Keap Review – Is it the Best CRM Software?
Keap Review
If you have landed in this Keap review, it only means that you are either seriously considering growing your business beyond that “small” tagline or have become frustrated with the chaos of managing leads and your existing customers.
You are trying to close the customer management loopholes before they turn into untamable goliaths, or things have already gone so out of control that restructuring has become the need of the hour.
Either way, you have heard right.
Keap is for you!!
But you are also right to question the hype around this popular CRM software and what it does for small businesses.
To make your job easier, I am writing this comprehensive all-you-need-to-know review for you. In the end, I am sure that you will be in the space to either put forward a purchase order or chuck Keap out of your wish list altogether.
Pros
- It is effortless to use. Right from the homepage to automatic integrations, you can really learn the necessary nuances on your own. However, to utilize the program to its full potential, it is always suggested that you request a live demo and work closely with a Keap Certified Partner.
- The campaign builder knocks the ball out of the park. Another drag-and-drop feature allows you to build goal-oriented campaigns with a host of suggested options in the category. The automation makes you think less. Keap does most of the campaigning tasks for you.
- Keep integrates with almost all the necessary business applications that a typical startup or small business generally use. Gmail, Shopify, Xero, MS Excel – you name it, and Keap will integrate. This helps both with migration to Keap and running your business without complicated reorganization.
- And the community is helpful. There is a Facebook group called the Official Keap User Group. Sign up to interact with other Keap users and have access to useful resources, ideas, and tips, not only about Keap but also about running your business.
Cons
- Well, it is not precisely cheap. Most of its features are available with standalone products for more reasonable rates. The dollars it charges for the all-in-one benefit, I feel, is not affordable by many small businesses (since they are their target customers
- Keap was only available for iOS integration until only recently. Although Keap launched its Android Beta version in April 2020, the application still needs a lot of work. Hopefully, Keap can improve here with time.
- The Appointment feature needs some work, as well. And Pro users deserve much more automation here. It is suitable for essential use like creating appointments and scheduling meetings. Still, things will be great if the lead could receive custom reminders, and the task could get automatically removed once the session is finalized.
- Infusionsoft remains the better brother among the available three. Although Keap Grow and Keap Pro are targeted to meet the needs of entrepreneurs and small businesses, a few features from Infusionsoft need to migrate. I miss customizing my dashboard on Keap, test campaigns, and track referral partners.
Conclusion:
Keap is your automated customer relationship management tool provided you can afford the friendship. Sure, the business world is moving towards automation, and companies with intelligent bots have a better edge.
What is Keap?
Here is a short video from the makers who try their best to explain the Keap software to you in a quirky way.
And for people who want the geeky definition, skip watching and keep reading.
Technically, Keap is a client management software specifically targeted towards the needs of small businesses.
The company started as Infusionsoft back in 2001.
It was a powerful marketing tool for veterans and big businesses who aggressively wanted to pursue customer relationship management or CRM and had a solid understanding of the marketing nuances.
Later, the company launched Infusionsoft’s “simplified” versions in the form of Keap Grow and Keap Pro, with the target customers being new entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Today, all three software applications function under the brand name of Keap, and one varies from the other based on the features that you get from them.
Why use Keap & How to Works?
Keap’s official website lists the following reasons as to why small businesses or entrepreneurs like you should use the Keap software.
– You can organize all your contact information or both customers and leads in one place.
– You can follow-up without missing out on any lead by setting up appointments.
– Automate the repetitive tasks that eat into your productive hours.
– Keep track of your invoices and payments and set up auto-reminders to get paid.
– And impress your clients by showing a high degree of internal efficiency and keeping your services client-focused.
But what I liked about Keap throughout my years of using the software is the all-in-one feature of customer handling.
Features like email marketing and SMS marketing comes with broadcasting feature.
Client database management and scheduling also happen on the same platform.
It was an upgrade for me, where I used to use different applications for different needs and ultimately ended up all confused.
What Keap did for me, and a host of other businesses out there is to bring organization into the picture.
Once everything fell under the right tabs, growing the company was finally possible.
Which Keap do you need?
As I already stated, the company currently markets three products – Keap Grow, Keap Pro, and Infusionsoft.
Here is a synopsis of all three based on business requirements –
1. Keap Grow
Keep Grow is the simplest version of the three client management software available from the brand.
This is perfect for small businesses that have just opened shop and were using spreadsheets till now.
If you are a solo entrepreneur with a handful of clients, this is the platform for you.
2. Keap Pro
An upgrade to Keep Grow.
This contains the coveted automation features that Keep Grow lack.
Buy Keap Pro if you have already scaled your business to a substantial size with a few employees who, in turn, manage a few clients and leads each.
Productivity is the essence for you now, and you have to go Pro.
3. Infusionsoft
Veteran business managers who are looking for a reliable CRM software and marketing tool, their search can end with Infusionsoft by Keap.
It really helps to take the flourishing business to the next level with the availability of efficient marketing automation tools and client management features.
How much will Keap cost you?
I believe it is pointless to woo you with the software features only to disappoint you with the price later, primarily when the discussion is directed towards small business owners.
