Email marketing remains one of the most effective digital marketing channels for businesses looking to engage with customers and drive conversions. GetResponse has emerged as a popular email service provider, offering a range of features beyond basic email newsletters.
But with so many options on the market, is GetResponse the right choice for your business? This in-depth review covers everything you need to make an informed decision.
Overview of GetResponse
GetResponse markets itself as an all-in-one marketing platform, allowing you to build email lists, create newsletters and autoresponders, publish landing pages, send SMS messages, and more—all from a single dashboard.
Launched in Poland in 1997 before expanding globally, GetResponse now serves over 350,000 customers worldwide. Its core features include:
- Email marketing
- Landing pages & forms
- Contact management
- Marketing automation
- Sales funnels
- Ecommerce solutions
- Webinars
- SMS messaging
Standout aspects include the customizable dashboard, AI-powered copywriting assistant, goal-based automation workflows, and native integration with major ecommerce platforms.
In this GetResponse review, we’ll take an in-depth look at its key features and capabilities across these different categories.
GetResponse Key Features
GetResponse packs an extensive suite tools into a single platform. Here we’ll review some of its most important offerings to see how they stack up to competitors.
Email Marketing
As you’d expect, GetResponse offers a full range of email marketing capabilities to help you build and communicate with your subscriber list.
Its drag-and-drop email builder makes light work of creating stylish, mobile-responsive newsletter templates or setting up autoresponder sequences. You have complete control over content, links, images, layouts, and more.
There are also helpful productivity enhancers like an AI assistant that can instantly generate high-converting email copy, the ability to save and reuse content blocks, and A/B testing tools to continuously optimize your emails.
When sending your campaigns, you can target specific subscriber segments and leverage automation rules to deliver personalized, well-timed messages.
Useful email analytics allow you to measure open rates, clickthroughs, conversions, and more. If there‘s one drawback, it’s the lack of predictive sending features based on engagement data.
Overall though, GetResponse delivers a robust email toolkit that should suit most small business needs. The interface is clean and intuitive enough for beginners, while still packing the advanced functionality demanded by power users.
Landing Pages & Forms
Lead capture forms the lifeblood of email marketing. GetResponse allows you to easily create customized landing pages and pop-ups to convert website visitors into subscribers.
Using its drag-and-drop builder, you can quickly build pages that align to your brand. Select from an extensive template library or start from scratch. Dynamic forms then let visitors instantly subscribe to your email lists.
Much like the email creator, the page builder provides expansive customization options covering images, videos, countdown timers, testimonials, layouts, and design elements.
There‘s also built-in analytics to reveal your best-performing pages and conversion rates. The pages load quickly and render well on mobile devices.
While GetResponse isn’t quite as powerful as dedicated landing page builders, it neatly handles basic lead gen needs for most small businesses.
Contact Management
Managing contacts is vital for segmenting your subscribers, tracking engagement, and targeting communications.
GetResponse equips you with all core CRM features in this regard. You can create custom fields to capture subscriber details, tag contacts, organize them into lists and segments, view historical activity, leave notes, and more.
Useful list management tools help you remove inactive subscribers, prevent spam traps, and maintain your domains‘ sending reputation.
There‘s also support for importing and exporting contact data if you need to sync your lists with other platforms. Custom APIs offer deeper integration if required.
For basic subscriber relationship management, GetResponse hits the mark. The only major lacking is predictive lead scoring based on subscriber engagement. But the platform capably covers all essential contact management needs.
Marketing Automation
Here‘s where GetResponse really steps up with a visual workflow builder that can automate multi-channel customer interactions.
Drag-and-drop tools help you map out sophisticated behavioral sequences to nurture contacts based on conditional triggers and filters. You can set up workflows for abandoned cart recovery, post-purchase follow-ups, lead nurturing, retention campaigns, and much more.
These automation workflows can string together email sends, SMS messages, web push notifications, on-site pop-up triggers, API calls, tags, and custom field updates in response to specific subscriber actions.
There are also pre-built automation templates you can customize for key scenarios like running webinars or product launches. And everything ties neatly back to campaign metrics for continuous optimization.
For small marketing teams looking to level up beyond basic emails, GetResponse delivers capable automation that larger enterprises would appreciate. The visual workflow builder does involve a learning curve, but it’s easier than pure code-based automation platforms.
Sales Funnels & Ecommerce
Expanding beyond general email list building, GetResponse also caters to ecommerce stores with tools targeted at driving sales.
You can create multi-step conversion funnels that leverage email, SMS, web notifications, pop-up forms, and landing pages to turn cold leads into customers. Useful templates help guide first-time users.
There is also deep integration with all major shopping cart platforms. Connect your existing WooCommerce, Shopify, or Magento store to unlock additional sales features.
These include creating customer segments and email lists based on purchase history, automating post-purchase review requests and reorder reminders, running targeted product recommendation campaigns, and recovering abandoned carts.
GetResponse essentially enables online retailers all the email marketing, lead nurturing, and behavioral targeting required for long term business growth—making this a great all-in-one option if don‘t want to juggle multiple apps.
