As a sales writer with a background in B2B sales and account management, I've spent my career supporting Fortune 1000 IT and finance companies. Now, I'm putting my expertise to work by offering you an in-depth look at Insightly CRM. In this review, I'll provide some expert tips, best practices, and practical advice. I'll cover its core features, pricing, pros and cons, and some alternatives to help you decide if Insightly is the right CRM for your business.
What is Insightly CRM?
Insightly CRM is a cloud-based customer relationship management software designed to streamline sales workflows and enhance project management. It's a central location for managing sales, marketing, and customer service processes. With features like contact management, opportunity management, project and task management, and workflow automation tools, Insightly aims to help businesses of all sizes build lasting customer relationships and grow faster.
Insightly CRM Key Features and Functionalities
Insightly CRM offers a range of features designed to streamline your business processes and improve customer relationships. Here’s a closer look at some of the key functionalities:
Contact Management: Insightly excels at tracking contacts, organisations, partners, vendors, and suppliers. It consolidates background information, email history, important dates, and other data in one easily accessible location.
Project Management: With Insightly, you can efficiently handle complex project plans, monitor activity progress, track deliverables, set milestones, and manage processes through repeatable workflows.
Sales Pipeline and Opportunity Management: Gain valuable insight into and effectively manage your sales process with customisable stages, fields, filters, and views. Insightly provides customisable sales pipelines, allowing teams to effectively track deal progress.
Task/Event Management and Calendaring: Create tasks linked to contacts, leads, organisations, or opportunities. You can also set up events and seamlessly integrate them with your calendars.
Email Integration: Seamlessly integrate with major email platforms like Gmail and Outlook to track email correspondence and add new contacts directly from your email. Integrating my business Gmail was simple and without issues.
Mobile CRM: Access real-time customer information on the go through the mobile app, ensuring you stay connected and informed via your mobile devices.
Reports and Dashboards: Use Insightly’s comprehensive reports and dashboards to monitor business health, measuring sales, productivity, and project success through customisable reports.
Workflow Automation: Automate repetitive tasks to increase productivity and streamline your business processes.
What’s New in Insightly CRM?
Insightly is dedicated to improving its products and regularly releases new features and improvements. Some recent updates include:
AI-powered email summary: Allows users to request summaries of past emails to quickly capture key points from previous communications.
Enhanced bot click detection for marketing emails: Helps identify and filter out email click events suspected to be performed by bots, providing a more accurate reflection of user engagement with marketing emails.
Time tracking for tasks: Allows users to track time worked on tasks using daily or weekly timesheets.
Improved record comment system: Extends the comment functionality to all custom objects and most standard objects.
Workflow cloning: Allows users to clone entire Workflow Automations, including the workflow process, criteria, and actions.
These new features demonstrate Insightly's commitment to providing users with the latest tools to enhance productivity and streamline their workflows.
Project Management with Insightly: More Than Just a CRM
Insightly CRM isn't just about managing contacts and closing deals; it also boasts robust project management capabilities, making it a particularly good fit if your business handles post-sale deliverables1.... This blend of CRM and project management tools ensures nothing falls through the cracks once the deal is won.
Here’s what I found particularly helpful:
Seamless Opportunity Conversion: Sales reps can convert opportunities into actual projects. When an opportunity is marked 'won', all the associated details, records, and tasks smoothly transition into a new project pipeline. This is a great way of ensuring projects and client relationships are properly managed and monitored by the right teams.
Comprehensive Toolset: Insightly provides a wide array of user-friendly project management tools. Effectively handle project plans, monitor progress, track deliverables, set milestones, and manage processes through repeatable workflows.
Effective Task Management: The task management system is easy to use, letting you create tasks within contact records or in the general task settings
Customisation: You can customise objects and apps to adapt workflows and processes to suit your specific business needs
With Insightly, it’s easy to keep an eye on project progress, track deliverables, and meet those all-important milestones. The combination of project and task management, along with customisable sales pipelines and performance dashboards, makes Insightly a solid choice for businesses wanting to manage their entire sales process from start to finish
Insightly CRM User Experience and Interface
Utility - Look and Feel
Logging In: The sign-up and login process was straightforward, intuitive, and simple.
General Look and Feel: The general look and feel is clean but a bit cluttered in some spots. I would have liked to have a home dashboard that displayed all my tasks, which wasn't available right away. Customising a dashboard is possible, but it was a bit complicated and not intuitive at first.
