DemandScience vs. Outgrow vs. Persado

Demand Science did deliver the quantity of leads without issue. The data for a few was not accurate (bounced when following up). But they agreed to make good by providing substitute leads to meet the quota. Towards the end of my project, they lost a few folks, and so the end of my campaign got a little rough as they were taking over some assignments midway. But we ultimately completed the SOW. I will say that the leads did not perform well in our email cadence - none converted. However, this was a test of the concept for us. Content syndication had a lower cost per qualified lead than some other tactics, so we tested it. Your results may vary, based on your follow-up and your market.

Incentivized

Well suited: When you want (potential) customers to quickly determine if your product or service is right for them. I noticed that we could make a very honest calculation tool that shows how quickly our car sharing service is beneficial to customers. These types of calculations are difficult to convey in text. Less appropriate: The length of your calculation has to be in line with what the engagement people have with your product or service. We want to determine if a shared car is interesting, so we don't want 10+ questions. But if you're selling a house you can include more questions.

Persado is an excellent tool for a small marketing team seeking to "work smarter, not harder." The tool itself is simple to use and generates instant results, all while learning and reporting at a deeper level than a human on a marketing team could. We have been able to reach the right eyes within our audience at the right time, improving open rates and generating more revenue from our promotional emails.

Incentivized

• The initial pitch and contact from Mason used "show me you know me" well, which we felt was a good sign of company culture and approach to database marketing.
• Delivery of leads was ahead of schedule.
• They set expectations, and then delivered what they said they would.
• The leads matched our criteria as agreed.
• Regular check ins and catch ups, and patience when thing were taking a bit of time to get sorted here.

Incentivized

• Outgrow provides a comprehensive knowledge base, which allows you to quickly become adept at using their platform.
• They don't make any assumptions. When your quiz or calculator is ready to go live, they offer you an in-depth checklist of ideas to promote it.
• They ensure that you have a high degree of creativity.

• They know way more than me on how to create effective subject lines that actually get people to open. We have solid creative and cool emails, but without the hook, it means nothing. Persado is that hook. (Side note, they are also customizable so if your company has specific guidelines/tone, you can set those parameters.)
• The analytics are amazing! It's so cool to see the responses to various emotions ebb and flow over time. We have a few that consistently perform well (and some that consistently underperform, which makes sense for them to), and a few others that seem to react to the season somehow. How would I know this on my own? (That's right, I wouldn't.)
• Creating these subject lines and exporting them to Listrak (our ESP) is insanely quick and easy. It takes more time for me to set up the split test in our ESP than it does to set up the subject lines in Persado.

Incentivized

• We would like to see more proactive communication on what's working and what's not without requiring a meeting - regular reporting cadence to assess asset quality
• A dashboard view might be nice as well, again, so we can look at an asset and see how it's performing (or if it isn't) without having to wait on a rep to pull a report or schedule a walkthrough

Incentivized

• The UI is a bit elaborate, it seems a bit too much when I want something basic
• The results emails were a bit confusing to setup but support was great in getting this fixed
• Only one Admin can use the basic service

Incentivized

• Not so much a con, but area for improvement: an option to have reports generated automatically and sent to me weekly or similar. It would automate my learning and understanding of how the tool is working.
• When we write control subject lines that include emojis, I have to go outside of Persado to find the emoji I want to use, copy, and come back to Persado. However there is a button to add emojis to the Persado generated subject lines.
• Since Persado integrates with our ESP, Bronto, we'd really like to see more to the connection such as sharing conversion and revenue data.

Incentivized

Our executives decided to not renew because we were not seeing the ROI they were looking for. However, our executives did not make the best decisions on the data Demand Science provided.

Incentivized

The leads were pretty straight forward. However, their appointment setting did not integrate well into our system and many of the meetings didn't occur. I had to chase a lot of prospects and many times Demand Science didn't provide direct dials.

Incentivized

It is a no code platform that makes content creation very easy with pre-built templates and strong lead generation tools. However, customisation options are limited , complex logic can be tricky and better content organisation is needed for a large scale use. Overall, it's user friendly but needs improvement in scalability and flexibility.

Our rep is always available and quickly responds to any question we have. I haven't worked with other partners who are as proactive and excited to help us as our DemandScience rep is. He reaches out with new ideas and suggestions frequently. They are happy to make any changes needed to the campaigns and make those changes quickly and efficiently. They work well with our execution agency, but are also happy to meet with us directly to provide insights and support.

Incentivized

Support is very responsive and is quick to respond to questions and problems. Outgrow sometimes changes their pricing and plan structures and add/remove options without properly relaying the info to customers. They could do a better job with communications and being upfront with the pricing plans people sign up for.

Incentivized

They did extremely well. However, our executives did a poor job in defining our ICP so we didn't get the maximum benefit out of it.

Incentivized

I've not used another content syndication company, and I probably won't after the lack of results we've had. I have used direct email organizations, and they are stronger but also more expensive, so you have to weigh your priorities. I could see if you were selling a specific product or software and how this could be beneficial, but I'd steer away from it for services.

Incentivized

The previous tools we used had no ability to make numerical calculators and limited logic jump features within surveys (if someone answers question one a particular way, skip question two, etc.) and more limited ability to direct people toward different outcomes based on how they answered questions in the surveys. Many of them didn’t have native integrations with Marketo either. These were critical features that we needed so we decided to switch to outgrow.

Incentivized

Phrasee wasn't an option to select, but we did evaluate them after hearing about them at a digital marketing summit. I liked what they were doing and the emails they were sending, but the pricing structure was outrageous! There was a 0% chance our CFO would approve the budget. To add salt to the wound, they also charged outrageously for a trial period. Ugh - as much as I wanted it, there was no way I could justify the ROI. Enter Persado. I got an email from a sales rep which accompanied a resource. I got excited but hesitated. I then saw they offered a free 14-day trial. Wait - what?? Free?! Yes. Wendy gave me the grand tour and holy cannoli I was immediately impressed with the results of our very first send. And it's only gotten better. Sorry Phrasee, I'm with Persado now.

Incentivized

• We have been able to grow our lead numbers with high quality leads at a reasonable cost
• We have been able to generate just the leads we want to support our Business Development team
• We have been able to get our content in front of our specific TAL

Incentivized

• Outgrow has helped me sell more life insurance through the use of interactive calculators.
• Outgrow has helped me attract more referral partners thus helping my agency grow.
• Outgrow saved my agency money because I was able to cancel subscriptions to other services which offered fewer features.

• Granted these numbers are driven by a number of other factors as well, our email marketing program has grown by 44% and 35% in the last 2 years respectively. More email opens from Persado subject lines has certainly contributed to this growth.
• Open rate improvement of 11% between control subjects and Persado subjects.
• Click rate improvement of 27% between control subjects and Persado subjects.

Incentivized