Why Go High Level CRM Is a Game-Changer: Solve Your Marketing Tool Overload

By February 12, 2026Grow, Technology

Who this article is for:

Small business owners, marketing managers, sales teams, agencies, and marketers looking for a robust single platform to consolidate their tech stack, automate workflows, and scale their business without increasing overhead.

What’s inside:

  • What HighLevel is and isn’t
  • Deep dive into HighLevel features: marketing automation, funnels, and more.
  • A comparison of HighLevel to the giants of marketing tools
  • Easy-to-start marking workflows you can build today
  • How to get started with a BRJ-exclusive offer.

Key takeaways:

  • HighLevel is a robust suite platform and full suite platform designed to replace dozens of disconnected marketing and sales tools.
  • Consolidating your tools onto one platform allows you to be more efficient and scale your business faster
  • Key features we use HighLevel for:
    • Automated email/text campaigns
    • Social media marketing
    • Website form integration
    • Booking calendars
    • Contact management
    • Inbound phone system

How many marketing and sales tools does your business use? According to a State of MarTech research study, the average small business typically uses between 4 to 7 marketing and sales tools. These can include a combination of tools for email marketing, customer relationship management (CRM), social media scheduling, analytics, booking calendars, payment processors, and more. These tools, unfortunately, don’t communicate with each other very well. This is known as tool fatigue, where having too many tools makes your marketing efforts less efficient.

The good news is there’s a solution to this problem. HighLevel (aka GoHighLevel, Go High Level, or GHL) is an intuitive platform and full suite platform for marketers and agencies. It is designed for easy setup and use, allowing you to quickly configure your account and integrations. You can track all your customers, run email and SMS marketing campaigns, and access countless other marketing tools, all within one platform. And if you do have other specific tools that you need to integrate, HighLevel is extremely user friendly when it comes to integrating with other tools.

Big Red Jelly doesn’t just promote the use of HighLevel; we recommend and use it for our clients because it works. Because we believe in this tool so much, we’ve partnered directly with them to provide our clients cutting edge technology, allowing them to grow their business better, faster, and longer.

Throughout this guide we will show you why we use it, and if you’re ready to try it, you can use our partner link to get started.
What is HighLevel?

What is HighLevel?

HighLevel is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool. It’s designed to assist you in tracking your customers, ensuring you keep the relationship active and not passive. You can do this through email and SMS nurture campaigns, chat bot integrations with your website, and so much more!

HighLevel does more than just store customer information; it uses that data to engage with customers through tailored communications based on their stage in the customer lifecycle. It also presents your customer data in ways that give business owners meaningful insights into how to grow their customer base. By meeting the growing demand for integrated solutions, HighLevel helps businesses succeed with the tools and resources needed to attract and retain clients. It combines customer relationship management with a robust marketing platform. HighLevel represents a shift in how businesses manage customer relationships and marketing, adapting to technological advancements and evolving industry needs.

Why Business Are Switching: Solving Tool Fatigue

Many business owners are switching to HighLevel to improve their business organization and improve business performance. Here are a few reasons why:

  • Cost Efficiency: HighLevel costs as low as $97/month, a fraction of the cost compared to the potentially thousands of dollars spent on multiple platforms you would use to accomplish the same things HighLevel does. With a single price, you avoid the complexity and extra expenses of coordinating several tools.
  • Data Integrity: When you keep all the tools in one platform, less customers fall through the cracks because you’re not relying on third party integrations such as Zapier to connect your tools.
  • Simplicity: With all your tools in one place, you can more easily create your marketing automations and keep track of your customers. You can keep your performance dashboard in one place, and you have one support team you can contact for all issues you come across.
  • Scalability: This tool works great for a small business in one location, but also can scale to several locations very easily. HighLevel offers plans where you can have up to three sub accounts beneath your main account, allowing you to manage customer relationships easily across multiple business locations. By consolidating tools, businesses can streamline their marketing and sales processes, making it easier to attract more customers and drive growth.

