sharpspring vs. act-on a research guide for marketing agencies€¦ · sharpspring vs act-on 2016...

SharpSpring vs. Act-On2016 COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS REPORT

SharpSpring vs. Act-On

SharpSpring SharpSpring launched in 2014 with a focus on digital marketing agencies. Today, more than1,000 agencies use SharpSpring to deliver marketing automation to 14,000+ clients.SharpSpring doesn’t require an annual contract and is 1/10th the cost of Act-On.

Act-OnAct-On offers marketing automation, website management tools and a basic partner system for agencies, relying heavily upon integration with other CRM platforms and services. Marketing and sales teams at more than 3,000 companies use Act-On.

A Research Guide for Marketing Agencies

Features Comparable

Reviews

Terms Month to month Annual contract paid up front

Annual Cost (Get Started)(Agency + 3 Clients, 100K Contacts Each)

$6,000($2,300 Get Started)

$66,528 ($69,028 Get Started)

8.1/10

Trust Radius

7.3/10

Trust Radius

5/5

MarTech

4/5

MarTech

Professional

http://sharpspring.com


SHARPSPRING VS ACT-ON2016 COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS REPORT 2WWW.SHARPSPRING.COM

Steve Buck, Black Tie Digital Marketing

“I've used other automated marketing platforms at another agency, however

they are wildly expensive and more geared towards large business.

SharpSpring was affordable enough for our agency and our business clients.

SharpSpring is by far my favorite 3rd party vendor. Truthfully it is the

product as a whole that really made us decide we NEEDED to use it.”

What one SharpSpring partner says:

Real Results

GetIT Comms is a fast-growing B2B marketing agency that operates in 19 countries, providing regional services to some of the world’s leading technology organizations. After implementing SharpSpring for its clients, GetIT Comms experienced an average revenue increase of 20-30% per client.

Demodia is a digital marketing agency that specializes in demand generation, digital marketing, website development, and channel enablement. The agency got up and running with SharpSpring for lead generation in just over one month, and then began using it for clients and getting results in under three months.

SHARPSPRING VS ACTIVECAMPAIGN2016 COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS REPORT 2WWW.SHARPSPRING.COM

https://twitter.com/sharpspring

https://www.facebook.com/SharpSpringInc/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/2648897

https://sharpspring.com/contact-us/





SharpSpring wins on cost and contract type.SharpSpring comes in substantially lower than Act-On when it comes to monthly costs, and SharpSpring’s onboarding fee is slightly lower. In addition, Act-On locks customers into a full-year contract with payment up front, while SharpSpring customers only pay month to month and can cancel at any time.

PRICING (Agency + 3 Clients)

Commitment Due at Signing$2,300

Includes agency instance & 3 client instances

$69,028

Monthly Cost$500/mo.

Agency + 3 client instances. Month-to-month, cancel anytime.

$5,544/mo.Unlimited instances,annual contract billed in advance

Onboarding (One Time) $1,800 $2,500

Annual Cost $6,000 $66,528

Contacts 100K/instance (400K total) 400K

API Calls Included Per Day 20K/day(5K/day per instance) 1K/day

Marketing Users Unlimited 3

Sales Users Unlimited 50

Emails Included Per Month 100K(25K per instance) Unlimited

Pricing & Terms

ANNUAL COST 400K CONTACTS

Professional

$66,528

$6,000








SharpSpring promotes YOUR brand.Both platforms provide agency-focused features and allow agencies to determine how to charge clients. However, SharpSpring is specifically designed to build client relationships with the agency, not with a software provider. SharpSpring agency partners can reinforce their brands throughout the client relationship.

TOTAL 7/7 1/7

Rebrandable Interface (Logo/Colors)

White-Labeled URL

Rebrandable Sales Materials

Rebrandable Notifications

Multi-Client Management Console

Add a Client In-App

Share Templates Across Clients

Agency Features

AGENCY FEATURES

7/7 1/7

Professional








Feature parity in email marketing.Email marketing is at the core of all marketing automation platforms. SharpSpring and Act-On both excel in this area by offering all of the features that help agencies use email as an effective campaign tool for their clients.

TOTAL 8/8 8/8

Drag-and-Drop Editor

WYSIWYG Interface

Dynamic Content

Responsive Templates

After-the-Click Tracking

Render Testing

A/B Testing

RSS Email Syndication

Email Features

EMAIL FEATURES

8/8 8/8

Professional








TOTAL 11/11 10/11

Unlimited Workflows and Tasks

Triggers and Filters

Branching Workflows

Time-Based Automations

Behavior-Based Automations

Advanced Lead Scoring

Adjustable Universal Lead Scoring

Dynamic Lists

Advanced Segmentation

Dynamic Landing Pages

Personas

Automation Features

Parity in automation, but edge to SharpSpring.Automation is another area where SharpSpring and Act-On both have a rich feature set and match up evenly. SharpSpring offers personas, though, a feature that helps marketers know prospects better and target them with ultra-personalized content via dynamic emails and landing pages.

