Persado vs. Zywave Content Cloud - Employee Benefits Content Packages (Broker Briefcase)

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

It's a great tool, period. I'd recommend it to anyone who was going to take the time to utilize its varied resources. I wouldn't recommend it for an old-school agency that's not really tech savvy but for anyone looking to grow a book of business, it's an invaluable tool.

Incentivized

• 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

• I love the Prep for a Meeting module. No matter the type of meeting you are prepping for, they have great resources to help you get the yes.
• The employee education pieces are an awesome way to prepare employees for new benefit options like HSAs and HRAs.
• The Compliance Roadmap is an excellent tool and is hugely appreciated by my small and middle market clients without full HR suites.

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

• It's pretty darn good and it's my fault that I don't use it as much as I should. I'd love for it somehow to integrate more into my routine but I'm not sure what Zywave could do on their end about that.

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

Zywave Content Cloud - Employee Benefits Content Packages (Broker Briefcase) is simply the gold standard in what they do, providing valuable resources to agencies and helping them stand out and look more professional. I know of no real competition in their space and they are continually adding to their resources to stay ahead of the pack.

Incentivized

• 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

• It has helped us remain relevant and retain larger clients. I don't track things like I should, but the ROI on this investment is solid.
• Zywave Content Cloud - Employee Benefits Content Packages (Broker Briefcase) gives me the confidence to go after larger clients knowing I can compete with the extra resources seen in larger shops.

Incentivized