Great looking e-newsletters!

There are a lot of email campaign tools out there and VerticalResponse is one of the best I've encountered for managing and scheduling e-newsletter distribution at a reasonable cost.

Pros

With VerticalResponse I was able to go from a spreadsheet of member names and email addresses to send my first e-newsletter in less than an hour. Easy to use templates guide content creation and offers flexible scheduling options that include social media posting. List management lets subscribers opt in and out without manual intervention and includes tools to build landing pages and links for subscription. Simple reporting is included in the free system and shows delivery/open rates. Advanced reporting allows a deeper dive into the analytics of your mail campaigns.

Cons

I sometimes wish the content blocks used to build the e-newsletter were a little more configurable - such as allowing more free movement of images and better font management - but the system makes clean looking e-newsletter that are actually opened and read!

Using the free one

Pros

For beginner, it is easy to use. Fast and has plenty templates that you can use. It has few integrations with free CMS. API is great. Free with limited user. Few email providers will block their email blast.

Cons

The limited user are so little. The integration needs improvement. Lack of automatization and reports. No apps for the phones, so you must do it in your computer. Support is not helpful and less attentive, maybe because I am using free edition.

Longtime user, might not be the best option anymore

On the whole it does what I need it to, but I always contemplate searching out something cooler.

Pros

For the money, it gets the job done. We use VR to send out corporate newsletters and special offers a half dozen times a year.

Cons

I think the interface is lacking and really hasn’t been vastly improved since 2008 when I started using it. Basically, I’ve built my own HTML templates outside of VR and I just change copy and pictures as I need to and avoid using VRs WYSIWYG editor. Their editor and stock templates really aren’t very good.

Vertical Response Software

My overall experience with Vertical Response has been positive. I will continue to use them in the upcoming years.

Pros

I enjoy the newest feature of about 4 years that allows the email to be responsive. This feature allows my gym members to access the newsletter from their cell phone or tablet. I also enjoy the pre-made templates that are easy to for me to plug into and allows me to upload photos and websites.

Cons

A lot of my emails end up going to the gym members spam. I have to pay per email and this is unnecessary waste of money for me. There should be an easy way to upload my emails to vertical response as a file instead of entering each new member.

Gets the job done

Ease of use

Pros

This tool was very easy to use when we were starting out our email journey. The list upload process and email creation was simple. The software also allowed us to track performance, which contributed to other email tactics to test. It was also relatively inexpensive.

Cons

At no fault of the product, our needs grew out of the tool, so we upgraded to a marketing automation platform.

Impossible to deal with

I have used Vertical Response for over 15 years but they have become impossible to work with. I built a list using their tools, sign up form, landing page and email verification yet they continue to reject my campaigns because they keep asking me where the list came from. I email regularly to a small group (under 100 emails) and yet they randomly choose not to deliver the emails to the list (verified through their processes). They offer no phone support, only by email which takes 24 hours for a response, and then ask the same questions that were already answered in the previous reply. They have become a horrible excuse for an email marketing company.

Pros

Easy to build an email. Fairly straight forward WYSIWYG as long as you're using an approved browser

Cons

The software is fine but the company's policies keep shutting down my campaigns for no good reason and their customer support is almost non existent.

Frequent Formatting Issues

Overall, with the formatting issues, it became too frustrating to use and work with. I spent more time trying to fix errors. We found a free option that worked far better for our needs.

Pros

Overall, it was easy to build a professional-looking email. There are a lot of features to make it look cohesive and on-brand with the font and color customizations. You can send to a segmented list or to a larger audience. You don't need coding experience and it's intuitive enough for an everyday user to figure out. It is responsive for viewing on laptop or mobile. Emails can be posted on social.

Cons

We ran into a lot of formatting issues that couldn't be explained or corrected. For example, in the final email, text was showing up purple, even though it was formatted as black. We would double-check everything, but in the final email, one paragraph would be purple. This happened multiple times and we finally had to switch. It was also sometimes adjust the font size to a different size than we originally had.

Vertical Response - Free, but you get what you pay for.

