SharpSpring from Constant Contact Review

PROS: It has a friendly user interface. It is easy to find your way round the tool for the first time. SharpSpring offers numerous contacts and functionalities to help you get ahead in automation and tracking of leads. Apart from this, they upgrade and add new features every month which opens up new ways you can make the best us of the product. Although some of those features you may not use, it gives you an idea just in case you want to expand in future. It advocates for segmentation of your visitors by tracking and analyzing their behavior on your site. This encourages automation s you can end emails and personalized messages to visitors based on what they were looking for. Integration with Adwords helps you to evaluate the return on investment (ROI) for your ad. You can be able to vie which ad is the most profitable in terms of the conversion rate.

CONS: It can sometimes be disappointing where a new feature is not working as it should be. It maybe, that, they do not fully test those features before they include them in the system. What follows is chaos as they are full of bugs. Before you recommend a new feature to a client, make sure you have seen how it works to avoid such glitches and disappointments. Also, the setup is complex as even basic setup procedures will require an expert to help you get around them. Luckily, you can work with partner agencies to take you through all the steps to get started.

PROS: SharpSpring has a lot of features for the cost. They are very agency focused and are always releasing new features and updates to support their agencies and partners.

CONS: They are a little more out of the box than other systems like Pardot and Marketo so there is a little less customization, but it is also a lower price.

PROS: They are constantly working to bring in new features to the platform and enhance current features, which makes for a great user experience. The marketing automation tools have brought more of an ROI than practically any software we've ever used and that's not even our favorite thing about SharpSpring!

CONS: Just a bit slow at times, needs more customization possibilities, and sometimes the email templates get messy and buggy

PROS: The cost efficiency of the tool is what makes it the most ideal to use. It has powerful features, which helps you to automate our campaigns with ease. I have used similar tools such as Hubspot and Marketo and they do not come close to what SharpSpring has to offer. You get the best of both worlds with this product. Features that are found in other similar tools are all merged into one, which is SharpSpring. If you are looking to give your marketing automation campaign a facelift, then SharpSpring is the way to go. It is flexible and will accommodate all your automation needs to give a powerful marketing strategy.

CONS: Although it has the best of both worlds in terms of features, there are some features that you will not find in SharpSpring but they are in Marketo and Hubspot. For example the revenue cycle analytics system and an information hub where your marketers can read more about the product and how to use it. Also, when you compare with the two platforms, SharpSpring has less integrations. We understand that is a new platform and with time it will integrate with many third party applications to meet the marketing automation needs of users. Due to this deficiency, you have to seek a custom integration at an extra cost. Luckily, since SharpSpring is cost friendly, you can easily cover such a cost.

PROS: It comes with what I was looking for. Customization is very important on my part as I want to customize the tool based on my preferences and marketing needs. SharpSpring gives me this and more. I can create custom triggers for tracking leads, custom filters to monitor the performance of my campaigns and custom fields when I want to manage everything on the dashboard. All this come to make my work easier. Apart from that, SharpSpring integrates well with most CRM and thus you do not have to worry about the type of hosting platform you have for your website. It helps me solve my current situation for my business and creates room to plan for future growth and development of the business.

CONS: The reporting aspect of the tool is not quite helpful. Although it provides reports for campaigns and how they are performing, I want more of specific reports on lead and custom fields. It should be able to generate those reports so that you can understand every aspect of the strategy instead of general reporting. I can however export that data to CVS files and generate a good report based on what I am looking for. However, this is not direct as it requires for you to go an extra step.

PROS: I like that this tool is highly customizable and I can customize almost anything, starting from custom fields, custom triggers to custom filters. It offers flexibility and this is highly essential for our business and plans we have for improvement and growth of our business.

CONS: I’d like to draw out more reports that are based on custom fields and to customize the stages of a lead so we can pull a report that is based on that information. Right now, I’m able to get that data in CSV files and to manipulate it, but this takes some additional steps and time.

PROS: • It offers behavioural-based email automation for personalized messaging. With the help of this feature, we were able to determine the cost of a lead. It also aided us in reducing the unaddressed customer complaints. • This tool allows us to build forms and embed them onto our client's webpage with ease. It also provides dynamic forms that will enable our clients to gather more information about their leads. • The technical and general support is impressive. I always receive a prompt response from their customer support team and kept notified until it is resolved.

CONS: • The reports and analytics are not detailed, although they provide the performance of campaigns. It misses the specifications on minute details of the strategy. • The learning curve of SharpSpring is exorbitant. It requires a lot of efforts to learn. • Email creator is not user-friendly. It is required to have a basic HTML professional. The WYSIWYG editor can be glitchy sometimes.

