Did you know? Freshworks Freshsales Suite’s email campaign function helps startups and small businesses organize and prioritize their customer base, send custom messages to different audience segments, and optimize their sales and marketing processes.
Freshworks Freshsales Suite Editor’s Score: 92/100
| Pricing/value | 88 |
| Features | 95 |
| Customizations, add-ons, and integrations | 94 |
| Ease of use | 88 |
| Customer support | 94 |
Why Freshsales Suite is Best for Marketing Integrations
Freshworks Freshsales Suite is a convenient and affordable all-in-one marketing solution that offers robust marketing integrations typically found in higher-priced software. We were impressed by this platform’s capabilities and add-ons.
Tip: Segment your email lists by a variety of parameters to offer hypercustomized and unique messaging.
Pros
- Freshsales Suite has many features and integrations to help scale sales teams.
- Freshsales Suite is affordable for an all-in-one solution.
- The CRM with email marketing gives you tools for targeting your audience.
Cons
- It can be hard to get in touch with a customer service representative.
- Add-ons to basic plans can get pricey.
Usability
Freshsales Suite offers a user-friendly experience that even tech-averse users will likely find intuitive. An easy-to-use system means less training and limited disruption to your team’s workflow when you’re transitioning to Freshsales Suite. Artificial-intelligence-powered, data-driven reports make it equally straightforward to review and track data in your system.
Freshsales Suite offers a range of tools for interacting with customers. We liked the two-way email sync and multiple integrations, which allow you to keep existing software solutions and increase their effectiveness when you combine them with Freshworks Freshsales Suite’s email campaign function.
The simple navigation adds to the flexibility of the product; it’s lean and doesn’t include unnecessary features users rarely use. We found it easy to choose how and when to communicate with audiences, which parameters to segment email lists by, and what options for scheduling and automation we wanted to employ. However, we had the opposite experience on a mobile device; we found the software to be slower and clunkier than the desktop client.
The email campaign functionality is part of a larger CRM, so it’s the CRM that offers the ability for API integrations. There are several integrations of popular tools, including Trello, Zapier, Shopify, Outlook, Gmail and Asana. Some users reported minor bugs, but those frequently depend on the specific integration and CRM customization settings.
It’s easy to get started with Freshworks Freshsales Suite, thanks to the clear and succinct on-screen prompts.
Source: Freshworks
Features
Freshsales Suite delivers tons of convenient email marketing tools in one user-friendly suite. Here’s what we liked about Freshsales Suite:
| Send promotional emails | Send emails to customers as they interact with your products online. |
| Schedule newsletters | Schedule, design and dispatch periodic emails. |
| Dispatch event invites | Send updates or invites for events to a specific group of people. |
| Communicate product updates | Share updates, safety information and more with consumers via email. |
| Send announcement emails | Quickly communicate new and exciting developments to your customer base. |
| Send internal updates | Keep employees and stakeholders in the loop with easy-to-send internal emails. |
Send Promotional Emails
Freshworks’ email marketing capabilities allow users to set up product demonstrations and then send emails to potential customers based on how those particular customers interacted with the product. This feature helps customize messaging and build a unique relationship with each prospective purchaser.
With Freshworks Freshsales Suite, you can create action-based, personalized customer journeys to engage customers
Source: Freshworks
Schedule Newsletters
For businesses that compile email lists of interested customers, Freshworks Freshsales Suite’s email campaign capabilities allow for scheduled newsletters to inform audiences about new products and services, updates to existing products and services, or other exciting news.
Dispatch Event Invites
With Freshworks Freshsales Suite’s ability to segment lists, businesses can easily define the parameters of their audience and promote events to an interested customer base. In addition, sending event e-blasts with Freshsales Suite can help boost registration or motivate customers to participate.
Communicate Product Updates
A tenet of email marketing, communicating product updates with Freshsales Suite is not only easy but can be automated in conjunction with Freshworks’ Marketing Cloud. It’s easy to send simple, straightforward emails that keep your customers in the loop about business updates.
Send Announcement Emails
Business owners can not only deliver engaging email campaigns that drive sales but also engage customers with announcement emails that are personalized to segmented email lists.
Send Internal Updates
It’s just as important to keep internal audiences, like employees and stakeholders, informed of business updates as it is to notify customers. Segmentation of internal audiences is a breeze with Freshworks’ unique approach to the segmentation and scheduling of emails.
Pricing
Freshworks Freshsales Suite offers a free starter version, and the paid versions include many features to help small businesses and startups manage customer relationships.
Source: Freshworks
Businesses on a budget will love that Freshworks Freshsales Suite offers a free version of its software for up to 100 marketing contacts. Features include contact and account management, contact life-cycle stages, and built-in customer communication via chat, email and phone. This free plan would work well for small companies with limited client bases, but if you need up to 1,000 contacts, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid Freshsales Suite subscription.
