You probably already know the ROI of email marketing (it’s between $36 and $42 depending on the source). Now you probably also have heard of text marketing and perhaps also why it’s so interesting for marketers:
People almost always take their phones along or keep it white arms reach (Forbes)
Text messages have a very high engagement rate, something like 90% get read (Forbes)
Again, depending on the sources, you can expect SMS marketing return to be anywhere between 15 to 50 times the investment.
But what about all the tasks you can do with email marketing such as segmenting, personalising, and automating your text messages so that you get optimal results? Or perhaps you want to combine it with your email marketing? A good marketing automation provider will allow you to do both for your SMS as well as email messages.
Although Vision6 was launched in the same year – 2001 – as Mailchimp, it’s not as widely known. Vision6 promises to give you tools at hand, with which you can communicate with your audience via email and if they don’t check their inboxes also via SMS.
You can do the usual stuff that you’d expect from a typical email automation provider such as
- Create and send email campaigns
- Personalise your messages
- Segment your audience
But you can also treat your SMS just like email campaigns. You can work in a team or collaborate with different departments on your campaigns, using its marketing calendar.
Pros and cons of Vision6
Following industry standards, Vision6 is subscription-based and you access it via your browser. It’s a subscription. It comes with the features a typical email service provider provides but what makes it stand out is that You can prepare a combination of email and text messages to be sent to your audience based on its behaviour with the help of its automation tool. Although you need to integrate with Twilio for your SMS messages.
Pros
- Easy to navigate interface that is clean and tidy
- Send dynamic content in an email
- Email list segmentation
Cons
- While the user interface is easy to navigate, it helps if you know web development basics
- May have a learning curve for inexperienced people
Who is Vision6 for?
If you want to have the ability to enhance your email communication with SMS, take a look at Vision6. It allows you to treat your messages in the same way, regardless text message or email. You can apply the same procedures to your text messages as with your email campaigns.
Vision6 also gives you tools at hand so that you can run campaigns on Google and Facebook. And, it also has tools for your lead generation such as signup forms.
Vision6 is a solid choice for your marketing activities across many different industries. If you look at its pricing structure, it can serve SMEs and startups to large enterprises.
Vision6 user interface
Though Vison6 doesn’t offer a free forever plan, you can sign up and test-drive without having your credit card at hand. The first 250 emails are free of charge. The signup process is also nice and short without lengthy questions. You also don’t need to wait for approval for your account. After your first login, you’re brought to your dashboard.
The user interface follows the same vibe. It’s nice and clean, where everything is clearly labelled and nothing is hidden behind endless submenus. Everything is placed so that you can get the task at hand done without a lot of searching and clicking.
Campaigns
Sending messages is treated the same regardless of the channel (email or SMS). So, everything that has to do with a campaign, you can find under the tab Messages. For this review, I’m only concentrating on email campaigns.
You start a campaign by choosing a template. The next step is to customise the template and add the content you want.
With its drag-and-drop editor, it’s easy to customise and add content – you don’t need web development skills to set up an attractive email that looks good on different screen sizes – although it always helps. It even has a button to spell-check your content. Cool is that you can send dynamic content. That is you set conditions to show different segment different content sections.
Once you’ve finished designing your email, you’ll be defining the basics such as the subject line. A bit quirky is that you need to save and exit before you can send it. If this is your first campaign, now’s the time that your account will be reviewed.
Signup Forms
To help with your lead generation and to grow your list, Vision6 gives you the option to create forms. If you’re coming from another mail service provider, you may find it a bit quirky that you first create a list and then the form.
There are prebuilt lists for you to use depending on your needs such as general enquiries or newsletter subscriptions. For Vision6, lists and forms are a tight unit, because the forms use the lists to store information that you ask of a user.
List management, segmentation, and personalisation
Lists and forms are a logical unit for Vision6 and you’ll find everything you need under tab List and Forms. Your contacts are found under the tab Contacts. It’s also where you can create segments of your lists, so that you can send personalised messages.
Automation
If you just want to send emails or SMS automatically, when a new user subscribes, reminders, drip campaign, Vision6 has you covered with easy to enable templates. This feature is available for all plans.
If you want a more elaborate workflow, you need to subscribe to the highest plan. This will give you access to advanced automation so that you can create a multistep automation workflow.
Vision6 integrations
Vision6 Coes with built-in integrations with
- Eventbrite
- Salesforce
- Google Ads
- Facebook Business
- Gravity Forms
- Shopify
- Google Analytics
- Google Recaptcha
- WordPress
- Twilio
If you use Zapier, you get a lot more options and can integrate with thousands of other services. If you have a developer at hand, you can also use webhooks and create a custom integration.
Vision6 reporting
You can track your marketing activities in the tab Reports. You get real-time reports after every message you send, along with reports of your automation and transactional mails. You see
- Email performance
- Client details
- Link clicks
- Unsubscribes
- Bounces
- And more
Support
If you find you’re hitting a wall while building your campaigns, you can get help in Vision6 well organised and searchable help centre. Depending on your account, you get only email support, live chat, and phone support. The support desk is responsive.
Pricing
The pricing of Vision6 is based on the number of contacts you have and how many mails you’re gonna send in a month. The prices are a bit on the higher side compared to similar services.
Is Vision6 right for you?
If you want an easy-to-use service both for your email as well as text message campaigns, Vision6 is a good place to start. It’ll also help you to save wasted man-hours and you can work with your team members or across departments.
Although the user interface is nice and tidy, it’s may be better suited if you have a bit of experience as a digital marketer or know web development basics.
If you found the review of Vision6 helpful, feel free to share it with someone who may find it useful.
Original post here: Vision6 review – email and SMS marketing
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