Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

Pros

SharpSpring is user-friendly, so I can easily use its features without needing a lot of technical knowledge. I can customize the platform to fit my specific marketing needs, making it easier to reach my goals. The analytics tools provide valuable data and insights into my marketing campaigns, helping me track performance and monitor leads.

Cons

There are a limited number of email templates available, and they may not look as visually appealing. Apart from that, I don't have any other concerns or complaints about the platform.

Pros

Lead Gen & CRM has inclusive information concerning all the relations of customers

Cons

Lead Gen & CRM is the valuable and consistent app

Pros

I loved SharpSpring until Constant Contact slaughtered it and their support fell off a cliff.

Cons

Very confusing. Terrible email builder. Broken platform elements with no desire to fix...but they're happy charging you full price.

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

Reasons for Switching to Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

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

Reasons for Choosing Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

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

Reasons for Choosing Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

Pros

Lead Gen makes the sales tracking process efficient, and there are numerous digital marketing solutions.

Cons

Lead Gen has created valuable marketing solution with suitable communications.

Pros

Feature rich CRM, just what you need for a small business especially. Customization/white label is a nice feature to have, gives our business a pro look. The price for this software is very good counting the features you have.

Cons

Can't say anything against Lead Gen & CRM that I didn`t like.

Alternatives Considered

Switched From

Pros

The automation features save me tons of time and help me stay organized.

Cons

The interface can be a bit overwhelming at first and takes time to get used to.

Pros

It is an easy-to-use platform that allows me to access and use its numerous features without requiring extensive technical knowledge. I like that the platform is adaptable, I can simply tailor the platform to my specific marketing requirements, allowing me to streamline my marketing efforts and get greater outcomes. also, The reporting and analytics tools are robust and extensive, providing me with loads of data and insights into my marketing campaigns. I value the platform's extensive analytics, which allow me to track performance and monitor lead activity.

Cons

While the email templates are limited in number and may not be as visually appealing, I don't have any other concerns or complaints about the platform.

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

Reasons for Switching to Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

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

Reasons for Switching to Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

Pros

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!

Cons

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.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

Pros

I love the way the tracking is displayed on a timeline so you can see everywhere a prospect went. The built-in CRM and sales funnel pics up where the marketing funnel leaves off and keeps the automation going during and after the sale to upset and resell. The new retargeting and (soon to be) advertising feature is amazing, not only retargeting your visitors but it finds similar customers to target. Overrall, it's really intuitive and easy to use, and I've used many marketing automation platforms over the years. This is the least expensive. No long-term contracts to sign but still has all the features of the much more expensive ones. And the LiveChat feature you can put on your Web site that was just added (at no additional cost) brings a huge feature that other companies charge more than the entire cost of the SharpSpring subscription.

Cons

No complaints at all. The learning curve wasn't very steep and the price is right. They even have evening support hours.

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

Reasons for Switching to Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

Pros

The system is easy to use and the customer service is stellar. Whenever I have a question I have someone there to help. I can live chat, or schedule a 1:1. This is very important.

Cons

There are a few missing features but they listen, take note and work to add in new features.

Pros

When i used constant contact it was really good. It has everything you need!!

Cons

NO cons really. For me it had everything

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Pros

the price and support speak a lot about the company. The fact that its packed full of features that are easy to use makes it a great product for good value...

Cons

Lack of country support and advocacy. Discussion around data and data sources seem to be a hurdle.

Pros

My favorite part about SharpSpring is knowing that if I am struggling with something, there is always a support agent a phone call, or chat away. I have continued to receive amazing help in a timely manner which truly matters for our brand and our growth.

Cons

My least favorite part of this platform is that there is a vast amount of room for growth in areas that appear to be simple from a non-technical user standpoint. An example is that the date format on forms is set in a YYYY/MM/DD and this cannot be changed. Though, in the United States, a common format would be MM/DD/YYYY. This has led to frustration for our clients and website users.

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

The email tracking, website traffic tracking, lead management, and automated workflows are stellar.

Cons

There's a considerable lack of Account based reporting/automation. Most features are geared towards Contacts and Opportunities.

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

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

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

Reasons for Switching to Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)

Cons

After being an agency partner for 2+ years, our company has yet to make a dime off of this investment.

First of all, the training they "supply" is almost non-existent. When we first became a partner, we had a couple of calls but then, nothing. There were many "learning pains" that we endured with SharpSpring even so much so as, demos I do with clients being times that "sharpspring is down."

It is very difficult to sell a product that does not work when you are trying to show clients the power of the system.

We also had a MAJOR real estate brokerage use the site for recruiting and, when messages were not being sent as they were scheduled to send, the client left our company and the SS product.

The platform is over priced and does not provide the support you would expect from a company as such.

SharpSpring has cost us as a business for our choice to invest in them. Had we gone with a platform that actually worked when it was needed and had the kind of training for us that they should have, we would be way ahead of the game. Instead, we are starting fresh with a new company that will hopefully fulfill their part in our agreement.

I would never recommend this product to anyone that is looking for an automation system.