Sales and Marketing Software

3.8
8 reviews
Made for

Small businesses and setting up and managing e-commerce stores and activities

Not for

Strong lead nurturing, social analytics or SEO capabilities

 
None
 
$199 - $599/mo.
Pricing details

Features

Content creation

Create content using templates

  • Landing pages
  • Web forms

Promotion & distribution

  • Email Marketing
  • Social Media Marketing

Support

  • Phone support
  • Chat support
  • User Guides
  • Videos and webinars

Integration

  • CRM Integration
    • contact management
  • Social Media Integration

Analytics and Tracking

  • Email analytics
    • Number of emails delivered, skipped, and opened
    • Number of leads from email
  • Web analytics
    • Average time on page per visitor 
    • Visitor browsing trends
    • Number of contacts who have visited each page

Pricing

Basic info

 
None
 
$199 - $599/mo.
 
Monthly subscription
Annual subscription
  • Essentials Plan - $199 /month
  • Deluxe Plan - $299 /month
  • Complete Plan - $379 /month
  • Team Plan - $599 /month
Vendor Pricing

Reviews

3.8
8 reviews
Sort by
 
Client Interview
Jul 27 2016

CRM Utilization for Content Marketing Agency

3.0

Features: 
3.0
Ease of use: 
2.0
Support: 
4.0
Willing to refer: 
3.0
See More
the reviewer
 
Marketing and Advertising
 
11-50 employees
 
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Content Marketing Account Manager at Content Marketing Agency
1
 
Verified
The Review
Recommendations

A content marketing company uses Infusionsoft to create nurture campaigns for their clients. They like that they are able to do lead tracking. They recommend going through the training before using the product and being very direct with the questions you have before using it.

Background

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a content marketing managed services firm. We take our clients’ strategies and tactically execute them on a day-to-day basis so they don’t need to do it. I am an account manager and also the Marketing Lead.

What was the business challenge your clients were facing that initiated the need for this platform?

One of our clients wanted to create a nurture campaign for their target audience. They’re an all-male boarding school. We recommended Infusionsoft as a cost-effective way to store contacts, to have a little bit of CRM [customer relationship management], and also do the nurture campaign. They were looking for a more cost-effective way to do that and we thought Infusionsoft would be the best platform for the task. That’s why we recommended Infusionsoft.

Solution

How does your company implement this platform or software?

It is currently me and a colleague using the platform. We’ve written all of the emails for the nurture campaign and put them all in ourselves. Right now, we have a couple of campaigns implemented. We use the lead generation and lead scoring capabilities to pass along qualified leads to the admissions team at the school.

We have tried to code some templates. We’re not exactly the happiest with Infusionsoft. Their landing pages weren’t what we wanted them to be, so we used their form code and put them directly onto the school’s website.

We also do newsletters with Infusionsoft which are a bit easier to use. We were able to create a template with the new drag and drop email builder. It was definitely easier than doing landing pages or even email templates. There wasn’t a lot of flexibility in what we could do there.

We get some metrics but haven’t dug into them too much. They are more for the school to look at, but their reporting is decent. We have figured out how to pull the reports that are most useful to us, like the web form tracking, figuring out who is submitting forms, whether they’re going through the campaign, and who is coming out as a lead. That’s been useful and is a little bit easier to understand.

We currently have 94 contacts on it. Our lists are segmented into three different segments. All of our campaigns are set up to specifically target those segments

Features

Were there any software features or tools that really impressed you?

The new drag and drop newsletter creation thing is definitely more user-friendly than the rest of Infusionsoft, and it looks a lot better than everything else they’re able to do in Infusionsoft. It gives the school a little bit more professional branding. It gives us a lot more flexibility to match the school’s current brand and what they’re trying to put forward.

Being able to do the lead tracking has been really helpful. Having them send an email that is based on where our leads are scoring has allowed the admissions representatives to reach out to the right people. It’s been very helpful to segment things down to be able to see exactly where your contacts are in the lead scoring when you’re looking at them. That’s been really great.

Looking back, are there any areas of the software upon which you feel could be added or improved?

The onboarding and learning processes with Infusionsoft were extremely frustrating. The people that we talked to there either didn’t have the capacity to understand the difference between what we needed and what they were typically used to working with. They didn’t seem to understand the company that we were working for - which was frustrating.

It was tough because we didn’t go through too much of the internal training. We’ve done a little bit of it, but it wasn’t as in depth as we needed, and their support wasn’t always the easiest to talk to. It would be nicer to have easier walk-throughs. If we didn’t have our Chief Executive Officer, who knows Infusionsoft in and out, then our campaigns wouldn’t be set up the way that they needed to be.

My recommendation for people who are considering using this platform would be to go through the training. I would advise people to study the training and be very direct to your support there about what you’re doing and what tools you need. Things aren’t labeled exactly how you would think that they would be labeled, so figuring out those correct labels and to find exactly what you’re looking for is really helpful to find from the beginning, as opposed to just clicking through and figuring it out.

Have you had to interact with the platform's support team or reference their support resources?

