Autopilot

"A Great Alternative to Full-Fledged Automation Software"

Opmerkingen: Autopilot is a great solution if you're looking for something to automate a sequence of emails. I wouldn't consider it a replacement for full-fledged marketing automation software... yet, but it's a fantastic tool for email automation. Just keep in mind that there are a few hiccups that you'll potentially need to navigate such as email SpamAssassin errors (always use mail-tester.com to check your emails) and CRM sync issues.

Pluspunten: It seems to me that Autopilot does only one thing - but it does that one thing REALLY well. I tested Autopilot briefly for a few weeks as an alternative to the drip program functionality in our Marketing Automation software. I was extremely impressed with how easy it is to build a drip program (called a "Journey" within Autopilot), as well as with the breadth of logic and functionality offered. Autopilot really sets itself apart with some amazing - seriously amazing - integrations and functionality that our Automation platform doesn't offer, such as sending SMS text messages or physical postcards. I really like that Autopilot offers in-app chat support, and that you generally don't need to wait longer than 5 minutes to get someone to help you out.

Minpunten: During the few weeks I tested Autopilot, I found a few issues that prevented me from really continuing to use the software for my use-case. The integration with Salesforce was clunky and un-intuitive, and most concerningly, it seemed that when the platform saw leads that already existed in Salesforce, it would stop them from progressing through the drip program. This was a real frustration, and I ended up just disconnecting Autopilot from the CRM in order to finish my test. Another concern we had was that after testing the emails I had configured using mail-tester.com, there was an error identified that could only be resolved by getting a dedicated IP address - something which adds a significant additional monthly cost to the cost of the program.

"Carry out email automation"

Opmerkingen: Autopilot is used in the Marketing department to carry out email automation for our clients. It allows us to have an overview of the basic performance of our campaigns by email. Autopilot is a great tool for email marketing automation. I think the ideal scenario is for small and medium businesses with growing marketing teams, especially since their cost becomes much more accessible than applications like Marketo.

Pluspunten: Autopilot has a large number of email templates that allow us to track the embedded link of our committed users. In addition, Autopilot allows the Marketing team to create a coherent funnel, with intelligent and easy-to-use segments. Another thing is that it is able to cover a large number of tasks, such as sending email newsletters and creating an advanced link based on various factors, such as default fields, potential customer owners, rules, among others. Another thing is Autopilot support, which offers an in-app chat service within the same application, so we can usually get in touch with them in just a few minutes.

Minpunten: There is much to be desired from the Autopilot WYSIWYG editor, which I hope can be improved with the next updates. Some actions related to APIs are very limited, so it would be good if they could provide a little more freedom. In addition, Autopilot allows very few integrations, and it would be excellent to work together with other marketing automation software to work faster.

"A great tool, with great visual cues, powerful automation and integrations"

Opmerkingen: Great platform, easy to learn and use, engaging for the team, awesome customer support, truly helpful content. No regrets. It's perfect for teams that are just starting out.

Pluspunten: Because of the visual workflow (or journeys, as they appropriately call them) builder, this is an easy platform to catch on to. Getting the team to dive in and build our or edit journeys is quick and simple and doesn't require two days of reading documentation and tutorials to understand. Autopilot has done an amazing job of making the building of the workflows collaborative as well. Being able to annotate, comment, add images etc helps not only the team understand the goals, but is killer for reminding you why you built something the way you did a month later. The email, CRM, Slack integrations are all easy to set up and use as well.

Minpunten: I believe they are working on it since there have been a lot of updates recently, but the email manager could use a bit more love - it just doesn't stand out as well against the rest of the platform. Building and editing an individual email is simple enough, but managing the full list can be tricky. The reporting on the messaging bot is also lacking - but that feature is easy to use and helpful. It's easy to trust that they will continue to improve this.

"Good in theory but not a solid longterm solution"

Opmerkingen: We used Autopilot for two+ years and now we're looking to move it off.

Pluspunten: Autopilot is really good to get you thinking about user journeys and how your customers should be getting information through your funnel.

Minpunten: The user thresholds are frustrating and they will move up in costs very quickly. The most frustrating is the lack of customer support.

"Marketing Automation on Steroids"

Pluspunten: Autopilot is a marketers dream tool. You can create a 'journey' for almost any task, from sending out an email newsletter to creating an advanced nurture journey based on segmentation, rules, lead owners, default and custom fields, website actions and much, much more. If you use tools such as Salesforce and Segment then you can get even more out of the tool with less work, but I personally don't use either and I still get a huge ROI on the product. They also just updated the email building tool which was a very welcome update.

Minpunten: It would be great if the tool worked with other CRM's than just Salesforce. Some of the actions and triggers, particularly when it comes to API triggers are quite limited so some improvements with that would be great. The price can get quite high with large numbers of contacts and the business plan selected (A/B testing, API triggers and more). I would also like to see an end-user subscription management feature added so that I can fully move away from other email tools (i.e. MailChimp) whilst being compliant with the likes of GDPR.