Email marketing is a fantastic way to turn your leads into sales and create awareness for your product or service. But, it’s a little cumbersome to handle without the right tools.
An autoresponder is imperative for anyone running a business online, especially affiliate marketers.
In this article, I’m going to tell you why you need to be careful when choosing an email autoresponder for affiliate marketing, how to choose, and my top picks to ensure your email marketing is done smoothly.
The Problem With Affiliate Marketing and Autoresponders
The title says that there’s a problem with affiliate marketing and autoresponders, but this issue cuts across many online marketing tools, including SMS and social media software.
There are probably several thousand or even hundreds of thousands of affiliates who have suffered a ban or a block on their account from some company, citing their rules against affiliate marketing.
I have been met with such an ill fate too and I’m been forced to do the research and find the best autoresponder for affiliate marketing.
However, while this is a tragic occurrence, it happens pretty often with very popular autoresponders.
A few popular autoresponders that are not so affiliate marketing friendly are MailChimp, Sendinblue, Constant Contact, ActiveCampaign, and Mailer Lite. All of these autoresponders are pretty great and work well for most people except affiliates.
Setting up with autoresponders that ban the promotion of affiliate products will inevitably lead to one thing: a ban. That is, your account will suddenly be blocked without prior warning.
If (when) this happens, you’ll probably lose your precious email list, your best email marketing sequences, your most promising leads and contacts, and a lot of future revenue because you’ll have to build everything back up again.
Some people say that there is a little bit of leeway with some services that allow affiliate links but not affiliate marketing.
However, we advise that you don’t risk it because such companies usually don’t clearly define the line. You could be banned for sending a message you’d already sent before. Best to just avoid it.
However, if you didn’t, it’s time to pick yourself up. To help with that, we’ve compiled five of the best autoresponders for affiliate marketing.
But, before we get into that, let’s go over a couple of things you should note when looking for an email service to meet your affiliate marketing needs.
How to Choose the Best Email Service for Affiliate Marketing
There are tons of autoresponders on the market, but most people only use one or two at most. To make the right choice, here are a couple of things affiliate marketers should note.
1. The Fine Print
I know reading the terms and conditions can be tedious, but it’s in the interest of your business. Read the terms and conditions of every autoresponder you feel might be a good fit.
Please pay special attention to the parts that state what content they do or do not allow. This way, you can find out whether or not they allow affiliate marketing. Can’t find anything related to affiliate marketing? Ask customer support.
2. Deliverability
Apart from ensuring you don’t get suddenly banned, your autoresponder’s delivery rate is the next crucial factor. Your message’s impact on the customer is majorly dependent on two things: your content and correct delivery.
The best autoresponder should make sure that your email gets delivered to whom you want it when you want it and in their inbox, not spam. These autoresponders usually have a deliverability rate of at least 99%.
3. Limits
Many autoresponders have limitations. They limit your list size and the number of emails you can send. List size is usually determined by the plan you choose.
Several autoresponders only allow a certain amount of respondents within a plan. If your list is more extensive, then you’ll have to buy a larger plan.
Email limiting works in almost the same way. You can only send emails to a certain number of addresses every month. If your list supersedes that number, then you’ll need to choose another plan.
A lot of free plans also work this way. Always make sure that you select a plan that is sufficient for your list.
4. Lead Generation Tools
An email service with an edge is one that provides other tools that also boost your marketing and conversion.
This can be done in different ways, like providing a platform that allows you to create high-quality affiliate marketing landing pages, websites, pop-ups, forms, etc., in addition to having an autoresponder.
Naturally, not all autoresponders will have this, but thanks to new software technology innovation, a couple have these features.
If you don’t already have another service that provides all these features, you should consider getting an autoresponder that offers them all in one package.
5. Usability
This factor can also be known as “Ease of Use.” Though technology is advancing in leaps and bounds, not many affiliates have the required programming skills to stumble through any overly complicated processes.
So you should choose an autoresponder that has easy-to-use features and templates that’ll help you figure out what to do and make it happen quickly. This should also apply to services provided apart from autoresponders if any.
