Likelihood to Recommend If someone only runs a campaign using email and telephone communication, Autoklose is perfect, and I highly recommend it. If someone uses a more diverse set of tools and wants a more complex type of sequence, Autoklose does not allow their users to program communication tools that some other tools and software allow.
Read full review I would only recommend it if someone was a small business. I think they are the best suited for companies who will send out a coupon or offer here and there. The most recent updates made it more complicated to use for more complicated processes. It is easy to train someone on the program, and so quick to learn. But I would also only stick to the simpler things. I also think the colorful templates are great, and show great creativity. But again, it is hard to justify recommending the program when it isn't WYSIWYG.
Read full review Pros It is helping in editing, managing, and send[ing] out large marketing campaigns. It is easy to handle multiple emails in appropriate sequence. Our company [has been] using this for a very long time. It is one of the perfect email solutions we found for our organization. I have been very much impressed by their support staff. Ryan Dury Senior Manager Strategic Accounts & Sales Support
Read full review Contact management. iContact is really great for entering all your contact. You are able to put them onto different lists, and let them choose which lists they would like to be a part of as well. There are many data fields provided to fill in information. Emailing. We use the email feature at least once a month. They are always improving and adding new features, which is very helpful in presenting content in a new and exciting way to our readers. There are many options with remade templates and themes, or you can add your own. Insights. It is really helpful being able to have the data to see what is working and what isn't. It is nice to be able to go back and see how things went in the past compared to now. Opens, clicks, shares, etc. Read full review Cons AutoKlose uses your own email, (e.g. Microsoft Outlook), so it runs the risk of exceeding the Microsoft Message Rate Limit, which can be problematic for your Outlook account. Additional throttling limits for the SMTP Authentication protocol are: 30 messages per minute Recipient rate limit of 10,000 recipients per day. Exceeding these limits will cause the following issues: Exceeding the per minute limit causes email delivery delays, any excess in message submission will be throttled and successively carried over to the following minutes. Exceeding the per day limit causes the following error message: 554 5.2.0 STOREDRV.Submission.Exception:SubmissionQuotaExceededException. Read full review We also would like to send transactional messages which don't require an opt-out, this is a challenge with iContact. (May be a feature with pro?) The regular version of iContact doesn't support event management or logic flows for automated messaging. Custom form fields have limited field type options (can't build a drop-down). Read full review Likelihood to Renew We love it and it works
Read full review iContact has been a quick and easy way to send any announcements and news directly to email and social media subscribers. Its tracking and reporting capabilities turn a simple email into a marketing campaign that can be used as a tool to efficiently gauge reader response and customer satisfaction, and ultimately to reach potential customers. The consistency and excellent customer service is what makes this program a pleasant experience.
Read full review Usability Whether it's setting up integrations, creating email campaigns, managing conversations with prospects, Autoklose is a well-designed tool that provides clarity along the way for users to find their bearings, and understand what to do. The help documentation is excellent, the support is great, but the tool is built in a way that simply makes sense when you're using it.
Read full review I rate iContact as an easy to use program due to its user friendly dashboard and user interface. Most companies of small to medium size do not have a dedicated marketer, therefore it is someone multitasking who may or may not have this kind of experience. iContact makes it relatively simple and can actually expand one's knowledge in the area of business promotion.
Read full review Reliability and Availability We have really had no issues.
Read full review iContact is regularly up and running. Only once has it been unavailable for maintenance, which is to be expected and even desired for optimal performance when needed.
Read full review Performance Always loads fast.
Read full review Support Rating Our Autoklose rep is amazing! Jelena has always gotten back to us within 24 hours, despite living on a different continent. She is completely proficient with the tool and is usually able to answer our questions with a brief email or short virtual meeting.
Read full review They have always been responsive to any issues or concerns that have arisen with our account. Our customer account manager participates in our monthly county-wide communicators meetings via telephone to ensure that we are getting the most from the service. He also analyzes our lists to help us weed out inactive contacts.
Read full review In-Person Training Jelena is amazing! Very knowledgable. Great instructor.
Read full review Online Training Jelena is fantastic. She always responds to emails immediately.
Read full review The templates are difficult to customize, and they don't render well in email platforms
Read full review Implementation Rating It is extremely easy to implement and start using right away
Read full review i wouldn't be using it if i wasn't satisfied. time is money
Read full review Alternatives Considered I think that I have already said it, Autoklose has much better support and is really quick to set up and use compared with any of the other systems that I have used over the years.
Read full review I didn't have a say in the decision because I wasn't with the company at the time. I listed
HubSpot here because I know we used it in conjunction with iContact for email automation, but
HubSpot Email was only recently built-out to the point where it is today. Now, iContact and
HubSpot are no longer integrated.
Read full review Scalability It's expensive to have a single seat for each salesperson, so the alias feature will be the perfect addition to this product.
Read full review iContact stays the same with the number of users added or taken away. It certainly remains reliable despite increased usage, and so, can be considered scaleable in that aspect.
Read full review Return on Investment I feel the increased prospect engagement and business opportunities created supported the cost. In my industry 1 customer can support positive ROI. I saw an overall increase in mass emailing effectiveness and we were able to automate majority of our campaigns which increased productivity for marketing & sales. Read full review We have a template for webinars that we send every month. We just edit it and send. This couldn't be easier (once you know where to find it). We like the breakdown of statistics in the dashboard. They're easy to read. iContact isn't a comprehensive solution, so it is only one of a few products we use for marketing. Read full review ScreenShots