Intro
Keap Review Summary
Keap CRM (formerly Infusionsoft) is an intuitive customer relationship management (CRM) tool that makes it easy to collect more leads and convert more clients. The platform offers everything a growing small business needs to manage sales and customers – including customer relationship management, sales automation, marketing automation and payments – all in a mobile-friendly platform.
Pros of Keap
- Automates lead capture & follow up
- Automates repetitive tasks so fewer employees can get more work done
- Forecasts our revenue
- Tracks affiliate commission
- Allows us to automated almost all aspects of the customer experience
- Reports on advertising ROI by lead source
- Excellent support and coaching packages
- Outstanding interface for complete customer management
- All-in-one solution
Cons of Keap
- Keap lacks the deep data mining features of Infusionsoft
- Expensive if all you need is email marketing
- Expensive subscription costs
- Mandatory and pricey training
- Doesn’t include social media marketing features
Try Keap For Yourself
Try a risk free unlimited 14 day trial of all Keaps features! Click the link below!
Now, let’s look deeper to find what Keap has to offer and whether it is the right solution for you or not.
What is Keap (Formerly Infusionsoft)?
Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) is a cloud-based sales and marketing solution that offers customer relationship management (CRM), marketing automation, and e-commerce functionalities in one suite. Keap helps small businesses across various industries streamline sales and manage customer experiences.
Users can segment contacts, track customer interactions, send emails, as well as run campaigns with personalized communication triggers based on emails opened, clicks, and more. Users can also manage e-commerce, from inventory management to payments and purchase fulfillment, set up online shopping carts, track digital storefront activity, send quotes, invoices, and receipts.
The system’s reporting and analytics tools help users run analyses on parameters such as emails, campaign performance, and ROI data. Users can access Keap remotely on Android and iOS devices. It offers integration with QuickBooks, SalesForce, Outlook, Gmail, plus more.
Below is a quick summary of the features of Keap:
Ease of Use
Keap is the most user-friendly CRM platform we reviewed. Although it’s not as robust as some enterprise-level tools, such as Salesforce, it’s a great fit for smaller businesses that want simpler software.
Even without participating in the “expert coaching” that’s included with the initial setup fee, we found it very easy to optimize our demo account and accomplish tasks such as building automated workflows and sales pipelines, thanks to the guided instructions and preconfigured fields.
The home dashboard keeps your team focused on sales efforts, with items such as leads, quotes, invoices and email activity at the top of the screen. You are also provided quick access to recent activity, tasks, appointments and reviews. You can easily reorganize the home dashboard by grabbing a widget and moving it. You can also remove or add different widgets with just a couple of clicks to create the perfect dashboard, regardless of your role within the organization or experience with the software.
CRM Capabilites
The Keap software is often used as a CRM. Users can easily track and manage their contacts.
To start with, this program collects prospective clients’ data, including basic information such as:
- name
- address
- email address
- phone number
- website
- type of customer
- purchase history.
It even allows you to create up to 100 additional custom fields that can help you classify your contacts and leads better.
If you’re moving your database from other software, you can import all your existing contacts. Just upload a CSV file containing all the details about your contacts.
Once you’ve collected your contacts’ data, Keap enables you to organize your contact list in any way you see fit. This way, you’ll be able to prioritize those that are most likely to become customers.
Each recorded contact comes with its own activity feed. This feed tracks all the times you’ve reached out to that individual via phone call or email. This CRM tool also allows you to assign scores to contacts based on how ‘warm’ they are. You can even set up your own scoring system if you want. For example, you can assign additional points to a contact based on their level of interest or the size of their budget.
More interestingly, this system allows you to automate tasks based on client scores. You can send specific offers or promos to clients with a lead score of 30 or higher, for example.
Keap has other CRM capabilities and allows you to:
- search for clients based on data collected
- send automated email follow-ups to people you’ve recently contacted
- launch up-sell campaigns to existing customers
- initiate drip email campaigns.
Ecommerce & Payments
Ecommerce
If you run an ecommerce store, then the Keap software has something for you, too.
For one, this program comes with customizable templates that you can use to create your online store. These templates aren’t limited to businesses that just sell products. You’ll also find a good selection suitable for businesses that sell services and subscriptions too.
Asides from that, your virtual storefront comes with tools that allow you to streamline the online shopping experience for your customers. Some of these tools include a shopping cart with subtotal pricing and shipping information and customizable order forms that are processed on a secure server.
You can even automate your promotions by segmenting your contacts based on a variety of factors like location and purchase history. You can then set up promotion triggers based on customer actions.
