Vertical Response Conclusion

Thanks to a few key changes, VerticalResponse now offers a quality email marketing service at an affordable price. VerticalResponse consistently performed well in all five of the main email marketing categories in our survey; Creating an Email, Loading/Managing Contacts, Analyzing Reports, Customer Support and Deliverability. In addition, VerticalResponse offers a few exceptional features, such as 25MB of image hosting space, A/B testing, Google Analytics integration, and a spam checker, which are not available with other services.

VerticalResponse: Email Creation

Email creation using VerticalResponse is relatively quick and easy. The email template includes 300+professionally designed templates in 14 categories. There are four different options available to create an email: the “Email Wizard,” which uses themed borders and can color-match your logo; the “Email Canvass,” which allows you to choose pre-made layouts and/or edit the HTML code; “Freeform HTML,” which allows you to upload your custom template; and “Text-Only,” which eliminates graphics. You are able to store and use up to 25MB of images for email campaigns, which is a generous amount of space, and you can remove the VerticalResponse brand from your emails for free. These features mean more flexibility for your email campaigns. The one feature VerticalResponse lacks, however, is the option to create Autoresponders, or pre-made messages that can be automatically sent to new subscribers. This means that if you want to send a welcome email, you will have to access your list of new subscribers manually create a new email for them.

VerticalResponse: Contact Management

VerticalResponse allows you to easily import contacts from CSV files and from existing email clients, which makes adding contacts rather straightforward. You can also choose to manually input contacts one at a time. However, you are unable to cut & paste multiple contacts simultaneously, an option given by other providers on our list. Segmenting your list and creating a website sign-up form with VerticalResponse are both quite simple. VerticalResponse also automatically removes unsubscribes from your list; however, they do not automatically remove bounces. You’ll have to check the box next to the email address(es) you want to delete and then click to delete them, which is similar to deleting emails in your inbox.

VerticalResponse: Email Deliverability

Emails sent using VerticalResponse had 100% deliverability rate to all major email servers that we tested. VerticalResponse complies with industry best practices to increase the chances that your email campaign will be delivered without problems. All email campaigns are automatically scheduled to be sent out with enough time (can take “up to 2 hours,” but usually takes 10-15 minutes) for the VerticalResponse Approval Staff “to ensure they are compliant with the CAN-SPAM law.” When we tested the service, we were sent an email instructing us to fix the physical address in our email footer (We had entered a fake one for testing purposes) because it did not comply with best practices. They also provide a spam checker that scans the subject line, from address and email body for spam terms and tactics. And, although they do not guarantee your email passing spam filters, they do offer a list of common spam tactics to avoid as you create your campaign.

VerticalResponse: Analyzing Reports

In addition to providing common email campaign statistics, such as opens, bounces and unsubscribes, VerticalResponse also shows you extra statistics, such as top performing links, top performing email lists and your campaign performance average. You can also easily compare up to 5 of your campaigns with one another to see how well each performed. You can export reports as a CSV (looks like a simple spreadsheet when opened with Excel) or TXT file for accessible viewing, easy file storage on your computer or printing. Additionally, VerticalResponse will email you a reports summary for quick and easily accessible viewing. VerticalResponse also allows you to create A/B testing campaigns to see which message performs better before you send it out to your entire list and integrate reports with Google Analytics. You are able to view campaign reports graphically as well as numerically.

VerticalResponse: Customer Support

VerticalResponse provides great customer support to their email marketing customers. They offer phone, email, and live chat, as well as a knowledgebase that features FAQ’s and text and video tutorials. When we contacted their live chat support, the chat specialists were knowledgeable, prompt and friendly.Customer support is available M-F 6a-5p PT.

VerticalResponse: Pricing

VerticalResponse offers two payment plans. You can either pay a monthly fee, based on the number of contacts you add to your list, or you can pay as you go, based on the number of emails you send per month. Under the latter payment plan, your email credits will expire 12 months after the purchase date. Qualifying nonprofits get a free 10,000 emails per month on a pay-as-you-go basis, plus 15% off on all emails over 10,000. If you sign up for a free trial, you can test all of VerticalResponse’s email marketing features for 30 days and send up to 100 emails.