Email platform guide
Choosing an email marketing platform as a B2B consultant
A requested download should not enrol anyone in a launch sequence. Keep delivery and follow-ups as two separate choices, then compare plans against both.
Start with the message the reader actually asked for.
Suppose you download a checklist from a consultant whose work you respect. The file arrives, and so does a five-email launch sequence you never agreed to. The checklist was useful. The sequence is the reason you think twice before downloading the next one.
That gap is a setup problem, not a copywriting problem. A lead magnet creates two different email jobs, and the platform should keep them visibly separate. One job is requested. The other is not.
Requested delivery
The file and link the reader asked for, sent because they asked. Nothing rides along with it.
Optional follow-ups
Further messages for readers who made a separate choice, with that choice recorded against the contact.
Preferences & support
A working opt-out, a help address someone reads, and records you can check later.
Before you open a pricing page, write down which of two setups you are building. A delivery-only setup sends the requested file and stops. A delivery-plus-follow-ups setup adds messages for readers who made a separate choice. That single sentence decides whether you need automation at all, and it is the first thing to hold each plan against.
None of this helps if the resource is still an idea. An email platform can only send what you have written, so settle the reader, the one problem the resource solves in a single sitting, and what changes for them afterwards. The sending decision is downstream of that work, and it is easier to make once the delivery email has a first draft.
Build your brief as you read.
Use the free 21-page fillable Lead Magnet Brief Builder: 15 lettered worksheets from finding an idea to a one-page brief and a readiness check, with three fictional worked examples.
Free: we send you a short email first. Reply VERIFY to it and we email you the workbook, then four short follow-up emails over two weeks (the last one names our own $79 Workflow Pack). Every email has an unsubscribe link.
Compare the workflow, not the feature list.
A feature grid tells you what exists. What decides whether your setup works is narrower: can the platform record two different permissions, send in the order you planned, and stop when someone asks it to? Check each line against the plan you would actually buy, not the trial.
| Criterion | What to verify | Evidence needed |
|---|---|---|
| Separate permissions | Delivery and marketing consent are stored as two separate facts on the contact, rather than inferred from one form submission | A submitted form and the contact record it creates |
| Automation | How many emails send, how far apart, and what enrols a contact, on the plan you would buy | A test sequence and its message log |
| Resource links | The delivery email carries the right link and tells the reader what to do if it fails | A submitted request and the message you receive |
| Unsubscribe suppression | Follow-ups stop after an opt-out, and a later import or automation does not quietly re-add the contact | An opt-out, then a re-entry check |
| Audience segments | Delivery-only contacts can be told apart from opted-in contacts without manual tagging | Inspected segment conditions |
| Exports | Contacts, consent fields and message history export to a file you can open | A test export |
| Cost at your list size | Contacts, sends and automation scope at your real numbers, including the next tier up | A dated record of the plan page |
Framework only. No platform has been scored or tested here.
Do not read inbox placement off a marketing page. Whether your mail arrives depends on your domain setup, your content and your list; only your own sending records can tell you.
Write the five messages before you shop.
The platform decision gets easier once the messages exist, because you can see exactly what has to be sent and when. Our email sequence guide explains the job of each message. This is an illustrative workflow, not performance evidence.
1. Delivery
The file, the link, and one line on where to start.
2. Quick win
One small task the reader can finish the same day with their own material.
3–4. Education and demonstration
The hardest step explained, then a clearly labelled example.
5. Relevant offer
A next step that follows from the work, not from the calendar.
Here is an illustrative delivery email for a fictional fractional CFO practice: “Here is the monthly cash review checklist you requested. Start with the first page, the balances you can check today. From Thursday I will send one short note on the step most reviews skip. If the file does not open, reply and I will send it another way.” Note what is missing: a launch date, a countdown, or a second list you never asked to join.
Messages two to five go only to contacts who made the separate marketing choice. Delivery of the resource does not depend on that choice.
Test both routes with your own address.
Set up two routes on a test form: one that records delivery only, and one that records delivery plus a separate marketing choice. Then submit each one yourself, from different addresses, and keep the timestamps. What you are checking is not whether the emails look polished. It is whether the platform can tell the two contacts apart, and keep them apart after someone changes their mind.
Delivery-only route
Submit the form without making the marketing choice. The file should arrive and nothing else should follow.
Delivery plus a separate choice
Submit again with the choice made. Check order, timing, links and entry conditions, then opt out and confirm the optional messages stop.