6. Free Trial
If a company wants you to pay money for their services, they should be ready to display why they’re worth it. A free or a dollar trial is a great way to do that, and many autoresponders have them.
However, because it takes time for senders to know the effect of the email or make sure they were received, an autoresponder’s free trial should not be too short. Ideally, 14 to 30 days is a great amount of time to test a service.
Some autoresponders might give less time but below seven days is too short to judge whether an autoresponder works well or not.
7. Value
Make sure the price of an autoresponder corresponds to its services. If you’re buying an expensive plan, double-check whether all its features are worth paying the price.
You can check out reviews for this or compare the cost of buying everything separately and buying them together under one plan.
You can also compare two autoresponders of similar quality and rating and go with the one that gives you the most value for your money.
Okay, now that I’ve shown you what to look out for when choosing the best email marketing service for affiliate marketing, let’s head into the main part.
Here are my best autoresponders for affiliate marketing 2024.
Best Autoresponders for Affiliate Marketing 2024
1. GetResponse
GetResponse is one of the most popular autoresponders available with over 350,000 members, including large affiliate networks like JVZoo.
However, the reason why they’re my number one pick for best autoresponders for affiliate marketing lies in their features, pricing, and customer service.
GetResponse was established in 1997 as a small email autoresponder service. Two decades later, they’ve expanded to become known for great email services, amongst other things.
They’re also well-known as a company that doesn’t discriminate against affiliate marketing or affiliate links. And can be integrated with several other apps and programs.
It’s really easy to create a professional-looking and sounding email with GetResponse. Even if you’ve never made one before, there’s a library of templates available.
These templates are categorized by intent or goals — promote, educate, inform, etc. You can also use GetResponse’s drag-and-drop feature to create new elements within your email in a snap.
All settings are also conveniently placed in one area. Here, you can finish setting up your email and set times for sending.
You’re also allowed to set up action-based emails that’ll be sent only when your visitor or subscriber performs certain actions like subscribing to your website or clicking a link.
And you don’t have to worry about your emails falling into spam. GetResponse is proud of its 99% deliverability and works hard to maintain it.
Apart from email marketing, GetResponse also hosts services that can be classified as lead-generation tools. They’re complimentary to their email service and can help in finding stronger and more reliable leads.
GetResponse has a great landing page builder, can host webinars, has CRM tools, and gives users a fully automated sales funnel called Conversions Funnel.
Conversions Funnel allows you to pick up the customers you may have lost and upsell to the ones you already have.
You can connect your account on GetResponse and import your products from Etsy, Stripe, Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, WooCommerce, and PrestaShop.
Give yourself some free time by automating follow-up messages and offering new products based on a customer’s older purchases.
Of course, you do have to pay to get all of these goodies. But not without testing them, so you get a 30-day free trial first. GetResponse’s pricing is based on your list size and the plan you choose. They have three plans.
The basic plan starts at $12.75 with a list of 1000 and has fairly good stuff like unlimited landing pages, lead funnels, and automation templates.
The plus plan is $41.65/month for up to 1000 people, and you get better stuff like more automation workflows, contact scoring, and tagging, sales funnels, webinar and webinar funnels, etc.
The professional plan gets you all kinds of unlimited funnels and the ability to get paid webinars. However, the price jumps to $84.15. You can also get a customized plan if you need more out of GetResponse. You’ll also need to pay more as your traffic gets higher and higher.
This can be a con if you’re not making enough sales to cover the costs, but with quality traffic, good sales funnels, and, the power of email marketing you should be able to.
You will find answers to questions you may have regarding using GetResponse for affiliate marketing here.
2. Mailing Boss (Builderall)
Okay, this is a service you might not have heard of. Mailing Boss is an autoresponder under Builderall, a digital marketing platform. They have so many features that I’m pretty sure that you won’t need to look anywhere else for your marketing software ever again.
However, we’re here to talk about Mailing Boss, their autoresponder.
Mailing Boss includes an autoresponder with timers, a drag-and-drop email builder with templates available, and automated email marketing.
