AWeber vs. iContact vs. Leadpages

AWeber is an excellent email marketing solution for small to mid-sized businesses, especially those that are just starting with email marketing campaigns. AWeber is also good for bloggers. But it's not perfect for an affiliate marketer who wants to make a landing page on AWeber. Businesses that require advanced segmentation options may need to consider other email marketing platforms.

I would only recommend it if someone was a small business. I think they are the best suited for companies who will send out a coupon or offer here and there. The most recent updates made it more complicated to use for more complicated processes. It is easy to train someone on the program, and so quick to learn. But I would also only stick to the simpler things. I also think the colorful templates are great, and show great creativity. But again, it is hard to justify recommending the program when it isn't WYSIWYG.

Incentivized

It's great if you want an easy-to-use but extremely robust tool for producing effective online marketing pages since it makes production work enjoyable and inspires fresh creativity. It also offers wonderful split-testing capabilities which can enhance marketing results. But if you're looking for an out-of-the-box collection of standardized, one-size-fits-all marketing resources, you really might want to consider looking elsewhere.

Incentivized

• List building: AWeber makes it easy to grow opt-in subscribers through customizable signup forms as well an integration with tools like Sumo and Hustle Pro.
• List segmentation: with a little more information about each subscriber, it's easy to create custom segmented lists based on different criteria.
• Deliverability: AWeber enforces opt-in rules to keep spammers out of its system and improve deliverability rates for reputable users. We rarely have issues with our messages from AWeber being routed to spam folders.
• Double opt-in: AWeber makes it easy to set up double opt-in to make extra certain you have a high-quality mailing list.

Incentivized

• Contact management. iContact is really great for entering all your contact. You are able to put them onto different lists, and let them choose which lists they would like to be a part of as well. There are many data fields provided to fill in information.
• Emailing. We use the email feature at least once a month. They are always improving and adding new features, which is very helpful in presenting content in a new and exciting way to our readers. There are many options with remade templates and themes, or you can add your own.
• Insights. It is really helpful being able to have the data to see what is working and what isn't. It is nice to be able to go back and see how things went in the past compared to now. Opens, clicks, shares, etc.

Incentivized

• Leadpages integrates well with many of the main software that businesses use like Infusionsoft, Hubspot, Marketo, Mailchimp, GoToWebinar, and Wordpress. This allows your landing pages to be integrated well into the other processes you have with your business.
• Leadpages makes it easy to build professional looking landing pages without having to hire someone else or have coding skills. Their drag and drop builder makes it easy enough to use and get the hang of. I particularly love the hundreds of templates they provide for you to help give you ideas and get you going faster.
• They also have a Leadbox function that has also been super useful in being able to get other types of forms up on our website. These forms provide some functionality that our website wouldn't have had without them.

Incentivized

• Aweber would be even better if it had the ability to host landing pages. I have to use a tool like landingpages.net to do this if I don't want to create the landing pages as part of my client's website. If I manage their site, it isn't a problem, but it keeps me from using Aweber for clients who manage their own sites or dont' have one.
• Aweber would greatly benefit from a more robust reseller program. Firms like mine have multiple clients and, with each client needing an individual Aweber account, it would be nice to have access to margin so that we could resell the services.
• Along the lines of a reseller program, it would be great of Aweber allowed resellers to white label the interface and administrate multiple accounts from one agency account.

Incentivized

• We also would like to send transactional messages which don't require an opt-out, this is a challenge with iContact. (May be a feature with pro?)
• The regular version of iContact doesn't support event management or logic flows for automated messaging.
• Custom form fields have limited field type options (can't build a drop-down).

Incentivized

• While most of the editing functions are easy to figure out, some of the finer details to get spacing, sizing, alignment and layout just right can take some trial and error if you don't have formal training in the tool. A lot of the editing tools are collapsed into sections, and finding just what you're looking for can sometimes be a challenge.
• I don't believe the version we used had a page optimizer or optimization score, which I have seen on other landing page builders. This may be a feature of a more premium version of the tool or may have been turned off by the product manager, but it would be a helpful feature.

