In an era where customers nowadays expect personal service experience from businesses, you as an entrepreneur or marketer must make sure your business does this.

You need a way to attract new contacts, teach them about your products, turn them into customers, and make sure they're getting the most out of your product.

You want to get them a personal touch, and yet you don't have nearly enough time in your day to focus on each customer individually and still run your business.

Ontraport is designed to help manage your entire marketing workflow, from bringing in new visitors all the way to making sure they feel welcome as customers.

Once you've set it up, it can do most of that on its own, automatically, so you can focus more on growing your core business.

I have tried Ontraport and other similar marketing funnels, and I will discuss the features of Ontraport in this review and compare its functionality and pricing with its competitors – to give you an easier time deciding which software is the most suitable for your business.

Ontraport Account Details

What is Ontraport?

Ontraport provides a customer relationship management (CRM) system to automate content, marketing, sales, and information management with ease.

It includes tools for:

• Lead capture
• Marketing features and automation (including email marketing)
• Split testing
• Task management
• Affiliate management
• Payments
• Membership site creation and management
• Social media integration
• …and more.

In order to create all of the above, you don’t need to have any programming or design skills. Ontraport comes with a customizable dashboard with a drag and drop interface.

Ontraport Dashboard

With Ontraport, building beautiful web pages for improved and high conversion rates is a breeze. Tracking campaigns, sending emails, and even physical postcards can be done with just a push of a button.

The purpose of Ontraport is to make building and maintaining stronger relationships with clients and prospective customers effective.

By enabling entrepreneurs to smartly automate their business in one single platform, Ontraport helps users add more value to their world and significantly decrease the burden that technology entails.

Ontraport is best for those who sell information products, run a membership site, or have any kind of online training or education company.

01:37 : How to Manage Your Contacts / Customer

02:07 : Create Email Sequences

04:37 : Create Your Business Rule

07:29 : Create Task for Your Employee

08:00 : Manage your Sales

09:31 : Create Anything with Ontraport Project

12:27 : Create Landing Pages

15:40 : Creating Optin Form

18:00 : Create Smart Form

23:56 : Ontraport Pricing & Features

Ontraport Main Features

Landing Pages with OntraPages

Ontraport makes it easy to design forms and landing pages, and they even offer free hosting of your landing page, as well as easy integration with your WordPress site.

It also allows you to build a lead capture landing page, or to design landing pages that use templates for digital downloads, sales, or for “Thank you” or “Coming soon” pages.

Once you’ve selected a template, you can choose from a wide variety of designs and further customize any template to fit perfectly with your needs and your brand image.

You can then host the landing page on Ontraport’s own server, integrate it with your WordPress website, or save it to fine tune it later.

OntraPages Landing Page Builder

Page Types

Theme Settings

Page Editor

Photo Editor

Block Types

Elements Editor

Button Editor

Page Publisher

Page Stats

Email Marketing / Autoresponder Sequences

Another great feature of Ontraport is the ability to quickly and easily set up autoresponder sequences.

Ontraport Sequences

You may choose to create a sequence based on different steps or based on a date.

Sequence Types

For example, if you’re putting out a newsletter or a series in anticipation of a new product debut, you want to choose the date sequence to ensure that all of your subscribers get the same message on the same date.

Date Sequence

If you’re sending out a sales series where emails are sent in a series rather than on a date-based system, you’ll want to use the step sequence.

You can add different steps to the sequence, including tasks, rules (which can be used to automatically transfer a subscriber from one list to another), and even emails which allow your customer to purchase products via email.

You can add as many steps as you need, and you can ensure that your emails are delivered at the time you select.

Step Sequence

Email Templates

Email Editor

Rules

Rules make it easy to automate list maintenance and to switch subscribers automatically from one list to the next.

Ontraport Rules

For example, you can set up a rule that says anybody who doesn’t open your emails for three months will be dropped off your list.