All of this is encompassed within a simple and clean user interface with super easy controls and analytics.
Mailing Boss is still relatively unknown because it is included in a package with over twenty other features and services. However, this autoresponder can be compared to the most popular services available and not be disadvantaged.
It has high deliverability rates, so you won’t get your emails flung into the spam box. It’s also easy to use, and you set the limits. There are also tutorials on their website that show you how to use each email feature.
Builderall was made for both beginners and advanced business people to use to get conversions and make more sales.
To help with this, they provide several services, all of which can be bought with a one-time payment of $69.90 and then a continuous subscription of $69.90/month.
If we were choosing the best autoresponder for affiliate marketing based on feature quantity, Builderall would win hands down. Builderall allows you to build as many websites and landing pages as you want and accelerate them.
You can also build an online store, complete with products and upselling and cross-selling opportunities.
You also get an SSL certificate, super-fast CDN servers, and DDOS protection. There are also process chatbots available, and you can build and hosts webinars easily.
Create a funnel without any stress with Builderall. All you need is your membership, and you’ll have access to a sophisticated funnel builder and hundreds of ready-made sales funnels.
Many of these funnels were made specifically for affiliates and work best with affiliate marketing. Of course, you’ll also need to test it. You get to do A/B split testing on both desktop and mobile devices with both plans.
There are more features, but we won’t talk about anything else if we get started on them.
3. Groovemail
Here’s another autoresponder that comes as part of a digital marketing kit.
Groovemail is a part of the Groove digital marketing platform, a new platform with several services intended to help you increase conversions, generate traffic, make sales, and expand your business.
It does that through services like email marketing using its autoresponder.
GrroveMail was only recently launched by GrooveDigital, the team in charge of Groove’s group of services. Before I forget, I would like to mention that the whole service package is known as GrooveFunnels.
However, because Groove Mail is presented as part of a larger group of services doesn’t mean you should look down on its features.
Groove Mail works like any other high-quality autoresponder and can be seen to have features that many may not be able to get with other autoresponders unless they pay for more expensive plans.
A few examples are tagging, segmentation, conditional splits, and dynamic variables.
By tagging, I mean placing a notice on a particular customer’s information to label them as part of a certain category. This way, you can send different emails to differently-tagged people for greater effect.
Segmentation works based on these tags. You can now send emails to a certain group of people without mass messaging everyone. It’s a great way to target certain customers without sending what basically amounts to spam to others.
If you’ve managed to collect more information about a subscriber, you can personalize your messages for even more impact with the Dynamic Variables feature.
Did you know that 72% of consumers say they only engage with personalized messaging? This feature allows you to take advantage of that.
Conditional splits allow you to send subscribers emails when they take a certain action. You can also set up your settings so that if a customer doesn’t open your mail after some time passes, you can send another one.
Here’s a demo on GrooveMail to help you better understand why it’s one of our best autoresponders for affiliate marketing.
GrooveFunnels has several other services that work in tune with GrooveMail. Groovefunnels gives free lifetime access and no credit card is needed to sign up.
But that doesn’t mean they are running a charity organization. Just like every Saas company, they have premium plans.
Unlike other companies, where monthly subscriptions are mandatory, Groovefunnels allows you to buy their entire packages and have premium lifetime access to the platform with a single payment.
By buying the whole package, you can get access to services that help you sell online, create unlimited websites and landing pages, create and edit videos, automate messages for email leads and abandoned carts, run a blog, set timers for important events, create surveys and quizzes, etc.
You can get all of this for a one-time payment of $1397.
4. ConvertKit
This autoresponder is extremely popular with affiliates and non-affiliates alike. ConvertKit is a relatively new email service, but it has established itself as one of the best autoresponders for affiliate marketers.
ConvertKit was created by Nathan Barry and is chock full of useful features that have been made easier to use for those of us who aren’t programming-savvy.
In many ways, CinvertKit resembles other autoresponders, except it’s way easier to use. I’ll explain exactly how that works in the following paragraphs.
