Google Surveys vs. iContact

Google Surveys is perfect when trying to collaborate with co-workers and find a date & time that works best for them to get together, whether it's for a regular meeting, team photo session, celebratory dinner, or Christmas celebration. It's also great for getting feedback on proposed changes that would affect the team.

Incentivized

I would only recommend it if someone was a small business. I think they are the best suited for companies who will send out a coupon or offer here and there. The most recent updates made it more complicated to use for more complicated processes. It is easy to train someone on the program, and so quick to learn. But I would also only stick to the simpler things. I also think the colorful templates are great, and show great creativity. But again, it is hard to justify recommending the program when it isn't WYSIWYG.

Incentivized

• Measure the pulse of how our members are feeling (yes/no questions, multiple-choice questions).
• Learn how students are doing with specific projects (textual-based questions, essay-type answers).
• Run an election for board members (use of the "other" notation so that people can write in their own choices).

Incentivized

• Contact management. iContact is really great for entering all your contact. You are able to put them onto different lists, and let them choose which lists they would like to be a part of as well. There are many data fields provided to fill in information.
• Emailing. We use the email feature at least once a month. They are always improving and adding new features, which is very helpful in presenting content in a new and exciting way to our readers. There are many options with remade templates and themes, or you can add your own.
• Insights. It is really helpful being able to have the data to see what is working and what isn't. It is nice to be able to go back and see how things went in the past compared to now. Opens, clicks, shares, etc.

Incentivized

• While it is very intuitive, there are many ways you can fine-tune your survey (such as word limits, counts, etc) and these are not always obvious where those settings are.
• I would like to see some ways of changing the formatting (and maybe I just haven't explored that yet), ie: colors, set up on the screen.

Incentivized

• We also would like to send transactional messages which don't require an opt-out, this is a challenge with iContact. (May be a feature with pro?)
• The regular version of iContact doesn't support event management or logic flows for automated messaging.
• Custom form fields have limited field type options (can't build a drop-down).

Incentivized

iContact has been a quick and easy way to send any announcements and news directly to email and social media subscribers. Its tracking and reporting capabilities turn a simple email into a marketing campaign that can be used as a tool to efficiently gauge reader response and customer satisfaction, and ultimately to reach potential customers. The consistency and excellent customer service is what makes this program a pleasant experience.

Relatively simple so that those who are less than familiar with computers can figure it out. User friendly and already embedded with other Google products. Receives an 8 because many features available with Google Surveys are also available with similar, free products on the internet today. Good, but not stellar.

Incentivized

I rate iContact as an easy to use program due to its user friendly dashboard and user interface. Most companies of small to medium size do not have a dedicated marketer, therefore it is someone multitasking who may or may not have this kind of experience. iContact makes it relatively simple and can actually expand one's knowledge in the area of business promotion.

Incentivized

iContact is regularly up and running. Only once has it been unavailable for maintenance, which is to be expected and even desired for optimal performance when needed.

This is by far the only area where I think that there is room for improvement because Google does not respond as fast as I would like them to. We live in a fast-paced world and this is probably the only area where Google can improve on and as a teacher, I find it challenging to wait for a day or two for a response when everything that I am doing in the Google Classroom is running instantly and with no breaks in between.

Incentivized

They have always been responsive to any issues or concerns that have arisen with our account. Our customer account manager participates in our monthly county-wide communicators meetings via telephone to ensure that we are getting the most from the service. He also analyzes our lists to help us weed out inactive contacts.

Incentivized

The templates are difficult to customize, and they don't render well in email platforms

i wouldn't be using it if i wasn't satisfied. time is money

Google is a quick and easy to use survey analysis tool that allows you to send cheap or free surveys to an audience. In comparison to tools like SurveyMonkey I would have more faith in the Google technology and robustness of sample. As we have Microsoft 365, sometimes Microsoft forms is a preferred internal source of surveying for free and easily analysing the data. For more robust and accurate market research projects, or even just insights that I can trust more, I would recommend a Market Research Provider as they offer a lot more options to target a key audience and you can rely on their data a bit more - it is weighted, nationally representative etc. Companies with their own research panels tend to have greater data quality that you can put more trust in

Incentivized

I didn't have a say in the decision because I wasn't with the company at the time. I listed HubSpot here because I know we used it in conjunction with iContact for email automation, but HubSpot Email was only recently built-out to the point where it is today. Now, iContact and HubSpot are no longer integrated.

iContact stays the same with the number of users added or taken away. It certainly remains reliable despite increased usage, and so, can be considered scaleable in that aspect.

• Google Surveys are responded by our customers - dealers, retailers and end users. As it's easy to handle, greater is its adoption and hence it definitely has a good ROI.
• Employees as internal stakeholders also use it well to drive initiatives & projects within the organization. This enhances their engagement showcasing digital workplace and hence again a good ROI.

Incentivized

• We have a template for webinars that we send every month. We just edit it and send. This couldn't be easier (once you know where to find it).
• We like the breakdown of statistics in the dashboard. They're easy to read.
• iContact isn't a comprehensive solution, so it is only one of a few products we use for marketing.

Incentivized