Infusionsoft review by Inspector Jones

Infusionsoft is an integrated marketing and sales platform aimed at small businesses. This is an all-in-one system that encompasses CRM, eCommerce, social media and email marketing. The information collected is stored in the cloud and is accessible anywhere, thanks to an app that can be used on mobile devices.

It is a web-based system that means that small business owners can manage and automate many of their sales and marketing functions, giving them the appearance of being seamless. It works with a number of other websites and email platforms, including Gmail, Microsoft Outlook and PayPal.

Like most CRM systems, Infusionsoft allows your sales reps to enter any customers’ details into the system. What makes this particularly easy is the fact that they can simply enter or update details using their mobile devices, while out in the field. Once entered, the customers’ details are then available for any future needs. There is no need to reenter them at other stages in the sales process.

The system encompasses the entire sales funnel: from the moment that a potential lead is recorded and entered into the system, through any targeted marketing campaigns, through the actual sales process once confirmed sales have been made, all the way to recording payments made by customers.

Automation is a feature of the Infusionsoft offering, with a stated aim of taking away the least productive parts of the sales and marketing process from small business owners. It tries to do all of the behind-the-scenes manipulation of client information, so that the users can focus instead on actual lead generation, sales and customer service.

It is particularly useful for firms that have an online sales platform. Infusionsoft began by offering email marketing services, which they have now expanded to the full CRM service.

As Infusionsoft enables the collection of a considerable amount of data at various points in the sales and marketing process, this enables this data to be tracked and analyzed. Any sales and marketing history built up can be filtered in many ways to determine useful information to help target your future campaigns – both in relation to customer and in relation to product.

It is easy to create useful lists based on criteria like demographics, lead score, email clicks, purchase histories, payment histories and many other areas.

There is full calendar and task functionality, related to marketing and sales, so you can organize, prioritize and work through your sales activities, simply using the one data source.

One particularly useful feature is that you can easily create a custom quote for a lead, sending it via email. If they click on an appropriate button in the email it is automatically turned into an order.

Infusionsoft offers a number of pricing tiers, starting at $199 per month. Their complete system, including contact management, marketing automation, sales automation, eCommerce and access rights for 5 users, costs $379. This is more expensive than some of their competitors, e.g. Zoho costs $60 per month. Infusionsoft has a less clunky interface, though, is more wide-ranging, and appears to be more user-friendly.

Infusionsoft is definitely a CRM system (and more) that small businesses should consider.