GetResponse and ActiveCampaign: which one to choose

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About Email Marketing

This post represents a full comparison between GetResponse and ActiveCampaign email marketing companies that will help you choose which one is most suitable for you to grow your business.

Back in the 1960s, a new era of communication was revealed: email messaging.

It was still fresh and only available to those who had computers. And day after day, it evolved along with new technologies, so that everyone is now capable of sending and receiving emails.

Emailing has undergone many ups and downsides. The main reason was that everyone could spam, and you could open your email account and see hundreds of emails sent to you from companies as promotions or even viruses.

That gave people some time to think about abandoning their email use and looking for other alternatives.

Thankfully, emails now undergo a filtration process before they land in people’s inboxes. This technology keeps using emails as a priority for people who seek to get more traffic to their businesses and gain good revenues when they pay for a marketing campaign.

Moreover, people are now able to directly communicate with each other, which undoubtedly grows their businesses due to the presence of email marketing automation software.

Why choose email marketing?

Email marketing has the best ROI (Return on Investment). For every $1 you spend on marketing, you will likely get $40 in return. Isn’t that amazing?

But in order to achieve this equation, you need to play it right. I am not telling you that it is hard to do, but you need to choose the right path.

Think about this. How long does it take you—as a beginner—to drive traffic to your website or landing page to promote a product?

How long does it take to reach 500 or 1000 potential customers?

What if I told you that you could do it with just a few clicks?

So, to make sure your business will grow in the most productive way, it is worth investing in a suite of marketing automation tools.

In this post, I am going to make a comparison between two of the best suites in the market, GetResponse, and ActiveCampaign

GetResponse Review

GetResponse is an email marketing platform with a variety of automation tools that help you grow your business and scale it in a very productive way.

It is the world’s easiest marketing platform, helping more than 400,000 businesses, marketers, and brands. It includes an amazing drag-and-drop email editor with hundreds of templates to choose from.

GetResponse helps businesses grow their audience and improve their conversions. It offers a suite of tools to create and track effective email campaigns, as well as a wide range of features that help segment and target subscribers.

This tool is a must for every business because it is an affordable and easy-to-use platform worth investing in.

Email marketing with GetResponse

Building a perfect email with GetResponse may be the easiest of all the other platforms. Starting from scratch, where you can easily drag and drop all the elements available to you.

You can also choose from hundreds of ready-to-use templates with the ability to scale, crop, and resize all kinds of images and do whatever you like.

Blank templates are also available in many styles and divisions so that you can build a text email as well as customize it with images, logos, links, and others.

GetResponse comes with a built-in CRM (Customer Relationship Management), which is the fastest-growing enterprise application software category responsible for managing all your company’s relationships with customers and potential customers, as well as many other valuable features such as landing pages and others.

GetResponse features:

• Email Marketing
• CRM
• Landing pages
• Ecommerce
• API and native integration
• Sales Funnel
• Marketing automation
• Email list building
• Analytics and optimization
• Account management
• Webinars
• Forms and newsletters
• e-commerce tools

Review of the main features of GetResponse

I will try to make things easier to understand by explaining some features that may help you consider if GetResponse will be your email marketing platform or not.

Email List Building:

You need to invest in your business in order to get the most out of your profits.

You don’t need to buy an email list program since GetResponse offers you a ready-to-go solution. If you are new to list-building, don’t worry. GetResponse offers a lot of sign-up form templates, and you can also create one from scratch by using the list builder wizard available on the platform.

You can easily set up a pop-up to be displayed whenever you like on your website to collect email addresses for you to drive them to the funnel and convert them into loyal customers.

Believe me, watching your list get bigger is so much fun and is a clue that you are on the right path.

Landing pages

Creating nice, high-converting landing pages with GetResponse has never been so easy. The presence of the page builder is not available on all marketing platforms.

There are plenty of responsive landing page templates to choose from. You can easily customize them with your own images, content, and branding.

Thousands of Shutterstock images are also available if you want to use them, and above all, you can use the built-in image editor until you are satisfied.

Moreover, GetResponse puts in your hands a variety of page types, starting from the sales page which most of us use to email, the Opt-in page, free downloads, and more.

What is more fun other than viewing your landing page analytics?

Do you know that you can use A/B testing to choose which template is more suitable for your business while optimizing it?

 

Email Marketing- GetResponse

When it comes to writing an email, GetResponse provides you with powerful email marketing software with a professional email template available in its rich library along with easy design tools and proven deliverability to get more opens, clicks, and sales.

 Email builder:

It is the world’s easiest email creator with a stunning drag-and-drop editor where you can crop and edit images, apply filters, add text, and change colors.

Flexible setup and scheduling:

All you need is to keep an eye on your email’s details and settings, which are made easy to access in one place. Verify and double-check your setup before sending or scheduling your email.

Now it’s time to select your form:

• add the subject line and preview text.
• Add recipients (list)
• create your email (text, images…)
• Review your design and content
• Send or schedule it for later.

