Comparison between Ontraport and Keap / Infusionsoft

Hi

If you are looking for a CRM / Marketing Automation system then you may be comparing Ontraport and Keap / Infusionsoft.

Here is a link to a great and balanced article by Trent Dyrsmid in which he compares Ontraport and Keap / Infusionsoft.

Obviously, I am biased to Keap / Infusionsoft. But I like to be aware of how the competition stacks up so here are my main take away points from Trent’s article that I confirm.

1 Campaign Builder – This is an awesome tool for automating your business and was introduced by Keap / Infusionsoft a couple of years ago now. Prior to that you had to automate marketing in a way very similar to how Ontraport works now – as Trent outlines in his article.  Ontraports automation is rules based and does a job, but does not give you the power that Keap / Infusionsoft has. Looking at the screen shot of the Ontraport automation takes me back to 2009 when I started with Keap / Infusionsoft.

2 The look and feel. When I first looked at the style and branding of Ontraport I immediately said “Ontraport is the “Apple” version”, “Keap / Infusionsoft is the “Microsoft” version.   And I have had clients say that “Keap / Infusionsoft is not like a Mac” and get frustrated that it does not look or is as intuitive like a Mac. At the end of the day I do not care about this – I want a tool that does the job, makes sales and grows a business   (but I would say that as I am a PC user!)

3 Ontraport has some nice features that are not included “in the box” with Keap / Infusionsoft. But with the Keap / Infusionsoft Market Place there is a huge and growing list of tools you can “add on” and you can even build your own bespoke tools for your business – but of course at an extra cost. But if an extra feature could double your business – or even put you in business, then the cost would most likely be miniscule compared to the business generated.

4  Ecommerce. I started my marketing career back in 1996 in traditional mail order, which is now called Ecommerce. So this is a big interest to me and I like to work with clients who are selling online. So a system that does not have a great Ecommerce integration is a no no for me. Ontraport is like other systems such as Salesforce and SugarCRM in this respoect – the ecommerce functionality is an add on and from my experience these add ons are somewhat lacking.

5 The Keap / Infusionsoft start up fee. Those considering Keap / Infusionsoft often baulk at having to pay a start up fee. And they also often ask why then cannot have a 30 day trial.

There are good reasons for this. Keap / Infusionsoft is not like simple email sending platforms like Aweber, MailChimp, Constant Contact et al. With these systems you can have a play and get a simple email list set up in a few minutes – easy. So a free trial is an important part of their sales process. This is great if you are new to online marketing and just starting out and finding your way – and do not have any marketing budget.

What Keap / Infusionsoft have learnt over time is that Keap / Infusionsoft does not lend itself to this type of free trial marketing – because it is a sophisticated system that has a steep learning curve. If they gave someone a free trial of the software without guidance then they would quickly become lost in all the functionality available. So a free trial does not suit a sophisticated piece of software. You are much better to get a demonstration from an Keap / Infusionsoft Certified Partner.

And this brings us to the point of the start-up fee. To use Keap / Infusionsoft fully requires an investment – not just the start up fee but in time to learn and evolve your Keap / Infusionsoft application so that it can support your ever changing business requirements. So be aware that there is a steep learning curve, there are costs in learning how to fully utilise Keap / Infusionsoft. BUT, once you overcome the initial learning curve then you have a sophisticated online marketers “tool box” at your disposal that can launch your business to real success.

Anyhow, that’s enought from me. Here is the link to Trent’s article again where he compares Ontraport and Keap / Infusionsoft.

http://brightideas.co/ontraport-vs-infusionsoft/

Cheers

Julian