Uploading a Database and Home Page Overview
Uploading a Database: Uploading contacts was easy and intuitive, and I didn't have any issues.
Home Page Overview: There is a home page dashboard overview. While it didn’t suit my specific needs, I can see how it would benefit other salespeople and business owners with its analytics. Customising dashboards is an option, though it wasn't straightforward initially.
Contact Page and Email Integration
Contact Page Layout: The contact page for each contact was clear, understandable, detailed, and easy to navigate. All necessary information is in one place.
Email Integration: Integrating my business Gmail was simple and without issues.
Chrome Extension and Social Data
Chrome Extension: There isn't a native Insightly Chrome extension. An old Gmail extension didn’t work well, which was disappointing, especially for adding contacts from LinkedIn. While Insightly has a Gmail integration, it was buggy and underwhelming.
Social Data Extraction: Integrating with social media to add contacts seamlessly was not intuitive and a pretty miserable experience. There is supposedly a LinkedIn integration, but I couldn't find a way to install it.
Adding and Segmenting Contacts
Adding Contacts: I couldn't connect Insightly to LinkedIn. The Gmail integration was buggy. There's no Outlook integration. Overall, the integration isn't straightforward or intuitive.
Custom Fields: Creating custom fields is possible through the settings and is fairly straightforward and intuitive.
Segmenting Contacts: Contact segmentation is possible, but it’s not intuitive. Other CRMs may offer better solutions for segmenting contact lists, but it can be done if you spend the time to figure it out.
Task Management and Contact System
Task Management: Insightly has a good and easy-to-use task management system. Tasks can be created within the contact record or in the task settings.
Keeping in Touch: Insightly has a system for keeping in contact where you can create a set of check-ins to stay in contact with a client and set dates as desired.
Deal Tracking and Automations
Deal Tracking: Insightly offers a good deal tracking system. Like most CRMs, you can track opportunities, assign percentage chances of closing, and work out your pipeline.
Automations: Insightly does offer automations that can be set up through settings. Examples include setting up webhooks for tickets submitted by customers in a certain region, closing tickets after a set number of days, and sending delayed notifications for ticket comments added outside of business hours.
Email Tracking/Bulk Email and Integrations
Email Tracking: You can track when someone opens an email. A new feature is email summarising, where the CRM summarises the email and gives you the relevant points.
Bulk Email: The CRM has a bulk email functionality that’s fairly easy to use.
Integrations: Insightly has some baked-in software integrations, including accounts, packages, quoting, and email marketing options. However, the integrations seemed weak and not well put together.
Zapier and Mobile App
Zapier: Insightly integrates with Zapier, so any issues with baked-in integrations can be fixed via Zapier.
Mobile App: Insightly has a good and useful mobile app.
Insightly CRM Pros and Cons
To give you a balanced view, here’s a summary of the pros and cons of Insightly CRM:
Pros:
User-Friendly Interface: Intuitive and easy to navigate.
Project Management Tools: Extensive and user-friendly.
Automation Options: Wide spectrum of automation features in paid plans.
Comprehensive Integration: Seamlessly integrates with various daily-use software applications through its AppConnect platform.
Scalable Platform: Highly scalable, adapting to the evolving needs of businesses.
Offers a scaled back free version.
Provides additional marketing and customer service solutions.
Cons:
User support requires a paid add-on.
Advanced permissions are only available in premium plans.
Limited file storage up until the enterprise tier.
Some users may find the learning curve slightly steeper when it comes to mastering the platform’s more advanced features.
The general look and feel is clean, although a little bit cluttered in areas.
I love having a home dashboard that gives me all the tasks and things I need to do in a day which it did not offer out of the box.
There are ways of customising your own dashboard but at first attempt it was quite complicated and not intuitive and easy to use, so a little disappointed with that.
No fully functional Chrome Extention
Insightly CRM Pricing and Value
Insightly CRM offers different pricing plans to suit various business needs. As of February 2025, the plans include Plus, Professional, and Enterprise.
Plus: $29/user/month (billed annually)
Professional: $49/user/month (billed annually)
Enterprise: $99/user/month (billed annually)
Each plan offers a different set of features, with the Enterprise plan providing the most comprehensive set of tools and customisation options. Insightly aims to provide value for the cost, with paid tiers starting at $29 per user per month.
Insightly CRM Integrations
Insightly CRM integrates with various tools, including QuickBooks, MailChimp, Google Apps, and Zapier. Insightly offers 1,000+ app integrations. Insightly also offers AppConnect, which seamlessly connects Insightly with various daily-use software applications, offering 500+ pre-built connectors. I found integrating my business Gmail simple and without issues.