Payments
Setting up payments for your website is very straightforward and convenient with Keap. You can easily have your site accept payments from American Express and Discover in addition to Visa and Mastercard.
This customer relationship management program also allows you to accept payments in person, over the phone, and via a Bluetooth card reader. In fact, the platform offers a chip reader to process transactions more securely.
Keap user reviews rave about the lack of additional monthly, set up, and batch fees.
Sales and Marketing
Marketing Automation
Keap has your marketing automation needs covered as well. When we were testing Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) for this review, we were able to create compelling marketing campaigns in minutes. It was all thanks to its intuitive drag-and-drop feature.
Better yet – if you do not always want to start from scratch, the Keap campaign builder also comes with ready-made templates.
Keap has a straightforward interface, campaign workflows are presented in a graphical form, allowing you to have a clear view of each step and branch. Actions and communication methods are depicted using icons that you can drag and drop into the marketing funnel. For example, an envelope for email and a phone icon for a click-to-call.
You can connect two actions by simply drawing a line between them. This communicates to the system that the completion of one action triggers the next one. You can even double-click on an icon to investigate. This is especially useful for those who want to set up drip campaigns.
Using Keap, you can also create landing pages to suit your campaigns. The platform features a drag-and-drop landing page builder, as well as a wide selection of industry-specific templates.
Designing your landing page is definitely one of the more fun tasks. You can access hundreds of royalty-free images to include on your webpage, and all your landing pages are platform responsive. This means that they look good on any device they are viewed on.
Some other functions of the marketing automation feature include:
- creating unlimited campaign categories
- personalizing marketing messages to potential customers
- modifying campaigns based on performance.
Sales Automation
There is a difference between sales automation and marketing automation, and thankfully, Keap features tools that support both.
Sales involve one-on-one communication between your business representative and a single client. You can track your customer interactions on the Keap help desk. You can also automate follow-up communication, view your entire sales cycle, and manage your communication pipeline.
In addition, this program enables you to:
- create and share quotes with clients
- send emails to sales representatives when quotes are rejected or accepted
- allow clients to accept a quote with a single click
- accept payments via an online payment gateway
- convert quotes into orders
- adjust the balance on customer accounts
Sales Pipeline
The Keap marketing software provides you with an automated way to track and manage your clients and leads throughout your sales process. You can view your entire pipeline on a single page.
You also get a customizable dashboard that allows you to organize and track your leads alongside feedback from existing clients. You can even sync your client data to your dashboard so that you have a more accurate idea of it all.
Additionally, using this centralized tool, you can set up automatic triggers for email sequences that are sent out whenever you move a lead from one stage to the next.
All your new leads are directed straight to your Keap app, after which your automated marketing campaign can start doing its thing.
Email Marketing
Keap provides you with everything you need to create and launch your own email campaigns.
Similar to the marketing campaign builder, this software comes with an email builder. This builder is very user intuitive, and features over a dozen templates to help you get started.
It also features a drag-and-drop tool, which was named the “signature tool” in both Keap and Infusionsoft reviews.
You can include videos, spacers, social icons, and your usual fare. You can also adjust colors, font styles, and sizes, as well as customize your campaign with your own texts, images, and links.
If you prefer to build it from scratch though, Keap also offers an HTML editor.
Once you’ve created your campaign, you can choose to send it out immediately or schedule a later time. You can also set up autoresponders by choosing triggers that initiate email transmissions.
Appointment Management
This business operations software has an appointment management tool. You can also view your appointments, notes, and action items in a single column. Keap takes project management to the next level, allowing you to prioritize your activities at the beginning of each workday.
Reporting and Administration
Analytics
After carrying out a marketing campaign, you’d of course want to know if it has succeeded or not. Keap’s analytics feature answers this question for you.
This software offers a selection of reports that show you how your campaigns are performing. In fact, you can monitor your campaign performance in real-time. It also offers graphs for some of your important metrics, like traffic and conversions.
Some of the reports you’ll get from the Keap marketing platform include:
- conversions by sales stage
- conversions by lead source
- email opens
- conversion rates
- performance by individual campaign.
You can also get reports for your landing page performance, orders, and billing, as well as revenue reports based on referrals, products, etc.
Setup
We found Keap to be one of the easiest email marketing solutions to set up, especially considering how many interesting features it includes such as invoicing and appointment management.
Keap has a 14-day free trial, whereas Infusionsoft doesn’t. When we initially tried to sign up for a Keap trial with a Gmail address, it declined us, stating our email’s reputation wasn’t good enough. This may seem a nuisance, but it’s quite common for email marketing software to decline free email addresses to reduce the chances a free trial will be used to send spam. When we signed up with a company email address, it was accepted immediately.
