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Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)

Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)

Overview

What is Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)?

The Bronto Marketing Platform was an email marketing solution from Oracle which was acquired from NetSuite in 2016. It was optimized for creating automated, yet personalized emails, and subscriber profile segments, analyzing click and visit behavior, and tracking geolocation. It…

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Bronto Marketing Platform has proven to be a valuable tool for various use cases based on user experiences. Users rely on Bronto to send …
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Bronto Review

7 out of 10
February 12, 2020
We use Bronto as an ESP and CRM system across our organization. It helps us manage email channels automatically and some workflows, and …
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All-in-one platform

10 out of 10
October 18, 2019
Incentivized
Bronto is the end to end marketing automation platform. We love how it incorporates social posting with email marketing and SMS. Such a …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 12 features
  • Email deliverability reporting (58)
    9.4
    94%
  • Dashboards (57)
    7.8
    78%
  • Standard reports (56)
    7.8
    78%
  • List management (56)
    7.4
    74%
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Pricing

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N/A
Unavailable

What is Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)?

The Bronto Marketing Platform was an email marketing solution from Oracle which was acquired from NetSuite in 2016. It was optimized for creating automated, yet personalized emails, and subscriber profile segments, analyzing click and visit behavior, and tracking geolocation. It has since been…

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttp://go.bronto.com/LP=4076?elqCampaig…

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Alternatives Pricing

What is Klaviyo?

Klaviyo is a marketing automation platform that helps businesses to centralize and use every piece of their customer data. With Klaviyo, businesses can combine customer data with more than 300 native integrations to automate personalized email and SMS communications that make customers feel seen.…

What is Salesforce Marketing Cloud?

Marketing Cloud is an AI-powered, cloud-based digital marketing platform within the Salesforce Customer 360 ecosystem. Marketers can segment their audience, deliver personalized messages, track campaign performance, engage leads and accounts, and optimize strategies based on real-time insights.

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Features

Email & Online Marketing

Using software to manage lists, send emails, automate email campaigns, and track results.

7.4
Avg 8.1

Reporting & Analytics

Users can report on and analyze usage, performance, ROI, and/or other metrics of success.

7.6
Avg 7.7
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Product Details

What is Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)?

The Bronto Marketing Platform aims to help organizations of all sizes grow revenue, save time and optimize marketing resources. By delivering powerful and flexible email marketing solutions that work seamlessly with numerous ecommerce platforms, Bronto's goal is to allow brands to maximize the value of customer data so they can deliver irresistible customer experiences. According to the vendor Bronto solutions incorporate best practices from 16 years of email marketing success and are used by over 1500 of the worlds top brands, including Rebecca Minkoff, Theory, Lucky Brand, Trek, Ashley Homestore and Christopher & Banks. The vendor offers more information and a free product tour on their website.

Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued) Features

Email & Online Marketing Features

  • Supported: WYSIWYG email editor
  • Supported: Dynamic content
  • Supported: Ability to test dynamic content
  • Supported: Landing pages
  • Supported: A/B testing
  • Supported: Mobile optimization
  • Supported: Email deliverability reporting
  • Supported: List management
  • Supported: Triggered drip sequences

Reporting & Analytics Features

  • Supported: Dashboards
  • Supported: Standard reports
  • Supported: Custom reports

Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued) Integrations

Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued) Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo
Supported CountriesEnglish-speaking countries
Supported LanguagesEnglish

Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued) Downloadables

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bronto Marketing Platform was an email marketing solution from Oracle which was acquired from NetSuite in 2016. It was optimized for creating automated, yet personalized emails, and subscriber profile segments, analyzing click and visit behavior, and tracking geolocation. It has since been discontinued.

Klaviyo, Listrak, and Mailchimp are common alternatives for Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued).

Reviewers rate Email deliverability reporting highest, with a score of 9.4.

The most common users of Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued) are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(126)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Bronto Marketing Platform has proven to be a valuable tool for various use cases based on user experiences. Users rely on Bronto to send targeted email marketing campaigns, including promotional emails, newsletters, and important pre-delivery information. With Bronto's workflows and automation features, users can improve their email marketing strategies over time and effectively nurture leads. The platform's tracking capabilities provide valuable insights into email performance through click tracking, interaction monitoring, and conversion tracking. Additionally, the API integration allows users to tie Bronto tightly into their websites and third-party applications for seamless communication. Users appreciate Bronto's built-in features, particularly when creating email content with DreamWeaver. The software's ease of use and flexibility make it suitable for mid-cap and larger businesses in need of comprehensive features and functionalities. Overall, Bronto Marketing Platform serves as a complete email management solution, supporting sales and marketing efforts across multiple brand sites within organizations.