Maximising ROI with Insightly CRM
To maximise your return on investment (ROI) with Insightly CRM, consider the following strategies:
Invest in User Training: Ensure all users are properly trained on how to use Insightly effectively.
Customise Insightly to Your Needs: Tailor the platform to match your specific business processes and workflows.
Integrate with Other Tools: Connect Insightly with other business tools to create a cohesive ecosystem.
Regularly Review and Optimise Workflows: Continuously assess and improve your automated workflows to ensure they meet your evolving business needs.
Data Migration Strategies: Offer tips on how to seamlessly migrate data from other CRM systems to Insightly, minimising disruption and ensuring data integrity.
Integration Techniques: Provide step-by-step instructions on integrating Insightly with popular business tools like QuickBooks, MailChimp, and Google Apps, highlighting the benefits of each integration.
Customisation Tips: Share practical advice on customising Insightly to meet specific business needs, including creating custom objects, workflows, and reports.
Troubleshooting Common Issues: Address common challenges that users may encounter when using Insightly and provide solutions to these issues.
Maximising ROI: Discuss strategies for measuring and improving the ROI of an Insightly CRM investment, focusing on key metrics and reporting.
Insightly CRM Alternatives
If you’re not sure Insightly is the right fit, here are some alternatives to consider:
HubSpot CRM: A comprehensive CRM platform known for its user-friendly interface and marketing automation capabilities.
Pipedrive: A sales-focused CRM with a strong emphasis on pipeline management.
Freshsales: A high-powered sales CRM software with AI-powered tools.
EngageBay: An all-in-one marketing platform with sales, service, and marketing solutions.
Salesforce Sales Cloud: a highly customisable and scalable CRM, although some users find Insightly easier to use.
Zoho CRM: a popular platform amongst small businesses, though it may not provide as many integrations as Insightly.
Insightly CRM Expert Tips and Best Practices
Here are some helpful tips when using Insightly or similar CRM's.
Firstly, ensuring data is clean and compliant with entry standards before importing it into Insightly is crucial. Regularly performing CRM audits helps maintain data quality and system efficiency. Also, developing a clear customisation strategy aligned with business processes before implementing extensive changes is essential.
To maximise the value of a CRM investment, investing in comprehensive user training is useful to ensure high adoption rates and effective use of the platform. You can carefully plan and implement integrations with other business tools to create a cohesive ecosystem, and regularly review and optimise automated workflows to ensure they continue to meet evolving business needs.
Insightly CRM Untapped Opportunities for Deeper Insights
As a sales professional, I've seen firsthand how the right CRM can transform a business. Insightly CRM has been really helpful for many, but there's more to explore. Let's look at some often-overlooked aspects that can take your Insightly experience to the next level.
Advanced Customization Techniques
Insightly's customization options go futher than basic field changes. Here are some power-user tips:
Custom objects: Create entirely new data structures ie custom fields tailored to your business needs
Workflow automation: Set up complex, multi-step processes triggered by specific actions
Custom dashboards: Build data visualizations that give you instant insights at a glance
AI and Machine Learning Capabilities
Insightly's AI features can help speed up your work process and give more accurate data.
Email Management: The AI-powered email summary is integrated into Insightly's email management functionality, allowing users to summarise email threads.
Marketing Automation: Enhanced bot click detection is part of Insightly Marketing, helping users get more accurate engagement metric
User Reviews and Testimonials
Don't just take my word for it; see what other users are saying online.
"Insightly is very responsive. The search feature is amazing. I find the interface simple to navigate and when it's time to automate, insightly has powerful automation features. The CRM is user friendly enough to use daily"
"Insightly is easy to use and highly customisable. We've created a number of custom objects and custom fields within those to manage everything from donations to shop orders to event registrations. Integrations with Facebook, Shopify and our CMS were easy to set up and manage. Customer service and techinncal support has also been excellent"
Final Thoughts
Insightly CRM is a modern, scalable CRM that offers a range of features and benefits for businesses of all sizes. It is known for its user-friendliness, customisation options, and integrations.
However, personally, it doesn't suit my specific workflow, so I continue to use Nimble CRM for my own needs.
Whether you're a small business aiming to optimize your sales processes or a larger enterprise in need of a scalable CRM solution, Insightly is worth considering.
Podcast on Insightly CRM
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