What is MarketHero?
MarketHero is a standalone email marketing service that was started by serial entrepreneur and marketer Alex Becker. He’s best known as the owner of Source Wave (an SEO training) and he’s founded several other 7-figure companies including Market Hero.
Like other email services, MarketHero lets you create forms, send emails and build marketing automations.
But where MarketHero aims to be different is that it focuses on trying to help you generate more revenue from your leads. So it bills itself as the “worlds best revenue-centric autoresponder”.
What does that mean? I’ll go more into this further down.
What Are Some Of My Favorite Things About MarketHero?
Cool thing #1: The sexiest UI I’ve ever seen?
Ok maybe a tad strong on that statement but it sure is damn easy on the eyes, I have no doubt you’ll agree.
Check out this view of the main dashboard:
If you’ve read any of my reviews before, you’ll know I’m big on UI/UX design as it can make or break the usability of a tool like this.
Of course, as Mother always said, real beauty is on the inside and (spoiler alert) there are a few ugly holes in this one.
More on that later.
Cool thing #2: It’s a sales-centric system
One thing I picked up on right away when I started using MarketHero was the addition of products.
While you won’t be selling anything through MarketHero, you will be adding product information in order to extract better data from your funnels in regards to what’s working and what isn’t.
Once you’ve added your product titles and prices, you’ll be given a tracking code that you can place on your page (to automatically add tags to customers) and able use within your automation funnels.
This information will then be used to calculate your ‘Earning Per Lead’.
You can use this to quickly determine how well (or not well) your email campaigns are performing.
If your earnings per lead is high enough to be profitable, that means you should be scaling your marketing efforts up. If not, you need to start making some adjustments.
Cool thing #3: Facebook Messenger automation
We’re all familiar with marketing automations, most commonly in the form of autoresponders.
But one thing you don’t get with traditional email marketing tools is a Messenger-based autoresponder.
You guessed it, MarketHero brings home the bacon on this one.
Once successfully integrated, the automations screen will show a new button that will allow you to build messenger-specific automation workflows:
What’s so powerful about leveraging FB messenger is that people are currently getting much higher open rates then with standard email marketing. So used together, you can get you messages seen by more of your audience.
What Are The Annoying Things About Market Hero?
Annoying thing #1: Too many bugs
Look, I’m no developer, and I’ve used enough tools to know that bugs are inevitable with any cloud based software, especially one that deals with the complications of email marketing.
I get that, I do… but there comes a point where bugs start to detract from the overall experience and Market Hero made that impression on me.
I’m talking about:
- Tags not being recognized in some parts of the tool
- Automation menus occasionally opening off screen
- Form templates being completely scrambled in preview
- Added leads not appearing until after multiple refreshes
- Other minor issues that would otherwise be negligible if not for the above.
I found it surprising to encounter so many bugs considering how much attention to detail clearly went into the UI.
The silver-lining here is that all these issues could have been potentially be fixed by the time you read this.
Annoying thing #2: Limited automation options
While MarketHero’s marketing automations are better than the limited offerings of say Aweber or MailChimp, they’re still not on par with our top email service ActiveCampaign, or even a more affordable service like MailerLite.
The visual automation editor is fine and easy enough to use. But there’s some obvious limitations like limited branching and no ability to do things based on custom fields.
Another annoyance is that while you can take action on a Link Click, you can’t specify which link if you have multiple links in your emails.
These are all pretty standard features of other email services offering marketing automations.
A Look Inside MarketHero
From the second you land on MarketHero’s website, you can feel this is no half-baked email marketing software.
Of course, the design of a website doesn’t accurately represent the software it’s selling, but it gives off a great impression going in.
Here’s what it looks like:
After signing up for the 14-day free trial, you’ll immediately be thrown into the backend of MarketHero.
As I said before, the interface is absolutely on point here.
Despite the sidebar navigation being in view, you won’t be able to navigate to any area of the tool until you complete the onboarding process shown above.
This section also offers a welcome video explaining how the setup works and why it’s important.
The steps are a little technical as it involves setting up DKIM and SPF records with your domain registrar in order to ensure a higher deliverability, but there is an additional video walking you through it.
While I understand the importance of implementing these records, it would’ve been nice to have a chance to play with the software first. You know, just to see if I actually like it before making critical changes.
Either way, the setup only takes a few minutes and you’ll soon find yourself in the dashboard area ready to start utilizing the software:
Subscriber Management
Unlike most email marketing tools, MarketHero has a strong focus on the sales aspect of things
Considering that is why you collect emails in the first place, I can totally get on board with that.
So, as you might expect, subscribers are called “Leads”:
Adding leads, also referred to as subscribers or contacts, can be done manually, or using the import tool.
You’ll be pleased to know that MarketHero uses the trusty tag-based management system and tags can be added during the import process, or more commonly when a lead enters your funnel.
You can see this information by clicking on any lead alongside IP and purchase history. A very nice touch if you ask me.
(I’ll show you how tagging works during the automation section of the review)
Finally, you can filter leads based on various data points, such as names, emails, tags and status:
Nothing crazy, but it works.
