GetResponse or ActiveCampaign: Which Email Marketing Platform?

Whether to choose GetResponse or ActiveCampaign when deciding on your email marketing.

Email marketing allows you to connect with your target audience on a different level, build their trust, and eventually reap greater returns for your business.

So which email marketing platform should you be using?

Getresponse and Activecampaign have their own pros and cons though so you can determine which one is better suited to your business.

To help you choose wisely, here’s an in-depth comparison of GetResponse and ActiveCampaign, taking their email marketing, marketing automation, and CRM capabilities as well as pricing into consideration.

Creating and expanding a loyal base of customers is the ultimate goal of any business.

As a matter of fact, 63% of marketers think that the acquisition of new customers is the most important goal of marketing.

Platforms like GetResponse or ActiveCampaign are designed to help its users manage contacts, run email marketing campaigns, and send messages automatically to their subscribers.

ActiveCampaign and GetResponse are equipped with similar sets of tools, which makes identifying the differences between them difficult.

Sending newsletters, creating subscription forms, or performing A/B split tests are just a few features ActiveCampaign and GetResponse have in common.

However, their lists of features are not identical, and these small differences can play a large role during an email marketing campaign.

Knowing exactly what the email marketing tool can and cannot do is going to help you plan a more efficient email marketing strategy.

So here are some of the key differences between GetResponse and ActiveCampaign:

What is GetResponse?

GetResponse is an email marketing platform.

It enables you to create a valuable marketing list of prospects, partners, and clients, so you can develop relationships with them and build a responsive and profitable customer base.

It has the deliverability rate of 99.5%, to make sure your messages reach destination inboxes.

Add contacts

• create contact lists to manage your contact database.
• import an existing contact list
• integrate your GetResponse account with other services to set up recurring imports
• keep your contact lists growing and customer information up to date with landing pages, forms, and surveys
• use social media tools that give you an easy way to tap into the list-building power of social referrals

Plan marketing campaigns and manage sales

• use a drag-and-drop newsletter editor with ready-to-use templates. You can also design your own template or use the HTML editor
• use autoresponders to follow up automatically with customers, providing info, offers, and all types of friendly communication.
• use Conversion funnel to sell more products, manage and develop online sales. GetResponse Conversion funnel is an all-in-one tool that can help you promote and sell products online, find potential buyers, build your lists of contacts, retain your clients and increase sales results.
• create automation workflows to create a process that reflects your customers’ experience. This scalable tool allows your customers to receive messages based on their actions, and for you to reward their engagement.
• test out your marketing strategies with A/B testing newsletters and landing pages.

Analyze results and plan new strategies

• Search contacts and create unlimited segments based on specific demographic and customer behavior criteria to manage your contact list and design marketing strategies that match the expectations of your customers.
• take advantage of analytics tools that enable you to create targeted offers to improve conversion rates

What is ActiveCampaign?

ActiveCampaign stands out for providing users with features that many other email marketing services simply don’t have.

One example of this is SMS marketing, which you can use to reach contacts by text rather than by email.

The platform’s machine learning-based features are also somewhat unique.

You can use predictive sending to track when your contacts open your marketing emails.

During future campaigns, the software will automatically send out your emails at the optimal time to boost engagement.

You can also track the probability of converting a lead into a customer using ActiveCampaign.

The software assigns positive or negative scores based on how contacts interact with your content, such as signing up for a webinar or ignoring your emails.

For businesses with a lot of subscribers, this can make it easier to focus efforts on the contacts that are most likely to generate revenue.

GetResponse or ActiveCampaign Main Differences:

The main differences between ActiveCampaign vs GetReponse are:

GetResponse:

• Landing page builder
• Autofunnels
• webinar tools
• integrate SMS messages with 3rd party
• free trial for 30 days

ActiveCampaign:

• SMS messaging direct
• automation map feature
• machine learning tools
• free trial for 14 days

Even though the differences between two platforms can seem negligible, GetResponse is more reliable of the two platforms for marketers and entrepreneurs who want to build Autofunnels or set up and schedule webinars effortlessly.

GetResponse or ActiveCampaign: Email Marketing

GetResponse and ActiveCampaign are similar when it comes to email marketing.

