Scouring the internet for a SharpSpring review? You’ve found it. In this blog we review SharpSpring in depth. We cover what SharpSpring is, who uses it, product features offered, available alternatives on the market, as well as pros and cons of this sales and marketing platform. After reading this, you should have a better understanding of SharpSpring, and this review will hopefully help you decide whether SharpSpring is the right choice for your business.
SharpSpring is a powerful, yet affordable marketing automation system capable of delivering actionable information to small and medium sized businesses. The platform is a suite of tools that offers a myriad of solutions for businesses seeking to market their products and services online effectively for potential customers.
It is designed to enable businesses the autonomy to brand and engage customers how they best see fit. SharpSpring helps businesses drive more leads and convert them to sales by optimizing their marketing strategy through features like behavior-based emailing, reporting and analytics, CRM and sales automation, blog building and social media management.
The SharpSpring system works well with third party applications and integrates smoothly with existing systems. It also offers a wide array of features to satisfy all of users’ online functionalities. The system is flexible and can be used across different roles by different people allowing for maximum marketing ROI.
SharpSpring focuses its efforts on being relatively inexpensive compared to its competitors. This factor coupled with ease of use and simplicity makes it an ideal choice for smaller businesses.
Who Uses SharpSpring The Most
SharpSpring is popular among agencies and small medium businesses in the marketing and advertisement industries who are seeking to inexpensively increase their marketing ROI. Read more on companies who uses SharpSpring the most.
How SharpSpring Works Exactly
SharpSpring utilizes a clean and simple user interface geared to deliver a seamless user experience. The conglomeration of automated tools makes it possible to engage potential customers throughout their entire lifecycle. From lead generation to closing a sale, SharpSpring has what is needed to make it possible. Everything you need to grow a business is available in one place with a dedicated support staff.
As SharpSpring is a total marketing automation tool that integrates well with existing systems, it solves the need to worry about confusion from using too many programs.
Often times businesses struggle with the management of their customers’ marketing automation. SharpSpring gives businesses the ability to gain control over customers’ marketing automation. This is possible because the platforms allow businesses total control over branding and pricing as well as their clients’ marketing automation.
Although SharpSpring is great for small business owners in key target areas, larger size businesses may not enjoy the same perks the platform has to offer. Enterprise marketers may be better suited by bigger products on the market to accommodate for their sizeable needs.
Top SharpSpring Features
SharpSpring offer as a suite of tools to help with marketing automation. Within the suite of tools includes a plethora of features designed to aid businesses with the complete marketing cycle. The software offers numerous solutions to businesses seeking to market their products and services via the internet including behavior-based emailing, campaign tracking, blog building, social media management, dynamic form building, reporting and analytics, anonymous visitor identification, smart emails, call tracking, multiple device tracking, and perhaps the two most important, (CRM) customer relationship management automation and dynamic landing pages.
SharpSpring CRM And Sales Automation
SharpSpring CRM and sales automation is extremely necessary for most businesses because it improves business relationships overall. CRMs help businesses with sales management, contact management, and productivity which is essential to any marketing group.
An alternative to a CRM would be to use administrators for connecting all of your clients. This can be very tasking and inefficient. Often times customer requests and complaints can go remised and unaccounted for which is bad for business. Not to mention a CRM system can and will save you a lot of money by cutting down on manual labor cost in comparison to active administrative work.
The SharpSpring CRM system also gives you a clear overview of your customers. It allows businesses to see everything in one place. The intuitive dashboard shows your customers’ history with you. How many orders your customers have placed, any existing or outstanding customer issues, order status, and more. The SharpSpring CRM system allows you to manage multiple inquires across different platforms without losing track which makes for a more streamlined business experience.
SharpSpring Custom Dynamic Landing Page And Sales Funnels
SharpSpring allows you to create dynamic landing pages and sales funnels make it possible to convert visitors into leads effortlessly. The system uses visitor attributes to drive conversation which leads to potential clientele from visitors. Landing pages increase the chance of wanders online to find interest in whatever products or services a business might have to offer.
Not only are the dynamic landing pages great for generating leads, they can also be a great way for businesses to collect information from prospects. The idea is having visitors contribute their information in return for access or some kind of offer you give. Often times, contact information and demographics give you insight to who your visitors are and where you can reach them. This is important because the SharpSpring customer journey can be tracked from landing pages and data they submitted.
Future customers’ data can also be tracked which can help you understand how engaged they are and how well your marketing offers are performing. Because data on these dynamic landing pages can be tracked, it allows your business to test and optimize the landing pages themselves. You can easily determine what is drawing in prospects and driving them to convert versus what is not. Tweaking the page’s colors, images, fields, and headlines can help optimize your results.
SharpSpring Reporting And Marketing Analytics
SharpSpring provides users with extensive customized marketing analytics and metrics to help them make the best marketing decisions possible. Metrics included in the dashboard can also show businesses the return on investment in their marketing efforts and where or when to pivot if necessary. The vivid graphs and bold visualization make it easy for you to spot trends and outliers with one swift glance.
The reporting and analytics feature on the platform is very important especially for agencies that want to track, procure, and maximize their marketing budget. It also gives greater insight into new users, sessions, and average time on page. These metrics can better help you understand your website’s performance.
By understanding what your prospects like, who they are, and where they are, you can build a treasure of behavioral information that can be used to identify the trends that link them to your current leads.