The online resources are easily accessible, but they’ve mostly told us that no, you can’t do what you want to do. They’re really helpful, but they don’t solve our problems. We were able to find that we can’t edit the landing pages that we want to edit very easily. It was great to know that before we really dug in and got super frustrated.

3.0
Overall Score
  • 3.0 Features
  • 2.0 Ease of Use
  • 4.0 Support
  • 3.0 Willing to Refer
 
Online Review
Jul 15 2016

Lead Management and Marketing Automation with Infusionsoft

5.0

Features: 
5.0
Ease of use: 
5.0
Support: 
5.0
Willing to refer: 
5.0
See More
the reviewer
 
More than $1000/mo. spend
 
Marketing and Advertising
 
11-50 Employees
 
Hagerstown, MD
President, Digital Marketing Company
1
 
Verified
The Review
Recommendations

This marketing agency uses Infusionsoft for lead management and marketing automation internally and for their clients. They like the campaign builders and reports, and commented that the recent update the broadcast email template generator has been a great improvement. They recommend it for small businesses. 

Background

Can you please provide a brief description of your company and your role there?

We are a full-service digital marketing company focused on the housing industry. I am president.

Challenge

What was the business challenge your company was facing that initiated the need for InfusionSoft?

We use it for lead management and marketing automation and we sell it to our clients who use it the same.

Solution

How does your company implement InfusionSoft?

We have an onboarding service called Easy LeadLocker (www.easyleadlocker.com) and do full package onboarding service for our builder clients.

Was your company considering other platforms? Why InfusionSoft?

Yes, but the Infusionsoft focus on small business and the modern, powerful interface won me over.

On an annual or monthly basis, how much does your company spend to utilize InfusionSoft?

Our cost for our package is roughly $2,400

Results

Can you share any success, metrics, or overall results of your implementation of InfusionSoft?

The software is very powerful, intuitive and it works. Compared to other options like SalesForce (just too much everything), Lasso (old), and others; the program really helps us manage leads and sales efforts.

Features

Were there any InfusionSoft features/tools that you were really impressed by?

I like the campaign builders, reports and most of it.

Looking back, are there any areas of the software that you feel could be added or improved upon?

The recent addition of a broadcast email template generator is great. That needed help.

Have you had to interact with InfusionSoft’s support team or reference their support resources? 

Yes, they are the best.

5.0
Overall Score
  • 5.0 Features
  • 5.0 Ease of Use
  • 5.0 Support
  • 5.0 Willing to Refer
 
Client Interview
Oct 01 2015

Agency Implementation of Infusionsoft

3.5

Features: 
2.0
Ease of use: 
3.5
Support: 
3.5
Willing to refer: 
3.0
See More
the reviewer
 
Confidential spend
 
Digital Marketing
 
2-10 Employees
 
Scottsdale, AZ
Founder of Digital Marketing Campaign
1
 
Verified
The Review
Recommendations

The client is a digital marketing company based in Scottsdale, Arizona. As a certified Infusionsoft partner, the client implements Infusionsoft on behalf of its customers. When asked what feature of Infusionsoft the client found most impressive, the client highlighted the campaign builder function as being particularly strong. While allowing that the customer relationship management tool and reporting functions were areas upon which could be improved. The client is satisfied with Infusionsoft as a tool for small businesses; however, he does feel that the platform is starting to lose ground, in terms on new features and functionality, to some of its competitors.

BACKGROUND

Can you provide a brief description of your company and the role that you play there?

I am the founder and owner of Conversion Marketing Experts. We are a sales and marketing advisory practice. We provide strategy, planning, creative, and other consulting services around digital marketing, sales enablement, analytics, and marketing automation. Our focus is on building and launching highly automated, typically B2B [business-to-business] marketing campaigns that are built for a targeted sales result. Most of our customers engage us for a very targeted, high ROI [return on investment] campaigns that involve some sort of integration with a sales team and a sales result inside of 90 days.

OPPORTUNITY/CHALLENGE

What is a typical business challenge facing your clients that encourages them to implement Infusionsoft? 

One time, I had a client who was launching an e-commerce site around consumer goods. It's a B2C [business-to-consumer] startup, and the basic challenge they're facing is how to generate sources of traffic, how do they get their business in front of the right prospective customers, and get them to do a transaction. There are many different ways you can do that, traditional advertising is one and targeted digital marketing campaign would be another. People obviously want to go the route that is going to give you them the best ROI. Some small businesses are so tight on cash that if they invest $3,000, $10,000, $100,000, or more in some instances, in Infusionsoft to get whatever result they're shooting for, and that fails, they risk going out of business. That's how small some of these companies are.

SOLUTION

Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?

I looked at many platforms, but I was a solo practitioner with an assistant and a part-time salesperson at the time. I was very lean and mean in terms of where I was at the beginning of the business. I looked at a number of other solutions, and the bottom line was, at the time, the price point, the function, the ease of use in learning it, and the intrigue of it being software as a service were the key factors for me.

What can customers expect to pay to implement Infusionsoft?

