SharpSpring from Constant Contact Reviews

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Alternatives Considered

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Reasons for Choosing SharpSpring from Constant Contact

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!

Switched From

Keap

Reasons for Switching to SharpSpring from Constant Contact

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.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Alternatives Considered

ActiveCampaign, BenchmarkONE and Keap

Reasons for Choosing SharpSpring from Constant Contact

Price was the primary reason.

Switched From

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Reasons for Switching to SharpSpring from Constant Contact

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

Pros

The integration of the software with our internal systems took less than an hour. The comprehensive training was great - we were able to dive right in and now run all our emails and social media through SharpSpring. We are just starting to evaluate the journey of our contacts and their scores - to better target them.

Cons

The analytics could be better - it would be nice to be able to review metrics on a monthly. weekly, daily basis. Right now all metrics appear as a lump in 1 selected time frame.

Alternatives Considered

Pardot

Reasons for Switching to SharpSpring from Constant Contact

Ease of use, strength of features, price

Pros

Seemed like a great and more affordable option compared to HubSpot. Not much else to say here since we had a boat load of issues with it.

Cons

Everything was cumbersome. From onboarding to implementation. Even getting someone on the phone from the right department to help us when we had issues with email was a problem. Overall, really clunky and outdated. We ended up going to Hubspot and it's SO much better and not even that much more expensive especially when we think of all of the time we all wasted trying to get sharpspring to work.

Alternatives Considered

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Switched From

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Reasons for Switching to SharpSpring from Constant Contact

price.

Pros

Everything! It does everything we could ever as a CRM to do. I love how everything is customizable to what fits my company's needs.

Cons

I would make some changes to the reporting tools and creation of emails.

Alternatives Considered

Salesforce Platform

Reasons for Choosing SharpSpring from Constant Contact

Keap sucked and SharpSpring could do everything any business would need in the digital business world.

Switched From

Keap

Reasons for Switching to SharpSpring from Constant Contact

SharpSpring gave us everything we needed and more at a great price

Pros

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!

Cons

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

Alternatives Considered

Zoho CRM, Salesforce Sales Cloud and HubSpot CRM

Reasons for Choosing SharpSpring from Constant Contact

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

Switched From

Pipedrive

Pros

What I mostly appreciated about using sharpspring was the diverse range of features within the platform, since they identify and capture prospect information much easier; wich is very valuable in terms of sales optimization.

Cons

Sharpspring has a very accelerated rate for putting out new features, to keep up and compete with other platforms, wich is a pro; however, the new features often need updates. Video Calling, for instance, was great by the time the pandemic began; however, it might not be as established as other video conference competitors.

Pros

SharpSpring is best for clients who want to generate lots of leads and convert them to clients. If you look for a complete solution for marketing automation, social media, emailmarketing, Google Ads and a CRM, this is the go to solution. If you are only looking for emailmarketing without the rest then this is not the best fit.

Cons

Social media monitoring could be beter. No other cons.

Alternatives Considered

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Reasons for Switching to SharpSpring from Constant Contact

ROI, price is very good for what you are getting

Pros

SharpSpring lets us manage a wide variety of marketing and client management activities in one easy-to-use platform. Everything from marketing automation, to transparent sales pipelines, to persona-focused automated (and adjustable) messaging tools, we can save hundreds of hours on marketing tasks, while regularly engaging our clients' prospects and increasing overall sales.

Cons

SharpSpring could work on improving their help files significantly. While their live support staff are excellent, I feel like for most questions, I have to contact them, rather than simply look up a well-written help article to get many answers.

Alternatives Considered

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Reasons for Switching to SharpSpring from Constant Contact

The agency focus was the major thing. Instead of having our team log out and log into dozens of different client accounts, we can manage the major details from our master account, and then quickly switch into a client account and interact with their particular needs.

Pros

The deliverability of the eblasts is head and shoulders better than any other, including parent company Constant Contact. The service staff is bar none, the best I have worked with.

Cons

Better tracking of what is clicked, by whom and when. This is one feature of Constant Contact that I would like to see within SharpSpring.

Pros

Looking all around the market, you will find sharpspring, with a slightly different business model that can make some eye turn but after you understand you will love it.

The fact that you can buy directly from agencies that know the product and already know your objectives and product, is brilliant since no one will understand more your client than their selves and you that is emerging on his market, some platform forces you to buy their onboarding package that in the end, you don't leave with much.

A platform with that many features on the begging can be a little overwhelming, but with time, you understand the reason for each feature.

I use them for lead management, campaign, sales pipeline, and don't feel that i am using their potential 100% already

Cons

the learning curve needed for the platform, all platform have their learning curve, but once you pass it, this service is awesome!

Alternatives Considered

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Reasons for Choosing SharpSpring from Constant Contact

Mid-tier price with top-tiers features.

Switched From

ActiveCampaign and RD Station

Reasons for Switching to SharpSpring from Constant Contact

Mid-tier price with top-tiers features.

Pros

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.

Cons

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

Alternatives Considered

HubSpot Marketing Hub, Constant Contact, Pardot, Zoho Mail, Mailchimp and Marketo Engage

Reasons for Choosing SharpSpring from Constant Contact

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

Switched From

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Reasons for Switching to SharpSpring from Constant Contact

See comments above

Pros

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

Cons

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.

Alternatives Considered

ActiveCampaign, Pardot and Marketo Engage

Reasons for Choosing SharpSpring from Constant Contact

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

Switched From

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Reasons for Switching to SharpSpring from Constant Contact

SHarpSpring was the only solution to offer a white label alternative

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Alternatives Considered

Pardot and Marketo Engage

Reasons for Choosing SharpSpring from Constant Contact

We switched mainly because of price.

Switched From

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Reasons for Switching to SharpSpring from Constant Contact

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.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Alternatives Considered

Insightly, NetSuite, Zoho Mail, GreenRope and Marketo Engage

Reasons for Choosing SharpSpring from Constant Contact

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

Switched From

Pardot

Reasons for Switching to SharpSpring from Constant Contact

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.

Pros

The biggest plus is its affordability - all the features you need at a price that is accessible. It has all the core functions one needs in a marketing automation platform, with a powerful sales pipeline and lead management component that provides an exceptional, integrated experience. Added bonuses are chatbox and book-time features included in the price, and the ability to sync Outlook emails to a contact's record. Lead scoring

Cons

The email editor can be a bit clunky and formatting copy and layouts can be finicky. The email previewer can be cumbersome. Visual workflows can be arduous to make

Alternatives Considered

HubSpot Marketing Hub, Pardot and Marketo Engage

Reasons for Choosing SharpSpring from Constant Contact

I left one company where I used Marketo (as a Certified Marketo Expert) and advocated for a cheaper solution at the company where I now work. It's been an excellent choice and the platform has not disappointed.

Switched From

HubSpot Marketing Hub, Pardot and Marketo Engage

Reasons for Switching to SharpSpring from Constant Contact

Purely for the cost. It's so much more affordable and it makes it accessible to a lot more companies without a huge financial commitment. The tool's functionality, the onboarding, and the customer support has been second-to-none.

Pros

When choosing a marketing automation platform for my agency, I knew I wanted something robust and customizable. I'm very hands on, and I don't like being constrained by the limitations of drag-and-drop editors or controlled interfaces. I want to be able to tailor my tools exactly to each client I work with, without compromising on functionality or efficiency. That's why SharpSpring has been a perfect fit for me! Not only is it affordable for a small agency like mine, who works with small businesses, but it's extremely powerful, and capable of executing any strategy my team or my clients require. The most complete and functional marketing automation platform out there!

Cons

Because of the large range of features, it can be a little intimidating to learn for some. But the onboarding team does a great job of walking you through implementation and getting you set up for success! Our agency focuses a lot on providing social media and content marketing services to our clients, and the SharpSpring content calendar is definitely not as robust or streamlined as some other platforms I've used. However, it's definitely not the focus of the platform, and there are workarounds for most of the issues I've run into with it. The SharpSpring team is also super responsive to feedback, and are constantly improving their product. I've already seen some great changes in the time I've been using the platform, and I'm confident the content calendar and scheduling tools will only continue to improve!

Alternatives Considered

Zoho Social, HubSpot Marketing Hub and Zoho CRM

Reasons for Switching to SharpSpring from Constant Contact

It was the most affordable option for my agency. It was also the only one which allowed me to effectively implement it for all my clients as well, without exorbitant costs to me!

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Alternatives Considered

Sprout Social, HubSpot Marketing Hub and Mailchimp

Reasons for Switching to SharpSpring from Constant Contact

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.

Pros

The biggest benefit of SharpSpring is having visibility into the leads we generate. In the past we could see impressions and clicks and website visits from our campaigns. Now we are seeing the actual leads and being able to follow activity after the initial contact. The added visibility has been an absolute game changer in the value we can provide our clients.

I really like the Life of the Lead feature where once you have a lead in the system you can track all their activity in great detail, seeing when they came back to the website, what pages they went to, if they opened emails, etc.

We've even had instances where clients claimed they were not getting leads from our campaigns and once SharpSpring was installed, not only could we now provide reports of leads we were generating, but we caught a hole in their customer service where leads we were providing were not getting responses from scheduling staff. So we not only provided reports of the leads we generated, but helped close a gap in a serious customer service issue that was happening.

Cons

It takes quite a bit of effort to get up to speed on SharpSpring as there are a lot of moving parts. But their support is great and always gets back to us quickly and efficiently to keep us on track.

Pros

I love using this software on a daily basis and using it to manage my leads. As a salesperson, it is challenging to find a CRM that actually works for you, not where you have to work for it. I like the ease of use with the kanban boards as well as the marketing automation for drip campaigns.

Cons

The mobile app is inoperable and not relevant. Sometimes the search feature is challenging to use- sometimes you need to use the companies name, sometimes you have to use the contacts name. When working in the drip campaigns you have to be really specific about which dates you select.

Alternatives Considered

Salesforce Sales Cloud and HubSpot CRM

Reasons for Choosing SharpSpring from Constant Contact

The ease of use for marketing automation and ability to synchronize emails for communication transparency.

Switched From

Zoho CRM

Reasons for Switching to SharpSpring from Constant Contact

Pricing, ease of use, and presentation from the SharpSpring staff. Hubspot made us feel like we were taking up their time and not valued. Salesforce was too much for what we needed. SharpSpring made us feel valued and explained their product well by asking us questions first and tailoring their presentation around our needs, not just sending us through a powerpoint.

Pros

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

Cons

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.

Alternatives Considered

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Reasons for Choosing SharpSpring from Constant Contact

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.

Switched From

Zoho CRM

Reasons for Switching to SharpSpring from Constant Contact

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.

Pros

SharpSpring has a comprehensive range of tools to help you get the most from Marketing Automation. It integrates with your website easily and can track visitors to your site from all your differing campaigns. The tools are easy to use, once you have been through the training and can be manipulated to work together to suit your business. Delivering insights and analytics to help you tweak your marketing and increase your ROI.

Cons

The software is comprehensive, so there is a learning curve. You can get started easily with it, but you have to continue to learn to get the real powerful insights from it. Setting up takes quite a lot of tweaking to get the results you need, but it is simple and powerful to use and delivers results right from the get go.

Alternatives Considered

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Reasons for Switching to SharpSpring from Constant Contact

We found SharpSpring to be of better value overall and fitted our business needs.

Pros

First, fantastic price. Personalization can drive amazing results. SharpSpring gives you a solid set of tools that all communicate with each other flawlessly and for an exceptional value. It's a sophisticated tool with a lot of depth, but the certifications, demos, videos, tools, customer service all make it very easy to use. Just when I think I've figured out the edge of the depth on the tool, I realize there's another level. The automation is top notch. The ability to track so many actions, behaviors and then to take action to help the customer go further along the funnel. It fulfills the needs of so many other tools - HootSuite, Sprout, Calendly, Mailchimp, CRM, Sales CRM, TypeForm, and WhoIsVisiting (to name a few).

Cons

Not a lot so far. I'll always take more templates, pre-made content. Don't get me wrong, it has content, but the more the merrier.Billing can be a little confusing, but I know they have an update coming very soon. In fact, I just received an update email about it. I'd love to see more progress on the SharpSpring iOS app.

Alternatives Considered

HubSpot Marketing Hub, Pardot, Mailchimp and Marketo Engage

Reasons for Switching to SharpSpring from Constant Contact

I've worked with HubSpot, Adobe, Marketo, Pardot and a myriad of other digital marketing tools. I've used tools that cost 1-2 million a year, spent months on integrations. I've honestly never found a tool that is so capable, so easy to implement, and does not require 6 figures of budget to fund it as I have in SharpSpring. I think SharpSpring is a no-brainer tool for any small to medium sized organization. It may even cut it for larger organizations. While I'm very impressed, I see the company continuing to strive towards an even higher level of greatness.

Pros

Looking to get the best out of my email marketing, Sharpspring gives me the chance to reach out to my whole list with a modicum of effort. The best part is the automation--triggers and the ability to build out a complex program make a big difference in efficacy and efficiency.

Cons

The email builder inside of the program--WYSIWYG. You can do this, but it's frustrating to make the thing look like you want it to.

Alternatives Considered

VBOUT

Reasons for Choosing SharpSpring from Constant Contact

Mailchimp felt very limited in scope. Delivery with mailchimp was restricted, it seemed like I never could end up in the gmail inbox tab, always relegated to the offers tab.

Switched From

Mailchimp

Reasons for Switching to SharpSpring from Constant Contact

Features.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Alternatives Considered

Pardot, Keap and Marketo Engage

Reasons for Choosing SharpSpring from Constant Contact

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

Switched From

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Reasons for Switching to SharpSpring from Constant Contact

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