Should VerticalResponse Be the Default Mass Emailing Tool for Nonprofits?
The realm of blast emailing tools has been a pretty complicated one. Prices were complicated, features varied, and you really had to think through what you wanted in order to be able to effectively compare.
But with the announcement that VerticalResponse now offers 501(c)(3) nonprofits up to 10,000 emails per month for free, does that change? I think it might. VerticalResponse has been on our list of recommended tools for awhile - it's well designed, feature-rich, has strong deliverability, and integrates well with other tools (especially Salesforce). Even without nonprofit discounts, it's a very interesting option. At 10,000 emails for free, well, that might make it the obvious choice for most smaller nonprofits.
I've been taking a much closer look at VerticalResponse than I have before, to try to be able to answer the obvious question: when is it not the best choice?
There's two clear reasons why you'd want to look beyond. First, if you're sending considerably more than 10,000 emails a month - say, 20,000 or more - it's worth comparing prices with other packages. 10,000 emails free is a pretty darn big head start, but VR is considerably more expensive than some packages for higher volumes. Network for Good EmailNow (a stripped down package that's by far the cheapest mass email tool we've found if you're sending high volumes), is cheaper than VerticalResponse when you hit only about 15,000 emails per month.
Second, are you interested in a tool that will track all your constituents, take online payments, etc, in addition to emailing? If so, VerticalResponse is not that, so it makes sense to look instead to the world of integrated online packages.
Beyond that, there's not a lot of clear downsides of VerticalResponse. The features are quite comparatively rich and easy to use. I asked Patrick Shaw, who's been recommending VerticalResponse to the organizations they work with at NPower Seattle for some time, what downsides he sees, and here's the key issues he sees:
The first is a pain for workflow, but not the type of thing that seems like a deal breaker for most smaller nonprofits. The second seems like a bigger deal to me - there's no built in ability to let folks manage their own list preferences (to for instance opt-out out of your Alerts list while staying on your News list), but you're required to allow them to globally opt out of all lists. Allowing users to management their own subscription is certainly a more advanced feature, but findable - that might be a reason to look elsewhere. I'd add to the list the comment that the templates aren't very polished - there's certainly tools that provide more compelling templates out of the box.
And there is always the risk that VerticalResponse reconsiders this donation program when they get a lot of response. I don't have any reason to think this is going to happen, but it is a program that's based on the company's continued generosity, so I think it certainly makes sense to wait a few months before we crown it the new default option.
But if VerticalResponse continues to offer these free emails, I think that's going to shift the market dynamic for nonprofits. It becomes more like the web analytics marketplace, where Google Analytics is the obvious default choice. Like that space, there certainly *are* other packages, and there are valid reasons to use them, but for most organizations it will make sense to start by looking at VerticalResponse and look beyond only if it won't work for them.
But with the announcement that VerticalResponse now offers 501(c)(3) nonprofits up to 10,000 emails per month for free, does that change? I think it might. VerticalResponse has been on our list of recommended tools for awhile - it's well designed, feature-rich, has strong deliverability, and integrates well with other tools (especially Salesforce). Even without nonprofit discounts, it's a very interesting option. At 10,000 emails for free, well, that might make it the obvious choice for most smaller nonprofits.
I've been taking a much closer look at VerticalResponse than I have before, to try to be able to answer the obvious question: when is it not the best choice?
There's two clear reasons why you'd want to look beyond. First, if you're sending considerably more than 10,000 emails a month - say, 20,000 or more - it's worth comparing prices with other packages. 10,000 emails free is a pretty darn big head start, but VR is considerably more expensive than some packages for higher volumes. Network for Good EmailNow (a stripped down package that's by far the cheapest mass email tool we've found if you're sending high volumes), is cheaper than VerticalResponse when you hit only about 15,000 emails per month.
Second, are you interested in a tool that will track all your constituents, take online payments, etc, in addition to emailing? If so, VerticalResponse is not that, so it makes sense to look instead to the world of integrated online packages.
Beyond that, there's not a lot of clear downsides of VerticalResponse. The features are quite comparatively rich and easy to use. I asked Patrick Shaw, who's been recommending VerticalResponse to the organizations they work with at NPower Seattle for some time, what downsides he sees, and here's the key issues he sees:
- Selling credits that can “belong” to an organization, rather than to an individual login. You have to buy or apply your credits via your user name and password. Not big enough of a hassle for us to not like the tool – but a bit no fun – it may mean that users have to share a user name and password, or buy/apply credits so that I might have $500 of credits and my co-worker might, too – and we’d both draw down.
- Subscription management. You're required to have a global opt out for all lists in every email, which is both the law and harsh! We’re planning on building a widget for Plone and maybe for PHP that will include the newsletter categories from Salesforce or another database that we can direct people to, so that they have both – the global opt out at the bottom AND the “manage my subscription” at the top.
The first is a pain for workflow, but not the type of thing that seems like a deal breaker for most smaller nonprofits. The second seems like a bigger deal to me - there's no built in ability to let folks manage their own list preferences (to for instance opt-out out of your Alerts list while staying on your News list), but you're required to allow them to globally opt out of all lists. Allowing users to management their own subscription is certainly a more advanced feature, but findable - that might be a reason to look elsewhere. I'd add to the list the comment that the templates aren't very polished - there's certainly tools that provide more compelling templates out of the box.
And there is always the risk that VerticalResponse reconsiders this donation program when they get a lot of response. I don't have any reason to think this is going to happen, but it is a program that's based on the company's continued generosity, so I think it certainly makes sense to wait a few months before we crown it the new default option.
But if VerticalResponse continues to offer these free emails, I think that's going to shift the market dynamic for nonprofits. It becomes more like the web analytics marketplace, where Google Analytics is the obvious default choice. Like that space, there certainly *are* other packages, and there are valid reasons to use them, but for most organizations it will make sense to start by looking at VerticalResponse and look beyond only if it won't work for them.
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3 Comments:
One additional downside that I found this week: VR doesn't offer a hosted opt-in form. You must put the opt-in form (i.e. email sign-up box) on your own site. While this isn't a huge issue for most people, it makes using VR with Wordpress.com nearly impossible, because you can't include form code in Wordpress.com sites. Since I'm recommending Wordpress.com sites to small nonprofits who are just now getting online and need to do it quickly at no cost, I would also love to recommend VR, but the two just don't work together right now.
My only problem with such free services for non-profits is that they're not offered to groups outside the U.S., Canada (and UK). There's a lot more needy non-profit groups here. I wonder how non-profit groups who have availed of such services can lobby these service providers to extend their reach.
Thanks, guys! Both great considerations to keep in mind.
Kivi, a slightly off-topic question: what do you find that Wordpress offers for a small site that something like Joomla doesn't? My impression is that Joomla is actually easier to setup (if you're doing a site and not something very blog-like), and it's way more scalable... What am I missing?
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