iContact Pro Select vs. OutboundEngine

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
iContact Pro Select
Score 6.4 out of 10
N/A
iContact Pro Select (formerly Outmarket) includes email marketing, landing pages, social media management, press outreach, and analytics. The software was originally Vocus Marketing Suite, and then was known as Outmarket. It was acquired by Cision
$300
per month
OutboundEngine
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
OutboundEngine provides a hands-off way for small business owners to market and grow their business. The product aims to provide small businesses with what big companies have achieved with marketing automation. The service aims to help users keep in touch with clients and prospects with professionally designed, branded campaigns. Benefits include: driving engagement, surfacing warm leads from current contacts, generating referrals and repeat business from their existing contacts, social…
$199
per user
Pricing
iContact Pro SelectOutboundEngine
Editions & Modules
Basic
$300
per month
Plus
$600
per month
Pro
$1,000
per month
Enterprise
$2,500
per month
Essential
$199
per user
Value
$299
per user
Premium
$499
per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
iContact Pro SelectOutboundEngine
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup fee$99 per user
Additional DetailsMore information is available on the vendor's website.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
iContact Pro SelectOutboundEngine
Features
iContact Pro SelectOutboundEngine
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
iContact Pro Select
-
Ratings
OutboundEngine
8.1
Ratings
10% above category average
Mobile optimization00 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
List management00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
iContact Pro Select
-
Ratings
OutboundEngine
5.5
Ratings
20% below category average
Automated sales alerts and tasks00 Ratings5.50 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
iContact Pro Select
-
Ratings
OutboundEngine
7.8
Ratings
16% above category average
Social sharing and campaigns00 Ratings7.80 Ratings
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iContact Pro SelectOutboundEngine
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Score 9.0 out of 10
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Score 8.1 out of 10
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User Ratings
iContact Pro SelectOutboundEngine
Likelihood to Recommend
6.8
(0 ratings)
8.3
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
6.1
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
6.4
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.9
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
7.9
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
iContact Pro SelectOutboundEngine
Likelihood to Recommend
Vocus is well-suited for press release posting via Vocus’ PRWeb subsidiary. Vocus is also great for social media such as Facebook promotions e.g: sign-up pages, sweepstakes, and fan offers. However, I did not like that "buying signals” draws on Twitter only. Vocus was well-suited where user rights are organized around “profiles”, which might relate to a company, brand, or product line. This approach made sense for our small business. However, since users are either assigned to a profile or not, there does not appear to be finer divisions of rights for specific features
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OutboundEngine does a referral campaign and I've been able to close a couple of deals based on getting in touch with people who engage with this campaign and state they could use my services in the next 6 months. This is a great follow up tool for those you may or may not know are going to be needing your services.
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Pros
  • Ease and speed of getting out a PR release
  • Getting started with creating a new activity is just a few clicks
  • The ability to build a campaign and connect different emails, social media posts and PR releases in to one project with overall metrics.
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  • The content that they generate to send to our clients is relevant and the clients want to engage with us. It makes us appear more professional and consistent, even though we are a smaller company.
  • It helps us stay in touch with clients and helps us stay top of mind. We are able to generate more new business leads if we are in consistent contact with current, former, and potential clients.
  • Their customer service and support is outstanding. All my questions were answered and I went into the program feeling confident and knowledgeable.
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Cons
  • For the campaign management feature, provide a campaign diagram to better track campaigns.
  • For the reporting and analysis feature, provide a scheduled report delivery option.
  • Provide podcasts as another form of technical support.
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  • Logging into Outbound Engine on my phone is difficult because I can't save the login name and password. Being able to save it would be very helpful.
  • Posting my new listings on social media would help if that's possible.
  • Being informed of what you're posting on social media and when would also be helpful.
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Likelihood to Renew
Vocus works very well for a variety of business sizes. It is also well-suited for both mobile (iOS and Android) and PC platforms. These reports are comprehensive:
  • Campaign Performance Reports
  • Email Performance Reports
  • Landing Page Performance Reports
  • Web Analytics
In addition, they also offer great technical support and a lot of resources such as white papers, blog, and tips and hints
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AS my business is beginning to change and with volatility in the market, I have to rely seriously on a budget. That and nearing retirement consideration has me more likely to opt out in the near future.
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Usability
No answers on this topic
Overall, OutboundEngine is very user friendly. It is simple to set up and explore, and if there are any issues or questions, the customer service team and account managers are always available to help. They are very knowledgeable and were able to explain everything in detail to me. The program is easy to navigate and helps me stay organized, and an uncomplicated and straightforward solution was exactly what I was looking for
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
I don't recall having any issues needing to contact OutboundEngine. I believe maybe I once emailed about an issue and got a quick response. I also believe I may have messaged through the app and gotten a response. To my knowledge, there has been nothing like app errors or outages.
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Support Rating
No answers on this topic
The customer service was excellent! Everyone I spoke to was kind and knowledgeable. My account manager was easily reachable. Setup of the OutboundEngine program was explained really thoroughly, and we knew how we could best use the product to meet the needs of our clients and get our online and social media presence off the ground.
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Alternatives Considered
I've used MailChimp before to generate emails and found Vocus to be a better option because it is an overall suite providing the tools to create customizable emails as well as many other features including press releases, social media etc. Vocus is an all-in-one platform for marketing which makes things more efficient for the user by being able to handle all marketing through one outlet.
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I selected it for the ability to have an automated system do 3 things all at once, social media posts, emails and the instant communication with the chat box. I have never seen a chat come through that lead to a helpful client touchpoint. I have never used another product but have since begun to weigh some of the less expensive options.
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Return on Investment
  • Vocus has allowed us to increase and strengthen our customer interaction via social media.
  • Vocus has allowed us to generate and track more leads.
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  • Outbound Engine keeps me top of mind by automatically sending articles to my database and posting to my facebook.
  • I spend zero time researching and writing articles.
  • I spend zero time taking great pictures.
  • I spend zero time dealing with mailing lists.
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ScreenShots

OutboundEngine Screenshots

Screenshot of Automated Social Media MarketingScreenshot of A personalized snapshot of your account activity and warmest leads.Screenshot of Personally designed, tested, and automated emails