Table of Contents
Are you looking for an email marketing system with a fully integrated, automated, and intelligent customer relationship management (CRM) system? Surprisingly, our testing reveals that there are not too many out there.
There are two parts to this review, the CRM system breakdown and the view of other enterprise features. We will focus only on CRM, Sales Funnels, Advanced Automation & Enterprise function. For a full breakdown of the service, see our Top 10 Best Email Marketing Services Review.
Email Marketing & CRM Services Review Summary
Out of all the big email marketing companies we have reviewed, there are only three services with truly great CRMs, Sales Funnels and Visual Intelligent Automation. The best are GetResponse, Ontraport, and ActiveCampaign, which are also the three best services for enterprise functionality & customer support & satisfaction.
Top 5 Best Email Marketing CRM Systems Are:
- GetResponse: Joint winner, with a seamless cross-platform customer journey tracking fully integrated into the CRM, including automated activity scoring to qualify leads. Add to that over 160 other integrations and a Facebook Lead acquisition engine, and you have a 1st class CRM for the enterprise.
- Ontraport: The best for eCommerce and a joint winner for CRM, offering a full cross-platform customer journey, lead-scoring, Facebook lead acquisition engine, plus 160+ 3rd party integrations.
- ActiveCampaign: Joint winner Active Campaign offers the full suite of key services, cross-platform customer journey, lead-scoring, Facebook lead acquisition, plus 250+ integrations.
- Benchmark Email: Have a usable, albeit manual CRM, but with 300+ native integrations, it takes 4th place.
- ConvertKit: ConvertKit does have a CRM, but it lacks the seamless integration of the winners.
| CRM & Remarketing |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CRM & Deal Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||||
| Facebook Integration | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||||||||
| Cross Platform Journey Tracking | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||||||||
| Activity Scoring | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||||||||
| Integrations | ||||||||||||
| 3rd Party Integrations | 160 | 103+ | 250+ | 300+ | 80+ | 28 | 88 | 948 | 456 | 9 | 54 | 216 |
| Zapier App Integration | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Security & Certifications | ||||||||||||
| GDPR Compliant | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| SSL TLS Encryption | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| EU-US Privacy Shield | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Visit the Vendor | Visit GetResponse | Visit Ontraport | Visit ActiveCampaign | Visit Benchmark | Visit ConvertKit | Visit iContact Services | Visit MailJet Services | Visit AWeber Services | Visit ConstantContact | Visit SendX Services | Visit SendinBlue | Visit Mailchimp |
Table 1: Email Marketing Services for CRM & Integrations
Top 5 Email Marketing Services For Enterprises
- GetResponse: Joint winner – An elegant multi-user collaboration engine allows for internal and external staff to work together on campaigns and allows for lead distribution to the sales force. There is also full Salesforce.com integration, polling, survey, and the excellent visual auto-funnels, perfect for the enterprise.
- ActiveCampaign: Joint winner in this section, with the full complement of multi-user collaboration, sales team lead distribution, salesforce.com integration, polls, funnels, and landing pages.
- Ontraport: Ontraport also has a great enterprise offering, including multi-user collaboration, sales team lead distribution, salesforce.com integration, funnels, and landing pages.
- ConstantContact: This allows you to host multiple accounts to enable better workflow and collaboration in the marketing/sales department. You can add different accounts with different permissions. Surveys, Polls, and Salesforce.com integration are also included.
- SendX: Surprisingly, SendX also has some enterprise functions like Multiple users and landing pages.
