Email marketing is undoubtedly one of the most crucial aspects of online business success. Many studies have shown that emails get the highest engagement among all other online marketing mediums. In terms of sales and profits, email marketing also has the highest ROI. Ontraport Vs Infusionsoft is one of the most prominent dilemmas when it comes to selecting an ideal platform for your email marketing.
To make the most of your multi-channel marketing efforts, the software which you choose to use will be a significant determinant of your success. With the right software, it’ll be easy to reach out to customers, and potential customers at different stages of your sales funnel. You’ll be able to engage with them effectively and track how well you’re doing as you iterate your process.
The wrong software will have the opposite effect. It’ll make your work unnecessarily complicated and reduce your efficiency significantly.
Although there are a wide variety of options available when it comes to email marketing software, Ontraport Vs Infusionsoft have generally come to be the most prominent of the lot. If you’re finding it hard to decide between them, you’ve come to the right place. In this review/comparison, we’ll comprehensively analyze them to help you pick the one that’s best for you.
Quick Summary – The Truth Upfront
Infusionsoft has a robust suite of features and excels when it comes to integrations. With more than 500 integrations across several categories, you’re likely to find your current services included. You’ll be able to do a lot more, especially if you’re technically savvy to go through the steep learning curve effectively.
Ontraport, on the other hand, costs much less and has comparable (even better in some cases ) features. It falls short when it comes to integration options though. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though since it means there’s an easier learning curve and less clutter.
Overview of Infusionsoft and Ontraport
History and Culture
Infusionsoft entered the market in 2001 and began to focus on automation with a custom script written by one of its founders, Clate Mask in 2004. Since getting venture funded, the company has restructured its business many times, but the growth has been constant. The company was especially popular in the industry due to its annual conference, known as ICON. The conference was halted last year, but it had already helped the company make its mark.
Ontraport is markedly different from Infusionsoft in that the founders have chosen to take the bootstrapping approach instead of venture funding. Originally founded as “Office Autopilot” in 2006, the name was changed to Ontraport in 2013. The founder, Landon Ray, has led the company to various recognitions and awards.
Target Audience and Feature set
The Ontraport Vs Infusionsoft debate is quite tight here. Both are email marketing automation software targeted at small-to-medium-sized businesses. They both expect the users to have an established sales and online marketing process in place, as well as a reasonable amount of revenue.
They have much more features than other email marketing software such as MailChimp and Convertkit which are focused on individual bloggers or similar businesses. The difference is most visible in the integrations which they offer. The integrations allow businesses to connect the software with a slew of landing page builder software, helpdesks, CMSs, social networks, marketing and e-commerce software, etc. Zapier integration support is crucial here, as is native support for certain services.
Beyond email automation, both also work as CRM/inbound marketing automation platforms designed to enable businesses to track and engage with customers and potential customers at every stage of the sales process. For most businesses, this function will likely be the most crucial factor for going for one of these instead of the leaner but less full-featured automation software such as MailChimp and Convertkit.
Ontraport Vs Infusionsoft Email Marketing Automation Features
Ontraport’s approach to automation is for users to create automated sequences detailing scheduled interactions with contacts. This is done using a visual campaign builder that’s quite new but has all the major features. The sequences are divided into two categories – Date Sequences and Step Sequences. Step Sequences are most appropriate for drip campaigns which are activated by customer actions (welcome drip campaigns, for instance). Date Sequences are time-activated, helping businesses send targeted emails on customer birthdays, promotions, subscription reminders, etc.
Ontraport users can access a wide range of templates for various use-cases via the in-app marketplace. You can also implement all the basic email marketing features such as mail merge, schedules, segmentation and others which help to optimize deliverability and open rates. Also, Ontraport offers a “Projection Mode” which uses advanced AI and data analysis to predict the impact that changes in strategy will have.
With Infusionsoft, the same marketing automation features are available, with the major difference being the approach to them. Infusionsoft uses a visual campaign builder that’s generally acclaimed to be very attractive. It makes it easy to visualize the campaign and tinker with the triggers which will initiate specific emails or other actions. There’s a wide range of triggers to choose from. For instance, you could set emails to be sent after a website visitor clicks on a certain link, downloads a resource or signs up for a newsletter.
For lead generation and capturing, both Infusionsoft and Ontraport include support for landing pages. They have proprietary landing page builder software with drag and drop support which you can use to make custom designs. You can also embed forms to capture email addresses to grow your mailing list.
Ontraport Vs Infusionsoft CRM Features
Businesses, whether they are wholly based online or offline with an online aspect, need to be able to manage their customer data effectively. Being able to identify a customer’s source and specific location in your sales funnel can be the difference between a highly-targeted email that spurs them to action or one that they’ll dismiss as spam.
Infusionsoft’s CRM software has all the features you’d need to add new contacts, companies or referral partners. That’ll make it easy to identify customer origins and group them accordingly. Where necessary, you can also attach custom notes, history and contact info (with custom fields) to allow for more specificity.
You can also track website visitors to see how they are engaging with your content. For e-commerce companies, sending custom purchase links and receiving/tracking payments are also quite straightforward with the right integrations.
Ontraport also has extensive CRM features. You can add contacts, companies as well as opportunities and deals with almost no limit on the trigger types and data manipulation options. The layout of the CRM dashboard is fully customizable, and you can have up to 150 custom fields per object type.
It also comes with a ‘Card View’ which you can use to arrange contact data in a more aesthetic if less efficient manner. At the pro level, you’ll also be able to link various data points to be used in automating your marketing efforts. That level of data control is unprecedented and would require getting a 3rd party application to implement on Infusionsoft.
Integrations and 3rd Party Extensions
Integrations are crucial for CRM software and marketing automation software. Being able to connect your various data sources and services can save immense amounts of time and effort via automation tools. Besides, integrations can also be customer-facing, such as by streamlining the payment process for a membership site or by integrating your sales software for advanced e-commerce functionality. Infusion payments is a new feature for processing payments but well worth checking out.
Infusionsoft is the leader in this area, with around 600 integrations, ranging from other CRMs to e-commerce and many other services. Between a third and half of those are free, and they are listed in four categories – Action Plans, Apps, Campaigns and Services.
Ontraport is currently limited to less than 100 integrations, but that number is rising rapidly. The essentials are generally covered though, with support for PayPal, Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress, Xero and many others, including major social media platforms.
Setup Cost and Subscription Pricing
When it comes to choosing the best tools, it’s natural that price is a major consideration for business owners. In the course of cutting overhead though, it’s important to remember that there’s often a marked difference between price and value. You should spend the time to thoroughly evaluate the software to determine which one has the features you need, instead of deciding solely based on price.
Infusionsoft is by far the more expensive option here. In the short term, you’ll have to pay between $999 and $2,999 as a start-up fee to be onboarded and trained on using the software via the Kickstart packages. That includes specialized coaching from experts, but with varying comprehensiveness. After that, you’ll need to select one of the five plans which cost between $199 and $599 per month. The main differences between the basic plan and top-tier ones are the sales automation tools and e-commerce features included.
Ontraport on the other hand does not require any payment for onboarding and even includes it on the two more expensive tiers (out of three). The prices are $79, $297 and $597 per month. The main differences being the reporting features, integrations and number of contacts (1,000, 25000 and 100,000 respectively.
Reporting and Analytics
In any marketing campaign, it’s crucial to be able to track your activities and the results they’re yielding. That’ll help you iterate your process and modify the aspects necessary to improve your led generation, conversion rate and ROI.
Both Ontraport and Infusionsoft collect extensive data at every customer touchpoint. These include website visits, email engagements, closures by sales reps, etc. Regardless of which one you choose, you’ll be able to see detailed analytics on the performance of your marketing assets. You can monitor a wide range of KPIs very easily on either marketing automation platform.
Ontraport does have a unique feature though – Its ‘Projection Mode’ feature. It uses predictive analysis to project the effects of specific modifications on your campaign performance. Though it’s not quite ready to replace split testing yet, it can be a helpful guide as you iterate your sales process.
Infusionsoft also provides accurate, real-time tracking. Its edge in this area comes from the myriad integrations which you can use. You can incorporate different services into the overall reporting. That’ll make it possible for you to easily see how your entire marketing and sales process is doing.
Support
With any software, there are bound to bee issues at some points in time. In an area as crucial to business success as marketing and sales, being able to fix such issues quickly is of paramount importance. Any downtime could mean the loss of valuable leads, opportunities, and profits.
Ontraport and Infusion soft both have knowledgebase libraries which include guides on getting started and using all their features well. They also include articles on various subjects, FAQs and even videos to make it easy for you to resolve any issue you have. Infusionsoft does have an on-demand training system in place (Infusion University) and an Infusionsoft demo package to help potential customers experience the platform. If you need to have an expert intervene to solve the problem, you can reach out to them via different means.
For Ontraport, you can contact them between 6:00 am – 12:00 am on Mondays through Thursdays, 6:00 am – 9:00 pm PST on Fridays and 9:00 am – 9:00 pm PST on Saturdays and Sundays. If you prefer to use chat, you can get in touch with them during those same hours. Infusionsoft, on the other hand, appears to prioritize chat support. They offer 24/7 chat support but are only available via phone on Weekdays between 6:00 am – 7:00 pm MST. It’s worth noting too, that Ontraport also provides support via their social media accounts and even runs a Facebook User Community where you might be able to get answers even outside their phone hours.
Here, you’ll need to consider whether you prefer phone support or chat. You should also consider whether you’re willing to deal with the delay if something comes up outside of the Ontraport customer service hours.
Additional Features
Apart from the comparisons above, here are some other differences between Infusion and Ontraport which you must consider.
SMS Support
Email is great, but a well-timed SMS can be better in many instances. Ontraport supports natively, allowing you to seamlessly schedule and send out SMS just as part of your marketing campaigns. Infusionsoft doesn’t support SMS natively, but you can use a third-party app to get the functionality.
Ontraport Vs Infusionsoft Mobile Apps
Both Infusionsoft and Ontraport have mobile apps, and you can use many of the features through them. Ontraport has more features available via its mobile app though – enough that you can practically run entire marketing campaigns right from your phone.
Conclusion
It’s clear that Ontraport and Infusionsoft are both capable software which can boost your marketing success if used effectively. Furthermore, they have strengths and weaknesses in different areas, as shown above. Ultimately, the choice between Ontraport Vs Infusionsoft will boil down to your specific business needs.
So, whether you choose to buy Infusionsoft or Ontraport though, it’ll be crucial to make sure you learn how to use it to full capacity. That way, you’ll spend less time-solving problems and more time using the software to boost your sales.
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