• Lite
• Small Business
• Enterprise

• Demographics, such as gender and age.
• Behavior, such as whether they’ve opened the last email you sent.
• Location, as determined by IP or custom fields.
• Custom fields, such as indicating a liking in a specific topic.
• Tags (see more info below).

• This platform is super powerful, loaded with features, and it comes with a polished, modern interface.
• Over 180 app integrations.
• Automation templates (AKA “recipes”), and a marketplace where you can purchase automation recipes.
• SMS/Text messaging is available.
• Built in CRM for those who choose the Small Business or Enterprise plans.
• Excellent price for plenty of features, especially when compared to big CRM solutions like InfusionSoft, Ontraport, and similar platforms.

• You’ll be hard-pressed to find cons with Active Campaign. Since it is a feature-rich platform, it might take you some time to learn how to use all the functions and features in the dashboard.

ACTIVE CAMPAIGN FREE TRIAL AVAILABLE

Active Campaign offers a free trial for 14 days, with no credit card required.

If you want to learn more…
[su_note note_color=”#99cc99″ text_color=”#feffff”]If you want to learn more about Active Campaign’s Lite, Small Business or Enterprise service plans and take advantage or the 14 day trial just click the button below.

[su_button url=”http://promotelabs.link/ActiveCampaign” target=”blank” style=”flat” background=”#ffffff” color=”#14750f” size=”7″ center=”yes”]Learn More[/su_button][/su_note]

[su_divider style=”double” divider_color=”#0a730d” link_color=”#287117″ size=”2″]

CONVERTKIT REVIEW

ConvertKit was started with one goal in mind: to help bloggers make more money with their writing. Let’s see how they stack up to the competition…

PRICE

ConvertKit pricing starts at $29 for up to 1000 subscribers, and these plans go all the way up 900,000 subscribers for $2499 per month.

Here’s the monthly pricing breakdown for those who don’t yet have a million folks on their list:

$29 for up to 1000 subscribers

$79 for 5000 subscribers

$119 for 10,000 subscribers

$379 for 50,000 subscribers

There is no trial available. However, the service does come with a 30-day money back guarantee, so you can try it risk free for the first month. Also, you can request a demo if you want to get a better feel for how it works before you sign up.

CORE FEATURES

Now let’s look at what features you get for your monthly fee…

Broadcast: Yes.

Schedule/drip sequence: Yes.

ConvertKit has a fairly powerful scheduler, as you can even choose to eliminate certain days. For example, if you don’t want automated emails to go out over a weekend, you just uncheck Saturday and Sunday.

Newsletter templates: Yes, but very limited. You can choose between text emails, or sending simple “framed” emails.

ConvertKit keeps these templates clean and simple on purpose, so that your emails will look great across platforms, including desktops, laptops, tablets and phones.

You can also create and save your own custom HTML templates.

Sign up form output: You can choose from Javascript, hosted URL, HTML or WordPress.

Sign up form templates: Yes, in a sense – as you can start building your sign-up form using one of their three different responsive form styles.

Take note that while your sign up form is fully customizable, you will need to know a little HTML or CSS to make full use of these customizations.

Landing page: Yes.

Landing page templates: Yes, you can start building your landing page using one of ConvertKit ’s four templates.

Confirmation email sent regardless double opt-in or single opt-in: No confirmation email if you set your autoresponder to single opt-in.

API available?  Yes.

Blog broadcast (RSS to email):  Yes.

Import contacts without asking them to verify email again?  Yes.

Added bonus: ConvertKit has a concierge service available to make transferring between services easier than ever.

Export: Yes.

Platform: Web.

ADVANCED AUTOMATION FEATURES

Now that we’ve looked at the core features, let’s have a look at ConvertKit ’s advanced features…

List Segmentation: Yes.

ConvertKit does their segmentation just a bit differently than some of the other autoresponders. Other service providers tend to be list-centric. This means that they focus on the lists, so they look at subscribers on multiple lists as being multiple people.

ConvertKit is subscriber-centric. That means they are well aware that even if the same person is on multiple lists, they are still just one person. And that’s why ConvertKit segments by adding information to a subscriber’s profile.

One advantage of this focus is that you don’t get charged multiple times for the same subscriber. Another advantage is that it allows you to engage in smarter segmenting. It does take a little longer to learn and set up on the front end (especially if you’re used to the way other platforms work for segmenting), but it’s a powerful way to segment.

AUTOMATION RULES: YES.

ConvertKit automation is fairly powerful, as it allows you to set up sequences based on triggers and actions.

For example, when users finish one email course, this can trigger them starting another email course.

