Vertical Response: Free Newsletters for Non-Profits
Vertical Response is free for 501(c)(3) equivalent organizations, which is pretty amazing deal in the world of newsletter software. Apply by emailing proof of your 501(c)(3) equivalency to nonprofits@verticalresponse.com and you will start getting 10,000 credits applied to your account per month.
We work with a bunch of different newsletter software providers, including Constant Contact, Emma, MailChimp and Vertical Response. More and more, newsletter software providers are allowing us to create custom templates—where we design a beautiful html newsletter and upload it to a client’s newsletter software. Then, areas of the templates are editable by the client, allowing clients to produce eye-catching newsletters without having to know HTML. Vertical Response doesn’t have a custom template function, but recently we discovered a work-around:
1. Design a template in Dreamweaver and copy the HTML code
2. Create an “Email Canvas” newsletter in Vertical Response
3. Once inside the WYWIWYG, click on the second tab, Edit Source
4. Delete the existing HTML and replace it with the HTML code for your template
5. Click back on the “Edit Graphical” tab
Et voila! Vertical Response provides a graphical representation of the template that can be edited. For the client, the user experience has its quirks. Unlike MailChimp, where you can configure styles that can be applied to text via a drop-down menu, you’ll have to copy styles from existing text. Also, we found that sometimes deleting two characters would inadvertently delete a whole column. But if you remember to have your fingers poised on control + z and save frequently, this was just a small nuisance. Idiosyncrasies aside, this implementation of Vertical Response allows a non-profit client to set up and start sending really great newsletters for only the cost of creating a template.
June 24th, 2009 at 7:45 am
Hey there
Just a note, we do have hundreds of templates. In the email canvas simply choose pre-designed layout and you’ll see a pop up with selections.
Hope this helps and thanks for posting!
Janine Popick – CEO
VerticalResponse
June 30th, 2009 at 11:58 am
I just bought 4000 credits for our organization today. We use Vertical Response for our Newsletter and for misc. other uses such as mass invites to events. I sent this posting to our CEO and Finance Coordinator I assume we’ll be applying as we are a registered non-profit in Canada.