User-friendly Workflow Interface: Users consistently praised Bronto Marketing Platform's workflow interface, describing it as highly impressive and one of the best they have seen. Many users found it easy to use and intuitive, allowing for quick email creation without any hassle.

Flexible Customization Options: The flexibility of Bronto Marketing Platform was highly appreciated by users. They specifically mentioned its robust API, which enables them to customize the software according to their specific needs, even if the software doesn't initially have the desired functionality. This customization capability has been a valuable asset for many reviewers.

Powerful Segmentation Tools: Users highlighted the usefulness of Bronto Marketing Platform's custom segment tool, considering it to be fantastic and best-in-class. Many users mentioned that it allows them to create pools of subscribers based on any criteria they can think of, which is crucial for sending targeted and relevant email messages. The segmentation functionality in Bronto Marketing Platform has greatly contributed to successful email marketing programs for numerous customers.

Pricing Structure: Some users have expressed frustration with Bronto's pricing structure, finding it problematic and lacking transparency. They feel that they are being charged for features that should be included or were previously included in the software. There is a perception among some reviewers that the pricing practices are deceptive, suggesting a need for more transparent pricing on Bronto's website.

Customer Support: Several users have mentioned experiencing difficulties with Bronto's customer support. They express frustration with longer response times and difficulty in getting answers and resolutions to their issues or questions. This dissatisfaction seems to have increased after Bronto was acquired by Netsuite, with users feeling a lack of internal communication and external updates post-acquisition. Some users also mention difficulties with Bronto's billing department and the effort required to obtain credits.

Lack of Commerce Features: Users feel that Bronto is slow in introducing features geared toward commerce. They mention that simple tools like Cart Recovery are not included in the platform and have to be paid for as separate apps. Users compare Bronto to competitors like MailChimp and feel that Bronto lacks useful third-party apps. They also mention instances where third-party companies had a terrible experience trying to integrate with Bronto, with the business development team not responding or ignoring them.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-12 of 12)
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Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Bronto across the entire business as an agency, helping businesses all over connect with customers with automation, including email and SMS. Bronto is extremely robust, and meets the needs of even the largest customers. It has a steep learning curve, but once you understand the basics of marketing automation, it's not really any more complicated than Drip, Infusionsoft, and the others.
  • Marketing automation.
  • Scale.
  • Omnichannel marketing.
  • Storing contacts without email addresses.
  • Messenger integration.
  • Retail POS integration.
Bronto is great for businesses that pick up email addresses from their customers. If you have a retail business that hasn't adapted to capturing customer email addresses, it will not be as useful. Great for turning web leads into customers, and great for lifecycle automation and managing the customer journey from season to season.
January 15, 2019

Why we use Bronto

Lisa Johnson, CVT | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Bronto is our primary ESP for our corporate marketing to customers and internal employees.
  • List Segmentation
  • Workflows
  • Support
  • Lead Scoring
  • Video Enablement in email body
  • Survey building tool in email

