Item: Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM
Rating: 10
Author: Michael Friend

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our whole organization uses SharpSpring along with several clients. We use it as a CRM, marketing automation platform and inbound marketing engine. We manage SharpSpring for our clients for the same features and functionality. SharpSpring is great because it's easy to use, intuitive, and has all the bells and whistles other more much more expensive platforms have.

Pros and Cons

CRM: Super easy to use with great functionality. I love the "life of the lead" timeline, "Smart Mail" and other thoughtful features. The lead scoring provides a nice snapshot of how hot a lead is.
Marketing Automation: Really easy to use "Visual Workflows" and "Action Groups" let you set up complicated marketing automation fast. Easy learning curve for my clients.
Inbound Marketing: Love the landing page and blog builders. Easy to set up inbound workflows.
Reports and Analytics: Great dashboard and deep-dive tools.

The social media tools could be more robust. I know they're working on it.
Love to have an instant chat feature to put on client websites.
Working in contact windows can get a little confusing.

Return on Investment

Definitely positive return in terms of finding, nurturing and tracking leads. It has been really eye-opening for my clients to see the power of a CRM and marketing automation platform.
SharpSpring has been a great tool for my clients. They have had great success and can look at analytics every day to measure campaign and content effectiveness.
It has been a great tool for inbound marketing. Easy-to-build landing pages and blog pages make it simple to train clients, then let them run with it.

Alternatives Considered

HubSpot

HubSpot is great. They were first to the scene, but now expensive. I tell clients that with SharpSpring they get 97.8% of what they get with HubSpot at a fraction of the cost. For smaller clients, it's an easy sell. And they pay month to month instead of yearly.

Other Software Used

Trello, Evernote, Adobe Illustrator CC

Likelihood to Recommend

SharpSpring is extremely well-suited for SMB clients. You get a lot of features and functionality for the money. It's a great platform for companies who have never had a CRM or marketing automation platform. My clients are very happy with it and its ability to help them find leads, nurture them, track website activity and deep-dive into marketing automation.

For large, enterprise clients, platforms like Marketo might be a better fit.

If you're looking for a great CRM and marketing automation platform, look no further and SharpSpring.

Overall Satisfaction with SharpSpring