We use Vertical Response to communicate with groups of members of our non-profit organization, and to survey them on various questions relating to our mission. Without Vertical Response it would be much more cumbersome to conduct surveys as we'd have to use a combination of software (Survey Monkey, Excel, etc.) and we wouldn't have the option to automatically follow up to nonresponders.

Pros

Vertical Response allows us to easily email and survey our membership groups. I like the variety of survey types, and the automatic follow-up emails to non-responders.

Cons

The email editing is relatively simple, but can be confusing in its simplicity because things you might expect to be in the editing menu aren't necessarily where you'd expect. For example, you want to add a hyperlink to a website - in most software you could either just paste the URL, or right click on a word or phrase and add the hyperlink to it - but in VerticalResponse a pasted URL is emailed out as unclickable text. You have to add a button to add a hyperlink. Also for some reason the default font color for emails is a medium gray instead of black, so every email I have to select and change the font color.

Great way to communicate with a large amount of people

I am able to communicate different types of information to many people in a minute or less!

Pros

Vertical Response has great customization features to be able to group users to send various types of communication. It is an inexpensive (free for most) way to communicate with a large amount of people.

Cons

I have not had any issues with it so far.

Easy to use and stable platform

Pros

It's easy to build and get an email out of the door. The customer service has been pleasant to deal with when help is needed.

Cons

There really aren't any cons. It does what it advertises. However, when you need something more robust like automation, you will need to upgrade to a different email platform.

Easy to use, great intro price and hard to integrate in a fast manner to lead pages.

Personally I did not receive any benefit but that's not to say that there's not a place for it in the marketplace. For a small business or maybe a small church or small nonprofit doesn't need integrative approaches which I think everybody should but if they don't use them then this would be a wonderful email client for that sort of consumer.

Pros

They offer a great free option and their layouts are attractive and really easy to use. I had used them in the past and a decade later I return to using the product however although I enjoyed the templates the relationship was short-lived.

Cons

With one click integrations and the open API there are solutions out there that are much more effective at an integrated approach. I mainly use word press and I have found some great integrations out there but VerticalResponse is not one of them. Further they do not give you a lot of functionality and placement of the web form that collects data and then automates the email chain. Maybe I was missing work to do so, but it was frustrating that the web form only was in one vertical type of a set up and aesthetically it did fit the area on the website that it was dedicated to be placed. So for that reason alone I just continued use and return to a more familiar email client.

A Diamond in the rough!

I love Vertical Response. It makes it easy to time, share, send marketing campaigns across digital platforms and does so at an incredible price. (With a great incentive for non-profits!)

Pros

I love this software as it gives me the ability to send high-quality HTML e-mails to our groups. The design tools are nice and easy to use. It makes our marketing campaigns look great for a great price.

Cons

If you do not know about CSV documents it can be hard to upload lists and files to the server. A quick tutorial eases this problem.

Emails look good, but people don't see them.

Creating an email and sending it is super easy! The challenge is that our recipients, who have asked to receive the emails, have to search through their junk or clutter or trash email folders to find the emails. It is really hard to receive emails from Vertical response. When I first started receiving emails from our organization, I had to search for the email and move the email from junk to important multiple times. As an organization, we have actually stopped using vertical response, because it is not a good way to communicate with our recipients. It would be great if they could receive the emails and not have to search for them.

Pros

Super easy to use! Great templates help you create fabulous looking emails.

Cons

Our recipients don't get the emails. We have checked to ensure info is correct. If they can find the email in their junk folder, they will interact with the email, click on links, but still the next an email comes it will still go to their spam or clutter folder.

Easy To Use

My overall experience has been great. Outside of a few emails being blocked. But, that means the system was being protective and allowed us an opportunity to do additional cleaning of our lists.

Pros

What I like most about Vertical Response is that it's really easy to use. Once my contacts were imported, we were up and running. They offer many templates that can be used for various types of emails and eblasts. The entire process is simple and you can easily track how your emails are performing. They offer a lot of value for the price.

Cons

What I like least about Vertical Response is that the platform is limited. It's great for a startup business, but when your needs start to get more complex as your list grows, there's not much room for growth with appropriate features to match. Additionally, the features to allow new subscribers to your lists from outside sources were a challenge and didn't always work.