Incentivized

AWeber is easy and intuitive for me use. I really like the simplicity and the structure of the work flow as it saves me time. AWeber also integrates with all the other programs, systems and gateways that I use on a daily basis (WordPress, Paypal, LeadPages, Facebook and more) and if I have any questions or have trouble the AWeber customer service technicians are very helpful.

iContact has been a quick and easy way to send any announcements and news directly to email and social media subscribers. Its tracking and reporting capabilities turn a simple email into a marketing campaign that can be used as a tool to efficiently gauge reader response and customer satisfaction, and ultimately to reach potential customers. The consistency and excellent customer service is what makes this program a pleasant experience.

See previous answers ... the design / customization interface could be more intuitive and elegant .. for example, for me it has been difficult to easily figure out how to place pictures / images to the right, left or center of text.

Incentivized

I rate iContact as an easy to use program due to its user friendly dashboard and user interface. Most companies of small to medium size do not have a dedicated marketer, therefore it is someone multitasking who may or may not have this kind of experience. iContact makes it relatively simple and can actually expand one's knowledge in the area of business promotion.

Incentivized

I would give it a 10, for me, I love all the features. For the average person, the number of choices on a landing page could create a decision paradox. Thankfully the pre-designed landing page templates do not require a lot of decisions for a landing page newbie.

Incentivized

iContact is regularly up and running. Only once has it been unavailable for maintenance, which is to be expected and even desired for optimal performance when needed.

I have always received prompt phone or live chat support that has resolved my issues on the first call in a competent, knowledgeable and friendly manner. By contrast MailChimp offers no live chat or phone support; they only offer email support and the response time for MailChimp is slow by comparison to AWeber.

Incentivized

They have always been responsive to any issues or concerns that have arisen with our account. Our customer account manager participates in our monthly county-wide communicators meetings via telephone to ensure that we are getting the most from the service. He also analyzes our lists to help us weed out inactive contacts.

Incentivized

Leadpages support is helpful, they also created many resources to help people create good funnels and learn about small things that matter when doing marketing. The affiliate program is good and could be something which pays for your subscription. People like Leadpages because its been recommended by many influencers participating in affiliate program and also because it just works without problems and does the job. But right now alternatives should be taken in consideration, as there are many other projects that could do it better and cheaper.

Incentivized

The templates are difficult to customize, and they don't render well in email platforms

i wouldn't be using it if i wasn't satisfied. time is money

We often use Canva to design our content and then export it as an image to upload into Aweber, as Aweber designs and limitations are too much of a hindrance to our needs. Canva is a brilliant tool for marketing and saves you a lot of time being able to adapt or change an existing template you create.

I didn't have a say in the decision because I wasn't with the company at the time. I listed HubSpot here because I know we used it in conjunction with iContact for email automation, but HubSpot Email was only recently built-out to the point where it is today. Now, iContact and HubSpot are no longer integrated.

I have used Mailchimp for clients, and use ActiveCampaign personally for my email marketing and have used it for clients, but prefer Leadpages for the frontend of the opt-in process because of its analytics and performance metrics. Leadpages makes it super easy to see what's performing well, without having to dive into Google Analytics or aggregate any other data. Leadpages also integrates really well with WordPress, my primary platform, with opt-in forms (wayyyy better than Mailchimp).

Incentivized

iContact stays the same with the number of users added or taken away. It certainly remains reliable despite increased usage, and so, can be considered scaleable in that aspect.

• Aweber delivers my email fast and reliably, never had a problem tech support could not handle (by the way, their support is great!)
• Since I have been with Aweber for so many years, I have an unlimited plan for a very affordable rate
• Aweber may not be a sexy as some of the new kids on the block, but it is a solid offering you should consider when choosing an autoresponder

Incentivized

• We have a template for webinars that we send every month. We just edit it and send. This couldn't be easier (once you know where to find it).
• We like the breakdown of statistics in the dashboard. They're easy to read.
• iContact isn't a comprehensive solution, so it is only one of a few products we use for marketing.

Incentivized

• Leadpages, as long as you have it set up properly, will have a quick ROI within days of your first campaign.
• For those that are not familiar, it is probably best to hire someone to take over this part and still your ROI will be very quick, including the cost of this professional.
• Overall, Leadpages has a very fast ROI if used and implemented in a timely manner, and used to constantly evolve what you are doing with new fresh content.

Incentivized