I had subscribed in May. While the emails looked great, the landing page looked great as well , there were several things that I was missing:
1. Stats! If you have a marketing channel you need to be able to determine what your impact is on your database.
a. I could not see if someone unsubscribed or the email just bounced.
b. I had to download the complete list to get more information on clicks, click thru's and so soon
2. Database results:
Now, I am not sure how a database reacts in general to canned emails, but here is what I found with mine:
a. my click through rate consisted of my faithful "A" clients would open and click through I sent anyways, you know, the ones that I was in pretty close touch with anyways. It seemed they opened it because the email came from me, I had their trust and so they opened it. I had quite a few of them unsubscribe.
b. Though unsubscriptions levelled off after 3 months (I lost 30%+ of my database emails via "unsubscribe" or bounce whatever it was in total) and the number seemed to increase the longer the emails continued.
c. I had a total of 1 click through and actual request for a house evaluation in the 4 or 5 months that I used outboundengine and this request was from one of my A clients that just wanted to see how it worked.
3. One positive thing: after pouring over several CVS files and looking through them to pick out the open and click-throughs and transferring that click and open information into my actual database. I did find 3 clients (out of 800) that had on a continuous bases opened EVERY email (out of a total of 8 emails that were sent). I will latch on to those and hopefully make my money back through these 3 potential buyers.
Result: I entered into a contract with them thinking, just like the others, previous reviewers, that I can cancel anytime. However, I should have read in more detail the contract email that was sent to me because it clearly states in it that you CANNOT cancel or you are due an early cancellation fee. You are engaged for 12 months. My bad.
Here this is what the agreement email says:
Initial Term: 12 Months Monthly Fee: $199.00
Payment Schedule: Immediately by credit card, and each month thereafter in advance "Fee and Payment Terms If Subscriber cancels its subscription prior to the expiration of the Initial Term, Subscriber agrees to pay an early termination fee of 50% of fees payable during the remainder of the Initial Term."
When you want to cancel you will have to make an appointment with a salesperson, who will try to talk you out of it and most likely reduce your monthly price. I got it down to $129 but I just wasn't happy.
Those sales folks are trained very well and use every sales tactic in the book to keep you and overcome my objections.
I made the decision to cancel even though I had to pay $450 to get out of that contract. I did save $450 that I will pour into an assistant that will have a much larger reach and impact than the automation. It sort of was a wash. Last words.
Though I was sceptical that a program LIKE it might not be exactly what I need - I just felt I HAD to try it. I did and I learned, that I had to come up with another way to reach my "D" contacts. I think those D contacts are NOT worth paying $199 (or $129) a month, but if I can find another less expensive way/email service to reach them I'll probably sign up with them. Social posts I can schedule with Hootsuite, Buffer or IFTTT pretty quickly.
All that said, I just talked to a Outboundengine realtor client who LOVES the service - good for her and it goes to show that you really need to know [or figure out] what works for you.