Company:
CampaignerCRM is a wholly-owned subsidiary of j2 Global [NASDAQ: JCOM]. The company was previously known as Landslide CRM, and was purchased by j2 Global in 2012.
Company Address:
j2’s headquarters is in Los Angeles, CA and CampaignerCRM’s offices are located in Lexington, MA, and Pittsburgh, PA.
Awards/Accolades:
CampaignerCRM was awarded the Top CRM Solution award in 2011 and 2010, earning a Silver Medal as part of the 2011 Top Sales Awards competition. In addition, “EyesonSales”, campaignerCRM’s thought leadership resource, was also recognized as an award finalist nominee in the “Top Sales and Marketing Resource Site” category.
Trial Version:
A free, 30 day trial version of the product is available. The application is cloud based so no software download is required. Users can enter in basic information and be live on the trial version in minutes on a designated URL for their trial site.
Pricing:
In March 2013, campaignerCRM launched an updated product release with new, tiered product pricing. The new pricing structure is as follows:
- Tier 1: Free Version
a. 1 Seat and 500 Contacts Limit
b. 1000 credits to be applied in Email Marketing Campaigns - Tier 2: campaignerCRM Pro
a. $29.99 per user / per month
b. Unlimited users and contacts
c. 10,000 credits to be applied in Email Marketing Campaigns
d. Custom Fields and Reporting
e. 2 months free trial with annual plan - Tier 3: campaigner SPM (Sales Process Manager)
a. $59.99 per user / per month
b. Unlimited users and contacts
c. 25,000 credits to be applied in Email Marketing Campaigns
d. Advance PULSE Reporting
e. API and QuickBooks Integration
f. Custom Sales Process Manager - Add On: VIP Personal Assistant
a. $10.00 per user / per month
b. Can be added onto the “Pro and SPM” version tiers - Additional Pricing Available for Implementation Services:
Getting to know campaignerCRM:
Overall, the company website is easy to navigate, view the tour, and launch a trial version of the software with zero headache or annoying ads. In short, you can be up and running with the campaignerCRM trial in 1 minute. You have to navigate a touch to locate pricing and feature specific content; however, it is great that campaignerCRM provides the pricing content online for end users to make informed purchasing decisions. Their product and sales support phone line and email services are prompt, responsive and pleasant to work with. In addition, campaignerCRM has a blog rich with useful CRM tips and they also have additional thought leadership resources available at “EyesonSales.com”. The solution, which was previously known in the industry as “Landslide CRM”, did take top honors two years in a row (2011 and 2010), and has continued to build out there go to market strategy with unique selling points including; a CRM solution with integrated email marketing and a CRM solution with customized sales process management.
Easiest CRM On The Planet?
Ok, first things first, this is a bold statement. campaignerCRM touts they are the “Easiest CRM On The Planet” to use. While I don’t disagree completely, I still can’t wholeheartedly agree with this if I haven’t touched every CRM on the planet. But, based on my scope of usage of other CRM products (e.g. RightNow, Microsoft, Siebel) I would agree that campaignerCRM is far easier to use than most CRM solutions. Why? My litmus test with any solution is to see how far I move along in usage without hitting up the help menu, searching for a user guide, or as a last resort, calling or emailing customer support. In campaignerCRM’s case, this was extremely far along in my implementation due mainly in part to the following:
- campaignerCRM has an easy to use navigation menu that is simple and intuitive
- The welcome page Dashboard is visual, rich with information in a concise format, and allows for “fast drill down” into further interfaces quickly with one click format
- “Jump To” and “Workspace” options allow the user to easily navigate to Accounts, Contacts, Leads or Opportunities with minimalclicks (not a lot of time wasted getting to the information you want)
- Flexible Customizations on almost all interfaces allows for a “user formatted” experience
- Flexible and easy to use import capabilities enabling users to get started using campaignerCRM quickly
The Nuts and Bolts
campaignerCRM has a bounty of features, but currently markets itself as a “CRM and Email Marketing System” in one, with the addition of the newly marketing “campaignerSPM”, which focuses on a fully customizable Sales Process Manager. The core features of both the campaignerCRM and campaignerSPM include:
- Flexible Dashboard Homepage with Customized Look/Feel
- Account, Contact, Opportunity and Lead Management
- Activity, Task and Event Management
- Email Marketing and Campaign Management
- CRM Reporting
- Mobile and Social CRM
- Document Management
- Advanced Features (web conferencing, click to call, bulk import and export, user permission for secure access to CRM information)
- Support (VIP Personal Assistant for CRM and unlimited emails for Free)
The key feature in the core campaignerCRM solution is the “WorkSpace”. Think of a one-stop shop for all things CRM. The ability to navigate between accounts, contacts, opportunities, tasks and events within a single interface is key to increasing efficiencies using CRM solutions overall. The workspace can be customized by the user with a “widget” drop and drag functionality.
campaignerSPM takes the core CRM solution and offers some advanced features and reporting, along with a series of API and integration options to further the offer. campaignerSPM offers:
- Executive Reporting with PULSE
- Sales Process Manager
- Advanced API and Integration Options
The key feature in the campaignerSPM is the fully customizable Sales Process Manager. I was very impressed with this feature as you have the ability to design a simple or extremely complex sales cycle. The definition process can include estimated confidence levels per sales cycle task and subsequently compute opportunity confidence once tasks are completed in the sales cycle. The additional win with SPM is that your sales team can leverage a consistent and effective sales process in your organization.
Buzzword Features or Buzzword Fuss?
It seems today any solution worth a grain of salt is going to market “Mobile” and Social”. In campaignerCRM’s case they market both, but one falls short of the other.
