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Cheetah Digital vs. EDC vs. PFL Direct Mail Platform

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cheetah Digital

    Score8 out of 10
    N/ADesigned for high-volume, cross-channel campaigns, Cheetah Digital is used by marketers to deliver highly personalized, contextual communications across various channels including email, SMS, push, mobile wallet, direct mail, and social.N/A

    EDC

    N/AN/AEDC provides B2B fulfillment, marketing execution and print management, sourcing, managing, and fulfilling inventory and marketing materials. EDC leverages proprietary technology to support the user's supply chain and custom marketing materials into a simple and private eCommence interface. EDC boasts users among brands like Bass Pro, Cox Healthcare, O'Reilly Auto Parts, Peterbuilt Truck and John Deere Dealerships, Tracker Marine, Missouri State University, and 400+ other customers. EDC…N/A

    PFL Direct Mail Platform

    Score9 out of 10
    N/APFL helps businesses deliver authentic moments by creating impactful direct mail that is data-driven, bringing measurement, personalization, and predictability from digital to direct mail. PFL offers direct mail that is... Simplified: PFL simplifies direct mail execution by managing the entire process under one roof from strategy and production to delivery and measurement. Engaging: Supports engagement that results in action by paring digital tactics with memorable…

    $40,000

    per year

    Pricing
    Cheetah DigitalEDCPFL Direct Mail Platform
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cheetah DigitalEDCPFL Direct Mail Platform
    Free Trial
    NoNoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee$10,000
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cheetah DigitalEDCPFL Direct Mail Platform
    Considered Multiple Products
    Zeta Global
    No answer on this topic
    EDC
    No answer on this topic
    PFL
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    88%
    Would buy again
    28 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    28 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    84%
    Happy with the feature set
    27 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    81%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    21 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    84%
    Implementation went as expected
    21 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    Cheetah DigitalEDCPFL Direct Mail Platform
    Small Businesses
    Listrak
    Score10 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Sailthru
    Score5.3 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Sendoso
    Score8.3 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Listrak
    Score10 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Sendoso
    Score8.3 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cheetah DigitalEDCPFL Direct Mail Platform
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (13 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (33 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.6
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    4.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    6.8
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.4
    (3 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.9
    (3 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    3.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cheetah DigitalEDCPFL Direct Mail Platform
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Zeta Global
    I think CheetahMail, being one of the main ESPs in the market, is a quality choice. However, I would suggest that it's really only valuable for a bit larger of an organization, generally having staff of 100+ and revenues in tens of millions -- this is mainly to justify the amount of investment required, so may be cost-prohibitive to some. You also need to make sure that you understand the entire "level of support" you will gain through your specific contract.... the key is understanding what types of resources are within your organization (who's doing the coding? who comes up with the next campaign? What's the overall strategy?) Depending on these questions and resources, may help determine your final needs from a services point of view. CheetahMail can provide a wealth of various services specific to needs (and changes over time as your business changes), but a clear understanding of what you have before you bring them on will really help getting up and running quickly. Also be sure to truly understand the costs for the initial integrations, setups, IP senders, etc.
    Read full review
    EDC
    No answers on this topic
    PFL
    The reason it's not a seven or above is purely because of the timing of a solution we had requested originally back in August 2023. It's now February 2024, and we're waiting for a wow-factor pitch deck. Previously, we only received a demo recording and an order form quote. These truthfully aren't helpful enough to convince and sway our senior leaders into spending the $35k+ investment into the PMC.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Zeta Global
    • Internal management - This is a great web-based tool that allows our users to see what emails go to whom.
    • Organization - Many layers of organization for templates since there are many types of remarketing emails that we send out.
    • Historical Records - CheetahMail sends us the raw text files of all email actions so we can upload them to our database.
    Incentivized
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    EDC
    No answers on this topic
    PFL
    • Personalization: It allows us to create highly personalized direct mail pieces tailored to individual recipients. For instance, we can include the recipient's name, relevant product recommendations, or even custom images that resonate with their preferences.
    • Multi-Channel Integration: The platform seamlessly integrates with our existing digital marketing tools and CRM systems. It enables us to orchestrate cohesive campaigns that combine email, social media, and direct mail to reach our target audience through multiple touchpoints.
