My Experience With GetResponse And AWeber

In line with our List Building month here in Wealthy Affiliate (March, 2018), I'd like to share my experience with GetResponse and AWeber. My purpose for this is, to give beginners a hint of what they'd get once they're inside either of this two services.

There are other autoresponder services out there, but these two are the most popular.

I used to be with AWeber, until I tried GetResponse a month ago with their free 30-day trial. Barely a week have passed after paying my first subscription, I started thinking of cancelling my account. The reason is, I felt it's quite hard to use the new 2018 GR dashboard, as compared to what we have in AWeber. And if someone like me is having a hard time figuring things out, then what more with complete beginners?

My Experience With GetResponse And AWeber

Following the lessons in Jay's webinar on "setting up blog broadcasts sent as as emails", I went to my GR account and attemted to do the thing the GR way. Take note, in the video by Jay, he's demonstrating using AWeber's and not GetResponse.

A few things that got me stuck:

1. I can't edit the "from name" in my blog broadcasts in GetResponse. In AWeber, you can easily customize that.
2. When I tested it, I discovered that the default or "ready made" thank you page can't be customized, and does not instruct the subscriber to confirm email. In AWeber, there's an instruction being given to subscribers in the default thank you page.

Of course, some of you may argue that it is up to us to edit those things. But what about us who hate a lot of editing and just looking for "ready made" systems?

For me, having a default to use like those of AWeber that tells the subscriber to confirm email is a huge advantage, over having a default that just say "well done".

Besides, I have other things to do, other than creating a custom page in my blog to be used as a "thank you page".

So, with that, I like AWeber's style. Works better than a simple "well done" notice.

Now, take note of the differences in form settings...

In GetResponse, I found out that I am limited only to only one thing. Let's say I'm offering a one-time FREE EXAM on whether a person is suited for entrepreneurship or not, after signing up, my only choice is to send this person a sequential autoresonder.

Whereas in AWeber, I noticed that I can hook the subscriber of that one-time offer, to my blog post notifications (blog broadcasts).

But then again, I am speaking as a beginner here, and for beginners. Experts may laugh at this.

Then, here's another thing...

In one of the questions I posted here in Wealthy Affiliate which eventually turned out as a survey tool for me, I found out that messages from GetResponse are usually being flagged down as spam.

While others may argue that it is not always the case, the fact that with the default thank you page of AWeber it is asking the subscriber to confirm email, then it shows that their system is really focused on helping the marketers get high confirmation and open rate. (Given that most beginners may just use the default tools and pages given)

To support Glen's reply, I checked if I receive follow-up messages from a fellow WA member who's using GetResponse, I subscribed to his list the other day. And you know what? Of the three sections of my Gmail (Primary inbox, social, and promotional), I found his messages in the promotional section!

There are other things that I've noticed between the two, and to mention all of them here, maybe the list will be endless. In simple terms, I can say that AWeber is more "beginner friendly" over GetResponse, especially with the latest GR's dashboard. (Improved, but got harder to use for beginners)

Now, here's what moved me emotionally to stick with AWeber...

Upon signing up for the "free trial for 30 days", I received a welcome email that really made me feel "welcomed".

Remembering the welcome email I got from GetResponse, I backread the past messages I got from them, and found this message...

Can you spot the striking difference?

AWeber never mentioned about upgrading in their welcome email. They just made me feel I am welcomed and now part of their family, then followed by step by step instuctions on how to set up my account.

On the other hand, with GetResponse welcome email, the need for upgrading is mentioned upfrontly!

Now, if you are in my place who's having a hard time figuring out things in my GetResponse dashboard, with both dashboards (AWeber's and GetResponse') open on your screen, which tab will you choose to close and say "good bye"?

Finally, as I was searching online to read reviews of others, I found a comparison review that's so unbiased because, there ain't no affiliate link to click and buy. So, that means, their opinion can be trusted. (Plus, it's a survey! It's from the users, thousands of users out there!)

Who got a higher vote in terms of client/user experience?

Conclusion

I heard from Jay that GetResponse is very popular among small conventional businesses like restaurant owners, factories, etc. That maybe because, these companies can hire techie programmers to set up email marketing for them. They can navigate easily with GetResponse' hard-to-use dashboard, because they're technical people.

I conclude, GetResponse is good for those small business owners who can hire experts, while we (bloggers especially beginners), we're better off using AWeber.

Okay, enough for that. I will leave it out to you to make your own conclusion.

What I've just brought up here is based on my own experience, opinion, and perhaps, my own biases. It's up to you to think and make an educated decision of what autoresponder to choose.

Cheers,