with WooCommerce?
Yes Omnisend integrates with WooCommerce in addition to Shopify and Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, Wix, Magento, Drupal, OpenCart, Next, and CV3.
How does Omnisend compare to Klaviyo?
Omnisend has similar core functionality to Klaviyo and it will be cheaper than Klaviyo, but it lacks some of Klaviyo's advanced segmentation and automation features that bigger brands will want. We've done a full breakdown of Omnisend vs Klaviyo that you can read for a more detailed comparison.
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