Shouldn't an email management software make your marketing campaigns easier?
All good business email marketing is done through some level of automation. In addition to saving time and increasing user engagement, automated features allow you to personalize the email experience for every consumer.
Rather than coding your own programs, email marketing companies offer multiple email management features. These include email creation, automation processes, data capturing, and maintenance of different subscriber lists. Most of these programs also offer some form of data and analytics reporting.
When you start looking for a comprehensive email platform for your business, two of the first names you'll see are Getresponse and Aweber. Both platforms are popular and effective. But which actually performs better?
Overview of Getresponse and Aweber
Shared Features
Unique Getresponse Features
Unique Aweber Features
Winner: Getresponse
Aweber functions as an email managing tool, but that's all it is. Meanwhile, Getresponse has enough extra features to function as a full-service marketing management tool. You can create and launch website content, host webinars, and create complex marketing automation workflows.
Template Options
Getresponse
Getresponse has 500 free responsive templates available for creating different newsletters. These are easy to edit with your custom colors, images, text, and other content. Some of the designs are less visually appealing than the competition, though.
With the most recent email editor update, Getresponse gives you access to hundreds of Google-specific fonts.
Aweber
Aweber has far more email templates available than basically any competitor on the market. You can pick from one of 700 responsive options. Unfortunately, the font options are much more limited than with the other service.
This program's email templates integrate AMP for email. That's a type of technology that allows you to create dynamic email content. Dynamic content changes according to different variables, so people have a reason to check back every so often.
The AMP for email feature can also create interactive emails. You can send newsletters with clickable RSVP buttons, multiple choice polls, or social media sharing tools. Consumers can use these without needing outside software or to open another web page.
Winner: Aweber
When it comes to customization options that drive conversions, Aweber is head and shoulders above the competition. Each of the 700 templates is designed with specific user engagement in mind. And by adding dynamic and interactive elements, you draw the consumer in rather than bombarding them with static updates.
Autoresponder Programs
Getresponse
The autoresponder program is equipped to send emails during time intervals following a subscription, or in response to a subscriber's action. The action-based trigger setup is one of the strongest points here. There are multiple comprehensive options for different user actions, and the actual automation creation is easier than with the competition.
The full list of potential action triggers includes:
Aweber
Aweber's autoresponder function works the same way as the other service's, featuring automation processes centered around time intervals and actions. Though the customization options aren't as comprehensive, you can still create fairly effective workflows.
Some actions available include:
Most of Aweber's action-based emails are done by automating the creation of segmented subscriber lists.
Winner: Getresponse
Getresponse has more customization options regarding user actions and personalization. It also has an interface that's easier to understand. Once you get the hang of Aweber's automatic segmentation process, you can use that system to your advantage as well.
Marketing Automation Tools
Getresponse
The Marketing Automation program allows for more complex use of your autoresponder. The interface uses drag-and-drop flowcharts to customize emails based on any number of consumer interactions.
Some of the most common workflow procedures are based around specific types of:
This interface allows you to create unlimited variations in different workflows. You can even save different action chains and reuse them for more than one email, link, or product.
Aweber
Though the program includes some basic marketing automation tools, they aren't nearly as comprehensive, customizable, or easy to use. The 'Campaigns' tool is the closest thing.
Each campaign is designed similarly to the workflows in the other program. You have fairly limited actions, though:
These automated processes help the program to create multiple segmented lists at once, so you can target large swaths of your consumer base with highly personalized content. However, since the lists are mostly tag-based, they can be harder to manage and organize.
Winner: Getresponse
Both of these platforms have similar ways of building automation workflows to send more personalized emails. But Getresponse's tools include automation templates, the ability to duplicate your work across multiple channels, and more customizable actions and triggers.
Landing Page Building
Aweber
Aweber doesn't have a landing page building component at all. You'll need to use a third party tool to attach landing pages to your emails.
Getresponse
Getresponse, on the other hand, lets you create personalized landing pages for advertisements and emails in minutes.
See Full Review of - GetResponse | Aweber
Pros and Cons of Getresponse
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Cons
Pros and Cons of Aweber
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Cons
Final Thoughts: Which is Better?
Aside from the AMP for email feature, Getresponse has every single tool and functionality included in the Aweber software. On top of that, the program comes with a landing page builder, complex sales and marketing automation tools, a simple CRM interface, and webinar hosting.
That means that Getresponse is more equipped to handle the parts of your marketing that exist outside your email inbox.
On the other hand, Aweber does everything you want an email management program to do inside your inbox. It's a simple interface for beginners that's priced affordably. You can create and manage contact lists, design emails, and analyze conversion data.