ActiveCampaign makes it easy for users to create stunning email campaigns.

Even if you’re a newbie to the world of email marketing, you don’t have to worry because ActiveCampaign makes it pretty easy to get started.

Its email builder comes in the form of a drag-and-drop editor, allowing you to create eye-catching emails in a jiffy.

If you don’t want to start from zero, however, you can always choose from its range of pre-designed templates.

What’s good about the templates is that they’re mobile-friendly and you can customize them however you want to, whether by adding images, changing up the colors, or choosing a different font.

If you want to know how your email campaigns are doing, that won’t be a problem because ActiveCampaign has reporting features. It also has A/B split testing so that you can keep on optimizing your emails and gain more clicks and purchases each time.

One of the best things about GetResponse is its Perfect Timing and Time Travel delivery tools.

They make sure that your emails not only land in the right inboxes but that they get there at the perfect time as well.

GetResponse is proven to have a 99.9% delivery rate so you can be sure that your emails won’t get lost in the shuffle.

Similarly to ActiveCampaign, GetResponse makes it easy to create an email from scratch because it has a drag-and-drop builder as well.

All you have to do is choose the elements that you think are appropriate and place them in their respective spots.

Alternatively, you can just customize any of the existing pre-made templates if you don’t want to start from nothing.

GetResponse also makes it easy to track your campaign’s performance, providing users with advanced email analytics as well as A/B split testing.

GetResponse or ActiveCampaign: Marketing Automation

Both GetResponse and ActiveCampaign have similar marketing automation capabilities. 

GetResponse:

Within your workflows, GetResponse allows you to include conditions, actions, and filters. 

ActiveCampaign:

Automation might seem like an intimidating thing but ActiveCampaign makes it less so.

With its drag-and-drop automation builder, you can easily create your own workflows with just a few clicks.

It’s a very visual editor and so you can see exactly which stage you’re in as you go along.

It also has a segmentation feature that allows you to send emails that are relevant to each and every customer.

This way, your audience is more likely to respond the way you want them to.

You can, for example, send a follow-up email whenever a customer performs a certain action such as making a purchase.

If you’re still unsure of the whole automation process, you can always refer to the training guides or turn to the platform’s one-on-one live support for help.

With GetResponse, you can create simple automation workflows as well as more complex ones.

They have a visual drag-and-drop builder as well so the creation process is quite similar to ActiveCampaign’s.

You get to look at your workflows from a bird’s-eye view and so it’s easy for you to see exactly what should be added or removed.

Its automation builder is complete with ready-made blocks so all you have to do is pick out the ones that are relevant to you and place them where you’d like them to go.

You also get to choose from a range of actions, conditions, and filters, allowing you to customize your workflows exactly the way you want to.

Not only that but you also have access to tools that will help you score your contacts based on their actions, allowing you to see which leads are the most and least likely to convert into customers.

GetResponse or ActiveCampaign: Sales Automation and CRM

Both ActiveCampaign and GetReponse make it easy to keep tabs on your leads. 

ActiveCampaign makes it easy to keep an eye on your leads and automate your sales funnel. 

With ActiveCampaign’s built-in sales features, you can easily keep an eye on your leads and customers as well as use automation to streamline your sales process. This means that you don’t have to bend over backward anymore because you can simply let automation do the work for you.

It will identify new leads for you and nurture your existing customers, allowing you and your team to focus on other aspects of the business.

When a lead signs up, for example, they’ll immediately be welcomed with an email campaign and their actions will be monitored so that they can be followed-up in the correct way.

Every customer’s action triggers a corresponding response and so you can be sure that everyone’s specific needs are catered to.

As for ActiveCampaign’s CRM, it puts all of your contacts and their information in one place, allowing you to see exactly where they stand in the sales funnel.

Similarly to ActiveCampaign, GetResponse’s CRM allows you to manage your contacts and sales funnel in one place.

This makes it extra easy for you to see exactly where your leads are in the pipeline and make sure that no one is forgotten.

It’s easy to update the status of your leads because all you have to do is drag and drop them onto the next stage once they’ve made progress.

