Intercom Customer Communications Platform vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud comparison

Intercom and Salesforce are both solutions in the Social CRM category. Intercom is ranked #6 with an average rating of 9.0, while Salesforce is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.6. Intercom holds a 2.7% mindshare in SC, compared to Salesforce’s 13.7% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Intercom users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Salesforce users who would recommend it.

Intercom Customer Communica...

Read 1 Intercom Customer Communications Platform review

78 Views
48 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Read 55 Salesforce Marketing Cloud reviews

348 Views
202 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Intercom Customer Communica...

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 7, 2025

Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Intercom Customer Communications Platform compete in customer engagement. Salesforce Marketing Cloud seems more advantageous for large-scale campaigns, while Intercom offers a smoother real-time interaction experience.

Features: Salesforce Marketing Cloud offers advanced automation, data-driven insights, and robust CRM integration. Intercom provides user-friendly chatbots, targeted messaging, and quick customer support functions.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Salesforce Marketing Cloud requires significant initial setup effort but offers extensive training and resources, benefiting larger organizations. Intercom features simpler implementation with efficient customer service, favoring smaller teams.

Pricing and ROI: Salesforce Marketing Cloud has higher setup costs and ongoing expenses, potentially leading to high ROI in large operations. Intercom offers a more affordable pricing structure with faster ROI, suited for businesses focusing on customer communications.

To learn more, read our detailed Social CRM Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Social CRM

March 2025

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Helped 842,296 peers since 2012

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

Ranking in other categories

CRM Customer Engagement Centers (11th), CRM (29th)

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Ranking in Social CRM

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Marketing Automation (1st), Marketing Management (1st), Social Media Management Solutions (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Social CRM category, the mindshare of Intercom Customer Communications Platform is 2.7%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is 13.7%, up from 10.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Social CRM

Featured Reviews

Karan-Singh

Account Executive at Speak Ai

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.

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SantoshKrishna

Director at BMO Financial

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.

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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 features of Salesforce are the automation and the ability to create dashboards which provide a wider picture of what is going on."

"It makes it easy for a business to use any module based on their preference."

"The most valuable feature is the 'Accelerators', which are expert-taught subject matter webinars on items such as personalization of emails and SMS to contacts and prospects."

"Marketing Cloud has improved our productivity and our team enjoy using it."

"This is a very powerful and scalable solution."

"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."

"We use this solution for reporting, pipeline generation, and forecasting."

"It is a great solution. I like its stability, scalability, and performance."

More Salesforce Marketing Cloud pros

Cons

"Sometimes, the solution lags and takes time to update something."

"I would like to see more ways to accomplish specific tasks."

"Salesforce Marketing Cloud should provide some debugging facilities for every user."

"In a future release, adding end-user personalization would be a benefit."

"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."

"The performance is sometimes sluggish, but I think that's to be expected with a heavy CRM tool because they're running reports in real-time on the data that you have entered."

"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."

"They can perhaps simplify the dashboards. In my opinion as an end-user, reports could also be simplified, but it also depends on how your company is set up. It depends on how the processes are set up within your company natively. It is linked to the way you do business. So, it varies."

More Salesforce Marketing Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"The solution's pricing is very high and should be more flexible for smaller companies."

"The solution is paid for monthly."

"It's normal pricing."

"Its licensing is on an annual basis. Customers are okay with its licensing cost, and they don't find it expensive."

"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."

"This is a low cost solution suited to larger organizations."

"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."

"We did a yearly license. We negotiated and got a great deal. I don't think we would have gotten far with the regular price, but they negotiated, so it was worth that."

More Salesforce Marketing Cloud pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Educational Organization

59%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Intercom Customer Communications Platform?

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Salesforce Marketing Cloud?

The cost is cheaper compared to other tools.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

Comparisons

No data available

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Compared 21% of the time

SAP Marketing Cloud vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Compared 13% of the time

Oracle Eloqua vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Compared 12% of the time

HubSpot Marketing Hub vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Compared 10% of the time

Zeta Marketing Platform vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Compared 9% of the time

More Salesforce Marketing Cloud Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

CRM Customer Engagement Centers

February 2025

Intercom Customer Communications Platform report

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Buyer's Guide

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

March 2025

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Also Known As

Intercom

ExactTarget

Overview

Intercom Customer Communications Platform enhances interactions by offering robust tools designed to streamline customer engagement and support, effectively catering to modern business communication needs.

Providing a comprehensive approach to customer interaction, Intercom facilitates seamless conversation management through its adaptable suite of messaging, logistical, and analytical features. Frequently utilized for customer support and marketing, its flexibility and user-friendly design encourage efficient communication. While offering valuable insights through analytics, some users note areas for improvement in customizability and pricing models, pointing towards a potential enhancement in fine-tuning its cost-effectiveness and adaptability to diverse business strategies.

What are the standout features of Intercom?

Live Chat: Immediate customer support through real-time messaging.
Automated Bot: Streamlines inquiries by handling routine questions.
Integration Capabilities: Connects seamlessly with third-party tools.
Inbox Management: Organizes conversations for efficient response.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: Faster resolutions lead to happier clients.
Improved Team Efficiency: Automation reduces manual workload.
Actionable Analytics: Data-driven insights optimize strategies.
Scalable Solutions: Adapts to growing business demands.

Industries such as e-commerce, SaaS, and tech-driven businesses often implement Intercom for its ability to provide personalized customer journeys. Its messaging platform excels in maintaining customer relationships and resolving issues quickly, which is crucial in these fast-paced sectors.

Intercom

Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a comprehensive marketing automation platform that enables businesses to create personalized and targeted marketing campaigns across multiple channels.

With its robust set of tools and features, marketers can easily manage and automate their email marketing, social media advertising, mobile messaging, and customer journey mapping.

The platform offers advanced segmentation capabilities, allowing marketers to segment their audience based on various criteria and deliver tailored messages to each segment.

Additionally, Salesforce Marketing Cloud provides powerful analytics and reporting features, enabling marketers to track the performance of their campaigns and make data-driven decisions.

With its user-friendly interface and seamless integration with other Salesforce products, Marketing Cloud offers a seamless and efficient marketing automation solution for businesses of all sizes.

Salesforce

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.

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