My overall impression of the leads management backend is that it’s somewhat basic, but also not unnecessarily overwhelming. It strikes a good balance.
Email Campaigns
The trusty broadcast email takes a bit of back seat these days (thanks to autoresponders), but they can be even more powerful in the right scenarios.
So what does MarketHero have cookin’ under the hood?
First, to get to the broadcast feature, you can click straight into it from the sidebar. No prizes for guessing which menu item…
Clicking the ‘Get Started’ button will take you through the setup process to send your first broadcast.
MarketHero will ask for sending information as well which segment of your subscribers (leads) you want to send the broadcast email to.
Note that you HAVE to select a segment, and you can’t just leave it blank to send to everyone.
Next, I got a good look at the email templates available:
There are a grand total of 7 templates, and while they weren’t terrible, the designs weren’t anything to write home about either.
The email editor was offered typical drag n’ drop functionality and it was actually pretty smooth overall.
Clicking on any element allows you to make changes to it.
For example, the text element is directly editable and you can make a number of formatting changes from the floating bar, including color changes and fonts:
Strangely, the image element is far more limited and doesn’t even allow you to resize which could be incredibly annoying for certain layouts.
But the biggest drawback of this editor for me is that it has a grand total of 6 elements to choose from (with one of those being a combined element), so there isn’t a whole lot you can do here.
Marketing Automations
Email marketing automation is the definitive feature for tools like this, and it can become a serious sales engine for your business assuming it ticks the right boxes.
You’ll find automation features under the ‘Streams’ menu item:
From this screen, you can get an overview you existing streams (or automations), including some basic conversion statistics.
Clicking the ‘New Stream’ button will take you to…
Wait for it…
The visual workflow builder!
If you’ve ever used the workflow builder from tools , this has a very similar feel to it.
As you would expect, you can create a visual series of steps to build out your email funnel, allowing you to apply tags and trigger sequences along the way.
One of the biggest differences here, however, is that MarketHero uses product tags to determine the average value of your leads (as I mentioned at the start of the review).
This is incredibly useful to know as it helps you determine how much you can pay per lead and still make a profit.
As far as the workflow elements go, I found it quite basic compared to alternative email marketing tools:
For example, (a cheaper alternative) supports automations that update custom fields or trigger actions when a specific link is clicked, whereas you can’t do that with MarketHero.
And if you want ActiveCampaign level of automation with workflow split-testing, full site tracking, SMS marketing and lead scoring, you can also forget about it.
Switching over to the ‘Stream Viewer’ gives you some insights into where exactly leads are in your funnel, and how many at each stage.
While there’s clearly more potential here than the basic workflow I’ve shown above, it’s apparent that MarketHero isn’t a threat to established alternatives when it comes to automations.
Messenger Automations
This is certainly one of the unique aspects of MarketHero so let’s dive into it a bit more.
First off, the term “Messenger Automation” is a little vague and most people default to the idea of “Messenger Bots” — like you would get with something
Messenger Bots are designed to react differently depending on user-input, and have various pre-programmed responses to handle those different scenarios.
MarketHero doesn’t do that.
Instead, the Messenger Automation feature is really another kind of autoresponder, in that it sends a defined sequence of messages, typically over an extended period of time.
While most people rely solely on email to do this, there’s something to be said about doubling up with Facebook messenger as an additional channel.
MarketHero handles both email and Facebook streams in the same way, and the interface is almost identical:
There are a few key differences to be aware of, however.
For one, you can’t have a single opt-in for both email and Facebook Messenger, as you’ll need to generate a new opt-in page:
This means you may have to choose between sending a potential lead to your email opt-in versus your Messenger opt-in. (So you will either have to test to see which one works best for your business, or offer prospects a choice in how they sign up)
There’s also Facebook limitations to consider, and MarketHero is very upfront about what they are.
Unlike email autoresponder that allow you to contact someone for as long as they are subscribed, Facebook gives you a 24 hour window with your Facebook leads, after which point they’ll have to opt-in again if they haven’t responded.
Not only that but Facebook is hard on promotion so any attempt at directly generating sales will put you in hot water with both Facebook and MarketHero.
With that in mind, you’ll still want to build your Messenger Streams in much the same way you build your email Streams, except with a much shorter flurry of value-adding content to hit that 24 hour window.
What would have been nice here is to have the ability to duplicate email Streams within MarketHero and make them Messenger Streams.
Unfortunately, the duplicate feature doesn’t allow for that.
Not ideal, but I can kinda understand why that wouldn’t be an option given the added limitations of Facebook messenger streams.
Overall, this is another channel you can leverage to nurture your leads which makes it a welcome addition to any email marketing tool, and one I hope other companies look to implement over the coming years.
The Form Builder
Driving leads into your email funnel is where forms jump into action.
With MarketHero, you won’t find a dedicated form creation page like you do with other platforms. Instead, forms are integrated with each specific funnel, or stream.
Clicking the cog icon assigned to the ‘Opt-in’ element as shown above will open the settings for that element.
This is where you make changes to the form elements, including button style, images and redirects.
