ActiveCampign: Email marketing
First and foremost, ActiveCampaign offers email marketing.
If you’re wanting to send a one-time email blast to everyone on your list, ActiveCampaign has you lined.
Additionally, if you’d wish to target an email to a selected list phase, you’ll be able to do this with the platform still.
And if you’re trying to find {a solution|an answer} which will send an email to simply joined your list, ActiveCampaign offers an auto responder for simply that purpose.
The service will handle drip campaigns still. All you have got to try to do is write a series of emails that lead your prospects from curiosity to buy. ActiveCampaign can send those emails out over time and on schedule.
If you’re a lot of-of a hardcore email marketer, you’ll realize that the platform offers a good deal of flexibility. you’ll be able to produce refined work-flows that use custom logic to see once to send emails and who ought to receive them.
You can additionally send conditional content. That is, ActiveCampaign permits you to line up one campaign that features totally different content for specific recipients supported their past behavior or insights you’ve gathered concerning them.
Even better: you’ll be able to change your emails with custom fields.
Finally, the platform provides you with analytics concerning your email campaigns. They’ll provide you with lots of insight concerning the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
ActiveCampign: Management With Lists and Tags
ActiveCampaign provides you the most effective of each world once it involves managing your contacts. you’ll do this with lists and tags.
In alternative words, will|you’ll|you’ll be able to} phase your contacts into separate lists (for example: “People curious about Electronics” and “People curious about High-End Clothing”) otherwise you can “tag” your contacts to additional phase the folks in a very single list (for example: “iPhone Purchasers” and “Party Dress Purchasers”)..
As if that weren’t convenient enough, ActiveCampaign additionally allows you to edit contacts in bulk. which means you’ll tag many contacts, or add them to an inventory, with simply a number of short clicks.
One of the most effective ways in which to use tags is by tagging email recipients who click a link in an email you’ve sent. luckily, ActiveCampaign makes it exceptionally simple to line that up within the email composition UI.
You can additionally export your contacts. Then, you’ll import that list in another tool.
One helpful thanks to using an exported list are to import it as a Facebook custom audience.
The only drawback of subscriber management is that it’s a small amount overwhelming for brand new users. sadly, that’s pretty common among all applications that provide a good deal of flexibility.
ActiveCampign: Completely different choices for Split-Testing
As with everything else in digital promoting, email promoting needs split testing. luckily, ActiveCampaign offers you a handful of various choices.
The first is that the lot of ancient approaches. that offers you the choice to match a sway against a variant.
If you’re unaccustomed split-testing (or A/B testing), the management is that the “original” version of one thing (like an email) and also the variant is that the tweaked version.
So, as an example, if you wish to check a handful of various subject lines to examine that one provides you the very best open rate, you’d come upon your experiment with the 2 completely different subjects. ActiveCampaign would split your list and send the management to half your contacts and also the variant to the opposite half.
After the e-mail blast is completed, you’ll check your analytics to examine that subject “won.”
ActiveCampaign provides you the choice to decide on the winner supported the foremost opens or the very best click-through rate. you furthermore might get to specify however long you wish to attend before declaring a winner.
That’s all commonplace split-testing fare. however, the platform provides you a fair a lot of subtle thanks to conducting experiments.
You can split-test a whole marketing automation workflow.
In that case, you’d come upon a workflow that splits your contacts manually. Then, you’d spend half your contacts the management and also the variant.
But there square measure far more choices once it involves split-testing workflows which will be delineated here. In fact, ActiveCampaign offers a whole split conditions editor that you just will use to form powerful experiments.
I’ll discuss workflows in a very very little a lot of detail later during this article. For now, though, simply perceive that you just will split-test your marketing automation efforts and fine-tune them to maximize your sales.
ActiveCampign: The e-mail Capture type
Chances are that you’re planning to use a web type to capture people’s email addresses. luckily, ActiveCampaign can assist you to produce a form that you just will simply raise your website.
That’s great news.
The dangerous news is that you just will solely produce AN inline type at rock bottom worth purpose. In alternative words, if you wish to form a floating bar, a floating box, or a modal (read: pop-up) dialog, you’ll pay some additional money.
Twice the additional money, in fact.
Even worse, though: the inline type is branded with this text: “Marketing by ActiveCampaign.”
Yes.
On the opposite hand, if you’re proud of exploitation an inline type that’s got ActiveCampaign branding, you’ll be able to go the “cheap” route.
When it involves coming up with the shape, you’ll follow a UI that’s easy to use. in only many moments, you’ll be able to place along with a type that asks for a user’s given a name and email address.
Then, you’ll be able to embed that type on your website. instead, you can link to it from a hosted website, use a plug-in to feature the shape to your WordPress web site or add the shape to your Facebook page.
If you’re searching for an entire ton of flexibility, though, you won’t realize it on ActiveCampaign. as an example, you can’t amendment the planning of the shape itself unless you recognize CSS.