Or if they click a link, then that triggers an action such as receiving an email or getting tagged.

Tagging: Yes.

As mentioned above, tagging is the primary way to segment your lists on ConvertKit . And when you combine tagging with ConvertKit ’s automation, you can do a lot of your segmenting on autopilot.

Split Testing: No.

While ConvertKit doesn’t have built-in split-testing, there are ways to do a workaround. For example, you can randomly split your subscribers into two groups, and then assign two different tags to these groups. Then create the two emails you want to test, and send them to your randomly split groups. Then use some measure (such as link clicks or conversions) to compare responses.

It’s not as smooth as other email service providers, but it gets the job done for simple testing.

SMS/Text Messaging: No.

Visual Campaign Building Tools: No.

Lead Scoring: No.

CRM: No.

INTEGRATION WITH THIRD-PARTY APPS

ConvertKit integrates with some of the most popular third-party apps, such as Shopify and Zapier. However, it only integrates with 15 apps total – so if you have a specific app in mind, be sure to check if ConvertKit integrates with it.

EASE OF USE

Here’s what your dashboard looks like:

While even a beginner can jump in pretty fast and get things done, placement of some items is a little awkward and not very intuitive. For example, the email template section is located under “Account,” and the integrations are located in the “Automations” section.

Another problem is that some tasks, such as editing and deleting a form, require multiple steps or scrolling. If you’ve used other platforms before, you may notice that some tasks are a bit more cumbersome.

On the other hand, some tasks are really easy to do – even better than on other platforms. For example, creating a series of email sequences is quick and easy to do. It’s also laid out nicely, so you can see your entire sequence at a glance.

SUPPORT

ConvertKit has been instant live chat available, as well as support through the help desk. If you go through the help desk, you can usually receive help within about 24 hours.

DELIVERABILITY

We’ve had good experiences with getting our emails delivered to their intended recipients. While ConvertKit doesn’t specifically note their deliverability rate, they do have a full-time staff member whose sole job is to improve deliverability through ISP relationships, blacklist monitoring, bounce management, and more.

WHO CAN USE IT?

ConvertKit was built for bloggers and authors. All of their features – from opt-in forms to tagging – are built specifically for these two groups.

CONCLUSION

ConvertKit Bottom line: Pros and Cons

PROS:

CONS:

We’ve just started using ConvertKit in the past year. There is a learning curve associated with the interface. However, we’ve been impressed with their deliverability and open rates.

CONVERTKIT NO FREE TRIAL AVAILABLE BUT…

There is no trial available.

However, the service does come with…
[su_note note_color=”#99cc99″ text_color=”#feffff”]ConvertKit offers a 30-day money back guarantee, so you can try it risk free for the first month. Also, you can request a demo if you want to get a better feel for how it works before you sign up.

[su_button url=”http://promotelabs.link/ConvertKit” target=”blank” style=”flat” background=”#ffffff” color=”#14750f” size=”7″ center=”yes”]Learn More[/su_button][/su_note]

[su_divider style=”double” divider_color=”#0a730d” link_color=”#287117″ size=”2″]

DRIP REVIEW

With a name like “Drip,” you know this email service provider is focused on automation. In fact, here are the first words that greet you on their homepage: “Lightweight marketing automation that doesn’t suck.” Their goal is to give you a lightweight (yet effective) alternative to bulky programs like InfusionSoft, and you’ll get it a fraction of the price.

Let’s find out how these claims hold up…

PRICE

Drip offers the following plans: Basic, Pro, Business and High Volume. In all cases, you can send unlimited emails. The Business and High Volume accounts give you additional features, such as SalesForce integration and removing the Drip branding from your campaigns.

Here is the current pricing scheme for Drip email marketing:

If you’d like to try before you buy, you can take advantage of a 21 day free trial. You will need a credit card to begin your trial.

CORE FEATURES

Let’s see what you get for the monthly price…

Broadcast: Yes.

Schedule/drip sequence:  Yes. You can tell by their name that this is one of the service’s main focal points.

Newsletter templates: No. However, both plain text and HTML emails are supported.

Sign up form output: HTML, hosted URL, and widget (that you can place on any page of your website). You can also choose the option for an exit-triggered pop-up.

Sign up form templates: No, but both plain-text and HTML formats are supported.

Landing page: No.

Confirmation email sent regardless double opt-in or single opt-in: No, not if you choose single opt-in.

API available?  Yes.

Blog broadcast (RSS to email):  Yes.

Import contacts without asking them to verify email again?  Yes. Drip offers a tool to help you import contacts, or you can even use their concierge service.

Export: Yes.

Platform: Web.

