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Exponea vs. Salesforce: Which is a Better Choice for Your Business?

Well, that is one question that business professionals and marketers have struggled with for years. After all, both of these platforms are extremely good and have their own loyal customers.

But, if you haven’t used either, then it makes sense for you to do your due diligence on both and then make the right decision for your business.

In this comparison post, I will provide a brief overview of each platform and compare their features side-by-side, to provide you with all the information you need to make an informed decision.

Excited to find the answer to the Exponea and Salesforce dilemma?

Keep reading.

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Exponea vs. Salesforce: The Summary Box

Exponea (Now Bloomreach)

Exponea is an all-in-one customer data platform (CDP) with add-on marketing automation, predictive analytics, web optimization, and other marketing features.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a popular customer relationship management (CRM) platform that provides several sales and marketing features.

Product Ratings(Out of 5-stars)

Exponea (Now Bloomreach)

Salesforce

Overall Rating

Support

Features

User-Friendliness

Value for Money

Pros
Exponea (Now Bloomreach)
  • Provides a unified view of all customer data
  • Advanced real-time data analytics capabilities
  • AI-backed marketing automation solution
  • Complex scenario builder
  • Excellent customer service
  • Omni-channel marketing campaigns
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
  • Unifies customer data from all departments
  • Real-time analytics and visualization
  • Proprietary Einstein AI tool
  • Seamless integration with multiple tools
  • Free Trial
Cons
Exponea (Now Bloomreach)
  • No free trial
  • Takes some time to learn how to use the platform properly
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
  • Customer support is a bit lacking
  • The platform is more complex to use than Exponea
Pricing Details:
Exponea (Now Bloomreach)
  • Exponea has three main plans—CDP, Campaigns, and CDXP.
  • Prices available upon request
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
  • Salesforce has numerous products for different use-cases and industries.
  • The price for each product is different and can be found on their website.
Who is it For?
Exponea (Now Bloomreach)
  • All Types of Businesses
  • Sales and Marketing Professionals
  • CRO Professionals and Web Developers
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
  • All Types of Businesses
  • Sales Professionals
Exponea vs. Salesforce: Features Comparison
Customer Data and Assets
Exponea (Now Bloomreach)Salesforce
Built-in CDPYESNO
Single customer viewYESNO
CRMNOYES
Unified customer dataYESYES
Analytics
Exponea (Now Bloomreach)Salesforce
Real-time analyticsYESSeparate product
Predictive analyticsYESSeparate product
AI
Exponea (Now Bloomreach)Salesforce
AI capabilitiesYESYES
Personalized recommendationsYESSeparate product
Marketing Automation Solution
Exponea (Now Bloomreach)Salesforce
Email marketingYESYES
Scenarios/customer journeysYESSeparate product
Web Optimization
Exponea (Now Bloomreach)Salesforce
A/B testingYESSeparate product
Payment and plans
Exponea (Now Bloomreach)Salesforce
Free trialNOYES
Customized planYESYES

Please note that even though Salesforce has almost similar features as Exponea, you need to buy multiple products separately. Exponea has much more integrated plans with tons of features.

Exponea vs. Salesforce: Detailed Review and Comparison

Exponea (now Bloomreach) is an integrated customer data platform that provides numerous marketing features as well.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud, on the other hand, is basically a customer relationship management (CRM) platform that has a whole suite of different sales and marketing tools.

The closest suite that can be compared with Exponea is Salesforce Marketing Cloud, which includes several different products and services.

So, a like-to-like comparison is not feasible as even Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Exponea are not directly comparable. What Exponea offers in one integrated plan, you will need to buy several Salesforce products to get.

So, how am I going to compare these?

Well, there are still a lot of features that these two platforms have in common. In this section, I will list the key features of Exponea and the equivalent features/products of Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Please note that I will not get into the details of the full suite of tools that Salesforce offers (which is a lot) and will focus mostly on the Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Hopefully, this will help you get more clarity on what you can expect from each tool and make an informed decision on which one to buy for your business.

Exponea: Key Features

Here are some of the key features offered by Exponea (now Bloomreach):

CDP

This is the core of the platform and has all the data and analytics functionalities you will need to manage your customer data.

The CDP collects all your customer data from online and offline sources and provides a single unified view.

Using the single customer view feature, you can get a detailed view of any customer’s historical and present data, along with predictions for the future. This is one feature that even Salesforce Marketing Cloud can’t match.

cdp

Omni-channel Orchestration

Exponea can help you create and run omni-channel marketing campaigns and deliver consistent consumer experiences across all channels.

That’s brilliant, right?

That’s not all. I haven’t even mentioned the best feature yet: Scenarios.

omnichannel orchestration

Exponea has a complex scenario builder that you can use to create automated marketing workflows, sales funnels, and customer journeys. It is one of the best tools to create sales funnels and customer journeys that I have used.

Personalized Recommendations

This is one feature that is extremely useful for ecommerce brands. Exponea (now Bloomreach) can analyze customer behavior in real-time to provide accurate product recommendations.

Most similar tools can recommend products for existing customers or repeat visitors, but not first-time customers.

What makes this possible?

The real-time analytics capabilities combined with a powerful AI tool make it possible.

Real-Time Predictive Analytics

As mentioned above, Exponea (now Bloomreach) can predict each customer’s future behavior based on current and historical data. It provides specific predictions on how likely a customer is to open an email or make a purchase.

