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Intercom Customer Communications Platform vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 7, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Intercom Customer Communica...
Ranking in Social CRM
6th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
CRM Customer Engagement Centers (12th), CRM (28th)
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Ranking in Social CRM
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
Marketing Automation (1st), Marketing Management (1st), Social Media Management Solutions (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Social CRM category, the mindshare of Intercom Customer Communications Platform is 2.8%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is 13.9%, up from 10.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Social CRM
 

Featured Reviews

Karan-Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
A good tool that can be used to capture inbound leads and manage all customer interactions
Sometimes, the solution lags and takes time to update something. If I put a specific tag on an inbound lead, it would take around five minutes for that tag to reflect throughout the solution for all the users. If my colleague and I are using the solution simultaneously and I create a tag for a specific lead, then that tag would not be visible to my colleague for about three to four minutes. Since the solution is great at capturing leads and giving me an overview of all the people interacting with our platform, I would love to see a CRM structure created. We can create a pipeline in the solution itself, and then it can give us that CRM experience.
SantoshKrishna - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to deploy, stable, and scalable
The encryption and decryption have room for improvement. We need to be confident that the customer's data is secure when shared outside of the organization. I would like to request additional mobile app features that go beyond push notifications. As the mobile development industry continues to advance with new technologies, such as AI components, it is important to consider these advancements when setting up campaigns. Currently, campaigns are scheduled to be sent to customers at a prescribed time, but they may not be relevant to the customer unless they see them as valuable. For example, if I want to run a campaign offering loans, I would need to consider the customer's needs and balance. In the future, I hope Salesforce can incorporate an AI component that utilizes the shared data, rather than just scheduling campaigns.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The live chat is pretty good because you can create a macro, which is a predefined input we can give customers."
"It has excellent lead and opportunity tracking."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud's journey builder is very easy to handle and quickly sets up a journey for clients who use a lot of communication."
"It is very easy to use from a marketing standpoint."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud's integrations are seamless since it is a native application. It helps us with B2B and B2C send-outs and can handle large columns."
"Salesforce allows for the integration of different data sources."
"It's a software-as-a-service solution. Everything is managed centrally from the cloud. As far as I can tell, installation is relatively simple."
"In Salesforce Marketing Cloud, the ability to send emails effectively is very valuable."
"If you want to be able to communicate with your client using email, WhatsApp, and push notifications, know if the client opened the communication or not, and create and automate their journey, Marketing Cloud is very good."
 

Cons

"Sometimes, the solution lags and takes time to update something."
"We'd like to see more integrations with third-party products."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud is expensive. The email functionality should be more modern and user-friendly."
"There could be easier tools to configure the product and to create landing pages to better handle large data sets."
"In the SMS area, it is not up to the mark, compared to what has been developed for email."
"The cost is always a concern for anyone using a SaaS product."
"Marketing Cloud's forecasting could be improved."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud should include more point-and-click functionality."
"The pricing is a bit high."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The price is expensive."
"On a scale where one is the lowest and ten is the most expensive, I rate the solution an eight out of ten."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"The solution's pricing is very high and should be more flexible for smaller companies."
"The solution is paid for monthly."
"I don't know if my company pays for Salesforce Marketing Cloud monthly or yearly. It's a SaaS, so it's a recurring cost, but I have no information on its price."
"It is a license per user."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud is affordable, considering the significant improvements it brings to our campaign results."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Educational Organization
60%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Manufacturing Company
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Intercom Customer Communications Platform?
The live chat is pretty good because you can create a macro, which is a predefined input we can give customers.
What needs improvement with Intercom Customer Communications Platform?
Sometimes, the solution lags and takes time to update something. If I put a specific tag on an inbound lead, it would take around five minutes for that tag to reflect throughout the solution for al...
What is your primary use case for Intercom Customer Communications Platform?
We use the solution to capture leads and interact with them. Our company manages all the customer interactions through the solution.
What do you like most about Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
Datorama is part of Salesforce Marketing Cloud, which is quite a valuable feature that provides customer analytics.
What needs improvement with Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
In the SMS area, it is not up to the mark, compared to what has been developed for email.
 

Also Known As

Intercom
ExactTarget
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expensift, Moz, Invision, Salesforce, Droplr, Vend, BugHerd, Ghost, Put.io, Codeship
American Express, Financial Conduct Authority, KPN, Merck KGaA, Peterborough City Council, The Chapar, ADP, Financial Times, Stanley Black & Decker, SureFlap, Western Union, Philips
Find out what your peers are saying about Sprinklr, Salesforce, Qualtrics and others in Social CRM. Updated: March 2025.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.