Write down what you see while it is fresh. A short record is enough, and it is the difference between a decision you can explain to a client and a guess.
| Candidate and plan | The platform and plan you used |
|---|---|
| Form and entry rules | How each route was configured |
| Messages received | What arrived, when, on each route |
| Opt-out behaviour | What stopped and what continued |
| Limits | Anything you could not check |
Run the same two routes again after any import or form change, so you know the route still behaves the way you recorded it.
What you gain, and what it costs you.
Potential value to assess
- The requested file arrives reliably and quickly.
- Follow-ups reach the readers who want them.
- Segments and preferences stay manageable as the list grows.
Trade-offs to investigate
- Contact or send limits on the plan you can afford.
- Automation held back for a higher tier.
- The work of migrating later if you switch.
- Charges that rise as the list grows.
Two setups cover most of this work. A delivery-only setup sends the requested file and stops. A delivery-plus-follow-ups setup adds the four optional messages, which usually needs automation. Price both at your real list size, and check the next tier up before you commit; contact and send limits are the parts that change as the list grows. If you only need delivery, a free plan may be enough. The page that collects the request is a separate decision, covered in the landing page builder guide.
Documented candidates to investigate.
Listed in no order. Nobody at this site has tested these platforms, and nothing here describes quality, ease of use or deliverability. Facts come only from each vendor's own page on the date shown. No affiliate relationship is active for any link.
MailerLite
MailerLite pricing page, retrieved 18 October 2026:
- Free: 250 subscribers, 2,500 monthly emails, 2 user seats, free automations, landing page and signup forms.
- Comfort "starting $12/month" (50 automations); Power "starting $25/month" (unlimited automations). The page does not say which subscriber tier or billing cycle these apply to.
- "Remove MailerLite logo" is listed from Comfort upwards.
Worth asking: which subscriber tier and billing cycle the "starting" prices refer to, and what your own list size would pay.
See MailerLite's current plansKit (formerly ConvertKit)
Kit pricing page, retrieved 18 October 2026:
- Free: up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited landing pages and forms, audience tagging and segmentation, 1 user.
- Visual automations and email sequences are not in Free; Creator lists both as unlimited.
- Creator shown at $33/mo, "$390 billed yearly", for 1,000 subscribers; 2 users.
- Describes a freebie digital file "delivered automatically" on signup, without naming the plan.
Worth asking: which plan delivers a digital file automatically on signup, since the page describes the behaviour without naming the tier.
See Kit's current plansBrevo
Brevo pricing page and help centre, retrieved 18 October 2026:
- Free: 300 email sends per day, up to 100,000 stored contacts, one user; emails carry the "Sent with Brevo" sticker.
- Free: up to 2,000 unique contacts can enter active automations.
- Starter lists "From 5,000 emails per month", forms and segmentation; Standard adds unlimited automated workflows and removes the Brevo logo.
- Paid prices could not be read from the page, so none are quoted.
Worth checking on the vendor's own page: what Starter and Standard cost at your send volume.
See Brevo's current plansYour current email tool or CRM
If you already send a newsletter or use a CRM with email, run the two permission-route tests on it first. Print or copy this list:
- Request the resource with no marketing choice: the file arrives and nothing else follows.
- Request again with the choice made: check order, timing and links, then opt out and confirm the optional messages stop.
A delivery email plus a separate opt-in field may need no new subscription at all.
Plan the five emailsBefore you commit.
- Requested delivery works without the marketing choice.
- The separate marketing choice controls who receives messages two to five.
- Links, sender details and help text are correct in every message.
- The delivery email has been opened on a phone as well as a desktop.
- Opt-out and suppression behaviour have been checked, including after a re-import.
- Costs and limits at your real list size are verified on the vendor's current page.
- The help address in the email is one you actually monitor.
A recommendation from us would need dated plan records and inspected delivery, permission and suppression behaviour for each platform. See our Review Methodology.
Sources & evidence notes
- MailerLite pricing, retrieved 18 October 2026.
- Kit pricing, retrieved 18 October 2026.
- Brevo pricing, retrieved 18 October 2026.
- Brevo Help Center: what are the limits of the Free plan?, retrieved 18 October 2026.
This is a research summary of vendor documentation. No platform has been tested, scored or ranked, and nothing here is a deliverability claim. See our Editorial Policy, Review Methodology and Affiliate Disclosure.
Write the delivery email before you compare plans.
The free Promotion Copy Template has a delivery-email template, so you can see the exact message your platform has to send. Write it first, then check which plans can send it correctly.
Free: enter your email, then reply VERIFY to the short email we send you, so we know the address is yours. We email you the template, then four short follow-up emails over two weeks on using our free Brief Builder (the last one names our own $79 Workflow Pack). Every email has an unsubscribe link. A 3-page PDF plus an editable text copy.