Infusionsoft is always directly selling their software to their customer base. Certified partners can sell the solution and get paid a commission for that; however, customers are always buying the software directly from Infusionsoft, unlike other marketing automation platforms. Infusionsoft pricing starts at $199 a month.

Of course, like all companies, email marketing, CRM [customer relationship management], the partner and affiliate management function – those are all standalone products with their own price point, which can start from free trails to $20,000, $30,000, and up, based on number of contacts and use. The highest price point for Infusionsoft, before you start negotiating for more of a larger than normal scale solution, would be about $600 a month.

RESULTS

Can you share with us an example of a successful Infusionsoft implementation?

One example is a small company doing a few million in revenue, owned by a family. Their focus was selling high-end culinary classes that taught regular people to become chefs. They had an existing, small, in-house sales team, and an online team for marketing. They had acquired Infusionsoft and were having issues implementing it. Most of the time, people are frustrated because they don't feel that they're getting everything they want out of Infusionsoft because it can do so much. We took control of all the campaign building and, during the course of 18 months, conversions and contact lists grew 200 percent during that period.

Many potential leads had been escaping the website, even though the firm had a good-size contact list because they'd been around for a long time. The other issue was tracking opportunities for the sales team, and being able to forecast for staffing, ordering, and fulfillment – everything that was happening through the pipeline. We fixed that within the first 90 days. That's what happens when you get these systems in order, everyone becomes more productive but, in order to get these systems working, you have to have alignment of the team, a great strategy, and content that fits the campaigns so that you get results.

FEATURES

Were there any software features or tools that really impressed you?  

My favorite aspect is the Infusionsoft campaign builder, which is the game changer. Beyond the campaign builder, the CRM function is decent. It's highly functional. There are some limitations but, mainly, you get into that campaign builder, and it allows a team to be really focused on single campaigns. It's very goal-centric. You click through each of those building blocks and put in the assets, content assets, notes, tasks, or notifications that trigger through the automation process.

Looking back, are there any areas of the software upon which you feel could be added or improved?

Reporting would be a great opportunity for improvement. I think regarding the overall ease of use for Infusionsoft, like many software companies, they take heat for being a little hard to use. I think that's mostly a function of the software not necessarily being any harder to easier to use than its competitors or peers, it's more not managing expectations. Infusionsoft is sold in a way where people have an expectation that they can run it. The truth is, the average customer can't and won't run their own automation software appropriately.

Have you had to interact with the platform's support team or reference their support resources?

Support is wonderful. The online chat is phenomenal during normal business hours. Phone support is United States-based in Arizona. Like any support team, that first tier is in a tough position but, overall, support is excellent. They answer the phone quickly, they're responsive, they're friendly, and it's a great support experience.

OVERVIEW

We have a few quick questions and, for each question, we ask you to rate the software on a scale of one to five, with five being the best. What would you give the software for functionality of the features available?

Four.

What would you give the software for ease of use or ease of implementation into your business?

Two.

For support, as in responsiveness of the team or helpfulness of the resources available?

Three and a half. People who have the expectation that they're going to be able to do the implementation without a consultant will probably be upset with the support. But, that's not a support issue – that's just a basic ability to use the platform.

For overall satisfaction with the platform?

Three and a half.

How likely are you to recommend the software to a colleague or similar business?

Three.

3.5
Overall Score
  • 2.0 Features
  • 3.5 Ease of Use
  • 3.5 Support
  • 3.0 Willing to Refer
 
Client Interview
Sep 24 2015

Partner Agency Implementation of Infusionsoft

4.5

Features: 
5.0
Ease of use: 
4.0
Support: 
5.0
Willing to refer: 
5.0
See More
the reviewer
 
Digital Marketing
 
2-10 Employees
 
Oklahoma City, OK
Owner, W2iSolutions
1
 
Verified
The Review
Recommendations

The client is W2iSolutions, a digital marketing consultancy that specializes in building membership sites using Wordpress and Infusionsoft for small businesses. The majority of the client's customers are small businesses who have been using a suite of different marketing platforms for different tasks. They switch to Infusionsoft when they want to bring all of these capabilities under one platform. The client highly recommends Infusionsoft for small businesses that are looking for a solution that is specifically tailored for them. When asked to name a weakness of the software, the client mentioned Infusionsoft's reporting features, as an area that could be improved upon. Overall, however, the client highly recommends Infusionsoft to small businesses looking to unite their digital marketing efforts.

BACKGROUND

Can you please provide a brief description of your company and the role that you play there?

W2iSolutions is a small digital marketing consultancy. We work primarily with WordPress and Infusionsoft, and we specialize in providing membership sites for our customers.

CHALLENGE

What is a typical business challenge faced by your clients that causes them to seek out a marketing automation platform?

Most likely, our clients have been in business for a couple years, and they have just been piecing together things. Maybe they're using one shopping cart or another. They might be using an email program, like Constant Contact, or they're using Access or Excel to keep their contacts straight. So they've got all of these different systems, but none of them talk to each other, and it's a lot of manual work.

