Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring) Erfahrungen

Vorteile

We love the fact that we can white label the product and resell to our clients. It adds a new source of recurring revenue for our business that we would not have without this capability

Nachteile

We’ve had some challenges setting up billing for our managed client accounts - that said, the SharpSpring team has been helpful and very responsive in sorting out our challenges.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

ActiveCampaign, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement und Marketo Engage

Warum Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring) gewählt wurde

HubSpot just became too expensive for us to justify and it did not give us the white label capability that we were seeking.

Zuvor genutzte Software

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

SHarpSpring was the only solution to offer a white label alternative

Vorteile

SharpSpring does everything you would expect at a competitive price. The tool is a very capable marketing automation system, with good email and automation capabilities, as well as some great tracking and social media features.

Nachteile

Reporting is good, but not as good as the best (which is HubSpot in my opinion). Although the capabilities don't hold us back, it would be nice to be able to have easy ways to measure the performance of landing pages/funnels.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement und Marketo Engage

Warum Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring) gewählt wurde

We switched mainly because of price.

Zuvor genutzte Software

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

SharpSpring offers almost everything that other, more expensive, products offer, but at a very competitive price-point. Our clients who have deployed SharpSpring have been equally happy with the performance and results they have achieved.

Vorteile

Marketing automation features are very helpful.

Nachteile

- There is no escalation process for customer support requests that are above a customer support reps expertise
- Email report data is BS and one of the heads of IT at SharpSpring admitted it. The report data within SS differs from the data exported; the excel file has duplicate headline titles with different meanings/data; email data is shit - we sent test emails internally and didn't open them and it shows we opened them 3 times in SS and 4 times in the exported report
- Life of the Lead is the most valuable data within SS and yet you cannot automate based on any of it
- Life Of The Lead duplicates email "opens" and "clicks" based on how many people are in the chain, giving a false view of engagement from customers
- Email clicks are a load of BS - it shows that emails were opened and every link clicked within 10 seconds of sending because of spam bots/filters. SharpSpring doesn't filter this data out, so we can't tell the difference between what's real and what's not. "Can't we export the excel sheet and do that filtering ourselves?" Nope - as stated before, one of the head IT guys at SharpSpring validated our concerns that the excel email report is indeed, shit data. None of it is usable
- Rather than creating a backlog of needed updates and releasing them as a batch update on non-business-hours, SharpSpring product development teams push updates during work hours, breaking crucial functionality for 3+ hours/week, leaving our sales staff twiddling thumbs and complaining.

Vorteile

The email builder, landing page builder and form builder are all straightforward and fairly easy to learn. There are also help/support articles for pretty much anything I need help with or get stuck on. The "life of the lead" view is helpful to see a contact's interactions with our brand.

Nachteile

The email and landing page builders offer a lot of flexibility in layout/design, but sometimes they are a bit too restrictive in terms of moving elements around.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Insightly, NetSuite, Zoho Mail, GreenRope und Marketo Engage

Warum Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring) gewählt wurde

The previous platform was a lot more expensive and under-utilized.

Zuvor genutzte Software

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

The abundance of features for the price. Specifically, number of contacts allowed, emails sent and ability to manage clients in addition to our agency business.

Vorteile

I really enjoy the various features that are available within the platform! It allows us to quickly and easily identify our prospects, capture their information on the website, and then market to them in a way that is meaningful and generates new business for us.

Nachteile

In their mission to make their platform compete, they often focus on getting new features out quickly but then have to go back and update later. I've seen this happen for them with tools like Video Calling, which became quickly available due to COVID-19 but lacks the robustness of other dedicated video platforms that I would imagine most companies already use.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Warum Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring) gewählt wurde

We were using Infusionsoft before they were acquired by Keap. The platform had some nice features, but it was primarily missing the ability for us to resell the platform. We wanted to offer marketing automation to our clients, but didn't want to get caught in the trap like most other agencies do: the automation platforms own the client, not the agency. With SharpSpring, they are an agency-first company that allows us to own our client relationships. That is a huge win in our books!

Zuvor genutzte Software

Keap

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

Because SharpSpring allowed us to own our client relationships rather than letting HubSpot own the relationship. This has allowed us tremendous opportunity to scale our business, because we can offer a variety of services AND the platform to the client, when HubSpot doesn't allow that.

