What is the Difference Between Constant Contact Emails and SharpSpring CRM?
Many companies rely on Constant Contact emails to communicate with current and potential customers. With the acquisition of SharpSpring (SHSP) by Constant Contact comes a variety of new features. Understanding the difference helps agencies and end-users explore the many benefits of this recent acquisition.
Lead Generation Amplified
When businesses discovered Constant Contact, a significant benefit was importing lists of contacts rather than relying on error-prone manual entry. In addition, because it’s an ESP (email service provider), it has limited lead nurturing and conversion capabilities.
SHSP CRM (customer relationship management) marketing automation offers additional features to support lead nurturing and conversion efforts. Besides importing lists of contacts, it also provides advantages such as:
- VisitorID to identify anonymous web traffic and identify potential prospects
- Dynamic form fields for building complete contact profiles to stay in touch with leads
- Third-party and native-form integration for streamlined operations
- Qualify leads based on the position in the sales cycle
- Schedule automated emails to leads when they show signs of interest for a customized approach
Driving Sales Today and Tomorrow
Sending lead generation emails was once a tedious manual process. Primitive software organized entering and sending emails but still required human intervention. Then, constant Contact emails stepped up with CRM integrations and an easy-to-use email designer, helping businesses create a more effective follow-up strategy with leads.
SHSP offers these features with additional ones to help drive sales today and in the future, enabling agencies to provide measurable value to their clients. For example, a notification is sent to the sales team of a lead’s online activity to follow the lead through the sales funnel. Plus, leads are automatically segmented based on behavior to target future marketing campaigns.
Customization is another advantage of the CRM platform, which differs from Constant Contact emails. Targeted messages mean nearly one-on-one communication with prospects for a personalized approach. In addition, an illustrated timeline of all the emails each contact received makes it easy to follow the customer journey. Finally, segmented messages mean increased engagement with leads to build customer relationships and drive more sales.
In 2019, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) named personalization the marketing word of the year. Today 33 percent of marketers spend more than half their online marketing dollars on personalization opportunities. As more companies focus on personalization, a customized approach is crucial to remain competitive – and profitable.
Realize a Return on Investment for Marketing Automation
One of the most significant differences between the two platforms is automation. SHSP provides a myriad of lead-generating and nurturing features to help agencies prove a return on investment to their clients, including:
- Chatbots
- Landing pages
- One-one video calling
- Smart mail templates
End-users recognize the advantages of investing in marketing automation for a customized marketing strategy that follows leads from the first contact to their most recent purchases.
Both platforms offer open rate and click-through rate tracking to determine the success of your marketing campaigns. Additional features provided by SHSP include website behavior reports, identification of a contact’s position in the sales process, and online and offline monitoring of leads activity. Plus, it provides essential campaign attribution, which is becoming harder for marketers to track with changes in privacy laws and third-party cookie data.
SHSP provides you with automatic return on investment calculations to bring it all together for agencies. Showing a measurable return for marketing campaigns is now right at your fingertips to support marketing efforts or make necessary changes for the best possible results.
Start Realizing the Benefits Today
For over a decade, Cultivize has helped agencies harness the full potential of the SHSP CRM platform. As a result, almost every agency partner and client we’ve worked with were using just a fraction of the powerful tools available to skyrocket their marketing campaigns and sales.
Contact Cultivize today to learn more about increasing leads, retaining customers, and growing new revenue streams.