A dedicated Getting Started section of the interface suggests tasks you should do to get Keap set up for your business. These tasks include importing your contacts, syncing your Google calendar for appointment booking, and downloading the Keap mobile app for iOS or Android. Thanks to Keap’s highly intuitive, card-based interface, performing these tasks is a breeze.
Third-Party Integrations
This customer relationship management program offers a variety of integrations. These include management accounting solutions like Quickbook and Xero, as well as over 200 other tools. Some of the most popular include:
- BigCommerce
- WordPress
- Gmail
- OptinMonster
- Leadpages
- Vimeo
- Wistia
- Wicked Reports
- Booker
Keap also integrates with Kickstart, which provides users with an added level of support. Via the Keap Kickstart integration, you’ll get:
- one-on-one coaching that helps solve your specific business challenges
- access to a library of successful pre-built marketing plans
- unlimited access to the Keap help center.
We’ll discuss more of this later.
Asides from those, you can also get custom integrations by visiting the Keap marketplace. There, you’ll find several designers, developers, consultants, and trainers that can provide you with the solution you need for a fee.
Customer Support
Keap’s support site is outstanding, with an enormous help center, video tutorials, active user community, live demos, and customer webinars.
Live chat support is available Monday to Friday 6 AM–7 PM PDT, and toll-free support numbers in USA/Canada, the UK, and Australia follow similar hours.
You can also buy expert coaching packages to get you up to speed on the software quickly. The Keap Grow Coaching package ($99) includes access to training webinars and help integrating the software with Gmail, QuickBooks Online, and Outlook.
Meanwhile, the Keap Pro Coaching package ($499) includes three one-on-one coaching sessions with an expert coach. Infusionsoft Coaching ($999) has five sessions and includes the setup of sales and e-commerce.
Pricing Plans
This software offers three subscription options. At the time of writing of this Keap review, the plans are:
Lite
$79/month for 1 user.
Includes:
- Up to 500 contacts
- core CRM
- Automation
- Email tools to get organized
- Automate follow-up
- Close more deals
Pro
$149/month for 1 user.
Includes everything in Lite, plus:
- Up to 500 contacts
- Automated, repeatable sales processes and marketing campaigns to save time and increase sales
Max
$199/month for 1 user.
Includes everything in Pro, plus:
- Up to 500 contacts
- Extended CRM
- Secure payment platforms
- Ecommerce
- Advanced automation
The software allows you to add more users to your plan if you want, for an additional cost.
Each additional user costs an extra $30 per month, and the limit is 10. As you might guess, 9 additional users cost $270 per month. When you get to the 10th user, however, the software automatically applies a discount, and the price drops to $150 per month.
You can also add up to 200,000 additional contacts as well. 1000 additional contacts cost $30 per month and the price increases with the number of extra contacts you add. If you reach 200,000 Keap will charge you a whopping $800 per month.
In addition to your regular subscription plan – and something often featured as a complaint in Keap reviews – is the mandatory expert coaching via Kickstart. It currently costs a one-time-only price of $499. This training program includes one-on-one coaching, daily training webinars, and personalized support. Your coach will also design a custom plan to collect more leads, convert more clients, and create a motivated fan base for you in less time.
Sounds good, but why is it necessary? It would be best if users had the chance to opt-out.
If you want to test out the software before making any financial commitments, Keap has a free trial that lasts for 30 days. The platform is also currently running a promo for a 30% discount for the first three months.
Keap vs the Competition
The small business client management and marketing automation market is getting VERY competitive. Overall, it’s been a good thing for users like you and me because it means that we’re getting new improvements and aggressive pricing.
This Keap review won’t go into the feature-by-feature comparison, but I do want to point out a few core differences that you should know about if you’re considering some of the other tools. Depending on your situation, the following tools might be worth comparing.
Keap vs ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign has made some really good progress in the last 2 years. The addition of their CRM and visual campaign builder combined with their aggressive pricing make ActiveCampaign a really solid choice. I’m a big fan of ActiveCampaign for the right business.
ActiveCampaign does NOT have an e-commerce module. If you accept payments online, you’ll need to find a third party provider and integrate it into ActiveCampaign, usually via Zapier or one of their deep data integrations. It does have a basic CRM and pretty good automation builder.
However, with the added features, comes much more complexity. It will not be nearly as easy to set up use. If you plan to scale your business up, ActiveCampaign would be the better long-term choice. If you want to go for simplicity and quickly getting things set up, Keap would be a better option.
