SharpSpring is the Best of the Best

My overall experience with SharpSpring has been wonderful! While the platform still has kinks to work out (what platform doesn't?), their customer service is amazing and they move at a rate unseen by others to make the platform better every day. I highly recommend them not just for their platform, but their people are friendly as well.

Pros

I really enjoy the various features that are available within the platform! It allows us to quickly and easily identify our prospects, capture their information on the website, and then market to them in a way that is meaningful and generates new business for us.

Cons

In their mission to make their platform compete, they often focus on getting new features out quickly but then have to go back and update later. I've seen this happen for them with tools like Video Calling, which became quickly available due to COVID-19 but lacks the robustness of other dedicated video platforms that I would imagine most companies already use.

SharpSpring Great Platform With Amazing Support

Overall the platform is powerful at a great price, and the team at SharpSpring wants you to succeed, and that shows in their support, courses, documentation, and forums. Not only does SharpSpring benefit Right to Evolve internally, but our clients and the work we do see the benefits as well.

Pros

SharpSpring has features to create marketing operations and track those campaigns either manually or automatically. Considering I can tie all the potential avenues of a campaign into one spot and see how users interact with is a great win. At a glance, it is essential to read the data and make the right decisions; SharpSpring brings all the data to one platform. It makes work more enjoyable that we can create a single campaign with a list of contacts, email templates, unique forms, dynamic pages, trackable media, automation, and analytics in one spot. Not to mention, once we create this base campaign and all its numerous pieces, I can then quickly use all the parts as a template to do another or a third, and so on. Making it very efficient over time. SharpSpring has a lot of features, but I am thrilled with our CRM, email marketing, ads, funnels, all in one location. All this and the support team have been top-notch every step of the way. I also like to learn myself, which they provide via courses, updated videos, and documents that my team and I can reference.

Cons

Interface and design consistency are my two significant cons for this platform. Like most, once you know the platform and its interface, you can be very successful. No difference here except that the design process between creating emails, pages, and forms all have their unique process. I believe it would improve user efficiency if the page and email creator, for instance, had a standard procedure and the same layout of tools. The platform has a lot of features with more coming, so you have to know where all the pieces are between the settings, marketing, and sales menu layout.

Great Automation & Marketing CRM

My overall experience is pretty good, but I do wish it was easier to get a mobile experience on Sharpspring.

Pros

Great way to organize your sales team, properly track your leads/sales, & automate your marketing efforts.

Cons

There is no real functional or useful mobile application or version of this program. You really must use a desktop computer to get full use. The iPhone and iPad apps are a far cry from useful.

Buyer Beware - Don't Believe the Hype

Other functionality gaps: 1. No sequencing on emails. 2. No video integration into mass email or individual email. 3. Socia Media Management Tool - They don't have Instagram give you some story about how they got in the tool after Insta was acquired by FB and NOBODY else (which is flat out wrong) has Insta integration into their scheduling platform. 4. Content Library - So they have a max size file, that even a 4 page PDF eBook is too big. You will think you are crazy when you upload it and nothing happens. Reason being is they don't pop a message saying your file is too big. I opened a help desk ticket item on simple things like this and other basic functioning items. Which you shouldn't have to. Like configuring and sending an email. Or building an email nurture campaign has no logic to it. So this is my second go-around I was going to leave HubSpot for SharpSpring and I did with a great deal of buyers remorse. I amicably tried to resolve this...SharpSpring is going to say they let me out of my contract and did everything they could to resolve this but the problem is that the product has MAJOR gaps. They position this as a strong competitor to HubSpot that's the furthest thing from the truth. Your software should almost manage you, instead you will spend a considerable amount of time managing this software.

Pros

The only pro to this product is the pricing is enticing. The margin for an agency is solid. Customer support is good buyer beware you will get to know them very well even for creating the simplest of tasks! CRM - In each contact, you can see all the touchpoints in a timeline.

Cons

The worst marketing automation and CRM tool that I've ever deployed, company lacks integrity. It's the 2nd time I fell into the SharpSpring trap, the product looks good in the demo but has significant gaps. 1. Agency Billing Model - They want to bill your clients and then bill you 30-days later, it's very confusing. 2. Forms - Horrible still CSS, dealing with coding your forms, takes forever, each form is customized. 3. Lead Scoring 4. Nurturing Campaigns 5. Calendar Schedule - So you only get one calendar schedule for sales, so for example if you have multiple links for scheduling time on your calendar you cannot customize more than 1. Very frustrating. 6. Support Videos - Aren't updated so if you are watching a "how to" video it's likely that a new version of the software came out and the video is not relevant. You'll spend a lot of time trying to figure that out. 7. Landing Pages - No functionality, there's was a lot of backend configuration that said I needed to list my website on the domain and it was already on there. 8. Email - So you cannot track opens directly into your email "This product still has not evolved much from my efforts with it two years ago. I'm opening a help desk ticket item daily. That said I'm working on building a landing page and form. I went back and watched the training videos the big issue there is that the UI and new platform don't match where the buttons previously were located. So it's not an apples to apples when you watch the videos.

A great software alternative to Marketo or Pardot

It's a great platform overall. Expect great customer support, but also plan for a lot of time setting up automation workflows and action groups. But the tool will do what you need it to do, and then some.

Pros

The biggest plus is its affordability - all the features you need at a price that is accessible. It has all the core functions one needs in a marketing automation platform, with a powerful sales pipeline and lead management component that provides an exceptional, integrated experience. Added bonuses are chatbox and book-time features included in the price, and the ability to sync Outlook emails to a contact's record. Lead scoring

Cons

The email editor can be a bit clunky and formatting copy and layouts can be finicky. The email previewer can be cumbersome. Visual workflows can be arduous to make