iContact vs. SMS.to

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

SMS.to is ideal when you have a large number of users and you need to be charged by SMS delivered not by number of users. Let's put an example other solutions out there wanted us to pay user or contact which is illogican for a product that has more than 100K users because it doesn't matter if you send no message or you send 10 messages they will charge you per contact in the other hand solutions as SMS.to they will charge per SMS delivered which makes really economic the scenario specially if you only send to specific segments of contacts by making use of contact lists. A least appropiate scenario is when you need to send emergency/urgent SMS because for some resaon the SMS in this platform will be sent after 20-30 minutes even an hour I ignore why it happens but that's why we always try to schedule our campaigns and be sure they are generic marketing messages. For emergency/urgent SMS is recommended to use another platform.

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

• Bulk messaging.
• Easy to send notifications to customers.
• With SMS.to, it is easy to market our business thanks to the ability to send promotional messages.
• It's easy to use and affordable.

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

• Inbound SMSs not yet available in my country
• API Intergration, it is a bit complicated and i had to get a developer to help me understand it all

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.

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.

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

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.

I already pointed out this but basically we decided to go with SMS.to because 2 reasons:

1. It can be paid with paypal (first reason) we have some bad experience with other products because payment gateways may suddenly block your cards and you're unable to pay even if you want to use the service so when we saw that SMS.to has Paypal payment we just decided to go for this option.

2. You pay per message and not per contact this is ideal other platforms will ask you a monthly fee for marketing features that you're not looking plus paying per SMS or per contact we were just looking a straight forward software in order to send SMS campaigns.

Incentivized

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.

• 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

• Easy communication.
• Better engagements thanks to fast delivery of messages.
• It's a great marketing software.

Incentivized