But it turns out that it has a lot more to offer than that, which explains why Groovefunnels changed its name to Groove.cm.
In this article, I’m going to review Groove.cm, but for ease of reference, from here on in, we’re going to refer to it as Groove.
After a quick overview, I’m going to be discussing Groove’s various features, my own experiences with Groove, and cover the pricing plans available and their value for money, before summarizing its various pros and cons.
By the time we reach our conclusion at the end, you will be in a position to assess whether Groove is the right platform for your business.
Please feel free to scroll ahead to any sections that jump out at you.
Here goes!
What Exactly Is Groove?
Initially, GrooveFunnels, as it was then known, was predominantly known as a website builder for online shops with a strong focus on elements for sales funnels, with a view to converting website visitors to paying customers.
But as the organization grew and their online tool offering grew with it, it has now become so much more than a basic sales funnel orientated website builder.
Hence, the name change, as we mentioned in our introduction.
What has remained, however, is their customer-centric ethos.
And now what Groove has become is a complete customer relationship management and marketing automation platform for digital and e-commerce marketers.
On their website, they describe Groove as the world’s fastest growing, and most complete and powerful of such platforms. Quite a statement if you ask me.
But we can confirm that it has become very popular – it’s trusted by more than 550,000 customers the world over.
Groove’s unique selling point is that it provides everything you need to start selling online in just one central place.
And that in itself is a huge plus in our book because it’s just so much more convenient than having to work with and integrate several individual online tools.
Groove’s Tools
Groove’s strongest feature is just how many perfectly integrated online tools it has to offer. And we’re going to touch on the main ones briefly here. (It’s not an exhaustive list.)
GrooveFunnels – pre-made proven multi-page sales funnel systems
GrooveCheckout – secure checkouts with upselling and flexible payment plans
GrooveMail – email marketing and behavioral response automated emails
GrooveAffiliate – to recruit and manage affiliate marketers for your business
GrooveKart – allows you to build an ecommerce store with print on demand and drop-shipping
GrooveMember – for creating membership only content with automations and content drip features
GrooveVideo – a video player with engagement tools, opt-in forms, and call-to-action buttons
GrooveBlog – a place to provide regular/frequent content with SEO tools to boost traffic
GrooveWebinar – allows you to either stream a live webinar with moderation or have an automated pre-recorded webinar
GrooveAutomation – automation based on data collection from website visitors
GrooveProof – shows verified purchases to visitors on your site and triggers the impact of social proof
For those of you who already have on online digital or e-commerce store, you may find that Groove can replace a lot of the online tools that you may already be using, such as WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, ClickFunnels, Karta, Samcart, Zoom, Calendly, Vimeo, Zendesk, and many more.
Groove’s Other Features
After reading the above list of available tools, you may already be taken aback by how much Groove has to offer. But that’s not the full story…
The Groovester Community
All Groove users can be part of the Groovester community, where users can discuss how they are doing using the Groove platform, and mentor each other, and share ideas about different ways of using the platform to boost sales and/or engagement with customers.
The GrooveDigital Academy
Groove even has its own academy where users of the platform can learn all about using Groove to generate more traffic, leads, sales, and revenue.
The academy features numerous short and long video answers to all kinds of user questions, as well as live webinars and live Q&A sessions.
My Experience With Groove
So, I tried Groove out for myself. I signed up for the free trial (more on that later) and I used GroovePages, GrooveFunnels, and GrooveMail. (It was beyond the scope of this article for me to try out everything Groove has to offer.)
I found the platform very intuitive and easy to use. Especially the drag-and-drop website builder on GroovePages.
And likewise, GrooveMail was equally straightforward and easy to use. Once I incorporated my logo, the branding looked on point.
I also found the GrooveFunnels tool a breeze to use to put together some nice sales funnels. And I’m pleased to report that I did see some sales during this time period.
However, because I was keen to cancel the free trial before getting charged, I probably didn’t really give it enough time to see my sales really take off.
The biggest disappointment for me was the lack of integration with social media marketing.
With social media being such a potential boon for online business, you’d think this would be something that Groove brought to the fore.
