Getresponse began as email marketing tool which has since evolved into a integrated business platform that includes:
- E-mail Marketing
- SMS Marketing
- Website builder
- Live Chat
- Landing Pages
- Webinars
- Sign ups
- Conversion funnels
E-mail Marketing Platforms |
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GetReponse |
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Product Review |
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Reviewed by Kurt Lubin of De Claron Copyright © 2018-2024 |
| What is GetResponse? | |
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Getresponse began as email marketing tool which has since evolved into a integrated business platform that includes:
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Who is GetResponse for? |
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Getresponse offers a scalable business platform. That is, it is modular according to the size and complexity of one’s business. It therefore can be tailored for small traders using a free account or scaled up for large corporations using a variety of monthly pricing plans. |
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What does GetResponse do? |
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Getresponse is designed develop businesses by enabling them, amongst other things to:
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This brief article will examine whether GetResponse can really help businessess. It will look at the following:
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| GetResponse Features | |
Email Marketing |
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As GetResponse was originally designed as an e-mail marketing tool, it is not surprising that it has a whole array of the features which are: Predesigned templates which allows even beginners within minutes to create professional looking emails optimized for any device using a drag and drop interface that matches one’s campaign goals. Layouts and sections can be customized with branding and content and then enhanced with a library of free stock photos. Designs can be previewed for both desktop and mobile devices. One can even create their own template library by importing other designs. Autoresponders that send messages automatically to subscribers based on a particular time or event which in turn can be fine tuned further according to specific criteria. This feature is vital for newsletters, webinar alerts, product updates and special offers which in turn can be shared on social media or landing pages. Autoresponders can be programmed using GetReponse drag |
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| and drop editor that allows one to set up an 'flowchart' that instructs GetResponse what to do if a user clicks on a certain offer etc. | |
| List Management that allows one to upload contact lists and add data fields for quick grouping of clients according to niches. This can be augmented by e-mail based surveys to learn more about your client preferences for more targeted e-mails. You can in turn obtain and manage client consent for more marketing material using additional fields in one’s e-mails. | |
| Email analytics that present statistics of one’s e-mail campaigns such as bounces, click through rates, unsubscribes, forwards and so forth to learn what emails have led to sales, signups, or visits to your website. This gives one valuable insights into how to fine tune a campaign. E-mail analytics is vital for split testing using different subject lines, layouts, images and call-to-action buttons to increase click rates. E-mail analytics can be configured to be automatically sent according to time and frequency with easy to digest graphs. However, note that GetResponse currently only allows five variants subject headers OR content. Moreover, only one variant can be tested at any given time. For example, the content of an e-mail can vary but their headers must remain the same. | |
| Transactional emails which use API or SMTP triggers to send notifications that keep customers up-to-date with their purchases such as automated receipts, verification protocals, related product recommendations and abandoned cart reminders to win back unfinished orders. | |
SMS Marketing (Text Messaging) |
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In addition to e-mail, GetResponse offers SMS (Short Message Service) to create a multi-channel marketing platform. Like e-mail marketing this service can be automated using selected triggers and one can import their existing contact list already used for e-mails. Depending on the fields on the contact list, texts can be personalised with the recipient name and content specific to a market niche. |
Free Website Builder |
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As part of its new intergrated platform GetResponse has free a website builder which has the following features: No-code solution for web site design which can be built in minutes using an on-line AI (Artifical Intelligence) wizard. This wizard works by asking you a few simple questions about one’s business needs. Website templates for your industry which can be customized further according one’s specific business requirements. The free website builder allows not only establishing an on-line presence for one’s goods and services but significantly facilitates integration with the other GetResponse features discussed in this article as well giving the option to link with other platforms such as YouTube etc. |
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Live Chat |
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GetResponse also includes live chat facilities that is an instant way to connect with one’s customers.It makes buying easier by eliminating doubts in real-time Live chat includes:
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Landing Pages |
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E-mail marketing campaign usually directs the user to a landing page which either captures user data or directs the user to a product or service. The latter is either for free such as a webinar or features an item for purchase, usually with a time bound money back guarantee. GetResponse offers:
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Webinar Builder |
On-line webinars are generally vehicles to encourage some purchase by increasing engagement and conversions. GetResponse offers a no-download, easy-to-use webinar platform that has the followin features: Scalable platform that allows one to host unlimited webiners with up to 1,000 live attendees and provision to share the stage with two other presenters. There is also the option to store up to 20 hours of webiner recordings for later use Ease of design and deployment where the user has a choice of a professionally designed gallery of free invitation templates that are automatically prefilled with one’s webinar details. These in turn can be customized further with a unique webiner URL, registration fields and subscription settings for flexible scheduling |
Free Signup Forms |
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Sign up forms are vital to turn website visitors into email subscribers and GetResponse offers:
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| including consent fields and reCAPTCHA to keep bots out of data capture |
Conversion funnels |
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Finally, GetResponse offers a variety of templates for conversion funnels which are the ultimate target for all the above features. These funnels go beyond the sign up forms generically discussed above and include:
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How well do GetResponse features intergate with each other and with external social media platforms? |
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Internal Integration Menu Items: GetResponse features are consolidated and accessed in one menu. Though this centralizes interfacing with GetResponse it does not allow the user to fine tune things by adding items like short-cuts for more frequently used tools. Menu Grouping: Moreover the grouping of menu items into communication tools and growth tools, though useful, may not be layout preferred by everyone. Here again there is no facilities to make modifications |
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Social Media Integration One can promote one’s website through the major social media channels within GetResponse. One can create, buy, share and manage Facebook, Instagram and Google Search ads using the following GetResponse features: Integrated dashboard to track all social media ads for comparative analysis with options to automatically install a Facebook Pixel on GetResponse landing pages, access Etsy and Unsplash photo library for Instagram posts and facilities to create search ad campaigns for Google New audience targeting according to the characteristics already identified in GetResponse analytics including enhanced blog traffic tools for Wordpress, WooCommerce, and Prestashop pages. Legal Issues: Integration with social media platforms, because of their international coverage, can lead to infringements on EU GDPR and US data protection laws. Currently GetResponse does not offer a mechanism to opt in or out of cookie use before those cookies are actually run. At best one can provide to notification to users that there are cookies. The only other alternative is to refrain from using items such as Facebook Pixel but this will rob GetResponse of a potentially valuable integration feature. |
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General Platform |
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General Layout | |
| GetResponse is an entirely web based platform so there is no need to download and install it. As such it can used on any device and is mobile phone friendly. GetResponse relies on time tested traditional hyperlinks for navigation with well positioned graphics, pictures and videos. It’s menu driven navigation on the home page gives a very good overview of what GetResponse has to offer without relying on a separate site map. The GetResponse web site avoids annoying pop ups and instrusive marketing videos from third party vendors. | |
Tools | |
| GetResponse features are accessible according to the various pricing options which will be outlined later in this article. These features can be accessed through menus, hyerplinks and graphics. Most of GetResponse’s tools are drag and drop driven which is intuitively easy to learn and are generally uniform across the site. However, though the myriad templates certainly speed up the design and deployment of GetResponse’s tools, the ability to adjust them is somewhat restricted and potentially error prone. Finally GetResponse’s statistics, though comprehensive, can be somewhat overwhelming and more clarity is needed on what they are designed to tell the user. | |
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Help and technical support |
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| Like any platform GetResponse has a learning curve that may prove daunting for potential users. To mitigate this GetResponse offers: | |
The above avenues of help not only address how to use GetResponse but, under the Resources section, also provides general marketing advice for on-line businesses Needless to say there is also an on-line sales enquiry contact page. |
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Web Marketing Overview |
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| Like all business models, web based marketing aims to increase profits by doing one or both of two things:
GetResponse does not introduce any revision of the traditional web based marketing model. Instead it purports to support this model with its existing features as seen in the table below. |
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| Procedure | GetResponse Corresponding Feature |
| Source high quality traffic | Social Ads Creator, Social Media Ads Purchase |
| Send traffic to a landing page | Landing Page Creator |
| Turn the traffic into leads | Signup Forms, Conversion Funnels |
| Nurture new leads with follow-up communication | E-Mails, Webinars |
| Start selling your products | Sales Pages On-line Store, E-commerce Integration Shopping Cart |
| Make more sales with automated follow-ups | Abandoned Order Emails, Automatic Product Recommendations |
| Upsell with relevant offers | Promote Limited-Time Offers, After Customer’s Purchase |
| Get Paid | Payment Processors, Automated Order Confirmations |
Price Plans |
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| Finally we will look pricing. Is GetResponse really worth it? In other words will any
increase in producitivity or revenue which GetResponse generates significantly exceed the
price of GetResponse itself?:
It is worth noting that GetReponse has a free plan which let’s one try out it’s basic features for an unlimited time. If one wishes to acquire additional features then there are monthly subscription plans that feature discounts if one locks into annual or bi-annual contracts. |
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There is a very big jump in monthly charges from the free version to the professional plan at £61.50 per month. However, the plans are still scaled so there is some room for flexibility and experimentation. One can change plans at short-notice but scale of price increase rises sharply so one should think carefully if the associated extra features are really worth it. It also would be helpful if GetResponse offers custom made solutions so one can scale any pricing plans exactly to those features which are really needed instead of bundling them into set packages. However, on the whole the monthly plans are still affordable for smaller businesses. |
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Conclusion |
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GetResponse offers a flexible, scalable and integrated e-marketing platform which is relevant to most on-line businesses. It is user friendly and well supported with an array of on-line help tools. However, there is still no guarantee that the host of tools which GetResponse offers will give the user any significant market edge. Any marketing platform is ultimately only as good as its user who in turn must understand his target audience in order to acquire and retain them. |
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