Overview
What is Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM?
Constant Contact delivers for small businesses with tools to simplify and amplify digital marketing. Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM is a marketing and sales platform developed to help businesses build their pipeline, nurture leads and close more deals. …
Powerful, yet cost-effective and easy-to-use marketing automation platform
Great streamlined option for companies that don't want the complexity of Salesforce or similar tools
SharpSpring Has Moved Our Marketing Business To The Next Level
SharpSpring, the definitive marketing automation solution for agencies!
The BEST value for money of anything you might be comparing.
SharpSpring became unprofitable after the Constant Contact purchase
Decent Platform
SharpSpring works for us
Align Marketing and Sales teams with SharpSpring + Salesforce integration
SharpSpring - All-in-One for Business ROI
SharpSpring is a must have software for every Business looking to utilize efficient email marketing automation and CRM
Best solution for Marketing Automation
Great for B2B focused companies! Amazing support team/resource center
SharpSpring - Great Marketing Automation & Lightweight CRM
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
- List management (498)9.292%
- Email deliverability reporting (496)8.989%
- Lead scoring and grading (490)8.686%
- Dashboards (486)8.383%
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Video Reviews
2 videos
Pricing
Lead Gen & CRM
Starting at $449
Entry-level set up fee?
- Setup fee required
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Starting price (does not include set up fee)
- $449 per month
Features
Email & Online Marketing
Using software to manage lists, send emails, automate email campaigns, and track results.
- 7.8WYSIWYG email editor(468) Ratings
Users can create html emails through a drag-and-drop interface, without html coding knowledge.
- 7.4Dynamic content(452) Ratings
Users can tailor email, website or landing page content depending on the viewer or recipient (e.g., email salutations that include the recipient’s name).
- 6.6Ability to test dynamic content(433) Ratings
Users can test dynamic content prior to launching a campaign.
- 6.3Landing pages(440) Ratings
Users can create web pages that are customized to a particular email or campaign. Landing pages often include web forms which can capture visitor information and integrate it back into the MA software.
- 7.5A/B testing(395) Ratings
Users can experiment with different variations of a campaign and measure results. Testable aspects might include subject lines, header images, or landing page copy.
- 4.2Mobile optimization(426) Ratings
Users can easily optimize emails and landing pages for mobile devices.
- 8.9Email deliverability reporting(496) Ratings
The software helps ensure inbox delivery of email campaigns, through features such as deliverability tests, opt-in management, bounce handling, suppression lists, dedicated IP addresses, and delivery monitoring.
- 9.2List management(498) Ratings
This involves creating, filtering, editing, merging and de-duping lists of contacts.
- 9.3Triggered drip sequences(473) Ratings
The software allows users to set up automatic / drip email campaigns triggered by certain events.
Lead Management
The process of tracking and managing prospective customers from lead generation to conversion.
- 9.5Lead nurturing automation(484) Ratings
Users can set up targeted drip email campaigns based on time intervals or prospect behavior, to automate the lead nurturing process and move them further down the sales funnel.
- 8.6Lead scoring and grading(490) Ratings
Users can set up the software to automatically rate leads based on calculations such as buying signals, such as form submissions, or page views, and automatically qualify leads based on demographic factors.
- 8.4Data quality management(466) Ratings
The software helps store, manage, and organize data around each lead, and avoid data problems such as duplicate contacts or non-standard formats.
- 8.9Automated sales alerts and tasks(462) Ratings
The software helps ensure that a sales person is notified of lead activity and can act on the information in a timely fashion.
Campaign Management
Users can schedule campaigns and/or events with reminders, announcements, etc.
- 8Calendaring(338) Ratings
The software helps users maintain a calendar of all marketing activities.
- 8.1Event/webinar marketing(318) Ratings
Users can streamline event marketing with features such as personalized invitations, registration, reminders and post-event follow-ups.
Social Media Marketing
Using social media networks to help amplify marketing endeavors.
- 7.2Social sharing and campaigns(316) Ratings
Users can incorporate social share buttons into campaigns to allow recipients to easily share content. Users can track shares as well.
- 7.5Social profile integration(362) Ratings
The software incorporates social profile data and social share histories to enhance segmentation and scoring of contacts.