Auto Responders:

You can set autoresponders (messages) to be sent automatically based on a particular time or event. This method is very powerful and it is absolutely an important part of your campaigns.

Email Analytics:

 Another powerful tool is provided to you that helps you to:

• Monitor email engagement to see what’s working best with your audience
• Analyze clicks, open rates, bounces, and unsubscribes to see what works well and what doesn’t.
• learn which emails led to sales, sign-ups, and even visits to your website.

Transactional Emails:

This kind of email keeps your customers informed and up to date, as well as ready to buy again. This happens when you send them triggered transactional emails that make you always on time.

Sales Funnel:

Every online seller needs to drive traffic to their website or landing page. If this process is done manually, it will take time and effort, and most probably it will face many obstacles. That’s why driving traffic into a funnel is more profitable.

GetResponse makes it easy for you. You can promote and sell products with a ready-made, ready-to-go sales funnel.

From generating traffic, nurturing new signups, and converting them into paying customers. It is already set up for you.

Webinar:

It is time to put your website and services online. Thanks to GetResponse Webinar Builder.

Now you can connect to your potential customers-your audience-anywhere, anytime to make more conversions.

You can host unlimited webinars with rooms for 1000 live attendees, and you can also record a webinar to broadcast it later on GetResponse, Facebook, or even YouTube.

Your webinar will be set in no time. All you need to do is to customize your webinar URL, enable registration, choose subscription settings, and start collecting new leads.

Once you finish your webinar, you can start collecting data through analytics and see how people are responding in order to customize your future webinars.

Forms and newsletters

Getresponse allows you to create signup forms, newsletters, promo bars, download prompts, and more to add to your website, whether they are static or pop-up forms.

You can build your email list using GetResponse pop-up forms by choosing ready-to-go templates that are easily customizable and handy to use.

Ecommerce tool

GetResponse allows you to sell your products by integrating with many platforms like Etsy, Shopify, and many others, as well as receive payments through PayPal and other various methods.

Pricing

GetResponse offers four plans: Free, Basic, Plus, and Professional

Free plan: 

With the free account, you can have up to 500 contacts and only one landing page. The features that a business needs to grow more and faster are not available, but you can try them as a start and upgrade later.

Email marketing Plan:

For $15.58 you get access to Autoresponders, with unlimited landing pages, the unlimited website builder with all the features, a domain name, segmentation, and email scheduling.

Marketing Automation Plan:

It cost $48.38. It is the Basic+ plan where additional features are available to you, from marketing automation to webinars. You will have the ability to use five different sales funnels as well as more advanced automation.

Ecommerce Marketing Plan:

With this plan, you get all the features of GetResponse. You will be able to set up paid webinars, have a team of five members, push notifications, and have e-commerce features.

ActiveCampaign Review (2022)

In 2020, more than 306 billion emails were sent worldwide. This shows that email marketing for your business comes alongside other methods.

ActiveCampaign is a suite of the most effective email marketing tools. It is so advanced that it works on your behalf.

It is designed to help you grow, and glow quickly in the market.

The main features (they call them solutions) of ActiveCampaign are email marketing, marketing automation, sales funnel, CRM & Sales Automation, and chat/messaging.

When it comes to applying these features, the platform provides you with a lot of tools and features to make your journey smoother and more profitable. These tools include:

• Email marketing
• Email Segmentation
• Email Newsletter
• Subscription Forms
• Site Tracking
• Deliverability
• Automation Map
• Dynamic Content
• Event Tracking
• CRM and Sales Automation
• A/B testing
• Pipeline Automation
• Gmail Extension for Chrome
• SMS messaging
• Machine Learning
• Predictive sending

I will go through the main and most important aspects to put in your hands what you need to know.

Email Marketing with ActiveCampaign

The simple formula is:

Build your email list, create campaigns, and put your emails in front of your audience.

Q- What types of emails should you send?

A- ActiveCampaign offers you a wide range of choices to consider. These offers include:

 Broadcast Emails:

Send a one-time email campaign to anyone on your list

Triggered Emails:

Automatically send emails when your contacts are most interested, based on purchases, visits, or engagements.

Targeted Emails:

You can segment your audience and send them emails in the same campaign based on their interests and location.

Email Autoresponders:

Automatically send welcome emails, start welcome series or deliver lead magnets.

Email Funnels:

Set up email automation that converts your audience into real customers.

Scheduled Emails: 

Schedule your emails for the time you are on a holiday or an event so you don’t miss anything and keep your audience in touch.

Can you do Email Marketing as a beginner?

Don’t worry if you are a beginner and don’t know where and how to start your first email campaign. ActiveCampaign has a solution for every issue you may face.

You will be provided with an email builder that uses a drag-and-drop interface.

This will help you to easily create beautifully-designed emails that blow your customers’ minds.

