Have you heard the quote “You live and Die by your list”? This is true even in today’s landscape. While modern technologies like chat bots are becoming more popular an email list is still one of the best methods to stay connected with your community and drive serious revenue through your website.
The revenue is out there, and email autoresponders can save you time and deliver massive returns. Not all automation is created equally and not doing it correctly can hurt you in the long run.
The truth is one untargeted mistimed email can start a chain reaction where your audience starts to tune out.
An effective email autoresponder allows you to communicate with customers on a large scale without frustrating them.
Let’s look at the best email autoresponders and what they can do for you.
#1 ActiveCampaign – in our opinion is the best email autoresponder
ActiveCampaign is an entire marketing automation platform with tools designed to create incredible customer experiences.
With ActiveCampaign there are 100’s of pre-built automations to cover all industries and goals, which are easy enough to customise if you find the need to.
Without having to spend anytime customising automations you can get yourself setup with everything you need.
They offer free migration from another service and best of all one-to-one training and support for whenever you get stuck.
We’ve tested a lot of email systems and ActiveCampaign is the one we decided to roll out for our own email communication.
There’s a free 14-day trial after which point, you’ll need to upgrade your account with plans starting at $15/month for up to 500 contacts and unlimited email sends. Try ActiveCampaign for free.
#2 Klaviyo
Klaviyo makes it easy to deliver ultra-personalised content via email. It’s heavily used in the ecommerce space.
With emails needing to be more personalised than ever Klaviyo focuses on tapping into your ecommerce data to deliver what your customers are interested in. No more unfocused email blasts.
The free plan of Klaviyo maxes out at 250 contacts and 500 emails. Paid plans start at $20/month for up to 500 contacts and unlimited email sends. Try Klaviyo for free.
#3 GetResponse
GetResponse has been around for more than 20 years and is one of the simplest platforms around. Over the years that have added features and evolved the UI to keep it one of the most useful tools on the market.
With hundreds of free templates, for both email layouts and auto responders GetResponse will have you up and running in no time at all.
GetResponse doesn’t have a free plan but they do offer a free trial and their plans start at $15/month for 1,000 contacts. Give GetResponse ago with their free trial.
#4 Campaign Monitor
CampaignMonitor boasts some big-name companies that user their software successfully. Designed for ease of use their drag and drop editor is second to none and with an easy-to-use visual automation journey builder you can easily create the automations you need to keep your audience engaged.
The pricing starts at $9/month for their ‘Basic’ plan, and this does seem to be a bit basic. I’d recommend moving up to the ‘Unlimited” plan at $29/month to get the best possible experience. They do offer a free trial so you can get a sense of all the tools and features.
Try Campaign Monitor for free.
#5 Mailerlite
This is the best FREE option out there at the moment. Its free plan lets you send twelve email campaigns per month to 1000 subscribers which would be perfect for a startup.
It’s easy to use and comes packed with some powerful tools to help optimise your campaigns. The drag-and-drop editor is also well built and easy to use. The current Beta editor still has a few bugs which hopefully they’ll iron out sooner than later.
For a free email autoresponder, MailerLite is hard to beat for a small business. As you move up through their premium plans some of the more advanced features become available.
Premium plans start at $10 per month. When you sign up to the Free plan you get a 14-day trial of the premium features. Try MailerLite for Free.
What I look for in an email autoresponder
Emails are necessary. If you run any business, you need an email autoresponder that allows you to build and grow your list. It’s something you own and control. You aren’t governed by algorithm changes and the ever-changing content requirements to play the social media game.
Personalised auto responders allow you to communicate at scale. This saves time and money.
My favourite email autoresponder automations
- Welcome Series / Onboarding – This is no secret, the ability to reach out with an offer or bring some sort of value as soon as possible is invaluable.
- Reminder – Going live or have an event coming up. Auto reminders make sure your crew don’t forget. Let’s face it we all have busy lives. How many of use respond to Facebook Evens that we are attending and then just forget, or is that just me?
- Web Trigger – Reach out when someone clicks a link, fills out a form or makes a purchase.
- Abandoned Cart – If you aren’t running this, you better just contact me immediately.
- A/B Testing – Sending different versions of the same email allows you to analyse and evolve your strategy.
- Logic – Target and split customers based on conditional or logical triggers, so that you can deliver personalised targeted emails.
The Best Email Autoresponder must have Email Templates & a good Editor
You want a UI that’s nice to work in. One that intuitive and one that has email templates ready to go so that you just need make some minor tweaks. You want it to be easy to develop on brand emails across your entire team.
Find an email auto responder that has this.
The Best Email Autoresponder Conclusion
Email autoresponders are necessary. We’ve posted stats on how important email marketing is to businesses. The tools above we’ve tested and used with our clients, and they represent the best tools available.
While most of these tools are evolving to be more than just an email platform MailerLite stays true to its email routes but for how long, we’ll just have to wait. We still stand behind ActiveCampaign. We’ve delt with the support team there and they are extremely helpful.
Why isn’t MailChimp on the list? Well to be completely honest, I’m not a fan of the interface. There are some email sending issues partly because it’s used by so many people there could be some spam blocking issues happening. Overall, it’s a problem I don’t have the time to deal with. If it’s your jam, then that’s fantastic but these are the options I would recommend to new clients after testing them.