Reporting & Analytics
Users can report on and analyze usage, performance, ROI, and/or other metrics of success.
- 8.3Dashboards(486) Ratings
Users can create, customize and share dashboards, which provide an overview of the most important metrics.
- 8.4Standard reports(486) Ratings
The software offers pre-built reports with metrics standard to the category.
- 8.8Custom reports(447) Ratings
Users can create custom reports.
Platform & Infrastructure
Features related to platform-wide settings and structure, such as permissions, languages, integrations, customizations, etc.
- 7.9API(364) Ratings
An API (application programming interface) provides a standard programming interface for connecting third-party systems to the software for data creation, access, updating and/or deletion.
- 7.9Role-based workflow & approvals(403) Ratings
Permissions to perform actions or access or modify data are assigned to roles, which are then assigned to users, reducing complexity of administration.
- 8.5Customizability(439) Ratings
Users can customize their instance with features like custom fields and custom objects.
- 8.1Integration with Salesforce.com(217) Ratings
The software can integrate with Salesforce.com bi-directionally, allowing for data syncs, activity alerts, campaign triggers, enhanced reporting, and lead assigning.
- 7.2Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM(98) Ratings
The software can integrate with Microsoft Dynamics CRM bi-directionally, allowing for data syncs, activity alerts, campaign triggers, enhanced reporting, and lead assigning.
- 7.2Integration with SugarCRM(91) Ratings
The software can integrate with SugarCRM bi-directionally, allowing for data syncs, activity alerts, campaign triggers, enhanced reporting, and lead assigning.
Product Details
- About
- Integrations
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM?
Attract
- Acquires hot leads faster with email & social marketing, plus retargeting ads. Leads are automatically scored based on their activity and passed to sales.
Nurture
- Helps deliver the right message to the right people, at the right time. With a flexible centralized CRM and customizable automations, tasks like nurturing leads and sales follow-ups are easier.
Grow
- Insights and real-time analytics that connect marketing spend to sales results, pipeline, and revenue.
Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM 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
Lead Management Features
- Supported: Lead nurturing automation
- Supported: Lead scoring and grading
- Supported: Data quality management
- Supported: Automated sales alerts and tasks
Campaign Management Features
- Supported: Calendaring
- Supported: Event/webinar marketing
Social Media Marketing Features
- Supported: Social sharing and campaigns
- Supported: Social profile integration
Reporting & Analytics Features
- Supported: Dashboards
- Supported: Standard reports
- Supported: Custom reports
Platform & Infrastructure Features
- Supported: API
- Supported: Role-based workflow & approvals
- Supported: Customizability
- Supported: Integration with Salesforce.com
- Supported: Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM
- Supported: Integration with SugarCRM
Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM Integrations
Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM Competitors
Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM Technical Details
Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
---|---|
Operating Systems | Unspecified |
Mobile Application | Apple iOS, Android, Windows Phone |
Supported Countries | Available Internationally |
Supported Languages | English, French, Spanish, Dutch, German, Italian, Turkish, Portuguese, Romanian |
Frequently Asked Questions
Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM Customer Size Distribution
Consumers | 0% |
---|---|
Small Businesses (1-50 employees) | 56% |
Mid-Size Companies (51-500 employees) | 43% |
Enterprises (more than 500 employees) | 1% |
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(670)Community Insights
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
- Cons
- Recommendations
Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM is a versatile CRM tool that offers a wide range of features, making it a valuable asset for managing customer relationships and capturing every interaction. Users appreciate the breadth of features available within Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM, which allows them to efficiently guide clients in marketing automation and lead generation. With its user-friendly interface and excellent tutorials, Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM proves to be a cost-effective solution that offers exceptional customer service. Marketing agencies and businesses alike rely on this software to effectively manage growth, engage with customers, and address their marketing and sales strategies in one centralized platform.
The primary use case for Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM is email marketing, including the sharing of newsletters and nurture content with targeted lists. Sales teams also benefit from the software's ability to automate basic emails and marketing campaigns, freeing up time for higher-value tasks. Additionally, Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM serves as a powerful tool for marketing automation, website submissions, sales management, and account management. It helps gather leads, send targeted emails to leads and opportunities, and address lead management needs.
