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.