GetResponse vs iContact: A detailed comparison review
When you’re choosing an email marketing service for your business, it’s essential to find one that has easy-to-use features that make creating successful email marketing campaigns easy. That means you’ll need a platform that has an email editor and can help you grow your email marketing lists.
In this post, we compare GetResponse vs iContact, two of the most commonly used platforms today for email marketing, to find out which email marketing service is better for you and your business.
GetResponse
GetResponse is an email marketing app that started back in 1998 and has maintained a strong reputation ever since, providing advanced marketing automation functionalities.
These functionalities provide you with the opportunity to manage all your email marketing campaigns. You can also use GetResponse to design opt-in forms, host webinars, create landing pages, and configure complete off-site automation processes.
GetResponse is one of the very first email marketing tools to deliver A/B testing to people. (READ: Why use GetResponse to grow your email list)
Best features of GetResponse
Compared to other email marketing tools, GetResponse’s features are more comprehensive. (READ: GetResponse vs MailChimp vs Aweber: Which is the best email marketing tool?) GetResponse does not only provide all the key benefits you’d expect from an email marketing platform such as list hosting, templates, autoresponders, analytics, and so on. Recently, it has also been expanding its features into an all-in-one marketing and e-commerce solution.
- Autoresponders
Autoresponders are e-newsletters that are sent to your subscribers at intervals of your choosing.
For instance, you can set them up so that immediately after somebody signs up to your mailing list, they receive a welcome message from your business. After a week, they could receive a discount offer for some of your products or services. Three weeks after that, they could receive an encouragement to follow you on social media. The cycle could go on.
The autoresponder of GetResponse is a crucial selling point. It provides some of the most comprehensive autoresponder functionality available.
With GetResponse autoresponder, you can send either time-based or action-based messages. Time-based options include cycles like the examples above, and action-based messages can be triggered by user actions or information, such as:
- Opens
- Clicks
- Subscriptions to particular lists
- Changes in contact preferences
- Completed transactions
- Birthdays
- Changes in user data
- Marketing automation
GetResponse recently launched a new version of their autoresponder functionality, called “Marketing Automation.”
It allows you to create automation workflows using a drag and drop builder. You only need to set up an automation flowchart that instructs GetResponse what to do if a user opens a particular offer, clicks on a specific link, etc.
This functionality goes beyond what’s been on offer from autoresponders. It allows you to create a user journey that can be customized to the nth degree.
- Responsive email designs
All GetResponse templates are responsive, meaning they adjust themselves automatically to suit the device that an e-newsletter is viewing on, whether on mobile, tablet, desktop, computer, etc. There is an available preview function to see how your newsletter will appear on each.
- Analytics
GetResponse offers a good range of analytics and reporting options. In addition to the basics like open rate, click-through, unsubscribe rates, etc.
Here are other features that can help you.
- One-click segmentation
It is an option to identify people who did not engage with an e-newsletter you sent and put them in a segment of subscribers. You can send them an email again using 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 mailing based on this information.
Benefits of GetResponse
- Develop complex automation sequences
When using the features of GetResponse, you can develop complex marketing automation sequences. It will help you to automate numerous aspects of the email marketing campaigns.
Furthermore, you can keep peace of mind since you don’t have to involve every aspect of the company. You can use GetResponse and configure activity-based autoresponders. These autoresponders will be set based on the different actions you take.
- Advanced contact segmentation
If you know how to segment your contacts effectively, you can send out messages to your customers in an effective manner. That’s where GetResponse can assist you.
All you need to do is to take a look at the parameters and subscribe accordingly. For instance, you can define segments based upon last opened date, open rate, last clicked, pages visited on the website, and more.
- Manage the contacts intelligently
GetResponse gives you the ability to manage your contacts intelligently. You can manage your contacts with the help of custom fields and tags. It’s also great that you collect additional information related to the subscribers and then use them to create personalized marketing campaigns.
GetResponse Pricing
Currently, there are four GetResponse plans:
- Basic
This plan starts at $15 per month and allows you to send an unlimited number of emails to 1,000 subscribers.
- Plus
It starts at $49 per month for up to 1,000 subscribers.
- Professional
It starts at $99 per month for up to 1,000 subscribers.
- Enterprise
It starts at $1,199 per month for lists exceeding 100,000.
If you want to add more subscribers to your list, the costs also increase. At the top end of the scale, you can expect to pay $450, $499, or $580 monthly to host a list with 100,000 subscribers in it on the Basic, Plus, and Professional plans.
iContact
iContact is an excellent email marketing solution that offers comprehensive features and plans for small businesses. It excels at creating and tracking email campaigns. It now has a wider selection of tools, artwork, and integration.
How does iContact measure up against the competition when it comes to getting started? A small business with 2,500 contacts in its marketing database would pay an average of $36 per month to use the service every month. iContact offers a 15% discount when you sign up for an annual contract. Furthermore, there are no limits to the number of messages you can send in a month.
Features of iContact
Below are some of the notable features of iContact.
- A/B Testing
Before sending out emails to customers or business contacts, you want to test them first to ensure they appeal to your target audience. Using iContact’s A/B split testing feature, you can test different email subject lines, incentives, layouts, or color schemes quickly. It will check a small percentage of your contact list to determine what content works best.
- Automation
iContact’s email marketing automation allows you to send a series of messages to your recipients based on different conditions like where the customer is in your sales pipeline. It has a welcome series consisting of several automated emails that are designed to make a positive impression on customers.
iContact’s automation features are convenient because you can create these campaigns for different types of customers and not worry about it further. You have full control over when your campaign emails are sent. It is very easy to navigate, and you can create an entire campaign in a few minutes.
- Subscriber Management
iContact’s subscriber management tools that make it easy to manage your subscribers. You can create and embed sign-up forms on your website, identify and engage with important contacts, and ensure your business keeps a current, accurate subscriber list.
Benefits of iContact
There are several benefits to using iContact. Some of them are:
- Ease of Use
iContact is easy to use. Most of the tools have drag-and-drop features that make editing and adding pictures or contacts a breeze. Its email creator provides step-by-step directions, easy tools to check the deliverability of emails, and a preview of how emails will look in people’s inboxes.
- Comprehensive features
iContact has in-depth features that can make it easy to create successful and professional-looking email marketing campaigns in a few minutes. You can always take advantage of the free trial. Experiment with creating and sending email campaigns, and if you think you’re ready to sign up, there is a range of plans that suit the number of contacts you have and your budget.
- Intuitive platform
The email creator of iContact is ideal for business marketers at all skill levels. If you have experience with coding, you can create emails using your HTML code. If you don’t have any coding or design experience, you can use one of iContact’s design templates.
iContact Pricing
iContact offers packages based on the number of subscribers you have in your contact list. It has two different plans: Base and Pro.
Both of the plans include:
- a drag-and-drop email editor
- welcome series automation
- list segmentation
- responsive email layouts
- performance reporting
- A/B split testing
- Subscriber list management
- Spam checks
- Google Analytics
iContact doesn’t have a free plan. However, it is free to set up a 30-day account and create email marketing campaigns with up to 100 contacts. If you want to send more than 400 emails, you need to upgrade to a paid plan.
The verdict: GetResponse over iContact
Both GetResponse and iContact have excellent features to help you with your email marketing campaigns and take it to the next level. However, GetResponse is clearly more extensive as they continue to evolve to become an e-commerce solution on top of being an email marketing platform. If you want more power in your hands, it is better to go with GetResponse.