Users find that Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM provides the right information at the right time, enabling them to easily understand their sales process and identify areas for improvement. The software facilitates lead database management, tracking, follow-up, and account management. While reporting accuracy can sometimes be a challenge, Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM offers white-labeling options and integration capabilities by combining CRM, email marketing, and landing page building into one comprehensive solution.
By utilizing Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM, businesses have been able to solve various problems related to lead capture, user identification and tracking, CRM functionalities, as well as lead management. The software's lead scoring system allows users to prioritize leads effectively and take focused actions. Sales and marketing teams rely on Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM to track new business prospects, manage contacts efficiently, and gain an overview of their marketing and sales activities and results.
Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM has proven valuable for agencies managing websites for multiple clients through its partner portal. It effectively tracks ROI and progress with sales leads, aids in social media planning and automation, and provides lead scoring capabilities. Furthermore, Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM assists in identifying opportunities, understanding prospects' stage in the pipeline, facilitating projections, budget planning, and determining priorities.
The software has also played a crucial role in tracking marketing efforts such as social media post engagement, email analytics, and landing page development. Users appreciate Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM's ability to reach out to prospective clients, maintain communication with current clients, and prevent anything from falling through the cracks. Marketing automation, CRM functionalities, persona segmentation, recent interaction history analysis are among the various uses of Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM. Users have found success in using Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM for marketing automation, CRM, sales functions, and making calls to numerous countries. The software is used daily for handling incoming leads and contacts, managing and monitoring the sales pipeline, automating workflows, creating custom forms and landing pages, managing email subscriber lists, and deploying email marketing campaigns. It offers flexibility and allows users to maintain a consistent brand experience throughout the client/customer journey.
Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM has proven effective in optimizing sales through onboarding sales teams and creating sales pipelines, resulting in fewer lost leads and better client and prospect engagement. Users have consolidated their CRM, email marketing, landing pages, and social media tools into Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM, enabling them to utilize behavioral data for targeting their marketing efforts. As a centralized software solution for managing marketing, sales, and lead management within agencies and businesses, Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM provides automation capabilities across various teams, including marketing, sales, and finance. It also facilitates contact management and internal communication.
For ad agencies and clients alike, Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM has become the primary software for lead generation, nurturing, and selling. The live chat feature has been successful in engaging visitors on users' websites. Additionally, the affordability and ease of use make Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM a good fit for marketing agencies and B2B companies. Organizations rely on it to conduct email marketing campaigns, drive users to landing pages, and manage account notes and vital information.
Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM helps keep sales information together in one place while strengthening communication between sales and marketing teams. Customers appreciate its native connection with common tools as well as the variety of resources available for digital marketing. With a wide range of marketing and tracking capabilities integrated with third-party platforms, Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM provides users with a complete view of the customer's experience.
Users have praised the responsive live support team for providing necessary steps and solutions to any issues faced. In summary, Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM has proven to be an indispensable tool for businesses seeking effective lead management strategies, streamlined communication between teams, and a centralized platform for managing marketing and sales efforts. Its feature-rich capabilities and user-friendly interface make it a valuable asset for both marketing agencies and businesses looking to enhance their customer engagement and drive growth.
Intuitive User Interface: Users have consistently praised the intuitive user interface of Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM, with many stating that it makes tasks easy to accomplish. Several reviewers have expressed their satisfaction with how easily they can navigate through the platform and perform various marketing activities.
Wide Range of Marketing Capabilities: Many users appreciate the extensive range of marketing capabilities offered by Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM. They have highlighted features such as automation workflows and personalized messaging, which allow them to create targeted campaigns for their audience. The platform's versatility in managing multiple campaigns has also been commended by several reviewers.
Reliable and Insightful Reporting Tools: Reviewers value the reliability of Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM's software and its ability to provide insightful reporting tools. The CRM system effectively tracks leads and interactions, allowing users to gain valuable insights into their marketing efforts. This feature has received positive feedback from a significant number of users who appreciate the comprehensive reporting feature provided by Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM.
Confusing and unintuitive user interface: Users have found the email builder's user interface to be confusing and unintuitive, making it difficult for them to efficiently complete tasks. They have expressed frustration with navigating through the software and understanding how to use its features effectively.
Cumbersome design in menus: The design of the email builder has been criticized for being cumbersome, particularly in the menus for the database and HTML editors. Some users have mentioned difficulties in finding specific options or functions within these menus, which has hindered their workflow and efficiency.
