7Sheep vs. OutboundEngine

I use 7Sheep for marketing as a sales person. This works well for me as a single user. I do not think I could use the software together with my colleagues. Although we could have separated lists the access rights might not fit our use case. It has a strong marketing focus and cannot replace a full CRM system.

OutboundEngine does a referral campaign and I've been able to close a couple of deals based on getting in touch with people who engage with this campaign and state they could use my services in the next 6 months. This is a great follow up tool for those you may or may not know are going to be needing your services.

Incentivized

• When preparing an event, 7Sheep takes care of pretty much everything you need to select, inform, and register participants, as well as prepare materials for the events, such as name badges and signature lists.
• We also use 7Sheep for reporting on communications activities.
• 7Sheep allows you to build simple or complex forms and questionnaires which we use both for events and independent surveys.
• The drag and drop HTML editor makes things look good without a lot of extra effort.

• The content that they generate to send to our clients is relevant and the clients want to engage with us. It makes us appear more professional and consistent, even though we are a smaller company.
• It helps us stay in touch with clients and helps us stay top of mind. We are able to generate more new business leads if we are in consistent contact with current, former, and potential clients.
• Their customer service and support is outstanding. All my questions were answered and I went into the program feeling confident and knowledgeable.

• I know that they are working on a simpler way to send a test e-mail to yourself. This will streamline my activities as well and I look forward to that system change (which was suggested by a client. I have also suggested improvements which have been implemented.)
• I miss an easy unsubscribe feature (like you get in MailChimp). Overall, 7Sheep's system is more flexible (good) but that does make it more complex to split up (not so good).
• Setting up the SPF record in our DNS system was flexible and easy but for DKIM integration we had to contact the 7Sheep support. They do not check or show the necessary records in the tool. Customer service was great, though, so not a very big problem, just a bit of a nuisance.

• I do not like the use of drawings to attract new customers, and they have ignored my requests to eliminate that for my personal emails.
• I do not like it when a competitor in my immediate market has the same posts. It cheapens the service or makes it appear that I am simply sharing another's post.

Incentivized

The tool serves our needs and we like the user interface. The few times we contacted support they were super helpful and responsive. When we asked for more integrations they confirmed the integrations we need (e.g. Hipchat) for the near future.

The biggest issue is poor ROI. The second biggest issue is rigid customer service process, lack of a sense of urgency, and inability to reach out to upper management with issues.

It is easy to use and if I do have a problem or question I receive an answer almost immediately.

Overall, OutboundEngine is very user friendly. It is simple to set up and explore, and if there are any issues or questions, the customer service team and account managers are always available to help. They are very knowledgeable and were able to explain everything in detail to me. The program is easy to navigate and helps me stay organized, and an uncomplicated and straightforward solution was exactly what I was looking for

I haven't had to contact Outbound Engine because I haven't had any application errors or unplanned outages. I basically have had such a trouble free experience with them that I haven't had to call. Everything is automated and I get a notice to review every isse. I suppose if I personalized the newsletter a bit more and added some of my own articles, I would need to contact them, (which I should really start to do) but so far things have been so on point, I haven't felt the need.

Incentivized

With both chat and email support I have always had enough ways to get through to them! Their support is good, honest and most importantly supportive. They helped us set up and start using the tool when we got stuck. Moving from Mailchimp where there were some semantic lessons to learn and they took the time to help us get used to 7Sheep

The customer service was excellent! Everyone I spoke to was kind and knowledgeable. My account manager was easily reachable. Setup of the OutboundEngine program was explained really thoroughly, and we knew how we could best use the product to meet the needs of our clients and get our online and social media presence off the ground.

I've mostly used survey monkey and google forms and doodle for small inexpensive jobs - anything more sophisticated always seemed to cost more than the actual fee I charge. 7sheep does everything they do, but it automates a lot of the processing, for a cost which is affordable and makes me more efficient - as I can use my subscription for different clients.

I selected it for the ability to have an automated system do 3 things all at once, social media posts, emails and the instant communication with the chat box. I have never seen a chat come through that lead to a helpful client touchpoint. I have never used another product but have since begun to weigh some of the less expensive options.

Incentivized

• With the translation support we have translated forms into Spanish for our producers and this has been a really positive benefit for them as a partner.
• I am able to monitor interest in different products very easily and so re-target particular varieties to specific regions.
• Text message campaigns mean that we can directly engage: especially for physical meetings, tasting reminders and so forth.

• One client identified how one article I sent that he read saved him from having to replace his entire AC system.
• One client actually thought I was sending this to him personally because I valued him
• One of the above transacted with me twice for over $3M in sales

Incentivized