Ontraport Review 2023: Is It The Best CRM Software For Your Business?

I know how important it is to have the right tools for success. The right marketing automation and CRM solutions can make or break any business.

Over the last few years, I’ve been exploring various options for finding out what works best for me and my business – from Infusionsoft to Marketo, Active Campaign, and more! However, none has stood out as much as Ontraport.

Recently, I decided to take the plunge and dive into its world of cutting-edge features with both feet – and let’s say that since then, my productivity levels have skyrocketed! In this blog post series, you’ll get an up-close look at Ontraport – all from someone who uses (and loves) their services daily.

Let’s find out by going through its key capabilities in detail. This Ontraport review contains all of the information you could need regarding the program.

Ontraport Review 2023: What Is Ontraport?

Ontraport is a business automation platform incorporating a customer relationship management (CRM) component. Ontraport was ranked No. 71 on Forbes’ list of “America’s Most Promising Companies.”

Ontraport was created in 2006 in Santa Barbara, California, by Landon Ray, Pin Chen, and Steven Schneider.

Ray, a former flower seller who became a Wall Street trader, said he was “running another firm and went into the same challenges that many entrepreneurs go through and couldn’t believe there wasn’t a clear answer.”

The three co-founded the small company automation platform Office AutoPilot (predecessor of Ontraport) in 2008 from a backyard yurt.

Ontraport Major Benefits

Let’s go over the significant features of Ontraport:

1. Customer Relationship Management:

Based on what I’ve reviewed, ontraport is more of a CRM platform than a marketing solution. It delivers a highly efficient customer relationship management solution that enables salespeople and marketers to maintain positive long-term relationships with their clients.

You should be able to personalize the messages you send to customers, address their concerns, compile your previous and current customer interactions, track your customers’ progress through their respective workflows, import and update customer information, monitor your customers’ behaviors, and create sales workflows, among other things.

Then, inside Ontraport’s campaign processes, your consumers are shown in categorized cards for simple tracking. Additionally, the system groups them depending on their development and the sales funnel, enabling you to pinpoint your primary goals.

Additionally, salespeople may use the drag-and-drop interface to design primary and sophisticated pipelines and manage their leads through various phases.

Additionally, Ontraport provides customers with tools for taking notes during conversations, establishing email sequences, and creating tasks.

2. Building Campaigns and Automation:

After creating your campaign’s forms, emails, and landing pages, you should go to Ontraport’s campaign builder.

Now, the campaign builder is the platform’s primary tool. Without it, Ontraport is entirely useless. And since everything revolves around it, the campaign builder will likely be the tool you spend most of your time on.

The builder mixes marketing automation and customer relationship management (CRM) through a simple visual flow. Consider it a standard automation builder with built-in CRM capabilities.

By offering a birds-eye perspective of the whole approach, it attempts to simplify an otherwise complex campaign structure. Thus, the campaign builder includes tools for constructing visual automation processes.

The resulting chart should then depict the connections between all segments, rules, tags, and the associated campaign messages. This means you can monitor your campaign’s blueprint and its real-time progress data.

And while we’re on the subject, Ontraport offers a variety of various vistas. To begin, campaign creation happens in the editing mode.

Alternatively, you may visit its live view to monitor the real-time process. Then, “projection” and “performance” modes become helpful when a contextual perspective is required.

3. Designing Emails, Landing Pages, and Opt-In Forms:

Besides email marketing, Ontraport also allows you to develop landing sites and registration forms. However, get this – they do not utilize distinct editors.

Even though they are distinct marketing channels, Ontraport has combined their customizing capabilities into a single central editor.

As a result, the editing procedure for your emails is virtually identical to the one you use for your landing pages and associated website forms. This should spare you from retraining yourself each time you move between the three.

When it comes to the actual construction process, Ontraport’s block-based editor gives you the option of starting from scratch or using one of the pre-built templates.

I’m guessing you’d choose the second choice over the first since it seems more tiresome. Acceptable. However, Ontraport provides a slew of building components that simplify your task.

Thus, starting from scratch does not always imply completely rebuilding everything. Simply choose the right blocks, position them logically, and then personalize their look. That is all there is to it.

And, while we’re on the subject of simplicity, working with templates is considerably more straightforward and quicker.

Fortunately, Ontraport provides an extensive selection of well-designed solutions from which to pick depending on your marketing campaign goals. Each of them is entirely free, appropriately responsive, and very configurable.

Once you’ve chosen an email, landing page, or form template that meets your needs, you can begin working on it from the editor. Numerous modification choices are available here, owing to the editor’s versatility.

More precisely, you may alter the layout, add new blocks, and fine-tune aspects such as shape, color, and font.

4. Contact Management:

The finest characteristic of properly equipped CRM systems is that they always have robust contact management capabilities. And Ontraport is not an exception.