Vorteile

Powerful tools for lead generation to pretty good customer management, tons of options to personalize a lot of aspect of the company. very good tools for building email marketing and landing pages with out third parties

Nachteile

I think one point where sharpspring lose flexibility is on landing page creations, how designer we need more tools for layout.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

HubSpot Marketing Hub, Keap und Marketo Engage

Warum Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring) gewählt wurde

We are simply looking for a more robust alternative

Zuvor genutzte Software

Mailchimp

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

Easy to use, unlimited user with out pay more for each user, Price

Vorteile

SharpSpring has features to create marketing operations and track those campaigns either manually or automatically. Considering I can tie all the potential avenues of a campaign into one spot and see how users interact with is a great win. At a glance, it is essential to read the data and make the right decisions; SharpSpring brings all the data to one platform. It makes work more enjoyable that we can create a single campaign with a list of contacts, email templates, unique forms, dynamic pages, trackable media, automation, and analytics in one spot. Not to mention, once we create this base campaign and all its numerous pieces, I can then quickly use all the parts as a template to do another or a third, and so on. Making it very efficient over time. SharpSpring has a lot of features, but I am thrilled with our CRM, email marketing, ads, funnels, all in one location. All this and the support team have been top-notch every step of the way. I also like to learn myself, which they provide via courses, updated videos, and documents that my team and I can reference.

Nachteile

Interface and design consistency are my two significant cons for this platform. Like most, once you know the platform and its interface, you can be very successful. No difference here except that the design process between creating emails, pages, and forms all have their unique process. I believe it would improve user efficiency if the page and email creator, for instance, had a standard procedure and the same layout of tools. The platform has a lot of features with more coming, so you have to know where all the pieces are between the settings, marketing, and sales menu layout.

Vorteile

SharpSpring is a great tool for small to mid range companies looking to build email marketing campaigns. It has great templates which allow you to create emails that look great and are functional sales tools. There are also great automation tools for drip campaigns and re-targeting.

Nachteile

The visual email builder can be finicky at times, resulting in editing directly in the code. If you are unfamiliar or uncomfortable formatting HTML code it can be overwhelming. Also, the social media tools are weak. It would be nice if I could schedule and post content directly from SharpSpring.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Warum Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring) gewählt wurde

Constant Contact did not have the functionality of automation and drip campaigns that we needed.

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

SharpSpring has all of the functionality of Hubspot at a fraction of the cost. I used Hubspot at a previous position but I have found that I can do everything I want to do in SharpSpring without having to pay a fortune. SharpSpring also offers significantly more functionality than MailChimp or Constant Contact.

Vorteile

My favorite thing about Sharpspring is the ability to track and analyze the entire life of a lead, from start to finish. It allows us to optimize our funnels and nurture prospects from interest to sale. It is a really powerful tool and offers (almost) everything you need for marketing automation from automated workflows to landing pages and forms to email design. I also love their lead scoring.

Nachteile

Though it offers a lot of features, it's not all that usable compared to similar products. There are countless small usability issues. Landing pages are pretty difficult to create. Support is usually great – but can at times be entirely unhelpful. Automation has some key features other tools allow. Overall, there are just a lot of features that still need to be added in order to really compete.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

ActiveCampaign und Keap

Warum Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring) gewählt wurde

Price was the primary reason.

Zuvor genutzte Software

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

We really needed a robust CRM for longer B2B buying cycles. Though all other tools were awesome, Sharpspring won out there.

Vorteile

SharpSpring's leadership is committed to delivering a great product and support. That is #1. Also, they primarily sell their solution through partners like me. SharpSpring is my go-to platform of choice after using Infusionsoft from 2008 to 2015, when I found SharpSpring and bailed on Infusionsoft. Best decision I've ever made.

Nachteile

Not much to dislike. Do NOT take my ease of use, set up rating below literally. It's easy for ME and my crew. It's NEVER easy for you. Unless you have 10,000 hours screwing around learning this kind of solution. It is NOT easy to set up. None of these systems are. Don't buy the BS some of these companies pitch. The key to success with SharpSpring and others is you have to know what you're doing to set up SharpSpring and make it perform well. (Pr pay a pro!) It's just like any CRM or marketing automation solution you invest in; you must choose wisely and plan to invest over the long run to make it work.

