The happy lil' secret in the automated marketing world!

Allows a small marketing outfit to punch above its weight and focus follow-on efforts on the more high-valued prospects.

Pros

Hatchbuck is great. What? I need to write more? ok. It allows you to create or upload documents, you can include them as well as links into emails, and then combine emails into campaigns where they are delivered at preset times. But that's far from all! Hatchbuck monitors the customer's interactions with your email and awards score points (defined by you) for various activities like visting your website, reading an email, downloading a document or clicking on a link. So when you open Hb you can review the current scores and follow up with the prospects who are raising their hands the furthest. But, there's more! Where Hb 'really' excels is in the logic of these campaigns. For example... if you have a campaign for general interest which you are sending to a generic group and a customer evinces particular interest in your offering (clicks or downloads a lot) Hb logic can detect this and move him to a more aggressive sales campaign. Hb can notify you for any specific buying signal. Hb can send the customer (again, automatically) additional materials based on actions ("oh, you like case studies, eh, take a look at this one") . If you do the campaigns correctly Hb is really a 'fire and forget' homing missile. It has a tremendous number of features (searching and segmentation are awesome) and because of its price structure, it really allows a small company to punch waaaay above its weight class. I'm happy!

Cons

A few things. I'm not crazy about the HTML design tool. (Or, perhaps, I'm a lousy designer?) It seems too old-fashioned. You can get false positives from the lead score system -- especially if you email to high security places like financial institutions whose bots click on everything to test your email for spy/malware. Its awkward to try to call a super high scoring customer who 'appears' fascinated with your content only to learn that he left 6 months ago and the bots are still screening his email. :-(

Hands down, the best CRM system I've ever used.

We previously had three systems holding three separate sets of data: Zoho CRM, Membrain, and MailChimp. Now that our data is all together, we're already starting to make it work for us, instead of us working with it. As we're further into the program as well, and we've executed some campaigns and targeted emails, we're getting to know our database. The tag feature is amazing, and helps to give a more real-time picture of where our prospects are at, whether they've been browsing the website, what pages they've visted (and multiple times), etc.

Pros

The support, hands down. The team at Hatchbuck is amazing, and has answered all of my questions promptly, and helped me to think creatively about how best to use the software. I also love the automation available - the ability to trigger emails, campaigns, tasks, reminders, and deals based on contact actions. The new built-in advanced filtering system is great and makes it easier than ever to segment our database based on location, tags, whether they have an email address or not, and more. We've also used the email reporting to our advantage, helping us to get to know our contacts - what they interact with, what they click on, what they do and don't care about - our database has new life!

Cons

As we've been in the system more, we're finding that we're not using the "deals" tracker tool as effectively as we could, simply based on the fact that for our specific line of business, we could easily use 3-4 pipelines separately. (We are M&A Advisors/Business Brokerage Advisors, and so we have separate pipelines for Sellers, Buyers, Clients doing Exit Planning, and Valuations). If we were given the ability to have multiple Deals pipelines, it would immediately enable us to keep track of that pipeline.
Additionally, if I could change a couple things, like the ability to automate contact notes within the record the same way that other things can be automated, I would, but this is such a minor thing that I wouldn't count it as a dislike.

The Swiss Army Knife of Marketing Software

Getting into Hatchbuck is like beginning a new craft and gradually building on your tool set. It has been a year since we signed up, and our business' marketing activities have matured through a mix of Hatchbuck's offerings and our own strategy development. Hatchbuck absolutely does its part in building a firm relationship between our sales team and our customers. Importing contacts is a snap. Users can match default columns/fields with columns in imported CSVs, merge contacts with possible matches, manually check the results, and assign tags to the entire import list'even on existing matches. The contact management experience is tailor-fit to your contact database thanks to Hatchbuck's fantastic tagging system. Using custom fields and dozens of tags with a simple "is/is not in tag" and "and/or" tag-linking filter gives you so much control over your entire database. The VERY user-friendly UI is set up so that beginners can dive into the database and learn the outs and ins through regular use. I found my way around Hatchbuck in just about a day, which would definitely benefit a small business looking for an easy start. I would follow their support team to the ends of the earth. Hatchbuck is backed by a genuinely attentive support team that trained me and later cleared up an enormous importing disaster with more patience and attention I would find in any other support line. As far as I can see, Hatchbuck plots only Opens and Clicks on the results page for every campaign. It would be so helpful to see Opens, Bounces, Clicks, Unsubscribes, and Complaints as timelines on the same chart area. Hatchbuck's bounce results page allows you to export just the first 1,000 bounce records. However you filter it (by sender, etc.) you will still get 1,000 records. One of our imports had 2,000 bounces and I had to export at least 8 different column-filtered sheets, stick them in a spreadsheet, remove duplicates... Managing the database can be tricky, but I hope Hatchbuck's development team can introduce a few fixes like mass-editing a default contact field for multiple contacts and automatically tagging contacts as bounces. The cons definitely counter some of the pros, but in all fairness, our company's email marketing needs can be a little demanding. Hatchbuck and our marketing team have come to work together very well, and I am immensely thankful that I opted for the Live Demo a year ago.

You Won't Be Disappointed With Hatchbuck!

I'd recommend Hatchbuck to anyone looking for a sleek, easy to use platform that handles both your CRM and Email Campaigns.

Pros

I love the ease of creating email templates, especially with the new update, and being able to track their success as soon as they are sent out. I primarily use it for creating email campaigns and tracking contacts who click through. It's a very organized system with ways to easily find contacts and emails. While the older version definitely had some kinks, I think they did an awesome job with the update I've found it much more user-friendly. Also it is a bit pricey, but it is a CRM and email campaign creator/tracking tool so I think it's worth it.