| Team / Enterprise Functions | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple User Accounts | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Sales Team Lead Distribution | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||||||||
| Salesforce Service Integration | ✔ (i) | ✔ (i) | ✔ (i) | ✔ (i) | ✔ (i) | ✔ (i) | ✔ (i) | ✔ (i) | ✔ | |||
| Primary Features Funnels | ||||||||||||
| Surveys/Polls | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||||||||
| Sales/Lead Funnels | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||||||||
| Landing Pages | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||||
| Exit Popups | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||||||||
| Visit the Vendor | Visit GetResponse | Visit ActiveCampaign | Visit Ontraport | Visit ConstantContact | Visit SendX Services | Visit ConvertKit | Visit AWeber Services | Visit Benchmark | Visit iContact Services | Visit MailJet Services | Visit SendinBlue | Visit Mailchimp |
Table 2: Email Marketing Service Features for Enterprises
1. GetResponse: Winner. Powerful CRM with Customer Journey Tracking & Lead Scoring
GetResponse has seamless cross-platform customer journey tracking integrated into the CRM, including automated activity scoring to qualify and rank potential leads. Add to that over 160 other integrations and a Facebook Lead acquisition engine, and you have a 1st class CRM for the enterprise.
GetResponse Pros
★ Best In Class Pricing
★ Full Suite of CRM Features
★ Unique AutoFunnel Solution
★ Fully Integrated Landing Pages & Payment Gateways
★ Dedicated Line To Account Manager
GetResponse Pricing
When it comes to pricing GetResponse, has done its homework. Below you can see that GetResponse currently offers one of the lowest price points and offers by far the broadest, most integrated set of services for all business needs. So, for the features you get combined with the pricing, GetResponse is the winner.
Competitor Pricing Table – All Email Marketing Services
| Value Ratings | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Value | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ |
| Model | Contact | Contact | Contact | Contact | Contact | Contact | Contact | Contact | Contact | Contact | ||
| Free-Tier | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | 6K/m - $0 | 9K/m - $0 |
| #Contacts | ||||||||||||
| 500 | $7.49 | $15 | $19 | $13 | $17 | $25 | $15 | $9 | $30 | $79 | 30K/m - $9.65 | 40K/m - $25 |
| 2,500 | $15 | $25 | $29 | $30 | $38 | $49 | $50 | $39 | $50 | $147 | 60K/m - $18.95 | 60K/m - $39 |
| 10,000 | $39 | $65 | $69 | $76 | $81 | $119 | $99 | $111 | $110 | $297 | 150K/m - $69 | 120K/m - $67 |
| 25,000 | $112 | $145 | $149 | $144 | $191 | $166 | $219 | $179 | $199 | $497 | 450K/m - $230 | 350K/m - $173 |
| 50,0000 | $172 | $250 | $392 | $237 | $295 | $316 | $299 | $239 | $379 | $599=< 125K | ||
| Unlimited | $2,999 | $99 per extra 100K | ||||||||||
| Cost per Contact (cents) | 0.39 | 0.65 | 0.69 | 0.74 | 0.81 | 1 | 1 | 1.11 | 0.67 | 2.97 | NA | NA |
| Visit SendX Services | Visit GetResponse | Visit AWeber Services | Visit Benchmark | Visit ConstantContact | Visit ConvertKit | Visit Mailchimp | Visit ActiveCampaign | Visit iContact Services | Visit Ontraport | Visit MailJet Services | Visit SendinBlue |
View the GetResponse pricing page to view the tiers of service for yourself.
GetResponse Email Marketing & Automation Features
Out of all the email marketing companies we tested, GetResponse offers the full suite of email marketing and automation features.
What Makes GetResponse Unique?
GetResponse has a few unique services which separate them from the crowd. My favorites are:
Perfect Timing – Perfect timing is a really intelligent way to deliver your emails at the precise moment your customer is most likely to open them. GetResponse uses algorithms to analyze your contact’s opening times. If your contact is an early riser and usually opens your emails at 5 am, then the algorithm takes account of this information and delivers future messages at this time. This means every single contact has the right message at the right time according to their behavior; this is fantastic. GetResponse claims Perfect Timing increases open rates by 23% and click-through rates by 20%, and I do not doubt them.
Time Travel – if you operate a business that spans multiple timezones, then this feature is perfect for you. Suppose you have a special offer that runs from 9 am to 5 pm on a specific day; you can use the Time Travel Feature to time your email’s arrival for exactly 9 am on that day in their timezone.