Lack of flexibility and variety in templates: Several users have expressed disappointment with the lack of flexibility and variety in email templates provided by the builder. They feel that there are limited options available, which restricts their ability to create visually appealing and engaging emails.
Users recommend utilizing SharpSpring for its customized reports and other features that cater to individual marketing needs. It is advised to thoroughly learn the system before implementation, taking advantage of the automation features during the 30-day free trial. Users also suggest seeking guidance from the support team, account manager, and onboarding specialist for seamless onboarding. Another important point to consider is to align your CRM requirements with SharpSpring's specialization in marketing automation rather than a comprehensive sales CRM tool. Users propose consolidating campaigns into multiple lists for optimal organization. Overall, users appreciate SharpSpring's customer-centric approach and advanced technology, considering it a cost-effective solution with extensive functionality. It is worth noting that Sharpspring is particularly recommended for businesses heavily reliant on email marketing. Furthermore, users encourage feedback submission to customer service when specific desired features are absent. SharpSpring is deemed suitable for managing sales and marketing activities efficiently while providing robust reporting capabilities. To fully harness its potential, users highlight the importance of investing time in understanding and mastering all of its offerings.
Attribute Ratings
- 8.1Likelihood to Renew32 ratings
- 7.8Availability2 ratings
- 3.2Performance2 ratings
- 6.7Usability70 ratings
- 8.2Support Rating71 ratings
- 4.5Online Training2 ratings
- 6.5Implementation Rating10 ratings
- 4.5Configurability1 rating
- 2.9Product Scalability2 ratings
- 4.5Ease of integration2 ratings
- 1Vendor pre-sale1 rating
- 8.2Vendor post-sale1 rating
Reviews
(401-425 of 522)My SharpSpring Experience
- Visitor ID
- Manage and create emails
- You can build your own landing pages without extra costs
- Thousands of rules to give personalized follow-up to each of the prospects based on their interests
- I would love an integration with WhatsApp
- Facilitate synchronization processes for emails that do not belong to Hotmail or Gmail
Great functionality at a price point that makes sense
- Ease of use and set-up
- Excellent email deisgn engine
- Great drag and drop workflow creator
- Fantastic customer support
- None really bar the need to have a little bit of HTML experience, especially when you want to make some bespoke changes to the email templates.
Good value for the investment
- Workflow automation
- Life of the lead
- Snapshot of campaign health
- Email builder
- Adding support tickets from the client portal rather than going back to the agency portal
It has everything we need for marketing automation.
- The software has an intuitive interface, with the Sales and Marketing split into two areas.
- The automation visual workflow tool is excellent for creating perfect automation, there are plenty options to use as triggers
- The links between the CRM and the campaigns are excellent.
- The testing of emailers uses Litmus (for extensive tests). You do get some tests for free, but it would be good if the extensive tests were included in the platform costs.
- The mobile app is a little clunky and needs improving.
- The landing page builder has some nice pre-designed blocks, but we had some editing issues which I had to ask support to fix.
SharpSpring as an entry into the world of Marketing Automation
- Simplicity: it's incredibly easy to set-up SharpSpring.
- Broad Scope: SharpSpring is packed with features that allow a lot!
- Pricing: the price point for SharpSpring makes its technology available to a lot of companies.
- API: results are not available in API (for now)
SharpSpring review
This technology has enabled us to identify and automate our key repeatable marketing processes. It has also given us the tools to systemize our marketing and sales and build a reliable business.
- Very good user support - quick, friendly and helpful
- Ongoing improvement and product development
- Extensive help guides and product training
- Faster resolution of email sending on the rare occasion there is a glitch
Great value for money!
- Great on providing intuitive tools for setting up campaign elements and flows
- Technical support is second to none.
- Email editor has some flaws, but neither worse or better than it's competitors.
- Always room for even more integration possibilities.
- Reporting could be a bit more granular for some use cases.
Everything you need
It helps us track and communicate with leads, open and closed, in order to either retain or convert.
- Education. This is the hardest part about SS. The platform is so big and so diverse that the training can take as long as two months. Which sounds excessive but it's so needed.
