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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Emma by Marigold

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/AEmma by Marigold is an email marketing solution. Its key features include mobile-ready design templates, email automation, audience segmentation, and dynamic content. The software includes integration with third-party CRM solutions, ecommerce platforms, and social networks.

    $500

    per year per user

    VerticalResponse

    Score10 out of 10
    N/AVerticalResponse is an email campaign management software and services platform from Deluxe. In addition to providing email marketing tools, VerticalResponse offers fully managed email marketing services from campaign launch and management to reporting and analysis.

    $9

    per month

    Pricing
    Emma by MarigoldVerticalResponse
    Editions & Modules
    Basic
    $500
    per year per user
    Basic
    $11.00
    per month
    Pro
    $16.00
    per month
    Pro Plus
    $196.00
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Emma by MarigoldVerticalResponse
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Emma by MarigoldVerticalResponse
    Considered Both Products
    Marigold
    No answer on this topic
    VerticalResponse
    Chose VerticalResponse
    Vertical Response was already in use when I joined the organization. It was selected for affordability. In comparison to other email marketing platforms, it was harder to use for an end user, but we were able to hire a developer to create some custom templates, and that worked …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Emma by MarigoldVerticalResponse
    Email & Online Marketing
    Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Emma by Marigold and VerticalResponse
    Feature
    Emma by Marigold
    9.1
    31 Ratings
    13% above category average
    VerticalResponse
    9.9
    8 Ratings
    21% above category average
    WYSIWYG email editor8.024 Ratings10.07 Ratings
    Dynamic content9.025 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Ability to test dynamic content9.024 Ratings10.04 Ratings
    A/B testing9.024 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Mobile optimization9.029 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Email deliverability reporting10.031 Ratings10.08 Ratings
    List management10.031 Ratings10.08 Ratings
    Triggered drip sequences9.021 Ratings9.02 Ratings
    Landing pages00 Ratings10.04 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Emma by Marigold and VerticalResponse
    Feature
    Emma by Marigold
    10.0
    31 Ratings
    27% above category average
    VerticalResponse
    10.0
    9 Ratings
    27% above category average
    Dashboards10.030 Ratings10.09 Ratings
    Standard reports9.931 Ratings10.09 Ratings
    Custom reports10.019 Ratings10.06 Ratings
    Pre-Send Testing
    Comparison of Pre-Send Testing features of Emma by Marigold and VerticalResponse
    Feature
    Emma by Marigold
    -
    Ratings
    VerticalResponse
    10.0
    1 Ratings
    20% above category average
    URL Validation00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Link Tracking00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Image Validation00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Inbox Display00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Email Accessibility Tools00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Spelling and Grammar Check00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Spam Testing00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Email Previews00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Emma by MarigoldVerticalResponse
    Small Businesses
    Mad Mimi
    Score10 out of 10
    Mad Mimi
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Campaign Monitor by Marigold
    Score9 out of 10
    Campaign Monitor by Marigold
    Score9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Litmus from Validity
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Emma by Marigold
    Score8.5 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Emma by MarigoldVerticalResponse
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (32 ratings)
    10.0
    (28 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.5
    (5 ratings)
    8.6
    (19 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    2.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Emma by MarigoldVerticalResponse
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Marigold
    Using Emma for weekly templated email use with minimal changes is awesome. If you want you can create a master and make minor graphic edits quickly and easily from your smartphone. Any edit is possible as long as the artwork is on the online server. Only time I hit a bump in the road is when I was asked to change the style sheet and did not know that the pricing plan I was on did not include this feature. Client had to wait to send new format until Emma performed the requested changes.
    Read full review
    VerticalResponse
    For businesses requiring advanced email marketing features like sophisticated automation, in-depth analytics, and extensive customization, VerticalResponse might fall short due to its limited featuresVerticalResponse is ideal for small businesses or freelancers who need a simple, straightforward email marketing tool. Its ease of use and basic features make it suitable for those without extensive technical expertise in email marketing
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Marigold
    • Enterprise-level email marketing with multi-level account structure allowing for multiple users at different levels to send campaigns
    • Easy-to-use WYSIWYG email template editors to create dynamic emails with enhanced personalization through merge-fields
    • A large API index that connects to many different platforms and the ability to work with Emma support to create new connections to new platforms as needed
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    VerticalResponse
    • I love the ease of list builder because we often times have a lot of data to import. It would be simply impossible without this tool, considering the amount of customer data we have for any one given email.
    • We really enjoy the ease of use of the HTML wizard as well. It helps even a novice be able to make a beautiful and attention grabbing email.
    • The dashboard is functional and easy to find when you need with a quick search.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Marigold
    • Their customer service leaves something to be desired. We ran into an issue with one of our campaigns, and we decided to reach out to support, but they didn't get back with us until 3 hours later! Time is money!!