Well suited

  1. Email
  2. List segmenting / management
  3. A/B testing
  4. Dynamic content

Less Appropriate

  1. If you are in need of CRM
  2. Does not lead score
  3. Workflows can be difficult


Chandler Elmore | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
When I worked using Bronto it was being deployed across the entire company. It was used primarily as a central CRM where, not only the customer's info was kept, but more importantly, their purchase history. Instead of having a lot of logins and places where the clients marketing materials and workflows were stored, it was all in Bronto.
  • It is very intuitive and easy to use by most teammates that were on the client account.
  • Like many other CRMs, it integrates pretty seamlessly with a third party or non-native platforms.
  • Its WYSYWIG editor was one of the best ones I have ever used in creating emails and workflows.
  • It is an Oracle brand, so there is going to be an Oracle price tag associated with it...
  • There are separate charges that a typical user will have to pay for. For example, we had to buy add-ons for email tracking and browsing history that were not included in the base price.
We were able to very quickly get reactionary marketing pieces (bulk messaging) out to our contacts quickly and without much fuss. Besides the one-off emails, the automation that we had put in place (especially for new lead and customer onboarding) was simple to set up and manage. This helped us keep a broad check on how many contacts were moving through the buying cycle as well as easily see where contacts might be slipping through the cracks.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Bronto is our primary ESP used to manage our B2B and B2C email marketing and transactional email for 30+ markets in 15 languages. We also used the sub-account functionality to extend the platform to our additional brands and partners.
  • User management setup is comprehensive as we have 80+ users with different roles and permissions.
  • The drag and drop visual editor is easy to use once the base templates are established.
  • The workflow automation visual editor is one of the best I've used from an ease of use perspective.
  • Edge cases for reporting can sometimes be difficult to handle. Finding a specific date a group of contacts was added to a list, for example.
  • A couple of elusive bugs remain that they've been unable to resolve. A few times a year a couple users will randomly lose list access permissions.
  • Support could respond faster, esp if it gets escalated to engineering.
  • Zapier integrations would be nice.
Well suited if you have internal or agency resources for email design - not really tailored for the client that needs a ready to go email editor. But once the templates are set, it's easy to roll.
Have lots of lists and unique rule scenarios - between field setup, segmentation, and workflow automation, it's solid.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Used by the marketing department, mainly by 1 or 2 team members including myself, to send marketing emails, automated emails, and updates to our partners.
  • Easy to use.
  • Can create complicated workflows fairly easily.
  • Support is good.
  • Lots of pre-made segments and workflows to use and build off of.
  • Documentation could be cleaner and do a better job of simplifying subjects.
  • Some more functionality could be added in terms of adding fields for lists.
Well suited for companies with large lists and send volume. While the drag and drop editor is fine, there are better options for quick and easy email creation for smaller teams.
Shannon Bitzer | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
At the company I am working at we use Bronto daily. It is a very organized software program that keeps each of our daily tasks separated nicely and provides easy access. Specifically, we use it in our e-commerce department, but other departments have used it as well. It addresses all of our e-commerce and e-marketing supplies. It has a great setup so we can check up on items from the past and add new ones every day.
  • Organized platform to quickly access what you need to use at all times.
  • Great customer and site support. Can provide help with any issues.
  • The tabs and sections on the site are detailed and helpful for data separation.
  • Could have a faster loading time, sometimes freezes for a while.
  • Have more multiple access to a few things at once, constantly having to go back then forward again.
Perfect for large businesses and corporations and not so much for smaller businesses or start-up businesses.
Score 4 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are using Bronto as a means to improve our revenue via email marketing campaigns. Additionally, it is being used as a tool to re-engage with customers who previously bought a product from us. It is solely being used in our marketing department although we are applying it to a wide range of circumstances based upon each individual department's needs.
  • It provides a solid way of sending a lot of emails to a lot of different people across a lot of different account types (i.e. gmail or outlook)
  • The analytics section is comprehensive and provides a clear picture of your customer's behaviors
  • Segmenting is an easy and simple task
  • The analytics section, while already very comprehensive, should add in even more ways to compare email campaigns to one another
  • The email builder is adequate but can be a bit cumbersome when creating more advanced emails
  • Improving the automation of emails is another way in which Bronto could improve
It is fantastic for dealing with high-volume emails in an effective and an efficient manner, however, the old-school interface is tough to get over. An updated design is not crucial, however, it may improve an individual's ability to interact with the intelligent system Bronto is.
Crystal Ashby | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Bronto is used to manage our email marketing campaigns, and our transnational messaging. The solution is used by the marketing department to promote events, market products, and inform customers about the status of transactions.
  • Ease to use interface
  • Constantly adding new features to platform that make the solution stay current
  • Reliable solution
  • Template Marketplace to use already formatted templates in the Template editor. Yes, you can create your own, but sometimes it'd be quick to just pick a fresh template and make a few edits without having to start from scratch each time
  • Static Blocks for the template editor - where you can save re-usable html content, not just images
  • Hosting fees for images fees - it's ridiculous how much or that this is even a fee considering how cheap storage space is these days
Bronto is a perfect fit for a retail eCommerce merchant. It has "out of the box" campagin options for the basics of a remarketing campagins an ecommerce site should have running, like cart abandonment.
Anne Ducale | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We used Bronto to send out all of our marketing and transactional emails. The transactional emails are filtered through Magento. For the marketing messages, those are done in-house and scheduled manually except for a few workflows and automated messages we have set up.
  • Workflows
  • Segmentation
  • Scheduling email blasts
  • Integrating with Magento
  • Most add-ons are very expensive.
  • Support to set up our API was pretty non-existent.
  • Communication with our Account Manager has been slow.
  • The data-retention period of 90 days is a joke.
If you are able to add all of the bells and whistles that Bronto provides beyond their base platform then Bronto is for you. You have to put in the time and money to get everything out of it.

