Ontraport – Comprehensive Business Automation

Running a small business is hard, and today’s entrepreneurs deserve every advantage possible to help their companies thrive. Ontraport is an important tool in the small business marketer’s toolbox, providing users with an all-in-one CRM platform that can be used to streamline basic business processes and enable companies to see what marketing strategies are — and aren’t — delivering a strong ROI.

Ontraport is more than just a CRM application. In fact, the company’s goal is to support entrepreneurs by eliminating the technological barriers that make running a business difficult. Plug into the Ontraport platform, and you can start scaling and systemizing your business right away. Quickly setup a blog, contact management system, automated marketing platform, and start gathering analytics from your website. You can even add e-commerce capabilities to your website as a way to generate more online sales. Ontraport provides a handful of automation tools, empowering your salespeople to capture more leads and follow up with prospects who’ve visited your online properties. The platform offers advanced features that you can use to create memberships sites and affiliate tracking systems.

Once all your business processes have been integrated into Ontraport, you can stop dealing with the hassle of importing and exporting data on a regular basis. When questions do come up, Ontraport encourages users to contact dedicated account reps for immediate support.

Practical Uses:

• Create a stylish blog for your business
• Add e-commerce capabilities to your website
• Start an affiliate tracking system
• Keep track of the customer contact information you collect online

Insider Tips:

• Ontraport offers a concierge service that SMBs can use to offload the work of setting up or managing their accounts
• Install tracking scripts in your existing website to link it to Ontraport
• Import existing customer lists into Ontraport
• Ontraport integrates with a number of payment gateways, carts, and blogging platforms

What we liked:

• Ontraport has combined all the technology an SMB needs in one platform
• Consolidating business marketing functions helps companies save time
• The CRM feature includes lead tracking and billing management
• Ontraport regularly holds webinars focused on small business marketing topics

What we didn’t like:

• Integrating everything into one platform can make it more difficult to leave the service, should the need ever arise

Alternatives:

• CloudWork – https://cloudwork.com
• Dispatch – http://getdispatch.com
• Swipely – https://swipely.com

Company Info:

• Launched: 2006
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Santa Barbara, California
• Founded by: Landon Ray
• Web site: http://ontraport.com

Costs:

• Pro plan is $297 per month
• Team plan is $597 per month