ADVANCED AUTOMATION FEATURES

Drip prides itself on providing only the tools you need without the extra bloat. Take a look at what they offer….

List Segmentation: Yes.

With Drip you can segment on a wide variety of demographics and behaviors. Drip also helps you with dynamic segmenting, which you can do over time as you learn more about your subscribers.

For example, when your subscribers first sign up you might just ask them a question or two for segmenting purposes. If you ask any more than that, people won’t complete the sign up process. Then later on in the sales funnel you ask more questions – a question or two here and there until you have a good picture of what each subscriber wants. Add that to actual subscriber behavior, such as whether they click on certain links or buy something, and you’ll have a well-segmented list. And if you do this using automation, then the whole process becomes easier.

You can even segment according to lead score. That means you can try to warm up some leads that aren’t very responsive, or you can reward your most engaged leads.

Speaking of automation…

AUTOMATION RULES: YES.

This is where Drip really shines, because their business is built on offering powerful automation workflow and rules.

It’s all built on a visual platform so you can better visualize how your subscribers and customers will move through your sales funnel.

One feature that makes Drip different from its competitors is that you can create a workflow that lets you reward subscribers for specific actions by letting them jump ahead in the workflow. That’s because you can design your workflow around goals, which isn’t something you’ll find in very many other platforms.

You can also set up automation rules, where you pick a trigger and then choose what action to perform based on that trigger. Currently Drip has 11 triggers and 14 actions that you can mix and match to create your own automation rules.

Another feature of Drip is that you can automate things like tagging, which brings us to the next point…

Tagging: Yes.

Drip automates the process by letting you tag users who engage in a specific activity, such as opening an email or clicking a link.

Split Testing: Yes.

You can split test delivery time, the subject line and the from name.

SMS/Text Messaging: No.

Visual Campaign Building Tools: Yes. And in fact Drip prides themselves on offering an intuitive and powerful visual platform.

Lead Scoring:  Yes. Their algorithm tracks a number of activities so that you can quickly and easily identify your best and most-engaged leads.

CRM: Yes, you can integrate with SalesForce.

INTEGRATION WITH THIRD-PARTY APPS

Drip integrates with over 30 apps, including popular ones such as Zapier, Shopify, PayPal, Authorize.net, and more.

EASE OF USE

Here’s what you’ll see when you log into your Drip dashboard:

Drip is extremely user-friendly and newbie friendly. There’s no learning curve since it’s so intuitive, so anyone can jump in and start building their lists and managing their leads right way.

SUPPORT

Help is available through the help desk, where you can expect a reply within 24 to 48 hours.

DELIVERABILITY

Drip’s reliability and deliverability rates are as good as the big guys. That’s because Drip uses the email sending service sending Mandrill, as well as Rackspace’s mail service Mailgun. Both of these services are rated as extremely fast, secure and reliable. That’s why top companies such as GitHub, Uber and Stripe use them, among others.

WHO CAN USE IT?

Drip is a good choice for small business owners, bloggers and software developers. If you’ve tried other platforms like InfusionSoft and felt like you were paying too much for a lot of features that you didn’t even use, then you may consider Drip as a lightweight alternative.

CONCLUSION

Drip Bottom Line: Pros and Cons

PROS:

CONS:

• There aren’t too many negatives with this platform. However, they don’t cater to affiliate marketers, so you’ll need to look elsewhere if you fall into that category.

DRIP FREE TRIAL AVAILABLE

If you’d like to try before you buy, you can take advantage Drip offers a free trial for 21 days.

Or just visit the site to learn more…
[su_note note_color=”#99cc99″ text_color=”#feffff] Just click the button below to find out for yourself what advantages Drip offers.

[su_button url=”http://promotelabs.link/GetDrip” target=”blank” style=”flat” background=”#ffffff” color=”#14750f” size=”7″ center=”yes”]Learn More[/su_button][/su_note]

CLOSING THOUGHTS ABOUT THESE FIVE AUTORESPONDER REVIEWS

You may have noticed as you read these reviews that we use several of these services, including Aweber, Get Response and ConvertKit.

There’s a reason for that: diversification.

No matter how good a particular email service provider is, bad things can still happen. Your autoresponder can go down right when you’re about to send a product launch email. A service might completely shut down. You might even lose your account (perhaps through no fault of your own). Or you might just struggle with deliverability issues.

In all cases, you can protect yourself by not putting all your eggs in one basket. Use multiple service providers, and you can spread out the risk. If one service provider goes down, you can still get your emails out using another provider.

That’s why we encourage you to pick two or three service providers from those we’ve reviewed.

YOU CAN GET STARTED RIGHT NOW USING THE LINKS BELOW: