Marketers especially email marketers need the best tools to effectively manage and run their campaigns. As a result, the decision to choose an email marketing software should not be taken with a pinch of salt. Little wonder the competition between email software providers appear to be so rife. From ease of use to offering diverse ways to manage contacts, send emails, and track results in addition to offering plugins for additional functionalities, boosting customer retention, and increasing client revenue, every company will make claims and try to stand out from the crowd. Considering the above, this article takes a look at two of the most popular email marketing solution providers namely GetResponse and Vertical Response to find out how their features compare to one another.
Design
GetResponse: This software offers a plethora of responsive and free professional landing page templates that allow users to create and manage beautiful campaigns in minutes. Indeed, there are more than one hundred available templates with a drag-and-drop tool and online forms for building sales, video, and squeeze pages for marketing campaigns. in addition, users can also create responsive email newsletters that look good on mobile and desktop devices. The availability of multiple email templates also make customisation pretty easy by adding and editing photos, changing fonts and colors, using social media sharing buttons and so on.
Vertical Response: Users have access to various responsive and mobile-friendly email templates. They can also import custom codes into VerticalResponse’s HTML editor. Editable features include background colours and patterns, custom call to action buttons, a drag and drop tool for images and text blocks, and image editing tools cropping, resizing and flipping images.
Autoresponder
GetResponse: Also popularly known as Autoresponder 2.0, GetResponse Autoresponder allow users to target relevant subscribers with time and action-based 1-to-1 communication through a system that is based on the actual needs and interests of users.
Vertical Response: Autoresponder as we know it. Automated messages such as welcome emails, thank you notes or promotional information can be sent to subscribers.
Reach
GetResponse: Powerful features such as audio-video email and use of hashtag makes it possible for users to expand their market reach. The implementation of latest anti-spam technology and policies also mean that users can benefit from better delivery rates.
Vertical Response: Thanks to the mobile-friendliness of VerticalResponse, responsive emails can reach subscribers on smartphones and tablets in addition to desktop devices. Furthermore, through Automated Follow-up emails which can resend messages to subscribers who fail to open an original message, users can attain additional 20-40% open and click rates.
Reporting
GetResponse: With A/B testing users can test, analyse and optimise campaign elements such as the Subject Line, call to action and so on. In addition, GetResponse’s Email Intelligence makes tracking, measuring and analysing data from an email campaign a breeze. Users can compare follow up data, gauge site conversion, explore social sharing data, set time preferences, analyse email performance, and segment subscribers in order to maximise return on investment.
Vertical Response: Users can view various reports including number of sent email, delivered and opened emails, clicked links and delivery rates through easy to read engagement charts.
Pricing
GetResponse: Monthly pricing starts at $15 based on list size for unlimited messages with up to 1,000 subscribers. Custom plans are also available for lists with more than 100,000 subscribers.
Vertical Response: Vertical Response offers 3 pricing structures namely Free, Pay Monthly and Pay As You Go plans. The Free Plan is for any business, non-profit or groups with up to 1,000 email contacts. In addition, the Pay Monthly package starts at $22.00 a month for up to 1,000 subscribers, while the Pay As You Go plan allow users to pay only when they need to send emails, starting at $7.50 for 300 credits. Custom plans are available for over 40,000 email addresses or more than 500,000 monthly emails.
Additional Features
GetResponse: Additional features include Inbox Preview which allow users to preview recipients’ mailboxes, Form Builder which make it possible to build embeddable sign up forms on web and social-media sites, and List Booster to quickly import contacts directly into email campaigns.
Vertical Response: Additional features include App Integrations, Contact Management, Developer API, and Preference Centre.
Summary
Like every email marketing software out there, both tools have their strengths and weaknesses but considering their strongest points, GetResponse appears to be the most comprehensive tool depending on your needs.
Specifically, GetResponse offers a 360 platform to cater to larger businesses and higher volume mailers. In addition, GetResponse has integrations for building lists such as WordPress and Salesforce and possess a multimedia studio that lets users upload their own images and documents to be hosted on the server – a more trustworthy server to appear in emails.
On the other hand, Vertical Response is free to use for up to 1000 contacts with no restrictions on features and connects to Facebook and Twitter really easily from the main homepage so users can take part in cross promotional activities. Furthermore, the simplicity of the tool as well as its clean and bright website with simple navigation makes it a good choice for small businesses that are new to email marketing.
Verdict
Based on the above, our clear winner is GetResponse simply because its features go beyond the basic autoresponder/mass mailout tool and far outweighs the price point in this comparison. Indeed, GetResponse has a much more dynamic platform for users who want to create more engaging campaigns and reach a wider number of subscribers. Thus, users tend to have more freedom and ease of use rather than having to contend with limits such as those placed on Vertical Response bonus features.