- New feature requests. I recently went to a SS conference where this was a touchy subject for a few of us in the audience. However, the CEO paused the presentation and quickly responded to each new feature request. It seems like they are consistently trying to improve the platform.
- Custom Fields. Since the platform is broken down into three main components (Leads, Accounts, and Opportunities), you can separate or combine custom fields for effective viewing and data management.
- Building email and landing page templates. I just found it very awkward at times to perform the action I wanted. I also wish there was a "plain email text" that didn't look like an automatic email. The font is just skewed enough to look automatic.
- New feature update and education. Since they are always trying to update the platform, they could do a better job of making sure you understand the new features and know how to implement. The same goes for older support docs that need updating.
SharpSpring Review
- Dynamic content is extremely cool. I'm able to further personalize my emails by rep which has helped us greatly
- Visual workflows help users to understand the logic behind a workflow.
- Integrates well with many CRMs
- Customizable
- None
Great Value for Entry Level Digital Marketer
- Once engaged with the customer- the life of the lead feature is insightful and useful.
- The CRM is easy to use and integrates nicely with the inbound marketing platform.
- SharpSpring does a nice job supporting their customers. From onboarding to common issues- the support is of value.
- SharpSpring does have some limitations compared to competition, but the value outweighs any limitations.
Superior Marketing Automation Platform
SharpSpring (SS) enables comprehensive marketing automation on the web, including email marketing and some social media. SS is comprised of a whole suite of marketing tools that enable goal-setting, great tracking, constant improvements, and integrated marketing programs. From Visitor ID through Visitor return tracking, a CRM is developed that includes a "timeline" of all electronic contacts with prospects and customers. Indeed, much of that process in enhanced via marketing automation tools and techniques inherent in SS.
- CRM - capture a name and email address, and SharpSpring will build on it. SS will record web visits, email opens and exchanges, purchase (a Sales Funnel) and more, and give you a timeline of all visits for any lead.
- Email Campaigns are enhanced with hundreds of good-looking templates. Email "opens" and "clicks" within emails are tracked. "Set it and forget it" Marketing Automation workflows require a good deal of thought to develop, but save 10x or 100x the on-going, mind-numbing "administrivia" that would otherwise be required.
- Visitor ID is instantly a welcome tool. Though Visitor ID could be much more robust, you'll get a lot more info than you will by poring over Logs & Stats...in a lot less time!
- Some great video tutorials...even more of them would be better.
Great experience with a solid platform
- The onboarding team is particularly good as they are able to connect/integrate API with any CRM out there.
- The email tracking and life of a lead is particularly powerful for the sales team.
- Dynamic content in complex marketing scenarios including segmentation is all possible with SharpSpring.
- The landing page building at times produced less than perfect results particularly on mobile.
- We needed social integration last year and Sharpspring didn't have it, but they do now!
If a business needs a strong landing page builder they're best off using a standalone solution.
SharpSpring is our preferred Email Marketing System and CRM
- The email builder and email marketing features are particularly good. Having used a variety of email marketing solutions, having the power of the additional visual workflows and tasks available makes a difference.
- The social media features are good and it's great to see the social calendar with everything planned and the option to post from there is great. The social listening tool is also great to manage our social media centrally.
- The life of the lead is a great feature to see when clients have opened their emails, interacted with our media, social channels or even our tracked YouTube videos.
- I also like the reminders option for the CRM, so I can plan my week and to list every monday, and the system reminds me each day.
- An appointment calendar option would be great to synchronise with the social calendar.
- A better basic search function would be good for the contacts section of the CRM.
- The social sharing options could be improved for LinkedIn, and the addition of sharing to Instagram would be great.
SharpSpring is the best CRM tool we have used till now
Problems it addresses:
- Landing pages goals are always fulfilled.
- SharpSpring has anchor links which help to redirect users to other sections.
- Good for Newsletters
- Easy Website Integration
- It has behavioral-based email automation for custom messaging. It helps in calculating the Cost per Acquisition for each lead. It also facilitates reducing the unaddressed customer complaints.
- It allows us to build forms and embed them on our website easily. It provides dynamic forms that will enable the user to gather more information about the leads.
- The support is prompt at responding and keeping us notified until the ticket is resolved
- SharpSpring is very easy to use. You don’t have to be a marketing automation expert to use this platform.