What Infusionsoft does is bring all those services under one platform, no matter where the users are. Before Infusionsoft, a lot of companies would have Access or ACT, and they would have to synchronize those in the evening, but during the daytime they wouldn't be synchronized. So if a salesman was talking to one client and made a sale, another salesman could overlap that without knowing. Whereas Infusionsoft is a Statistical Analaysis System [SAS] software and it updates instantaneously.

SOLUTION

Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?

At the time [in 2004] there weren't any other platforms that were doing the same thing in the price range that I was looking for. I have not searched for other platforms since then, because I've been happy with Infusionsoft.

On an annual or monthly basis, how much do your clients spend to utilize the platform?  

It varies a lot. Let's say a client is pretty tech-savvy, or even halfway tech-savvy; they can implement it themselves without having to spend extra money. Let's say a customer has a large pocketbook and doesn't have the time or the desire to learn any of it, they just want it done for them. You can actually go to Infusionsoft for three days, and for $10,000 come back and have everything done for you. So in the end, it varies a lot. You can spend nothing, or you can spend as much as you want depending on your needs.

FEATURES

Were there any software features/tools that you were really impressed by? 

The automation aspect is crucial for small businesses. They don’t have the manpower to answer every little request that comes through the website, or nurture all the leads they may be receiving. Infusionsoft allows them to do more with less. You can do a variety of different things with their automation, because it has control diamonds, or commands where you can say, 'If the client did this, do this. If they said this or they clicked on this, do something different.'

You're able to personalize the way you respond to your clients. Other marketing automation platforms do this of course, but typically they’re overly complicated or overly expensive. Infusionsoft gives you exactly what you need as a small business.

Looking back, are there any areas of the software that you feel could be added or improved upon?  

Their reporting isn't as good as it could be. It's a lot better than it was, but it still could be a little bit better.

Can you speak to the software's support resources?

They have telephone support, chat support, and video support. They also have a forum. I haven't had any problem with their support whatsoever. They're very responsive, and there are many ways that you can get a question answered. I have been with Infusionsoft since 2008. At the beginning, it was quite confusing, and things were not easy to find. Now they have done a lot of improvement, and they have short explanatory videos, two to three minutes long. So if you download something, you can look it up, and usually there's a video for that which explains exactly how to work with it. It will walk you through the process, so I find it very easy.

OVERVIEW

To sum up: We have a few quick questions, and for each question we ask you to rate the software on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the best.

What would you give the software for functionality of the features available?

Five.

What would you give the software for ease of use or ease of implementation into your business?

Four. Mostly becuase there are people who do have trouble implementing it by themselves.

For support, as in responsiveness of the team or helpfulness of the resources available?

Five.

Overall, satisfaction with the platform?

Four and a half.

How likely are you to recommend the software to a colleague or similar business?

Five, for sure. 

4.5
Overall Score
  • 5.0 Features
  • 4.0 Ease of Use
  • 5.0 Support
  • 5.0 Willing to Refer
 
Client Interview
Sep 24 2015

Graphly Implementation of Infusionsoft

5.0

Features: 
5.0
Ease of use: 
5.0
Support: 
5.0
Willing to refer: 
5.0
See More
the reviewer
 
$1,001 - $10,000/yr. spend
Principal at Reporting Platform
Jarrod Morris
1
 
Verified
The Review
Recommendations

The client is Graphly, an Infusionsoft partner who has created a tool that integrates with Infusionsoft and greatly increases the platform's reporting capabilities. The client chose to work with Infusionsoft rather than  some of the other large marketing automation platforms because he feels that Infusionsoft is the market leader when it comes to marketing automation for small businesses. When asked to highlight what feature of Infusionsoft has most impressed him, he identified the drag-and-drop Campaign Builder as being the best tool of its kind he has ever used, and highly useful for small businesses with limited marketing resources. The client has been very satisfied with Infusionsoft's support services and highly recommends the platform to small businesses that are looking for a simple yet powerful marketing automation platform.

BACKGROUND

Can you provide a brief description of your company?

We have been a certified partner of Infusionsoft for about six years, which means we sell and support their software. In addition to that, we've built a reporting platform called Graphly that ties into all of Infusionsoft's data to give people more robust analytics and understanding of how their business is performing.

OPPORTUNITY/CHALLENGE

What are the common challenges faced by businesses that require a marketing automation software?

We work with small businesses, and most small businesses are usually understaffed. What they're trying to do is to get more done with less human resources needed to get it done. The biggest driver is people looking for ways to automate processes and tasks that are usually somewhat manual, and hand that off to computers, so they can invest their human capital where it's best utilized.

SOLUTION

Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?

We've looked at HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, and ONTRAPORT and some of the big guys like Marketo and Pardot as well. One of the reasons we stuck with Infusionsoft is that it really does seem to be leading the market in the all-in-one solution for true small businesses. That's the audience we serve – not like small to medium, but true small businesses. I think between who they serve and who we serve, Infusionsoft's core values align well with who we are as an organization.

On an annual or monthly basis, how much does your company spend to utilize the platform?

Out of the gate with Infusionsoft, you've got a kick-start fee, which is about $1,500 and gives you four hours of consulting. You've obviously got their monthly fee, which you can see on their site, anywhere from $200 to $400 a month, but there are additional costs that definitely come into play.