You have to choose whether to build your emails from scratch or use the pre-built templates that are made ready to use.

Moreover, you can also customize the pre-ready template to meet your expectations. All the templates are mobile-friendly as well.

Email Segmentation

The lovely thing you will find is that you can create different emails to different customers based on their previous engagements and reactions. This is all done under one campaign under the name of email segmentation.

All changes can be made easily, including changing location, city, contact name, or any piece of information you have collected previously to push your marketing success rate to the limits.

There are reporting features that let you know more about your customer’s interests. This allows your future emails to perform better by doing the A/B tests.

What is A/B testing?

Let’s say you need to send 100 emails; you can split them into two different emails and check your report to see which group performs best.

Along with all the features mentioned above, ActiveCampaign allows you to integrate with most apps. You can connect to Facebook ads and hundreds of other apps.

Messaging

ActiveCampaign works to catch your customers wherever they go. This radar allows you to send messages to your customers any time you want and whenever you have an offer for them.

This is all done by SMS. You will text message your customers, send them offers, notifications, and reminders, as well as set online marketing alerts for them to inform them about a sale that expires soon.

Another type is to send them a message directly whenever they surf your website by using the Site Messaging Feature.

You can also automate your messages and segment them according to your pre-collected data.

From inside your campaigns, you can choose to send messages to your customers using Facebook ads that will convince them to buy from you.

 SALES CRM with Automation

CRM stands for Custom Relation Management. You don’t have to track your leads in your head, but rather in a CRM.

The main task of CRM is to prevent tasks from accumulating on your desk. It keeps your sales process running smoothly. It prevents some contacts from slipping out of your funnel, keeping all your contacts on one platform.

When you are able to automate contact management, monitor your deals, and score leads without doing it manually, you will then be in full control of your process effectively.

CRM keeps your customers’ contact names, email addresses, and phone numbers in one place. You will automatically update your contact details and view the history of your leads from the contact record.

Machine Learning

Imagine that you have to collect all the data received manually and you want to make decisions based on what you’ve collected. And since everything is data, from contacts to phone numbers, and more, you will find yourself spending hours and hours with zero benefits.

ActiveCampaign machine learning allows you to crunch the numbers so you can make better decisions in your business.

The presence of AI technology decides when to send your emails because it previously collected data and had knowledge about the best times your customers open their emails.

And because not every piece of information matters, and not every visitor is interested in buying, machine learning gathers all the good information you need so you can customize the insights based on what matters most to you.

Pricing

ActiveCampaign offers four pricing plans categorized as:

1. LITE
2. PLUS
3. PROFESSIONAL
4. ENTERPRISE

Lite plan:

It is put to suit small businesses. The lite plan allows 500 contacts for only $29/month. It includes a newsletter, email marketing, marketing automation, and support for only one user. This bundle lacks the presence of many features like landing pages, chats, and many others. It allows only one user.

Plus plan:

 Spending $49/month gives you the most important features. You will get landing pages, 50+ landing templates, CRM with sales automation, Chat, and email. It is good for businesses that are not so big in the market. You can upgrade whenever you want. It allows up to 25 users with 1000 contacts.

Professional Plan:

This is the most popular plan in ActiveCampaign. It costs $149/month. All the features of the plans above are included, plus the prediction sending option, site messaging, split automation, and a custom domain. It allows up to 50 users with 1000 contacts.

Enterprise:

Recently, ActiveCampaign changed this plan to suit its customers. You need to contact the sales to set up a plan that’s suitable for you and the price will be known upon that.

GetResponse VS ActiveCampaign, Quick comparison

The two platforms are superiors in the email marketing field. Both offer you outstanding features that help you build a successful business online. I don’t exaggerate if I say that one of them is a must.

Now after I have covered everything about these two giants, keep in mind the coming hints.

• GetResponse allows you to get paid through its landing pages whereas ActiveCampaign doesn’t allow this feature.
• GetResponse allows you to contact your customers via email and doesn’t have the SMS feature that ActiveCampaign has.
• ActiveCampaign doesn’t allow building landing pages whereas GetResponse does.
• ActiveCampaign doesn’t have the webinar option that GetResponse has.
• GetResoponse offers a free plan Whereas ActiveCampaign doesn’t.
• GetResponse is cheaper than ActiveCampaign.

Conclusion

Both ActiveCampaign and GetResponse are amazing email marketing tools.

They provide you with complete features to grow your business and become successful.

GetResponse and ActiveCampaign have the main features needed by beginners to start and have more advanced ones for professionals.

They provide you with the ability to send different types of emails, landing pages, email testing, CRM, and communication.

In my opinion, both are winners. But no size fits all; you have to choose one eventually.

All I recommend is that you get an email marketing platform if you want to be successful. Start gathering email accounts, grow your list, start sending emails and maximize your revenues.

Want to see more related posts? Leave a comment below and tell us which email marketing suite you’re going to use.