17 years helping Israeli businesses
choose better software
About VerticalResponse
Email marketing solution that helps businesses send emails, block content, monitor campaigns, distribute surveys, and more.
It used to be so easy to use. Plus I could get the stats on whether my messages were opened.
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.
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Filter reviews (60)
Great looking e-newsletters!
Comments: 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!
The best email marketing for budget conscious organisations
Comments: Once our team was up to speed in how to use the platform we found it functional and fit for purpose of sending out updates and newsletters to our supporters. The fact they offer there platform unrestricted and for free to charities is a huge benefit to us as other platforms charge huge amounts which eat into our fundraising budget substantially.
Pros:
This software is free for charities and NPO and does not have a limit to the number of contacts which can be uploaded or contacted, we can send 10s of thousands of newsletters and email each month for free which on other platforms would cost us hundreds of dollars.
Cons:
It is not as user-friendly as mailchimp and there appear to be more newsletters and campaign emails ending up in peoples spam folders. But this has to be weight up against the price savings when compared to using other platforms, and we have found it to still be cost-effective.
Alternatives Considered:
Vertical Response - Free, but you get what you pay for.
Comments: 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.
Easy To Use
Comments: 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.
Gets the job done
Comments: 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.
Alternatives Considered:
Longtime user, might not be the best option anymore
Comments: 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.
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.
Lags behind more modern competitors
Comments: 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.
Great way to communicate with a large amount of people
Comments: 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.
You can't beat free!
Comments: 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.
Vertical Response Review
Comments: This is an extraordinary system that can expand with your organization. So while you are early in development you can save money and when you develop it can develop with you as far as the number of clients you can track and mail delivery. I go as far as saying that everybody should utilize Vertical Response.
Pros:
I found it extraordinary for keeping a DB of clients and to have the option to refresh rapidly. The devices that they furnish you with for working out messages are especially simple to utilize. I love the simplified capacity that offers anybody the chance to construct elegant-looking messages with no broad experience. Likewise, web tools accessible that permit you to make online information exchanges are useful. Essential is the capacity to make numerous projects without significant delay.
Cons:
The system doesn't permit you to connect to all online media, your only choices are Facebook and Twitter. They ought to incorporate Instagram, Linkedin, and so forth Perhaps be considerably greater with more templates by and large. At times you can discover it takes various links to result in a single change. I wish there was a search field at the highest point of the screen that permitted me to hop straight to a customer's entrance to update it on the spot.
Frequent Formatting Issues
Comments: 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.
Easy to use, great intro price and hard to integrate in a fast manner to lead pages.
Comments: 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.
Impossible to deal with
Comments: 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.
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.
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.
Emails look good, but people don't see them.
Comments: 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.
A Diamond in the rough!
Comments: 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.
Antiquated
Pros:
Easy to manipulate but often had a lot of blacklisted domains
Cons:
Terrible send rates, hard to fo back and compare emails side by side; the html template often was imported
I'm sick of it!
Comments: 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!
Comments: 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.
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.
VerticalResponse
Comments: I've had a great experience with them. They're always helpful but I've rarely had to connect because they are just so user-friendly!
Pros:
I love VerticalResponse. They have been crucial in helping our organization communicate with our community. They are very easy to use and have access to connect with social media channels for smooth analytics.
Cons:
Without paying for it which can be difficult for non-profits, there is not a lot of room for automation email series but if you don't need to do that, this program is the best.
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.
Vertical Response Software
Comments: 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.