You could also set a rule to automatically transfer buyers who make a purchase from your “Prospects” list to your “Customers” list.

Contact Removal / Transfer Rules Example

You could even set up a rule to target customers who spend a certain amount of money, or who visit your website a certain amount of time.

Ontraport’s rules allow for easy automation, which makes running your business far less time-consuming and ensures that your subscribers receive only the emails intended for them and targeted to their unique characteristics.

E-Commerce

Ontraport’s full e-commerce suite sells your product online, manages payments, and stores customer order history all in one system.

You can quickly build beautiful and customizable order and upsell forms that sync directly with your contact database.

Ontraport manages your shopping carts, order forms, and payment gateways with an all-in-one platform to seamlessly and reliably process and fulfill online orders.

Moreover, payments, credit card declines, and collection processes are safely automated to provide security for your online customers.

Referral Partners

Ontraport helps grow your business exponentially by providing partner management tools. You can create partner programs (referral marketing) to get partners to assist you in generating web traffic, leads and sales.

You can allow designated partners to automatically receive commissions. Ontraport’s partner management system also allows you to easily track the revenue generated by your referrals.

This is a great thing to have, as you can close more sales without spending more on marketing upfront.

Partner Info

Add Partner Product Menu

Partner Payment Management

Customer support

Finally, Ontraport offers phone and email support along with concierge services for businesses that want additional assistance with set-up and implementation.

Users can also access and edit contact records from both iPhone and Android devices.

Businesses can set permission levels so users have access to the areas of the system most relevant to their roles.

Setup process: what to expect

It only takes a couple seconds to sign up online and there’s no upfront coaching or kickstart fee. The sales process is rather painless.

Consultative sales process with no pressure from a salesperson means you can make a decision on your own time.

After setting up an account with Ontraport, you can use Ontraport’s knowledge base to learn more about how to use specific features.

Their comprehensive knowledge base has a variety of tutorials, and they offer a free 2-hour setup consultation with new users to answer any specific questions you may have.

To get started, set aside about 30-45 minutes to review the “9 Moves” tutorial located in the knowledge base.

Once you’re in, you get an email from your Support Hero. He or she will walk you through setup. Your support hero will do these stuff for you:

• Consult with you to find the best use for Ontraport in your business.
• Walk you through setup so you learn the software quickly.
• Give you introductory automation campaigns and connect them to your site.
• Show you how to add OntraForms (email capture forms) on your site for you.
• Integrate WordPress if that’s the website platform you use.

Ontraport has just added an amazing little feature called Ontraport Projects, which is a little widget that sits in the bottom right corner of your app that contains dozens and dozens of the most common applications for Ontraport’s marketing automation.

Ontraport Projects

It and also covers step by step walk through of how to implement it. No more wondering what to do and how to do it.

Projects To Do

Step-by-step Walk Through

Expect several emails the first few weeks with training info to make sure you’re on the right track and get on the bus… do the work, use the resources and the setup is way painless.

These total support is available without the need to purchase any upfront coaching packages or kick starters.

Learn how to set up your workflows and systems properly from the start! Really take the time to figure that out and it will save you headaches down the road.

Third Party App Integrations

Gateways & shopping carts:

• Net
• Elavon
• eWAY
• NMI
• PayPal
• PayJunction
• PayLeap
• QuickBooks
• USA ePay
• Stripe
• World Way
• ClickBank
• Samcart
• Shopify
• ShoppingCart
• UltraCart
• WooCommerce

Membership & learning platforms:

• Click Funnels
• IT Mooti
• Summit Evergreen
• Teachable
• AccessAlly
• Member Mouse
• WishList
• WP Courseware
• Zippy Courses
• Avizr

Landing pages & webinar apps:

• Megaphone
• WordPress
• Kajabi
• Evergreen
• GoToWebinar
• OptimizePress
• WebinarJam
• LeadPages
• StealthSeminar
• Easy Webinar

Social & promotional tools:

• Facebook
• DilogR
• Heyo
• Picreel
• LeadsBridge
• Twitter
• com
• Wicked Reports
• LeadQuizzes
• Interact

Accounting & scheduling apps:

• Twilio
• Connex
• CallLoop
• Cloud Cart Connector
• Zapier
• TimeTrade
• Xero

Other:

• Wistia
• Fuzed
• MailLift
• Bloom
• FreshDesk
• Help Scout
• PopupAlly
• JotForm
• ThriveLeads
• Wufoo
• WebMerge
• Thankster
• PieSync

Ontraport vs Auto-responders

Most autoresponder platforms are designed for email marketing rather than customer relationship management.

They may be limited in their ability to add things like notes about customers and prospects, which hampers the ability of a sales team to stay updated on prospect changes.

Additionally, while most autoresponders give you the ability to filter subscribers into multiple campaigns and tailor the sales message for specific clients, few do it as efficiently and effectively as Ontraport.

Ontraport uses drag-and-drop WYSIWYG design elements, but the signup forms and landing page templates are easier to customize than with AWeber or MailChimp.

AWeber and GetResponse do have more templates available, but they are more difficult to customize than with Ontraport.

Ontraport Versus the CRM

Conventional CRMs have two major limitations when it comes to email marketing.

First, they can be difficult to use, especially for beginners. CRMs are often designed for corporate clients, not do-it-yourselfers or entrepreneurs, and it’s expected that any employee will have specialized training in that particular CRM.

CRMs are also designed for a traditional salesforce, so they sometimes fail to meet the needs of entrepreneurs and marketing departments rather than commissioned salespeople.

The second major limitation of conventional CRMs is that they often lack the email features that an autoresponder has. Sending an email series may be difficult, and they almost universally lack the array of templates and scheduling tools available through most autoresponders.

Ontraport vs Infusionsoft

When it comes to comparison, users tend to put Ontraport against Infusionsoft as they are probably the best all-in-one marketing automation tools available today.

Having tried them both, however, I came into the conclusion that they have different target markets.

Ontraport is more suitable for: Information Marketers, Coaches, Speakers, Consultants, Authors.

Whereas Infusionsoft is better for classic/offline small businesses, especially if you are a B2B business. It supports very complex sales processes, and fully integrated e-commerce.

Ontraport is particularly affordable for companies that have enormous mailing lists or who send a large number of emails. While Infusionsoft charge $379/month for 10,000 database contacts and 50,000 email credits, Ontraport allows you to have over twice as many contacts and email credits for just $297/month.

Features-wise, Ontraport is mobile-responsive, offers a lot of free goodies (2-way text messaging, printed postcards, Facebook Connect, personalized URLS, etc.) which are not available in Infusionsoft, or only available through 3^rd party add-ons at extra monthly costs.

It has a great builder for pages, forms, and post-cards. Elements can be arranged on layers and moved freely. Unfortunately, Ontraport has no Visual Campaign Builder, hence you can’t easily see how everything is connected.

On the other hand, the drag-and-drop form and page builder in Infusionsoft is just “OK”. Nothing is mobile responsive too. Nevertheless, Infusionsoft has the advantages of the amazing Visual Campaign Builder and a built-in shopping cart (non-existent in Ontraport).

As Ontraport is considerably new, it still has quite a small number of 3^rd party integrations especially compared to Infusionsoft’s huge marketplace for 3^rd party apps.

Ontraport vs Click Funnels

Marketers and product/course developers in need of a complete sales/marketing funnel system might also have Click Funnels as an alternative.

Click Funnels has very similar pricing to Ontraport, but with unlimited contacts and emails on all plans.

It has a simpler and more logical user interface designed for “non-techy” marketers and users. Click Funnels has an extension called Actionetics for automation workflow builder based on purchasing behavior and other user filters.

Click Funnels simplicity comes with less features and customizability compared to Ontraport as a consequence. For my detailed review on Click Funnels click here.