    • Automated Workflows: PFL offers robust automation capabilities, streamlining the entire direct mail process. We can set triggers, such as website visits or email engagement, to automatically trigger the sending of personalized direct mail pieces, ensuring timely and relevant outreach.
    • Variable Data Printing: The platform simplifies variable data printing, enabling us to print custom content for each recipient efficiently. This is particularly useful for A/B testing different messaging or designs within a single campaign.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Zeta Global
    • The organization of CheetahMail could at times be better, as you create more and more mailings, they just pile up in a long list. It would be useful to be able to create folders to store specific mailings in. (ex. editorial, newsletters, marketing, etc.)
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    EDC
    No answers on this topic
    PFL
    • There is no built-in functionality to automate direct mail; this has to be created through triggers in Salesforce.
    • The sales cloud integration didn't give us the syncing or reporting we thought would be available.
    • We would like to see more support from team members in the post-onboarding process.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Zeta Global
    As I have begun exploring competitors, I've come to realize that every competitor offers so much more functionality and integration than CheetahMail does. When we first signed our contract, CheetahMail was much more innovative and at the forefront of email. Since being bought out by Experian, we've seen a huge decline in service and innovation. They have laid off much of their staff and moved their account representatives to Costa Rica. They also heavily rely on on third parties which you will have to pay large amounts of money for while other Email Service Providers have integrated new technologies into their platform. You will get more for your money going to a different email service such as Responsys, Silverpop, Listrak and the like,
    Read full review
    EDC
    No answers on this topic
    PFL
    I will continue to use the platform as long as my employer provides access, but I do not have purchasing power myself.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Zeta Global
    CheetahMail has a high learning curve to master and requires a lot of backend work with tech teams to set up. Navigation is not the best and everything that should be automated is still extremely manual.
    Read full review
    EDC
    No answers on this topic
    PFL
    The UI is friendly, clear, and accessible, and I access it directly through the interface (Salesforce) that I perform my function in every day. It is intuitive to navigate, and I am able to find most functionalities I need without the need to consult an admin and/or support teams.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Zeta Global
    I've been very satisfied with the support given by Cheetah, they are always asking and looking for areas where they can help you improve upon your business. They are very knowledgeable and are able to quickly find any answer you are looking for.
    Incentivized
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    EDC
    No answers on this topic
    PFL
    Only thing holding me back from a perfect 10 would be the timelines for involving the technical team on occasion. There have been a few times where the PFL technical support team has been booked up for days or more than a week out which can delay our project timelines. This doesn't happen often, let me be clear. But when it does, it's usually at the worst time for our campaigns.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Zeta Global
    I believe Cheetah DMS is a bit more complete and a lot more complex to use than Mailchimp. Mailchimp was born as a mail marketing service while Cheetah has always worked across the whole online advertising spectrum making it a better solution for clients that need a certain level of service and sophistication.
    Incentivized
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    EDC
    No answers on this topic
    PFL
    JourneyMail is one I have evaluated. It did not seem as full featured as PFL Direct Mail Platform, nor did it integrate with the rest of the Salesforce products like PFL Direct Mail Platform (journeymail ONLY integrates to marketing cloud). My customers tend to be cross-cloud and own multiple products and want solutions that can integrate across their stack easily.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    Zeta Global
    No answers on this topic
    EDC
    No answers on this topic
    PFL
    It does take a while to launch or re-launch a campaign, which can make it difficult to pivot quickly. However, if you're integrated with Marketo, then PFL is as scalable as your database and marketing strategy! The sky is the limit in terms of creativity. Post launch, the program is hands-off apart from report monitoring and potential optimization tweaks.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Zeta Global
    • Our efficiency has decreased with CheetaMail actually. Too many service calls to find out why something isn't working as expected, account setup questions, issues with PiP, takes too long to get a simple form built, customer service response time, etc...
    • Reporting is not very streamlined. This has caused us to take our reporting offline and use a method with better visibility.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    EDC
    No answers on this topic
    PFL
    • We've sometimes struggled to maintain a positive ROI due to some issues with packages not arriving, arriving broken, or including the wrong items.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    PFL Direct Mail Platform Screenshots

    Screenshot of Custom kits available for useScreenshot of Entering the sender addressScreenshot of Personalization at scale with custom messaging and signaturesScreenshot of Product selection with product details, template data, and advanced options