SMS Messaging Integration – This service has SMS integration, and interestingly only 4 out of our 11 services tested offer an SMS service. SMS is a great way to remind your customers of time-critical actions, for example, confirming a table reservation or reminding a client of their webinar reservation.
The Excellent GetResponse Email Marketing Visualization – Screenshot
Enterprise Functions
Here we take a look at the functionality available for larger companies, specifically those with a dedicated salesforce and multiple roles within the marketing department.
Multiple User Accounts
For a multi-person marketing team, the ability to collaborate on campaigns and assign roles to different employees is critical. Multiple accounts are covered here in an elegant way enabling both internal employees and even external freelancers the right permissions to complete their tasks. There is even a mobile app to enable quick responses, even when team members are not at their desks.
Sales Lead Team Workflow
Having the ability to assign hot prospects to members of the sales team is important for businesses that need personal contact with the customer; this is exactly what it enables with the sales leadership team workflow services. Efficiency within sales is key to be able to grow sales and keep costs down.
Sales & Payments
The key to automating the sales funnel shown in the previous section is to have the ability to integrate the landing pages into the process. Many small businesses using WordPress, for example, will struggle to structure and host high-quality landing pages. The challenge is getting your website to communicate with PayPal, Stripe, or Square. If you have a reoccurring payment model, for example, a membership program, this is close to impossible to manage by yourself.
Not only does GetResponse offer a fully integrated landing page and payment processing service, but they also have integrated abandoned cart follow-ups and effective customer Win Back automation. This is an impressive collection of integrated services, which means you do not have to worry about using 3rd party integrators or solutions to automate your workflow. This is as beneficial for SMB’s as it is for enterprise businesses.
Customer Relationship Mgt (CRM) & Remarketing
As mentioned previously, CRM integration enables the whole service to integrate seamlessly. Many email marketing companies claim to have a great CRM service, but only a few offer a lead rating system and cross-platform customer tracing.
Lead Scoring & Cross-Platform Journey Reporting
Consider this example, a customer sees your Facebook advert and takes action to visit your website for further information. They then ask a question via site chat to your helpdesk. They click around your website, looking for further information on a product. Then later, they signup to your email list and then send an email to the support team. All of these interactions will be captured and reported in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. This appears to be a very interested and active customer. Based on the Scoring System rules you create, you can flag a customer as a hot prospect and assign the task to a sales team member to reach out to them.
This exemplifies the cross-platform journey of a potential customer and enables you to reach out to hot prospects.
Salesforce.com Integration
SalesForce.com is the industry leader when it comes to CRM, so integrating your marketing department’s contact list into the Salesforce ecosystem can be critical for enterprise customers. GetResponse has developed its own integrated service to enable seamless customer data, messaging, collaboration, and messaging between the services.
CRM Features: AutoFunnel
Only 3 of our tested companies provide a Sales Funnel service. GetResponse arguably does this better than its competitors by having services that cover the entire sales process.
Site Chat
Out of all tests, only three software vendors offer a fully integrated site chat function, GetResponse is one of them. An integrated chat function helps to complete the picture of communications. Imagine, for example, that a customer visits your website they ask a question via chat to your helpdesk. Later, they signup to your email list and, again via your website, have a conversation with the support team. These interactions will be captured and will ultimately feed into the customer journey reporting and the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. As you will read below, you can even automatically assign a customer a score to be able to assess their interest in a specific product or service. Very clever.
[Related Article: Read the Full Detailed GetResponse Review]
Amazingly AutoFunnel is part of the GetResponse Plus Plan, and for only $179- per month, you can host 25,000 contacts and get access to the entire portfolio of AutoFunnel related services.
GetResponse Summary
GetResponse’s fully integrated CRM services have practically every feature you can imagine. Surprisingly they can compete effectively at both ends of the price spectrum, offering industry-leading low prices for Startups and SMB’s and offering a full spectrum Pro service for the enterprise. Whichever tier of service you choose, you can be sure GetResponse will grow with and help grow your business.
| Try a GetResponse Free Trial | Read the Full GetResponse Review |
2. Ontraport: Winner, Best for eCommerce, CRM & Complete Integration
Ontraport is great for eCommerce and a joint winner for CRM, offering a full cross-platform customer journey, lead-scoring, Facebook lead acquisition engine, plus 160+ 3rd party integrations.
