GetResponse Review New

PROS / GetResponse suggests the best time to deliver to your subscribers based on your industry.

CONS / The text, image and sign-up editors are limited in their capabilities.

 VERDICT / Although GetResponse has limitations in customization and editing of its templates, it is a good choice for startup owners because of its marketing help for your email campaigns.

The biggest benefit to using GetResponse as your email marketing solution is its unique tracking options and marketing suggestions. These features make it a good choice for new users of email marketing services. However, GetResponse lacks some of the editing features that come standard with most email marketing software we tested.

In addition to tracking statistics of emails you send, such as whether an email was opened, bounced or forwarded to another person, GetResponse tracks the purchase behavior of your customers. This is helpful for any business owner – new or seasoned – because it can help you tailor your email blasts to your subscribers to give them what they need and make you the most profit. GetResponse also offers suggestions on the best time for you to send an email or newsletter to your readers based on the industry you're in.

All email marketing services worth your time let you set up autoresponders and triggered responses so you can automatically connect with a new subscriber. Anyone who signs up for your emails or newsletters immediately receives a welcome message. When a holiday or a customer's birthday is coming up, GetResponse can send an email you've created to offer your customers a greeting or discount for these special days.

GetResponse lets you choose to create an email or newsletter on your own using HTML, or you can use one of the hundreds of templates the email marketing service provides. You also get access to more than 1,000 stock images to add interest to your emails or newsletters. Although GetResponse is easy to use, it lacks the customization we saw with most email marketing services. There are fewer font styles, and the image editor gave us issues when we tried to place and resize pictures.

Many of the email marketing solutions we tested couldn't deliver emails to Gmail inboxes, and GetResponse is another program that had this problem. The test emails we sent didn't even make it to the promotions or social tabs.

Summary

Although GetResponse doesn't top our list of the best email marketing services available, it is a good choice for new marketers because of its unique approach to marketing. You may run into issues with email delivery or the image editor, but GetResponse is a good introduction to email marketing services.

What Is A Good Response Rate?

I’m often asked questions like, “What’s a good response rate for direct mail?” or “What kind of open rate should I expect when doing email marketing?”.

The expectation is that I’ll give a numerical answer. Something like, “expect a 2% response rate from direct mail” or “expect a 20% open rate for email”.

Usually these kinds of questions come from well meaning business owners who are yet to build their marketing infrastructure.

My answer is always the same – it depends. Sometimes a 50% response rate is a disaster and sometimes a 0.01% response rate is a massive success.

Response rates will vary dramatically depending on factors such as how relevant the message is to the target market, how compelling the offer is and how you came about the list you’re marketing to.

Instead of asking what a good response rate is, which is a nonsense question, they’re really asking, “How do I measure the success of my marketing campaign?”.

How To Measure Marketing Success

How do you measure the success of a marketing campaign?

For the impatient here’s the short answer: did the marketing campaign make you more money than it cost you? Another way of putting it is, what was the return on investment (ROI) on the marketing campaign?

If it cost you more than you made (or will ever make) on this campaign then it’s a failure. If it cost you less than the profits you made as result of the campaign then it’s a success.

Of course some people will argue with me and say that even a campaign that lost money was valuable because it “got your name out there” or was some sort of “branding” exercise.

Unless you’re a megabrand like Nike, Apple, Coca Cola or similar then it’s likely you can’t afford to burn tens of millions of dollars on fuzzy marketing like “branding” or “getting your name out there”.

If you’re a small or medium sized business you need to get a return on your marketing spend. Putting your comparatively tiny marketing budget into fuzzy marketing would have the same effect as a kid peeing in the ocean.

The only way to win the game of mass marketing / branding / getting your name out there type of marketing is with more firepower (ie money).

If you’re a small to medium business that’s not a game you’re equipped to play. That being the case we need to look at the numbers carefully.

Measuring Marketing ROI

Let’s run through an example with some numbers to illustrate. I’ll keep the numbers small and round for the sake of clarity.

You do a direct mail campaign and send out one hundred letters.

The cost of printing and mailing the one hundred letters is $300.

Out of one hundred letters, ten people respond (10% response rate).

Out of the ten people who responded, two people end up buying from you (20% closure rate).

From this we can work out one of the most important numbers in marketing – cost of customer acquisition. In this example you acquired two customers and the campaign cost you a total of $300. So your cost of customer acquisition is $150.

Now if the product or service you sell these customers makes you a profit of only $100 per sale, then this was a losing campaign. You lost $50 for every customer acquired in this campaign (negative ROI).

However let’s say the product or service you sell makes you a profit of $600 per sale, then this is a winning campaign. You made $450 for every customer acquired (positive ROI).