Four hours will not be enough to get you through the learning curve, or be enough to get you to do it. Whether you pick consultants or coach to teach you or pay someone to do it for you, and there are both in the Infusionsoft community, you're probably going to end up spending another $2,000 to $3,000. At Graphly, we have a handful of other software add-ons and plug-ins to Infusionsoft, and there are many other providers in our space. I feel like most people ultimately end up adding anywhere from two to five applications to extend Infusionsoft's functionalities to meet their very specific needs, and each of these is an additional cost.

RESULTS

Can you share an example success story from one of your implementations of this Infusionsoft?

Years ago, we were working with a gentleman who had partnered with this golf pro, who had won all kinds of awards. Golf is a big information marketing niche, and they decided they wanted to enter that. They didn't have any experience in doing that, they didn't have much marketing experience, but they had an in-depth knowledge on all the things that make you a great golfer. They actually came to us, and we helped them literally start the business from scratch, built the site, and installed Infusionsoft, and then we had all these follow-up campaigns.

We used one Infusionsoft's products, Customer Hub, which is for membership sites. Within about 12 months, they had created a zero to seven figure business, using Infusionsoft as the backbone of everything,  from marketing to sales, e-commerce, the fulfillments on the membership side of things, and all of the post-transaction upsells. It was all driven by Infusionsoft.

FEATURES

Were there any software features or tools that really impressed you? 

One of the things that you'll find with Infusionsoft, which I have yet to see anywhere else, is what they call their drag-and-drop Campaign Builder. Essentially, if you've ever worked with any type of workflow software, where you're mapping out a process, you're dragging over boxes and circles and all different shapes, and mapping out what the flow of either a funnel or some type of internal process might be, it's more or less that, but with automation backing every single step.

Not only are you mapping out what that flow looks like, you're saying, when the person reaches this, I want this email to go out. I may want to send this post or send a text message. I think, by far, visually seeing either your marketing campaigns or your processes, and coupling that with automation that is not just visual, but it's also like this little engine that will take action for you, so that you can leverage that human capital and focus it elsewhere.

Looking back, are there any areas of the software upon which you feel could be added or improved?

Now you're asking questions where it's hard to be subjective. I think one of Infusionsoft's weaknesses is the reporting, which is where we saw a huge opportunity. They've got so much on their plate. We know the leadership team there. We know what their priorities are from a products standpoint, and everything that they have yet to develop and want to develop. We said, "Hey, we're going to come in, and we're going to meet that gap, that lack of reporting. We're going to provide that level of intelligence so people can make data-driven decisions in their business that they're trying to grow," which is why we initially built Graphly as an add-on.

Have you had to interact with the platform's support team or reference their support resources?

Infusionsoft actually has a phenomenal support team. I am a little biased on this one. Ten years ago, I actually worked at Infusionsoft, and I started in support. I moved my way around the organization, but because of that I just know, both from inside the walls and outside the walls, what a huge focus it is for them. Infusionsoft understands that customer service is critical. On any given day, I can call, I can email, create a ticket, I can live chat, and literally get same-day responses, and often almost immediate responses to get us over a hurdle or an obstacle, whatever that may be.

OVERVIEW

We have a few quick questions and, for each question, we ask you to rate the software on a scale of one to five, with five being the best. What would you give the software for functionality of the features available?

Five.

What would you give the software for ease of use or ease of implementation into your business?

Four.

For support, as in responsiveness of the team or helpfulness of the resources available?

Five – definitely.

For overall satisfaction with the platform?

Five.

How likely are you to recommend the software to a colleague or similar business?

Five. I do it all the time.

5.0
Overall Score
  • 5.0 Features
  • 5.0 Ease of Use
  • 5.0 Support
  • 5.0 Willing to Refer
 
Client Interview
Sep 03 2015

Web Design Firm's Implementation of InfusionSoft

2.5

Features: 
4.0
Ease of use: 
2.0
Support: 
3.5
Willing to refer: 
1.0
See More
the reviewer
 
$1,001 - $10,000/yr. spend
 
Information Technology and Services
 
1-10 Employees
 
Chicago, IL
Director of Strategy and Analytics, EDUCO Web Design
Marty Vernon
1
 
Verified
The Review
Recommendations

The client is EDUCO Web Design a boutique web design and development agency in the Chicago area. The client was in need of a tool that would help to manage the leads that were coming through to their website. This client found InfusionSoft difficult to use and implement into their business due to the heavily technical nature of the platform. The team at EDUCO Web Design found that it would take a dedicated person to managing the platform in order to optimize results. This user highlights InfusionSoft's automated messages but, for most users, does not recommend InfusionSoft as a marketing or lead capture software.

BACKGROUND

Can you please provide a brief description of your company?

We're EDUCO Web Design. Using Drupal, we build content manageable, mobile responsive, and measurable websites for clients.

What role do you play there?

I am the cofounder as well as, the director of strategy and analytics.

OPPORTUNITY/CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge your company was facing that incited the need for this platform?