Ontraport is the complete CRM & email marketing solution that becomes especially cost-effective for enterprises with large contact lists of more than 50,000 subscribers. Ontraport is simply one of the best email marketing services around, with a set of fully integrated CRM & eCommerce services that will grow your business.
Ontraport Pros
★ Best In Class Pricing For Large Clients
★ Excellent Email Deliverability
★ Full Suite of CRM Features
★ Complete eCommerce Solutions
★ Fully Integrated Landing Pages & Payment Gateways
★ Dedicated Line To Account Manager
Ontraport Cons
✘ Pricey for Startups
Ontraport – The Best Enterprise Tier Pricing
| Monthly Contract Pricing | |
|
|
| Enterprise Tier – 10K Contacts | $297 | $499 | $1,199 |
| Enterprise Tier – 50K Contacts | $597 | Negotiation | $1,199 |
| Enterprise Tier – 100K Contacts | $697 | Negotiation | $1,199 |
View the Ontraport pricing page to view the tiers of service for yourself.
At industry-leading low price points on Enterprise Tier Services, Ontraport offers more features than nearly every other competitor, which means a great deal for you at 10,000 contacts or more.
Ontraport Email Marketing & Automation Features
All software providers offer Autoresponders, Email Sequencing, Customer Tagging, and Segmentation. What separates Ontraport is the ease of implementation and the levels of automation available. The video below will give you a good idea of how easy this process is.
Ontraport Email Marketing Automation Tour Video
Advanced Features
Time Zone Specific Delivery
If you operate a business that spans multiple timezones, then this feature is perfect for you. Suppose you have a special offer that runs from 9 am to 5 pm on a specific day; you can use the Time Travel feature you time your email’s arrival for exactly 9 am on that day in their timezone.
SMS Messaging Integration
This service has SMS integration, and interestingly only 4 out of our 11 services tested offer an SMS service. SMS is a great way to remind your customers of time-critical actions, for example, confirming a table reservation or reminding a client of their webinar reservation.
Postcard Marketing & Delivery
Interestingly Ontraport also offers a fully integrated postcard service. Nothing impresses a customer more than a postcard to say thank you or wish them a happy birthday.
Surprisingly, not all email newsletter providers offer this service. To view the other vendors offering this service, check out our Email Service Master Comparison Table.
Ontraport Email Marketing Outreach Campaigns
Enterprise Functions
Here we take a look at the functionality available for larger companies, specifically those with a dedicated salesforce and multiple roles within the marketing department.
Multiple User Accounts
For a multi-person marketing team, the ability to collaborate on campaigns and assign roles to different employees is critical. Multiple accounts are covered here in an elegant way enabling both internal employees and even external freelancers the right permissions to complete their tasks. Each new user will cost an additional $47 per month.
Business Process Automation
This $47/m may sound a little expensive, but not when you understand that multiple users unlock powerful Business Process Automation (BPA). You can use it to automate any collaboration, not just in the marketing department but in any part of your business, for example, talent acquisition or purchasing.
Sales Lead Team Workflow
Having the ability to assign hot prospects to members of the sales team is important for businesses that need personal contact with the customer; this is exactly what it enables with the sales lead team workflow services. Efficiency within sales is key to be able to grow sales and keep costs down.
Salesforce Integration
SalesForce.com is the industry leader when it comes to CRM, so integrating your marketing department’s contact list into the Salesforce ecosystem can be critical for enterprise customers. Ontraport has developed its own integrated service to enable the seamless passage of customer data, messaging, collaboration, and messaging between the services.
Sales & Payments
The key to automating the sales funnel shown in the previous section is to have the ability to integrate the landing pages into the process. Many small businesses using WordPress, for example, will struggle to structure and host high-quality landing pages. The challenge is getting your website to communicate with PayPal, Stripe, or Square. If you have a reoccurring payment model, for example, a membership program, this is close to impossible to manage by yourself.
