ActiveCampaign’s payoff line is “Go beyond email marketing with true marketing automation”. Fortunately for us, online marketers, the capabilities of email marketing have been maximized with the advent of marketing automation! ActiveCampaign offers us the opportunity to truly expand our marketing activities with their amazing tool offering – their tools are very advantaged and are designed for a wide variety of actions: testing, sales, CRM management, lead generation and more! I invite you to enjoy the journey of reviewing ActiveCampaign – certainly well worth your time!
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ActiveCampaign – Another Top Online Marketing Tool
Yes, that is right, rated very highly, this incredible platform offers Email Marketing, Intuitive CRM Management, Lead Gen & So Much More.
ActiveCampaign Review …
Introduction and Summary
ActiveCampaign has over 100,00 active users – surely 100,000 customers cannot be wrong. This platform has earned its stripes and been in existence since 2003, holding its own against many competitors in the marketplace. We can be certain that ActiveCampaign is well worth our consideration for the very reasons that it has remained competitive, can boast 100,000 active users and it is one of the most affordable, feature-packed email marketing services for businesses from small to large!
One of the areas ActiveCampaigns has really earned the right to be known as a market leader is in the advanced segmentation capabilities it offers. This enables marketers to send messages only to interested contacts, based on custom fields created in response to real data gleaned from pages visited previously and purchase history.
As always, this will review will explore every aspect possible of the platform and highly the areas of importance and those of concern (if any at all).
Let’s get into it.
Overview: ActiveCampaign At A Glance:
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The Good & the Bad
The Good:
PRO #1 User interface is well-designed and user-friendly
PRO #2 Affordable Plans which are also packed with features
PRO #2 Extensive options available when it comes to automation
Pro #3 Excellent on-boarding & Customer Service
Pro #4 Great training and ongoing live webinars
Pro #5 Tips and tricks cleverly shared through their social media platforms
The Bad:
CON #1 Email template designs are fewer when compared to competitor offerings
Con #2 Can become costly when working with certain apps and integrations
Who is ActiveCampaign For?
ActiveCampaign is tailored for a wide variety of businesses from small to large, and easily accommodates small business looking to scale. These businesses could be offline, creating an online presence, or online exclusively. In terms of the users, ActiveCampaign caters for all of us, from entry level to expert level. Here are some ideas of who can enjoy the benefits ActiveCampaign offers:
- Affiliate Marketers,
- eCommerce Businesses,
- Bloggers,
- Content Marketers,
- PPC and Online Advertisers,
- Writers – freelance, permanent and contract
- Local, National and International marketers and businesses
- Online businesses and marketers
ActiveCampaign Tools & Training
ActiveCampaign have set up their tools and training is such a way that a new user has access to at the get-go.
Within a very short space of time from when I registered with ActiveCampaign, I received a thank you email which detailed some resources available, have a look at a screenshot of the mail below (yeah, they certainly put their “money where their mouths are”, I appreciated the demonstration that they are making use of what they sell):
Not too long after I had spent some time in the system uploading information, I also received a phone call from ActiveCampaign. Bear in mind that I am based in South Africa, so this was an international call. Kevin, a Sales Development Representative, was very professional, he asked questions and listened to my responses, once we were finished on the call, he emailed through. You will notice from the email below that he also offered information to assist me with writing this review.
As you must have noticed, acquainting new users to their system is something ActiveCampaign take very seriously. They offer the opportunity to Request a Demonstration; then follow a Getting Started Course; Enjoy the different materials available in the Education Center; benefit from a Free Migration Service; Live chat, email and phone support plus insight offered on social media and, as if that is not all enough, there are in-person training sessions available too. I am impressed, what about you? Please feel free to leave feedback in the comments section, I really appreciate any responses you are willing to offer.
ActiveCampaign Tools
CRM
As a key element of email marketing, CRM is absolutely key. ActiveCampaign has created a CRM system that cleverly bridges traditional CRM and sales tracking as a platform. Through this CRM offering with ActiveCampaign, online marketers can assist the sale department with automation too. the automation is each based on actions, time, emails, stages, website browsing etc.
Here is an example, a marketer can set up an automated process of welcome and birthday emails, trigger campaigns and also sales follow-ups. Listed below are a few more key offerings of the ActiveCampagn’s CRM system:
Automate the life cycle: One can adjust the contact data, move contacts and also send specific follow up campaigns which are triggered by actions. These actions could be site visits and or emails (send and receive emails that is). The SMS interactions are also included here, in other words, an SMS interaction can also pull the trigger on a campaign.
Contact Auto Import: ActiveCampaign can be set up to find and added new contacts from other sources, such as your website, eCommerce platforms etc
Social Media: You get to see all see the social reactions to campaign as they happen, yes in real time. You are also able to set up actions which will trigger as your campaigns benefit from social shares.
Autopilot Campaigns: You have the ability to initiate campaigns with content whenever you make modifications to your website or add new content to your site. This is fabulous because it is designed for any updates you make, i.e. new blog posts, announcements of new products and deals.
Intuitive Email Content: Updated content can be shared in messages which are relevant to contact information and data, social media data, interactions and even more importantly the contact interests.
Up-To-date Notifications: There are also options for you to keep a finger on the pulse of specific contacts and leads, and the actions they take, this allows for rapid follow up.
List Management
The dashboard throughout ActiveCampaign is very user-friendly. As a newbie, you will just need to follow the brief training to familiarize yourself with the system. An experienced online marketer will probably find their way around with absolute ease.
To access the lists you literally click on Contacts and then lists. Once you are in you have access to creating actions such as a new list; updating existing list and also segmenting your lists. Importing a list is also catered for, again, simple user menu available where you click on “Import Contacts. Existing contacts can be imported from a CSV file and also from third-party services such as Google Contacts, Batchbook and Zoho.
