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Engagebay is a CRM system that offers an awful lot of interesting tools for sales managers and marketers. CRM stands for "Customer Relationship Management," a discipline at the intersection of sales and marketing that focuses on streamlining and optimizing customer data and customer relationships (with the goal of increasing revenue).
The difference between a CRM package and a marketing tool
CRMs are complete, but often expensive software packages. As a marketer or entrepreneur, you will be able to use some features, but not others. Every company is different and therefore every company has different marketing and sales needs.
With that, there is a chance that Engagebay even offers too many options for you or your business and you can't see the forest for the trees. Say you want to build a great landing page that converts well. Do you really need a complete tool like Engagebay? Probably not, yet that depends precisely on your personal, future goals or those of your company. For example, have you been considering using a complete CRM package for some time? Are your sales and marketing teams losing track? And do you also want to build complete landing pages using a marketing tool? Then, of course, comparing with other CRM packages does become interesting....
Beforehand, it is not immediately clear why you should choose a CRM or be better off with a dedicated tool for building high-scoring landing pages. During our own research, we couldn't even find a good YoutTube video about the exact difference, so as far as we're concerned, that says something....
Therefore, in this article we will discuss the main CRM alternatives to Engagebay that offer complete marketing solutions (including landing pages) and the main alternatives that focus more on building landing pages. That way, after reading this article, you can easily determine whether you would benefit from a CRM or a more mature marketing tool and which specific solution best suits your needs.
More about Engagebay
Engagebay is a relatively new, American developer in the CRM market and claims on its own website that "software exists by the grace of solving problems. At least that sounds good!
This is also the main reason that the team behind Engagebay has a clear focus on usability and wanted to build a complete set of tools that fit together seamlessly. In addition, the company is proud of the fact that they also offer a free plan, which users can start using right away.
To give you a better idea of the full set of tools and capabilities Engagebay offers you, take a look at the review below. You will quickly get an idea of the vast possibilities within the program.
Key features of the program:
- Marketing automation
- Email marketing
- Email sequences
- Landing pages
- Schedule appointments
- (Sales) CRM
- Live chat software
- Workflows and macros
- 360-degree customer profiles
In summary, Engagebay is one of the most complete CRM and marketing packages on the market today. Prices are very competitive and there are few components on which Engagebay scores poorly.
Engagebay alternatives and evaluation criteria
Now that you know what the power of Engagebay is, you may also realize that this can be a pitfall. Although Engagebay's team has done a handsome job of building a fairly uncluttered interface, this array of options still offers an overwhelming home screen. Do you have a moment?
More important perhaps is the question of whether you actually need these tools? In practice, this will depend on what stage you or your business is in. Are you a sole trader or do you have a smaller webshop? Then of course you can get started with the different tools of Engagebay, but we dare to say that as a starter you should not focus on them. That won't surprise you, since we at AdPage are convinced of the power of a good sales page, or landing page (but more on that later).
Have you since grown your business and lost track of interesting customers and leads or do you really want to scale up your marketing? Then Engagebay is one of the most interesting options when it comes to CRM software. Keep in mind, this is one of the most competitive markets and so you have a lot of providers to choose from. Fortunately, we'll give you a hand with our comparison below!
We scoured websites, blogs and comparison sites to scrutinize all the names, but in the end we focus on the most important tools. To assess whether a program is an interesting alternative, we looked at the criteria below.
- Opportunities and USPs.
Who, what, where and why? That's what we want to know as marketers, right? Ultimately, features determine the real power of a program. If developers have empathized well with the core tasks of sales and marketing teams, then incredibly beautiful solutions can emerge that make our lives a lot easier (like setting up workflows, for example). Unfortunately, we have found in practice that developers sometimes get it wrong.
- Usability
An incredibly big perk, of course, is usability. Nobody wants a software product with a huge manual. Even if software is functional, in that case there is little left to be excited about: after all, no one can find that great feature then. Fortunately, modern CRMs and tools are increasingly user-friendly.
- Price
Price is relative, which is why the success of a SaaS solution hinges on its capabilities. If you are able to either attract more sales or save an enormous amount of time, price may not be as big a stumbling block. On the other hand, the marketers behind these tools play into this themselves and you'll soon get the idea that you're crazy if you don't want to get started with all the highlighted components. No worries, stay sharp: who wants to pay for something that is not really needed?
1. ActiveCampaign
The most frequently mentioned software package in our small survey is ActiveCampaign. The company itself also claims to be the "No. 1 automation tool. In doing so, it has a clear focus on small and medium-sized businesses. Indeed, more than 100,000 businesses are already customers of this Chicago-based company. ActiveCampaign lets you get started with sales, marketing and customer service, but marketing is clearly the program's strongest suit.
With its automation capabilities, ActiveCampaign clearly stands out from the rest of CRM programs. Not that automation can be found exclusively with ActiveCampaign, but the price for this feature is also reasonable (especially when compared to the same functionality with competitor HubSpot). Even with the Lite version (starting at $9 per month) you can get started with an impressive amount of features. Users are generally very enthusiastic about ActiveCampaign's reports. That said, ActiveCampaign is one of the best solutions for marketers and agencies, especially with its white labeling.
2. HubSpot
As one of the very largest platforms in the industry, HubSpot offers various tools in marketing, sales, customer service, content management and website management. As one of the first providers, HubSpot addressed the problem of having to purchase a separate tool for everything. Yet HubSpot's software is set up in such a way that you can also work separately with the various tools, also called Hubs.
With Marketing Hub, you can build landing pages, automate workflows or set up an email marketing campaign in one package. Another strong point is that you can immediately link marketing campaigns to data from your Facebook Ads and Google Ads accounts to measure their effectiveness.
If you might be considering a CRM for your business anyway, HubSpot is one of Engagebay's most serious challengers. With that comes a pretty hefty price tag. Although you can start with the entry-level Starter subscription for about $45 per month, the cost quickly rises as you seek more functionality. With that, HubSpot also targets medium to large (corporate) customers.
3. Sendinblue
Sendinblue is a well-known name within digital marketing and has been around for a while now. The company was started in 2012 and focuses mainly on small and medium-sized businesses and novice marketers. It is also known for good value for money and the ability to A/B test.
By the way, you can also start and get started with a free account. Furthermore, Sendinblue offers email and SMS marketing, a good builder for landing pages and various segmentation options. A possible disadvantage of this program is the lack of (many) integrations or links with other tools. This leaves you more or less tied to Sendinblue's environment. Fortunately, the program offers several subscriptions, all of which are competitively priced.
4. MailChimp
Contrary to what the name suggests, MailChimp has long since ceased to be just an e-mail program. What many marketers don't know is that MailChimp also allows you to build beautiful landing pages. That, of course, does not make MailChimp a dedicated tool for landing pages, nor a complete marketing suite. It simply does not offer as many options for customizing landing pages, and you will find more functionality with many other providers.
A major drawback, for example, is that you will have to pay extra to get started with split testing. Going for the free subscription? Then also keep in mind that you will encounter the typical MailChimp branding. If that is not a stumbling block for you, then you can quickly and easily get started with landing pages, which you can then also link to an (existing) email campaign.
5. AdPage
Last, but not least, our own software tool from Dutch soil. With AdPage you can get started building landing pages, which you can then segment and personalize through profile enrichment. It's nice to know that the templates AdPage offers are already focused and tested for the Dutch market, so you can get started right away. Are you already familiar with the First Party cookie? With it, you make sure your marketing is AVG-proof for the future and fortunately AdPage helps you get started with that.
An important factor in choosing AdPage is quality, speed and support. You can also get started with an extensive "multistep" questionnaire, where you can submit questions to your visitors and dynamically adjust them based on answers and data. You'll also find several options for creating pop-ups.
Are you already using other tools? No problem, because you can seamlessly integrate AdPage with existing tools like Mailblue, ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp, Salesforce or any of 500(!) other tools.
One drawback of AdPage may be that it is not a complete alternative to CRM packages, such as Engagebay and others. AdPage is ideal for marketing agencies that want to increase conversion rates for clients through effective landing pages.
You can start with AdPage for a reasonable 39 euros per month, but a free trial can also be requested by mutual agreement.
Conclusion
CRMs are very complete packages, and Engagebay is a wonderful program that offers many features for marketers and sales managers. The program offers incredible functionality at a competitive price. Still, there are many hijackers on the coast, especially if you were considering buying a subscription for a complete CRM package anyway. Engagebay's main CRM competitor is probably HubSpot, but you'll have to pay quite a bit for that.
A key question you will need to ask yourself is: do you need a full CRM (already) or do you want to get started with a marketing suite or tool? Other challengers focus more specifically on a particular target audience, such as marketers or budding entrepreneurs. Here you often encounter American names, such as Sendinblue and Mailchimp, for example.
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Would you like to get started building landing pages easily and conveniently? Then we recommend AdPage, our own tool from Dutch soil. AdPage offers, besides a user-friendly interface that lets you build the most beautiful landing pages in no time, full support from our enthusiastic team members.
Curious to know how AdPage helps marketers and agencies increase their sales on a daily basis? Then we would like to show you a demo, so you can be convinced of the quality and ease of use of our software. We would love to tell you about the experiences of customers who have gone before you!