We talk to many software buyers who begin the process by wanting to know the top ranked or most popular software products. For Capterra’s entire 12 year history, we have always advised against this. “Ignore the rankings” we tell them. “It depends on the specific needs of your company.”
But today, we launched our first infographic: The Top 20 Most Popular Marketing Automation Software Solutions.
So why a change in heart? Why a popularity index now? Two reasons:
- There are more data points than ever before. Private software companies are more often disclosing stuff like their revenue and customer counts. Websites have become a central hub for software marketing efforts, and several indicators exist for measuring web traffic. And, of course, social media has become a platform for widespread community engagement, and the number of followers a company has is public domain.
- If someone feels more comfortable beginning a process by knowing who the “big” players are, then so be it. While our end goal remains the same – helping them make a fully informed, smart software decision – we can still answer buyers’ initial questions, show them the most popular vendors (not to be confused with “best”), and then try to persuade them to open up their software search efforts.
The Data
We started with every software company listed in Capterra’s Marketing Automation Software Directory. We strive to list every single solution – vendors do not have to pay to be listed. (If you see any missing, let us know!) We then collected Alexa, Compete, Google and Twitter data for all the vendors. We recognize that none of these are perfect indicators. Alexa and Compete, for example, are notoriously inaccurate for B2B websites and tend to underestimate web traffic. However, each provide a decent starting point for identifying relational and trend data. And the four combined provide a fairly accurate picture of overall web activity. We considered Facebook fans and LinkedIn company followers, but found both to be less indicative of a software company’s popularity.
Here is the web data for each of the four channels:
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Photo Courtesy Health Train Express
My doctor’s office is switching to Electronic Medical Records, and the process has been painful—not just for the doctors, but also for the patients. Waiting time is longer as flu-ridden patients watch the doctors peck around the new EMR software, trying to get comfortable with this high-tech way of doing things. I know from talking with physicians that the beginning is always painful, but the end result is well worth it—except for many medical practitioners, that end result seems far away.
Dr. Enoch Choi has been an urgent care physician in Palo Alto, California for the past 10 years. He’s also a self-proclaimed “electronic health record geek”; he actually helped develop requirements and specifications for some of the first EMR solutions. So he’s the perfect person to give some insight on this topic. continue reading »
Your hospital is installing EMR software and everyone says the software is terrible. In fact, “you’re going to hate it.” The truth is, you probably will. You’ve used the same paper charts for the last 30 years; what’s software going to do that your good ole pen and paper can’t? Let me tell you a story…
When I was 7 years old, my mom walked me outside and took the training wheels off my bike. “Perfect,” she said. “There’s only one way to learn and that’s the hard way. You can come back in once you learn to ride.” She then walked back inside and locked the front door. I ran after her crying, saying I would never learn to ride a two-wheeler. When I succumbed to the fact that she wasn’t coming back out to get me, I started looking at that bike.
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Does your business software feel a little antiquated? Does your computer monitor have a green tint? Are you still using…gasp…a DOS system? Wikipedia has the working status of MS Dos listed as “historic”. The most recent MS Dos system was released in 1995. Let’s take a look at some of the differences between 1995 and today…
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“Oh, I’m not sure. You know, the basics.”
If I had a dollar for every time I have had that conversation with a potential buyer, I could probably buy my daughter a pony. Seriously.
Software has many features that can benefit a company greatly, no matter the size of the organization. However, if you are unsure of the features you need, one of two things will happen: continue reading »
