February 11

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The 3 Best Email Marketing Autoresponders For Small Businesses

By Sibusisiwe Musevenzi

February 11, 2022


In this blog post, you will learn about the 3 best email marketing autoresponders for small businesses that you should be using.

Let us start by defining email marketing and autoresponders so that you can understand how these two work together.

Email marketing is sending emails to customers with the aim to promote, educate, and inform them about your products or services.

You need to know what an autoresponder is...?

An autoresponder is an email function where automated messages are sent to customers based on their interaction with your business.

So is your email marketing strategy backed up by the right autoresponder for your business?

For email marketing to work properly for your small business you need an email marketing autoresponder.

And that is where I come in to show you what makes these 3 email marketing services the best on the market.

The best 3 email marketing autoresponders for small businesses are:

1. GetResponse

2. AWeber

3. Constant Contact

But before you set off and grab one of these, it is worth mentioning the factors to look out for and I have them below.

5 Factors to consider when choosing your email marketing platform are:

1. Price

2. Marketing Automation

3. Good Trial Period

4. Deliverability

5. Ease of Use

So let me add some meat onto the bones...so to speak. Let me walk you through what this means.

1. Price

  • You want to be paying the best price in order to see good results and turn a profit in your business. 
  • So the price of your autoresponder should be within reach and reasonable for your business needs. 
  • You can get started with a free plan or free trial.

2. Marketing Automation

  • Marketing automation allows your business to run on autopilot, which is what this technology can enable you to do in your business. 
  • So that is why it matters to factor in this feature when choosing an autoresponder.

3. Good Trial Period

  • A good trial period is essential so that you can trial the platform and see if you like it and that its features will help you deliver on your business goals.

4. Deliverability

  • Deliverability is the backbone of email if I should say so, because if the platform can not ensure emails get inboxed then that is doing you a disservice and costing you money. 
  • You can potentially lose money if email marketing has become your only marketing channel.
  • Yes, they are a lot of factors that impact deliverability but it is good to check the rates from time to time.

5. Ease of Use

  • Ease of use, with everything new there is always a learning curve but you require an autoresponder to be fairly easy to use. 
  • So you can start running those campaigns and set up your automation. 

Now that you are in good standing about what to look for and you already know the autoresponders I am talking about.

Let me talk about each one and present you with its pros and cons and all the good stuff to help you decide on what will be your best autoresponder.

1.GetResponse

  • GetResponse is an all-in-one email marketing platform that was established in 1998 by Simon Grabowski.
  • It aims to provide small businesses with a complete marketing platform that delivers the results you want.
  • It offers a free forever plan to get you started at email marketing.
  • They have paid plans that start at $19 per month allowing you to have 1 000 subscribers.
  • The next one is called the Plus plan and it starts at $59 per month up to 1 000 contacts.
  • Pro plan starts at $119 per month allowing up to 1 000 contacts.
  • Max Plan is mainly for medium to large businesses and it is custom priced for you.
  • They offer an 18% discount for taking an annual plan and a massive 30% discount for taking their 24-month plan.
Pros
  • Comes with a Free-forever plan making it best for small businesses, that allows you to have up to 500 contacts and you can send unlimited emails per month.
  • It is an all-in-one platform, you can build your website, create landing pages, host webinars, sell your goods or services, and chat with your customers live on your website.
  • Very responsive 24/7 customer chat support.
  • When you upgrade the pricing plan starts at $19 per month and you can have up to 1 000 subscribers.
Cons
  • No phone support unless you upgrade to the Max Custom pricing plan.
  • Free plan users do not have access to support at all but you can make use of guides.
  • Your emails and landing pages will carry GetResponse branding if you use the free plan. 
Conclusion

GetResponse is an all-in-one email marketing service because of the features that you can access.

I will list the major features and they are as follows...


GetResponse's Features Are:

  • Email Marketing
  • Website Builder
  • Marketing Automation
  • Webinars
  • Paid Ads
  • Landing Pages
  • Conversion Funnel
  • Web Push Notifications
  • SMS Marketing
  • Integrations
  • Live Chat
  • Signup Forms
  • Advanced Analytics and Testing Tools

There you have it, with all these features that obviously unlock based on your price plan.

You are able to achieve all your business goals and implement your email marketing strategy.

2. AWeber

  • AWeber is an email marketing platform that makes it easy for small businesses to build an email list, send emails and grow your business.
  • They are two plans to choose from either a free-forever plan.
  • This allows you to collect up to 500 contacts.
  • Or a Pro plan that has tiered pricing, and starts at $19.99 up to 500 contacts.
  • From 501-2500 subscribers the price is $29.99.
  • With 2501 -5 000 subscribers you would pay $49.99.
  • At $69.99 you can have between 5001 -10 000 subscribers.
  • For 10 001 -25 000 subscribers the price is $149.99.
  • You have access to most of the features while using a free plan.
Pros
  • AWeber offers you a choice of 2 plans either the Free-forever plan or Pro plan.
  • You have access to pretty much all the features while using the Free plan.
  • 24/7 Customer support is available to every customer whether you are on a free plan or are a paid customer.
  • Phone support is available Monday-Friday 8 am-8 pm ET at this number 1-877-293-2371. 
Cons
  • Free plan users will carry AWeber branding in emails and on landing pages.
Conclusion

This email marketing tool comes with many features that will enable you to fulfill all your business goals and deliver your email marketing strategy at ease.


