Cordial

Score9.9 out of 10

10 Reviews and Ratings

What is Cordial?

Cordial Intelligent Messaging is an email marketing solution built around features such as triggered messaging, real-time data segmentation, and robust integrations.

Categories & Use Cases

Media

Testing Powered by Machine-Learning: Never wait for an answer again. Test multiple message variations in real-time.

Native Drag-and-drop Email Builder: Build completely custom 1:1 personalized messages in seconds.

Effortless Campaign Orchestration: Create sophisticated cross-channel message streams based on simple if/then statements.

Up-to-the-Second Analytics and Reporting: Track customer behavior across all of your digital properties.

Native Drag-and-Drop Editor: Build completely custom 1:1 personalized messages in seconds.

Triggers and Automations: Cart, browse, and search abandonment messages, plus lifecycle, welcome and win-back campaigns—all from one platform.

1 / 7

Landing pages
Users can create web pages that are customized to a particular email or campaign. Landing pages often include web forms which can capture visitor information and integrate it back into the MA software.
Category average: 7.2
Triggered drip sequences
The software allows users to set up automatic / drip email campaigns triggered by certain events.
Category average: 7.9
Dashboards
Users can create, customize and share dashboards, which provide an overview of the most important metrics.
Category average: 7.9

Dynamic content
Users can tailor email, website or landing page content depending on the viewer or recipient (e.g., email salutations that include the recipient’s name).
Category average: 7.7
Custom reports
Users can create custom reports.
Category average: 7.3
WYSIWYG email editor
Users can create html emails through a drag-and-drop interface, without html coding knowledge.
Category average: 7.6

Berlynn Pierce View profile

CRM & Email Marketing in Marketing at 1-800 CONTACTS (1001-5000 employees employees)

Pros

Simple nav and layout of the tool: Messages, Automation, Content, Contacts, Data, Analytics.
Real-time updates of events and customer preferences.
Cordial team is excellent at building relationships and is quick to respond.
It's easy to research problems, use the tool, build using includes and excludes.

Cons

Difficult to aggregate data both in reporting and combining multiple lists or events.
No specification on errors.
A/B multivariate testing isn't simple. A user needs to be technically savvy since the campaign and blocks are created using HTML.
Ability to randomize an audience but not prioritize, split an audience based on percentage or total, or cap an audience.
A contact must be a Cordial user to receive a test or see content/creative.
No way to archive messages.

Return on Investment

The team hasn't needed to be on call like we did with ExactTarget which has made for happy employees and better use of time and energy.
True snapshot of revenue per email and validating the importance of the CRM channel within the organization.
Simple interface and usability has saved the team 1-2 full works days (our build with ExactTarget took 3-4 days and now it's 1-2 days).

Alternatives Considered

Bronto Marketing Platform, Autopilot and Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email Studio

Other Software Used

Adobe Illustrator CC, Adobe Photoshop, Trello, Asana, Slack, Return Path, Basecamp, Litmus

Nichole Aramapakul View profile

Creative Marketing Director in Marketing at Daily Insight Group dba Zappallas USA (11-50 employees employees)

Pros

Provides helpful desktop and mobile previews.
Sends emails reliably.
Allows for pretty robust audience rules.

Cons

Unreliable toggle between production and stage environment. Says it is in "Stage" when you are really in "production" and vice versa.
Non-intuitive process/interface to search for "contact data".
Poor process for getting Stage drafts into Production drafts. You essentially have to rebuild them which can introduce errors, rather than just an "export" feature that would move a draft automatically.
Message reports will add/remove days when you select a time range and export a report. For example, if your custom date range is "March 1 - March 31" you will get something like "March 2- March 30" in your exported report. You have to overcompensate by using a range like "February 28 - April 1".

Return on Investment

Browse events on our product pages and our trigger email series has introduced a new monthly revenue stream to our business.
Increased engagement due to automated sends based on user behavior.
Stronger customer onboarding due to "Welcome Email Series" automation.

Mohammed Anzil View profile

Founder and Chief Editor in Social Media at Social Positives (1-10 employees employees)

Pros

Real-time email analytics.
Event-based triggered messages
Great for media publishing companies.

Cons

No direct sign up available.
No information about pricing.
Too pricy.

Return on Investment

Best to manage your clients' business.
Not ideal for freelancers.

Alternatives Considered

Oracle Marketing Cloud, Constant Contact and MailChimp

Other Software Used

MailChimp, GetResponse, Constant Contact

Verified User

Contributor in Marketing (11-50 employees employees)

Pros

Robust analytics and real-time reporting.
Event-based trigger messages and an exceptional drip campaign building tool.
Championing content through A/B and MVT testing with machine learning.
Great service from your dedicated CSM.
Dynamic Content.

Cons

Some of the tasks on the platform are still technical in nature and often requires the help of a developer or technical marketer. But I've witnessed great strides towards accessibility and ease of use for non-technical marketers over the past three years.
A lot of the templating must be built from scratch.
Deliverability insights (out of the box) could be expanded further.

Return on Investment

Enabled us to create more personalized customer touchpoints to further improve our CX.
Optimization of messaging/content through A/B or MVT testing in smaller batches.

Alternatives Considered

Listrak and Mailchimp

Other Software Used

Trustpilot, Impact (formerly Impact Radius), Finch

Verified User

Professional in Marketing (501-1000 employees employees)

Pros

The UI is very clean and simple. Allow for easy navigation.
The sculpt tool in Cordial allows for easy email creation.

Cons

Micro-interactions on the platform can be improved. (i.e. search functionality is delayed and causes the screen to refresh with each key stroke).
The Sculpt tool doesn't provide standard templates/blocks. They all need to be made from scratch.

Return on Investment

Positive: Cordial's platform has enabled us to churn out email campaigns quicker than ExactTarget. This platform ultimately allows us to test more and generate a higher Revenue Per Email.