Pipeline CRM Vs. EngageBay 2023: Which is Best for SMBs?

Contact management is a vital component of any CRM. EngageBay’s contact management system lets you keep all your client information organized and in one place. 

The best part is that it’s entirely free to use (and extremely beginner-friendly).

We started testing this feature (over six months) by putting in some of our B2B affiliate marketing contacts at SBB. 

Here’s how it looked to add a new contact.

As you can see, the contact cards are comprehensive but also sleek and easy to read.

We were able to easily add and edit the following information:

• Name
• Email
• Role
• Tags
• Company
• Phone number 
• Custom fields

We could easily add custom fields for anything specific to our business within each card.

For example, here’s a checkbox we created to let our entire team know when a contact has been followed up with. 

This kept everyone on the same page and ensured we were all in the loop if a prospect or client needed attention. 

Once our fields were customized and our contacts put in, here’s how our dashboard looked.

Overall, we were impressed with how easy and customizable EngageBay’s contact management system is.

Finding excellent sales pipeline management for free is like finding a needle in a haystack. 

But EngageBay has done just that.

We were able to track our leads through their entire journey, from initial contact to post-sales. 

We added some of our affiliate marketing deals at Small Business Bonfire to test the capabilities of EngageBay.

We were blown away by how intuitive the interface was and how well we could customize everything to our liking. 

Here’s our list view to give you a better idea of how great it was.

We especially liked the color-coded milestones that showed us exactly where each of our Pipeline deals was. 

We also liked the grid view, which offered a drag-and-drop user interface (to easily move open deals around).

Here’s how it looked during our testing. 

The bottom line: EngageBay is a dream come true for a sales rep. The best part is that it won’t break the bank!

Staying on top of your tasks is crucial in any business, especially as you scale. 

EngageBay’s task management feature helps you stay organized and on top of everything that needs to get done.

We tested this feature by setting up some typical onboarding tasks at Small Business Bonfire. 

Here’s a new task card (for reference). 

Within each card, we had full control over which tasks deserved priority, who was assigned, and any notes related to the task. 

It was like having a virtual assistant keeping us on task (but without the added expense). 

Check out our tasks pipeline once we put some tasks in.

As you can see, everything is easy to read and color-coded to show the urgency of each task. 

At the end of the day, task management isn’t the most impressive feature of a CRM, but we loved how effortless it was with EngageBay.

Email marketing is one of the most effective means of communicating with potential and existing customers. 

EngageBay’s all-in-one marketing platform allows you to create professional-looking, branded emails quickly and easily. 

They offer customizable templates (shown below) and an easy drag-and-drop email builder so you can have your emails up and running in no time.

Creating a campaign is as simple as clicking “Create Broadcast” and giving it a name.

Here’s one we created as the introduction to our newsletter (the Bonfire Field Guide).

From there, we simply created an email for each stage in the campaign. 

Check out our email creation process below for a better idea of what we’re talking about.

Once everything was customized, we could easily schedule and send off our emails! The whole thing took less than 30 minutes (and we saved a ton of time in the process). 

Web form creation is necessary for any business collecting leads or customer information. 

With EngageBay, we could easily create custom forms (and embed them on our website).

Here’s an example of a form we created for our newsletter sign-up at Small Business Bonfire.

From there, we were able to customize the appearance and fields (and add tags as needed).

Here’s how it looked from our perspective. 

There’s a ton of depth here (with essentially no learning curve), making it perfect for SMBs looking to streamline their marketing efforts and convert visitors more effectively.  

Plus, it’s extremely affordable (for startups and businesses on a budget).

Landing page creation is a feature that’s not offered by all CRMs. 

However, we think it’s one of the most important methods for capturing leads. 

Lucky for us—EngageBay offers a landing page builder that’s both easy to use and effective.

Check out the gorgeous templates below (we were pretty impressed).

We created a page to showcase our newsletter, the Bonfire Field Guide. 

Here’s what it looks like in editor mode (midway through the creation process).

The best part is how easy it was to edit and customize the page exactly as we wanted. 

Throughout our three months of using EngageBay, we saw a noticeable increase in conversion rates when using these landing pages. 

A definite win for the SBB team!

Live chat software is a must-have in a world where digital communication is king. 

EngageBay offers a fantastic live chat solution that’s 100% free. 

Like everything with EngageBay, we found it easy to set up and customize (using our brand colors and logo). 

Here’s our Bonfire Support chat box that we could easily embed on our site. 

We could create automated messages for when we weren’t available and track our response times for when we were. 

Plus, all chats are recorded, so you can review them later.

We’re firm believers in making it as easy as possible for our audience to reach us, and EngageBay’s live chat software helped us do just that. 

A robust ticket management system is an absolute game-changer for businesses trying to keep up with customer inquiries, and EngageBay doesn’t disappoint in this department. 

The ticketing system is not only intuitive but also easy to use. Now, let’s walk you through the process. 

Here’s a new ticket we were able to create in just a few seconds.

The process was as simple as hitting the ‘Create Ticket’ button and filling in the required details. 

Once we had all of our tickets input, our ticket dashboard transformed into a structured hub of customer interactions, making it easy to keep track of all open, closed, and pending tickets. 

Here’s a sneak peek into our ticket dashboard view. 

The interface was user-friendly, clutter-free, and color-coded, making it a breeze to navigate and manage tickets effectively.

We also liked that each message (whether it was live chat, email, or phone) was automatically converted into a ticket. 

This helped us keep all customer interactions in one place and made it easy for us to respond promptly.

Regarding service automation, EngageBay offers a wide range of options to help streamline your processes. 

From automating repetitive tasks and workflows to setting up autoresponders, EngageBay has got you covered. 

Here are some service automations we created while testing the platform: 

• Automatically assigning users to new tickets
• Sending notifications when high-priority tickets are created
• Creating tasks for team members when a ticket is assigned to them

We found the service automation feature particularly useful in managing our customer support and ensuring timely responses. 

Plus, it helped us save time and stay organized while dealing with a high volume of tickets. 

Here’s how the automation creation looked from our perspective.

Adding actions, triggers, and conditions was a breeze from this screen. 

We also appreciated the option to test out the automation before activating it.

Our takeaway: Staying on top of your tickets and customer service just got much easier with EngageBay. The fact that this feature is free forever (with no commitment) makes it even better!