Good

Pros

I have had this software for over a year and it was really easy to use for the most part it was really organized..they have been around for a long time so i was impressed with their track record.

Cons

I had some user errors on my end but as far as the software i dont have any complaints that i can think of.

Lags behind more modern competitors

VerticalResponse is probably a reasonable tool for smaller businesses and organizations with slim marketing budgets and little need to mass communicate. For larger organizations with greater communications needs and higher customer expectations, this is probably not the optimal platform.

Pros

VerticalResponse was fairly early on the email marketing scene, so it's got a modest suite of features that have a proven track record. From a cost perspective, VerticalResponse is a pretty efficient method of communicating with customers

Cons

The flip side of VerticalResponse's early arrival on the email marketing scene is this: it simply hasn't adapted at the same rate as competitors and its overall usability has suffered as a result. Ranked against ConstantContact and MailChimp, VerticalResponse would come in third in user interface, third of visual appeal, and third in automation capability.

Limited customization, freezes up often

Pros

I like the way the end product (email) appears. They look neat and clean and are easy to read.

Cons

The work that it takes to achieve the end result seems excessive. You click and drag a block into place then you have to go to the trouble of deleting what is already there in order to add your image or text. Finding the correct block for each aspect sometimes takes trial and error. It would be so nice if an image block could just be reduced or enlarged right there on the screen. When I choose my font, size, color, sometimes VR doesn't "remember" what I was using so I have to re-apply those things multiple times in each email as I proceed. VR also freezes up for me very (too) often. That may be my computer. However, when it does freeze up, even if I have saved my work just before, sometimes that work is gone when I reopen VR. This is the first email program I've used and it was in place when I began in my current position. Everytime I have to produce an email, I keep thinking, "there has got to be an easier way."

love using Vertical Response for my email marketing because it's very user-friendly

Convenient and easy to use. Has really helped our business gro

Pros

Easy to use and user friendly, had no problems learning this software quickly and proficiently. Just wish our office had discoveryed this sooner

Cons

There isn't anything so far that I dislike about this software. Easy to use, use friendly. Only wish we had found it sooner!

Vertical Response gets the word out!

My former church used VR to email electronic copies of the newsletter to all members for whom we had email addresses, which cut back on our paper usage.

Pros

When I did use VR at a former church, I liked the ease of being able to send email blasts to the entire congregation. The software itself is complex and is capable of many functions, but its interface is simple and user-friendly. In addition, the emails stick out from the regular commercial emails one receives on a day-to-day basis.

Cons

What I liked least about this software is that a occasionally, the VR email would end up in members' junk mailboxes--but that is the fault of the email server and not VR.

A reliable email marketing company.

Weekly email marketing. Easy to use and affordable monthly plans.

Pros

It is really easy to use. No need to write codes so anyone can use it. You can link your social media accounts as well.

Cons

None so far. Weve been using this for more than 6 years now. We now use a monthly plan which makes it convenient and affordable.

Mass emailing made easy!

Pros

Vertical Response has great design features and templates to help businesses and organizations convey there messages in appealing ways. They help you organize email lists and contacts so that messages can be targeted to maximize impact.

Cons

Unfortunately, VR has a slightly higher bounce rate than some of the other softwares out there but it is not the highest. Additionally, it could benefit from an option to organize emails sent into folders.

Best Newsletter Software

Pros

Everything about Vertical Response is great. They have built-in templates for your newsletter or you can design your own. Very easy to use and you can have multiple mailing lists

Cons

You can't always know who has actually read your newsletter.

Vertical Response

Our experience has been good. There is an ability to send out large audience emails for free- at least once a month- the free program offers more mailings than the Mailchimp that we use for our daily messages. We save vertical response to mail out to over 3000 donors.

Pros

There are several templates for you to pick an exiting design and personalize it.