Not only does Ontraport offer a fully integrated landing page and payment processing service, but they also have integrated abandoned cart follow-ups and effective customer Win Back automation. This is an impressive collection of integrated services, which means you do not have to worry about using 3rd party integrators or solutions to automate your workflow. This is as beneficial for SMB’s as it is for enterprise businesses.
CRM & Remarketing
As mentioned previously, CRM integration enables the whole service to integrate seamlessly. Many email marketing companies claim to have a great CRM service, but only a few offer a lead rating system and cross-platform customer tracing.
Ontraport CRM Overview Video
SalesForce Automation – Lead Scoring & Journey Reporting
Consider this example, a customer sees your Facebook advert and takes action to visit your website for further information. They click around your lead pages, looking for further information on a product. Then later, they signup to your email list and then send an email to the support team. All of these interactions will be captured and reported in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. This appears to be a very interested and active customer. Based on the Scoring System rules you create, you can flag a customer as a hot prospect and assign the task to a sales team member to reach out to them.
This exemplifies the cross-platform journey of a potential customer and enables you to reach out to hot prospects for sale.
Ontraport Review Summary
Ontraport may be the giant you have never heard about. But they were established in 2006 and offer the single most well-rounded solution for growing your business. Offering a full CRM, BPA, a complete Email Marketing & Automation Service, Landing Pages, and even payment gateway services, this is already a great package. Add to that, Membership Site management and a completely automated Partner Management solution, and you have a worthy review winner.
| Visit Ontraport | Read the Full Ontraport Review |
3. ActiveCampaign: Winner CRM & Cross-Platform Customer Journey & Facebook Lead Acquisition.
ActiveCampaign is an excellent turnkey email marketing service, according to our testing. Combining high-quality analytics, landing pages, full payment gateways, and multi-platform customer journey tracking. They are a class act.
Pros
★ Excellent Customer Satisfaction Ratings
★ Excellent Email Deliverability
★ Full Suite of CRM Features
★ Sales Funnels
★ Fully Integrated Landing Pages & Payment Gateways
★ Dedicated Line To Account Manager
Cons
✘ Higher Than Average Pricing
ActiveCampaign Pricing
When it comes to pricing, ActiveCampaign is not the leader. They came seventh in our study; however, it is important to remember that price is not everything, and ActiveCampaign will be able to grow with your business demands and believe me, the features are extensive.
Email Marketing & Automation Features
Special Feature: Customer Experience Automation (CXA)
Customer Experience Automation (CXA) is the ability for automation to customize itself to every individual customer—so you can get better results from the same amount of work. When you create next-gen automation, you create a single simple flow. Machine learning and other dynamic features turn that flow into hundreds of unique experiences–created fresh for every person. Our automation accomplishes this in a few ways:
- Timing: Create unique pauses and send times so that every message arrives at the perfect moment.
- Predictive Sending: this product is a major step to providing automation that helps you give every customer a truly unique experience.
- Send automation emails at the most impactful time for each individual.
- Truly optimized send times at the contact level vs. account level.
- Available in Professional and Enterprise plans.
- Routing: Send people through a unique sequence that makes sense for them.
- Content: Customize every message for each person who sees it.
Customer Experience Automation (CXA) Video
SMS Messaging Integration
This service has SMS integration, and interestingly only 4 out of our 11 services tested offer an SMS service. SMS is a great way to remind your customers of time-critical actions, for example, confirming a table reservation or reminding a client of their webinar reservation.
Site Chat
An integrated chat function helps to complete the picture of communications. Imagine, for example, that a customer visits your website they ask a question via chat to your helpdesk. Later, they signup to your email list and, again via your website, have a conversation with the support team. These interactions will be captured and will ultimately feed into the customer journey reporting and the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. As you will read below, you can even automatically assign a customer a score to be able to assess their interest in a specific product or service. Very clever.