Don’t get me wrong, the platform lets my customers share my (free) content on social media. But, there’s nothing there for leading a social media marketing campaign.
Overall, however, I had a good experience with Groove. But I’m going to try some other platforms before I settle on one permanently.
Groove Pricing Plans And Their Value For Money
Groove offers 3 types of pricing plans: the free plan, the starter plan, and the pro plan. Let’s go through each in turn…
The Free Plan
The best thing about this plan is that it’s not just free for a short trial period, but free for life. But, as you may expect, it’s a lot more limited than the paid plans available.
The free plan is for businesses with up to 500 contacts/customers/members.
You can have up to 2,500 email sends per month (which, if you’ve maxed out the membership, comes to 5 emails per customer per month).
The price also includes a custom domain (which you wouldn’t normally get for free).
And you also get 25 pages worth of website hosting. (If you don’t have your online store yet, it may sound like a lot of pages, but it isn’t really.)
Although this domain can include a website, store, funnel, blog, or membership site, you have to pick just one of these, and you cannot for example have both a blog and a sales funnel. (Big drawback.)
Although you only get one domain, you can have unlimited e-commerce stores in the free plan (I know, it didn’t make much sense to me either).
And you can showcase an unlimited number of products (digital or otherwise).
The free plan also puts a choice of customer payment methods at your disposal, including Stripe, PayPal and GroovePay. And you can upload up to 5 videos.
There is a catch, however. The free plan is not strictly free for anyone to use, and Groove will deduct fees of 3% on your sales.
It might not sound like a lot, but when you’re a new business, this could be an issue if you don’t have sufficiently high profit margins.
That said, though, if at any point in the first 30 days you’re not completely satisfied with the service, Groove will happily refund your money. So effectively, you can get a free trial on a paid plan.
So I guess the free plan could be excellent value for many people, but you might find it rather limiting as the business grows.
The Starter Plan
When this article was written, the starter plan cost $99 per month. But you can save up to 20% if you pay annually rather than monthly.
The starter pack is for up to 5,000 contacts, allows up to 50,000 email sends, includes 5 custom domains, and hosting for up to 250 webpages, together with unlimited subdomains.
Each custom domain can include a website, store, funnel, blog, or membership site. However, there’s a limit to one of each per domain.
You get an unlimited number of ecommerce stores, unlimited products, and unlimited payment gateways. You also get 5 accounts and up to 50 videos hosted.
Best of all, the platform selling fee is waived, so you keep paying a flat fee regardless of how much profit you make on your stores.
I would argue that this is good value for money, providing that your business is bringing enough money to cover the cost.
The Pro Plan
When this article was written, the pro plan cost $299 per month. But you can save up to 20% if you pay annually rather than monthly.
As you can see this is a big jump from the starter plan, and for good reason, it has lots of nice extras.
You can have up to a whopping 30,000 contacts as your customer base, and everything else is unlimited…
Unlimited email sends, unlimited custom domains, unlimited hosting of individual pages, unlimited accounts, unlimited videos, and so on.
And of course the platform fees are waived, and no matter how much you make in profit, you will pay a flat rate each month/year.
Your business would have to be making a lot of money for this to be considered good value for money.
Summary Of Pros And Cons
Pros
A central point for all elements of running an online business
GrooveDigital academy, so you can learn how to make the most of Groove
You’re part of a friendly, helpful community
Intuitive and easy to use platform
Impressive suite of tools
Cons
Lack of social media marketing tools
The pro plan is very expensive
The free plan is very limited
Final Thoughts
So, as you can see, Groove does have quite a lot to offer – it provides a central point for utilizing a whole host of useful online tools. However, it is not without its drawbacks.
The free plan is quite limited (in my opinion) and the pro plan is very expensive.
But the starter plan may be worth considering, but you may also wish to use another online tool for your social media marketing campaigns.
Hello, my name is Matthew Jacobs and I have made a living on various blogs and websites. But, trust me, I haven’t always been able to say that with such confidence.
Hopefully this website can teach others and help you in getting your blog out there, capitalizing on it as much as you can, and can serve as the kind of resource I wish I had had. So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and make a name for yourself!
