OutboundEngine vs. Spokal

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.

Incentivized

For current Wordpress users Spokal is outstanding and highly recommended. For clients who don't already have a Wordpress blog it's a bit tricky as I need to first sell the benefits of using Wordpress in order to get them on board, but in all honestly I would recommend Wordpress anyway, it just slows the process down having to design and install Wordpress before we can get started.

• 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.

• Very clear interface that easily guides you through the necessary steps to post content.
• Great customer service!
• Keyword recommendations that are helpful in creating content.

• 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.

Incentivized

• Allowing the import of audience/customers from Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign (they are working on this as we speak)
• The unique visitors number is different in Spokal from Google Analytics. Not sure why this is.
• The blog editor is better in Wordpress, so I end up creating my posts directly on my Wordpress site rather than through Spokal. I'll try this again but I had an easier time creating the post in my Wordpress site.

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.

Incentivized

Best combined product I've seen so far to run a WordPress based website. When it comes to solutions that replace multiple others and even to the combined feature set, it's a no brainer to start using that solution. Spokal is one of these tools I felt to have found that I want to use every day as it saves a ton of time.

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

Spokal takes away some of the complexity and noise that Wordpress has. Offering a separate login and dashboard to allow a user to create blog posts, check on backlinks, see ranking keywords, social engagement and tracks visitors/ contacts. Spokal provides a lot of functionality that would typically require the purchase of several products e.g. Hootsuite, SEO Moz, SEO pressor, Hubspot. What I really like is the content calendar. I simply drag and drop of my blog posts into my calendar to post to twitter, linkedin and facebook. This is an easy way to repost evergreen content and build my following on twitter. The twitter builder is constantly looking for relevant profiles and conversations based on my defined criteria. The tool automatically likes the twitter user which drives traffic to my sight and actually helps me find followers and potential influencers. This product is ideal for people new to internet marketing or small business owners who don't want to be overwhelmed by the effort to learn, manage and run several tools or wordpress plugins. I have been with Spokal since the start and I continue to be impressed by the support and raft of new functionality being added.

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.

Incentivized

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.

The guys at Spokal listen and act upon every single message I send. Nothing escapes their attention and they always seem delighted to be going out of their way for me and deliver outstanding customer service - probably the best I've ever received. That's no exageration, they show a genuine care for feedback and a practical approach to executing requests. When you see something you've suggested being implemented into the software you're using, there is no greater indicator that somebody is listening. Great guys, can't praise them enough.

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.

Incentivized

Know and like Hubspot. Its solid but may be cost prohibitive for some firms. It also has bit of a learning curve and 3rd party skills are not cheap if you need help from external agencies. Looked at Orbtr - this is an excellent product, also wordpress based. Looked at Leadius. A swedish company that has a very solid looking platform leaning more towards the hubspots but somewhat more affordable

• 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.

Incentivized

• More engaged Twitter following
• We procured a client because of our blogging & Spokal's platform to marketing the blog posts on social media