Small business owners are masters at efficiency. With lean internal resources and big goals, it’s crucial that every action they take achieve the greatest impact. Designed with that goal in mind, Infusionsoft, a sales and marketing platform, helps small business owners get organized, grow their sales, and save time in the process.
“Infusionsoft combines customer relationship management (CRM), marketing, and ecommerce into a single platform, and it’s all about helping small business owners be more successful,” says Kyle Leavitt, Infusionsoft’s vice president of product. The company aims to free small businesses from inefficient systems that don’t always work well together by providing a streamlined way to connect with customers and increase conversion rates.
The contacts section puts customer data at your fingertips.
Small Business All-in-One: CRM, Marketing, and Ecommerce
The Infusionsoft platform’s core component is the CRM module, which brings together everything small business owners needs to know about their customers—appointments, tasks, event notes. “We expect that our customers will use the system for their day-to-day productivity to get things done in their business,” says Leavitt.
The platform’s efficient CRM component hits its stride when combined with the marketing automation module. “Many small businesses struggle with following up on prospects and customers,” says Leavitt. “They can consolidate all their contacts, customers, and prospect leads into the Infusionsoft system, create campaigns, and then automatically follow up with them.”
The dashboard puts the most important customer information in one place.
Infusionsoft also includes a campaign builder, which Leavitt describes as “a visual drag-and-drop way to build your follow-up sequences and other marketing automation flows.” It’s a capability not always available outside the enterprise sector, but one that’s incredibly useful.
“It opens up a world of new possibilities for small business owners,” says Leavitt. An email broadcast function is also built in, which you can use to send communications to the various marketing lists within the system.
Does your small business need ecommerce support? Infusionsoft has you covered there, too. Between the basic shopping cart and order form functionalities, companies can quickly get their offerings online and complete transactions over the Web. And the company keeps expanding its ecommerce capabilities.
The marketing automation module lets you control the flow of customer interactions.
“Earlier this year, we released Infusionsoft payments,” says Leavitt. It’s an important addition for small business operators. “When you’re starting or running a small business, you need to take orders to get money flowing into your bank account,” explains Leavitt. It can be a painful process, especially for businesses that are just launching and may not have everything a bank is asking for, such as extensive order histories.
“The process of getting loans approved can be very lengthy and tedious,” says Leavitt. His team decided to address that frustration point with a system that gives businesses a quick and easy way to process orders. “The rates are very competitive with some of the other small business payment processors,” he adds.
Tasks, appointments, and notes come together in an easy-to-read daily snapshot.
Infusionsoft: Strong on Software, Easy on Hardware
Because Infusionsoft is a hosted software product, you can log in to the online portal through any Web-connected device. The platform also has an offering specifically tailored for mobile devices. “You can use your mobile device to log in to the full desktop version via the Web, but generally people access Infusionsoft Mobile, which offers limited functionality targeted to people on the go,” says Leavitt.
The mobile version lets you access your contacts, search for people in your database, create appointments and tasks, and see what you need to get done. The company has near-future plans to roll out mobile process-payment capability. It’s a feature that will give service businesses, whose employees may be on the road with customers, the option to swipe credit cards onsite, process transactions, and add orders into the system.
Sales staff can quickly see a summary of their current status and outstanding actions.
Infusionsoft recently added these features to its platform:
- Email Broadcast Tool: step-by-step instructions for sending email broadcasts
- Campaign Checklist: Reviews the automated campaigns for errors
- Initial Setup Wizard and Basic Training: learn about Infusionsoft fundamentals
Infusionsoft Pricing
Infusionsoft comes in several different flavors to meet a variety of needs. Essentials—the entry point version—includes the CRM and marketing automation components, and sells for $199 per month. The Deluxe version costs $299 per month and comes with contact management, marketing automation, and the option of either the sales automation or ecommerce module.
For small businesses with bigger needs, the Complete edition runs $379 per month and comes with everything—contact management, marketing automation, sales automation and ecommerce. At the top of the pricing tier, the Team version costs $599 per month and includes everything in the Complete edition plus it gives businesses the capability to add even more users, contacts, and email communications.
Julie Knudson is a freelance writer whose articles have appeared in technology magazines including BizTech, Processor, and For The Record. She has covered technology issues for publications in other industries, from foodservice to insurance, and she also writes a recurring column in Integrated Systems Contractor magazine.
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