iContact aims to help users manage client data and relationships on the go, says Mike Orchard, managing director at Skills Hive
Developed by iContact
iContact provides a cost effective, scalable and easy to use email marketing solution that helps me keep in touch with my clients and build mutually beneficial, long-term relationships with them. My organisation uses iContact to host our client data, segment email lists into targeted groups, create attractive newsletters and develop a deeper understanding of what our hirers and workers find interesting.
The iContact app means we can manage all of these tasks on the move, ensuring we always have actionable data to hand. This means we can nurture and grow our lists on the fly and maximise the results we get from our email communications.
Design
In terms of design, iContact has not attempted to push any boundaries, choosing instead to concentrate on the usability and function of the app. The onscreen controls and reporting tools are incredibly clear, ‘fat finger’ friendly, easy-to-use and well scaled regardless of whether you are using the app on smartphone or tablet device.
Functionality
Perhaps one of the most useful features of the iContact app is the ability to add new details to our database of email contacts wherever we are. If we engage in a conversation with a potential hirer or freelance worker we can quickly add their details to a targeted list and be sure that we will remain in touch with them.
This is particularly useful at tradeshows and conferences where we can meet and talk with hundreds of people. Thanks to the app our pockets no longer bulge with business cards and hastily scrawled notes. But in our line of work business happens everywhere. We often meet potential partners outside of the working environment. We could be chatting to other parents outside the school gates, sitting on a train or enjoying a drink down the pub. As long as I am carrying my iPhone, I am able to add new names to my lists.
Because we schedule email messages to go out at times that are convenient to our clients (many of who are home workers and don’t keep to normal office hours), the app is also incredibly useful for tracking the success of campaigns sent in the evenings and at weekends. This helps us maintain some semblance of a work-life balance and means we are not sat in front of a laptop when we could be doing something more productive, interesting or enjoyable.
We also find the fact that we are able to use the iContact app to release our email campaigns in a staggered and therefore a more controlled manner incredibly useful. We can target a specific list, send the email, monitor the response, ensure our resources are able to cope with the demand and then proceed accordingly.
Overall opinion
While the iContact app cannot be used as a standalone product (you’ll need to set up an account online to use the app and also to design your email newsletters), it will free you up from traditional less mobile web-enabled devices, allowing you to analyse your success on the move and remain agile – for a startup this is incredibly useful.
The affordability of iContact is definitely a huge benefit to an entrepreneurial company such as ours. The app is free and as well as the iPhone version, there is also an Android version available. To use the app you will however need to open an account with iContact. The good news is that iContact does not tie their clients into lengthy contracts, and it also offers a free 30-day trial of its software that can also be managed via the app.
