CallidusCloud LeadRocket (discontinued) vs. VerticalResponse

We have really enjoyed the personal level of customer service with CallidusCloud and the quick turn around on any concerns and issues. CallidusCloud works well as an integrated instance with Salesforce and also as a stand alone instance that can send to csv files. We have been able to build campaigns, track success of said campaigns and manage automation. The level of integration has been key to our success and to the ability to create professional, personalized templates that are true to our brand but allow us to innovate. We also are pleased with the way that we can add blocks of emails on during our busy times so that service is not interrupted.

Incentivized

For businesses requiring advanced email marketing features like sophisticated automation, in-depth analytics, and extensive customization, VerticalResponse might fall short due to its limited featuresVerticalResponse is ideal for small businesses or freelancers who need a simple, straightforward email marketing tool. Its ease of use and basic features make it suitable for those without extensive technical expertise in email marketing

Incentivized

• Reporting - we can send out emails all day, but if we don't have something to report to the client after-the-fact it voids the entire process. Genius provided a visually stimulating reporting tool.
• Tracking - Genius was great at tracking opens, clicks, bounces, hard bounces, etc. This helped us clean up our system as we sent campaigns out.
• CRM Integration - Genius was great about tracking each contact (in Salesforce) and their activity via emails.

• I love the ease of list builder because we often times have a lot of data to import. It would be simply impossible without this tool, considering the amount of customer data we have for any one given email.
• We really enjoy the ease of use of the HTML wizard as well. It helps even a novice be able to make a beautiful and attention grabbing email.
• The dashboard is functional and easy to find when you need with a quick search.

Incentivized

• One area of LeadFormix that could be improved is the way it schedules out an email to multiple lists. It can get problematic when an email scheduled to ten lists takes ten hours (one list per hour) to go out. It also isn't efficient to make us schedule individual emails instead of this process. I would like to be able to send out an email to ten lists and have it arrive in everyone's mailboxes at the time I scheduled it for.
• The email design platform could use work. I've resorted to coding my emails using html, since the WYSIWYG platform seems to add unwanted and un-needed style codes throughout the email (it's not a platform for people unfamiliar with coding).

• The type face is small. Not sure if this is to avoid overwhelming the reader, but I could see this being an issue with vision-impaired people or people who don't see small print well.
• Sometimes I find it takes multiple clicks to make one simple change. I wish there was a search field at the top of the screen that allowed me to jump directly to a client's entry to update it there.

Since the company has grown, the personal touch has dispatched and it's more difficult to get a rep. There is no longer a phone call that can be made but the responses don't take as long as others and the glitches are becoming more and more frequent.

Incentivized

Product is easy for both technical and non-technical people to use. A cost effective solution for sending out large number of messages. We can manage unsubscribes by individual accounts, so we can have multiple multiple accounts combined to maximize our buying power on credits. Effective API for sending/receiving data makes tool a valuable asset.

Very easy to use and designed well.

I truly love this product. We are moving to an all-in-one system next year and my greatest fear in doing so is how much I will miss this platform. Although we are excited for things ahead, I will always keep Vertical Response in my back pocket incase I don't love the new platform as much

Incentivized

Never had an issue with uptime

No issues

It has declined since we started with this company and it could be better.

Incentivized

At Vertical Response the help desk associates are courteous, knowledgeable and helpful. You can tell they enjoy what they do. And clearly, they are well trained because most times, the first point of contact is able to resolve any issue you may have. There have been very few times where an associate has needed to get back to me or escalate me to a supervisor

Incentivized

Basic functions and online help...we used what was needed, at the time, and will continue to explore other online trainings as our functional needs expand

Salesforce integration never worked right. We had to abandon.

We selected CallidusCloud (Genius) based on the level of service for the price. It was more cost effective then Silver Pop which was another tool recommended to us. On the other hand, mail chimp did not provide the level of integration needed with our CRM - Salesforce. We need to be able to connect the response to an email campaign to the individual contact (student) record and determine the success of the campaign.

Incentivized

In addition to using Vertical Response personally I also manage email marketing for clients that already use Mailchimp, Robly and Constant Contact. While most of these platforms all offer similar features I choose Vertical Response first if the client does not have a platform in place. Typically I am also teaching the client how to use this tool and the Vertical Response visual interface is very easy for me to teach a client how to navigate and create their own campaigns.

Incentivized

• We have had problems with our emails landing up in spam which was hampering out marketing efforts.
• Too many features that add very little value to business
• You spend too much of time on the tool because the UI is very confusing

Incentivized

• We were able to blast out promotions our company was having to customers which created an increase in business.
• By blasting out any service issues, it keeps our customers informed so that they are not wondering what is going on.
• Allows us to store unsubscribed emails so that we are not constantly pestering people who do not want to be emailed.

Incentivized