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Freshworks Freshmarketer Review and Pricing Plans
Freshworks Freshmarketer is the best email marketing software for marketing integrations because of its comprehensive and scalable features for growing marketing teams.
Table of Contents
- Freshmarketer has many features and integrations to help scale your marketing efforts.
- Freshmarketer’s plans are simple and straightforward. There’s a forever-free plan and a paid Enterprise plan that starts at a flat $15 per month.
- You can combine Freshmarketer and Freshsales CRM to access tools for targeting your audience.
- Customer support options are limited and troubleshooting experiences are inconsistent.
- With its limit of 500 marketing contacts (unless you pay for more), Freshmarketer can quickly become expensive and insufficient for larger operations.
- Some of Freshmarketer’s most useful features, including a dedicated IP address and conversion rate optimization analytics, are available only as add-ons to the paid plan.
Small and midsize businesses that want to level up their marketing efforts need a platform with tools that support an effective, multichannel strategy. They need a solution with robust integrations, in-depth analytics, smart customer segmentation capabilities and the ability to connect seamlessly with the tools teams already use.Â
Freshmarketer by Freshworks delivers on all fronts with its comprehensive Enterprise plan, CRM software integration options and advanced tracking and reporting features. Plus, it connects with the whole suite of Freshworks tools for customer service, relationship management and sales to give you an all-in-one powerhouse marketing platform. That’s why Freshmarketer is our pick as the best email marketing software for marketing integrations.
Freshworks Freshmarketer Editor's Rating:
9.2 / 10
- Pricing/value
- 8.8/10
- Features
- 9.5/10
- Customizations, add-ons and integrations
- 9.4/10
- Ease of use
- 9.4/10
- Customer service
- 8.8/10
Why Freshmarketer Is Best for Marketing Integrations
We chose Freshworks as the best email marketing software for marketing integrations because it’s a convenient all-in-one marketing solution with robust features to support a growing business’s marketing operations. We were impressed by the platform’s capabilities and add-ons, including customer segmentation, email list maintenance, content personalization, and data capture and analysis. That makes it an effective tool for mapping a customer journey and then tailoring email marketing campaigns to be as effective as possible in converting leads to customers.
Usability
Freshmarketer offers a user-friendly experience that even tech-averse users will likely find intuitive. Its easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor allows you to build responsive, branded emails without needing to code. You can choose from one of the nearly 180 available templates and customize it to suit your branding, or design your own layout with images, buttons and personalized content blocks.
Freshmarketer has a user-friendly drag-and-drop tool to help you quickly build email campaigns. Source: Freshworks
The simple navigation adds to the flexibility of the product; it’s lean and doesn’t include unnecessary features users rarely need. We found it easy to choose how and when to communicate with audiences, which parameters to segment email lists by, and which options for scheduling and automation we wanted to employ.
The email campaign functionality is part of a larger CRM software platform, so it’s the CRM that offers the ability for API integrations. It integrates with various popular tools, including Trello, Zapier, Shopify, Outlook, Gmail and Asana. Some users have reported minor bugs, but those frequently depend on the specific integration and CRM customization settings. Learn more about Freshworks’ CRM platform in our Freshsales CRM review.
Freshmarketer Features
Freshmarketer delivers tons of convenient email marketing tools in one user-friendly suite. These are the features we like most:
AI content and campaign tools | Create engaging, high-converting campaigns with Freshmarketer’s Freddy AI (currently in beta). |
|---|---|
Advanced audience segmentation | Target the right audience every time with custom segments based on user behavior and AI-powered predictions. |
Multichannel engagement | Reach customers via email, SMS, WhatsApp, chat and social media from one unified dashboard. |
Conversational marketing | Capture leads and improve conversion rates with AI-powered chatbots that engage visitors in real-time conversations. |
Customer journeys | Build automated, cross-channel journeys that respond instantly to customer actions. |
Performance analytics and CRO tools | Track campaign success and improve conversion rates with detailed reports, A/B testing, heatmaps and session replays. |
AI Content and Campaign Tools (Freddy AI)
Freddy, Freshmarketer’s built-in AI assistant, helps you craft personalized email content, from engaging subject lines to targeted product recommendations. Freddy also provides campaign insights, such as send-time optimization and intelligent contact scoring, so you can identify the best time to reach your audience and focus on your most engaged leads.