Vorteile

While the functionality is extremely powerful, SharpSpring itself is easy-to-use. Like any software, there is an initial training period where you have to get comfortable with the platform, but I found it pretty intuitive, especially after participating in the on-boarding training classes. The best thing about the software is the results it's generating for my clients. Our email marketing campaigns have been extraordinarily successful and the reporting functionality makes it easy to demonstrate these results to our clients.

Nachteile

I've been very satisfied with the software and don't have any complaints. One wish-list item would be for SharpSpring to integrate with survey tools so I could seamlessly administer campaigns requesting customer feedback.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

HubSpot Marketing Hub, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement und Marketo Engage

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

Value for the dollar. SharpSpring offers the same functionality as many of the larger, more well-known marketing automation platforms for a fraction of the cost, but what really sets them apart from their peers is their customer service, which includes extensive live and on-demand training classes and a dedicated call center focused on your success.

Vorteile

The pricing model is favorable. We were able to onboard 2-3 clients almost immediately as compared to really struggling trying to sell HubSpot.
The sightline on data and our sales pipeline is good and shows us that we are seeing value (however, our company needs to do more on our end to really leverage the tool).

Nachteile

We haven't found a use for the content calendar function, compared to other methods we use.
Lead scoring could be improved.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Warum Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring) gewählt wurde

Looking for a more cost-effective solution. We were paying a lot and having difficulties winning new business based on the Hubspot pricing structure.

Zuvor genutzte Software

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

Our primary lens for looking at SharpSpring was based on a comparison to HubSpot. We found the platform to essentially be fully comparable with a more favorable pricing structure. Since making the switch, we haven't seen any reduction in capabilities and are finding it much easier to sell to our clients.

Vorteile

For several years now, SharpSpring has been my secret weapon. I work largely with educational, startup, and nonprofit ventures - so we are always resource constrained. SharpSpring's platform allows me to leverage a small (or solo) shop into something of competitive size, then scale up as we grow. And it doesn't break the bank. When you're working with a skeletal or non-existent team, the ease of use and customer support become critical: SharpSpring always "wows" me on this. Plus, the automation lets me optimize the resources I have while the intelligence tools keep me from wasting time on projects with low ROI. SharpSpring delivers the functionality that gets me noticed by the higher ups. (In one role, we doubled all major KPIs within a year's time.) I couldn't do my job without it!

Nachteile

Marketing Intelligence software is complex and the learning curve can be challenging, even with great support. Also, not everything in SharpSpring is where I expect it to be - I often use the chat support function to find tools. Oh, and if you are West Coast, start your SharpSpring projects early as chat support wanes after 3pm Pacific due to the company being headquartered in Florida.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement

Warum Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring) gewählt wurde

Value for cost, functionality, and assurance that we weren't going to be 'nickle and dimed' as we grew in our needs, scope, etc.

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

Pardot gets expensive fast. I'd love to add familiarity with the product to my resume - but the price puts it out of range for most of the organizations I've worked with thus far.

Vorteile

Complete integrated tech stack for marketing and sales that includes the core functionality a business needs to execute full-funnel marketing and sales campaigns and manage the sales pipeline.

Nachteile

SmartMail provides 1:1 direct IMAP email, but it would be nice if there was a sales-driven email automation feature for low volume 1:1 emails to prospects.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, Keap und Marketo Engage

Warum Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring) gewählt wurde

Price performance and the agency model. SharpSpring provides lartely equivalent functionality for 1/3 the cost and the agency model is better.

Zuvor genutzte Software

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

Cost effectiveness, ease of use, full stack functionality (CRM and Marketing Automation) and the strong agency model

Vorteile

The software is easy to use and is constantly being updated with new features. Within our first year of using the tool, at least 4 new features were rolled out, all of which were useful. Their live support is great. They are thorough and they followup. There have been several instances where the team has followed up after the fact to check in and see if additional support was needed

Nachteile

I would love more training. The videos are good and useful, but would love more virtual webinars or if being a partner allowed for more 1-on-1 type training. I also wish some of the CRM fields had more customization instead of being default/standard.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Warum Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring) gewählt wurde

Zoho CRM was expensive, bulky and useless. Everytime you wanted to do something you had to add-on a new feature or upgrade. Plus there were lots of limitations and having to jump to different platforms within the CRM.

