Wix Ascend Review

 

Wix has built a name for itself over the years that is synonymous with constant development. The company never stops looking for ways to expand its portfolio of products and features, with the goal of providing its users the best tools to create not just a stunning and functional website, but also ways to manage that site (and their business) in the best way possible.

Launched in December 2018, Wix Ascend is a powerful business solution offering a collection of CRM, marketing and business management tools. Ascend combines a suite of products enabling you to set up, manage and grow your brand while you simultaneously build strong customer relations and promote your products or services online.

Clicking either one of Wix Ascend’s main pillars in the general dashboard leads users to the Ascend-specific dashboard to access all of its features, which we’ll review below.

Wix Ascend Features

Wix Ascend includes 16 tools to support the management and promotion of your Wix website. The Ascend tools are divided into two major categories: Customer Management and Marketing Tools.

 

Part 1 – Customer Management (‘Connect & Manage’)

The Customer Management section of Wix Ascend is divided into three subsections.

 

The first subsection, Connect, contains the following tools:

 

1. Inbox

 

The Ascend Inbox is directly linked to your Wix website, which means that when site visitors send chat messages, fill in and submit a form, send an email, or – better yet – make a purchase, you’ll be instantly notified in your Ascend Inbox.

Wix gives you handy pointers on how to set up your inbox in a sensible way, increasing the chances of converting site visitors into customers. You can perform the following actions with your inbox:

• Connect your Gmail account
• Setup your business info
• Respond from your phone
• Sync your Facebook page

 

2. Chat

 

Wix Chat is a standalone app that can be added to your Wix site from the Wix App Market. The app enables you to communicate instantly with site visitors, capture leads and implement automated greetings or messages based on a visitor’s actions on your site. For convenience, your chat conversations are saved in your Wix Ascend Inbox.

 

3. Contacts

 

The Contacts tool enables you to better manage your website’s subscribers by creating contact lists. You can add as many lists as you like, move contacts from list to list, import files in order to add a large group of contacts in one go, etc. To send emails, select the recipient(s) of the email from a list, or send an email to the list as a whole.

The second subsection, Manage, includes the following features:

 

4. Workflows

 

The Workflows option in Ascend helps you better manage the sales funnel by sending targeted messages to specific customers or as a response to specific actions. In combination with the Automations option, this can help improve the user’s experience on your site (and their likelihood of converting).

 

You can map out the whole sales process in a workflow sheet. For example, a customer who makes a booking goes to the “booking made” column and once the invoice is sent, you move them to the “invoice received” column.

 

Once payment is received, you move them to the “invoice paid” column, if they don’t pay on time, they will receive a reminder which moves them to the “payment reminder received” coluinmn, and so forth. The image below shows a workflow example.

5. Automations

 

In the Automations panel, Wix Ascend offers the option to create automated responses to received messages. Based on message content, message subject, or keywords, you can group emails and reply to those groups of emails with an automated response. For example, questions regarding how to contact customer service, or how to reach the FAQ section on your website. Or automations based on the different sales funnel stages (order received, invoice sent, payment received, reminder sent, etc.).

Automations are also very convenient for standard responses after a user subscribes to a specific service you provide (e.g. a newsletter).

 

6. Forms

 

With Wix Forms site owners can easily add forms to their website, which can also be used for automations. Whether it’s a form a user fills in to initiate contact, a form to register for a specific event, or one with a question for Customer Support – forms are useful in many different scenarios.

 

7. Tasks & Reminders

 

With Ascend’s Tasks & Reminders feature, you can easily create a list of tasks, set reminders and prioritize work based on importance or urgency. You can add tasks in the Tasks & Reminders panel itself, as well as the Contact panel and/or the Automations panel.

8. Site Members

 

You have the option to exercise member management on your website. If you want everyone who signs up for your site to have the same permissions, you don’t have to use this feature. However, if you want to create specific content for different groups of members, you can set permissions for (groups of) members to access certain content on your website, while denying such access to other members.

 

The third subsection, Get Paid, includes tools to arrange payment for services or products delivered.

 

9. Price Quotes

 

If your business offers a service, you may wish to set up a quote request form on your site. With Wix Ascend’s Price Quotes, it is very easy to create a pricing quote and send it to the applicant in one simple process.

 

Usually when you send your client a quote, you will include a description of the product or service that you’ll supply, summarizing what you initially discussed. Besides providing you the option to add such a description, Ascend also lets you set an expiry date for the offer, add payment conditions, and state your terms and conditions.

 

Your client will receive an email with the quote in a separate attachment. Clicking the attachment opens the quote in a new page and offers the client options to accept, save or print. In case you’re using the Wix Chat app on your site, the page contains the option to open a new chat, enabling clients to further discuss before accepting the project.

