Mixpanel is a two-pronged product. The first prong is an advanced Analytics platform which enables event-driven tracking to take place and to provide you with in-depth analytics of those events.
Prong number two is a people based platform orientated towards marketing and sales and which lets you associate actions taken on your website with specific people.
Caution – although it is described somewhat vaguely on their website, this is NOT a way to find out, at an individual level, who has visited your website. Even if this were possible, it would probably be illegal, at least in the UK and the EU.
What you have here is a high powered CRM that, once the users are set up (by you), can track their actions and carry out certain basic follow-up marketing activities, e.g. sending emails or push notifications.
Again, don’t be too over optimistic about what Mixpanel will do for you. You will probably still need a more sophisticated marketing automation package, e.g. Infusionsoft, if your funnels are more complex than the simple ones used as examples on the Mixpanel site.
Installation is also lkely to cause headaches for the smaller organisation without the luxury of an in-house developer. It is not a simple case of installing a tracking code and away you go. You still have to do that and then write code snippets to deal with every “event” that you want to track, e.g. “complete enquiry form” etc. This could pose quite a chaleenge to the SME and they are unlikely to be able to do it without expensive assistance.
I wouldn’t want you to get the imporession that I do not like Mixpanel, nothing could be further from the truth, I just think it is likely to dissapoint many users who will expect more from it once they’ve suffered the challenges involved in setting it up correctly.
The acid test which I apply when evaluating Analytics packages is “does it give me anything of value which I could not get, for free, with Google Analytics and Data Studio”?
Google Analytics also allows you to set up events and goals which, at first glance, appear to be very similar to those given as examples by Mixpanel.
The “People” strand, (CRM) is an optional, and quite expensive) extra.
As regards cost. There is a limited free account which, if you outgrow it, leads to a very steep jump up to the first plan, which will cost you $150/month just for the “Engagement” plan (Analytics). If you want the CRM, (People) plan then that doubles the cost.
Mixpanel does have a following but they tend to be larger organisations and I have my doubts about its suitability for the SME. Nonetheless it’s probably worth trying their free plan and seeing for yourself.