Zuvor genutzte Software

Zoho CRM

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

We liked their Agency model more. It gives our clients more flexibility and freedom and their pricing model made the most sense for us and our clients.

Vorteile

It has a lot of features and they keep adding new ones. From only one platform I'm able to keep track of my client's websites, create the forms, and manage the submissions, leads can schedule meetings with specialists without having to wait (or to interact with another human being) and I can keep track of everything with the help of the Life of the Lead. The automations available are a big deal as well, everybody in the team is aware of their responsibilities and the platform helps them never forget to follow-up.

Nachteile

The email builder could use some improvements, maybe something more intuitive, more templates, more flexibility while making changes. Also, de contact manager is still kinda coarse, should work more like a database and not only as a display, it could be more flexible. And allow to bulk-import contacts with no emails could be huge.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Sprout Social, HubSpot Marketing Hub und Mailchimp

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

Because we saw SharpSpring as the ideal solution for the size of our clients, something more complex could have been way too much, and going for an analysis gadget would have been a potential trouble maker.

Vorteile

We manage a wide range of clients using SharpSpring, and you can not beat the cost and functionality delivered in a mid-high level automation platform - one that continues to evolve and grow.

Nachteile

We have really had no complaints with SharpSpring over the past 5 years we have been using it for ourselves and our clients.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

HubSpot Marketing Hub, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, Zoho Mail, Mailchimp und Marketo Engage

Warum Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring) gewählt wurde

Cost/Value and the strong focus SharpSpring has on supporting agencies.

Zuvor genutzte Software

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

See comments above

Vorteile

SharpSpring is extremely user friendly. It allows for automation through the entire sales funnel. From its Social Media capabilities to its impactful email marketing feature, SharpSpring improves our productivity from management to rep usage!

Nachteile

In doing research, there was supposed to be an automatic integration with Qwilr. We have found that is not the case.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Zoho CRM, Salesforce Sales Cloud und HubSpot CRM

Warum Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring) gewählt wurde

SharpSpring was easier to use and allowed our agency to "White label" the solution to our clients.

Zuvor genutzte Software

Pipedrive

Vorteile

Sharpspring has an easy interface and do a great integration between marketing automation and CRM, helping these teams to work without any gaps, fully integrated. Reports are very easy to generate and personalize.

Nachteile

The Email designer and Landing Pages Designer is not the ideal yet, is a little difficult to use.
Other problem is the incapacity to separate invoices and charges to my clients in Brasil. I need to receive from my clients separately and pay for all Sharpspring licences.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Salesforce Sales Cloud

Warum Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring) gewählt wurde

Sharpspring is better and have a complete solution.

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

Because it offers all tools I need in one.

Vorteile

There are a lot of features. Almost too many, actually. I can't imagine a company that could possibly use all of them successfully. Regardless, it's nice to know the option is there if a situation arises in which a certain feature becomes useful. My favorite function/feature has to be the lead tracking system. I love being able to see every interaction each lead has with my client's business. The automated actions on top of that in response to customer interaction is the main reason we use the software. It makes drip email campaigns a breeze. I like that it tracks conversions as well (although you have to set it up to do so which isn't necessarily the easiest process ever). All in all, though, it does the job we need it to do.

Nachteile

The SharpSpring system is VERY non-intuitive for non-marketers (and heck, even for marketers sometimes). There are just too many ways you can screw up and have to start an email, action, or workflow completely over again. We have several clients who we act as their entire marketing department for and trying to get their sales representatives to use the system the way it's intended is next to impossible. They just don't understand it or even it's purpose, even after we've done training after training after training with them. We've even had SS support do training directly with them, to no avail. I ended up creating my OWN versions of step-by-step tutorials for our clients just to make things easier to understand.