Enterprise Functions & CRM
Here we take a look at the functionality available for larger companies, specifically those with a dedicated salesforce and multiple roles within the marketing department.
Multiple User Accounts
For a multi-person marketing team, the ability to collaborate on campaigns and assign roles to different employees is critical. Multiple accounts are covered here in an elegant way enabling both internal employees and even external freelancers the right permissions to complete their tasks. There is even a mobile app to enable quick responses, even when team members are not at their desks.
Sales Lead Team Workflow
Having the ability to assign hot prospects to members of the sales team is important for businesses that need personal contact with the customer; this is exactly what it enables with the sales lead team workflow services. Efficiency within sales is key to be able to grow sales and keep costs down.
Salesforce.com Integration
SalesForce.com is the industry leader when it comes to CRM, so integrating your marketing department’s contact list into the Salesforce ecosystem can be critical for enterprise customers. ActiveCampaign has developed its own integrated service to enable the seamless passage of customer data, messaging, collaboration, and messaging between the services.
Customer Relationship Mgt (CRM) & Remarketing
As mentioned previously, CRM integration enables the whole service to integrate seamlessly. Many email marketing companies claim to have a great CRM service, but only a few offer a lead rating system and cross-platform customer tracing.
Win Probability & Cross-Platform Journey Reporting
Consider this example, a customer sees your Facebook advert and takes action to visit your website for further information. They then ask a question via site chat to your helpdesk. They click around your website, looking for further information on a product. Then later, they signup to your email list and then send an email to the support team. All of these interactions will be captured and reported in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. This appears to be a very interested and active customer. Based on the Win Probability, a customer will be flagged as a hot prospect and assigned to a member of the sales team to reach out to them.
This exemplifies the cross-platform journey of a potential customer and enables you to reach out to hot prospects for a sale.
Killer Feature: Funnels
Only 3 of our tested companies provide a Sales Funnel service. ActiveCampaign arguably does this better than most by having services that cover the entire sales process.
[Related Article: Active Campaign Pipelines Details in Our Full Review]
ActiveCampaign Review Summary
ActiveCampaign offers an almost complete set of tools, and what it does not provide natively is covered with 250+ integrations. Its customers are extremely happy and are willing to pay a little more to get the highest levels of customer service and personal support. Innovation in A.I. and Machine learning allows great features to bubble to the surface, such as predictive sending and predictive win probability reporting.
| Visit ActiveCampaign | Read the Full ActiveCampaign Review |
4. Benchmark: A Redimentry Manual CRM, But 300+ Integrations.
California-based Benchmark Email was established in 2004. They offer a solid set of features for a competitive price. Neither the price leader nor the features leader, Benchmark, occupies a place in the industry, offering simplicity and value for money.
Benchmark Pros
★ Basic CRM included in Prices
★ 24/7 Phone & Chat Support in 9 Languages
★ Good Twitter Sentiment Ratings
Benchmark Cons
✘ Reports of Email Deliverability Issues
Benchmark Email Marketing Features
Like all of the services reviewed, Benchmark Email offers a selection of pre-designed email templates and a good selection of high-quality images for use in your email campaigns. The email design process is also fully drag-and-drop, making crafting your message a breeze.
In fact, Benchmark Email has a collection of reasonable newsletter templates, but unlike many of its competitors, it does not offer a large selection of licensed images; you will have to source your own, which can be costly and time-consuming.
Highlights of the Benchmark Email Pro Service:
- Email Marketing Automation
- Unlimited Email Sends
- Segmentation, Tagging, Autoresponders, Drip Campaigns
- Automated Customer Journey Funnels
- Facebook Audiences Integration
- CRM Integration
- Events Management
- Polling & Surveys
Benchmark CRM
Benchmark Email is also aiming at SMB customers by offering a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. Most small email marketers do not really need this level of functionality. But if you are part of a larger team that needs CRM, you will want to consider GetResponse or Ontraport. GetResponse has a great price point and a complete set of features. However, Benchmark does have some enterprise functionality.
