SharpSpring

It has a lot of features and they keep adding new ones. From only one platform I'm able to keep track of my client's websites, create the forms, and manage the submissions, leads can schedule meetings with specialists without having to wait (or to interact with another human being) and I can keep track of everything with the help of the Life of the Lead. The automations available are a big deal as well, everybody in the team is aware of their responsibilities and the platform helps them never forget to follow-up.

The email builder could use some improvements, maybe something more intuitive, more templates, more flexibility while making changes. Also, de contact manager is still kinda coarse, should work more like a database and not only as a display, it could be more flexible. And allow to bulk-import contacts with no emails could be huge.

Marketing automation features are very helpful.

- There is no escalation process for customer support requests that are above a customer support reps expertise
- Email report data is BS and one of the heads of IT at SharpSpring admitted it. The report data within SS differs from the data exported; the excel file has duplicate headline titles with different meanings/data; email data is shit - we sent test emails internally and didn't open them and it shows we opened them 3 times in SS and 4 times in the exported report
- Life of the Lead is the most valuable data within SS and yet you cannot automate based on any of it
- Life Of The Lead duplicates email "opens" and "clicks" based on how many people are in the chain, giving a false view of engagement from customers
- Email clicks are a load of BS - it shows that emails were opened and every link clicked within 10 seconds of sending because of spam bots/filters. SharpSpring doesn't filter this data out, so we can't tell the difference between what's real and what's not. "Can't we export the excel sheet and do that filtering ourselves?" Nope - as stated before, one of the head IT guys at SharpSpring validated our concerns that the excel email report is indeed, shit data. None of it is usable
- Rather than creating a backlog of needed updates and releasing them as a batch update on non-business-hours, SharpSpring product development teams push updates during work hours, breaking crucial functionality for 3+ hours/week, leaving our sales staff twiddling thumbs and complaining.

When choosing a marketing automation platform for my agency, I knew I wanted something robust and customizable. I'm very hands on, and I don't like being constrained by the limitations of drag-and-drop editors or controlled interfaces. I want to be able to tailor my tools exactly to each client I work with, without compromising on functionality or efficiency. That's why SharpSpring has been a perfect fit for me! Not only is it affordable for a small agency like mine, who works with small businesses, but it's extremely powerful, and capable of executing any strategy my team or my clients require. The most complete and functional marketing automation platform out there!

Because of the large range of features, it can be a little intimidating to learn for some. But the onboarding team does a great job of walking you through implementation and getting you set up for success! Our agency focuses a lot on providing social media and content marketing services to our clients, and the SharpSpring content calendar is definitely not as robust or streamlined as some other platforms I've used. However, it's definitely not the focus of the platform, and there are workarounds for most of the issues I've run into with it. The SharpSpring team is also super responsive to feedback, and are constantly improving their product. I've already seen some great changes in the time I've been using the platform, and I'm confident the content calendar and scheduling tools will only continue to improve!