ActiveCampign: Building an Email
Of course, no email marketing answer would be complete while not a designer. ActiveCampaign permits you to form spectacular emails with a drag-and-drop computer program. that may assist you to attain the precise look that you just wish.
The editor itself appears like the shape editor I described higher than. However, it’s way more choices.
You can use it to form text blocks, image blocks, videos, line breaks, buttons, spacers, and even an RSS feed.
When it involves coming up with the layout, you’ll set the road height, background color, border, padding, and margin.
You can even add conditional blocks that solely seem to bound recipients supported tags related to them.
However, the e-mail editor isn’t while its faults.
For starters, once you paste in text from a unique supply, it won’t mechanically use your default font family and size. You’ll have to be compelled to alter that manually.
It conjointly takes a protracted time to transfer pictures. perhaps it’s doing an epidemic scan on the rear end?
Email Templates
If you’re a busy businessperson who doesn’t have time to style emails from scratch, be happy to use one among the system’s professionally designed templates. It’s unlikely that folks in your target market can know that you simply “cheated.”
However, your choices are restricted once it involves choosing ActiveCampaign templates. There are solely concerning thirty of them.
Conversely, different email marketing solutions (such as Mail-chimp) supply many email templates. That’s one space wherever ActiveCampaign is lacking.
ActiveCampign: Sales & CRM
ActiveCampaign doesn’t simply stop with email marketing. It offers sales and CRM resolution further.
Because that resolution is an element of a similar digital selling system, it plays nicely with different options on the platform. In different words, the CRM element integrates with the e-mail marketing part.
Beyond that, though, ActiveCampaign also handles the fundamentals. For starters, it’s a contact management system.
The tool uses a typical scrollable UI, therefore, you’ll flick through your list of contacts with ease. If you’re trying to find specific contacts, you’ll use the search and filter options.
ActiveCampaign conjointly offers lead marking. That way, you’ll place the contacts who are possible to become customers within the close to future.
The platform also shows you the interests, interactions, and social profiles of your contacts. that may assist you to get to understand them a touch additional therefore you’ll tailor your selling message consequently.
Perhaps better of all, ActiveCampaign encompasses a CRM app. you’ll install it on your smart-phone and ne’er step removed from vital contact data.
ActiveCampign: Marketing Automation
ActiveCampaign also offers a selling automation resolution that may prevent time and assist you to trim your payroll.It might conjointly assist you to increase sales. per Forrester, marketing automation will boost your sales pipeline by the maximum amount as 10%.
ActiveCampaign allows you to mechanically interact with prospects exploitation machine-driven email marketing. as an example, if you would like to send your contacts a “Happy Birthday” email once they celebrate their birthdays, you’ll be able to produce an automatic campaign for that purpose.
You can additionally start additional difficult machine-driven workflows. Here’s an example:
- The customer makes an acquisition
- That client receives a “How was your experience?” email 2 days later
- The client responds to the e-mail with feedback
- The system sends a personalized email back to the client with a coupon code
- The system additionally sends the client a monthly email that advertises the most recent sales
- That’s only one example, though. ActiveCampaign provides incalculable automation choices that you just will use to make a well-oiled selling answer that runs while not human intervention.
The platform additionally allows you to modify processes supported contact behavior. All you have to try and do is insert a snipping of code (similar to the Google Analytics code or Facebook pixel) on your website. Then, you’ll be able to track events from at intervals apps, server-side code, and more.
After that, you’ll be able to use the information you collect from those interactions to make customized campaign automation.
Additionally, ActiveCampaign permits you to dynamically phase your market at intervals automation. that may alter you to make a custom selling message to people supported demographics. you’ll be able to fine-tune that message even additional if those people open the e-mail and visit an online page.
The service additionally has the power to line up an automation that may tag your email list subscribers supported actions they take. Then you’ll be able to send extremely targeted emails to those that share an equivalent tag for even additional customized selling.
Finally, ActiveCampaign allows you to envision your workflows with flowchart-like graphics.
ActiveCampign: Noticeable Quirks With the marketing Automation UI
Although the selling automation side of ActiveCampaign is powerful, it’s not excellent. Users have reportable some quirks.
For starters, the visual builder is usually slow to reply. In a setting wherever time is cash (and that’s just about each setting currently, isn’t it?), that sluggish behavior might cause some pain.
Also, if you want to add an email to your workflow, the system will take you out of the builder to a different screen. That adds even more time to the whole process.
Finally, you have to use an advanced builder for every automation, even the simple ones. A “basic” automation builder would be a big help
Ready-Made Automation
As is the case with emails, you don’t have to create your own automation workflows from scratch. You can use one of ActiveCampaign’s ready-made automation.
In this case, though, you might have to open your wallet. Some of that automation isn’t free.
Marketers create automation and make them available on the ActiveCampaign market. You can purchase one and secure a high-converting workflow in mere minutes.
