SharpSpring: We Went From MailChimp To Automation Pimp
January 20, 2017
SharpSpring: We Went From MailChimp To Automation Pimp
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Overall Satisfaction with SharpSpring
Each new team member that joins our company is immediately added as a SharpSpring user. It has become standard for our team members to get SharpSpring certified as well. Our copywriters and developers don't use it but our account managers and project managers do. And our marketing coordinator does too. Everyone in management at our company are involved in SharpSpring. It helps us determine the best way to follow up with leads based on our bird's eye view of which pages they viewed on our site. SharpSpring also enables us to analyze the success or failure of marketing campaigns for our clients as well as ourselves. We use it's automation and customs forms the most. Now we can track how well our client's blog posts are working by having specific forms created for specific campaigns.
- New billing structure makes it more affordable for smaller agencies like us. Now you no longer have to buy 5 licenses at a time. A smart move on SharpSpring to make their platform more affordable!
- Very easy to get new licenses. The dashboard is simple to use. Account settings and license management is very intuitive and easy to learn.
- Automation triggers and workflows are fantastic. You have unlimited options on the triggers that enable you to customize how you engage with your database. It's spectacular and granular and wonderful to implement.
- Part of the platform lacks features such as within the email builder. It's not very easy-to-use and doesn't include modules such as social media, button, etc. But knowing how often SharpSpring is updating I wouldn't be surprised if the email builder gets major improvements in 2017.
- The app is almost useless for design and marketing purposes but is great for entering contacts. I tend to use SharpSpring more for marketing and design reasons, so the app doesn't do me any good. From the sales side of things, I've heard the app is wonderful.
- Email reporting could be easier to navigate. Currently there's a drop down menu and you have to remember what your email was called. Would be much easier if there was a list of emails that populated on the email report page instead of you having to scroll through a drop down menu and try and find it.
- After just one year of weaving SharpSpring into our business, we have seen huge growth for ourselves and for our clients who have bought into the platform as well.
- Before SharpSpring we were a web design and marketing agency that worked on one-off projects and sent our clients on their way once it was complete. After we made the decision to invest in SharpSpring it completely changed our agency. It has helped us establish longer and larger retainers which makes it possible for us to build stronger, closer relationships with the clients who are willing to see the value we provide.
When we first started Go Left Marketing we used multiple free versions of platforms such as MailChimp, HubSpot CRM and Instapage until we could afford the investment of an all-in-one platform. We no longer need to have a separate landing page builder and email builder since SharpSpring does this all. SharpSpring isn’t cheap but it is much more affordable than some of its competitors and it includes many features you won't elsewhere. Still, it beats having to jump from one platform to another to duct tape together all of our marketing efforts. The ability to whitelabel SharpSpring helps put our agency as the resource for their services. They also provide ample marketing material and tutorials to ensure your success as an agency using it.
We are a growing agency and have hitched our growth to that of the Sharpspring platform. They can count on our business for many years to come.
Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM Feature Ratings
Evaluating SharpSpring and Competitors
Yes - SharpSpring replaced MailChimp, Instapage and HubSpot CRM. That alone is saving us over $50 a month. When we first started Go Left Marketing we used multiple free or low level versions of these platforms until we could afford the investment of an all-in-one solution. SharpSpring isn’t cheap but it is much more affordable than some of its competitors. We wanted to replace them because we knew in order to grow our company and help our clients we would need to use a better platform that offered reporting, analytics and tracking.
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Analyst Reports
The product features are what helped us choose SharpSpring. Based on the investment it was well worth the cost, yet came in much lower than its competitor. We knew we were getting in with SharpSpring at a great time since it was a relatively new platform - we didn't want to miss our opportunity! The automation features were the biggest draw for our company. In order to provide inbound marketing we had to improve how we communicate with our client's audience. The reporting and analytics came in a close second.
I wouldn't change a thing. We flirted with the idea of getting SharpSpring in November 2015. By January 2016 we purchased our license and by March 2016 we hit the ground offering it to our pipeline. We have lost a few licences along the way but for the most part all of our original licenses are still happy, active users!
SharpSpring Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success | Slow Initial Response |
I reached out to SharpSpring in June of 2016 inquiring about poor quality sender categorization in our email sends. It was six months after we got our SharpSpring license, so we were still pretty new to the platform. I wasn't sure if all of our client's email accounts had any affect on our actual email account as far as the sender quality. I was concerned that if our client's lists were of poor quality it would affect our organizations send quality. SharpSpring support was able to respond to my question in a quick and concise manner. Even when I responded with another question through the thread they were able to help and offer additional support if need be.