Mobile CRM:
While there was a lot of description online about the “ease of use” for the mobile user, my review on the ipad / iPhone demonstrated this interface was designed to be mobile compatible, not necessarily “mobile optimized” in features for mobile users. There is no specific “campaignerCRM” app to download for any device; rather, the solution is compatible for browsing/usage on mobile devices. That said, depending on your viewing resolution on any device will warrant your ability to easily navigate to the same functionality set available on your campaignerCRM URL. While some pages are optimized for viewing (see below welcome Dashboard), other pages like “Workspace”, require scrolling the interface on your mobile device.
Social CRM:
At first glance, the ability to view feeds, posts and connections of your Contacts within the CRM seemed superfluous. Why do I need to pull this information in to another site, when chances are high that I’m already logged in to these three accounts myself on Windows8 view? But, after reading the campaignerCRM blog regarding “best practices” in using Social CRM functionality (thanks Rich Faulk for a great post), there really is a win to have this information at your fingertips while in the CRM. campaignerCRM allows you to connect to the Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn sites of your contacts. You need to register your own user accounts with these sites first (a very easy task in User Preferences), then you are ready to connect and feed the social site information directly into the contact page in campaignerCRM. One tip for users: Instead of purchasing the Netprospex package from campaginerCRM (which identifies other connections at the same account name for fees ranging from $20-$75 per month), leverage your LinkedIn connections to the primary account contact to identify new leads and contacts for CRM.
Bells and Whistles
Pulse
Pulse is a real time executive dashboard with flare. Pulse Reporting is only available with the campaignerSPM tier subscription. Upon launching pulse in a separate window, the user can toggle between pre-defined sets of reports on “Sales Performance” or “Activity” in a visually appealing graphical dashboard. Sales Performance offers quick views into: Performance Dashboard, Pipeline, Forecast, Opps to Watch and Results. Activity offers quick views into: Activity Dashboard, New Opps, Tasks and Pipeline Movement. I felt strongly the design was “great as is”, and thought Pulse was a fast way to share real time data to executives in your organization. The best thing about Pulse is there is no user setup time needed. You can simply launch a web-ex, open Pulse and host your weekly and quarterly account reviews in graphical fashion.
IO Channel
With the advent of too many emails and not enough time, the collaboration engine in campaignerSPM is a smart feature. The IO Channel (also marketed as “Prospect Management” only available in the campaignerSPM tier) enables a dedicated, secure URL for file sharing and collaboration with clients. The IO channel can be setup with a designated contact, and you can post files for viewing, offer feedback on views and comments on the sales process. Another win on this microsite is the ability to turn on automatic notifications (received in email) whenever a contact downloads, views or comments on information posted to the mini-site.
AI Plug Ins and Integration Options
During the review these were not tested, but the offering of API Plug Ins and Integration options was comprehensive. The below list was available as “Advanced Features” included with the campaignerCRM and SPM tier subscription.
- Email / Contact Sync:
a. Gmail (full sync taking a copy of the email and posting to the Interactions view in campaigner)
b. Outlook (syncs your calendar, tasks, and contacts. One way import of email into campaigner for retrieval of information and fast logging of ongoing communications) - Accounting Sync:
a. QuickBooks (CampaignerSPM Link for QuickBooks automatically synchronizes your CampaignerSPM data directly with your QuickBooks software client) - API Tools:
a. Salesforce.com: Integrate CampaignerSPM with Salesforce.com to support your sales process and enhance your team’s productivity and sales effectiveness. CampaignerSPM is a part of the Salesforce.com AppExchange. - Extras:
a. SalesView (or InsideView): User could pay a subscription based model from “InsideView” to have sales intelligence posted inside the campaignerSPM interface
b. Netprospex: User could pay a subscription based model to have leads suggested based on existing account contacts
c. GoToMeeting: User could pay a subscription ($45 per user / per month) to have a GoToMeeting account (available for launch within campaignerSPM)
Support
This is a win area for campaigner overall. Free customers receive unlimited email support, while CRM and SPM customers also receive access to VIP Personal Assistants. These assistants can enter sales data / notes for your sales team to provide them more time in the selling cycle and less time in the CRM.
What’s Missing?
Document Storage
Ok, for a cloud based software I was hoping to see document management with a little more wiggle room. As noted above, the Document Library is a feature in campaignerCRM/SPM that stores documentation necessary for the sales process or lead generation. The solution lacks two key elements: 1) Significant file size storage (attachments are capped at 5MB per attachment) and 2) Intuitive hierarchy on where attachments get loaded/stored. Throughout campaignerCRM/SPM there are multiple locations where a user can post an attachment (e.g. References tab within Account or Opportunities, Manage Library or use of the IO Channel). While this is flexible, the connectivity of where/how documents are visible to users was unclear.
In addition, while the IO Channel rates as one of the bells and whistles of campaignerSPM, the solution could support more storage overall. Document attachments used in the IO channel with clients are also cap at 5MB per document. In the days of visual presentation formats like “Prezi” (which can average around 25-50MB per file), this cap is limiting. A stronger use of file share collaboration could be a connectivity to DropBox or a more recognized file sharing site with greater cloud storage.
Lack Of Contract Management Support
The other miss in campaignerCRM is the lack of features designated to activities for eContract management and account management post close. The ability to support tracking of existing customers with standard features (vs. leveraging custom designed fields for contract start / end date) would be a boost. In addition, the ability to support eContract negotiations (e.g. eSignature and Contract Versioning) would reduce the time spent in the sales cycle overall.
Final Thoughts
campaignerCRM is a robust, easy-to-use tool. campaignerCRM’s great support and training make this a great free option for sole proprietors and a great value proposition for larger businesses in need of customizing complex sales cycles in the Sales Process Manager offer.