GetResponse was first founded in 1999, before the “dot com bubble,” making it one of the very first email responders in the world. It has lasted throughout the years and is still a major player in the autoresponder space. They’ve pioneered many features that are today considered standard. GetResponse delivers over ten billion emails every year and has more than 220,000 paying customers.
Even today, GetResponse still has many features that other autoresponders just don’t have. Here are some of the unique things GetResponse brings to the table.
#1 – Built In iStockPhotos
GetResponse has over a thousand iStockPhoto images that you can use for free built into their system. You can use these to spruce up your emails or to make a point.
#2 – Upload Videos
Want to put a video in your email? You can. GetResponse will even host your video for you! Just upload your video to GetResponse and it’ll be stored in your documents.
#3 – Record from Scratch
Want to record something new and send it off to your list? Instead of having to get your camera, record it, edit it, export it to web format then upload it to YouTube, you can just use GetResponse to handle the whole thing on the spot.
Of course, if you’re going for maximum production value and video quality, you shouldn’t use this method. But if you just want to put something up quick and dirty, GetResponse gets the job done.
#4 – QR Codes
If you’re creating an email that’s meant to be printed out, you can create and embed a QR code all from within GetResponse.
QR codes are the next generation of barcodes. Unlike barcodes which can only store small bits of data (such as product ID numbers,) QR codes can hold much more data.
That’s why on a printed piece of paper QR codes can be so useful. For example, if you were sending out an email to everyone who RSVPed for an event, you could ask participants to print out the email that was sent to them. On that email is a QR code with their email address encoded.
All you’d need to do is scan the QR code, rather than ask them for their name and email. It makes the check-in process much easier. That’s just one example of how you could use QR codes and email in the real world.
#5 – Annual Discounts
GetResponse’s pricing is generally pretty standard. They offer a 1,000 subscriber plan for $15 a month, a 2,000 subscriber plan for $20 a month and a 10,000 subscriber plan for $65 a month.
One thing that’s unique about GetResponse’s pricing plan is the annual payment option. You can save almost 20% on your subscription fees by paying for a year upfront.
Since autoresponders are long term investments, for many businesses paying upfront makes a lot of sense.
#6 – Segmented Split Tests
Other autoresponder services offer split testing on their website, as well as segmentation. But few other services allow you to do both.
With GetResponse, you can select just one segment of your list to target. The split test emails will only be sent to that segment.
For example, say you’re running a local event. Using segmentation, you can send an email to just the people in your local area. Using split testing, you can then split test that copy to see which one performs better.
#7 – Undelivered List
Sometimes emails just don’t get delivered. It might be because of spam filters, it might be because of server IP blacklists or it could have just gotten dropped somewhere.
If your email gets undelivered, most other services have no way of letting you know. With GetResponse however, they keep track of all the email addresses that go undelivered.
You can browse this list and get in touch with anyone who should be receiving your emails directly. You can also look for commonalities. For example, if you notice a lot of @comcast.net domains in the undelivered list, you’ll know that it’s the @comcast.net domain that’s blocking your emails.
#8 – Many Formbox Options
GetResponse provides you with a lot of high quality email submission box designs. Most other autoresponders will just give you the basic form code, but not handle any of the design for you. To add graphics, you have to do a bit of code manoeuvring to get the form to show up in your graphics.
GetResponse handles all of this for you right out of the box. Just select the design you want to use and you’re good to go.
#9 – Pre-Filled Facebook Registration
If your users are logged into Facebook, GetResponse can use that cookie to pre-populate email address fields.
In other words, people will see email sign in boxes with their email already typed in for them.
#10 – Custom Fields
GetResponse allows you to collect data other than the standard data types. You can collect addresses, phone numbers and a whole host of other things.
You can also use custom fields for your own internal tracking. For example, you can “tag” each of your different traffic sources with PHP. Then use PHP to insert the traffic source into the custom field. Then you can go back whenever you get a purchase and trace it to the traffic source.
There are many, many different ways you can use custom fields. It’s basically an open invitation to use GetResponse as a database, rather than just an autoresponder.
As you can tell, GetResponse has quite a few things going for it. It has a few unique features that nobody else is offering and has quite a long history of delivering high quality service to their customers.