- The reports and analytics are not detailed, although they provide the performance of campaigns. It misses the specifications on minute details of the strategy.
- The learning curve of SharpSpring is tedious and takes a lot of time and efforts to learn, but ones learned it is great to use.
- The CRM is very easy to use - adding/editing info for each contact, assigning to specific users, etc
- Emails are easy to set up and manage
- Tracking email opens/clicks is very easy
- Like many software platforms there is more functionality than I know how to use it. They do a good job of communicating updates but I would like to see more frequent video "how-to" demos
- After some basic training setting up email drip campaigns is pretty easy but would like to see more drag and drop like I'm seeing with other competitors
- Marketing automation
- Client communication
- Historical data
- Can be hard to set up on your own
- Needs a better mobile application
- Can be a bit cumbersome.
- It's absolutely perfect for marketing automation and is less expensive than some of the bigger name CRMs.
- Could be easier to configure. I would not use it if you are a small business looking for a simple CRM.
Powerful and Robust - but a little Janky
- Marketing automation is great. The visual workflow tool is great and works as expected. We were able to replace email replies previously handled by the Gravity Forms WordPress plugin pretty easily with SharpSpring - and they look much better.
- Fairly straightforward. Everything works pretty much as expected and the interface works and looks about as expected.
- While not every feature is stellar, it is packed with tools. You can build landing pages, forms, email campaigns, custom email templates and a lot more. The interfaces may be clunky at times and it takes some work, but it sure is a powerful tool for the price.
- Clunky search.
- HTML editors for email/landing pages/etc. are pretty clunky. But you can certainly make them work.
- The interface seems to change regularly.
- It's not as intuative as you would think.
- Better for product focused companies, not necissarily B2B/service-focused companies.
- User management and roles are pretty limited.
- Support isn't the most helpful. They are often not available when you need them and they don't usually seem to have an answer - though my questions tend to be pretty specific. However, they do always come back eventually with an answer, sometimes a solution.
SharpSpring is a Nimble Alternative
- Email nurturing
- Alerts on website activity
- Ease of use in form building
- Landing pages and some of the newer features could use help.
- Importing in large user lists (we have a client who needed to manage 250K users and had to import in smaller batches.
Good tool for many functions; could improve customer support
- Newsletter template builder function - I am not a graphic designer and this made my emails come across as more impressive.
- Analytics about who is opening and clicking on what within email campaigns.
- Building contact lists and allowing me to send to the same list or to create multiple lists for different purposes.
- We had issues with bounce rates and were limited from sending emails.
- Customer support took a long time to get back to us, hard to work with, and ultimately did not resolve important issues in our workflow.
- Would be nice to be able to have an easier way to organize and access my specific projects (my company used the tool for much more, so sometimes I'd have to dig for my work).
It did not work well when we did not understand why SharpSpring was limiting us from sending more emails - not specific about what we did wrong or what we needed to do to correct things.
SharpSpring - Small Business CRM of Choice
- SharpSpring allows ease of use storing companies, contacts, and our proposals.
- SharpSpring has great sales pipeline tracking and conversion feature information.
- SharpSpring tracks email open rates very well that show who is opening our marketing automation and lead nurturing emails.
- There is no ease of use to set up dial blocks based on industry.
- The software has been slow at times and does crash at times.
SharpSpring is a powerful tool at its price point
- Email Automation
- Lead Score tracking
- Contact management
- html email creation is often glitchy.
- Better templating options with improved drag and drop
- A bit better of a kickstart helper. Getting clients to fully understand its power from the get go is challenging at times.
SharpSpring Review
- Email marketing is ok, although templates don't perform very well when sent to Outlook express. This can be tricky if your target audience uses it and you don't have a web developer on the team. We usually need his help to clean up the template.
- The sales team is pretty happy with the CRM side of it. They reported that it's fairly easy to set it up and that prospects can be tagged and classified in different ways to help segment them.
- Their support team is very responsive and will find a solution with you quickly, which is helpful especially during the set-up phase.
- Email marketing - automation is pretty limited and can be done based only on contacts' actions, i.e. you cannot trigger any activity based on lists, which is a feature we frequently use with other CRMs.