The other major drawback is it's way too easy to get "blacklisted" (aka hit spamtraps and honeypots), which I realize is a problem with email marketing in general, but SS doesn't have enough safeguards in place for preventing this type of situation. We have one client who likes to import their email lists in from an on-site wifi sign-on system, which inevitably leads to poor list quality regardless of how many safeguards (email weed-out) parameters we put in place ourselves. Getting on SS's blacklist is pretty much the worst thing that can happen because you still have to pay for the service even though you can't use it until your un-blacklisted, which can take a while.

Lastly, their email-design interface is terrible and trick to navigate.

Vorteile

Being able to leverage anonymous web user data to create actionable insights way before they fill a form out is invaluable. For an agency/B2B company, it is the most reliable new lead generator of any tool out there.

Nachteile

New features roll out and feel like they should still be in beta. It has a few quirks like a lack of global date range filter that don't necessarily hinder reporting/analysis but are a slight inconvenience.

Vorteile

SharpSpring approached me with a very interesting mailer. It was enough to get my attention and learn who they were and what they did. After they bought my crew lunch and I sat through a presentation I decided to join. The minimum monthly bought me 3 accounts plus a free one for my agency. There are a lot of features in SharpSpring and they appear to be adding more, which is nice. They represent themselves as marketing automation for agencies. They offer a lot of white labeling which is a requirement for me when working with 3rd party softwares.

Nachteile

Late 2019 it was announced that SS would change their billing policies to require that THEY bill my clients. WAIT, WHAT? You're a whitelabeled SaaS service, why the **** would YOU bill MY clients. That's the opposite of the point. Since I haven't set up my clients in their billing interface they've locked me out of my account. And when I went to cancel they reminded me of the 30 days cancellation notice I'm required to give. OH, AND, they decided to up the rate $75/account. I'm so unhappy with where they're going as a company I can't even consider the new features that they're bringing in.

Vorteile

The system is easy to use -from training to the online help docs (i.e., self-training) - to the excellent support team, I feel very confident when using the system and making modifications. I know if I can't figure out how to do something I want to do - I can either jump on live chat or call support and someone will happily help me figure it out.

Nachteile

Reporting capabilities are still growing. They recently launched a new reporting dashboard with canned "custom" reports but I would like the idea to select the variables myself and run a report on my data - including my custom fields. If the fields exist, I'd like to run reports on them. I have figured out, however, that, I can export a lot into excel and create my own reports when needed.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

HubSpot Marketing Hub, Basecamp und Marketo Engage

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

Cost, support and customization

Vorteile

At first, I was hesitant to jump on board with SharpSpring as I have used the bulkier parent company software from Constant Contact and did not love... I thought this would be similar and I was already familiar with HubSpot's array of marketing automation applications; however, I was a little wrong! I still prefer HubSpot for larger, more profitable or sizable I guess I should say, companies. For my non-profit and social enterprise ventures, however, it is actually very much aligned to the effectiveness as the aforementioned competitor but for half the price. I like that I can get detailed analytics while setting up true smart content triggers for pre-existing materials in a way that makes sense and is strategic for my audience at the right time in the right way.

Nachteile

The interface to me feels almost too simplistic as if it is dumbed down, even aesthetics wise. I am big on the look and feel of a system, especially if I'm going to be in it regularly. Also the social media capabilities and deeper, detailed analytics for lead management and creation at the top of the marketing funnel (or circulating flywheel if you're into more "modern times" industry lingo) are not up to snuff in comparison to HubSpot. But in comparison to the rest of the product market, SharpSpring is up there within the ranks!

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

HubSpot Marketing Hub, Ortto, ActiveCampaign und HubSpot CRM

Vorteile

Easy to use
Great support team - tickets are handled in a timely fashion
Easy to implement
Great Documentation
Great for small, uncomplicated implementations - If your implementation will involve more complex requirements and/or CRM functionalities, stay away from SharpSpring
CRM works Ok

Nachteile

Automations are not always automatic - work flows sometimes do not work, expect to do manual work.
List segmentations do not always populate automatically - automated lists do not alwys self populate according to their rules
Custom reports are not custom (you cannot filter by custom fields, for example)
Reporting in SharpSpring is very poor
It is easier to export information to Excel to generate useful reports
Social functionalities are very shallow