10. Invoices

 

Sending an invoice for provided services is standard procedure, and it is no surprise that Wix Ascend’s abundant features include the option to send invoices. It is actually one of the most extensive features of all, and also includes the option to add the payment methods you want your clients to be able to use when fulfilling their payments.

Part 2 – Marketing Tools (‘Promote & Grow’)

The second part of Wix Ascend’s offering is directed towards the promotion of your site. The Marketing Home panel is a welcome starting point, offering shortcuts to many of the available tools in this section: setting up your website’s SEO to make sure potential customers can find you on search engines, creating email campaigns, promoting your website on major social channels by creating posts designed specifically for each platform, using the power of coupons to help shape your CRM, etc.

The following features are part of Ascend’s marketing tools:

 

11. Coupons

 

Customers love being treated to special discounts and deals, and the Coupons feature is specifically designed to cater to that need. On the Coupons panel, Ascend users can create two types of discount coupons, one type that gives a specific discount amount (i.e. $10), and another type that offers a percentage discount.

 

You can also set conditions for the coupon regarding validity, applicability (all services, or a specific one), and any limitations as to how often the coupon can be used by one user. Conveniently, you can save the coupon setup for future reuse.

12. SEO (‘Get found on Google’)

 

The Get Found on Google feature focuses on the SEO of your website. It starts by setting up basic SEO using a tool called SEO Wiz, helping you improve the SEO of your site in a step-by-step process: All the way from the SEO basics of optimizing your page content, your meta tags and image alt texts, to the more advanced SEO tactics of gathering backlinks, using friendly urls, 301 redirects, and making use of additional tools such as Google Search Console.

 

You don’t have to be an SEO wizard to use SEO Wiz, as it guides you through an automated process that will ultimately lead to improve your site’s rankings in search engines such as Google.

13. Email Marketing

 

Wix Email Marketing is not a Wix feature that is only accessible through Ascend – it is available for all Wix users. However, with an Ascend subscription, users can further benefit from the available tools, and increase the scope and intensity of their email campaigns.

 

Wix Email Marketing takes users by the hand: it doesn’t just contain the different features to use for your marketing and promotion, it informs users of how to work with the tool, presenting them with a step-by-step plan to set up email marketing in a sensible, practical way that includes using templates, lists, segmentation, analytics, etc.

 

14. Social Posts

 

Promotion & marketing is not complete without social media. You can use these channels for many different purposes, including brand awareness, showcasing a product, promoting a special sale, and much more. In the Social Posts panel, choose a design from a wide variety of templates and easily customize it to fit your preferences.

15. Video Maker

 

Another great tool that is relevant to all websites and business is Wix Ascend’s Video Maker, enabling you to create short videos for your website, social media promotion and more.

Ascend contains a library of stills and videos, with the extra option to upload your own videos. First, you decide on the orientation (square, landscape, portrait). Then you start customizing, using images, video, text, music, and additional design and branding options to create your message.

 

16. Marketing Integrations

 

On top of all the Ascend features, you can employ additional marketing tools to expand your website’s functionality through the available marketing integrations, including:

• Google Analytics to discover more about your visitors
• Facebook Pixel to track Facebook campaigns
• Hotjar for analytics based on heatmaps
• Google Ads to increase traffic to your site, and more

Ascend Plans & Pricing

Besides the free version of Ascend, users can choose form three different premium Ascend plans: Basic, Professional, and Unlimited, with the following specifications:

 

	Basic	Professional	Unlimited
Contributors	X	5	Unlimited
Remove Wix Ads	✓	✓	✓
Lead Capture Forms	50	150	Unlimited
Scheduled Chat Hours	✓	✓	✓
Real-time Customer Details	✓	✓	✓
Chat Automations	X	✓	✓
Customizable Forms	5	20	Unlimited
Form Submissions/month	1,000	5,000	Unlimited
Marketing Campaigns/month	5	20	Unlimited
Emails/month	9,500	50,000	1,000,000
Automations Rules	5	20	Unlimited
Social Post Campaigns/month	5	20	Unlimited
Sync Gmail/Messenger	✓	✓	✓
VIP Support	X	X	✓

 

When it comes to pricing, yearly subscriptions range from $10 per month for Ascend Basic to $49 per month for Ascend Unlimited.

Bottom Line

Wix Ascend is, in line with many other Wix products, a product that has been put together with a lot of thought and understanding for the everyday struggles of small business owners. The combination of products in Wix Ascend is as sensible as it is necessary to get the most out of running an online business. The additional price is well worth the investment for the simple fact that you get so much bang for your buck with all of these useful products bundled conveniently into one platform.