Cision Communications Cloud vs. Breeze Intelligence for Hubspot

For a small start-up, the cost-benefit to add lift to press releases [and] particular milestone accomplishments is definitely there with the Cision [Communications] Cloud. Much of what we do, by necessity, is done internally without the benefit of outsourced press folks, so the Cision [Communications] Cloud ease of use and reporting is very important.

Incentivized

Clearbit is great for companies with large sales teams who focus on high touch prospecting. The time saved by not having to search a prospect's LinkedIn profile, but simply see data in the CRM is awesome. On the other hand, Clearbit may not be as ideal in a company where sales are very transactional

Incentivized

• Their upgraded press release templates and ability [to] pull in an entire, completed release makes the [process] faster and easier, and allows for more graphics, such as company mastheads, [are done well].
• The media tracking offers the ability to find relevant placements across the entire country.
• The journalist database streamlines the process of finding relevant reporters to directly connect [to] on news releases that are relevant to their beats.
• The process of setting up, creating, and distributing a release is seamless, easy to use, and not labor-intensive.

Incentivized

• The phone numbers are extremely accurate, so our sales team isn't wasting time calling 800 numbers or being transferred.
• ClearBit mapping is great because there are 80 fields that map and an API.
• We can build out our leads and contacts extremely faster because of the simplicity of the program.

Incentivized

• In the media influencer database, the classic Cision allowed us to do a zip code radius search to really drill down to the neighborhood level. That's because we do localized media advisories and press releases for events at neighborhood schools. One part of a big city like Chicago really doesn't care what's happening in another part of Chicago that's too far away. The zip code radius search was a feature in the classic Cision but not with the current Cision Communications Cloud. We've asked for this to be restored several times, but nothing's happened. In fact, we were told to use DMA — which actually goes wider in a search (bigger than a city), not more narrow as needed. This reflects a basic misunderstanding of what we need.
• Another missing feature involves a merge field when sending out an email press release through Cision. This is the "select insert field" button in the upper right that's used to personalize a release with the media contact's name and other information. This is key for localization of the release. Many media outlets won't run a release unless it's local. While "county" is a feature in the influencer database when putting together a media list in Cision, "county" is not available to insert into a press release as a merge field. Counties are important because this is how many newspapers and health departments are organized and identify themselves. I've asked for this to be implemented, to no avail. As a workaround, we've had to use "contact city" or "outlet city."
• After refining a media list in Cision using filters, I've had to download the list and take it offline to see the big picture, screen for duplicates, etc. While there is a button on the bottom left intended to help with this, it doesn't do the trick. That's because there may be multiple contacts with the same email address. In addition, one media contact may represent numerous media outlets, so this same contact could show up several times. It would be nice to have a better way to see the whole list online and eliminate both duplicates as well as those who previously opted out.

Incentivized

• The data Clearbit provides is good, but it doesn't compare to some competitors. While you can find a large range of data, other providers have more clean data.
• The Google Sheets add-on is not as comprehensive. It would be nice if you could search for both prospect emails and numbers there.
• Clearbit provides direct dials, but again it's not as accurate as other services.

Incentivized

While I am happy with the product performance overall, TrendKite's recent merger with Cision is cause for concern. When we first signed on with TrendKite, I spoke with several users and the best response I received was that the company was a startup and we could expect there to be hiccups along the way as the company grew and the platform got more robust. That has certainly been the case. However, now that they have merged with Cision — a company that has grown too fast, has not focused on improving its product and has poor customer service — I have concerns that TrendKite will lose some of the qualities that have made it a great company and great product to work with.

Incentivized

The majority of the time it provides quick, accessible and easy to use information about the company and contact information. This has really helped us to personalise our outreach while also making it faster to prospect accounts. I don't give it a ten as this information can be inaccurate. Including the LinkedIn link which sometimes re-directs to old LinkedIn accounts, or just the wrong one. This seems to be caused by not updating the information regularly enough (just a feeling, no evidence)

Incentivized

The flexibility and customization of Cision Communications Cloud (TrendKite)* is among its most important features. Changing the dashboards, using keywords in the saved searches to pull out the best stories and the integration with marketing automation tools gives me confidence that I will able to continue using this tool well into the future. The future implementation and integration of the media contact database will complete the suite, making list management and email marketing programs much smoother. *This review was written before Cision acquired TrendKite. TrendKite is now part of Cision Communications Cloud.

Incentivized

Clearbit is very easy to use. Any new joiner can self-onboard, self-learn in matter of hours, if not minutes. Its integration feature within Hubspot and also with Salesforce makes it easy for marketing team to use it every day. The customer support team is also very responsive and helpful to resolve issues within few days

Incentivized

Easily accessible 24/7.

Incentivized

Generally, Cision performs well day to day, but it's got some annoying bugs that slow down usage/require user workarounds which is inefficient. More seriously, a few months ago, as a result of a major system upgrade, certain critical functionality was not working and I was unable to use the service for more than a day when I had time-sensitive work to execute

For Cision TrendKite in particilar, support always responded, but it was sometimes slow. For some of our booleans and search queries, we would need help refining and excluding terms/phrases that weren't relevant to our client or campaign. This sometimes took 1-2 days just to get a response back, which sometimes was too late when a last-minute report was due. This was only with the support staff, not necessarily our customer success manager or sales rep.

Incentivized

The team has been extremely helpful and works with us one on one with issues we come across. My main issues with the service is it’s outward interactions with us since purchasing the product. They have not proactively checked in to see how our is doing with the product.

Incentivized

The online training sessions available for the Cision Communications Cloud are helpful and informative. There's more than one option - initially, I signed up for the live webinar classes on basic functions and that is what I recommend other new users do as well. If I have specific questions or something I want to learn more about, I can search the online database and find article or online training videos to get the information I need.

Incentivized

There is no implementation at the customer's end so this doesn't really apply to my instance of Cision (possibly to all instances of it).

It's a similar product. I think Meltwater sells itself as being a bit more niche, but I have not found many significant differences between Meltwater and Cision. Meltwater's sales process is a very high pressure and their prices are inflated.

Incentivized

When evaluating data enrichment solutions, we compared Clearbit against alternatives like ZoomInfo, InsideView, and D&B Hoovers. Clearbit emerged as our preferred choice for several key reasons:
- Superior API flexibility and integration capabilities, particularly with our existing tech stack - More competitive pricing model compared to enterprise solutions like ZoomInfo
- Higher data accuracy rates, especially for technology companies and digital-first businesses - Better developer documentation and support resources

While competitors like ZoomInfo might offer broader coverage for certain industries, Clearbit's focus on digital-first companies and B2B technology firms aligned perfectly with our target market. The platform's ability to provide real-time enrichment through API calls, combined with its straightforward implementation process, made it the most suitable choice for our specific use case.

Incentivized

Easy to use, but still room for improvement.

Incentivized

• Cision has a net positive impact on time savings for staff so we can be quicker to market
• Cision has a positive impact on internal savings as it is used internally across multiple accounts and with the internal PR team
• Cision is extremely useful when it comes to resourcing and conducting outreach in those DMA's where our agency doesn't have a physical presence

Incentivized

• It's provided some key data in terms of geography which we rely on to distribute our customers and prospects to territories.
• Works great for large repositories of data, which we have.
• Not as useful for proactive prospecting. We use it primarily for data enrichment and confirmation of demographic info.

Incentivized