    • We don't like that their photo editing capabilities are limited, you can only choose small, medium or large photos with no way to resize to exact dimensions. Makes emails a bit of a pain
    • The upgraded premium tools are buggy and leave something to be desired as well – it's a shame.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    VerticalResponse
    • The type face is small. Not sure if this is to avoid overwhelming the reader, but I could see this being an issue with vision-impaired people or people who don't see small print well.
    • Sometimes I find it takes multiple clicks to make one simple change. I wish there was a search field at the top of the screen that allowed me to jump directly to a client's entry to update it there.
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Marigold
    Emma has been a great tool for our marketing. It's easy to use and I've had no issues in the almost two years we've been with them. It's really been a great way for us to stay connected with customers that takes no time to setup and send
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    VerticalResponse
    Product is easy for both technical and non-technical people to use. A cost effective solution for sending out large number of messages. We can manage unsubscribes by individual accounts, so we can have multiple multiple accounts combined to maximize our buying power on credits. Effective API for sending/receiving data makes tool a valuable asset.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Marigold
    While every WYSIWYG software will experience glitches, Emma handles them well. Keep in mind they rarely happen, but they do, it can be of annoyance. Regardless, Emma allows my organization to create seamless email campaigns using fresh data. Emma makes coming up with strategic decisions very easy. The list segmentation that Emma feature allows us to easily manage a large list without issues. Overall, Emma is extremely usable with nearly no learning curve!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    VerticalResponse
    I truly love this product. We are moving to an all-in-one system next year and my greatest fear in doing so is how much I will miss this platform. Although we are excited for things ahead, I will always keep Vertical Response in my back pocket incase I don't love the new platform as much
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Marigold
    No answers on this topic
    VerticalResponse
    Never had an issue with uptime
    Read full review
    Performance
    Marigold
    No answers on this topic
    VerticalResponse
    No issues
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Marigold
    I hate that to get support I have to submit a question to a public forum and wait for a response. I just want the ability for a quick live chat to answer my simple help questions quickly or at the very least submit a ticket via email and get a status update.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    VerticalResponse
    At Vertical Response the help desk associates are courteous, knowledgeable and helpful. You can tell they enjoy what they do. And clearly, they are well trained because most times, the first point of contact is able to resolve any issue you may have. There have been very few times where an associate has needed to get back to me or escalate me to a supervisor
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Marigold
    No answers on this topic
    VerticalResponse
    Basic functions and online help...we used what was needed, at the time, and will continue to explore other online trainings as our functional needs expand
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Marigold
    No answers on this topic
    VerticalResponse
    Salesforce integration never worked right. We had to abandon.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Marigold
    At the time we made the decision to move to Emma, my organization was using both MailChimp and Constant Contact. Emma's drag-and-drop template editor surpassed both, and even editing the pre-made template HTML in Emma was easier. List management was much smoother than the clunky Constant Contact and MailChimp lists we had. From a design perspective, we chose Emma for its ease of use in creating templates and modifying existing ones, as well as the ability to push out branded templates and brand assets through its master admin/subaccount capabilities. Emma's analytics and reporting were much less frustrating to navigate and understand, such that, rather than spending all of our time trying to make sense of the metrics from a campaign (which we were definitely doing), we were attracted to being able to report easily and then move on to determining how to make real improvements
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    VerticalResponse
    In addition to using Vertical Response personally I also manage email marketing for clients that already use Mailchimp, Robly and Constant Contact. While most of these platforms all offer similar features I choose Vertical Response first if the client does not have a platform in place. Typically I am also teaching the client how to use this tool and the Vertical Response visual interface is very easy for me to teach a client how to navigate and create their own campaigns.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Marigold
    • Stores using the platform have seen good deliverability stats. Open rates and click-through rates are high with the templates that Emma creates. We still face the challenge of getting more users on the platform.
    • User satisfaction is high for our users who are regularly using the platform.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    VerticalResponse
    • We were able to blast out promotions our company was having to customers which created an increase in business.
    • By blasting out any service issues, it keeps our customers informed so that they are not wondering what is going on.
    • Allows us to store unsubscribed emails so that we are not constantly pestering people who do not want to be emailed.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Emma by Marigold Screenshots

    Screenshot of dynamic content used to send unique, personalized content to each subscriber based on the data stored about them from a single email.Screenshot of the editor's drag & drop layouts and inline text editing, that help to keep the creative process fast and flexible.Screenshot of a display of account activity, email performance and recent mailings in one place right after login.Screenshot of insights on the go using Metric, the included iPhone and Android app.Screenshot of response results that give insights into what's working and provide next steps.Screenshot of customizable, mobile-optimized templates to show off a brand and content in the template gallery.