Positives
- User-friendly
- Social media scheduler
- Facebook & Instagram ad manager
- Responsive mobile app
- Thousands of templates
Negatives
- Lack of customization
- Lackluster video editor
- No 24/7 customer support
One of the most important aspects to keep in mind while running a small business is the way you engage with customers. Whether a small local business or an online shop, it’s essential to have a clear and effective marketing strategy. And since most customers are on social media, this is where a strong customer relationship can easily be established. However, it’s challenging for small business owners to handle all social media platforms simultaneously – they usually don’t have the time to do it themselves nor the money to hire a specialized team. That’s where Ripl comes in. By offering ready-to-publish templates and a built-in posts scheduler, Ripl provides a user-friendly solution to maintain a consistent content flow on all social media. The best part is that you can try out Ripl for seven days at zero cost.
Features
The thing that’s most noticeable when logging in to Ripl for the first time is the gigantic template selection it provides. The software comes with thousands of designs that require minimal editing and that are handily categorized by seasons, holidays, industries, and marketing goals. While specific templates can be looked for with the search bar, Ripl doesn’t feature a menu with all the available categories. However, it gives you plenty of recommendations specifically chosen for your business type at the bottom of the home page.
Ripl also has over 500,000 stock images and videos, hundreds of music tracks, and more than 150 fonts. Of course, it’s possible to upload personalized content too. In fact, Ripl includes a brand management section where you can upload your logos and set your brand colors and fonts. The platform can even automatically add your logo and contact info to every post – a huge time saver, especially for multi-brand companies.
Image and Video Editor
Ripl’s image editor is as straightforward as possible. Unfortunately, this is a double-edged sword. While it’s effortless to make minor adjustments, the editor offers little customization. For example, the software only allows for primary and secondary text, with no possibility of adding extra text boxes to your image. Ripl doesn’t offer visual elements to play with or for the creation of designs either. So, be sure to select the right template since your final product will look very similar.
Another section that could be improved is the color palette. Although Ripl supports Hex and RGB coding, the built-in color selection only offers 15 colors. On top of that, you can only set up the primary and secondary colors of your posts. In other words, the editor doesn’t allow you to change colors as you see fit. Imagine that you want to have a heading that is one-half black, one-half white. This isn’t possible with Ripl.
Ripl is also missing a more comprehensive video editor. While it’s possible to create animated designs and add videos to posts, the lack of a video editor makes it challenging to come up with remarkable video content. The software also only accepts one video per design, and slideshows don’t come with a timer. Of course, you could edit your videos with a third-party platform and upload the finished product, but this destroys the purpose of using a time-saver tool like Ripl.
Social Media Management
The best part about Ripl is its social sharing tools. You can manage all major social media apps in one place. This includes Facebook (business page and groups), Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube. If you share the same content across all social media platforms, you’ll be happy to know that the software lets you share (and schedule) posts on all websites with just a few clicks. Plus, it is easy to quickly go over your content feed and reshare past posts.
But what we love the most about Ripl is how it tracks performance and engagement by social channel. Having all this information in just one place helps marketers and business owners analyze and optimize their social media strategy without having to log in to several websites. Additionally, Ripl recommends post ideas and high-traffic hashtags to help create relevant content fast.
If you run Facebook or Instagram ads, you’ll be happy to know that you can also create them with Ripl. You design them the same way as posts, but then Ripl leads you to the ad management page. There, you can set up your campaign as you would on social media platforms, indicating your target audience, budget, and campaign duration. One neat thing about Ripl is that it shows you how your ad will look before broadcasting it. So, if you see a last-minute detail that needs to be updated when previewing it, you can just go back and fix it.
Mobile
Social media is ever-changing. What was trending yesterday is already old news by tomorrow, and anyone who wants to have a chance of succeeding in social media marketing needs to be constantly on top of what’s happening. By offering a user-friendly mobile app, Ripl allows you to do just that.
The app’s editor is surprisingly smooth and responsive. Everything is optimized for mobile, making it easy to edit your designs on the small screen. You can move image elements by dragging them with your finger, rewrite headings by double-tapping text boxes, and find the settings by sliding the menu at the bottom.
Ripl Mobile Interface
Ripl Mobile Editor
Notifications With Post Ideas
All features are available in the mobile app, including the social media management tools. This means that you can update your social media channels, reschedule posts, and check on your performance on the go – perfect for busy professionals who move around a lot. Finally, Ripl’s mobile app comes with the added extra of sending notifications directly to your phone, enabling you to be always on top of what’s happening with your social media profiles.
Pricing
Ripl’s subscription model is simple – there’s only one plan that unlocks everything the app has to offer, which you can get with a monthly or annual billing cycle. The month-to-month subscription offers more flexibility, but it costs $14.99. The yearly plan means you stick with Rip for longer but comes with a 33% discount, translating into a $9.99 monthly fee. You can get Ripl on the company’s website, App Store and Google Play, or within the mobile app.
You can test Ripl for yourself by taking advantage of the generous 7-day free trial – something we highly recommend as Ripl doesn’t provide refunds. There’s also a referral program where people who receive your link get an extended version of the free trial that lasts for one month. So, if you know someone already using Ripl, ask them to share their link with you.
Customer Service
Ripl is so intuitive that you won’t need much help understanding how it works. Even so, it’s nice to see that the company still made an effort to write a comprehensive ‘getting started’ guide explaining how to use all available features. You can find this step-by-step guide on the support page, which also features answers to common billing questions and some troubleshooting articles. The ticket system can be used for any other questions. Customer support works around the clock on weekdays to quickly respond to queries. Unfortunately, this means waiting until Monday if there’s an issue during the weekend. As a social media management app, it makes sense that Ripl is present on all major platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Plus, the company’s YouTube channel is the perfect place to watch tutorials on how to create specific types of posts. Finally, Ripl’s blog is full of inspiration for your social media marketing, how-to guides, and more.
Bottom Line
Ripl is a beginner-friendly social media management tool with a wide portfolio of publish-ready templates for all social media channels. It’s the perfect platform for busy professionals that want to have an efficient social media content strategy without the hassle of logging in to each profile every time they want to share something with customers. On the flip side, the app isn’t suited for more advanced users who desire customization. Ripl’s editor is too simple, and its main objective is to readjust minor details of the available templates. That being said, the management tools provided are perfect to swiftly schedule posts on all social media platforms and keep track of their performance – something easily done on the go due to Ripl’s user-friendly mobile app. Prices start at $9.99 per month with an annual plan, but you can try out Ripl for yourself by taking advantage of the 7-day free trial available.
Tomst says
Great, detailed review