CIsion Communications Cloud is used for identifying key media and influencers, connecting with audiences, monitoring traditional and social media, and analyzing outcomes.
N/A
Net-Results
Score 8.1 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
Net-Results is a marketing automation solution that features segment-driven approaches to lead management and marketing automation. Some key features include support for A/B email testing, drag & drop landing pages, CRM integrations, and automated marketing workflows.
$800
Annual agreement, up to 25,000 Contacts or 60,000 Sends
Pricing
Cision Communications Cloud
Net-Results
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
One Price Full Platform
$800
Annual agreement, up to 25,000 Contacts or 60,000 Sends
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cision Communications Cloud
Net-Results
Free Trial
No
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
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Tiered pricing by total email sends or total contacts, you decide. All features included. No upsells or limitations based on your price.
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.
Net-Results is very well-suited for small, medium and large businesses. They seem to be more advanced than what a typical enterprise level implementation would require. When selecting a marketing automation provider make it a point to find out the level of integration with Salesforce and other marketing technologies. Do they have pre-built automation modules or does it require building from the ground up? Also ask questions regarding its specific capabilities ... for example: is it a marketing automation provider? is it a CRM provider? etc
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.
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.
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.
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.
Net Results is pretty easy to use and understand. I wouldn't say that it is the best in comparison to MailChimp's drag and drop email builder, but Net Results do so much more than MailChimp that it is hard to even compare the two. Overall Net Results has good usability
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.
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.
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.
We've used ClickDimensions and Marketo. We felt that ClickDimensions was more limited as far as creating effective email campaigns and not as easy to use. It also is completely native to Dynamics CRM, which can be a positive and a negative. Marketo was the previous solution we owned, we are much happier with Net-Results. It's easier to use, not as complex and there is much better communication from their support team. When looking at a new solution we also looked at Act-On and Hubspot. Act-On probably would've been our second choice, but it didn't have as modern of a feel and wasn't quite as easy to use. Hubspot didn't really fit our business. It was very focused on SEO and blog posts. It didn't have the features we needed from a marketing standpoint
Stronger re-engagement rates - The buy cycle for our product can be very long. Net-Results helps us keep in touch with prospects that may have gone cold.
Better asset utilization - Net-Results helps us drive continuous utilization of our assets.
Efficiency - The automation Net-Results has provided means we can focus on other tasks, like creating new assets or building new partnerships.