You can even add notes under each lead so that you can be reminded of what has previously been talked about and agreed upon.

This is a very helpful feature especially if you’re working with a team.

It allows all team members to stay in the loop and because everyone is updated, anyone can assist any given lead or customer.

GetResponse or ActiveCampaign: Features

The features provided by the GetResponse platform are divided into Communication Tools and Growth Tools categories. The Communication tools category contains these subcategories:

• Email marketing
• Autoresponders
• Automation feature
• Webinars
• Simple CRM

Growth Categories include the following features:

• Autofunnels
• Landing Pages
• Forms and Surveys

ActiveCampaign’s features are organized into five major categories:

• Email marketing
• Marketing automation
• Sales and CRM
• Messaging
• Machine Learning

Each of these categories contains a number of tools that allow ActiveCampaign’s users to create dynamic content, track events or send SMS messages.

As you can see, there are only a few differences between GetResponse and ActiveCampaign platforms.

Which platform you choose depends on the email marketing tools you need to run your business more efficiently.

Unlike ActiveCampaing, GetResponse allows you to set up and schedule webinars, and it grants you access to interactive tools like polls, whiteboards, or chats that can increase the engagement rates.

The set of webinar tools is probably the biggest difference between ActiveCampaign and GetResponse since ActiveCampaign’s users must rely on the platform’s integration options if they want to promote webinars.

GetResponse or ActiveCampaign: Additional Features

Landing pages and webinars in GetResponse while ActiveCampaign has SMS and site messaging. 

GetResponse allows users to host webinars for their customers. 

One thing that GetResponse has that ActiveCampaign doesn’t is a landing page builder.

With this tool, you can create stunning and effective landing pages that will help convert leads to customers.

There are tons of landing page templates for you to choose from, all of which you can customize.

Some examples of the types of landing pages you can create are downloads, sales pages, and email opt-in pages.

GetResponse’s analytics lets you track landing pages and you can further optimize them by using the A/B split tracker.

Another feature that GetReponse has that ActiveCampaign is lacking is built-in webinars.

With webinars ongoing, you can engage and interact with your customers through screen sharing, polls, and live chat.

While ActiveCampaign doesn’t have a landing page builder or built-in webinars, it has something that GetResponse doesn’t.

GetResponse only lets users reach their leads and customers via email.

ActiveCampaign allows you to connect with your contact base through SMS and site messaging as well.

This feature is pretty useful because you can communicate with your audience wherever they are and whenever you want to.

You can send them reminders and notifications via text messages or Facebook ads, and chatting.

It gives you the option to customize your site messages and change them up according to your segmentation.

GetResponse or ActiveCampaign: Pricing

You get to save a bit more with GetResponse. 

GetResponse offers four pricing tiers.

Both ActiveCampaign and GetResponse have four pricing tiers to choose from.

ActiveCampain pricing:

• Lite ($9/Mth)
• Plus ($49/mth)
• Professional ($129/mth)
• Enterprise ($ 229/mth)

GetResponse Pricing:

• Basic ($15/mth)
• Plus ($49/mth)
• Professional ($ 99/mth)
• Max (Custom Pricing)

GetResponse saves you because if you were to compare its Professional plan to that of ActiveCampaign’s, it’s cheaper by $30.

And yet both plans offer the same number of contacts.

As for free trials, both platforms allow users to test the waters although GetReponse has a longer trial period of 30 days.

ActiveCampaign’s free trial is only for 14 days.

GetResponse or ActiveCampaign: Conclusion

It all boils down to their additional features and pricing plans. 

GetResponse and ActiveCampaign are quite similar when it comes to email marketing, marketing automation, and CRM.

Both platforms will be able to help you out if you want to impress your customers:

• design beautiful email campaigns
• create complex automation workflows
• keep track of all your leads

So how do you choose between the two?

It all boils down to their additional features and their pricing plans.

GetResponse is great if you want to enjoy features such as landing pages and webinars and save some money at the same time.

As for ActiveCampaign, you might have to shell out a bit more although you get to reap the benefits of SMS and site messaging.

GetResponse Free Trial

ActiveCampaign Free Trial

To Your Success

Juan Villar

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