- Landing pages - the layout is very "old" and doesn't match the modern design. Building them is glitchy and doesn't provide a wide palette of options.
- In general, it needs a lot of coding help. Our developer is constantly involved in projects in order for emails/landing pages/CTAs to work and look good.
Agency Overview For SharpSpring Marketing Automation
- Having used other marketing automation products in the past, SharpSpring comes in with a fresh and relevant product, packed full of workflow features that help our marketing team and sales team reach their goals.
- The CRM is well crafted and easier than most other CRMs we have either tried ourselves or worked on for our clients.
- They are always new features in planning and SharpSpring are very welcoming of new feature requests.
- The automation and visual workflow system is easy to operate once you have a marketing plan in mind. Once you have something to say, it is easy to say using SharpSpring.
- GDPR compliance on all aspects is great.
- The mobile app is a little basic in terms of full automation access but works well as a CRM when I am traveling.
- The landing pages are not fully SSL certified, but I understand that is a work in progress from the developers.
- The opportunities section for managing potential sales is set up for 1-time contract fees or job totals, rather than options for monthly management contracts.
- The built-in tag system is for automation only, where new clients assume when they see the option, that is for the contact manager and are a little disappointed when it is not a contact searching tool. I understand that is also a work in progress to make better in the future.
Smaller SME clients, who have a smaller contact database may not get the full value, compared to using free available marketing tools.
Ideal for agencies and smaller companies
- The value is exceptional. There is no way we'd be able to offer the benefits of marketing automation to our clients with any other platform out there now.
- The people have always been a pleasure to work with.
- The onboarding was customized to how we were planning to use the platform. At no point were we made to feel that we didn't know marketing at all just because we hadn't yet used a marketing automation platform.
- They are constantly rolling out new features and capabilities.
- Really easy to keep our clients up to date with their automatic VisitorID emails and other automation we've set up.
- You want to have someone on your team who knows basic HTML. The WYSIWYG editor can be glitchy and it is much easier to just hop into the code.
- Some features are not totally robust. For example, negative triggers are not available (has not visited the page/has not opened the email/has not viewed the media). However, there are ways to work around that using filters or lists.
- Roll out and features and capabilities are slightly behind the industry. For example, social media was only integrated in December 2017. That has not been a huge downside for us because, for example, we had been using another platform for social media.
- Can be glitchy, especially when new features are rolled out. For example, automatic image resizing while maintaining proportions didn't work for a couple of weeks. I did the calculations on my phone until it was working again. The glitches have never been deleted-all-your-contacts level, just a bit annoying.
My choice for ad agency business development
- A CRM for all my prospects, partners, press, search consultants, past clients, and colleagues – with a delightfully simple contact page to work with.
- Business rules automate for various tasks like emails, notifications, reporting, reminders, website, calls and meeting follow-ups, birthdays, anniversaries, the list is endless – the time savings is appreciated
- An email platform to create, send and track email and click activity – integrated and intelligent so I know what I have sent and what I should do next
- To schedule and track outreach; introductions, reoccurring emails, nurture campaigns, recontacting and retargeting – I set the triggers and voilà, it happens whether I remember or not
- A website tracker to see when prospects and new leads pay a visit to my website and what specific content they were interested in – I can follow up with relevant next steps
- For pipeline management, reporting and forecasting – I know what opportunities are ahead, when and how to work them, and produce sensible forecasting for budgeting, staffing, resources and timing
- Full visibility into all the processes involved in business development– I feel in control rather than being controlled by the chaos
- To share my activities with clients and teams, reporting, BD analysis and optimization, win and loss analysis – status reports are so much easier and more meaningful
- Simple and sensible infographics show me what I want to know at a glance – I see just what I want without sifting through all kinds of stuff I don’t want to know
- For prospect engagement tracking, lead scoring and prioritization – my best opportunities are always at the top of the list
- For campaign analytics, email and content ROI tracking – I know what works and what doesn’t and what to invest in and what to avoid
- I'd like to see more training videos in each section. Currently, SharpSpring has a unique feature that brings contextually relevant help to every page. I love the videos because my clients can easily learn and troubleshoot on their own. I like to see more
- I'd like to see more use cases and examples of common business rules automation, short-cuts, lessons learned.