GetResponse, AWeber or MailChimp? Which Is Best For You?

Are you building your list right now? Nothing is more important to every website, business, ecommerce store or blog than being able to communicate with your visitors via email.

Which email marketing solution you choose is critical to your success – but the most important thing is to act immediately. Don’t spend days, weeks, months or even years analyzing which tool to use and then look back and think, “I wish I’d built a mailing list for my site”.

Choose and act. Of the most mentioned email solutions, all of them will provide the capabilities you need. The top three most mentioned are GetResponse, MailChimp and AWeber.

All three will send mobile responsive emails and provide autoresponders and email templates, but if you want the optimum results, read on.

Why We Don’t Recommend AWeber

We’ll dispense with AWeber first. Here are two reasons not to use AWeber:

1. Did you know AWeber charges you for subscribers who have unsubscribed? If you use them, stay on top of cleaning out those unsubscribes or you’re paying for nothing!
2. AWeber charges you for spammers who sign up with fake emails (that are immediately unsubscribed). Spammers cost Kristi Hines an extra $20 in one month (which could have continued if she hadn’t cleaned them out immediately after the first increased charge:

How do I know they are spammers? Of course, this is only an assumption, but we’re talking a huge number of people who “signed up” using the opt-in form in my sidebar and were automatically unsubscribed because their email addresses didn’t work.

Why should an email marketing company be charging you for unsubscribes? What if even more spammers subscribe and push you into even higher charges? Too much risk for me.

AWeber vs GetResponse

My collaborator Tom Drake previously shared with my readers Why Create Hype Switched from AWeber to GetResponse.

Here is a good video from Justin Bryant of Selfmadesuccess.com comparing AWeber and GetResponse:

Many people are making the switch, both within my communities and in others I don’t frequent.

Here is a useful post on why Kristian Hoenicke of IHadaJobOnce.com switched from AWeber to GetResponse and a video on How to Move Your List from AWeber to GetResponse.

GetResponse Deliverability / Open Rate Beats AWeber

The most important information in that post is about improved deliverability:

When he moved his list from AWeber to GetResponse, his deliverability rate doubled and his open rate increased from 7% to 12.05%.

He isn’t the only one reporting poor deliverability on AWeber. In Why I Switched From Aweber To GetResponse For My Email Marketing, Kumar Gauraw wrote: 

I have to agree with Kumar. If Neil Patel with his unlimited client budgets believes GetResponse is the best email solution, GetResponse is the best choice.

Mobile Responsiveness

I already know it has the most features and more powerful land page and split testing capabilities. They have more templates. And the coolest feature I find really valuable is their ability to preview what emails will look like on smartphones.

Make sure your emails are readable on mobile devices because research shows people do not save emails they can’t read on their mobile phone to read later on their PCs; they simply DELETE THEM!

What better way to make sure your emails display properly than to use the GetResponse mobile preview view? If you need assistance, GetResponse offers live chat and has a full university to make it easier to hone your email marketing skills.

MailChimp vs GetResponse

Many bloggers start out using MailChimp because they can use it free until they have more than 2000 subscribers or want to send more than 12,000 emails per month.

If you just don’t have enough budget to afford to pay for an email marketing solution, MailChimp could work for you – with one caveat: Never, ever put an affiliate link in anything in your email!

Justin Germino at DragonBlogger.com used MailChimp until they suddenly disabled his account:

“They disabled and broke all links in my emails which did go out to the 480+ mailing list subscribers I had.  So the links to all my contests = broken and I had many readers contact me to say my links were broken which is how I found out my account had been disabled in the first place.”

He had sent the exact same template out 12 times and then *poof*. So MailChimp is also too much risk for me. If you can only afford something free, you will have to choose between MailChimp and the very limited free version of MadMimi. (Only 100 subscribers, but unlimited emails to those contacts and no autoresponders in the free accounts.)

Think Long Term

If you’re serious about making money online, think long term. What I mean by this is that serious marketers will want to use many templates and create multiple landing pages.

They will need to split test their creatives. Here’s what Chris Singleton of StyleFactoryProductions.com has to say in his GetResponse vs MailChimp review:

More GetResponse Comparisons:

You don’t have to take my word for it. Here are some more GetResponse reviews and comparisons for you to check out:

• BecomeABlogger: Email Marketing Comparison Chart Excellent chart showing which features each email solution offers
• Email-Marketing-Options: GetResponse vs. Other Top Email Marketing Services
• GetResponse vs MailChimp

Still not sure about how to get started building your list and doing email marketing? Check this out:

Hopefully, I’ve convinced you that you should start building your list right away. If I were choosing which email solution to use today, there is no doubt in my mind that it would be GetResponse.

Anyone who can afford the minimal cost should invest in this solution for maximum results and not waste time playing around with free alternatives unless you just can’t spend the money to do it right.

If you already have a list, invest time in learning to use it more effectively.  Start with my Mailing List Tips: What to Do With Your List.  No one I know is getting as much out of their list as we could be.

None of the links in the post above are affiliate links; however, I do have a GetResponse affiliate link. As people have requested it, here it is: http://www.getresponse.com/index/GrowMap

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Gail Gardner

Small Business Marketing Strategist at GrowMap

Gail Gardner is the founder of GrowMap.com. She is a Small Business Marketing Strategist who mentors small businesses, bloggers, and freelancers. After 23 years in the field with IBM and 5.5 years managing AdWords accounts, her focus shifted to small business marketing strategy. GrowMap.com is listed by Cision as a Top 100 Site for Marketers and has received three Small Business Influencer Awards from Small Business Trends. Named by D&B a Top 50 SMB Influencer on Twitter, you can follow Gail @GrowMap and on LinkedIn.

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