SharpSpring, for every day marketing automation
Updated January 01, 2021
SharpSpring, for every day marketing automation
Score 2 out of 10
Vetted Review
Overall Satisfaction with SharpSpring
We migrated to SharpSpring from SugarCRM. We needed a marketing automation and CRM application for our organization.
SharpSpring is used by our marketing team to generate leads and follow those leads through the "warming up" process. We use all of SharpSpring's functionality (email, social, landing pages, blogs, email and landing page dynamic contents, etc) for the lead generation process.
Our sales team then picks up all those leads thats have the required lead score to carry the sales process forward.
With Sugar we found we could not measure a lead's potential (lead score) in any significant way. With SharpSpring, our lead generation has greatly improved and our teams are better focusing on leads they can actually convert. We have also shortened lead conversion times.
SharpSpring is used by our marketing team to generate leads and follow those leads through the "warming up" process. We use all of SharpSpring's functionality (email, social, landing pages, blogs, email and landing page dynamic contents, etc) for the lead generation process.
Our sales team then picks up all those leads thats have the required lead score to carry the sales process forward.
With Sugar we found we could not measure a lead's potential (lead score) in any significant way. With SharpSpring, our lead generation has greatly improved and our teams are better focusing on leads they can actually convert. We have also shortened lead conversion times.
- Simple to use
- Learning curve is quick - once a user "gets it" the application is a life saver
- Onboarding process was simple
- Support team is amazing
- Reporting - there are custom built in reports but are cumbersome
- New features do not always work as expected!
- Automations (workflows) dont always work or fire at all!!
- Automated lists are not always automated
- Reporting provides conflicting information
- Automations, in general, are not trustworthy
- Better lead generation
- Better lead warming
- Faster lead conversion times
The sales process has changed, customers now investigate before buying, they investigate doing search, visiting pages, reading blogs, etc... They often have made up their minds before contacting a sales rep... SharpSpring helps in that process giving the sales team information and actionable data by monitoring activities customers carry out in digital channels.
Most conventional CRM applications are designed as control applications - control of the sales person, their activities, their opportunities. Few (none?) provide data on what a potential customer is actually interested in. SharpSpring helps provide that information and fills the gap
Most conventional CRM applications are designed as control applications - control of the sales person, their activities, their opportunities. Few (none?) provide data on what a potential customer is actually interested in. SharpSpring helps provide that information and fills the gap
Do you think Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM delivers good value for the price?
No
Are you happy with Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM's feature set?
Yes
Did Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM live up to sales and marketing promises?
No
Did implementation of Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM again?
No
Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM Feature Ratings
Using SharpSpring
7 - Lead generation, lead nurturing, CRM, Sales force automation, laning page creation, email creation
2 - Common sense for the most part. For data quality requirements some knowledge of data structures/data types would be ideal
- Lead generation
- lead nurturing
- CRM and pipeline management
- Creating simple surveys w forms
- Using dynamic content in emails to display varying information
Evaluating SharpSpring and Competitors
Yes - Sugar CRM
- Product Features
Sugar CRM at the time of evaluation did not have any digital marketing functionality
I would not consider SharpSpring at all. I feel we are locked-in (caged-in?) with them and moving away would imply a titanic effort in data migration, functionality mapping, etc etc
SharpSpring Implementation
- Implemented in-house
Change management was a small part of the implementation and was well-handled - None, really. Our organization has been using CRM applications for many years so changing to a new standard was not that complicated.
- Data cleansing/Data quality
- Content development (images, documents etc)
SharpSpring Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Knowledgeable team Kept well informed Immediate help available Support understands my problem | Poor followup Problems left unsolved Escalation required Support doesn't seem to care Slow Initial Response |
No - Not required
Yes -
Some of the more serious bugs with SharpSpring (when writing this reviws) have involved these areas:
- Automations (work flows do not always run/trigger)
- Automated lists (lists that should populate automatically when certain criteria is met) do not always populate. We are having to manually rebuild lists often
- Custom Reports are neither. There is nothing custom about them (you are locked-in to what SS decides you need to report and even though you may request new report widget, they are not built) and reports often show conflicting information. You cannot filter "custom" reporst by custom fields
Sure! the support team is exceptional! They handle all tickets and keep in touch with updates. As stated before, the problem does not lie with support since they are not the product developers. To summarize, the amazing support team must do what they can with what they are given...
We currently have a ticket which has been open for several months (regarding non-firing automations) and it has been handled very well! The fact that the issue is still not fixed, is not a support issue! Its a development team problem...
Using SharpSpring
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Quick to learn Convenient Familiar | Requires technical support Not well integrated Inconsistent |
- Lead Scoring is simple
- Email sending be it manually or automatically
- Editing emails/landing pages
- Automations are cumbersome and quirky
- List building has a "strange" logic to it
Yes - There is a mobile App but it is useless and little or no work has been done to it in a long time... The application is so poor you could almost say it does not exist...
SharpSpring Reliability
Integrating SharpSpring
- Point of Sales applications (POS)
- Stand Alone apps
- Accounting systems
- Call center apps
perhaps the most complex integration was the POS where data was not provided by that system as needed. Inserting/updating data into SS was a simple matter. Some of the API methods could be a tad more robust so multiple calls do not have to be made to identify/obtain the required information.
Additionally, some further API methods could be developed by the manufacturer to extend the types of calls that can be made.
- API (e.g. SOAP or REST)