Cons

Again, with the old version, the email building templates were difficult to use, especially compared to MailChimp. Much improvement has been made to make the process much easier. It was frustrating to have to create new templates since the old ones were rendered useless. Sometimes it's a bit hard to navigate through the system, looking for the exact data or rare thing you might need or filter you might want, the good thing is their support is outstanding and always there to help.

Hatchbuck Changes the Game for the University at Albany Weekend MBA

Pros

Unlike the ACT!, the last CRM I used, Hatchbuck enables me to automate my marketing/recruiting activities for the Weekend MBA Program. There are no more instances of prospects falling through the cracks as I am able to develop relevant messages and campaigns that I am able to disseminate to my stakeholders in timely fashion. There are no limits to the number of e-mails that can be sent and tracking the performance of those e-mails, i.e., opens, clicks, bounces, etc. is also helpful. Another feature I use quite a bit is the sales pipeline. I now know how many viable prospects I have in the system and at what precise stage they are at. What's also nice is that the investment in the program, unlike many other better know CRMs, is all inclusive.

Cons

Hatchbuck has been phenomenal in terms of service and response time. There are several areas, though, that can be bolstered and, I believe, are being worked on. The first is better e-mail integration. Rather than automatically be included in someone's record, you need to insert the Hatchbuck inbox address in the bcc field to capture the message in the system. They can probably do a better job with social media integration, calendar integration, as well as providing a more robust word processor.

A great CRM and marketing system for small businesses.

Pros

The application offers user-friendly graphical user interface. The customer service is very knowledgeable and responsive. Based on the actions of your contact, you can automate trigger emails and reminders. One of the best features is that you can see who all open your emails and the email marketing gets you know about what the users click on. You can track the progress of your campaigns and how well they were received. You can easily merge your contacts from your earlier CRMs. You can categorize the application for clients from several industries. The application does great contact management and is well integrated with social media.

Cons

It's quite difficult to get used to the email templates. the application, in comparison to other similar CRM systems, does not provide many plugins. Reporting capabilities and tags management require improvement. The absence of advanced features. It is very difficult to make edits or copy the campaigns.

Flexible Enough to be Utilized in Most Marketing Plans

Hatchbuck is a great software for both large and small companies. It is one of the only services I have found flexible enough to be tailored to my many clients.

Pros

The customer service is by far the greatest asset this software has. Hatchbuck is extremely customizable which is excellent when working with clients in many different industries but can present a challenge when deciding which categorizations and tag to use when building the system. Hatchbuck's customer service team is always on-call to help assist in any way necessary.

Cons

The pricing options and billing details aren't completely transparent. Often, I will have to reach out to my Hatchbuck rep to get details regarding plans or billings.

Product Update 2017: untested, too many bugs, makes customers lose credibility as features simply do not work

Also, the relaunch did not bring the features which were somewhat announces, e.g. imap integration only possible for gmail as of now.

Pros

Very nice people in service, easy to use. Pricing is all right, looks nice, has some nice dashboard eye candy

Cons

Simply not reliable anymore, after the relaunch earlier this year, there are too many incidents where you are not in control of what hatchbuck is doing: e.g. unsubscribe doesn´t work: no confirmation that a user unsubscribed and campaigns do not stop, so unsubscribing users might get more emails from you. Embarrassing? Yes. Potentially causing credibility and even legal problem? yeah.

Also, automations set for users who subscribe sometimes do not properly work. Conditions are unclear. e.g. Opt-in process: an online form might be set on option in - but that doesn't mean that it actually triggers the necessary steps. Embarrassing? Yes. Potentially causing credibility and even legal problem? yeah.

Search (contacts) doesn't find contacts.

And - this made me really re-evaluate other options: there was this bug which made other customers´ dashboard appear in my log-in. So I saw all activities going on from another company which also is a hatchbuck user. this made me ask myself if other hatchbuck users at the same time see my stuff/ activities/ personal data of my customers....Again: Embarassing? Yes. Potentially causing credibility and even legal problem? yeah.

I do understand that there might be some issues after releasing a relaunch - however when it comes to processes which involve my leads/ customers and make us as a company look unprofessional (no opt-in, no unsubscribe, potential abuse of personal data of leads....) this is beyond any acceptable level and an absolute no-go. We are located in Germany and people are very sensitive about data protection and laws are very strict - we could get sued for each of the three points mentioned above.

Outstanding Customer Support and Functionality You Can Use!

Onboarding & Support I've had a stellar experience with Hatchbuck from the initial demo, and most importantly through to onboarding and getting the system configured. This is a standout part of the Hatchbuck offer, especially after coming from a larger automation platform. Functionality & Ease of Use You don't get all the functionality you are likely to have compared to say, Marketo, but what you do get is eminently usable and capable almost out-of-the-box. I would like to see an ability to integrate with Outlook, as we miss the ability to send tracking emails individually directly from our Outlook client, but it's not a dealbreaker. Price This was a big issue for us as we operate a relatively large universe - Hatchbuck's pricing structure allows me to run a universe that size without hitting me for increasing levels of charge (unlike Hubspot or Marketo, whose price-per-unit seems to increase as you scale).

Pros

Simple to use, easy to configure, and can get to work and ROI fast.

Scales easily with pricing not restricting records you put into it.

Cons

Some functionality you may be used to is not present, such as Outlook plugins.

Hatchbuck user for many years

The customer service and overall ease of use of Hatchbuck is fantastic. We always get a quick response to all of our questions. And it's a great place to store nearly all of our business information.

Pros

What we love the most about Hatchbuck is the simplicity of setting up campaigns and sending out mass emails to our database with metrics to measure results.

Cons

Hatchbuck, like all CRMS, has a learning curve associated with it, particularly with creating email templates which can be tricky to set up.