OptinMonster Review - Is It Worth it?

OptinMonster has certainly become a popular lead generation tool in recent years, but does it have everything you need for an effective marketing campaign? Read on to discover its features, pricing, what’s missing, and whether it can work for you.

OptinMonster
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    Professionally Reviewed by:  Alex Gurevich
    Digital Marketing Expert

    Written By Ria du Plessis - Digital Marketing Expert

    Updated: 09/01/2021

    What is OptinMonster? 

    Launched in 2013, OptinMonster is the tool for thousands of small businesses and Fortune 500 companies for lead generation and more. It’s a plugin for WordPress that’s primarily used to build email lists and manage promotional campaigns. 

    OptinMonster Pros & Cons

    PROSCONS
    • Multiple ways to generate opt-ins
    • Great integrations with email service providers
    • A/B testing is available
    • Mobile-friendly
    • Lack of features on the drag and drop editor
    • No free plans
    • Analytics are fairly basic
    • Doesn’t offer its own email marketing

    PROS

    • Multiple ways to generate opt-ins - The platform offers lightbox popups, floating bar opt-in forms, sidebars, and slide-ins to name a few. You’ve got some great customization options on these forms too and can change fonts, images, and colors to suit your brand
    • Great integrations with email service providers - OptinMonster integrations work seamlessly with all major email providers as well as being compatible with dozens of other content management systems like Hubspot and Mailchimp
    • A/B testing is available - You can test out different layouts, styles, and content of your campaigns to see which ones are working and which aren’t 
    • Mobile-friendly - All of OptinMonster’s features are optimized for mobile, both the drag-and-drop builder as well as the content your end-users will see

    CONS

    • Lack of features on the drag-and-drop builder - This is a relatively new feature for OptinMonster which means it hasn’t had time to catch up to its competitors. You might want to give HubSpot a try as a great alternative as the platform offers attractive and fully customizable forms
    • No free plans - Unfortunately, you won’t find any free plans or trials. The prices range between $9 and $49 per month which is a little pricey. Omnisend has a great free package to try instead which lets you send up to 500 emails per month
    • Analytics are fairly basic - The platform only really offers information on conversion rates and visitor numbers with no side-by-side campaign comparisons. If you love stats and want graphs, charts, and details we’d recommend AWeber
    • Doesn’t offer its own email marketing - For email marketing, you’ll have to integrate services like EmailOctopus or Drip. OptinMonster doesn’t offer this.

    Try OptinMonster Now

    Who Is OptinMonster Good for?  

    OptinMonster recommended if: 

    • Those looking for simplicity - The tool is easy to set up and the interface is pretty intuitive. If you want to get a campaign up and running quickly then this will be the platform for you
    • Personalized campaigns - You can tweak all of your campaigns to target different segments of your audience. One of the platform’s strengths is personalized pop-ups which let you control exactly what different customers see when they land on your website
    • Integrations - If you already utilize a number of other content management systems and other tools on your website you can easily integrate OptinMonster with many of them. This includes the ability to run email campaigns using specialist tools like EmailOctopus 
    • WordPress users - The tool was originally designed to work with only WordPress websites which means a lot of groundwork has gone into optimizing the two platforms with each other

    OptinMonster is not recommended for:

    • Those on a budget - OptinMonster pricing might put off the users on a tight budget. There’s no free version or a trial period so you’ll need to pay for the tool from day one. Plus, the service is subscription-based only so you can’t buy a one-off version of the platform, either
    • Stats lovers - The platform has fairly limited analytics, so users that rely on highly detailed statistics to manage their campaigns will need to try another option. EmailOctopus has some great analytics tools if you’re looking for an alternative that lets you track user interactions in real-time
    • People that don’t use WordPress - While the tool is perfectly functional on websites that don’t use WordPress, it hasn’t really been optimized for use on other platforms, so you may see some occasional slow-down
    • Those that need an all-in-one marketing tool - With no native email marketing feature, you’re going to need to invest in another piece of software like Drip if you want to run email campaigns. OptinMonster is very much focused on conversions of customers that land on your homepage.

    OptinMonster pricing

    Price

    Number of emails per month

    Subscribers/Campaign page views

    Segmentation

    Custom branding

    Integrated A/B testing

    Basic$9 per monthUnlimited2,500YesNoNo
    Plus$19 per monthUnlimited10,000YesNoYes
    Pro$29 per monthUnlimited25,000
    YesNoYes
    Growth$49 per monthUnlimited100,000YesYesYes

    The higher tiers are much more feature-rich than the lower ones, but the basic package should be enough for simple campaigns. However, you should bear in mind that prices may double after one year as these are introductory offers only.

    Cancellation/Refund Policy

    You can cancel within 14 days of first signing up and won’t be charged. A simple message to OptinMonster support should fix this. However, after this period you’ll be charged for a full year, and even if you cancel you’ll still be charged for the full 12 months. 

    OptinMonster Features

    We’ve listed some of the best OptinMonster features on offer below, but bear in mind that not all of these will be available at every tier. And to use the email marketing features, you’ll need to integrate MailChimp or one of the other plug-ins.

    List Segmentations

    Luckily, this feature is offered at any level of subscription and is an incredibly useful tool for targeting your campaigns to different markets. Using an intuitive yes/no gateway you can get a surprising number of different segregations in place, making sure your campaigns only reach those you want them to. If you’re hooked up to a third-party email platform like MailerLite you can add even more detailed segmentations directly into email campaigns too. 

    Drag-and-Drop Builder

    Drag-and-Drop Builder

    This feature was added quite recently and is available on all packages. It allows users to quickly create landing pages for campaigns. That being said, the tool is somewhat limited when compared to competitors like HubSpot.

    A/B Testing

    A/B Testing

    A critical tool for the success of any marketing campaign, A/B testing allows you to monitor the success of different campaigns. You can then make tweaks to fonts, colors, and much more. Unfortunately, this feature isn’t available on the cheapest tier. Depending on which third-party email app you may be using, you can also integrate A/B testing into your email campaigns and monitor how successful it is from start to finish. 

    Integrations

    Integrations

    Integrating with other platforms is definitely one of OptinMonster’s strongest points. Not only is it compatible with most email providers, but the tool can piggyback on many other platforms to utilize a whole range of other email marketing options. These work across all pricing tiers and helps plug the email marketing gap in OptinMonster’s software.

    Grow Your Email List

    Grow Your Email List

    OptinMonster is the perfect tool for building your customer email list. It uses several methods to capture customer data of visitors to your homepage and offers enticing ways to grab users’ attention. For example, new visitors may be offered discounts for entering their email address or other incentives can be provided for those agreeing to take part in future email marketing campaigns. 

    OptinMonster University

    OptinMonster University

    A nice little extra across all pricing plans is gaining access to the OptinMonster University. This provides access to an exclusive library of training courses, cheat sheets, marketing guides, and videos that the platform values at around $2,000. While this is a nice addition for subscribers, there are other platforms that offer the same kind of information that’s completely free of charge. 

    For example, MailerLite now has a learning academy that walks you through the ins and outs of email marketing which OptinMonster doesn’t offer. You can even get a certificate of completion once you’re done which will certainly spruce up your LinkedIn profile. 

    Email Campaigns Via Plug-Ins

    On Plus, Pro, and growth plans you’ll be able to launch your own email campaigns by integrating a third-party plug-in. This includes software like AWeber, EmailOctopus, and MailChimp to name a few. This allows you to make use of OptinMonster’s high-quality landing page forms and have them link directly to any email campaign you’d like to launch. It’s simply a matter of finding the right plug-in to suit your style and budget. 

    OptinMonster Automations

    OptinMonster automation options are pretty impressive and can really help with conversions. Some of the basics include auto-detection for when someone is about to leave your site, triggering campaigns when people click on specific sections of your web page, and real-time behavior monitoring. 

    What’s more, you have the option to automatically check how customers are interacting with your various different offers, ultimately allowing you to tweak your campaigns in the future. You can even follow up with geo-location targeting and dynamic text replacement text too. 

    OptinMonster Alternatives

    While OptinMonster has quite an extensive range of features, it’s lacking in some areas such as drag-and-drop builders and analytics. If you’re looking for more from your marketing tool you might want to check out these alternatives. Each provider on our list offers fully customizable email campaigns too, without the need for additional integrations:

    MailerLite - An excellent all-around tool with a feature-rich drag-and-drop editor, a wide range of templates, impressive automation tools, and a training academy to help even complete novices create stunning campaigns. Best of all, you can use the basic package completely free of charge

    EmailOctopus - The perfect alternative for those looking to take a deep dive into facts, figures, and statistics. The real-time customer monitoring lets you adjust campaigns on the go and the incredibly detailed charts and graphs let you really drill down into your different customer segments

    AWeber - AWeber was founded all the way back in 1998 and its decades of experience in the email marketing field mean you’ll get access to a platform that has numerous tricks to ensure your success. We love that all features are immediately available on all plans, the only difference is that the more expensive options allow for more subscribers and larger campaigns

    Try OptinMonster Now

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    optinmonster vs mailchimp