Cons

You can't attach a file- you have to put it within the template and I prefer doing newsletters outside of the platform and attaching as a PDF I would like them to add more templates for animal rescue

Value for money for bulk email marketing

Pros

Very easy to use, a light on the pocket way to get started with email marketing. We used it for one of my previous organizations called SCNext to email flyers and updates to our members. Worked like a charm and plus the free version had many features which we rode along for a long time.

Cons

Customer support was not the best. Plus the product used to freeze up some times and required us to exit browser and re-load. Bugs in the system need to be ironed out. They may have already done it but my experience with it had some kinks

Work Arounds

Pros

It sends emails to who I want them to be sent to. Uploading contacts is easy.

Cons

If you've used another email marketing tool, you'll hate Vertical Response. First, you'll probably lose half your opens due to their emails getting stuck in spam folders. Second, in order to make your emails look as good as, a constant contact or mail chimp email, you better have some photoshop skills. I've had to upload entire sections of emails as images, because Vertical Response fights you every step of the way if you want to do any formatting or customization. Third, there's no garuntee your email will show up the way you intended. I've had three different people send me screenshots of three different formats of the same email. Again, if you want to make sure it's the way you want it, draft it up in photoshop and save the whole thing as an image. I hate Vertical Response. It makes my job more difficult and forces me to spend triple the time I normally would to make a decent email. Constant Contact and Mail Chimp are way better.

I'm sick of it!

I have used VR for years to send out a weekly email for church. Never had any issues. All of a sudden it's "declining" my messages, calling them spam. I haven't changed ANYTHING! Sometimes I can get them to go out by using a different template. Today I had a message scheduled with no issues (usually it's rejected within minutes) I opened it up to add a new phone number to the text, Wham! it's rejected as spam. There's no reason for it. I'm sick of it. It's not worth the hassle. I guess I'll just use my personal email account.

Pros

It used to be so easy to use. Plus I could get the stats on whether my messages were opened.

Cons

Lately it's become a pain the rear. I haven't changed what I do; VR must have changed something.

Best customer service!

Vertical response is a great option for small-large nonprofits or organizations who are looking for a mass emailer. The features are great with simple, customizable templates. It is a drag and drop system that allows you to pull text, photos, etc. with ease. You can deliver your message in a clear, creative way!

Pros

Easy to use! User-friendly with many options. Also, has a very low spam rate!

Cons

Have had a couple of glitches, email images not showing up, difficulty sending while in a foreign country.

Vertical Response provides a convenient and easy way for our company to produce attractive e-blasts.

Pros

I really appreciate its straightforward and simplistic user interface. It makes it easy to put eblasts together in a snap.

Cons

It can be difficult to manipulate the layout of elements in the eblast. Sometimes I will move one thing and it will distort the entire layout.

Email communication made easy

I have created content and emailed to thousands of email addresses . the process is fast easy and professional when done. I can customize lists and it helps me keep track of who has opened my emails. you can schedule follow ups for non-responders and track unsubscribes.

Pros

This is an amazing package. You can create campaigns from their templates and turn out beautiful professional content. Very customizable and easy to use , if you can type a letter you can use this. Prices are based on the amount of contacts you service and it is the best I have seen.

Cons

No cons, only wish I had used it sooner. it has made life easier

Some features are frustrating

We use it weekly to send emails to our church community. I use it monthly to send an update to our partners.

Pros

I like that you can track reader engagement to see how many open the email and how many clicked on something.

Cons

I don't like that it doesn't have your emails automatically, and if someone unsubscribes they cannot be added back in even if they want to be.

A decent way to get in touch with your customers

The price is a bit higher than some of the alternatives, but it makes sending to your email contacts easy without the need for any special software

Pros

Simple to use to send to your customers all from a web interface

Cons

Hard to get support when you need it, things take a long time and sometimes it can impede your workflow.

Email Campaign Designer

Pros

VerticalResponse allows you to create email campaigns and easily distribute them to your contacts and distribution lists.

Cons

Unfortunately, VerticalResponse's interface is a bit dated and very clunky. Compared to other options on the market, it is not as intuitive or user-friendly.

Good value for mass emailing

It's a good value and once you have a template you like it works well.