It was more of a continuing education that brought us to the InfusionSoft platform. It was at a conference where we learned a lot more about the software. We ended up being sold on InfusionSoft when we heard the things it could do. It aligned with many of the interests that we had, mainly managing leads. We also found it attractive to have an email campaign management and CRM [customer relationship management] all in one offering. Previously, we were managing and monitoring leads offline in and Excel spreadsheet, it was inefficient, but most importantly accurate.

SOLUTION

How does your company implement this platform or software?

We used InfusionSoft for eight months. The thing that we realized is that our team is particular about analytics and data. In order to get the most out of InfusionSoft, you have to use it in a certain way, which caused our team to lose much of the data we were looking for. We did a lot of API [application programming interface] integrations rather than using their landing pages and analytics. We set it up in a way that was more complex from a developer's point of view but, in a way, that we could still own the lead and contact form data.

We set InfusionSoft up this way because had we wanted to leave the platform, which we ended up doing, and used it in a way that was optimal to InfusionSoft, we would have lost all of our data. We found that InfusionSoft automated some things nicely like our thank you messages after somebody contacted us. We weren't able to take it a step further and use their email marketing campaigns, so really all we were using InfusionSoft for was a CRM and an auto responder for our thank you messages. That was not the best setup to try to scale. Our need to own the data made it an unsustainable relationship. It required too much customization. That is the downside of leveraging platforms like HubSpot or InfusionSoft. 

Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?

We were considering HubSpot. We've decided rather than trying to invest in a business development resource to invest in our own digital asset and curate content that is valuable to users. We also wanted to curate an experience for managing the whole web design process, so we built our own project management tool and client support center for active projects and maintenance for ongoing clients. We built this in Drupal, and that's where we've been investing our time, moving away from the conversation of a CRM or any other marketing automation and lead generation software.

On an annual or monthly basis, how much does your company spend to utilize the platform?

We spent somewhere around $200 a month implementing InfusionSoft.

RESULTS

Can you share any success, metrics, or overall results of your implementation of this platform?

We weren't using the email marketing aspects of InfusionSoft, so we couldn't track how our campaigns were doing. The only metric that we were actually realizing was an increased response time between email submission inquiries and email to schedule to call. That was the only overall improvement. 

FEATURES

Were there any software features or tools that really impressed you?  

For small businesses, I think it can be a valuable tool. I think you really have to have somebody that is dedicated to diving into the platform and using it consistently. You have to come up with a strategy for it. You have to have somebody who can focus on reviewing the software. We only used 20 percent of the platform, but it was where we felt we got 80 percent of the value. If we had gotten everybody else involved, I think we could've gotten more value out of it but the valuable feature to me was just taking off the responsibility of working with new leads. 

Looking back, are there any areas of the software upon which you feel could be added or improved?

It's not InfusionSoft specific, but I think it's more software and SaaS [software-as-a-service] companies in general where I think there is a certain amount of hype that people put behind their products, and I'm sure they are enthused about them but, as a whole, the software industry could use a bit of tempered honesty. Their sales might go down a little bit, but their attrition rate would also be significantly less.

Specifically to InfusionSoft, they could use a better onboarding experience. If things aren't progressing they hand you off to somebody new, and that new person has slightly new recommendations on how you should set up your system or how your user path should be created. 

Have you had to interact with the platform's support team or reference their support resources?

InfusionSoft has a decent support team. We've interacted with them a couple times. They're always available from a calling perspective. I think their software requires more support than most. The problem is, if people knew the support and training required, people wouldn't pay for it. At EDUCO, we're pretty technical users. We underestimated how technical of a product InfusionSoft is and how much training was required.

OVERVIEW

We have a few quick questions and, for each question, we ask you to rate the software on a scale of one to five, with five being the best. What would you give the software for functionality of the features available?

Four.  

What would you give the software for ease of use or ease of implementation into your business?

Two. I think we could've gotten more out of it if we weren't such data purists.

For support, as in responsiveness of the team or helpfulness of the resources available?

Three and a half. Their support is good because it exists, but after you go through the initial setup process, there's not a whole lot of guidance they provide you with.

For overall satisfaction with the platform?

Two and a half. I think they undersell the difficulty or challenge of setting up the software. 

How likely are you to recommend the software to a colleague or similar business?

One. I just am less likely to recommend any marketing automation software after my experience with InfusionSoft. I'm not a huge fan of HubSpot and these other platforms. I think they can be valuable, but only in the right hands.

2.5
Overall Score
  • 4.0 Features
  • 2.0 Ease of Use
  • 3.5 Support
  • 1.0 Willing to Refer
 
Client Interview
Aug 14 2015

Email Marketing and CRM Implementation of Infusionsoft

2.0

Features: 
4.0
Ease of use: 
2.0
Support: 
4.0
Willing to refer: 
2.0
See More
the reviewer
 
$250 - $1,000/yr. spend
 
Marketing and Advertising
 
1-10 Employees
 
Chicago, IL
Principal, Anchor Advisors
Brad Farris
1
 
Verified
The Review
Recommendations

The client is Anchor Advisors, a digital marketing consulting firm located in the Greater Chicago area. Anchor Advisors has helped their clients to implement Infusionsoft as an email marketing and customer relationship management tool. This client highlights Infusionsoft as a tool with a wide array of capabilities. However, this client also points out that although there isn't much that Infusionsoft can't do in terms of marketing automation, the difficulty of use makes it a hard tool to learn and implement.