Now obviously this is a simplistic example but it illustrates how irrelevant statistics like response rates and conversion rates are. Our primary concern is return on investment, which varies based on cost of customer acquisition and how much profit a marketing campaign yields.

Lifetime Value Of A Customer

With the above example we determined that if we made only $100 of profit per sale then we had a losing campaign. However in that example we didn’t take into account one of the other very important numbers used in measuring marketing, customer lifetime value.

If for example we make $100 directly as a result of the campaign but then the customer continues to buy from us down the track, that completely changes the economics of the campaign. A campaign that looked like a loser can in fact become a winner when we take into account their lifetime value as a customer.

We now need to take into account how much we’ll likely make on a customer over their entire tenure with us. For example you might sell printers that require refills or a car that requires servicing or some other service that a customer buys repeatedly e.g. haircuts, massage, insurance, internet access etc.

The money we make upfront on a campaign is known as “the front end”. The money we make on subsequent purchases is known as “the back end”. Together these figures make up the lifetime value of a customer.

Lifetime value and cost of acquisition are the two numbers you need to know to measure marketing effectiveness. The other statistics like response rates and conversion rates in themselves are useless. We just use them to determine these two figures, which give us a true picture of how our marketing is performing.

If you don’t know what these numbers are in your business, then now’s the time to start measuring and making your marketing accountable. Constantly testing, measuring and improving these numbers is how you build a high growth business.

Buy:https://goo.gl/Ellc4M

15 Tested and Proven Ways to Build Your Subscriber List

 

A list of engaged subscribers is one of the most effective and reliable marketing resources. A good list so valuable that it can’t be bought. Why? Because when subscribers sign up for your list, they’re signing up to hear from you and your company. Subscribers have to be earned. What are the best ways to build a list? We’ve collected the top 15 to share with you today.

The permission model allows you to fill your audience with people who are genuinely interested in your brand and what you have to say

With information collected during sign-up (or later), you can precisely segment your list and design your email communication to suit your reader's preferences.

As you attract qualified leads, you’ll be able to guide them through the decision-making process by aligning content to specific buying cycle stages.

Take a look at the 15 tips we’ve collected to help you build your email marketing list:

1. Offer quality content. Nobody gives up their email address for free. If you want to build a valuable relationship and engage your audience, you need to provide content that is worthwhile and interesting.
2. Put sign-up forms on every web page. Your sign-up form should be everywhere your potential subscribers are. Make sure it’s visible and easy to fill out.
3. Use social media to collect email addresses. Integrate your sign-up forms with social media platforms. Driving traffic from multiple sources allows you to build a strong email marketing list much faster.
4. Design your sign-up form carefully. Ask only for information you plan to use. A good rule of thumb is that less is more — the shorter the sign-up form, the higher the conversion rate.
5. Show your privacy policy. Inform your readers that you will not share their personal information with third parties. A clear privacy policy helps you build trust and convince visitors that it’s safe to subscribe.
6. Show samples of your content. Let your subscribers know what they are signing up for. Use your older content samples to “sell” the email sign-up.
7. Include a call to action. Put a call to action in your submit button, e.g. Sign me up! This makes the sign-up process more engaging and improves the conversion ratio.
8. Give away freebies. Think of a relevant incentive for your audience (e-book, infographic, whitepaper) and provide it for free.
9. Ask subscribers to share. Take the time to prepare valuable, shareable content. Remember that putting the social share buttons is not enough; you still need to ask your subscribers to use them.
10. Build a content distribution strategy. Producing great content is only half the battle. Make sure it’s visible to the right audience. Define who your ideal audience is and find out where they like to congregate online. Then choose communication channels accordingly.
11. Publish landing pages. Create a squeeze page where visitors can download premium content in exchange for their email address. A dedicated web page helps users focus on the call to action and increases conversions.
12. Include testimonials on your landing page. Social proof helps build trust toward a brand and its products. Use testimonials from satisfied customers to help visitors make a decision.
13. Blog regularly. Great content brings more traffic. Develop a realistic content publishing schedule and stick to it.
14. Guest post on popular blogs. Publishing your content on other blogs is a great way to build relationships with other bloggers in your industry and introduce yourself to new people. Include a backlink to your blog, and your blog’s search rankings will go up.
15. Collect email addresses at offline events. Be ready to collect email addresses at trade shows and conferences. Ask for business cards or use the Forms on the Go app to instantly add people to your list.

It’s time to get started.

Now you know a handful of great ways to build one of the most effective marketing assets — your email marketing list.

Want more? Check out the new GetResponse List Building Program, available free to anyone with a GetResponse account — even a 30-Day Free Trial account. To sign up for our free course, log into your GetResponse account or go to http://www.getresponse.com/features/list-building-program.html.