SharpSpring Integrations
One benefit of SharpSpring is that because it is a total marketing automation tool that integrates well with existing systems, it solves the need to worry about confusion from using too many programs. Click here to find out the applications that SharpSpring capable to integrates with.
SharpSpring capable to integrates with almost any existing CRM system such as Salesforce, Zoho, Pipedrive and most other major marketing CRM platforms. This is because SharpSpring comes with an open API that allows it to easily integrate with most platforms, so that you can seamlessly manage everything from the SharpSpring database.
SharpSpring Pricing Plan
How Much Does SharpSpring Cost?
SharpSpring is priced on a month-to-month billing basis and there are 5 pricing plans to choose from. The software offers a flexible cost-based payment that does not require a contract and allows users to cancel their subscription whenever if necessary. Here are the SharpSpring pricing details :
- 1,500 Contact Plan -$550/month
- 10,000 Contact Plan – $850/month
- 20,000 Contact Plan – $1250/month
- Agency Plan - Highly Recommended for Agencies more than 2000 Agencies chosen this plan.
- Enterprise Plan - For business that has more than 20,000 contacts.
What Are The Pros Of SharpSpring
Ability To Track Entire Lifecyle Of A Lead
Since SharpSpring is a culmination of tools, it easily allows users to track leads throughout their entire lifecycle as a potential customer. Leads can be tracked as early as the on start all the way to the end when you close a sale with the customer. The automation piece included within the system makes it very convenient for businesses to follow up and track the behavior of their prospects. The convenience lies in the ability to do everything with one system, keeping all your work organized and cohesive.
Excellent Customers Support
With free unlimited support and optimal service hours, SharpSpring’s support staff is among the best in it’s field. Customer service is very friendly, polite, and courteous. Any questions or concerns you have will not go unanswered or unresolved.
Greater Business Autonomy
SharpSpring does not interfere with your clients. Businesses have the autonomy to charge and brand clients how they please. You can provide more services to clients with the marketing automation features.
What Are The Cons Of SharpSpring
- SharpSpring often likes to release new features. This is only seen as a negative because they need to focus on continually improving their existing features. Constantly adding new features can become a lot for customers to learn and adapt.
- There is a 30 day notice to get your subscription canceled even if you’re not able to use any of the features. This is due to the website’s new billing update
- The platform is not designed for bigger businesses who want to focus on larger target groups.
What Are The SharpSpring Alternatives
Incase SharpSpring does not seem right for you, there are other alternatives to accommodate your marketing needs. Continue reading and we will cover the Top 3 alternatives for SharpSpring.
Alternatives #1 - ActiveTrail
ActiveTrail is an email automation platform that is fully loaded with emailing and SMS. Similar to SharpSpring, but less interactive, ActiveTrail allows access of control across multiple platforms. The SMS and email features on this system is very accurate ensuring the correct recipient is contacted. The system provides real time data and analytics that help businesses gain more insight on how effective their campaigns are going.
The system also utilizes APIs and webhooks allowing it to integrate with other systems. This gives users master control over different applications from one control center. Some of the best features of ActiveTrail include net promoter score tracking, online behavioral triggers, and automated surveys. ActiveTrail does not allow customers to store customer data on the system nor does it track prospective customers’ as holistically as SharpSpring.
Alternative #2 - Marketo
Marketo is a great mid-range option for anyone looking for a marketing automation tool that services over a hundred-person organization at a fraction of the cost. Marketo is popular among some reputable companies like Intel and Charles Schwab. The system can be slow and glitchy at times however makes up for it with an easy setup and an intuitive user interface. The system starts at $895 for their base product and jumps all the way to $3,195 for their advanced package. Read more on Marketo competitors pricing and review.
Marketo is known for its ease of use and intuitiveness, great salesforce integration, and good customer support with a dedicated community. There is opportunity for growth when it comes to generating faster reports and analytics.
Alternatives #3 - Iterable
Iterable is a robust marketing automation tool that offers a coherent user interface. The system’s seamless interface allows users to easily generate personalized messages. Iterable offers the ability to select email and mobile push notifications based on the actions of a visitor on a business site or app.
Some of the most notable features on Iterable include the ability to build complicated workflows, implementing cost effective multi-tier campaigns, creating unlimited segments, and generating flexible 360-degree profiles. Iterable is a good market automation option for anyone looking to build sophisticated workflows without using codes or is interested in using triggered campaigns for targeted blasts to customers.
SharpSpring is a better option for those seeking a highly customizable automation tool that allow custom fields and filters, as well as getting information on where each lead comes from and the real cost per lead.
Final SharpSpring Review Verdict
I hope you enjoy reading this review and got the answers that you are looking for. If you were wondering is SharpSpring worth it? The answer is YES. SharSpring is a powerful CRM, sales and marketing platform that is highly customizable and allows an intricate process that guides businesses in tracking leads throughout the entire lifecycle of their leads. It’s a great option for agencies that are looking for an autonomous marketing automation system without shelling out a lot of money. SharpSpring is highly cost effective often costing a third less expensive than its competitors.
Click on the button below to get yourself a FREE SharpSpring demo and test it for yourself. I hope you enjoyed this SharpSpring Review and I hope it explained What is SharpSpring! If you have any questions about the platform or my review, then make sure you leave a comment below. I am more than happy to answer any questions you may have.
Calvin Lim is a professional blogger and founder of TheCalvinLim.
He enjoys helping others learn about various internet marketing tools and dedicated to helping people achieve success online.
