eSputnik review: how good/bad of a marketing software is it? That’s what I’m discussing throughout this piece.
If you’re a marketer even by a remote definition, this review is for you.
You can use eSputnik completely free and that’s another reason why you should keep reading! Let’s get started then?
eSputnik Review: What is eSputnik?
Let’s just say that it’s a software that automates your marketing efforts, lead capturing and conversion to quite an extent.
It’ll let you send e-mail campaigns, SMS campaigns, push notifications on computers as well as mobile devices and more.
You can target visitors based on their “behaviour” and actions. E-mails, recommendations and notifications get sent automatically depending on how a user is engaging with your website/app.
Most of it is “drag & drop” so you don’t need to be “techie” to use eSputnik.
Without further adieu, let’s get started on this eSputnik review then?
Omnichannel Campaigns
Not every marketing channel suits every need or user. One of eSputnik’s strongest suits is its omnichannel capabilities
It lets you reach customers via:
- E-mail campaigns
- Push notifications
- Mobile push notifications
- SMS
- And even Viber.
The good news is, you can integrate these channels together. E.g. you can use your e-mails as well as push notifications in a single workflow!
For most of these channels, you can customize the colours, text, buttons, logo and everything else. You can even set repeat timers for some. Even advanced targeting based on gender/ D.O.B/ purchase history etc. is possible.
It even allows adding emojis and CTAs when it’s supported by the channel (e.g. Viber).
Now, while the lack of Whatsapp and Telegram (two of the most popular messaging services on the planet) sure hurts, the company is already working on these. Meaning, in the near future, those channels would probably be available as well.
User-Interface
When you first login to your eSputnik dashboard, here’s what you see:
Even without any prior experience with the tool or other similar marketing CRM, I’m confident you can understand most of it, can’t you?
The top-bar gives you the most important links, you can navigate to contacts, campaigns, automation and everything else.
Then there’s an information panel. It shows no. of SMS/emails you’ve left, credits and other information.
The big red “+” icon lets you create new lists, e-mails, workflows and basically everything else.
In a nutshell, it’s pretty easy to understand and use regardless of your skills or experience.
E-mail campaigns
E-mails are still one of the top conversion boosters on the internet (when done right, of course).
To help with that, eSputnik offers us dozens of pre-designed email templates.
Now, I loved the fact that the templates looked less like “emails” and more like a complete website!
The template editor is completely drag & drop. You can drag blocks and modules and easily place them on your e-mail wherever you want.
Pre-designed modules for blog posts, banners, headers, products etc. too are available.
Device-specific elements too can be set. Meaning, you can choose which elements to show or exclude on mobile or desktop devices. Responsiveness for each element too can be enabled or disabled.
In a nutshell, I’m impressed with the “looks” as well as the technical control I get over the e-mails.
Visual Workflow editor
It wouldn’t be much of an e-mail marketing software without automation, right?
It lets me create workflows using its drag & drop editor. I can create tasks (e.g. send an email) that get triggered automatically either based on certain conditions (e.g. user signed in/contact confirmed etc.) or the user’s actions (e.g. abandoned cart, purchase, click on an e-mail link etc.).
Now, if I’m keeping this eSputnik review honest, it’s not the “easiest” workflow editor out there. It does have a learning curve.
However, it offers pre-designed workflows for carts and browser activities which makes things easy.
If that’s not enough, its very detailed support guide for the workflows helps you out with step-by-step screenshots!
Advanced Trigger configurations
These triggers let us choose what triggers the workflow.
Three primary trigger types can be selected:
- On event: It would require the user to do something, e.g. submit a form, confirm subscription, abandon cart etc. eSputnik lets me customize the event frequency extensively. I can choose if I want the event to be processed everytime the action happens, once, or X no. of times in X no. of hours/days/weeks/months.
- Regular: These are basically repetitive workflows. I select the days/time/ end time (optional) and the event gets processed repeatedly on the selected time. Do note that these are only used for dynamic segments (contacts matching pre-selected conditions).
- Change contact field: These get processed when the contact changes something in his/her contact field, e.g. gender/ D.O.B. etc. (Can be used to notify them of the change and for many other scenarios).
