iContact is an email marketing solution that was acquired by Vocus in 2012. The product is integrated with Facebook and Twitter and is aimed at SMBs with unlimited sending as a key feature.
$14
per month
Orderhive (discontinued)
Score3.1 out of 10
N/A
Cin7 Orderhive was a SaaS based solution for order, shipping and inventory management functionalities. Acquired by Cin7 in 2021, it was discontinued in 2023.
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Setting up was covered by a dedicated account rep. It was a smooth and relatively easy process. Problems started a year in when I lost my dedicated account rep. Customer service would refer to the instructions when a question was asked. Sadly they didn't understand the question most of the time.
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Around 18 months ago I started conversations with Orderhive as a potential vendor to run a large portion of our ecommerce business. It seemed promising, and the idea that the Plus (now called Enterprise) solution was customisable was the reason I decided to select Orderhive.
There was a significant amount of due-diligence from my end. It took me around 6 months to get my head around what features the software currently had, and what we would need to have Orderhive complete as a customisation.
This in itself was also quite a bit of work - there were a number of revisions to the contract documents, created by a non-technical sales representative. My concerns started around this point when I was unable to speak with a technical representative to discuss, in more detail, how each feature would work.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
shipping, I would like to be able to handle returns more easily.
I would like to be able to handle stock differently according to order delivery dates. Order hive reserves qty for all the orders we place, I would like to be able to decide which orders reserve stock and which ones shouldn't.
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.
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Extremely poor, it is not a user-friendly automated time-saving system like what was promised. It is clunky and the development team is slow and creating very poor and unreliable results.
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.
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
The worst I have ever experienced, they are arrogant, rude and often abusive. They then blame us when we get angry due to the poor quality of the product and the extremely bad customer service.
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.
Sadly I can't give Cin7 Core a review, because they haven't been able to resolve connection issues and it's been 3 months. But I'm done with this company
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
There has been a negative ROI in this case. Not only have we paid a deposit toward the customisation of our orderhive implementation, there has also been a massive sunk cost of approximately 18 months of my time and effort.