Fortunately, these paid tiers, which are priced per user per month, are still affordable for many small businesses’ budgets. You can also receive a discount if you sign up for an annual contract. Here is a breakdown of each tier:
- Freshsales Suite Growth starts at $15 per user per month when billed annually ($18 per user per month when billed monthly) and delivers CRM automation that can help businesses personalize and scale their customer relationships for faster growth.
- Freshsales Suite Pro begins at $39 per user per month when billed annually ($47 per user per month when billed monthly) and is the most popular subscription tier because it lets your business manage multiple sales pipelines and teams.
- Freshsales Suite Enterprise starts at $69 per user per month when billed annually ($83 per user per month when billed monthly). It includes all of the features of the lower pricing tiers, along with “advanced customization, governance and controls.”
Freshworks Freshsales Suite is a combined CRM and marketing automation platform, but the company does offer each system as a stand-alone service. Both products have the same tier levels, including a free version, for a flat monthly fee, regardless of user count.
However, to take advantage of the full feature set of either product, we recommend that small teams purchase a bundled subscription to reduce the cost. For example, a three-person team would pay just $117 per month for an annual Pro Freshworks Freshsales Suite subscription, instead of $149 per month for the Pro Freshmarketer subscription (marketing automation only).
Did you know? Freshworks offers a 21-day free trial, with no credit card required.
Setup
Most users report taking between a few days and two weeks to set up the CRM, depending on the level of data migration and customizations. The majority of users report a pretty effortless setup for the CRM; in fact, that was one of the top reasons many users chose Freshworks Freshsales Suite over other solutions.
Email campaign setups could take a few days to a week, depending on the level of customization, segmentation and targeting for different email templates. There are additional charges for larger data migrations and add-ons, but prospective users will need to contact Freshworks’ sales team and product experts for exact quotes based on their specific needs.
Customer Service
For troubleshooting, first you choose the tool you need help with (email campaign users would choose Freshworks Freshsales Suite), and then you are redirected to a support hub page. Here, you can choose to interact with a representative through the live chat in the bottom-right corner of the page or explore the knowledgebase.
If you select the live chat option, an automated system will gather basic information, and then you’ll wait for a live representative. When we tested the live chat, representatives responded within a few minutes. (We waited between two and five minutes for our questions.) Live chat for Freshworks is available 24/7.
The knowledgebase holds dozens of how-to guides, as well as articles about marketing emails and email settings configurations; many of these resources have detailed, step-by-step instructions with screenshots.
Tip: Freshworks’ customer service does not advertise a phone support option, but if you push the live chat representative, you can at least get in contact with a sales representative.
Drawbacks
Overall, the biggest drawback of Freshworks Freshsales Suite is the limited customer support. There’s no phone option, and users of the online support channels have sometimes felt abandoned. Even after submitting support tickets, users reported unreliable troubleshooting timetables and unresolved issues.
In addition, the CRM platform is best suited for startups and small businesses that are just beginning to expand, as the customization of reports and API integrations aren’t built for quick scalability. Users have also complained about the pricing structure for add-ons and a learning curve for troubleshooting small bugs in the system.
Methodology
To identify the best email marketing services, we compiled a list of popular platforms based on online research and carefully examined each service’s online reputation. We spent several weeks researching each email marketing service by investigating its offerings, watching tutorials and how-to videos, testing the software (when possible) and reading user reviews. We also evaluated each service’s pricing structure and customer support by posing as a business owner to contact each finalist. When selecting our pick for the best email marketing service for integrations, we considered what types of all-in-one marketing integrations small and midsize businesses would likely want, as well as the email marketing budgets of businesses of that size.
What Is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is a highly effective direct marketing strategy that allows businesses to send targeted emails, communicate directly with customers and improve brand engagement. The top email marketing platforms allow you to create visually engaging emails, build and segment robust contact lists, and track subscriber behavior to see which campaigns are the most effective. To learn more about email marketing and the types of services available to business owners, read our reviews of the best email marketing services.
FAQs
Is Freshsales Suite a CRM?
Freshsales Suite is a platform that offers tools for managing the customer experience, sales and marketing. It includes a CRM, email marketing software, HR management tools and more.
What integrations does Freshsales Suite offer?
Freshsales Suite offers a variety of integrations with popular business tools, including Gmail, Zapier and Asana. For a full list, visit the Freshworks website.
Is Freshworks Freshsales Suite free?
Freshworks Freshsales Suite offers a 21-day free trial, but after it ends, users must upgrade to a paid plan to continue using the software.
Bottom Line
We recommend Freshworks Freshsales Suite for:
- Small business owners who are looking to scale their business and adopt a beginner CRM.
- Small business owners who are looking for an affordable all-in-one CRM.
- Marketing professionals who need an integrated marketing solution with feature flexibility and add-on scalability.
We don’t recommend Freshworks Freshsales Suite for:
- Enterprises that are looking for a CRM with more comprehensive marketing integrations, like Zoho or HubSpot.
- Marketing professionals with no ability to troubleshoot email marketing issues.
Source: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/16266-freshworks-freshsales-suite.html