Tagging, sequences, segmentation, and automation. These are ConvertKit’s biggest draws. They do targeting and segmentation better than many older autoresponders like MailChimp and Aweber.
You can easily tag and segment all your subscribers into different categories from one list.
Create new segments based on new actions you’ve added and set tags to be added automatically once a visitor takes a certain step like clicking your link.
Filter out all buyers who don’t need product pitches for the time being and focus on your leads. You can create targeted, personalized emails quickly by using an email template to save time.
And while there is analytics on your subscribers’ actions after you send them emails, you don’t need to prompt them into the next action yourself.
Instead, you can customize a funnel, detailing what should happen when a customer takes action. This automation can lead to greater conversions and, eventually, better sales.
With a deliverability rate of 98% and an opening rate of 30%, you can be sure that your message will make it to the right inboxes.
ConvertKit also allows integrations with some popular services like Stripe, Shopify, Crowdcast, Teachable, Zapier, etc.
You can also create landing pages with professional-looking templates, GPDR-compliant forms, and analytics to target customers and generate leads.
This can also work in sync with ConvertKit’s Commerce feature, which allows you to put your product up for sale within a few easy steps.
Can’t figure out a feature? ConvertKit has written and video tutorials that show you how to properly use all its technology. Its support team is also very responsive.
ConvertKit has a free plan that offers unlimited landers, forms, traffic, and email broadcasts. It also allows customizable domains and subscriber tagging. However, it’ll only work for up to 1000 subscribers.
The Creator plan has everything offered on ConverKit for $29/month for 1000 people. Prices increase by $20 or $30 every two or three thousand new subscribers.
Creator Pro adds more unique features like subscriber engagement scoring, deliverability reporting, priority support, etc. A thousand subscribers on this plan cost $59/month.
5. Sendlane
Sendlane is our final pick for the best autoresponders for affiliate marketing. Compared to some competitors like Aweber and GetResponse, Sendlane is a newcomer. The service was created in 2013 and now has tens of thousands of customers.
Sendlane has normal features that you’d expect every autoresponder to have, but it also has a few areas where it shines especially bright. There are three of them: segmentation, automation, and ease of use.
Sendlane allows you to create workflows and make modifications to your funnel based on your customer’s actions. Depending on your customer’s actions (or inactions), you can set up your settings to add that customer to a list or tag them.
There’s also another nice feature called. Optimized Send Times. When it’s enabled, Sendlane tracks the habits and actions of subscribers and compiles them.
Then, according to the data, it delivers the mail at the most optimum times. Naturally, this feature gets more accurate the more you use it.
Sendlane also has a great automation system. It’s divided into two. Autoresponders are the standard, timed emails, and workflows that lead subscribers down a funnel with triggers and actions.
Workflows are more effective than automation because they are triggered by certain actions, which means they’re usually targeted and have a higher chance of generating a lead.
Apart from its automation, segmentation, and user-friendly interface, Sendlane also has a feature for creating landing pages. The interface is extremely similar to the email interface, so it’s really easy to use.
There are over 50 templates, and both autoresponder and landing pages can be integrated with over 1400 services, including Shopify, WooCommerce, Clickbank, etc.
Sendlane has two plans, but there’s not much difference in the feature list. For 5000 subscribers, the Growth plan and the Pro plan cost $99 and $150 per month.
Pro has two features that Growth does not; SMS automation and Multi-user access. There’s also a one-time payment of $497 for all the features in the Growth plan plus training materials.
But you don’t have to start paying any bills yet. Instead, sign up for the 14-day free plan and check out what you’ll be paying for.
Conclusion
And those are our five best autoresponders for affiliate marketing. You may not have heard a few before, but fortunately, all of them have some sort of test time.
Take some time out to test their features before deciding if they’re worth your money.
Though none of them can boast of being the complete best free autoresponders for affiliate marketing, quality costs money. You owe yourself and your subscribers the best.
GetResponse is my number one pick because it’s very effective for affiliate marketing, really easy to use, the basic plan is super cheap and the functionality goes beyond email marketing.
Take advantage of this list and send some emails.