BACKGROUND

Can you please provide a brief description of your company and the role that you play there?

I am a principal advisor. We help small business owners to grow their business, specifically professional creative service firms, so marketing, advertising, PR, architects, engineers, those types of companies. I lead the organization, and I do direct service with our clients.

OPPORTUNITY/CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge your company was facing that incited the need for this platform?

With Infusionsoft, I have a couple of different clients that have implemented Infusionsoft, so we were part of the implementation team on those different sites.

SOLUTION

How does your company implement this platform or software?

One client, is a retailer, so we were using Infusionsoft primarily for the checkout, shopping cart and the email marketing. Then, I have a second client who uses it primarily for CRM [customer relationship management] and email marketing.

Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?

Internally, we use Copyblogger's Rainmaker. We also have used HubSpot in the past. HubSpot felt like their target market was bigger than our company, whereas I felt like Rainmaker was focused on the kind of company that we were.

RESULTS

Can you share any success, metrics, or overall results of your implementation of this platform?

On Infusionsoft, in terms of results, checkout is phenomenally easy – it works really well. The reporting, however, is awful. I can't get any reports that make much sense. Even when I sit down at an Infusionsoft conference, or I call support, they agree with me that the reporting needs work. I still rely heavily on Google Analytics for reporting. The numbers never agree between Google Analytics and Infusionsoft, and it makes me crazy.

FEATURES

Were there any software features or tools that really impressed you?  

The help forums for Infusionsoft are phenomenal. If you go on the help forums and search for your problem or ask a question, there's someone there who will tell you how to do what you need to do. You can make an action link that tags people, and then run a report on the tags in order to figure out what the open rate of an email is.

Looking back, are there any areas of the software that you feel could be added or improved upon?

On the Infusionsoft side, there's a reason they call it "Confusion Soft." One of my team members who has worked with it extensively, says, "There's a thousand things to check on, little check boxes. If you click the right thousand of them, you can get it to do anything." That's the thing I have to say about Infusionsoft – there is nothing that I've tried to get it to do that it couldn't do. It just feels that everything is much harder than it needs to be. It's just so convoluted sometimes, the way you have to do stuff. But, there's nothing that you can't do, as long as you're willing to put that effort in to make it work.

Have you had to interact with the platform's support team or reference their support resources?

At Infusionsoft, I would say the user forums are where the gold is. Like I said, there's hardly ever a question that I haven't been able to be answered just by searching the user forums. People are quick to respond to questions posted there. Their help files are good – they're certainly extensive, and I also had good responsiveness from Infusionsoft's support staff. If I ask the same question to three different chat windows, I'm likely to get three different answers, which doesn't always make me feel great.

OVERVIEW

We have a few quick questions and, for each question, we ask you to rate the software on a scale of one to five, with five being the best. What would you give the software for functionality of the features available?

Four.

What would you give the software for ease of use or ease of implementation into your business?

Two.

For support, as in responsiveness of the team or helpfulness of the resources available?

Four.

For overall satisfaction with the platform?

Two.

How likely are you to recommend the software to a colleague or similar business?

Two.

2.0
Overall Score
  • 4.0 Features
  • 2.0 Ease of Use
  • 4.0 Support
  • 2.0 Willing to Refer
 
Client Interview
Oct 05 2015

Multi-Industry Consultant for Infusionsoft Implementations

5.0

Features: 
3.5
Ease of use: 
3.5
Support: 
n/a
Willing to refer: 
3.5
See More
the reviewer
 
Confidential spend
 
Digital Marketing
 
2-10 Employees
 
Phoenix, Arizona
CEO, Beaver Pond Enterprises
Vania Clark-Butler
1
 
Verified
The Review
Recommendations

Infusionsoft includes many add-ons supported by it's developer community, extending the platform's functionality. The e-mail builder is less aesthetically pleasing than some leading tools built specifically for e-mail and newsletter campaigns.

Background

Can you provide a brief description of your company and the role that you play there?

I'm the chief executive officer of Automating Success. We help people put systems and processes in place to automate most of their business, including sales, marketing, and other business processes. Automation technology plays a big role in what we do.

Solution

What was the business challenge your company was facing that suggested the need for Infusionsoft?

One of the reasons people get Infusionsoft is for email marketing. It does so much more than that, but that's one of the major functions that attract people. What I help people do is wrap their minds around the technology. I like to start by showing our clients what the system is capable of doing, but that doesn't mean they have to do all of that. I then let them pick what's most important just to get them started. It can be overwhelming at first when seeing everything Infusionsoft can do, but if I don't explain the big picture to them, they don't know what they don't know as far as the software's capabilities.

Was your company considering other platforms? Why Infusionsoft?