AUTOMATION FEATURES

11/11 10/11

Professional








Edge to Act-On, but SharpSpring’s auto-fill can be more effective.Act-On offers progressive profiling to gather data incrementally from leads, but this is a philosophical difference between the two platforms. SharpSpring’s approach is to use auto-complete to fill in information previously provided, but it continuously allows leads the option to update their email, phone or other information that has changed since their last visit.

TOTAL 11/12 12/12

Drag-and-Drop Form Builder

Dynamic Forms

Use CSS to Match Your Site

Customized Fields

Custom Calls to Action

Auto-Complete

Progressive Profiling

Form Analytics

Third-Party Forms Supported

Third-Party Post-Back

GoToWebinar Connected

Webex Connected

Form Features

FORM FEATURES

11/12 12/12

Professional








Contact tracking features pair up.Both platforms track information on anonymous site visitors and then tie those histories to their respective leads upon form fill-out. Both providers also offer reverse IP look-up to see visitors’ companies.

TOTAL 8/8 8/8

Identify Anonymous Site Visitors

Contact Info from Anonymous Visitors(e.g., Reverse IP Look-Up, Zoominfo)

Track Behavior History of Known Leads

Timeline of Lead Interactions

Daily Email of Site Visitors

Important Page Visit Tracking



Contact Tracking

CONTACT TRACKING

8/8 8/8

Professional








SharpSpring wins with funnels.While SharpSpring and Act-On both offer landing page builders, SharpSpring goes beyond basic landing pages and offers pre-built and customizable funnels – a series of up to seven landing pages designed to work together to convert and transform visitors into leads. SharpSpring also offers a library of responsive landing page templates.

TOTAL 7/7 6/7

Point-and-Click Editor

WYSIWYG Interface

Dynamic Content

Library of Responsive Templates

Optimize for Mobile

Build Single Landing Pages

Build Landing Page Funnels

Landing Page Builder

LANDING PAGE BUILDER

7/7 6/7

Professional








Blog builder unique to SharpSpring.If content is king, SharpSpring wins by offering a blog builder designed to crown your top-of-the funnel marketing and lead acquisition efforts. SharpSpring’s blog builder is also dynamic, allowing a blog to automatically respond to a lead’s attributes.

TOTAL 7/7 0/7

Point-and-Click Editor

WYSIWYG Interface

Dynamic Content

Library of Responsive Templates

RSS Email Syndication

Advance Post Scheduling

Social Sharing Widget

Blog Builder

BLOG BUILDER

7/7 0/7

Professional








Edge to Act-On in social features.Both solutions offer social media profiling and the ability for the sales team to interact with leads through social channels. More importantly, both platforms can track social media conversions/ROI. Act-On provides additional publishing and monitoring capabilities, which are on SharpSpring’s roadmap but aren’t currently available within the platform.

TOTAL 3/5 5/5

Social-CRM Integration

Social Profiling

Social Monitoring/Interactions

Social Publishing

Social Media Conversions

Social Media Features

SOCIAL MEDIA FEATURES

3/5 5/5

Professional








Edge to SharpSpring in sales feature set.SharpSpring sets itself apart from competitors by providing a free CRM that’s also optional (i.e., it plays nice with other CRMs). Only SharpSpring offers integrated call tracking to tie leads that come in by phone back to the original campaigns.

TOTAL 6/6 4/6

Built-In CRM



Native Salesforce Integration

Shopping Cart Integration

Built-In Call Tracking

Sales-Focused Features

SALES FOCUSED FEATURES

6/6 4/6

Professional








Parity in platform features.The platforms stack up well here, with a slight edge going to SharpSpring for reporting capabilities.

TOTAL 7/7 6/7

CMS Compatibility

Open API

Zapier Integrations

Multiple Device Tracking

Third-Party/Native Form Compatibilty

Native Salesforce Integration

Advanced Reporting/Data Exports

Platform Features

PLATFORM FEATURES

7/7 6/7

Professional








Migrations – two vs. unlimited.Act-On only supports migration from Marketo and HubSpot. Whether you’re coming from HubSpot, Marketo or any other marketing automation platform, SharpSpring will guide you through the process.

TOTAL 4/4 3/4

Dedicated Customer Success Manager

Platform Migration Support All Platforms Marketo/HubSpot Only

In-App Contextual Support Videos

Phone/Email Support

Partner Support

PARTNER SUPPORT

4/4 3/4

Professional







SHARPSPRING VS ACT-ONNOVEMBER 2016

WWW.SHARPSPRING.COM

Grow your agency.

Tie your customers to you.

Features Comparable

Reviews

Terms Month to month Annual contract paid up front

Annual Cost (Get Started)(Agency + 3 Clients, 100K Contacts Each)

$6,000($2,300 Get Started)

$66,528 ($69,028 Get Started)

8.1/10

Trust Radius

7.3/10

Trust Radius

5/5

MarTech

4/5

MarTech

Professional







https://sharpspring.com/agency/ppc2/


sharpspring vs. act-on a research guide for marketing agencies€¦ · sharpspring vs act-on 2016...

Documents