Reporting & Analytics
Understanding your email and landing page campaign performance is key to optimizing results. GetResponse’s dashboard provides an interactive snapshot of opens, clicks, conversions, subscribes, and other key metrics.
You can delve deeper into the data with its expanded analytics suite tracking 60+ industry benchmarks across your emails, forms, pop-ups, landing pages, automation workflows, and funnels.
Filtering and segmentation tools let you drill down into metrics by campaign, contact group, or date range. There are also neat features like conversion rate optimization tools that can help improve page effectiveness.
Exportable reports help document the raw figures, while customizable dashboard widgets allow individuals to curate the KPIs most relevant to their role.
For everyday analytics needs, GetResponse delivers detailed performance visibility without overwhelming non-data analysts. If your needs outscale the platform over time, there‘s also a Salesforce CRM integration available.
Integrations & APIs
Given its positioning as an all-in-one marketing platform, GetResponse packs native connections to popular third-party systems across major categories:
- Emailing – Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo
- Ecommerce – WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento, PrestaShop
- CRM – Salesforce, HubSpot, Freshsales, Pipedrive
- Cloud Storage – Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive
- Web Conferencing – Zoom, Webex
- Productivity – Slack, Basecamp, Asana
- Analytics – Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel
Developers can also tap into GetResponse’s APIs to build deeper custom integrations. Webhooks are additionally provided for real-time messaging from your website or marketing workflows.
So between its extensive library of native connectors and available APIs, GetResponse plays well as the centralized hub for your digital marketing stack.
GetResponse Pros and Cons
Based on our hands-on testing and analysis, here are the key upsides and potential downsides to consider with GetResponse:
Pros
- All-in-one functionality removes need for multiple tools
- Drag-and-drop editor and automation builder are highly intuitive
- Packs advanced features like AI copywriting and conversion funnels
- Deep ecommerce integration ideal for online retailers
- Polished and responsive user interface
- High inbox placement and delivery rates
Cons
- Steeper learning curve for automation workflows
- Survey capabilities less robust than dedicated feedback software
- Advanced features only available on higher-priced plans
- Must buy upfront for cheapest rates rather than pay monthly
GetResponse is clearly positioned as a scalable solution for growing businesses rather than micro startups. The expansive feature set justifies the pricing model that sees costs rise with list size.
Businesses planning aggressive email list growth will need to account for ballooning subscription fees. But overall, GetResponse remains cost effective given the broad tools provided.
For established enterprises with over 100k subscribers seeking maximum reliability and support guarantees, GetResponse also provides managed plans.
Ideal GetResponse Use Cases
Based on its areas of strength, here are the best-fit business types for GetResponse:
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Ecommerce Retailers – Deep shopping cart integrations and email/automation sequencing targeted to drive repeat purchases make GetResponse an obvious choice for online retailers.
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Digital Publishers & Blogs – The platform’s webinars, multi-step funnels, and content upgrade capabilities suit publishers with engaged audiences and premium offers.
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Marketing Agencies – With shared team logins, white labeling capabilities, and a generous free tier for testing, GetResponse works for digital marketing agencies managing multiple brand accounts.
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Mobile & Web-Based SaaS – Those selling subscription software can leverage GetResponse’s automation for user onboarding, engagement, retention, referrals, and more.
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Local Service Businesses – Features like SMS messaging, scheduling assistants, and CRM integrations meet localized client communication and organizational needs.
These best-fit scenarios center on companies needing to coordinate multi-channel outreach, complex sales sequences, and organization-wide visibility for sustained customer engagement efforts.
Top GetResponse Alternative Options
GetResponse delivers exceptional breadth across integrated email marketing, landing pages, CRM, automation, and ecommerce functionality. However, focused needs may warrant comparison alternatives:
- Mailchimp – Best for beginners prioritizing simplicity, branding, and creative design over advanced automation
- AWeber – Long-standing email provider with easier learning curve for solopreneurs
- Constant Contact – More next-step guidance for less experienced users but fewer advanced features
- ActiveCampaign – Leading CRM and marketing automation for segmented messaging at scale
- Klaviyo – Specialized abandoned cart recovery and omnichannel workflows for ecommerce
- Omnisend – Shopify-optimized emails and SMS messaging for stores with tighter platform alignment
Most directly comparable is Mailchimp given its expansive features. But GetResponse pips it for automation and ecommerce selling capabilities—albeit at a steeper price.
The Verdict: Who Should Use GetResponse?
In closing, GetResponse deserves its reputation as a leader in the email marketing space. The platform neatly combines sophisticated list building, creative email design, and complex behavioral automations rivaling pure CRM software.
For retailers and other customer-centric businesses focused on engagement-driven experiences across the buyer‘s journey, GetResponse delivers the comprehensive toolset required.
The main caveats remain the significant upfront investment for multi-year packages and higher learning curve around advanced features. But for established small businesses through to rapidly scaling enterprises, GetResponse presents an end-to-end digital marketing solution worthy of investment.
