The purpose of this article is to provide you with insight on how to choose the best autoresponder for yourself. First, it will help you understand what an autoresponder is, what it does and how it works. Then, you will learn about some of the different types of autoresponders along with a few pros and cons of each type. After reading this article, you will know exactly what you should be looking for in an autoresponder and which one you should avoid. Furthermore, you will learn about some of the best autoresponders currently available on the market, which one is best suited for your needs and how to choose the best one for yourself.
What is An Autoresponder?
An autoresponder is a program that will automatically send you emails after a certain period of time since the last email. The period of time can vary from one hour to six months, depending on the type of autoresponder you have. When someone clicks on a link in one of your email broadcasts, they are taken to a webpage where they can subscribe to your mailing list. Some autoresponders will even allow you to send emails to people who don’t necessarily want to receive emails from you. For example, if you are an online store and you sell cookbooks, you can use an autoresponder to email your customers that have bought a cookbook in the past to recommend a new one. Alternatively, you could contact the customer and see if they are interested in learning more about the recipes inside the book. These are just a couple of example uses for autoresponders. You can use them to communicate with customers after they have made a purchase, offered feedback or interacted with your website in any way.
Depending on your needs, you can choose from a range of different autoresponders. Some of the more popular ones are:
- AWeber
- Active Campaign
- Campaign Monitor
- ConvertKit
- Drip
- HubSpot
- MailChimp
- Marketo
- Octopus
- PSA Ultimate
- Relay
- SEMrush
- SendinBlue
- Tired of getting autoresponders spam? You can use a tool like Unsubscribely to stop unwanted emails.
Comparison Of The Major Players In The Autoresponder Market
Now that you understand what an autoresponder is and the importance of picking one that fits your needs, it’s time to learn about the different types of autoresponders along with a few pros and cons of each type. Here is a short comparison of the five top players in the autoresponder market:
1. AWeber
AWeber is the original autoresponder, having been around since 1999. It is the most popular autoresponder in use today, with over 2 million active users. It is also one of the most flexible and feature-rich program, offering a variety of useful functionality. For example, you can use AWeber to create automated email campaigns wherein you can schedule them to send at a future date and time. One of the major plusses of AWeber is its ability to integrate with other online stores, allowing you to easily send emails to your customers from within the platform. This is very useful for e-commerce websites, as it saves you the effort of sending the email from your own email account. AWeber also provides a useful analytics tool whereby you can monitor the open rates, click-through rates and conversion rates of all of your emails. This function allows you to quickly identify individual email campaigns that were successful and which ones need to be repeated or adjusted in future.
2. Active Campaign
Active Campaign is the top-of-the-line automation tool for marketing professionals, offering all the features of AWeber as well as some advanced features that allow you to create sophisticated email campaigns that can scale up to accommodate large audiences. It was launched in 2012 and currently has over 500,000 monthly active users. One unique feature of Active Campaign is its segmentation tools, which allow you to target specific groups of people within your audience and send them different messages. For example, you can target people who have purchased a specific product in the past and send them content related to that product, or you can target people who live in a certain city and send them information about the local businesses, along with coupons and discounts.
3. Campaign Monitor
Campaign Monitor is another powerful and popular tool for creating automated email marketing campaigns, having been around since 2007. It has a free version and a pro version, with the pro version offering all the same features as the paid version, along with some extra features. It is a very user-friendly tool that is perfect for beginners, allowing you to easily create and send emails to existing or potential customers without fear of crashing or having to learn advanced coding skills.
4. ConvertKit
ConvertKit is a free tool, with a paid version available as well, that provides all the basic features you would expect from an autoresponder, along with some advanced features that allow you to create highly specific email campaigns. One of its main advantages is that it offers an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface whereby you can easily build and send automated emails to your customers without needing to learn advanced coding skills or spend countless hours figuring out the correct automation sequence. Like many other tools on this list, ConvertKit also provides detailed analytics, allowing you to track the opens, clicks, and conversions of all of your email campaigns. This feature set makes it a popular choice among marketing professionals due to its ease of use and powerful features.
5. Drip
Drip is a bit different from the other four tools on this list in that it is a tool for creating video email broadcasts, rather than just sending out text-based messages. It was launched in 2014 and is one of the newer players in the market. However, what it lacks in experience it more than makes up for in functionality, offering a variety of features that allow you to create and send professional-looking video messages to your audience. One of its big advantages is that it offers a unique video editor, allowing you to easily put together professional-looking videos, without needing to know how to code or send emails. Plus, you can schedule the video to automatically play when a certain link is clicked or the video to automatically play after a certain period of time. This makes it an interesting option for those who need to keep their content fresh and want to make sure that their videos stand out among their competitors’ content.
Overall Review Of The Different Types Of Autoresponders
Now that you know the different types of autoresponders and what they do, you can begin to choose the best one for yourself, based on your own specific needs. The good news is that with all the different options available, you are sure to find one that suits you perfectly.
Here is a short list of the different types of autoresponders and a few pros and cons of each one: