Written by Ria du Plessis - Digital Marketing Expert Updated 9/5/2021 |
Really Simple Systems in a nutshell
Free Plan: | Yes |
User Accounts: | Options for multiple accounts |
Segmentation and Geo: | Yes |
Delivery by Time zone: | Yes |
Free Trial: | No |
Means of Use: | Any internet-accessible device |
Industry: | Marketing, media, technology |
What is Really Simple Systems?
Really Simple Systems is actually primarily a CRM (customer relationship management) system but it offers marketing tools as an extra service.
The CRM can be used for free, for life, but you can add the marketing options if you need them. You can also use the paid options when your team grows and needs more features.
It is an easy-to-use tool that will let you build attractive emails with a simplistic drag-and-drop editor that will help you execute your marketing strategies.
You can also schedule and monitor all your emails so you’ll never miss an opportunity for lead generation.
Really Simple Systems Pros & Cons
PROS | CONS |
✔ Easy to Use ✔ Excellent User Support ✔ Affordable ✔ Offers Great Email Personalization | 🗶 Can’t Send Mass Emails 🗶 Not Focused on Email Marketing 🗶 Doesn’t Offer Detailed Email Analytics
|
PROS
1: Easy to Use: Really Simple Systems has an intuitive interface that is fairly easy to use and won’t leave you scratching your head in confusion or pulling your hair out in frustration. Even without any technical expertise or experience with this kind of tool, you’ll be able to build great-looking emails.
2: Excellent User Support: oftentimes, a tool is brilliant but the customer service team is lacking. That’s not the case here - you can expect great support from the team and they’re keen to assist anyone with questions or problems.
3: Affordable: Really Simple Systems is an affordable choice, especially when compared to many other options available in 2021.
4: Offers Great Email Personalization: if building a personalized email marketing campaign is what you want, you’ll get there with Really Simple Systems. You can add references that are unique to the receivers as well as geolocations and custom information.
CONS
1: Can’t Send Mass Emails: Unfortunately, Really Simple Systems doesn’t have the bulk email sending feature that most email marketing tools do.
2: Not Focused on Email Marketing: this is a CRM-focused tool and as such, it doesn’t have as many features catered towards coming up with brilliant email marketing campaigns.
3. Doesn’t Offer Detailed Email Analytics: Really Simple Systems doesn’t have any in-depth analytics that can be used to keep track of your emails and their performance.
Who is Really Simple Systems Good For?
- You want: a tool that is easy to use and lets you schedule and monitor your emails.
- You need to: save money or are on a tight budget and can’t afford to spend too much on email marketing.
Really Simple Systems Isn’t Recommended For:
- Companies that: want to send out hundreds of emails to their subscribers all at once.
Really Simple Systems Pricing
| Price | Subscribers | Company Records | Document Storage |
Free | $0/mo | Unlimited | 100 | 100MB |
Starter | $18/user/mo | Unlimited | 1,000 | 1GB |
Professional | $38/user/mo | Unlimited | 5,000 | 5GB |
Enterprise | $55/user/mo | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Although Really Simple Services is a bit limited in what they offer in terms of email marketing, they make up for it in affordability and with a really good CRM.
Cancellation/Refund Policy
Really Simple Services will not pay out any refunds if you cancel your subscription early.
Really Simple Systems Features
Let’s take a look at the features you can expect to use for your email marketing campaigns with Really Simple Services.
· Mailing and Consent Lists
Rating: 4/5
It is easy and really simple to collect and record the opt-in consent from your contacts. You can also keep track of when, how, and from what IP address your contacts gave their consent. This can be valuable information for your marketing team.
However, Really Simple Systems expect you to keep your emailing plans completely legal. You must be compliant with international data protection legislation at all times. If your emails are not compliant, your agreement with them will end.
· Lists and Segmentation
Rating: 4/5
Really Simple Systems allow you to create email lists and detailed segments with criteria filters for ease. You can segment your contacts by any of the data you have provided as well as data held in your CRM.
This tool is also good at managing unsubscribes and bounces automatically.
· Schedule and Monitor
Rating: 3.5/5
You can use Really Simple Systems’ sophisticated email scheduler to plan and send your emails when and where they should be sent.
Criteria for scheduling include hour, day, week, and month. Once the email schedule has been set up, you can easily monitor it to stay updated on when they’ll be going out.
· Personalization
Rating: 4/5
Really Simple Systems may not be the ideal tool for email marketing, but it does offer good personalization. You can address your recipients correctly and add references to the information you hold in your CRM.
Additionally, you can include geolocation data and other custom information in your emails to enhance their personalization.
· Really Simple Systems Integrations
Rating: 3/5
Really Simple Systems has an email integration feature, MailSync, that lets you capture emails that go to and from your list of contacts. These can be viewed in the Activities area of your Accounts.
Integrations with third parties are available as well. Supported integrations include Microsoft Exchange, Google Contacts, Xero, Microsoft Outlook, and Kashflow.
