Keeping My Keap!
April 06, 2021
Keeping My Keap!
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Infusionsoft by Keap
Overall Satisfaction with Keap (formerly Infusionsoft)
I am sole proprietor of my company but do a LOT of things and wear a lot of hats, so I need organization and efficiency as I am only one person. I first started using Keap when I hosted my first online video series (a health summit for caregivers) back in 2014. The folks I hired to help me to put on this first event informed me that I needed a platform to enable me to store my growing database of contacts, send them broadcast newsletters, set up affiliate programs, receive and track payments for sales of products and services, set up campaigns, and interact with Customer Hub (which I have recently gone back to using for my online programs). At first, that initial team did the work for that first event, but I have since taken over all of it and have learned an exponential amount about the capabilities of Keap and how to maximize my use of it since (still learning more as I am sure I haven't been using it to its max potential for me yet). Now I use it in all of those capacities but have many more programs, services, contacts, newsletter recipients, campaigns, and affiliate programs that I manage and keep track of through Keap without having to hire a large staff (which I sometimes wish I had anyway!). It has also helped me to streamline my communication with clients and students and made my program delivery possible. It has been essential to my daily operations, and I work in the app almost every day.
- The support is excellent! Navigating the app and figuring out how to do certain things can be like entering a rabbit hole with no idea where to go at first, but I know that the support team is always there to help me successfully do what I need and want to do. I contact support regularly.
- I very much appreciate that a business the size of mine can use one app to do so many things such as store a contact database, allow for communication and program delivery though both broadcast emails and campaigns, set up and keep track of purchases and receive payment securely, allow program delivery or email series' through the campaigns, and set up affiliate programs. I have used and regularly use all of these features.
- I like the dashboard feature and how it gives me a daily snapshot of my business.
- There was a bit of a learning curve, but creating newsletters and campaigns are fairly straightforward for me now, and they always come out looking and operating professionally as the updated functionality is easy to use and relatively intuitive.
- There are quite a few little bugs that create some tedious issues to sort out (very time consuming at times), but support is very helpful with these issues. One of these things is duplicate contacts messing up all kinds of things from proper integration with Customer Hub to inaccurate/incomplete records.
- I have consistent issues with credit cards not processing properly the first time.
- I am not a big fan of how the affiliate programs need to be set up and managed. It is much too complicated.
- If you enable the PayPal option when taking payment, the product page looks as if PayPal is the only option unless you click "checkout" and the option to pay by credit card shows up. This is VERY confusing for people and I am not sure how many sales I have lost because of it. I have spent a great deal of time on the phone with support (and varying people) and have come to the conclusion that this can t be changed unless I use an order form which I do not want to do for various reasons. I have to put instructions on how to pay by credit card in the description for every single one of my products which is tedious and doesn't always work to inform people.
- I have had massive issues with email deliverability. At least 1000 plus people do not receive my emails every time I send a broadcast with more getting shuffled into spam folders or not being delivered at all after that initial screening. I have cleaned up my list many times, but even after one broadcast after a clean up, my email capability has been cut off and a request sent to me by Keap asks that I cull my lists again. I do not send spam and mail only every week or two to people who opt into my newsletter but still get this. There have been times when I have held an event and get lots of opt-outs or spam complaints afterward from the people who only wanted the free info and completely forget that they asked for the newsletters in the first place. There was also about a month this last fall where there was a flood of fake sign-ups through my opt-in form that used real email addresses but not by the people who used those email addresses. I changed the security on my opt-in form and added capcha to stop this, which it mostly does. This has also happened when I have set up a campaign for students for a particular program and the open rates can be almost 0 as they are reminder emails to come to class as the students don't always need to open them. I have been told that this cannot be fixed. Frankly, I have always had a suspicion that my emails do not reach many of my newsletter recipients, but I have no other ways of fixing that or investigating that aside from the hours of time I have spent working through it with support.
- While it takes time to set things up, of course, and there is always a learning curve and bugs to sort out, Keap has saved me an exponential amount of time in the long run. Automation and campaigns have been essential to my ability to execute my programs.
- Keap has allowed me to keep 1000s of clients, trainees, students, newsletter recipients, and affiliates organized. This way I can target specific groups in my communications and reduce opt outs (of potential clients, students, and customers) by sending information to the people who will appreciate it and not "spam" those who are not interested in a particular topic or service.
- My newsletter is my #1 vehicle for generating business in every capacity of what I do.
I started in Keap and stayed there. I think there are others that may be good platforms, but I stuck with Keap because I have learned how to use it quite efficiently and am not interested in having to learn another platform. I see them improving and fixing the existing bugs, which I appreciate. I also don't know of another platform that does all of what Keap does in one place. I am satisfied with Keap and don't plan to migrate anywhere else at this time.