Because all its CRM activities are intrinsically connected to the relevant contact database, you may be sure you will get the necessary administrative capabilities. For eg., the procedure of adding contacts is highly flexible.

If you’re starting from scratch and want to build a contact base, you might use Ontraport’s landing pages, SMS, and forms. Otherwise, users with pre-existing lists may continue manually or directly importing their contacts.

Additionally, the kind of contact information you may keep here is limitless. Ontraport enables you to tailor your contact fields to the information you want on your profiles.

Then, to assist you in targeting the appropriate contacts for your campaigns, Ontraport gives further information such as appointment history, account activity, engagement history, lead score, and purchase history. You should be able to track such parameters from each contact’s profile.

However, it would be best if you did not stop there. Consider aggregating and segmenting your contacts based on common factors to optimize marketing outcomes.

Fortunately, Ontraport has the appropriate tools for this. It enables you to create dynamic groups based on custom rules.

For instance, you may create lists that automatically qualify and deny leads based on their behavior, hobbies, or demographic information. Naturally, how you categorize your connections is totally up to you.

However, if you have many contacts, you may need assistance from your team members. This is the point at which you may use Ontraport’s Lead Router automation tool, which equitably distributes leads among team members.

If you don’t have a team, have no fear; Ontraport has your back. You may customize it so that contacts are automatically added to email campaigns. The system as a whole is sufficiently adaptable to suit whatever qualifying criteria you want.

5. Utilization Ease and Learning Curve: 😀

Free plans are pretty prevalent among email marketing platforms. I’m unsure how the tendency began, but I believe it makes a significant difference when weighing your alternatives. That is partially why MailChimp continues to expand at an exponential pace.

Regrettably, you will not find it here. Regarding packaging generosity, Ontraport falls well short of rivals such as MailChimp. The most it will go is a 14-day free trial.

On the plus side, Ontraport will not request your credit card information. You may test its services for two weeks without committing to a long-term subscription.

Beyond that, Ontraport’s cheapest package is $79 per month for the basic plan. As a result, if you’re on a budget, this may exclude you.

Now that you’ve signed up and logged in, your first impression of Ontraport’s system may be perplexing. Given that it supposedly focuses on email marketing, you may expect to see choices such as “Automation” or “Campaigns” in the menu bar. However, this is not the case here.

Only three of its six primary menu items are email marketing-related: “Dashboard,” “Campaigns,” and “Contacts.”

The remainder (“Pages,” “Tasks,” and “Sales”) are more often connected with customer relationship management (CRM) systems than with email marketing. As a result, Ontraport may seem to be a CRM system when you first access its dashboard.

You’ll note the firm has made an admirable effort to create a clean interface. I like Ontraport’s basic design, which makes it easy to use the site.

Conversely, the primary dashboard may seem a little busy due to the abundance of default numbers. You may check a variety of performance metrics related to your campaigns.

On the plus side, Ontraport does enable you to personalize the interface. It effectively acts as a drag-and-drop editor for structuring your dashboard’s appearance and setting the reports you want to display.

As you begin exploring the site, it becomes clear that things are not as straightforward as you initially believed. Ontraport is a relatively robust automation platform with many tools and capabilities that may overwhelm you.

Indeed, even seasoned marketers may need some time to get their bearings here. The only group that may have it more accessible are salespeople with prior experience with complex CRM software, whereas newcomers will almost certainly encounter a high learning curve.

Allow yourself roughly a week to a month to fully comprehend how each tool works.

6. Membership Sites

Membership sites are an excellent way for businesses and individuals to offer exclusive content and services to their customers or members.

With membership sites, businesses can create their members-only online community. In this private space, customers or members can access information, products, and services unavailable to the public.

Using membership sites, businesses can create additional revenue streams, deepen customer engagement, and increase loyalty.

Ontraport makes it easy to set up a membership site with its integrated membership software, allowing users to easily create custom content access levels for members or customers.

Ontraport’s membership software allows users to easily create subscription plans for their members or customers. Each plan can be tailored to fit the needs of the business, with options to set different levels of access for members.

Ontraport’s membership software also allows users to create content walls and payment gateways. This ensures that members are only granted access to the content they paid for and are charged correctly.

Ontraport makes it easy to manage a membership site with features such as automated email campaigns, drip content delivery, and reporting tools. With the email campaign feature, businesses can create automated emails for members when they sign up or renew their membership.

Drip content delivery allows users to set a schedule for delivering content over time—allowing members to access new content regularly. Reporting tools allow users to track membership analytics and gain insights into their members.

7. Web App 

Ontraport makes it easy to create custom web experiences without any coding knowledge. With Ontraport, you can quickly build engaging online courses, customer portals, online directories, and blogs for your target audience.