Benchmark Email Review Summary
Benchmark Email has a strong portfolio of tools, including effective visual automation, smooth A/B testing, and good analytics. Social integrations to Facebook, Twitter, and even LinkedIn & Slack show a well-rounded product feature set. A reasonable CRM for small businesses is also included. Starting at Free for up to 2,000 contacts, but even the Pro service is very competitively priced and well worth considering.
| Visit Benchmark | Read the Full Benchmark Review |
5. ConvertKit: Includes a CRM, But Lacks Seamless Integration.
ConvertKit Pros
★ Great Visual Automation & Reporting
★ Segmentation, Tagging & Broadcasts
★ Exit Intent Forms
★ Landing Pages With Real-Time Performance Reporting
★ 100K Free Stock Photos
★ Excellent Email Deliverability
ConverKit Cons
✘ Pricing
✘ Limited Support Times
ConvertKit Email Marketing & Automation Features
Like all of the services reviewed, ConvertKit offers a selection of pre-designed email templates and a good selection of high-quality images for use in your email campaigns. The email design process is also fully drag-and-drop, making crafting your message a breeze.
In fact, ConvertKit has a nice collection of newsletter templates and impressive 100,000 licensed images. This will ensure your emails will look professional and unique.
CRM & Visual Automations
Most software providers offer Autoresponders, Email Sequencing, Drip Campaigns, Customer Tagging, and Segmentation. ConvertKit provides all of these services included in the price.
But what truly separates ConvertKit from the crown is the visual automation application, which makes it easy to implement a customer journey through your processes. Because automation triggers actions, tagging, and segmentation can get complex very quickly, the best approach is via visual representation of the processes.
Visual Automations Video
Visit ConvertKit for a Free 14 Day Trial
ConvertKit is clearly not aiming at enterprise customers or trying to replace a fully-fledged Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. Most email marketers do not really need this level of functionality. So if you are part of a larger team that needs CRM, you will want to consider GetResponse or Ontraport.
Multiple User Accounts & Collaboration
ConvertKit does allow you to host multiple accounts to enable better workflow and collaboration in the marketing department. You can add different accounts with different permissions. Permissions are simple; you either have administrator or contributor privileges.
Free Migration Service
Finally, ConvertKit will migrate you from your current email newsletter service provider to ConvertKit for free. One of the biggest problems is that when you have built your contact lists, funnels, and automation with one company, the thought of moving to another provider is a headache of cost and effort. ConvertKit provides this as a courtesy is impressive, but you must have a contact list of more than 5000 people to qualify.
ConvertKit Review Summary
ConvertKit excels in email deliverability and has all the core email marketing services you will need. It has an excellent automation visualization engine and built-in lead pages, which may well be worth the price premium they charge. But do not expect any advanced CRM functions or payment gateways. They have a set of integrations to cover that through Zapier.
| Visit ConvertKit | Read the ConvertKit Review |
Summary – Top 5 Best Email Marketing CRM Systems
Out of all the big email marketing companies we have reviewed, there are only three services with truly great CRMs, Sales Funnels and Visual Intelligent Automation. The best are GetResponse, Ontraport, and ActiveCampaign, which are also the three best services for enterprise functionality & customer support & satisfaction. See the table below.
| Ratings | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Value for Money | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆ |
| Features | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆ |
| Deliverability | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ |
| Ease of Use | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆ |
| Client Satisfaction | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆ | ☆☆ | ☆☆ |
| Support | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆ | ☆☆ | ☆☆☆ |
| Total Stars | 28 | 28 | 28 | 27 | 27 | 26 | 25 | 25 | 23 | 22 | 20 | 19 |
| Visit the Vendor | Visit GetResponse | Visit Ontraport | Visit SendX Services | Visit AWeber Services | Visit ActiveCampaign | Visit ConvertKit | Visit Benchmark | Visit iContact Services | Visit ConstantContact | Visit MailJet Services | Visit SendinBlue | Visit Mailchimp |
Table 1: Overall Ratings – Value for Money, Features, Deliverability, Usability, Customer Satisfaction & Support