Advanced Segments by events
This is one of my personal favorite features with eSputnik.
So, it lets me create “segments” for my contacts. Two primary segment types can be created:
- List
- And Dynamic.
The list segment is comparatively basic. You manually add contacts to this list. They can be anything based on what you’re trying to do. E.g. you can create 2 lists, the first may have those with birthdays in January the others in December. This is just an example, you can categorize your contacts based on any other metric of your choice.
The Dynamic list is what’s more interesting and impressive.
It lets me add custom parameters. Contacts who conform to those parameters are added to the segment.
In the screenshot above, I’m creating a segment for those who last ordered from me 3 years ago!
There’s no limit to what you can filter. You can segment those who ordered during specific days, have phone numbers starting with specific digits, have empty E-mail IDs, live in specific towns/countries, have more than X total orders, rated you 3 stars, and basically anything else!
In a nutshell, it not only helps you bring back customers who left in a hurry but also acquire new customers who may just be surfing through.
Automated recommendations
Imagine you’re buying a new phone, ever wondered how you automatically get recommendations such as covers, earphones and protective glasses?
I’ve myself added additional items to my cart just because they were recommended.
eSputnik lets you add those automated recommendations to your website. It only requires you to paste a code on your website, which makes the following possible:
- Recommendations based on preferences
- Products related to the items already in the cart
- “Bestseller” recommendations
- “Popular’ recommendations
- Similar products
All of this is personal and custom to each visitor.
What if you’ve no behavioural data from the visitor? eSputnik recommends the “bestsellers” in this case.
It even offers advanced control for these recommendations.
You can choose to only recommend products from a certain brand, certain categories, based on price etc.
You can customize the exact placement location, the template, title and everything else for the recommendation block.
Detailed statistics such as views, orders, conversion, CTR etc. are shown so you can monitor, change and improve your recommendations over time.
You can even run A/B tests to see which recommendation variant works best.
In a nutshell, it’s an easy to use and massively helpful conversion-booster.
Drag & drop forms
I believe forms are one of the biggest lead-capture tools available to us. Don’t you?
eSputnik has this in-built form creator. You can use two different third-party providers to create your forms.
You can choose to send an e-mail confirmation, redirect after a successful subscription, or send automated onboarding e-mails right away!
eSputnik support
Due to its vast arsenal of features, it’s not uncommon for you to feel lost occasionally. When that happens, is help available?
Fortunately, it is.
The company offers a live chat feature. It’s not 24X7 though and is only available during working hours. However, it’s not exactly a deal-breaker!
The average response time is a few minutes for the initial response. Once you’re connected the replies are almost instant.
eSputnik pricing plans
You can signup absolutely free! Without paying a single penny, you can start using eSputnik.
As for the paid plans, eSputnik offers you the choice to buy individual features! E-mail campaigns, SMS campaigns, website recommendations, advanced segmentation and every other feature can be bought individually.
Here’s the starting price for each feature:
- Email campaign: $1.99/email or $5.00/month for 10,000 contacts
- SMS campaign: $0.80/SMS
- Viber: $0.04/message
- Web push notifications: $4.00/month.
- Mobile push notification: $38.00/month for 10,000 device tokens
- Web recommendations: $29.00 for 25000 visitors
- Advanced segmentation: $99.00/month for 50K contacts and 250K visitors
- E-mail marketing agency: $285.00
In my opinion, individual pricing is of immense help. You can choose to pay only for the features you really need.
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eSputnik review: Final verdict (Is it worth it?).
Yes, it is, but not for everyone. (I’m being honest here).
If you need an omnichannel marketing platform, with very advanced automation and segmentation capabilities, eSputnik is for you.
However, if you’re a very basic user and need the simplest of interfaces, it may not be the best choice.
Note that the features are more than impressive and if you even have basic computer knowledge, you can use eSputnik with ease. The point is, it’s just not ultra-easy!
I’d sign off this eSputnik review now, I’ll rate its features 4/5 overall considering its features, UI, support, pricing and everything in between.
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