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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."
"The most valuable part of the solution are the selling features."
"The Journey Builder and the Email Studio features are most valuable."
"We haven't had any issues with integration."
"It makes it easy for a business to use any module based on their preference."
"Datorama is part of Salesforce Marketing Cloud, which is quite a valuable feature that provides customer analytics."
"Marketing Cloud offers a 360 customers experience as it integrates with Service Cloud and Sales Cloud, the CRM portion of Salesforce. The different platforms integrate easily which makes it easy to manage customer communication using a single point of truth."
"Email automation is most valuable."
"It is straightforward to set up."
 

Cons

"Sometimes, the solution lags and takes time to update something."
"The technicality of the solution can be streamlined."
"In the SMS area, it is not up to the mark, compared to what has been developed for email."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud is expensive. The email functionality should be more modern and user-friendly."
"An additional feature needed would be better capacity for personalization."
"I found that the tool is more complex than expected. It requires a deeper understanding to utilize its capabilities thoroughly."
"I've noticed on one-to-one leads, the customer objection option is not available."
"In a future release it would be great to have the ability to connect the data from social media and email marketing and have it in one dashboard."
"User management could be better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"It is a license per user."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a highly expensive solution, it needs to be less expensive. We are on an annual license to use the solution."
"The licensing cost for the solution is on a yearly basis."
"It's not cheap, which is why I recommend that you use Marketing Cloud to create automated journeys. If you plan to use Marketing Cloud just to send emails, use another tool."
"This solution is priced in the medium to high price range."
"This is a low cost solution suited to larger organizations."
"The solution is a bit expensive."
"My company pays to use this solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Educational Organization
59%
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.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.