Under the Hood: Key HighLevel Features That Drive Growth

If you’ve ever felt like your marketing, sales, and follow-up systems are being held together by duct tape and good intentions, you’re not alone. Most growing businesses hit a wall when you haven’t invested in marketing systems that follow-up with leads.

In our Compounding Customers™ growth model demonstrated below, you can see the different levels of follow-up required when architecting an automation system. By architecting a system that automates your growth engine, leads get followed up with, sales conversions start happening, and delighted customers become your best sales force.

A colorful flowchart shows four stages: Attract (magnet icon, Stranger to Visitor), Connect (speech bubbles, Visitor to Lead), Engage (handshake, Lead to Customer), Delight (thumbs up, Customer to Fan).

This is exactly where HighLevel shines. It isn’t just a CRM or a funnel tool. It’s a growth engine built to automate your customer journey from first click to closed deal to repeat business. HighLevel also provides comprehensive resources and training to help users implement and optimize these growth-driving features.

Let’s break down the key features in HighLevel, and how each one directly drives business growth.

01. Automated Marketing Workflows (Email + SMS): Your Growth Engine on Autopilot

Automated workflows are the backbone of modern marketing, and in HighLevel, they’re one of the most powerful growth levers you can pull.

Instead of relying on manual follow-ups or “hope they reply” tactics, HighLevel lets you build automated email, SMS, FB Messenger, voicemail, and forced calls sequences that respond instantly to user actions. That means your leads are being nurtured around the clock, even when your team is offline.

Feature: Automated email, SMS, FB Messenger, voicemail, and forced calls workflows that trigger based on lead behavior.

Benefit: Leads move through your funnel automatically without manual follow-up.

The moment someone fills out a form, books a call, clicks a link, or stops responding, the system can react immediately with the next step. This is how you stop losing leads to slow response times.

Feature: Personalized messaging based on tags, pipeline stage, or actions taken.

Benefit: Improved conversion rates through relevant communication.

When you combine automation with personalization, conversions naturally rise. Instead of blasting generic messages, you send the right message at the right time to the right person.

Feature: Follow-ups, reminders, abandoned cart messages, and re-engagement sequences.

Benefit: Higher retention and more repeat purchases.

Growth doesn’t only come from getting new leads. It comes from keeping leads engaged, bringing them back, and making it easier for them to say “yes”. Automated reminders, reactivation campaigns, and ongoing touchpoints keep your business top of mind.

In short, workflows turn inconsistency into predictable growth.

A workflow diagram showing triggers for Form Submitted and Contact Created, followed by actions: Wait, Create or Update Opportunity, Note, Internal Notification, SMS, Email, and another Wait.

02. Pipeline/Sales Management + Contact Management: The Revenue Foundation

Marketing generates attention. But sales systems convert attention into revenue.

HighLevel’s pipeline and contact management tools work together to create a clean, trackable revenue process. Instead of living in spreadsheets, sticky notes, or scattered inboxes, your team can see every opportunity clearly—without the chaos.

A business dashboard displays a kanban board with columns labeled: New, Contacted, Quote Made, Won, and Lost/Abandoned. Each column contains cards with names, companies, and details about sales opportunities.

Feature: Visual sales pipeline with stage-based deal tracking, including clear tracking of leads through the sales funnel.

Benefit: Clarity on deals at every stage so nothing slips through the cracks.

Every lead is assigned a place in your process: new lead, contacted, booked, closed, or lost. This visibility protects your revenue, because it removes ambiguity. If a deal stalls, you see it immediately, and you can easily identify where leads are within the sales funnel.

Feature: Centralized contact records with full history (calls, texts, emails, notes).

Benefit: Sales teams act strategically instead of reactively.

When your team can see what’s been said, what was clicked, and where the lead came from, they stop guessing. Instead of following up randomly, they follow up intelligently.

Feature: Lead prioritization based on engagement and pipeline stage.

Benefit: Your team focuses on the highest-value opportunities.

Not every lead is equal. HighLevel helps you identify which contacts are warm, which are cold, and which are hot and ready to buy. That means you spend time where revenue is most likely to close.