You might consider ActiveCampaign over Keap if you:
- Have more robust automation needs
- Don’t accept online payments via invoices (like a real estate business)
- Need more CRM and sales pipeline features
- Are okay with occasional clunkiness
ActiveCampaign is a great choice and I’m excited for what it has to offer (in fact, we’ve started supporting it with our clients), but its campaign builder is still lacking and can be tricky to use sometimes (for example, it’s REALLY difficult to time your steps around a specific date or dates in the contact record).
The app feels like my Grandma’s house (which has 3 major add-ons to the original floor plan). Sure, it gets the job done, but sometimes it’s a bit tricky to figure out where I’m going.
Keap vs Ontraport
Feature for feature, Ontraport might be the closest competitor to Keap. In fact, similar to Keap, they have also marketed themselves as an “All in one” solution.
I’ve been impressed with how far Ontraport has come over the last few years. They’ve been aggressive in their software development and have recently introduced their own landing pages and a visual campaign builder that rivals Keap’s.
Their CRM is powerful (allows for custom object creation), but it feels a little bloated when I use it.
The biggest difference between Keap and Ontraport is the community. Keap has a wealth of add-ons to extend the functionality of the software.
I’d keep an eye on Ontraport; they’ve made great progress over the last few years and are on track to do some good things in this space.
You should consider Ontraport over Keap if you:
- Have more robust CRM needs (like custom objects)
- Run an online business (online courses, etc)
Keap vs ClickFunnels
I get this questions a lot, but it honestly surprises me. Yes, Keap and ClickFunnels share similar features, but they are not the same product category. It surprises me that people compare them so often because it’s sort of like apples and oranges.
Keap is a client management and and automation tool. ClickFunnels on the other hand is a funnel builder with an easy-to-use landing page builder. I think the confusion comes in because both are starting to add features that the other has. ClickFunnels is adding more email automation and client management features while Keap has added a landing page builder.
The problem is that, as of this writing, ClickFunnels is not very good at client management and automation and Keap is not very good at funnels and landing pages. So if your goal is an easy-to-built funnel with really good automation, you’ll want to pair the two softwares together. (Another good combo is ClickFunnels paired with ActiveCampaign.)
I enjoy both Keap and ClickFunnels and use them both.
Keap Review – Final Verdict
There’s no doubt that Keap is a great tool with extensive capabilities. It is particularly fitting for small businesses that are still finding their footing, and so require an all-in-one software solution.
Besides, most of the program’s features are very impressive. Its sales and marketing automation tools have vast functionalities that enable users to maximize their leads and sales. Its lead generation and expert coaching also help users convert contacts to customers. The ‘My Day’ feature is a convenient day planner and project manager. The ecommerce and payment tools allow entrepreneurs to get their businesses up and running in a quick and effective manner. Get the Keap free trial to see all the goodies for yourself!
Of course, not all is perfect.
For one, Keap explicitly markets itself as a solution for small businesses. If your business is expected to grow, then it’s not the best option.
The program’s mandatory paid training also knocks down a few points. It’s frustrating that on top of the already expensive subscription prices, users still have to pay yet another steep price for training. They don’t even get the option to opt-out of it!
We’d like to see that improved and also social media marketing options included. Be sure to keep an eye on our Keap review, we’ll update once new features roll out.
Try Keap For Yourself
Try a risk free unlimited 14 day trial of all Keaps features! Click the link below!
Frequently Asked Questions
Keap is used to carry out business operations, including:
- creating an ecommerce site
- setting up payment solutions for your business
- project management
- sales and marketing automation
- email marketing.
Unfortunately, this software doesn’t have a free plan. It’s a common complaint in Keap reviews. However, the program does offer a generous 30-day free trial to users.
The cost of Keap depends on your subscription plan as well as the number of users and contacts you need. That said, for a basic startup with 1 user and up to 500 contacts, Keap’s monthly subscription costs $79 for its Lite plan, $149 for Pro, and $199 for Max.
The number of languages Keap supports is only expected to grow. Currently, Keap supports;
- English
- Spanish
- French
- Italian
- Arabic
- German
- Hebrew
- Portuguese
- Japanese
- Dutch
- Swedish
Over the last two years, we've talked with thousands of small business owners to get a deeper understanding of their unique challenges in today's market. We learned that it's harder than ever to succeed in small business. Customers expect more. One failed job can be damaging to your business.
Keap is our signal to the world—and to ourselves—that it's time to make it easier for you to succeed. We're on a mission to simply growth for millions of small businesses. Our new name is a nod to the tenacity of the small business owner and encompasses everything we know to be true when it comes to success: keep going, keep serving, keep growing.
No, we chose to change our name to better represent who we are and what we do for small businesses.
