This is a review of Vertical Response - You might have heard a lot of internet marketers go on about ‘list building’ and how ‘the money is in the list’. Boy has that term been excessively used; it’s no surprise, because it’s 100% true. More and more people are getting into blogging and into internet marketing, and the first thing they should be made to realize is that list building is probably the most important step they can take, into building a profitable business online.
If you’ve been around the blogosphere for a while, you might have come across email marketing and autoresponder service providers such as MailChimp or Aweber. Those are great tools to use and offer some great features; they’re also the most popular amongst bloggers and internet marketers. But I’d like to bring to your attention a smaller but more affordable service provided from Vertical Response; when I say small they’re not at all, but in comparison in regards to popularity amongst bloggers, they are somewhat compared to other services being used.
Vertical Response is one of the most successful email marketing service providers on the web; they have been providing email marketing services to businesses of all shapes and sizes since 2001. Vertical Response combines extensive experience, affordability with a full suite of self-service marketing solutions for your small business, including –
- Email marketing
- Social media marketing
- Event marketing
- Direct mail marketing
- Online surveys.
Their mission is to give small businesses and non-profit organizations the power to easily and affordably create, manage and analyze their own marketing campaigns.
Pricing
Vertical Response offers two pricing plans for their email marketing services.
Pay As You Go
Their Pay As You Go is the most convenient way to pay for your email marketing needs with Vertical Response, by simply purchasing email credits for the amount of emails you wish to send. If you have a list of only 500 then 500 email credits would suffice your needs. 1,000 email credits would cost you $15 at 1.5 cents per credit/ email. This means bloggers starting out with email marketing and list building can afford to start small and build their way up. See pricing per amount of credits below.
Pay Monthly
Vertical Response also offers a pay monthly plan where you can select a payment plan to suite your needs. If you prepay for a 12-month subscription, you can pay as little as $8.50 per month for up to 500 emails. See plan below.
Which ever plan you choose with Vertical Response you will benefit from –
- Free image hosting
- Customizable opt-in forms
- List management & segmentation tools
- Return on Investment (ROI) tracking and reporting
- Social Sharing with Twitter & Facebook and LinkedIn
- Free Customer Support and much more…
Building a List with Vertical Response using your WordPress Blog
If you think you need to be using Aweber or MailChimp for WordPress integration, you’ll be pleased to know that you can do the same with Vertical Response too. There is a nifty plugin available that will enable you to add a fully customized opt-in form to your WordPress blog sidebar. You can access this plugin from the directory or download here –
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/vertical-response-newsletter-widget/
If you’re using the (in)spyr theme or Generate theme or a similar mobile responsive theme running on Genesis, you won’t need to run this plugin. You can easily add details from your opt-in form script into the widget and you’ll soon be collecting email addresses from your theme’s built-in opt-in.
Other Features
Here is a list of some of the other features you can come to expect from using Vertical Response for your list building and email marketing needs.
- 700+ Professionally designed templates
- Compatibility with Google Analytics
- Email wizard or use your own HTML
- Anti-spam checking
- Divert new subscribers to a landing page after completing opt-in and verifying (Ideal if you have an eBook or freebie to give your new subs)
- Data cleansing (Identifies duplicate, bouncing and invalid emails)
Conclusion
Whilst Vertical Response is no way as popular amongst bloggers as MailChimp or Aweber, they certainly provide an array of award winning features, tools and benefits to kick start your list building campaign. I should mention that the only feature that Vertical Response does not offer its users is an autoresponder service. Other wise it’s an affordable and reliable service.
I’ve been using Vertical Response since 2008 and as you know I’ve successfully managed to build a list of 1,000 email subscribers. If you’re just starting out with email marketing and list building, I’d really recommend using Vertical Response. If you feel you need to make use of an autoresponder, then you can always make use of Aweber or MailChimp at a later date and download your list to take with you. You can signup for Vertical Response email marketing here.
- Price Plans
well i think this post is specially for me as every time i search for low budget products… but have s noob doubt, how we perform Social media marketing by using this Vertical Response.
Md Sohail recently posted..5 simple Tips to secure your facebook account
Hey Fab Nice Review on Vertical Response Mate.
Now i am confused with Aweber and VR.
But most of Bloggers and Affiliate Marketers Prefer Aweber. Can we use Affiliate on VR?
Bcz on MailChimp we can’t use Affliate Link. Is It True?
Amit Shaw recently posted..8 Things to Considering Before Buying a Website
Hey Amit, thanks. Shiva from Netchunks.com asked me the same question a few days ago on Facebook. Heres what I said – “When I add affiliate links in my Vertical Response emails I always use 404 redirect links generated from using Pretty Link plugin in WordPress. I’ve been doing this for the last few years with vertical response with no problems, just as long as you don’t over do it and don’t appear spammy. I couldn’t find anything about not allowing affiliate links to relevant products and services in Vertical Responses terms of use. I use maximum of 3 affiliate links per email, which I don’t think is bad at all.” You can read their terms here: http://www.verticalresponse.com/about/policy-and-terms Hope this helps Amit
One Of The Most Detailed and self explanatory reviews i have read on magnet4marketing
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Saad recently posted..5 Universal Remote Controls for Tech Lovers
Thanks Saad, I’m so pleased you found the review of Vertical Response useful mate
Really appreciate your feedback.
Hi Fabrizio,
Well I think that this post is really very important for all the list building factors. I like the social media factor that you have highlighted. Really appreciate your post. Thanks!!
Thanks Aditi, glad you enjoyed the review. The social media integration tools with Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are essential for reaching a wider audience with your email marketing. Very useful.
Fabrizio Van Marciano recently posted..Tips to Make Your Writing More Interesting
When it comes to choosing an email service, there are two most popular (as well as most preferred) options – MailChimp and Aweber. I didn’t know about Vertical Response earlier. I would definitely like to take a closer look at its features.
Faissal Alhaithami recently posted..What You Need to Know About Pinterest for Business
Hey Faissal great to see you here, you’re absolutely right mate. When I was shopping around for email alternatives Vertical Response and Constant Contact was the two that caught my eye. I chose VR because it was more affordable and since then they’ve been rolling out new features regularly. One feature which would be great to see and I hear that they’ve been promising for a while is an autoresponder feature.
Fabrizio Van Marciano recently posted..BlueHost Web Hosting Review 2012
Nice review regarding on Vertical Response.I think that most Media marketer will need it because they can easily send e-mails to different companies they are into. Thanks for the information.
Quite a good review, Fabriozio! Looking up Vertical Response’s services now as the company’s quite interesting. Having others take care of the smaller bits of your company’s optimization projects will simply let you do bigger things easily too.
Thanks Glen, yes VR has a great profile and offer real affordable services in an abundance. Thanks for stopping by