If you don’t connect a Shopify account to your Freshmarketer account, you won’t be able to use Freddy AI to generate content ideas. Source: Freshworks
We were disappointed when we tried to use Freddy AI within the Freshmarketer dashboard and learned that the tool is able to help generate content only for direct-to-consumer businesses with a connected Shopify account, so not every user will be able to take advantage of the feature.
Advanced Audience Segmentation
Freshmarketer lets you go beyond basic list building with advanced segmentation based on customer behavior, life-cycle stages and even AI-powered predictions. You can create custom segments using past purchases, site activity or demographic data, ensuring that every message goes to the right audience at the right time.
Multichannel Engagement
With Freshmarketer, you can connect with your audience across email, SMS, WhatsApp, chat and social media — all from a single platform. We like how easy it is to unify your campaigns and deliver consistent, personalized messaging across the channels your customers use most.
Conversational Marketing
Freshmarketer enables real-time conversations with customers so you can capture leads and provide support from within your dashboard. AI-powered bots can answer questions, qualify prospects and even trigger marketing campaigns automatically so you can engage site visitors 24/7. You can also initiate direct chat conversations with customers who reach out to you with questions or issues.
Customer Journeys
Freshmarketer’s visual journey builder lets you create automated workflows that respond to customer actions as they’re happening. From onboarding emails to re-engagement campaigns, you can easily build cross-channel journeys that nurture leads and drive conversions.
With Freshmarketer, you can create action-based, personalized journeys to engage your customers. Source: Freshworks
Performance Analytics and CRO Tools
Small businesses will appreciate Freshmarketer’s robust reporting and conversion rate optimization (CRO) tools. You can analyze campaign performance, track website behavior with heatmaps and session replays (add-on), and run A/B or split URL tests to continuously improve your email marketing strategy.
Freshmarketer’s free plan offers only basic reporting capabilities, but the Enterprise plan allows for in-depth, custom reports so you can track what matters most to your business. Source: Freshworks
Freshworks Pricing
Unlike other email marketing services that have multiple subscription levels with complicated volume- and contact list–based pricing structures, Freshmarketer offers only two plans: free and Enterprise.
Growing small businesses will likely find the most value in the Enterprise plan, because the free plan is extremely limited and doesn’t offer access to many of the platform’s most useful features. It’s worth noting, however, that the $15-per-month price ($18 if you go month to month) includes only 500 marketing contacts, and adding a block of 5,000 contacts costs an additional $100 per month. Freshmarketer can quickly become expensive depending on the size of your contact list.
Plan | Cost | Features |
|---|---|---|
Free | $0 |
|
Enterprise | $15 per month when billed annually | Everything in the free plan, plus:
|
If the Enterprise features aren’t robust enough for your business’s needs, Freshmarketer also offers several add-on features to help you get the most out of your subscription.
- The CRO (conversion rate optimization) suite, which includes heatmaps, session replay, A/B testing and split URL testing, personalization features, funnel analysis, form analytics, and polls and feedback.
- Additional marketing contacts, bot sessions and messaging agents beyond what’s included in the Enterprise plan.
- A dedicated IP address, which costs $199 per IP per month.
Pricing for many of these add-ons is not readily available on the Freshmarketer website, but if you sign up for a trial, you will be able to view pricing options based on your business’s needs when the trial expires.
Businesses that need more than the 500 marketing contacts included in Freshmarketer’s flat-rate Enterprise plan can purchase additional contacts ($100 per month for each block of 5,000 contacts). You can also add Freddy AI agent sessions, a dedicated IP address, a suite of CRO tools and messaging agents to your plan. Source: Freshmarketer
Freshmarketer Setup
When you start your free 21-day trial of Freshmarketer, it’s easy to get up and running in just a few minutes. The default dashboard instantly populates with sample data to help you get a feel for how your dashboard will look once you import your contacts. You can click through each of the options in the sidebar to view your contacts, campaigns, customer journeys, landing pages and forms, analytics, and admin settings.