Testimonials

Karen K. on September 16, 2016:

“First off, the support at Ontraport is like no other. The response rate is high and they go way out of their way to help. The support staff always goes above and beyond. Plus they have an amazing Facebook group that cultivates community and sharing.

What I love about Ontraport itself is the structure and logic it is based upon. I am a very linear, logical person and everything within Ontraport is laid out in that way. On the surface it may not look as fancy as something like Infusionsoft, but underneath it is HUGELY powerful. And EASIER to learn.”

Michael C. on September 14, 2016:

“Ontraport does everything I need and more. The team at Ontraport always seem to be innovating and listening to what the customer base is asking for – it makes for a great fit.

Just following some of the advice they have their blog, I have been able to increase my business's bottom line. Things like cart abandonment sequences and lead segmentation are a cinch.”

Denny Basham on June 19, 2016:

“So far we love the features and functionality that Ontraport provides. They also worked with us on pricing based on our needs so we are happy with what has been made available to us. Even though this has feature similar to Infusionsoft it is much more cost effective and doesn't require the significant up-front training that Infusionsoft does.”

Christina on April 2015:

“In many cases, I found out there were things I didn't know I needed that Ontraport supplies. It's been wonderful. Also, when comparing competitors, it's not apples to apples. Ontraport's major competitor charges additional monthly costs for elements that are included in Ontraports pricing. Not to mention Ontraport has the BEST customer service around (and yes, I've used their major competitor and their service is horrendous).”

Deanna on April 2015:

“Ontraport makes marketing and selling in my business effective and easy. With great email deliverability I don't have to worry that my marketing messages aren't getting to my prospects and customers. The payment processing and affiliate systems allow me to accept payments for my services and products and have my partners share them with their communities so I can help more people get the solutions they need.

But the best part is how automated everything can be with the sequences, tasks, and if/then rules. No matter what the event: a client signs up, a promotion runs, a prospect wants to talk to me about how I can help them, everything that needs to happen to deliver a quality experience them, happens and it's on autopilot. And on top of all of that the support team isn't knowledgable and fast when I have a question about how I could use the system better to accomplish my goals. I couldn't be happier about my experience with Ontraport and love sharing it as a resource with my clients.”

Where to buy

You can buy Ontraport from their website here.

Here is the pricing:

Back in the day Ontraport used to have a free trial, but have gone away from that for good reason. They went with a 90-day money back guarantee instead.

Why? Because there’s really no logical way to “try” a software this robust, as the nature of it is to run your business. Why would you go through months of setup only to “try” the software? You wouldn’t.

For bigger businesses, the email cap at 100,000 sends per month even at the most expensive Team package might feel too little. You can upgrade to 100,000 more emails/month by paying an extra $99/month.

The Verdict

There is no such thing as a perfect software. There are somethings that Ontraport’s competitors do much better. However, overall Ontraport is one of the best marketing automation solutions available to fast-growing online businesses.

Ontraport isn’t cheap and may be a turnoff to entrepreneurs who just started their business. Nonetheless, I would still recommend Ontraport for its scalability. It’s a great investment and saves you a lot of hassle later on as your business grow bigger.

Ontraport is a great platform for large businesses or businesses with a large or diverse marketing funnel. It gives you the best features of your favorite autoresponder along with the best features of an outstanding CRM.

It works so much better for a business that wants to not just keep in touch with their customers but truly make them feel like you care about them, love them, watch over them and are a true friend.

Granted that compared to Infusionsoft, Ontraport is a relatively new software. In spite of this, it grows at a faster pace and cares about its customers better.

Ontraport has a refreshingly sincere and open company culture. CEO Landon Ray takes the time to personally reply to requests and complaints in forums and social media.

This have caused a sizeable number of well-known and respected online personalities, bloggers and coaches to move their businesses over to Ontraport over the last few years.

I would recommend to trust your business to and grow together with Ontraport, as the future is looking bright for this one.