In fact, you can create automation unique to your industry and put it on the market. That’s a nice way to pick up some extra cash.
Unfortunately, though, the import process in the automation builder is a bit buggy. Sometimes, the automation that you spent your hard-earned cash on doesn’t transfer in as easily as you’d prefer.
If you’re interested in incorporating SMS messaging into your marketing, good for you. That’s a great way to gain an advantage over your competitors.
Also, you’ll be happy to learn that ActiveCampaign offers an SMS solution.
ActiveCampign: SMS Messaging
In fact, you can incorporate SMS messaging into your automated workflows. For example, you can send an automated follow-up to your contacts.
You can also use the system to collect phone numbers with forms that integrate into your apps and websites.
Also, ActiveCampaign allows users to subscribe to your email distribution list via text message. All they have to do is text a phone number. They’ll receive a message back asking for their email address. Once they provide it, they’re added to your list.
Keep in mind, though, is that your monthly fee for the service doesn’t cover all your text messages. Those are an additional charge.
As of now, ActiveCampaign supports SMS messaging to the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, Spain, Mexico, and Germany.
Customized Tracking and Reporting
ActiveCampaign doesn’t decide for you which analytics you need to see. It lets you be the boss when it comes to tracking and reporting.
The platform has the basics covered. You can see the email opens and link clicks.
But it does much more than that. You can also track replies or integrate your email campaign with Google Analytics.
When it comes to reporting, ActiveCampaign leaves no stone unturned. Whatever metrics you’re looking for, you’ll find.
The Opens/Reads report, for example, will show you the total opens/reads in addition to unique opens/reads and the number of people who didn’t open the email.
But the report also enables you to drill down even more and examine each contact. You can use it to create a new campaign, for example, that sends another email to everybody who didn’t open the first email.
Reports will also show you details about your automation. For example, you’ll be able to review your completion rate and average completion time.
There are a couple of downsides to the reporting feature, though.
For starters, it can take a long time to load. That’s especially true if it needs to crunch a lot of data.
Also, the screens are a bit user-hostile. It might take you a little while to get used to them.
Payment Features (Or Lack Thereof)
Unfortunately, ActiveCampaign is missing any payment features. That’s a fairly large hole for an “all-in-one solution.”
So don’t expect to use the platform to sell products or accept payments. You’ll have to look at other tools for those features.
You also won’t be able to create order forms or use ActiveCampaign to add a shopping cart to your website.
ActiveCampign: Integrations
It’s pretty much an expected practice these days that marketing tools will integrate with other, more popular tools. ActiveCampaign fulfills that expectation nicely.
If you head over to the company’s Apps & Integrations page, you’ll see that it currently plays nicely with more than 150 other tools. Among them:
- Basecamp
- Bigcommerce
- ClickFunnels
- Dropbox
- Evernote
- Google Analytics
- GoToMeeting
- Magento
- PayPal
- Salesforce
- Shopify
Once again, you’ll find that MailChimp is superior to ActiveCampaign in terms of the number of integrations. However, ActiveCampaign has most of the popular tools covered.
Finally, ActiveCampaign offers an online explanation of how each integration works. To read it, all you have to do is click the appropriate icon.
Support
At the lower pricing levels, ActiveCampaign offers email and chat support. At the highest level, you can get phone support.
Usually, you’ll get a response to your support email within 24 hours. If you need a quicker reply, consider using the chat.
Keep in mind, though: the company doesn’t offer 24-hour live chat. You’ll have to reach out to somebody during business hours.
The website also hosts a knowledge base. It includes how-to guides, videos, and even webinars.
You’ll likely be able to use the knowledge base to get the answers to many of your questions.
ActiveCampign: Pricing
One of the strongest selling points of ActiveCampaign is that it’s affordable. Pricing starts at just $17 per month. That’s low enough that even the most cash-strapped startup can use the service.
However, that worth purpose limits you to a thousand contacts.
It’s price noting, though, that ActiveCampaign doesn’t count subscribe towards your subscriber limit. several different services do charge you for subscribe.
Also, that worth is an annual fee. In different words, you pay $17 per month except for twelve months all right away.
Obviously, higher levels of service can value additional. As of now, the Enterprise worth purpose starts at $229 per month, paid annually.
For that, you get everything mentioned higher than plus:
- CRM
- Sales automation
- Lead scoring
- Data integrations
- Custom branding
- SMS marketing
- A custom mail server domain
- A dedicated account rep
- Free design services
- Free social data
- Phone support
ActiveCampaign: Wrapping
I’ll shut this ActiveCampaign review with an easy recommendation: apprehend if you’ll afford it and can’t afford anything dearer. though it will have some quirks and pain points, the advantages so much and away exceed the constraints.
Also, ActiveCampaign provides you the choice to do the platform without charge with no Master-card data. In different words, you’ve got completely nothing to lose by test-driving the service.
Why not do therefore today?