I wasn't considering any others. My relationship with Infusionsoft kind of just happened, and it's been 10 years now since I started working with the app. When I first started, I was an employee at another company that had purchased Infusionsoft. They had it for 6 months and were paying for it, but had not used it at all. I'm good with technology, but that wasn't my job when they hired me. Nonetheless, not having done anything with Infusionsoft bothered the owner, so he dropped it in my lap, and I never did anything else in that company. I ended up working for another company that was using Infusionsoft. They kind of stole me away from the first company because they had purchased the app and wanted a strong person on top of that.

I've used it in my role as an operations manager – that's my background – so that was the role I would take in companies that were using Infusionsoft. About 4 years ago, I decided I wanted to work with a broader range of companies. I had been just isolated in one industry and wanted to branch out. That's why I started my own business, and now I get to work with all kinds of different companies. I like that because I get to share strategies from different industries that people wouldn't think about or know about otherwise.

On an annual or monthly basis, how much does it cost your clients to use Infusionsoft?

There are two different costs are involved. There's the cost for the application, and then there's the monthly license fee for using the app. There are 4 different levels for that fee, but the 2 middle levels are so similar that there are actually only 3 different pricing levels.

The pricing depends on what people need, which is great because some people don't need a full e-commerce setup. All they want is email marketing, which makes the basic level really good for people who just want to switch. For companies that are ready to upgrade from MailChimp – just want email marketing and don't really care about affiliate partners or e-commerce – Infusionsoft is ideal.

The 2 middle levels depend on whether e-commerce or managing a sales team is a company's priority. Then there is the top level, which leaves nothing out. People can grow into that level because they have already invested in the cost of the app itself.

When people want help with Infusionsoft, I recommend getting some training. The app has more than 500 videos and articles and a strong knowledge help base. Companies don't have to work with a consultant but can do it on their own. That's what I did. I learned it on my own 10 years ago. Companies can do that, but they can fast track their work and make much better progress by working with a consultant.

The cost is going to vary, depending on what the company is doing, how many campaigns they intend to run, and things like that. Companies should expect to spend between $2,000 and $5,000 for a basic setup. If they have something more elaborate, and if they are using the complete system, the cost could be as high as $10,000. If we were setting up a full storefront, we could be looking at upward of $10,000.

Results

Can you share any success, metrics, or overall results from your use of Infusionsoft?

The most recent example that comes to mind is a client of mine who started using Infusionsoft with a list of about 1,000 contacts. Within a year of using Infusionsoft, he has 30,000 contacts in his database. He has been selling to those contacts through the application as well, using the campaigns we set up. All of that is happening on autopilot, and he's thrilled. He's able to hire more people to help him, even though he was just a growing startup when I began working with him. That kind of progress is actually standard. Although I'm thinking of one specific client right now, there are so many others that have the same story.

Are there any particular features of Infusionsoft that really impressed you?

You might get a different answer from somebody who hasn't been using Infusionsoft as long as I have, but after 10 years of using the application, one of the things that I appreciate the most is how many developers out there are so behind Infusionsoft and backing up and extending what the app can do. They're developing third-party applications to integrate with Infusionsoft. When we first started opening that up to developers, we probably had 60 developers writing programs. I think we're now at more than 100, and maybe even a couple hundred developers. Many of these third-party apps integrate with Infusionsoft and boost its capabilities, which is thrilling.

An example of that is a text messaging program. In addition to being certified with Infusionsoft, I'm also certified with Social Fuse, a text messaging platform that integrates with Infusionsoft, providing a text message component to a marketing campaign. I could list 20 third-party apps for you right now that I'm in love with, but there are hundreds of them out there right now for all different functionalities that people might want to integrate with Infusionsoft. One of the strong points of Infusionsoft is the community that they have built around them – the consultants and developers.

Looking back, are there any areas of Infusionsoft that you feel could be added or improved on?

If I had to pick one area that I would suggest needs priority attention, it would be the email builder. Something that I hear from clients that are switching over from MailChimp or Constant Contact – and I wouldn't know this personally because I don't use those programs – is that they can't get their emails to look as nice in Infusionsoft as in MailChimp or their newsletters to look as good as in Constant Contact. We can work around that, but it would be great to have some better tools and capabilities for email design.

Have you had to interact with Infusionsoft's support team or use their support resources?

I have always been impressed with Infusionsoft's support. No software program is going to be perfect, but if you can get some good support to back you up, then you're in pretty good shape. I think Infusionsoft has award-winning support. As consultants, we also get another level of support from Infusionsoft. There's support for customers, and there's support for consultants. By the way, that's another advantage of working with a consultant. If a company is having some difficulty getting something resolved, just escalate it to a consultant who will take it to their support team.

As a consultant, I have access to different levels of support. I like that because I know many other companies just have one blanket support level for everybody. The fact is that, as a consultant, they look at me and realize that I'm managing 10 or 20 of their clients and provide a higher level of support. I appreciate that.

5.0
Overall Score
  • 3.5 Features
  • 3.5 Ease of Use
  • N/A Support
  • 3.5 Willing to Refer