Contacts can be accessed, edited, viewed and exported. You can also sort them into segments and categories. This functionality enables you to view how your subscribers have signed up including via email, Social Media and even SMS
Import / Export
As can be seen below, there are a plethora of apps and integrations which are designed to automatically sync contacts with your email lists. Ranging from landing page builders to CRM platforms:
And that’s not all!
With the amazing integrations available, you have the facility to grow your list’s by enabling sign-ups via your social media platforms in addition to your website, email and SMS facilities.
Please ensure that you check if there is a fee associated with whichever apps and integrations you use. These fees are over and above your monthly or annual payments.
On-Boarding & Training
I am busy with the onboarding and training and have to say that I am truly impressed. This is done via video and demonstration, there is an hour and a half worth of training to go through. It’s definitely worth working your way through it all. If you are anything like me, you may become impatient and “go it alone”. I have tried that and am already finding that there are great functionalities that will be missed if I do not work my way through each module.
Modules
As you can see from the screen grabs below, the training is comprehensive, ActiveCampaign even throws in some pearls like the Three R’s of Marketing – if you are not familiar with what they are, I highly recommend you work your way through the training. After all, one and a half hours spent in training could save an enormous amount of time trying to self-teach. By the way, all of this training is available to you in the 7-Day Free Trial period – you really have nothing to lose by signing up and trialling the system out.
One-on-One Training
The offer of a scheduled call for up to 30 minutes is made to you, where a walkthrough is given to you along with marketing and strategic support.
Weekly Webinars
These are live Webinars available to the ActiveCampaign clients and assist you with getting started, setting up the automation and tracking. These were introduced to me by Kevin, on the telephone call and in his follow up email.
All these offerings make the transition to ActiveCampaign a seamless and pain-free process. Being an online marketer, I certainly appreciate assistance with transitioning to something new – there is always, always, something new to learn in the industry! Much as I love learning, there are days when I just want to get on with everything that needs to be done. Don’t you?
ActiveCampaign Pricing – Find One That Fits Your Budget
As can be expected, ActiveCampaign offers different price points depending on your needs and the size of your mailing list. The prices start at a very reasonable $9 per for 500 contacts and go up from there. These prices are based on a contact list of 500 subscribers:
Trial Period – 7 Days Free
Lite $9 per month (if paid yearly) / $15 per month (if paid monthly)
Plus $49 per month (if paid yearly) / $70 per month (if paid monthly)
Professional $129 per month (if paid yearly) / $159 per month (if paid monthly)
Enterprise $229 per month (if paid yearly) / $279 per month (if paid monthly)
Prices Per Month If Paid Yearly – 500 Subscribers
Prices Per Month If Paid Monthly – 500 Subscribers
As you can see in the block on the left-hand side, there is the option to increase the number of contacts. I’ve also taken screenshots of the pricing at 1000, 5000 and 10000 subscriber lists, just for comparison purposes:
Prices Per Month If paid Yearly – 1000 Subscribers
Prices Per Month If Paid Yearly – 5000 Subscribers
Prices Per Month If Paid Yearly – 10000 Subscribers
APPS AND INTEGRATIONS
These are the apps and integrations currently compatible with ActiveCampaign:
- Shopify
- Google Analytics
- Salesforce
- GoToWebinar
- WordPress
- Slack
- YouTube
- SendOwl
- automate.io
- PayPal
As mentioned earlier, ActiveCampaign is very progressive and will no doubt, be looking to increase this list.
My Final Opinion of ActiveCampaign
So far my experience has been really great. ActiveCampaign certainly does go out of their way to make the transition into using their system as simple as possible. The ongoing training also appeals to me. I expect platforms such as ActiveCampaign to be continually improving their offering and the ongoing training leads me to believe that they do just that.
Before I love and leave you …
What brings you to this ActiveCampaign review? Are you employed and looking for a way to create your own online business because you are tired of the 9 to 5 grind – by any chance?
Perhaps you are already in your own online business but floundering a bit because there is so much to learn and none of it can be found in one place on the internet?
Allow me to ask you a couple of questions:
- Do you have the benefit of amazing training for your online business?
- Perhaps you are looking for amazing training which will get and keep you up and running with your own online business?
- Are you part of a community of like-minded entrepreneurs who are generous with their knowledge and expertise?
If you answered no to any of the above questions, I have a great place to share with you. This is where I am learning to build my online business – yes, everything I could need to know in order to build my business and create the life of financial and geographic freedom I am after.
Not only does this offer me the opportunity to achieve these three things but also enables me to make a difference in the lives of others. How so? Well, financial and geographic freedom gives me the money, geographic freedom means I can go where I am needed. Plus, I am privileged to introduce you to this incredible opportunity and make a difference in your life – if you will allow me to.
Here it is, my Number One Recommendation which offers you:
- Everything you need to know about creating your own Online Business
- To live life on your terms
- Yes, create a life of financial freedom
- And do what you want, when and where you want
- Work your own hours, from wherever you choose (yes, from home, from the beachfront or high up in the beautiful mountains – so long as you have a computer and internet connection, you are in business!)
- Enjoy your coffee by the fireside or overlooking the pool, whilst everyone else sits in the traffic for their daily commute
There are LOADS of advantages to running your own online business! I am certain you can add some, how about being home with your children and having the time to watch their sporting events, piano recitals etc?
Another massive advantage!
You can sign up for FREE! Yes, that is right 100% Free Starter Package, no card details required at all. Have a look by clicking on the image below:
I hope you join me and look forward to seeing YOU on the inside!
Blessings!
PS Yes, that’s me – I always prefer to put a face to the words – seems to help – do you agree?
PPS Remember to leave me feedback in the comments section below, I always reply.
