Autopilot

It seems to me that Autopilot does only one thing - but it does that one thing REALLY well. I tested Autopilot briefly for a few weeks as an alternative to the drip program functionality in our Marketing Automation software. I was extremely impressed with how easy it is to build a drip program (called a "Journey" within Autopilot), as well as with the breadth of logic and functionality offered. Autopilot really sets itself apart with some amazing - seriously amazing - integrations and functionality that our Automation platform doesn't offer, such as sending SMS text messages or physical postcards.

I really like that Autopilot offers in-app chat support, and that you generally don't need to wait longer than 5 minutes to get someone to help you out.

During the few weeks I tested Autopilot, I found a few issues that prevented me from really continuing to use the software for my use-case. The integration with Salesforce was clunky and un-intuitive, and most concerningly, it seemed that when the platform saw leads that already existed in Salesforce, it would stop them from progressing through the drip program. This was a real frustration, and I ended up just disconnecting Autopilot from the CRM in order to finish my test.

Another concern we had was that after testing the emails I had configured using mail-tester.com, there was an error identified that could only be resolved by getting a dedicated IP address - something which adds a significant additional monthly cost to the cost of the program.

- Slack Integration
- Segment Integration
- Easy to build complex logic, visually
- Dashboard to keep track of latest events
- Many journey and email templates to get you started
- Built-in email open/link tracking is helpful to find your engaged users
- Good support
- Great blog with ideas of how others use Autopilot
- They are continuing to develop cool new features
- User idea voting for features not yet developed

- Ability to access email / Slack templates seems inefficient (need to dig into the journey to find them)
- With all of the capabilities that Autopilot offers, you can easily have your custom contact lists get out of hand - remember to KISS so that others on your team can pick up where you left off

You can plan multiple campaigns visually and then share the boards (completed with annotations) with the client. This means everyone is on the same page and understands how the campaign will proceed. The customer support is also second to none - really good. It's also very visual - as someone who gets easily distracted and bored easily, being able to visualise campaigns in a physical way really helps.

The reporting in the email side of things could be better. Mailchimp, for example, provides decent reporting with easy actions (like automatic re-send to non-openers' - AP requires you do smart segmenting (which is actually better in the long term), but the mental journey to sort this out would be impossible without the customer support (so it isn't an issue).