So Aweber's Features Are:

  • Email Marketing
  • Email Templates
  • Reports and Analytics
  • Auto-Newsletters
  • Drag & Drop Editor
  • Email designer using your website's URL
  • Free Stock Images
  • Automation
  • Tagging
  • Segmentation
  • Migration
  • Integrations
  • Design with Canva
  • Landing Pages
  • Web push notifications
  • Sign up forms
  • Ecommerce

Your business can get up and running at no cost to you by using AWeber's free forever plan. They make it easy for small businesses by providing support by email, chat, and phone.

3. Constant Contact

  • Constant Contact is an email marketing platform that seeks to offer small businesses with digital marketing tools, to help simplify online marketing.
  • Their plans are categorised into two that is digital marketing and sales accelerator.

The former has the following:

  • It provides you with a choice of either Core plan that starts at $9.99 per month up to 500 contacts 
  • Or Plus plan that starts at $45 per month up to 500 contacts.

The latter offers what they call sales accelerator.

  • This is an all-in-one Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform and it starts at $399 per month. 

Constant Contact customer support by phone is as follows:

  • US & Canada (Call or Text) 855-783-2308 Monday - Friday 9 am - 8 pm ET
  • UK - 0800 141 3172 Monday - Friday 1 pm -9pm GMT
  • International - +1 781-482-8911 Monday - Friday 9 am - 8 pm ET

You can reach them by email by going here

Pros
  • It offers you a 60 day trial period so that you can have a feel of all the features on the platform.
  • Comes with a dedicated all-in-one Customer Relationship Management( CRM)platform.
  • Support is available by phone, SMS, chat, and email wherever you are in the world.
  • They give small businesses the digital marketing tools to run their business on an all-in-one platform. 
Cons
  • They do not have a free plan.
  • You can only access all the features if you take up the Plus plan that starts at $45 per month.
Conclusion

Constant Contact really wants to help small businesses like yours to use digital marketing to grow your business and they have made it easier by providing a CRM platform under their sales accelerator plan.

Constant Contact's Features Are:

  • Email Marketing
  • Automation
  • Integration
  • Social Marketing
  • Contact List Management
  • Tracking Tools
  • Online Marketing Platform
  • Ecommerce
  • Email Plus
  • Templates

With all these features this is a clear contender for the top position as the best autoresponder for email marketing.

They provide you with all the tools to market online.

All these 3 autoresponders are very good for most businesses and it is now up to you to decide which one to go for.

There are many alternatives and when you are starting out at email marketing confusion is not an option.

It will get in the way of you running your business and serving your customers.

So here is a list of the alternatives:

1. Convertkit

2. Sendinblue

3. Drip

Let us consider what they do best and I will start with...

1. Convertkit

  • It is an email marketing platform built to help creators earn a living online.
  • You can achieve this by selling your products or services using their e-commerce feature.
  • It has a free plan that allows you to collect up to 1 000 subscribers.
  • You can send newsletters, create landing pages, and deliver your lead magnet.

Convertkit has the following pricing plans as follows:

  • Free plan allows you to have an email list of up to 1 000 contacts but has limited features.
  • You can not access automation, you need to upgrade and pricing for a creator account starts at $29 per month and of up to 1 000 subscribers.
  • Creator Pro pricing plan starts at $59 per month and allows you to have up to 1 000 subscribers.

2. Sendinblue

  • It is an email marketing provider best for growing businesses and has all of your digital marketing tools in one place.
  • Small businesses can use this all-in-one platform that allows, email marketing, SMS, Chat, Facebook, and has a Customer Relationship Management(CRM) platform.
  • You can send automated transactional emails.
  • Sendinblue integrates with major e-commerce platforms and Content Management System(CMS) platform for example Shopify and WordPress respectively.
  • Their aim is to help you communicate, personalise, and convert using various tools on the platform with your customers.
  • They offer support in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese.

Their pricing is based on the number of emails you send per month and is as follows:

  • The Free plan allows you to have unlimited contacts and you can send 300 emails per day.
  • Lite pricing plan starts at $25 and you can send up to 10 000 emails per month.
  • Premium pricing plan starts at $65 and you can send up to 20 000 emails.
  • Enterprise pricing will be customised to your business needs.

3. Drip

  • Drip is an email and SMS marketing platform built for growing e-commerce brands.
  • Some of its features are automation and personalisation.
  • It integrates with featured integrations like Zapier, Recart, and with many other apps and platforms for e-commerce.
  • Drip allows you to test the platform with a 14 day trial period.
  • Drip comes in two pricing plans and they are:
  • Email Plan starts at $19 per month and allows you to have up to 500 contacts and send an unlimited number of emails.
  • Email Plus SMS pricing plan starts at $22 and you can have up to 500 contacts, send an unlimited number of emails, and send up to 200 SMS.

So far I have covered what email marketing is, what an autoresponder is, the 3 best email marketing autoresponders, pros, and cons, features, and the 3 best alternatives to help you further explore.

Choosing an autoresponder does not need to be confusing at all or get in the way of you running your business properly.

I hope you have settled for one, to begin with, you can always migrate to another autoresponder if you are not happy with the features or service you are getting.

The 3 Best Email Marketing Autoresponders For Small Businesses

So with that being said, I would like to thank you so much for taking your time to come and read this article. 

If you have been helped, please leave a comment below and share the post.

Sibusisiwe Musevenzi

About the author

Sibusisiwe is a full-time mum and blogger. With over 5 years of experience in digital marketing. She spends most of her time writing articles about email marketing autoresponders, hacks, tips, and tricks to grow your online business. Using the power of email marketing.

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