If you want scalable growth, you need a system that keeps sales moving forward without relying on memory and hustle alone.

03. Funnel Builder + Website Form Integration + Booking Calendars: Convert Interest into Action

Traffic means nothing if it doesn’t turn into action. And action doesn’t happen if the buying process feels complicated.

HighLevel’s funnel builder, forms, and booking calendars work together to create smooth conversion paths—so prospects don’t just browse, they commit.

Feature: Full featured page builder with drag-and-drop functionality to create high performing and captivating landing pages.

Benefit: Captures and qualifies leads automatically.

HighLevel enables you to build full featured websites and featured websites, including custom menus and integrated landing pages, all within a single platform. The full featured page builder allows you to create high-performing, visually engaging landing pages that drive conversions as part of your broader online marketing strategy.

Funnels aren’t just about design. They’re about sequencing and intent. When built correctly, funnels guide prospects toward the next step with clarity and momentum.

Feature: Website forms and surveys integrated directly into your contact system.

Benefit: New leads flow instantly into your follow-up process.

The second a form or survey is submitted, HighLevel can tag the lead, assign them to a pipeline stage, notify your team, and launch an automation workflow. No delays. No manual work. No missed opportunities.

Feature: Built-in booking calendars for calls, consultations, or appointments.

Benefit: Converts interest into action while reducing friction.

With HighLevel, you can schedule appointments and collect payments directly through the platform, streamlining the booking process for both you and your clients. The system also allows you to track analytics for payments, appointments, and website performance, giving you valuable insights to optimize your business.

This is where growth becomes tangible. Calendars turn “I’m interested” into “I booked.” They remove the back-and-forth and make scheduling feel effortless.

All these featured capabilities are accessible through a dedicated app, so you can manage your business on the go.

When funnel + capture + scheduling work as one system, you get a conversion machine: more leads, more booked calls, and more sales with less friction.

Growth Loves Systems

The real advantage of HighLevel is that it turns your business into a connected system—where marketing triggers sales, sales triggers follow-up, and follow-up creates retention. HighLevel’s integrated systems make it easier for businesses to sell their services or products by streamlining the entire customer journey, from lead generation to closing the sale and ongoing retention.

If you want growth that’s reliable, repeatable, and scalable, these features aren’t optional. They’re the foundation.

HighLevel vs. The Competitors: Real-World Comparisons

Two boxing gloves clash in a ring; one glove labeled HIGHLEVEL with tech icons, the other labeled COMPETITORS with logos like Salesforce, Mailchimp, Calendly, ClickFunnels, and WordPress.

HubSpot vs. HighLevel

HubSpot is a very powerful, well-known tool known for its robust features across all marketing channels. While it is very useful, it can get very expensive very quickly. HighLevel allows you to have a robust system at a flat rate. HubSpot is great for an enterprise business, but HighLevel is a better option for local businesses.

ClickFunnels vs. HighLevel

ClickFunnels has great features for quick page building to gain leads or sales. However it falls short on the backend of keeping track of those leads and nurturing them long term. HighLevel offers both landing page creation for conversions and a robust CRM in the background making sure you don’t lose any potential customers down the road.

Salesforce vs. HighLevel

Salesforce can be a very robust tool when you have time and money to make it that way. Salesforce can integrate with several tools to get most jobs done that you need, however it’s a lot harder to set up than HighLevel and oftentimes requires a certified consultant to help you get things set up.

In comparison, HighLevel is very user-friendly and easy to set up. You could get it running in one weekend. Additionally, HighLevel is a flat rate that doesn’t go up based on usage, while Salesforce can get expensive depending on how many users and contacts you have, and how many integrations you are using for sms and emails. HighLevel is a much better option if you want to get started quickly and don’t have complex tools you are trying to integrate. If you don’t have a developer, you probably don’t want to go the route of Salesforce.

How to Leverage HighLevel: 3 Easy Workflows

Below are a few ways to quickly make HighLevel work for you:

01. Review Generation

For many service based and local businesses, reviews on platforms like Google, Yelp, and Facebook make a difference on whether customers choose them or their competitors. HighLevel can help you get reviews through simple email/text automations.

