Adestra vs. Drip Ecommerce CRM

Small businesses with even smaller marketing budgets and no email marketing experience would be better off selecting a lower-end email marketing provider. However, Adestra will provide a growing company with every email marketing tool along the way.

Incentivized

Drip is my top recommendation for most people who have an existing business and audience and want to move beyond basic email broadcast and drip campaigns and start building out more personalized sequences. I don't recommend the tool for people starting out, or for anyone that isn't bringing in solid profit every month as there are cheaper tools out there to get started with.

Incentivized

• Adestra's "dynamic" list allows users to consolidate multiple lists in combination with data filters and exclusion lists. This implements segmentation and is a powerful marketing tool.
• Adestra's MessageFocus API integration provides developer-tools for list, campaign or transactional automated requirements.
• Campaigns can be sorted into project folders. This allows marketers to group campaigns together for management or reporting requirements. Moving or copying campaigns from one project to another is a simple process.
• Data downloads via Reporting is available at every level, from overview to individual KPI.
• Creating "core" tables helps marketers develop lists with similar attributes. Whether a list has many fields or simply the one required email address field, a "core" table helps to quickly map data labels from spreadsheet to online database. Creating data labels on the fly is a simple process, as well. The "core" table also groups similar contacts into one core database.
• Any list can be quickly "emptied" for to manage refreshed data. The contacts within the "emptied" list would still be members of the "core" table and so the process does not negatively impact reporting.
• Unsubscribes can be managed in one list (as a default) or individual lists. Creating individual unsubscribe lists -- dependent on business requirements -- would allow for a preference center, whereby recipients could be given a choice as to which campaigns they receive.
• The Form tool creates signup forms, simple surveys and landing pages. These can be hosted via Adestra or otherwise on the web. The tool provides for branding and proprietary cascading stylesheets, with a number of actions available through a drag-and-drop interface.

Incentivized

• I think the workflows from Drip are particularly well done. It is easy to see how someone might work their way through my system.
• It is easy to set up the campaigns as Drip walks you through each step.
• Drip shows you how many people have been on your website and how your forms are performing well.

Incentivized

• As of this writing, there are at least 3 different editors available (a drag-and-drop, a WYSIWYG and HTML). However, only a small template library is available if requested through support. Those expecting to find ready-built templates for re-branding would find them through the third-party EDM Designer drag-and-drop editor.

Incentivized

• Pricing is a bit on the higher side but well worth it so long as you're using it
• Direct integration with Salesmate vs going through Zapier

Incentivized

I have been self-trained on different ESPs for over 10 years, so my experience isn't comparable to most users. However, I've trained people on various email marketing platforms, and with some training, clients have a positive user-experience with Adestra.

Incentivized

I have had campaign related issues solved very quickly. When there are technical issues, that involve more than one departmental, it may involve a longer turn-around and management.

Incentivized

For medium and large sized businesses, Adestra competes well with dotMailer. While many of the functions are available through either provider, creating campaigns, managing lists and reviewing metrics are somewhat different. As of this writing, dotMailer's drag-and-drop editor dominates that platform and performs well for low-end users with little-to-no HTML experience. Even high-end users will appreciate how quickly campaigns can be built via the drag-and-drop editor. While Adestra utilizes the EDM Designer drag-and-drop, the third-party functionality is not completely cohesive and lack of a template library gives dotMailer a bit of an advantage.

Incentivized

We decided to move away from Mailchimp when they announced the changes to their service plans. We cast a wide net and ended up boiling it down to Drip, Klaviyo, Omnisend, and Constant Contact. They all have a similar set of features, but Drip was willing to work with us on price instead of simply referring us to their tiered plans. Even though they don't have a direct integration with our e-commerce platform it was obvious they were willing to help us make the connection via their API.

Incentivized

• For companies that focus on goals and analytics, Adestra provides all the necessary tools.

Incentivized

• We've seen a 45 percent increase in customer survey completions, due to automated reminders and campaigns.
• We've seen a 10 percent increase in customer traffic on our website.
• We've seen a 300 percent increase in online credit applications on our website and form conversions.

Incentivized