Marketing Automation with GetResponse: Creating Segments Across Multiple Lists

GetResponse has a lot of powerful features for the advanced email marketer.

When it comes to marketing automation, you will not find many competitor’s (Aweber, Mailchimp, iContact, etc) offering anything as advanced as GetResponse. One feature that I find not often promoted is the ability to create segments across multiple lists.

This means you can track the behavior of your subscribers on multiple lists and create 1 segment that consists of all the actions taken across your lists.

This kind of segmentation is often reserved for all-in-one systems like Infusionsoft or Office Autopilot, but with a little poking around you can pull off some neat tricks in GetResponse without the hefty price tag.

Let me explain a bit more…

Why You Would Use This

Lets say you have 3 lists that you are marketing to:

  1. List 1 – Newsletter Subscribers
  2. List 2 – Customers who have purchased your services
  3. List 3 – Promotional partnerships

You have a new product that you would like to launch in the upcoming months and want to notify each list.

Normally you could create a “Broadcast” or “Campaign” in one list and send it to multiple lists.

But that’s it.

You could track the click rates for each list and create a segment of those who clicked on your link in each list. But to email the folks that took action you would have to send 3 separate emails.

GetResponse takes care of this limitation with ease.

How It Works

Fire up your GetResponse account and login to your Dashboard and select “Search Contacts” under the “Contact” tab

Email-Marketing--Autoresponder--Email-Marketing-Software---GetResponse

Next you’ll want to create your segments. This is done by adding conditions for each list separately. Lets add a condition for our first list.

Email-Marketing--Autoresponder--Email-Marketing-Software---GetResponse-1

  1. Select your campaign
  2. Choose the criteria
  3. The amount of people who fit the criteria will be automatically updated as you create your segment(s)

Here’s where the magic happens. Do you see that green box above that says “Add Conditions Group”?

Click that button and you will be able to add additional criteria from an entirely different list.

If we were to add a second list it should look something like this…

Email-Marketing--Autoresponder--Email-Marketing-Software---GetResponse-2

  1. Second campaign selected
  2. Choose criteria
  3. Checkout the updated stats

When you have finished with all the criteria across your lists make sure you name your segment and save it.

Email-Marketing--Autoresponder--Email-Marketing-Software---GetResponse-3

Now, when it is time to send out a Newsletter you will be able to select your newly created segment and send one message to subscribers across multiple lists.

If they unsubscribe they will be unsubscribed from the original list that they subscribed to.

Add this trick to your arsenal for marketing automation with GetResponse.

Chris Davis

About the Author

Chris is the founder of Automation Bridge and Host of the All Systems Go! podcast. He has helped marketing tech startups raise a collective amount of funding over $237 million is passionate about helping you do the same.

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23 responses to “Marketing Automation with GetResponse: Creating Segments Across Multiple Lists”

  1. Torrent Man Avatar
    Torrent Man

    My biggest question is, is GR better than Infusionsoft when it comes to segmentation? Please, Chris(t), enlighten these newbie souls. 🙂

    1. Chris Davis Avatar
      Chris Davis

      Lol…sure.

      It’s not even a comparison. It’s like comparing a bicycle to a Benz.

      But to be fair, GetResponse never intended to be compared to Infusionsoft. A better comparison would be GetResponse vs. Aweber vs. MailChimp vs. iContact vs. (insert any autoresponder only platform).

      In that arena GetResponse wins hands down.

      1. Torrent Man Avatar
        Torrent Man

        Thanks! You are really the Chris(t) I was looking for. Lol.

        One more thing.

        You see, this snake oil guy – Frank Kern – recently said Infusion soft does automation and stuff. I was OK if it was costing $19 or something, but that bloody thing is $299 and beyond.

        Even my maid doesn’t make that much.

        (excluding her “make-me-happy” offer which is a bit expensive but worth it when wifey is not at home).

        Anyhow, I am just worried about those goals, segementation thing Frank said is possible through Infusion soft – and I hope GR can do the same thing.

        Aweber doesn’t do that, I heard. Talked to iContact, their customer representative sounds clueless. Mailchimp is what I have used previously.

        Heard great things about GR. And when you say it “wins hand down” I am going to take your words for it.

      2. Chris Davis Avatar
        Chris Davis

        Yes Infusionsoft is only worth it if your business is in a position to make profits from the advanced marketing automation it offers. If you just need to send out emails and track clicks then it is an overpriced autoresponder. It really depends on your marketing strategy and how advanced you want to go.

        Think of it like this…if $299/mo can help you generate $5k/mo it’s not even a question whether or not to invest in the tool.

        Aweber has an add-on called AW Protools that can add some advanced segmentation and “tagging” stuff. GetResponse can do some of it natively with their Action Based Autoresponders. You can check out my free training with GetResponse to help you get started the fastest if that’s the path you choose: https://automationbridge.com/getting-started-getresponse-email-marketing/

  2. Eileen Avatar
    Eileen

    Chris, Thanks for the info and I did check out your link. You say that AW Pro does advanced segmentation and GetResponse can do some of it. So it seems that if you purchase AW Pro, you’ll get more in the way of segmentation? It seems like in AW tools you can tag or copy or move from on list to another automatically based on action.

    It seems like in GetResponse you can manually segment? I’m piecing all of this together and am not sure.