You can combine this with the scenario builder to create more accurate and effective marketing workflows, as shown below.

real-time predictive analytics

Web Optimization

Other than analytics and marketing features, Exponea also has web optimization capabilities. You can use its A/B testing feature to experiment with your web design and improve each web page’s performance.

web optimization

Pro Tip: Choose the CDXP plan to get all of these features and more!

Choose a Plan Now!

Salesforce Marketing Cloud: Key Features

Most of the features that are comparable to Exponea are a part of Salesforce Marketing Cloud, which is a suite of marketing tools.

Here are some of the products under Salesforce Marketing Cloud that can be compared to Exponea (now Bloomreach).

Customer 360 Audiences

This is equivalent to Exponea’s customer data platform and provides a unified view of all your customer data. However, unlike Exponea, you can’t get detailed historical data and profiles for each customer.

customer 360 audiences

Journey Builder

This is similar to Exponea’s “Scenarios” feature and helps you create personalized customer journeys across channels.

journey builder

While it also has a drag-and-drop interface like Exponea, it is slightly more complex to use.

Interaction Studio

This is the tool you will need to manage your customer experiences across multiple channels in real-time. It is comparable to Exponea’s omni-channel orchestration feature or “Campaigns” plan.

Apart from Salesforce Marketing Cloud, it also offers a separate set of tools for sales, ecommerce, customer service, etc. Its core CRM platform is a separate product in itself.

However, I should mention that Salesforce Marketing Cloud does allow you to create your own customized plan and add whichever tools you need to it.

Still, the plans are not as integrated as Exponea and make it really difficult for you to choose the right tools.

Pro Tip: Use their Customer 360 solution finder feature to identify the right tools to add to your customized plan.

Check Out the Salesforce Products

What Do Their Customers Say About Them?

Exponea (Now Bloomreach)
“We are very happy with how things have turned out with Exponea. Its flexibility made for easy integration, and its scalability means we have a tool we can count on for delivering personalized experiences to all our customers as we continue to rapidly grow and expand.”
Carolin Barendt
E‑Mail Marketing Manager, Paul Valentine
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
“Despite being somewhat clumsy in real-world use, Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a powerful, high-quality suite for those looking to pursue robust, personalized digital campaigns.”
Jamie M.
Sr. Associate Director, Digital Marketing (Capterra review)

FAQs

Q1. Does the platform offer a free trial?

A. Exponea (now Bloomreach) – No, but you can request a demo to check out the platform and its various features.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud – Yes, but only for selected products.

Q2. How long is the free trial period?

A. Exponea (now Bloomreach) – N/A

Salesforce Marketing Cloud – 30 days

Q3. What are the pricing options that Exponea and Salesforce provide?

A. Exponea (now Bloomreach) – Monthly or annual subscription plans.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud – Salesforce offers many pricing and contract options like flat fee per organization, priced at a percentage of the contract value, priced per planned consumption, price per user, etc.

Q4. Are there different plans for businesses of different sizes?

A. Exponea(now Bloomreach) – Yes, Exponea offers three types of plans for all three of its packages (CDP, Campaigns, and CDXP) depending on the company size.

These are Grow (for startups), Scale (for midsized companies), and Enterprise.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud – Yes, Salesforce also offers plans in four tiers or modules: Essentials, Professional, Enterprise, and Unlimited. You can choose a plan based on your company size.

Q5. Are there any additional fees or add-on products that are chargeable separately?

A. Exponea (now Bloomreach) – No, once you subscribe to a plan, you get all the features that it offers and there are no hidden fees or add-ons. If you want more features, you can always upgrade to a higher plan.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud – Yes, each Salesforce plan has the option to add more features and products. Some products and services are scaled together, so if you upgrade one, you’ll need to upgrade the other as well.

Even within the Salesforce Marketing Cloud, you can choose which products you want.

Q6. How good is the customer support for Exponea vs. Salesforce?

A. Exponea (now Bloomreach) – They offer chat, email, and phone support and claim to have response times of as low as 2 minutes.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud – Salesforce also offers different modes of customer support, but they are not as prompt. This is a common issue mentioned in several user reviews for this tool.

Q7. Exponea vs. Salesforce: which is better for managing customer data?

A. Exponea (now Bloomreach) – This is the superior tool for marketers, as it helps you track, organize, and analyze all customer data across channels.

The insights that this tool provides can help businesses run targeted marketing campaigns.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud – Being a CRM, this is more useful for the sales team than for the marketing team. Though you can always buy add-on marketing products, it is not as cost-effective as having one integrated plan.

Q8. Have any further questions?

A. Feel free to get in touch with their respective sales teams to get more information.

Final Verdict

Overall, I would like to conclude this comparison and review post to say that both these tools have their own advantages.

Salesforce is one of the industry-leading brands with numerous sales and marketing tools in its suite. Exponea (now Bloomreach), however, provides more value for the money by offering tons of features in more integrated plans.

If you are an enterprise-level brand with a huge budget, you can take better advantage of all that Salesforce has to offer.

However, if you want all important features, neatly packed into one single platform, then Exponea is the best choice for you.

I personally prefer Exponea (now Bloomreach) because I think it provides more value for my money.

Hope this helps!

Have any further questions on the Exponea vs Salesforce topic? Drop me a line.

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