Pros

This is a very affordable solution for sending mass emails. The templates are also very helpful especially if the emails you plan to send are all the same format.

Cons

It is difficult to rearrange photo and text boxes.

It works, but there are better alternatives for less.

Pros

It does what it says it will - emails are sent reliably and the tracking functionality works well every time.

Cons

The cost is too high compared to other options which do exactly the same thing. There is no usability benefit to using this service, in my opinion.

Overall a decent email solution

Pros

I really like the list building and segmenting functionality, it provides a great email testing solution.

Cons

Designing emails isn't quite as simple, the templates aren't the highest quality and the customer service is merely adequate.

You can't beat free!

Excellent!

Pros

I am so grateful that Vertical Response offers non-profits a solution at no cost to help us grow and achieve excellence in our communications.

Cons

I find some of the interfaces a little hard to figure out, but have never been stumped.

I've used Vertical Response for about two years.

Excellent community.

Pros

Vertical Response is a pioneer in email marketing and they had a very good community of marketers. I've learned a ton from them and the software was decent. Also the monthly newsletter "What's the topic, Popick" was interesting and useful.

Cons

I couldn't top up my account and Customer Service was useless. I just couldn't used their software. I'm sure that now situation changed.

We are a non-profit and using this for mass mailing has been helpful.

It was a free service and enabled us to reach our membership with news and announcements.

Pros

The capability to make custom emails using a multitude of possible templates. Having the capability to import contacts and examine the the open rates and follow the effectiveness of any email campaign. Being a non-profit we were able to use the free version.

Cons

Sometimes the emails got caught in the receivers SPAM or so we think because many emails were not opened and we received responses or comments from our membership that they did not receive the emails that were sent.

The Vertical Response Business Application

it saves times creating responsive email for business people, very engaging and does deliver the right approach to business needs

Pros

time saving application for business use

Cons

it create easy business responsive email

Software becoming dated

Pros

Relatively easy to create email template, upload list and send email campaign

Cons

Reporting functionality very limited and not user friendly.

I used Vertical Response to send out newsletters and updates for a small nonprofit.

Free and easy to use.

Pros

Very easy to use, and very easy to get started. I did not have much experience in email marketing or HTML, and still found the templates available straight forward and understandable.

Cons

I sincerely do not have any negative feedback about this program. I would like to see more of how the reports & analytics could be built out.

Marketing - Campaign - Analysis

VerticalResponse is a good choice for an email marketing solution when you also need advanced image-editing features. There's no guarantee that your contacts who use Gmail will receive your emails, though. Creating segmented email campaigns is also more difficult with this application than with the best email marketing services. However the templates and marketing responses were quite healthier.

Very helpful for a small non profit!

Pros

I love their new update! Being able to send the follow up email at a later date is so awesome. I can set it for 30 days and then not worry about forgetting.

Cons

The reporting options on the survey results needs some work. I would like to see percentages for each answer.

Awesome Support

With it's robust feature set, Vertical Response can overwhelm a first time user. However, Vertical Response integrates seamlessly with social media and CRM software to provide a comprehensive email marketing platform. In addition, Vertical Response now offers a free trial to test their email marketing service before committing to paid options.

Marketing Tool

This tool sends the marketing emails with beautiful templates Create signup forms with matching templates Schedule social network updates on Twitter and Facebook Autoresponders to welcome new signups to your lists Reports that show the reach of your emails and social networks

VerticalResponse Review

Overall, it was a valuable learning curve for my organization!

Pros

This software gets the job done. The best features is most likely the reporting visualizations.

Cons

The deliverability with a lot of organizations was extremely low, and I thought the pricing was pretty high in relation.

Hard to Use, Better Alternatives Available

We used VR for a couple months but were not happy with the reporting features. We were also hoping for A/B testing abilities in order to see which email subject lines, from lines, etc would perform better to our customer lists.

Easy to use Email Broadcast tool

I'm able to keep my customers updated on a regular basis using my predesigned templates, saving me a lot of time.

Pros

It has a very intuitive layout and I found it very easy to use for the first time, enabling me to send updates to my customers.

Cons

There could be a few more price bands available