The intuitive drag-and-drop interface allows you to easily customize your content, while the powerful built-in tools make managing and tracking users a breeze. You can quickly add text, images, videos, and other content to make your web experiences unique.

8. Calendar

Ontraport Calendar makes managing appointments and follow-up easier than ever before. Our automation engine lets you quickly create events, schedule reminders, and sync your Google Calendar with Ontraport.

This way, you can ensure your schedule covers all the important meetings and tasks that must be attended to. With Ontraport’s automated calendar tools, organizing appointments and follow-ups is efficient and stress-free. Keep track of all your commitments in one central location so you always know what’s on the agenda for the day.

9. Webinar Service

Elevate your customer experience by utilizing Ontraport’s built-in webinar service! This powerful feature allows you to record, store, and stream your webinars, effortlessly schedule them, and automate the launch, reminders, and follow-up emails.

Best of all, Ontraport’s CRM captures your audience’s actions and provides you with valuable analytics to guide your next steps. Offer a more personalized experience with Ontraport’s webinar service.

10. Report & Analytics

To further understand the usage analytics of Ontraport, it is crucial to consider its reporting features. With a powerful reporting engine at its core, users can easily explore their data in detail and determine which metrics perform best for them.

Reports allow users to see which marketing campaigns are the most successful in conversions, as well as how much revenue each campaign generates.

Furthermore, the comprehensive reporting engine enables users to track their customers’ journeys and identify any areas for improvement in their experience.

Through detailed customer segmentation reports, Ontraport makes it possible to gain insights into individual customers and understand how to target them in the future. This allows for a more personalized marketing strategy tailored to meet each client’s needs.

Ultimately, Ontraport’s reporting engine makes gaining insights into customers and optimizing their overall experience easy. With the help of this data, businesses can make more informed decisions about their marketing strategy and maximize their ROI.

11. Payments options

With Ontraport Payments, you can get your online store up and running quickly. They provide customizable order form templates that make creating a stunning checkout page for your customers easy.

Plus, their flexible payment options accommodate any transaction size or currency. Finally, their creative upsell capabilities will help you boost revenue with impressive one-time offers and subscription plans.

• Check out this blog to read in detail about Ontraport Features and Alternatives.

Ontraport Pricing: How Much Does It Cost?

They have four pricing plans to offer:

• Basic ($ 29 per month): This includes 1000 contacts.
• Plus ($ 83 per month): This consists of 2500 contacts.
• Pro ($ 124 per month): This consists of 10,000 contacts.
• Enterprise ($ 249 per month): This consists of 20000 contacts.

They also offer a 14-day free trial.

FAQs:

Is Ontraport a good fit for independent contractors and small businesses?

Apart from a limited-time free trial, the most basic Ontraport plan costs $79 per month, which many beginners find excessive. It does, however, have one of the most excellent form, email, and landing page editors I’ve seen, as well as some of the best automation features I’ve seen. Ontraport’s pricing structure, on the other hand, does not scale, which is a deal-breaker for bloggers and small company owners. The entry-level service costs $79 monthly and is limited to 1,000 contacts. If you want more references, you may subscribe to the Plus plan, double the price for 2,500 connections. If you reach that threshold, you must subscribe to the Pro plan, which includes 25,000 contacts but costs $297 monthly.

What is the price of Ontraport?

They’re competitively priced at $297 monthly, including no setup costs and two hours of free onboarding calls. You get full access to the platform’s features and the ability to store and send up to 25,000 contacts and 100,000 emails. While some alternatives may offer a lower entrance price, Ontraport will probably cost you 5-10 times as much for the same amount of connections and capabilities. They’re scalable, which means they’ll grow with your organization and eliminate the need to alter systems later.

Is Ontraport compatible with third-party integrations?

While Ontraport provides an API and 24 partner connectors, its infrastructure for third-party applications pales compared to Infusionsoft’s marketplace, which now has 348 apps and integrations.

Is Ontraport an appropriate platform for eCommerce businesses?

Automatic credit card payment collection upsells, cross-sells, cart abandonment, and credit card expiry notification automation are just a few of Ontraport’s outstanding eCommerce features. It enables you to construct custom objects formerly reserved for corporate systems like SalesForce, Marketo, and Eloqua. You may create relationships between many databases using custom objects unique to your organization.

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Conclusion: Ontraport Review 2023

While Ontraport is adaptable to practically any form of company, it is optimized for educational institutions and membership-based websites (membership sites).

Therefore, if your firm fits these descriptions, you may want to try the Ontraport review.

However, understand me. Other categories of users are not excluded from the platform. Businesses in other industries may continue to use Ontraport’s capabilities.

Indeed, marketers and salespeople in over 63 countries rely on Ontraport to provide intelligent automation and client relationship management.