For some reason there was no options to select the form type, such as popup or inline, and also no options for basic form behavior, such as delays or triggers.
Considering how impactful different form types and behaviors can be on your conversion-rate, that’s a pretty big blow for MarketHero in my opinion.
Moving onto the template selection, things only get worse. Not only was there a single template to choose from, but I also couldn’t even properly see it due to some weird display issues…
As I said at the start, I found a number of bugs like this throughout the software and the more I used it, the more I realized how unstable this product is.
Overall, the form aspect of MarketHero feels rough and incomplete and it’s not something I’d want to rely on for such a core component of my business.
Yes, you could integrate with dedicated form builders like but you shouldn’t have to go that route when using a product being sold at this price-point.
Tracking & Reporting
No email marketing tool is complete without granular reporting features, and MarketHero comes well equipped here.
The first place to get a breakdown of your campaign statistics is through the main dashboard:
Here you’ll see everything from:
- Clicks
- Opens
- Unsubscribes
- Complaints
- Click-through rate
- Sent emails
You also get a graph representing your product sales, which ties directly into your MarketHero products and streams.
The far right sidebar is reserved for daily stats, and it can be toggled to previous days for more specific reporting.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the interface is absolutely on-point from a visual perspective and it makes the reporting information incredibly easy to digest.
Now, going back to the sidebar you’ll find another option called ‘Finance’, and this offers a more detailed breakdown of your product sales:
This reporting feature allows you to toggle between both email and Facebook streams where products are assigned, as well as calculate and compare products across different timelines.
While this is certainly a welcome feature in anyone’s book, it does feel a tad shallow considering it’s not a shopping cart and it has very limited information about your products.
In other words, it doesn’t account for things like expenses, refunds or recurring payments, essentially making it a glorified gross profit calculator.
Finally, Streams also have their own reporting feature which can be accessed from the Stream selection menu:
Overall I found MarketHero performed reasonably well here even despite the somewhat gimmicky Finance report.
MarketHero Support
If there’s one tool in your marketing arsenal you want reliable support from, it’s hands down your email marketing platform.
Typically, support starts at the most basic level; quick access to the right information.
Fortunately, the knowledge-base is only a click away from virtually anywhere inside MarketHero:
That’s the good news.
The bad news is that the knowledge-base is seriously lacking in entries and I consistently found myself frustrated with the search results.
For example, there is absolutely ZERO information on the ‘Finance’ feature inside MarketHero despite it having a dedicated menu item.
I mean, MarketHero is not a particularly feature-rich tool so I would certainly expect better coverage in the knowledge-base.
I can’t even entertain a defense for this one. It’s just unacceptable.
Moving on, you’ll also find a ‘Facebook Group’ option in the same menu, so you can get answers directly from the community.
Facebook groups can harbor amazing communities and they’ve honestly been an invaluable lifeline for me in the past so it’s nice see this as a support option.
Alex Becker also uses it for feedback on product improvements:
Finally, let’s talk about the live chat — by far my favorite support channel for any service, not just software products.
MarketHero offers 24/7 live chat support, powered by the one and only Intercom. (Gotta love what those guys are doing)
I tested the chat at various times and got a reply very quickly in most cases. I think I waited a few hours in one instance. I also tested on a Sunday evening and got a response within seconds, so credit where credit due.
The chat agents seemed to understand the product well even they couldn’t explain the bugs or UX decisions, but I’m not one to shoot the messenger.
One thing that grated on me was the lack of empathy towards me and the issues I was facing, even when there was clearly a fault with the software.
Overall though, aside from the slightly robotic customer service, the live chat was there for me when I needed it most and without it, the remaining support options would be a bit of a disaster.
Market Hero Pricing
List most other email services, Market Hero’s pricing scales up depending on how many subscribers you have.
You’ll only pay a reasonable $19 a month for as long as you have less than 1,000 subscribers.
As you get more subscribers, it’s pricing model is quite similar to ActiveCampaign’s Lite plan.
If you are willing to pay annually, you can also get an additional 15% discount.
Market Hero does offer a 14-day free trial. But you are required to put in your credit card.
Final Thoughts
While I was drawn into MarketHero by its nice looking UI and promising feature set, I ultimately was somewhat disappointed by the bugginess and limitations of the product.
I would only consider using MarketHero at all, if you are selling a product or service via email marketing and you feel you can make use of its sales focused approach.
I do feel there is some potential there. If they continue to update the service and fix the bugs.
But currently, I think there are email services out there that can do a better job than MarketHero.
Take the free 14-day MarketHero trial
MarketHero Pros
- Beautiful user-interface
- Solid on-boarding process
- Supports visual automation workflows
- Facebook Messenger autoresponder
- Simple but effective subscriber management
- Clean and easy-to-digest tracking/reporting
- Focus on optimizing email deliverability (DKIM + SPF)
- Affiliate-link friendly
- Responsive, 24/7 live chat support
MarketHero Cons
- Limited automation options
- Seriously lacking in form and email templates
- Very basic form and email builders
- Too many bugs and poor UX decisions
- No landing page builder
- The knowledge-base is incomplete
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