Great Question!
I see you are not looking to spend too much money on this so my recommendation would be to use free tools that will only cost you the time you take to set them up yourselves.

1. Accommodating contacts (engaged vs not engaged, segmenting, custom fields and flexible reporting).
For this I would recommend you use Podio. It is free for up to five users and will let you do all that and more. You can set up your templates with all the fields you want (drag & drop) and they are completely dynamic so you are welcome to change them at any point in time.

2. One Place to See All Interactions.
I would use Mandrill (from the makers of Mailchimp) to send and track all mail related interactions. They have webhooks that you can use to create all sorts of custom workflows behind the scenes. Of course this also means you can integrate it with Podio's excellent API to keep all your data in the same place.

Eventually you could even code in a workflow that would drip customized your content to subscribers using Mandrill. Essentially removing any need for additional software.

Best of luck! And let me know if you have any more questions!

Hi, happy to jump on a call to advise with the setup of lead capture & nurturing through drip email sequences. Your man for advice on integrations would be Denis from Integration Agent denis@integrationagent.com

You probably would benefit from HubSpot professional. For a startup the price may seem hard to swallow but if you find the time savings of not piecing together services and having disconnected reporting is your goal then this is the solution in my book.

If you are a startup in and incubator or accelerator you can also get a scholarship for 90% off your first year and 50% off your second.

If you look to go this route feel free to reach out. I can get the starting fee waived an negotiate lower rates.

Integration (or the lack thereof) is the fatal flaw in many organizations' deployments. I have faced this with most clients needing to realign their internal Systems-Processes-Personnel issues. Zapier is a powerful integrator but it can also be something of a band-aid solution. Something largely overlooked is that most CRM tools are elements within a wider enterprise solution. Generally, they work well with their own allied elements, okay with some 3rd parties, and not a all with others. The CRM company's overarching ambition is to win you over to their complete suite. Nothing wrong with that if it fits, but you should go in with eyes wide open.

To your question, I have experience selecting and integrating a range of CRM solutions across a variety of industries. In choosing, there are five metrics I follow when considering a CRM application for general use:
1. Organic Fit - To what extent does its underlying methodology fit your existing process. Will it integrate with your other systems (e.g. Accounting, HR, etc)? If not, what would need to change?
2. Market Penetration - If it's widely adopted, others are finding it useful and it's likely well-supported. But there is a reason it isn't #1 on my list: it needs to fit your operation.
3. Quality of Support - Near zero downtime, rapid response to user issues.
4. Scalability - Today's need will not be tomorrow's. What is the existing ceiling? What happens when you blow through it?
5. Cost of Use - Services are not the only things that scale. Write this into your game plan.

The top six examples (in no particular order) would include: Salesforce, Hubspot, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Zoho CRM, Pipedrive and Sugar CRM. Let's arrange a call if you would like me to provide rankings based on above five factors, and I can offer deeper insights to the points raised above.