    So my guess is for less money, with GetResponse you get some of this plus additional benefits of GetResponse. If I purchase AWeber and AW Pro tools…then I will have the closest to the type of segmentation provided by the higher end tools?

    Thanks in advance!

    1. Chris Davis Avatar
      Chris Davis

      Eileen…you are absolutely correct! You really did your research, lol.

      Couple things to take into account with AW Protools:

      1. It will require you to maintain two separate tools to accomplish the segmentation you’re looking for.

      2. Every tagged action will require you to create a new list (since you will be more than likely moving them from one list to another) which means if you don’t have a system to easily keep track of all your lists and their follow up sequences it could get messy as your business grows.

      3. Lastly, AWProtools can be a bit technical at times. If you find yourself fighting with technology more than using it then the platform my introduce another point of frustration.

      There is actually a ninja trick in GetResponse to move people from one list to another based on them clicking a link in an email sent using goals. It requires you to have your own website where you can embed a javascript on the destination page to trigger the action to move them to another list. Pretty nice.

      Hope that helps and thanks for commenting!

      1. Michael Avatar
        Michael

        Hey Chris:
        I just came across this post while searching for GR automated tagging. Looks like a great resource. I will poke around when I have some more time.

        In the meantime, could you please elaborate on your comment…

        “There is actually a ninja trick in GetResponse to move people from one list to another based on them clicking a link in an email sent using goals. It requires you to have your own website where you can embed a javascript on the destination page to trigger the action to move them to another list. Pretty nice.”

        Thanks!

      2. Chris Davis Avatar
        Chris Davis

        Sure Michael. You have to set up a goal in GetResponse and add the script that it gives you to the appropriate webpage you want the automation to trigger when they land on. Then, in your automation settings you need to configure it to move contacts from one list to another when they achieve that goal. Which the goal is them landing on a specific webpage.

        Things like this are SUPER simple to do with ActiveCampaign but as I mentioned you can pull it off in GetResponse as well.

  3. Ed Avatar
    Ed

    Are you aware of a way to add a subscriber to 2 different campaigns at the same time when they sign up / opt in with Getresponse? Aweber allows you to do this by creating a rule: on subscribe also subscribe to:

    This is a helpful feature but I can’t seem to find a way to do it in Getresponse. Do you know if that is possible – or of a service like aw protools for Getresponse that would allow that?

    Thanks and nice site !

    1. Chris Davis Avatar
      Chris Davis

      Hey Ed…you cannot do that natively in GetResponse. You can only move them between lists but not copy them from one list to another automatically.

      However, Zapier.com should take care of exactly what you are looking to accomplish.

      Glad you like the site!

  4. Deepak Avatar

    What’s a cheaper alternative to infusionsoft with marketing automation ?

    1. Chris Davis Avatar
      Chris Davis

      I’d highly recommend you check out ActiveCampaign!

  5. Thorstein Avatar
    Thorstein

    Thank you for this post, Chris. I found it after googling for getresponse segmentation and tagging after listening to a podcast with the creator of Drip this morning. The podcast really opened my eyes about the power of segmentation in email marketing and I plan to put at least some of it into action.

    I stared using Getresponce very recently after dumping Mailpoet WordPress plugin, and I’m amazed about the possibilities in GR considering the low price.

    1. Chris Davis Avatar
      Chris Davis

      Thorstein you are absolutely correct! GetResponse is an extremely powerful email marketing platform. Especially compared to any WP plugin on the market. I created a guide for GetResponse that you may find useful here.

  6. Mike Avatar

    Chris,

    What are the key differences between GetResponse and ActiveCampaign? I’m looking for full automation. I want to be able to send emails based on responses made on my webpages and with emails. It appears that GetResponse automations are only within emails. Can I do that with ActiveCampaign.

    Thanks..

    1. Chris Davis Avatar
      Chris Davis

      Mike that is exactly correct.

      GetResponse will give you email marketing with some automation. ActiveCampaign is full out marketing automation AND email marketing.

      Given the fact that they are both at the same price point going with ActiveCampaign over GetResponse is a no brainer especially if you’re looking to do behavioral based marketing.

  7. Vern Silver Avatar
    Vern Silver

    Hey All the pics are broken – are you able to fix so I can see what you’re on about?

  8. Tyler Avatar
    Tyler

    Hey, nice tips, but the pics are broken. Have you tried GetResponse for marketing automation?

    1. Chris L. Davis Avatar

      Hey Tyler…sorry for the broken links. This happened a while back when I migrated web hosting platforms and I have not been able to recover, or recreate, the images.

      Yes I have used GetResponse marketing automation. It’s shaping up to be pretty solid. Definitely puts it above Aweber or Mailchimp and is a solid challenger for ConvertKit and even Drip by Leadpages.

      1. Tyler Avatar
        Tyler

        That happens sometimes. Certainly marketing automation makes GetResponse more competitive for other software providers. Good – that way we can be sure that there will be more work put into creating better products.

      2. Chris L. Davis Avatar

        I agree! Competition is always great for the consumer. Love seeing these companies adapt more marketing automation capabilities. It validates the importance of the space.

  9. PAULO EDUARDO Ricci Avatar
    PAULO EDUARDO Ricci

    Hi Chris, Nice article, but the images is not loading.

    1. Chris L. Davis Avatar

      Hey Paulo,

      I’m aware of the images not loading. My apologies for that. So much had changed in GetResponse since I made this tutorial it’s definitely in need of a good update.