When we needed to set up a basic workflow they were able to help out.
March 08, 2018

Bronto Fan

Jean Enzbrenner | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Bronto to for all marketing and transactional messages for our e-commerce website. It allows us to connect with customers and subscribers who are not yet customers. We also connect Bronto with our platform so purchase history and brand interest is also available through Bronto for use in messages.
  • Ability to target customers based on behavior (past purchases, click data, etc).
  • Ever evolving platform - new and useful features added every year.
  • Great support - problems are addressed quickly even if that involves escalating to software engineers.
  • I'd like to see more webinars or how-tos on using features within the platform - not just purchase this new expensive module.
  • I would like to be able to edit a scheduled email rather than having to cancel and reschedule if a mistake was made.
  • What happened to the Bronto Summit? Those were great!
Bronto seems best suited to someone who will use the data available to market to customer interest such as using triggered emails or dynamic content. If you plan to send the same email to everyone regardless of interest, you will not get as much value.
Lee Ann Pughe | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I used the Bronto Marketing Platform for email marketing when I was working at Vega and Cymax. They provide great onboarding support and get you up and running in a blink of an eye. They have a fantastic team of strategists ready to help you grow your email program and meet your goals. We used the platform in connection with Magento and Netsuite. Their API can be a bit funky at times but overall the software was intuitive, easy to learn and use and their software very reliable. Great customer service as well.
  • Accurate data
  • Easy to set up API
  • Great easy-to-use workflows for drip campaigns
  • Friendly and knowledgeable customer service
  • API reliability
  • Tech support hours
  • Turn over of staff / reps
Bronto pricing is sometimes a bit tricky so my recommendation for this is platform for the single (not agency) account. I would recommend this software for those who are done with MailChimp and require a middle of the road email client with the pricing to match. Make sure you have calculated your email volume correctly because if you go over, then you'll be paying a lot more to add on emails.
McKane Davis | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Bronto in our marketing and technology departments regularly. We use it to send email marketing campaigns and transactional emails to our customers. Bronto allows us to send beautiful, highly targeted emails to our users and to create workflows for drip and abandonment campaigns. We use the API and have it tied tightly into our site as well as some third party applications.
  • Easy-to use, intuitive workflows for automated drip/abandonment campaigns. It is the best workflow interface I've seen anywhere and it's the best part of the Bronto software in my opinion.
  • It is flexible and they have a robust API, so if the software doesn't do something you want/need it to do, you can usually find a way.
  • Their new message editor (introduced in late 2015) is fantastic and allows for quick creation of beautiful emails. When they brought it out of beta, though it was terribly buggy and frustrating to use, but it's now stable and great. This was much needed in Bronto and they delivered.
  • The custom segment tool is fantastic. Best-in-class in my opinion. You can create pools of subscribers on any criteria you can dream up. It's really key to sending targeted, relevant email messages.
  • Their "Socialite" app (social media connector) is really great if you use it to it's fullest.
  • The way they approach pricing is very, very problematic. They charge fees for features that either should be baked into the software or once were baked into the software. Their pricing is always changing and they are not transparent with pricing. One customer may pay $1,000 for a feature, while another might pay $2,000 - with no rhyme or reason. On more than one occasion we've got wildly different pricing quotes from reps a few months apart. We can't help but feel like they are deceptive on pricing.
  • And their pricing and billing practices are downright dishonest at times. The word "bait and switch" has been used at our company to describe Bronto several times as well. Also, every year, they try and raise rates and make you fight with them over the contract. It's so bad that we will likely end up leaving the platform over this. They could fix this by offering transparent, published prices on their site and not being deceptive about it. We've offered these suggestions several times to upper management but they've fallen on deaf ears.
  • They call themselves a "marketing platform for commerce", but they have been very slow to introduce features geared toward commerce. They've improved this over the last year, but want to charge extra for all of the "commerce marketing" features they are adding. It's an issue. Simple tools like Cart Recovery aren't baked into the platform and are treated as "apps" that you have to pay extra to use. The concept of "add-ons" in software can be helpful sometimes, but Bronto has missed the mark here and taken it to the extreme. They've taken core commerce functionality out of the core "commerce marketing" software to force you to pay more.
  • While Bronto has some of their own apps, they really lack useful third party Apps. It is a major problem when you compare them to MailChimp and others. I have had more than a few third party companies WANT to integrate with Bronto and tell me that the experience they had was terrible, that the biz dev team at bronto either wouldn't call them back, ignored them for several weeks or just wouldn't give them a test account. This is a major, major problem and needs to be remedied.
  • They were acquired by Netsuite last year (2015) and ever since that announcement, it takes longer to get answers and resolutions to issues or questions and support has been lacking. There is more red tape and bureaucracy than ever and the lack of internal communication and external updates post-acquisition has gotten really bad. As time passes, this continues to be a major problem. Bronto was once a nimble business with integrity. Now, they've introduced so much bureaucracy and red-tape that it's almost impossible to get anything done - never is this more evident than in the (lack of) timely customer service.
  • They have overcharged us on more than one occasion and getting credits back takes hours of work. Their billing department is terrible.
This is not a tool for a small business or startups in my opinion. It's too expensive and likely overkill. It's good for mid-sized ecommerce companies because it facilitates workflow-centric email marketing campaigns. On the downside, this once nimble and honest company has turned into a bureaucratic web with dishonest billing practices.
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