When selecting the best Marketing Software for your organization it is recommended that you examine the functions, rates, and other crucial information regarding the product and vendor.
Getresponse is an online marketing tool that helps business owners to build permission-based mailing lists, maximize conversions with email automation and responsive design, and landing page creator. GetResponse features include video email marketing, email-to-speech, a custom form builder and an iPhone application.
MailerLite is an email marketing solution which provides tools for customizable email building, automation, landing page creation, popup management, and more. The cloud-based system allows businesses to create branded email marketing content using text, images, links, video, HTML, and more.
Getresponse is perfect for small to medium businesses. For a large business, it certainly could be used in some areas. One example would be for clients that are looking to get started with email marketing. I would not expect it to run a business as Salesforce or Keep.
However, GetResponse is robust enough and has a solid suite of tools that would serve a medium or small business quite well. And of course, if a company is just looking for an email marketing solution GetResponse would be ideal.
And to go even further, depending on the level of service you use, GetResponse has the potential to do things you might have been using separate tools for. Building funnels, the ability to host webinars, building landing pages. It's all there and it is priced very well.
MailerLite is fantastic for anyone who is looking to send emails to a lot of people and gather data and analytics of who has read the email, clicked on links, etc. It works well on a company base as well as an individual contractor base.
I started email marketing around the time I quit my day job eight years ago. During that time, I’ve used multiple email service providers ranging from Aweber to MailChimp to GetResponse to MailerLite.
Why I Recommend GetResponse
GetResponse is Reasonably Priced
There’s a free 30-day GetResponse trial, but other than that, there are no free account options. Having said that, starting at just $15 per month, it’s more affordable than many other email service providers.
For instance, Aweber starts at $19 per month, or another popular option, ConvertKit that starts at $29 per month. It’s one of the more affordable options for beginners.
GetResponse Grows with You
When signing up for any service, it’s essential to choose something that works for you now, but will also work for you in the future. The basic GetResponse account offers the basics you would expect, such as email marketing and autoresponders, as well as some extras such as landing pages.
As your business grows, you can upgrade to a Plus account (starting at $49 per month) or the Pro account (starting at $99 per month). These higher-level options include advanced features such as webinars, automations, CRM, sales funnels, and more.
It’s nice that you can start very inexpensively and upgrade to a more robust system without going through the hassle of switching email service providers. (If you’ve ever done that, you know what a pain in the neck it can be.)
GetResponse is a Complete Marketing System
Related to what I mentioned in point two, GetResponse can be a very robust system. Technically, you can do most everything you need (or much of everything you need) to run your business from within GetResponse. Landing pages? Check. Webinar platform? Check. CRM? Check.
Simply put, GetResponse includes far more than many email service providers, particularly when you consider the cost.
GetResponse Has a Top-Notch Team
Back when I was still using GetResponse, I attended “ResponseCon,” which, as the name implies, was a GetResponse convention. The level of training was spectacular, and I spent a lot of time learning from and conversing with their team. I was impressed by both their knowledge level, professionalism, and integrity.
GetResponse Integrates with Many Other Tools
Integrations are one important thing to consider when choosing an email service provider. For example, let’s say that you’re going to use a specific theme or landing page company.
It’s worth looking to see if various products and services you plan to use integrate with your email service provider. GetResponse is popular enough that it seamlessly integrates with just about everything.
Things I Don’t Like About GetResponse
After reading all the above, you may wonder why I left GetResponse.
Unfortunately, as if often the case, GetResponse has flaws, just like any other company. Here are a few things I didn’t like.
GetResponse is a List-Based Email Service Provider
Email service providers typically segment subscribers in two different ways:
Tags
Lists
How List-Based Email Service Providers Work
With list-based providers, when someone subscribes, they end up on a list. For example, let’s say that you have a pet-focused business, and one of your lead magnets is related to dog grooming.
When people opt in to receive that lead magnet, they end up on the dog-grooming list. There’s technically nothing wrong with that, except that it gets messy (and potentially expensive) when the same people sign up for multiple lead magnets.
Keeping with the pet niche example, let’s say that the same person that signed up for your dog-grooming tips also signed up for housebreaking tips. They would be on both the dog groom list and the housebreaking list.
The Problem with List-Based Email Service Providers
Here’s the problem. All email service providers charge based on your number of subscribers. People on multiple lists count as multiple subscribers. So, you may have only 3,000 individuals on your email list but pay for 5,000 due to the way subscribers count.
There were some more complex issues I had with GetResponse due to their list-based approach. Now to be fair, GetResponse also has a tag-based system, which I’ll get into in a bit. First, let me explain how tag-based email service providers work.
How Tag-Based Email Service Providers Work
With a tag-based system, typically, all subscribers are lumped into one big group. Instead of segmenting by lists, you segment with tags. For example, if someone opts into the dog grooming list, they get a dog grooming tag.
If they opt in for housebreaking tips, they get the housebreaking tag and so on. Someone can have multiple tags but still count as one subscriber, which of course, helps from a cost perspective.
I mentioned that GetResponse also has a tag-based system. One thing that I love about GetResponse is that they continually make improvements. Tags are one of the upgrades, and automations are another.
You can technically automate the process of tagging a subscriber with “dog grooming” and moving them onto your main list. When you set up the automations, GetResponse acts more like a tag-based system.
The problem is that setting up the automations can be a little tricky. Also, since GetResponse’s foundation is list-based, it still has some of the shortcomings associated with list-based services.
Final Word on GetResponse
In summary, let me end this section of this article by saying that GetResponse is a fantastic, reasonably priced option for those who want to learn the system. If you take the time to learn and set up tags and workflows, it behaves very much like some of the more expensive options out there. It’s also great if you like having several tools within the same dashboard.
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