By moving customers through the pipeline to reflect their stage in the lifecycle, you can automate messages to be sent at each stage. When you mark a service as complete, you can automatically send a request for a review via email or text message.

02. Nurture sequence

All companies have potential customers who have interacted with them and even requested quotes or services that don’t end up closing into a sale. HighLevel capitalizes on these leads when you create nurture sequences. You can have HighLevel automatically send 6 months worth of emails to new prospects without having to do anything once it’s set up.

This keeps you top of mind for your customers. When they’re ready to make a purchase, they’re more likely to choose you over your competitors because you’ve consistently provided them with relevant information over time.

03. Missed Call, Instant Reply

Small businesses may have the issue of being out in the field when customers are calling their business. They miss hundreds of calls that could have turned into customers.

HighLevel bridges this gap with its phone integrations. You can host your business phone number on HighLevel, and if you miss a call, it automatically sends a message letting the caller know you’re assisting another customer but would love to help. They can then respond with their request, reducing the likelihood of them abandoning your business.

Why Big Red Jelly Partners with HighLevel

We believe in empowering our clients to grow their businesses more efficiently and sustainably. We help them build growth engines that will continue delivering results for years to come. While we’ve used several marketing tools, HighLevel stands out as the most consistent in providing long-term value to our clients.

HighLevel is the ideal solution for small to mid-sized businesses looking to consolidate tools, automate processes, and foster sustainable growth. Whether you need improved customer relationship management, a better inbound phone system, or more effective data tracking, HighLevel CRM is the best choice for your business.

If you’re ready to clean up the mess of juggling 7 different marketing platforms, if you’re ready to consolidate to one clean system that makes it easier to grow your business, we highly recommend you use HighLevel. You can get started using our partner link here: Partner Link

Even better? When you partner with us and use Big Red Jelly’s award-winning Brand, Build, Grow process, we include HighLevel at no extra cost to you! We help you implement best practices across all your marketing collateral, including your CRM, to drive better results and maximize your business growth. Talk to a Big Red Jelly specialist today.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Go High Level CRM

What makes HighLevel more than “just a CRM”?

HighLevel functions as a connected growth engine. It combines automated email/SMS workflows, pipeline and contact management, and integrated funnels, forms, and booking calendars to automate the entire customer journey—from first click to closed deal to repeat business.

How do automated email and SMS workflows drive growth?

They trigger instantly based on lead behavior (form fills, bookings, link clicks, or inactivity), so no lead waits for a manual follow-up. Messages are personalized with tags, pipeline stage, and actions taken, which boosts relevance and conversions.

How do pipeline and contact management increase revenue reliability?

A visual, stage-based pipeline provides clear visibility into every deal, so nothing slips through the cracks. Centralized contact records track calls, texts, emails, and notes, enabling strategic (not reactive) follow-up. Lead prioritization by engagement and stage helps teams focus on the highest-value opportunities.

How do funnels, forms, and booking calendars convert interest into action?

Drag-and-drop funnels guide prospects through a clear sequence designed to convert. Website forms feed directly into the contact system to tag leads, assign pipeline stages, alert the team, and launch automations instantly.

How does HighLevel help with retention and repeat business?

Automated reminders, reactivation campaigns, and ongoing touchpoints keep your brand top of mind after the initial sale. Because messaging is personalized by behavior and stage, customers are more likely to return, say “yes” again, and stay engaged over time.

Can I offer free courses or trials with HighLevel?

Yes, HighLevel allows you to offer both free and paid courses or trials, giving you flexibility to attract new users and provide value before they commit.

Can I access HighLevel from any device?

HighLevel is compatible across multiple devices, so you can manage your CRM, communicate with leads, and monitor your business from your desktop, tablet, or mobile device securely.

Can I post updates or information within HighLevel or its community?

Yes, you can post updates, share information, and engage with other users within the HighLevel platform and its community forums, making it easy to stay connected and informed.