PROS: Value for money is by far the best asset. The core functionalities compare to the biggest Marketing Automation Platforms on the market, but at a fraction of the cost.

CONS: Customer support could be better and sometimes the software is a bit slow.

PROS: The fact that SharpSpring is compatible with any form of CMS out there makes it the best marketing automation tool for us. Before we discovered this tool, other tools required us to use a specific CMS which was a limitation on our part. It was difficult as it meant that you had to redo your site all over again. Such a problem is not available when you have SharpSpring by your side. On top of that, there was no way to migrate your content to another CMS which added to your problems. This product has changed how we view automation and the functionalities it brings to the table are unimaginable. We can say that we are in a better place thanks to SharpSpring.

CONS: It is an all-round tool which makes it the most ideal if you want to reap the best from automation. I did not dislike anything about this product as it has brought value to what we want. Apart from its features, it has a reliable customer support where your issues are addressed within a short period. However, this tool is all business which means there is no time to play around with its features or controls, but this is not a problem at all. If you have a serious marketing department or needs, then SharpSpring is the right partner for you.

PROS: The UI is clean and professional and it offers great features that are suitable for our businesses and we can easily complete perfect marketing automation system at affordable price, and this makes the product very attractive.

CONS: Sometimes it can be buggy especially when it comes to Landing Page builder. In fact, I don’t have dislikes about it, but sometimes it can be frustrating when doesn’t work as it should be for e.g. emails doesn’t render properly for mobile device. Also, the niggles with the system can make the whole experience uncomfortable when selling the product to the client, but fortunatelly, SharpSpring’s team is aware of this problem and they work on the product’s improvements.

PROS: I have tried several marketing platoforms for our company and for our clients and SharpSpring is second to none. It is robust platform and it competes with huge enterprise programs. It is intuitive product and there is smooth transition from email marketing system.

CONS: To speak the truth, I haven’t found something that I might dislike. In the beginning I had some questions about this program and its support team was willing to guide me through every step.

PROS: I like that the team behind SharpSpring constantly improves the software and they always release features that are suitable for our business. I like its email marketing automation feature and lead tracking. The price is affordable and customer support is second to none. Also, the other thing that I like most about this tool is the ability to improve, they work hard so we can have great experience with this product.

CONS: I don’t have dislikes about it, I’m very satisfied with it.

PROS: SharpSpring offers thorough interaction and helps you to better understand your clients. I like its monthly subscription that is based on revenue stream. It allows you to transform your clients’ marketing via measurable marketing activities. Also, with UI you can create complex landing pages and launch email marketing campaigns. The price is affordable and the support team is highly knowledgeable and always ready to help.

CONS: I wish there are more design feature added and to provide more native integrations so we can reduce reliance on integration tech.

PROS: What I like most about this platform is the fact that it provides professional tools that are great for marketing agencies. The paltform’s workflows and campaign tools help me to have my landing page builder and email automation into same app. It is affordable solution and it costs less then Hubspot.

CONS: Sometimes I have to wait for a while so I can get the feature I need but this is not dislike, they constantly work on the product’s improvement.

PROS: It allows you to follow up on the emails you have sent to your client list. You can also schedule emails as to when and who they should be automatically sent to. This form of email marketing equips you with the right tools to manage your campaigns effectively. The cost aspect of the tool is affordable as we can go for a less comprehensive plan thereby getting value for our money. Although the latest addition of the landing pages builder is not functioning as it should be, the developers of the tool are working around to ensure that everything is seamless in the SharpSpring marketing tool.

CONS: There are issues that need improving or resolving with the SharpSpring product. From the aspect of tracking leads, it does not work as it should be. This functionality is not intuitive. Also, the customer service is not as good as it should be. Although they are highly responsive to our queries, the time it takes to resolve an issue can go to more than a month. The forms, the tool offers, are reliable but it is difficult to edit or customize tem to your liking. It would be better if these issues were addressed comprehensively.

PROS: It is all we could ask for in a marketing automation tool. Its CMR and ESP are intuitive which helps you to manage your leads with ease. The functionalities of the product, makes it a world class automation tool. You can segment your contact list with ease and send specific messages to a group of your customers or prospects. When it comes to creating workflows, SharpSpring does it all and in the best way. You can include all details about a lead from the first time he or she visited your website to today on the contact manager. This helps you to manage the lead based on their activities on your website and that counts for tailored marketing. Also, with the open API we have done a lot for our clients, which is a plus.

CONS: It is not all roses in SharpSpring. They also have some few bugs that debugging. I experienced problems when sending emails. It is not as reliable as it should be. There were also some other glitches with their core features which was frustrating. I think that they have ignored some of their core functionalities to focus more on scaling. It would be better if they put more emphasis in the functionality of their main features to help users get the most out of the product.

PROS: SharpSpring is easy to use and it can be used by everyone even by those who are not tech savvy. As content writer and client manager I really like working with SharpSpring because I can send automate emails and manage our leads. It is extremely easy to use.

CONS: There are some features that need update, but the team behind this tool constantly improves the UI and they always take our feedback into consideration. Also, I like “Back” option within email function instead of navigating it back from the menu bar.

PROS: The integration with other third party software applications is high. Since it does not have content management solution (CMS) we can outsource from other CMS platforms such as WordPress. This way, we are able to satisfy the needs of our clients as it does not matter where they host their website, SharpSpring integrates with all. It has an easy setup and interface which makes it easy to get started. Also, the pricing plans are easy to understand and adapt to which gives a better angle to serve our clients in terms of billing. Its onboarding was better as compared to other similar platforms.

CONS: We came across 3 issues where we could not customize some of the features to suit our marketing needs. This brought about frustrations. Among those were software glitches that slowed us down. However, the support team is highly responsive and helpful to address the issues that we put forward. They were able to resolve 2 of those issues and we have no doubt that the 3rd issue will be sorted out soon.

PROS: It is easy to use even for a beginner. The tools and resources available will help you get around the basic of the tool. If you are new, it has the right training to help you understand how different features work for your automation and marketing needs. You can read articles on the site to help you learn more about the product and how well you can utilize it for your marketing needs. The support team is also standby if you encounter issues in the process of managing your campaigns. Every Friday there is a live webinar, which entails live training for you to familiarize yourself with the old and new features SharpSpring has to offer.

CONS: The tool is limited in term of the language it accepts, which is English. In our case, we have Dutch clients and some questions they ask come in Dutch, which makes it difficult on our end. If it is possible, SharpSpring can accept multiple languages to help solve such an issue. Also, it is impossible to add multiple addresses to a single contact. Having multiple addresses attached to one contact can help improve our marketing efforts.

PROS: It is affordable even for small and medium sized businesses (SMBs). When you compare with other similar tools, SMBs cannot afford most of the powerful marketing automation tools in the market. Luckily, with SharpSpring, they can set their marketing strategies without having to spend a lot on the same. The customer support is highly responsive and offers the needed help for bugs you encounter during the use of the tool. It values agencies as it understands how agencies work and their operations. Being an agency we can find value in this tool to give our clients the best value for their money in terms of results.

CONS: The main problem is that, when you are using the product, you may come across bugs that need debugging. Luckily, they have a helpful support team which gets ahead of the problem as soon as they receive a query. Apart from the bugs that happen now and then, we are happy using the tool for our marketing and those of our clients. The overall output is more than we bargained for, which is a good thing.

PROS: SharpSpring offers great amount of features and this tool meets our needs. It is affordable solution and they offer free licenses. This is great tool to start your business with and to attrack more customers. Also, the support team is one of the best, they always guide us, provide us with ideas, and they are always responsive to our needs and feedback.

CONS: In my opinion, I think that they could improve the UX in some instances so it could be more intuitive.

PROS: Before purchasing SharpSpring we were searching for a solution that could provide us with tools that are suitable for our needs. We are using Sharpspring for few years now and we won’t turn back. The fact is that every marketing automation tool is expensive, but fortunatelly, SharpSpring is affordable solution and it offers great payment options.

CONS: When reaching their customer support service you might run into some issues because of the time-zone, and what I mean by that is that you have to get up early in order to reach them.

PROS: It has everything you can ask for in a marketing automation tool. Starting from the interface, you get the professional feel. It also has a white labeling feature to help you utilize the interface and reap the best of what it has to offer. The features make everything look simple and complete. It is affordable depending on your marketing campaigns you want to manage. It offers a great user experience, which adds to the professionalism of the product. In short, you can set up your campaigns and automate them without much hustle.

CONS: The glitches are there with the SharpSpring automation tool. To start with, the landing page builder has issues. It was recently added and maybe that is why it has problems. Although there is not much to dislike about this product, it has issues with the mobile version. It is not intuitive, which means that you will experience bugs when you want to run the software in your mobile device. It does not function as it should be and also the recording of leads is constantly failing. The good thing is that the technical team, of SharpSpring, is aware of this and is working to ensure the problem is fixed.