Mail merge vs email marketing campaigns

Many businesses that want to start with email marketing but aren’t familiar with marketing campaigns or with tools like EmailOctopus often begin by bulk mailing email addresses by placing them in BCC. While this is not the correct way to send bulk emails, it occasionally works.

The more mature way to send bulk marketing emails is by using dedicated email marketing tools or using mail merge in cases when you already know the contact and don’t need additional features like segmentation, tracking, and others.

So, in this blog, we’ll look into both mail merge and email marketing campaigns to see which is better and what you should use.

Mail merge

Mail merge was originally meant to send bulk email with custom variables such as name, address etc. It automatically adds details like names and addresses into a template to create unique content for each recipient.

This is a great way of sending newsletters, invitations, and bulk emails to friends, relatives, or across an organisation. While mail merge is also used to send marketing emails by some, but it’s not the right tool for it.

Use-case:

1. Internal mails with personalisation
2. Invitations
3. Newsletters to friends and family

Pros:

1. Inexpensive, use of additional tool/software is optional
2. Easy to use

Cons:

1. Can’t be used for full-fledged marketing campaigns
2. Limited personalisation options

Email marketing campaigns

Email marketing campaigns or marketing emails are the ones that are sent by businesses to promote products, services, or brand awareness. Unlike mail merge, you’d need a separate tool like EmailOctopus to send and manage marketing emails.

You also get advanced features like audience segmentation, analytics, and automation which aren’t present in mail merge.

So if you are someone who is looking for a solution to send marketing emails and newsletters, then it’s best to use a dedicated email marketing tool instead of relying on mail merge.

Use-case:

1. Newsletters
2. Cart abandonment and re-engagement emails
3. Marketing emails

Pros:

1. Easy to track results due to analytics
2. Automation scenarios for repetitive mails like welcome email
3. Email can be designed to brand requirements using a drag & drop builder

Cons:

1. Requires additional tools
2. Needs additional setup for sending marketing mails

Mail merge vs email marketing campaigns

Even though both mail merge, and email marketing campaigns are meant to send bulk emails, they each serve different purposes.

Mail merge is great for internal emails, newsletters, or sending out invitations that don’t need much customisation or segmentation. On the other hand, email marketing campaigns are meant to send out marketing emails such as promotional emails, cart abandonment emails, newsletters to customers, and other similar use cases.

	Mail Merge	Email Marketing Campaigns
Use-case	Bulk emails with basic personalisation	Full-fledged marketing emails of all types
Analytics support	No	Yes (open rate, click rate and much more)
Segmentation	No	Yes
Automation	No	Yes
Sending limit	Daily sending limit set by Gmail/Outlook	No limit
Unsubscribe option	Not by default (needs additional tool)	Yes
Content Type	Mainly text-based, document-focused	Rich media support

Legal consideration

Sending bulk emails, especially the ones for marketing, requires you to follow several laws and regulations such as GDPR compliance and CAN-SPAM Act.

Mail merge was developed in the 1980s when these regulations didn’t exist, and since then, there haven’t been many changes or updates to it, making it non-compliant by default. You’ll have to use separate mail merge tools and have additional setup to become compliant.

Email marketing tools are designed specifically for sending marketing emails and come equipped with all the features necessary to ensure compliance.

Best tool for sending marketing emails

It’s clear that email marketing campaigns offer clear advantages over mail merge, but to get the full benefits, selecting the right tool is important.

Even though there are several email marketing tools out there, only a handful are able to provide quality service with all the necessary features at an affordable price. EmailOctopus is one such tool that also has a generous free tier, which allows you to send marketing emails to 2,500 subscribers for free.

It also has all the necessary features like drag and drop email builder, segmentation, automation support and much more.

Features:

1. Drag & drop email editor
2. Email automation
3. Landing page builder
4. Real-time campaign and automation reports

Pricing: EmailOctopus even comes with a free plan, allowing you to send 10,000 emails to 2,500 subscribers at no cost. If you need more advanced features, the Pro plan is available for just $18 per month for 2,500 subscribers.

Conclusion

Both mail merge and email marketing campaigns have their own benefits and serve different use cases. Choose one based on your needs and business requirements. If you need something basic, then pick mail merge, else go with dedicated email marketing tools.