In this Getresponse review, we take a look at one of the most popular tools for designing and sending HTML e-newsletters. Read on to see how it fares in terms of pricing, features, templates, usability and more.
Our overall rating: 4.5/5
PRICING
The Getresponse pricing structure is a bit complicated. There are three main types of plan - 'Email', 'Pro' and 'Max' - and within each of these, several additional types of plan to choose from (all based on list size).
- Up to 1,000 subscribers: $15 ('Email')
- 1,001 to 2,500 subscribers: $25 ('Email')
- 2,501 to 5,000 subscribers: $45 ('Email')
- 5,001 to 10,000 subscribers: $65 ('Email')/ $75 ('Pro') / $ 165 ('Max')
- 10,001 to 25,000 subscribers: $145 ('Email') / $165 ('Pro') / $255 ('Max')
- 25,001 to 50,000 subscribers: $250 ('Email') / $280 ('Pro') / $370 ('Max')
- 50,001 to 100,000 subscribers: $450 ('Email') / $490 ('Pro') / $580 ('Max')
Additionally there is an "Enterprise" plan for users whose lists exceed 100,000 email addresses: you will need to contact Getresponse to discuss costs for this.
KEY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PLANS
All three Getresponse plans cover the important basics; key features include:
- the ability to import, grow and host an email database
- a wide range of templates
- excellent autoresponder functionality
- responsive email designs
- split testing
- in-depth reporting
- RSS / blog to-email functionality
- comprehensive segmentation options
- social sharing tools
There are a number of differences between the 'Email', 'Pro' and 'Max' plans but for me the key ones are:
- landing pages - you can only avail of landing pages that allow split testing and unlimited views if you are on a 'Pro' plan or higher
- webinars - this functionality is not available at all on the 'Email' plan and the number of webinar attendees is capped for the 'Pro', 'Max' and 'Enterprise' plans at 100, 500 and 500 respectively.
- users - you can only have one user account on the 'Email' plan; 3 on 'Pro', 5 on 'Max' and 10 on 'Unlimited'.
We'll discuss some of these features in more depth later on in the review.
HOW DOES GETRESPONSE PRICING COMPARE TO THAT OF ITS COMPETITORS?
So long as you are happy to use one of the entry-level 'Email' plans, Getresponse is on the whole cheaper than many of its key competitors. particularly if you a relatively large number of email addresses on your database.
For example, if you have a mailing list containing between 9,000 and 10,000 records, you'll find that hosting it with Getresponse costs $65 per month - $4 per month cheaper than with Aweber; $10 cheaper than Mailchimp and $14 to $144 cheaper than Campaign Monitor (Campaign Monitor's pricing structure depends not just the number of email addresses on your database but on how many emails you send per month too). The only well-known service I can find that comes in cheaper is Mad Mimi, which charges $42 per month (note however that the functionality offered by Mad Mimi is not nearly as extensive as Getresponse's).
At the smaller database end of things, Getresponse's pricing is pretty competitive too - you can host a database containing 1,000 email addresses for $15 a month with Getresponse, compared to $29 with Aweber; and $19 to $129 on Campaign Monitor. Mailchimp's fee for a 1,000 record database is the same as Getresponse's; and Mad Mimi provides slightly a cheaper, if less 'fully-specced' offering for $12.
It is worth noting however that some competing providers offer completely free accounts for users with a small number of records (but these do not offer the full range of features that you get on a paid plan).
KEY FEATURES OF GETRESPONSE
Getresponse's feature set is arguably one of the most comprehensive out there. Let's take a look at some key features.
AUTORESPONDERS
Autoresponders are e-newsletters that are sent to your subscribers at intervals determined by you – you can set them up so that immediately after somebody signs up to your mailing list, they receive a welcome message from your business; a week later they could receive a discount offer for some of your products or services; three weeks later they could receive an encouragement to follow you on social media. And so on.
Getresponse's autoresponder functionality is a key selling point - it offers one of the most comprehensive feature sets available. You can send either time-based or action-based messages; time-based options include cycles such as the example above, and action-based messages can be triggered by user actions or information, for example:
- opens and clicks
- changes in contact preferences
- completed transactions
- birthdays
- completion of a particular form
Recently Getresponse launched a new version of their new autoresponder functionality, called 'Marketing Automation.' This allows you to create automation workflows using a drag and drop builder - you basically set up an 'automation flowchart' that instructs Getresponse what to do if a user opens a particular offer, clicks on a certain link etc. This kind of functionality goes way beyond what's traditionally been on offer from autoresponders, and allows you to create a user journey that can be customised to the nth degree.
For a quick overview I'd suggest taking a look at Getresponse's video overview for Marketing Automation.
Getresponse's analytics section
Getresponse's analytics section
Getresponse offers some very comprehensive analytics and reporting options. You get all the basics of course - open rate, click-through, unsubscribe rates and so on - but in addition to that there are some very nifty features that are worth a particular mention, namely:
'one-click segmentation': the option to identify people who did not engage with an e-newsletter you sent and put them in a segment of subscribers which you can then email again with a different version of the e-newsletter
'metrics over time': you can find out exactly when most of your subscribers take action on your emails, and time your future mailouts based on this information
'email ROI': by adding some tracking code to your post-sales page on your site, you can find out how effectively (or not!) your email campaigns are driving sales, and work out your return on investment in email marketing.
per-user information - you can click on one of your subscribers and see where they signed up from, where they're located and which emails they've opened in the past.
Mailchimp and Aweber offer some similar reporting functionality (particularly around sales tracking) but Getresponse's reporting tool is definitely one of most fully featured out there (it definitely trounces the stats options offered by Mad Mimi and Campaign Monitor).
SPLIT TESTING
Another Getresponse feature that stands out is its split testing functionality - it's more comprehensive than that provided by several competitors, because it allows you to split test up to five different messages - Aweber allows up to 4 variations; Campaign Monitor allows 2; Mailchimp allows 3 (on its cheaper plan - more are available on the 'Pro' feature, but at a cost of an eye-watering $199 per month on top of the standard Mailchimp montly fees); Mad Mimi doesn't provide split testing at all.
GETRESPONSE E-NEWSLETTER TEMPLATES
For me, this is where Getresponse falls down a bit: I think the templates provided out of the box look rather dated; they are certainly not as attractive as those offered by Mailchimp or Campaign Monitor (and I slightly prefer Aweber's offering here too).
On the plus side, the Getresponse templates are very tweakable - you can change fonts, layouts and imagery easily enough using the controls provided; and of course there is nothing to stop you simply designing your own HTML email template and importing the code for it. Additionally, there are tons of templates to choose from, and they are presented in easy-to-understand categories - so it is generally pretty straightforward to find a good starting point for a template and edit it until you are happy with the design.
Another gripe I have with Getresponse's templates concerns the ones they offer for RSS-to-email applications: the range is not very extensive and some of them played up a bit for me when I tested them in Outlook (2010). I eventually found something that worked for me, but I think that there are some improvements that could be made in this area.
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