They are almost always tight on funds during the initial years.
So, let us get serious with this Keap review, starting with the price.
You can buy a subscription of Keap Grow starting at $49 per month.
Keep Pro will cost you $99 per month. With this package, you will get the option of adding 500 contacts, which I feel is initially enough for small businesses.
As you expand your database beyond those 500 contacts, Keap will charge you extra. That typically comes down to $20 per month for every 1,000 contacts added.
Keap also has kickstart packages for small businesses – you buy the software instead of subscribing.
You get Keap Grow at $99 while Keap Pro comes at $499.
Keap Special Offer – Starting at $0 for your first month on all packages
However, before you get all impressed and start terming Keap as the best deal you have ever seen.
It is essential to note a couple of things before we end the discussion on pricing.
1. Keap defines a “contact” in your software as any person who has some contact data under the name.
A name with just an email ID will count as a “contact,” same as another name with address, phone number, email ID, birthday, shoe size, shirt preference, and so on.
2. And if a contact unsubscribes from your SMS or email list, that is still counted as a contact.
So, you lose a count from your net contact limit even when the lead has gone cold.
With this, we are ready to explore Keap’s features.
Keap features that help businesses
For a detailed walk-through, I am sharing the official guide-videos of both Keep Grow and Keep Pro.
But for quick but helpful insight, scroll down and read on.
Keap Grow Full Walkthrough–
Keap Pro Full Walkthrough-
1. Customer Relationship Management
The unique selling point of both Keap Grow and Keap Pro.
The company impresses with CRM, given their history with Infusionsoft, where you can not only store your client/lead contacts in the database but also track, send personalized emails, automate follow-ups, and more.
And why is this important?
Well, tracking your leads will increase your conversion rates. There is no rocket science there.
And sending a personalized welcome email immediately generate four times more exposure as almost 74% of all customers expect a welcome email almost instantaneously after signing up.
With Keap, you can store a contact’s name, activity, location details, communication history, and more.
And then track whether they have received welcome SMS or emails, adequate follow-ups, specific interests, and more, which takes us to Keap’s second most impressive feature.
2. Personalized Keap email marketing
Create Effective emails in Keap
Isn’t there MailChimp that does the job well?
Why bother with Keap then?
I agree that MailChimp and Keap share a few features when it comes to email marketing, but where Keap wins, the fight is with its email segmentation along with the CRM database at hand.
From the CRM database of Keap, you know your lead’s location, interest, birthday, activity, and more.
You can categorize the entire list as per these segments and send out personalized emails to generate more conversion.
For instance, leads from a specific location can get a particular email at par with the country’s present sentiment.
Leads with particular interests can receive messages curated to their passion.
After all, people who receive personalized promotional emails tend to spend 138% more than people who do not receive an email, and this is where Keap helps small businesses to grow.
Apart from this, Keap has a host of professional email templates ready for you to use.
And you can tap into Keap Pro’s email automation features that automatically tracks whether a lead has filled your form or visited your website or checked your pricing.
These are valuable pieces of information to have for your email campaign, won’t you agree?
3. Contact your contacts
What good will an extensive CRM database do if you cannot reach out?
Keap allows you to message and call your contacts right from the platform and stores all the records under a single screen.
Say, you sent a welcome email to Bob, and Bob texted you back.
You then called Bob to discuss the details and sent an email again with a quote.
This entire record of conversations will be available on Keap with appropriate timestamps for east reference and tracking.
Plus, as per recent marketing statistics, text messages carry an open rate of almost 98%.
Tracking them will allow you to pursue potential leads and not waste time on cold ones.
Again, this all-in-one contact management feature is what I loved about Keap regarding contacting your contacts, which increases the appeal of Keap more like a CRM software.
Get Special Discount on Keap Pro
4. A gallery of landing pages
The landing page builder is a new feature that Keap recently added to keep small businesses on the online bandwagon.
And the reason this feature deserves mention is its drag and drop facility to create an aesthetic landing page without having to write a single line of code.
You get access to a host of pre-built templates.
You can customize as per your business’s them and brand image.
Plus, when you design your landing page with Keap, you can build with data rather than instinct.
Go to your CRM database again.
Check out which emails your leads responded to and which offers gathered more attention.
Combined that with traffic sources that Keap provides and craft your landing page on those lines.
You can automate lead tracking here as well.
Add CTA buttons, lead generation forms, and testimonials and allow Keap to keep track of your leads’ engagements automatically.
Here again, Keap will flood you with relevant data to nudge your business towards success.
5. Tasks and appointments
Managing your tasks and appointments is as important as managing your leads.
Being unorganized here can make your potential customers slip through cracks.
As an example, consider this list of tasks and appointments:
-Reply to Julia, who contacted on LinkedIn.
-Send out a broadcast email about the Black Friday sale.
-Wish all customers who have birthdays tomorrow.
-Meet with Frank in the afternoon and have dinner with Angelina.
-Send invoices to XYZ enterprises.
-Remind ABC corporation to complete this month’s payments.
As you may already understand, this list can grow continuously depending on the size of your business and lead generation strategy.
And having these written down in a handbook or a spreadsheet without a reminder facility can quickly become disastrous.
Keap allows you to list your tasks. And set reminders for appointments.
And if you buy Keap Pro, you can automate a few of them, like wishing customers tomorrow or reminding ABC to pay.
The appointment feature of Keap is similar to Calend.ly, where empty slots are shown to both you and the client.
And both of you can book a common one as per your preferences.
6. Invoices and payments tracking
You will know the hassle of keeping track of your payments and invoices, especially if you are a solopreneur, yet hire an accountant, and manage just ten odd clients.
Small businesses with a more extensive customer base suffer more.
Both Keap Grow and Keap Pro make a strong case for use with their built-in quotes, invoices, and payments feature.
Right from sending a quote to your client to tracking payment completion, Keap nearly does all the job.
Well, I say “nearly” because you do not get the essential invoice and payment automation feature in Keap Grow.
If you want to delegate the money matters, the automated tools are required. Keap Pro automatically tracks invoices and their due dates.
It sends a reminder to the client without you getting involved.
Now, who will not want that feature in their CRM software?
7. Marketing automation and sales pipelines
Have a look at the screenshot above.
It is from Keap Pro where you can drag and drop a contact from the “Appointment” tab to the “Quote” tab.
Once you do that, Keap will automatically send a quote to the concerned contact and nurture your lead to turn into a customer.
That is Keap’s marketing automation for you.
Consider another screenshot from Keap.
This is Keap’s sales pipeline management feature.
You can again drag and drop contacts among the shown tabs depending on the status of the client.
It naturally takes away many redundant tasks from your sales team and frees them up for actual productive work.
One area where Keap, as a marketing platform, lagged behind other CRM products is in the domain of B2B.
But with these features, I have to say that Keap is catching on, and it is only fair to expect further updates from the company in this segment.
Of course, there are other helpful features of Keap.
But listing them as well will unnecessarily drag this Keap review.
Visit Keap’s official site for more feature details.
Is Keap CRM software Worth to Buy?
Here is answering the big question now.
Probably why you started reading this Keap review in the first place, I must begin by saying that both Keap Grow and Keap Pro is not for all businesses.
You must not pay attention to all the hype around lead automation and CRM and invest in Keap unnecessarily when you cannot afford it.
Buy Keap only if:
– Your business has around 50+ stable clients or at least 100 contacts that are active leads. Anything below that, a spreadsheet should do the job for free.
– At $49 or $99 a month, you will be spending around $600 to $1,200 per year. Your annual revenue must at least be substantial enough, given your other fixed costs and business expenses.
– You need a CRM software as you are losing leads exponentially owing to the lack of organization. Your product is client-oriented, that is where you are paying the most attention, and automating customer management will help your cause.
– Your marketing is all over the place. Due to poor tracking, you are not receiving the necessary value from standalone applications. Here, Keap can be helpful, provided the above hold right for you as well.
Avoid Keap if:
– You are a new online business and have just opened a shop. Spending on CRM on the word will be an expense you might not be able to afford in a few months.
– You are B2B. Apart from the marketing and sales pipeline feature, Keap does not help much where customers are corporations rather than individuals. There is no feature to build a company database.
– Your firm has more than 20 employees. You then qualify as a medium-scale business, and Keap is blatantly not meant for you.
Decision time!
If you fall into the latter category, it is pointless to continue reading.
Skip the rest and keep the Keap client management software out of your mind.
However, if you identified yourself with the former category, Keap can help your business. And the only information that is left to discuss is.
Respected marketing influencer, Neil Patel says Keap has helped him grow his business tremendously and saves him time and money. How?
- Through email personalization and sequences
- A sales pipeline feature that helps his sales team follow up
- Appointments scheduling
- Reporting and projection features
Discover how Neil uses these features for his business and learn the exact process for how his team uses text messaging in Keap Pro to close more sales.Curious how you can streamline your business like Neil Patel? Find out how
Where to buy Keap from?
You can visit Keap’s website, create an account, and directly purchase Keap Grow, Keep Pro, or Infusionsoft from there.
If things seem confusing, contact their customer support center, clear your queries, and pay attention to the live demo.
Or, you can purchase Keap through a Certified Keap Partner.
You can closely work with this person to better understand the software, integrate the right intricacies into your business, and even get deals on the stated price.
A Certified Partner works as a team member of your business.
You get one-on-one sessions to get started and migrate to Keap in no time at all.
Final Verdict on Keap CRM Software
Keap is your automated customer relationship management tool provided you can afford the friendship.
Sure, the business world is moving towards automation, and companies with intelligent bots have a better edge.
But according to Business Insider, 82% of small businesses fail to owe to cash flow issues, and hence, no amount of automation can save you if you do not have the cash for it.
The simple and effective digital marketing tactics can get you the required leads and propel you to the needed success as of now.
Just like any other business decision, think critically about Keap.
Read this Keap review, again and again, to strategically analyze your need.
Once you feel that Keap can genuinely take your business to a new height, invest then.
Otherwise, continue with what you are doing now.
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