Freshmarketer lets you get started exploring its features right away when you sign up for a free trial — no credit card required. Source: Freshworks
The first step is adding your contacts. You can add your contacts manually one at a time, upload them from a CSV or Excel file, or import them from one of Freshmarketer’s supported platform integrations. [Related article: How to Build an Email Marketing Contact List]Â
When you’re ready to create your first email campaign, you can select from one of Freshmarketer’s more than 175 customizable templates or build your own email from scratch with the drag-and-drop editor. You also have the option to upload HTML code for a completely custom-built email.
Freshmarketer’s library of beautifully designed templates offers specific options based on the type of email you want to send, including newsletters, offers, promotions and transactional emails. All templates are fully customizable to align with your brand. Source: Freshworks
Freshmarketer Customer Service
If you’re experiencing issues or have a question while you’re using Freshmarketer, you can select the support icon in the lower-right corner of your dashboard. From there, you can choose to interact with a representative through the live chat or explore the knowledge base.
Live chat for Freshworks customers is available 24 hours a day, five days a week. If you select that option, an automated system will gather basic information, and then you’ll wait for a live representative. Representatives responded within a few minutes when we tested the live chat during regular business hours, but we found it very difficult to get answers about basic product and pricing questions. The first time, we were asked to provide an email address and phone number for a product specialist to get back to us, but no one ever followed up. We tried live chat again to ask the same questions, and the representative immediately asked us if we would like to schedule a product demo rather than providing a straight answer. They finally provided us with a page from their knowledge base to answer our question, but it took some time to get there.
The knowledge base holds dozens of how-to guides, as well as articles about marketing emails and email settings configurations. Many of those resources have detailed step-by-step instructions with screenshots.
Freshmarketer Drawbacks
Overall, the biggest drawback of Freshworks Freshmarketer is the limitations of its base plan. The simplicity of its free and paid plan structure makes it easy to understand exactly what you’re signing up for, but 500 marketing contacts can be used up very quickly for growing businesses. Adding just one block of additional contacts (up to 5,000 for $100 per month) represents a nearly 670 percent increase from the base price, which may make it cost-prohibitive to scale up your email marketing efforts. Additionally, useful features such as CRO tools and dedicated IP addresses are available only as add-ons to the Enterprise plan.
Another potential issue with Freshmarketer is the confusing number of product and pricing pages. It’s great that Freshworks provides so many product options for different business needs. Because of the site’s link structure, however, you may end up viewing feature and pricing information that doesn’t match the product you wanted to view, with no indication that you’re on the wrong page.
Finally, users have reported an inconsistent customer-support experience, and we found that to be true. The phone number and email listed on the contact page specifically route to the Freshworks sales team, so actual customer support is limited to live chat and the knowledge base. We found it difficult to get answers to basic product questions via live chat, and reps will push you to schedule a sales call or provide an email address for a follow-up from a product specialist.Â
Freshmarketer reviews on sites like G2 have reported unreliable troubleshooting timetables and unresolved issues. That can be difficult to reconcile when users have complained about a steep learning curve for troubleshooting small bugs in the system.
Methodology
To identify the best email marketing services, we compiled a list of popular platforms based on online research and carefully examined each service’s online reputation. We spent several weeks researching each email marketing service by investigating its offerings, watching tutorials and how-to videos, testing the software (when possible), and reading user reviews. We also evaluated each service’s pricing structure and customer service by contacting each finalist and posing as a business owner. When selecting our pick for the best email marketing service for integrations, we considered which types of all-in-one marketing integrations small and midsize businesses would likely want, as well as the email marketing budgets of businesses of that size.
Freshmarketer FAQs
Overall Value
We recommend Freshworks for …
- Small businesses that want a forever-free software for small-scale, basic marketing campaigns.
- Small business owners looking for all-in-one marketing automation software.
- Marketing professionals who need an integrated marketing solution with feature flexibility and add-on scalability.
We do not recommend Freshworks Freshmarketer for …
- Companies that are new to email marketing and need a lot of support from the vendor.
- Businesses that anticipate exceeding 500 marketing contacts per month.
- Large enterprises looking to scale quickly.
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