Vertical Response Review 2021

Vertical Response in a nutshell

This online platform offers small businesses the possibility to maintain a real and honest relationship with their clientele through complex marketing campaigns, personalized e-mails, offers, and newsletters. It also allows anyone to design and share their campaigns on social media. It was founded in 2001 and its headquarters are in the United States.

VerticalResponse Pros & Cons

PROS

• Free 60-day trial and free version are available: VerticalResponse offers not only a 60-day completely free trial for everyone to try but it also comes with a forever free version which is limited but gets the job done, especially for people on a budget or NGOs.
• It’s affordable: Even without those free benefits, this platform is one of the most affordable on the market. Even if the prices for the paid plans increase as your e-mail list size grows, it’s still a good deal.
• Social media posting is available: This is probably one of the most interesting features of this tool, even if, at the moment, you can only share your campaigns on Facebook and Twitter.

CONS

• Doesn’t have a mobile version: VerticalReponse doesn’t yet have a mobile version for its platform so clients need to always be near a computer to create and manage their campaigns. 
• Problematic customer support: Their customer support is available via e-mail for all clients while clients with paid plans can also use live chat or phone support. However, this doesn’t make a difference when the people talking to you answer late, are rude or don’t solve your issue.
• Simplistic and bland UI: The user interface on this platform could use some modernization because it looks simplistic, boring, and it certainly lacks a certain spark to attract more clients.

Who is VerticalResponse Good For?

• Small businesses and NGOs: VerticalResponse even advertises itself as being an e-mail marketing platform for small businesses and non-profit organizations which means that it works the best for a smaller number of contacts.
• People who don’t want to spend a lot: As I previously said, this platform is one of the most affordable on the market and this makes it the perfect option for people who are on a budget or simply don’t feel like spending too much on such a tool. Its free trial and free version also help in this case.

VerticalResponse Isn’t Recommended For:

• Big businesses: This is self-explanatory because I already mentioned how VerticalResponse works the best for small businesses. So, if you are a medium or large company with lots of subscribers and a need for more complex marketing campaigns, keep looking.
• People looking for a highly advanced tool: It’s not that VerticalResponse doesn’t provide advanced marketing tools but if you are someone at the helm of a big company needing a tool that can handle complex and large-scale campaigns for a very high number of subscribers, you might want to pick another platform.

VerticalResponse Pricing

It’s worth letting you know that you can customize these paid plans according to the size of your e-mail list and the price will obviously go up as well. You can also contact VerticalResponse for higher volume plans, pay-as-you-go plans, and non-profit discounts.

Cancellation/Refund Policy

You can cancel your VerticalResponse account at any given time. The company can also cancel your account whenever it wants and for whatever reason. As for refunds, they are only available in case you are left with unused credits in your pay-as-you-go plan. Those will be refunded to you by the company. 

VerticalResponse Features

Now it’s time to talk a bit about VerticalResponse’s most prominent e-mail marketing features and see where they stand from an objective point of view. Here we go!

·      Professional e-mail creation

Rating: 5/5

You can start with a pre-made e-mail template, customize it according to your wish or simply leave it as it is in case it fits your purpose. There are also pre-formatted content blocks that make it very easy to move stuff around and position the elements of your e-mails exactly how you want.

·      Automatic follow-ups

Rating: 4.8/5

In case you want to make your whole job a lot easier and save time, you are free to schedule automatic follow-up e-mails for your subscribers. VerticalResponse offers its clients the possibility to have a more in-depth understanding of how campaigns are going and improve upon that. 

·      In-depth insights

Rating: 4.8/5

VerticalResponse helps its clients by offering them the possibility to access more in-depth sets of insights concerning customer behavior. You can see every little detail, from what they click on and what they open to where they are located and what kinds of devices they use. The Advanced Reporting tool then helps you compare and analyze, and customize your campaigns.

This is how the dashboard on VerticalResponse looks like

·      Landing page building

Rating: 4.7/5

Regardless of what the purpose of a brand-new landing page is, it must always look professional and complete. This platform’s creator tool allows you to completely customize your landing pages according to what they need to promote and what kinds of customers you want to attract.

·      A/B testing

Rating: 4.5/5

The A/B testing tool on VerticalResponse would have been even great if it would have been available for all users, regardless of what plan they chose. This way, only Pro users can actually test their e-mail marketing campaigns before launching them. Among other things, you can change words and subject lines and see which versions work the best. 

·      Customer feedback

Rating: 5/5

What your clients think about your business is the most important thing in marketing. This is why this platform allows you to create interactive and attractive feedback surveys that are also mobile-friendly. You don’t need any prior design or coding experience because the platform does everything for you. 

This is how some of the landing page templates look like on VerticalResponse

VerticalResponse Automations

The automation tools that VerticalResponse offers are very easy to use even for an inexperienced individual and this is where it gets points from me. Here are more details on that:

• E-mail marketing automation: This platform calls them autoresponders and they are e-mails that you can schedule and send automatically depending on various occasions, events, or based on certain triggers. You can create automatic campaigns for new users or for those who unsubscribe through which you can convince them to return. 
• Follow-up e-mails: You can also schedule and send automatic follow-up e-mails to your clients each time they seem to miss your initial message. VerticalResponse helps you with changing the subject line and any other details that could improve the clickthrough rate of your campaigns.

This is how creating an automatic e-mail from a template looks like on VerticalResponse

VerticalResponse Integrations

The integrations that are available on VerticalResponse are certainly many and very different. This is a very good thing because it suits a larger palette of clients and e-mail marketing campaigns. The platform offers you indications on how to integrate these apps. Some of the most important of them are WordPress, Magento, salesforce, Tatango, Lander, Zapier, FullContact, Nimble, and SuveryMonkey.

These are some of the VerticalResponse integrations on the official website

VerticalResponse Alternatives

Constant Contact is an alternative for this platform in the sense that it has very similar e-mail marketing features. Its most popular e-mail marketing-focused price plan costs $45 per month and offers a plethora of tools that are suitable for all kinds of businesses.

Sendinblue is another good option for all types of businesses and even for entrepreneurs, with prices starting at only €19/month. It comes with a free plan that anyone can use and a collection of highly advanced automation tools.

Mailerlite is also good in case you own a business that wants to elaborate on its connection with the subscribers in a professional yet friendly manner. It has a lot of e-mail automation tools, personalization tools, and its prices start at only $10/month. It also comes with a free trial for potential future clients to try.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I consider VerticalResponse to be a very good online e-mail marketing platform that’s both affordable and efficient, especially in the case of small businesses and NGOs, like I already mentioned. Its large number of tools and features make it worth your attention, especially it also has both a free trial and a free version that anyone can successfully use.