This is a rather limited list of integrations, unfortunately.
· Ease of Use
Rating: 4.5/5
If there is one thing that Really Simple Systems does well it’s making their tool easy to use. The interface is user-friendly and the dashboards are just as pleasing and easy to navigate.
Thanks to the drag-and-drop builder, you can easily get started with customizations.
If you do find yourself struggling with something, there are webinars and tutorials that will quickly show you the way.
· Customer Service
Rating 4/5
Another thing that makes Really Simple Systems a good option is its high-quality customer service feature.
You don’t have to worry about getting an external tool, the platform has a system that will help you work with your customers.
If there are any concerns raised by customers, your team will be able to examine previous interactions for context and a personal touch to the discussions. Every case has all the relevant information available that can be used to ensure customer satisfaction.
Creating Email Campaigns and Managing
The following features will help you manage your various campaigns.
Emails sent/opened and links clicked
The CRM campaign management shows customer engagement statistics
Deliverability rate and delivery by time zone (spam)
You can group contacts by time zone and send mail accordingly, ensuring customers receive it at the optimal time of day
Creating and importing email lists
Import your current contacts from Spreadsheets, Outlook, Macs, LinkedIn, Gmail, Hotmail, and Lotus Notes
Split tests and A/B tests
Create any type and size of split test that you choose in order to discover which copy delivers more engagement
Personalization
It's a simple experience to customize almost all aspects of your email campaign
Reporting and Analysis
A comprehensive CRM campaign management center has all of your statistics to hand.
Engagement reports (Email open rate and CR tracking)
There’s a large and accessible section of the website that presents all data related to customer engagement
Segmentation
There are some automated groupings you can choose, such as location, or you can create your own
Social media tracking
Links on your social media broadcasts are tracked and compiled
ROI analysis
The integrated marketing tool gives immediate insight into your current ROI
Really Simple Systems Integrations
You can make the most of your CRM system with the following integrations.
API integrations
Your in-house or favored applications can be added using the API
Integrations with these platforms: Ecommerce, Shopify, Magento, Bigcommerce and Woocommerce
It’s possible to sync with all of these platforms
CRM Integrations
There’s a variety of CRM add-on partners like Xero and SageOne
Social Media integrations
Most common social media applications can be integrated, although you’ll have to do this manually
Apps
Zapier allows you to connect with thousands of apps
Plugins
There’s a wide range of management based add ons, such as Slack and Typeform
Really Simple Systems Automations
This service’s selling point is that it’s intuitive to use, even for those who’ve never dealt with such a system. This does mean that the range of possible automation isn’t as great as with other providers. On the plus side, any automation that you’re considering using with Really Simple Systems comes with a webpage detailing its uses and benefits.
Creating effective email marketing campaigns and web forms are streamlined with Really Simples Systems’ easy-to-use automations.
- Email Marketing Automations
You can quickly schedule email messages that can be sent out by the minute, hour, or day. If you need to plan further ahead, that’s possible as well because you can schedule emails for as far ahead as a week or a month.
- Workflow Automations
Really Simple Systems lets you set up triggers for follow-up tasks as your customers move through your pipeline.
It’s also possible to integrate the CRM with other apps to create workflows for any tasks that are repetitive.
Really Simple Systems Alternatives
Although Really Simple Systems is a good tool to consider for your business, it’s not ideal for email marketing purposes. If that’s a problem for you, here are a few other options you could try instead:
MailerLIte is a free and effective email newsletter software that can compete with many popular email marketing tools. Although its automation feature isn’t as comprehensive, it still works really well.
You can create email newsletters, kick-off email campaigns, and build and execute email promotions.
Constant Contact is mainly focused on small businesses and might not be ideal for large enterprises but does really well at email marketing assistance.
With this tool, you can create cost-effective and efficient strategies that can be carried out without much fuss.
AWeber is one of the most well-known and recommended email marketing software options of 2021. It offers you all you’ll need to build great campaigns and it’s easy to use as well.
You get access to more than 150 email templates that you can customize and you can decide how, where, and when they must be sent to your contacts.
Customer Service
There’s no available phone number, but you can email for assistance at support@reallysimplesystems.com.
Conclusion
Really Simple Systems is not a perfect tool, but it’s a good option to consider. It’s easy to use and affordable, but if you’re looking for a tool dedicated to amazing email marketing, I would suggest you look elsewhere. Perhaps one of the alternatives I mentioned here might be just what you need.
For a beginner in the world of email advertising, Really Simple Systems is a decent starting point. It offers assistance with every stage of your marketing campaigns, to the point that even someone with no prior knowledge whatsoever could casually use it. However, there's a trade-off between ease of use and complexity of the product, and to make way for a straightforward to use service, some higher-level functions such as automation have been skimped on.
Constant Contact is a decent competitor to this service, as it too has a large library of useful information related to the running of a successful email marketing campaign and the use of its system, but it provides way more advanced options for APIs and automation.