ActiveCampaign Review

ActiveCampaign provides you with email marketing, CRM tools, and marketing automation builder that you need to create exceptional customer experiences. This tool helps you send exactly what your customers want. Beautiful email marketing automation is just the start of your business success. You can send messages and newsletters that are targeted to the interest of each contact you have. Through ActiveCampaign, you will be able to make every campaign you send feel personal.

Automation will give you back your time. It will be easy for you to run your marketing. It is easy and convenient to set up a welcome series using email automation, segment your contacts, or use simple workflows to automate the marketing tasks.

Automating your sales will help you sell more. A CRM with email and sales automation can keep your customer data organized in a single email marketing platform. You will have time to manage your pipelines, make updates to your deals, and make follow up at the perfect moment.

ActiveCampaign allows you to message your customers when it is needed. The messages make meaningful connections with your customers, answer their questions, recommend new products, offer sales and other discounts, and for feedback at the exact moment when they are most engaged.

ActiveCampaign is highly-compatible with your favorite software. It has more than 250 integrations such as WordPress, Shopify, Zapier, and more, providing you all the marketing tools necessary for your success.

Activecampaign homepage

CRM

Customers are the lifeblood of every business. A business will fail if it has no customers. The success of a business depends on the relationship it has cultivated with its customers. The success of a business depends on trust and loyalty. It is always essential for a company to maintain this relationship, where Customer Relationship Management is needed.

CRM is more important than ever to businesses because it helps them gain new customers and retain existing ones. The CRM industry keeps on growing, with no sign of slowing down or stopping.

In today’s highly competitive business environment and with plenty of products and services to choose from, customers have become very picky, with customer loyalty becoming a thing of the past. The moment a new product is introduced into the market, it takes only a short time before that product or service becomes a commodity, which also means that it is easy to switch companies.

People working in businesses are very much aware that not all customers are created equal. Some of them spend very little on a product, but they could be a drain on the customer service teams. On the other hand, some customers may do business with a company frequently, always buying new products and series, and may become active influencers on their market.

For customers like these, CRM prioritizes marketing and sales efforts when dealing with the various customer groups. Companies have a better way of understanding the needs of the customers to improve the manner a product portfolio is offered to them. The more a business knows about its customers, their buying preferences, and behavior, the more likely their offer will be on target.

Although many people may think of CRM as just another piece of technology, it is much more than that.

Even the most technologically sophisticated tool cannot be successful without a strategy that will guide its implementation and use. Technology and business strategy need to work together in bringing to life a customer-centric plan.

Functions of CRM

Activecampaign functions

Supports a customer-centric strategy

Giving customers a valuable experience is part of CRM. Every time a customer comes in contact with a business through its channels, the customer has an opportunity to form an option – good, bad, or indifferent. Over time, the collective set of customer experience will create a picture in the mind of the customer, which in turn forms the image of the brand.

Organizations must be serious about the design of their CRN and maintain a quality customer experience because of the recognition that poor customer experience could lead to the loss of the customer. In contrast, the excellent experience could encourage customer loyalty.

Centralizes customer data

CRM software combines all marketing, sales, and customer service information into a single central database. A vast majority of businesses collect data on existing customers, and prospective customers, access to all data in the database means fewer people handling different data within the organization, which helps you achieve customer-centricity.

Various information is collected from the customers, including phone numbers, addresses, and last contact made. The software will record what was discussed during the communication, the next follow-up date, and the status of an open item.

The information may be used to manage, measure, and keep track of sales, marketing, and customer service activities about customer needs. Overall, it builds improved customer loyalty and better customer experience.

Because a CRM system centralized all customer information, mistakes, and blame-pointing will be significantly reduced. One department cannot blame another for not communicating with them as everyone has the same access to the same customer information.

Automation of customer-facing business processes

A company has business-facing processes as well as customer-facing business processes.

Business-facing processes make the business run efficiently, such as budgeting and planning. Customer-facing methods include sales, marketing, and customer service. An automation builder easily creates automated processes which start with a new customer.

The whole CRM process starts with a lead – which is the name of someone the business thinks it can sell to. In one way or another, a person must have filled out a web form, which provides the company with his contact information.

Once the lead is entered into the system, the software will take the person through the sales process. The CRM system will remind the salesperson to call the lead at an agreed-upon time. Each time the business interacts with the prospect, it will be recorded into the CRM system. The same process applies if someone else will talk to the prospect.

To summarize, CRM keeps track of all lead-related actions, including everything that has been said and done.

CRM is also a library of documents, emails, and phone calls. When contact with a prospect starts, there is an instant, automated trail of communication. Because the information is in one place, anyone in the organization can help the prospect out.

An employee of an organization, whether he is in marketing, sales, or customer support can use the CRM system to automate a particular business process and automate the way every business process works together with one another. However, each business process must be well defined and efficient for the company to achieve good results. While every department has a goal to make, the departments must work in harmony with each other, cooperating instead of competing against each other.

A CRM system can make the difference in whether or not you gain a new customer or retain an existing customer. Customers who feel valued are happy. Happy customers mean repeat business, which in the long run, will improve the company’s bottom lines.

Keeping your customers happy is the key to the success of a business.

What is ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is an integrated marketing and customer relationship management suite that revolves around email marketing automation. It targets small-to-midsize businesses. The software aims to help organizations create their contact lists, create professional emails, manage  email campaigns, track the behavior of customers, and measure the performance of their email campaigns.

ActiveCampaign has marketing and marketing automation applications that include drag-and-drop email design, lead capture forms, social integration and tracking, lead segmentation, website tracking, and email campaign reporting. ActiveCampaign can be integrated with many leading third-party CRM solutions and also offers its own sales force automation features, such as contact management, pipeline management, drag-and-drop deal tracking, and lead scoring.

ActiveCampaign has free customer service that includes live chat and phone support, a self-help knowledge base, and complementary data migration from other programs. ActiveCampaign also offers one-on-one consulting, expedited support, and free custom design services for enterprise customers.

ActiveCampaign may be used in organizations to automate all email marketing management. The tool can keep customers always informed about campaigns and advertisements of products sent through the organization’s newsletters. At the same time, users of the suite can create and edit branded emails when necessary. ActiveCampaign provides a better flow of information by allowing its users to create a list of their potential customers and automate the email and its contents. ActiveCampaign guarantees an excellent flow of communication and information to keep potential customers informed about the products and email campaigns. Through the program, you can create customer lists and have an efficient communication flow to bring the information you want at the right time. Through the customer lists, you can start the automation of the data by emailing different recipients the same email. It guarantees effective marketing automation.

ActiveCampaign needs to be updated to be able to manage active campaigns, allowing you to manage your marketing from anywhere.

Automation is one of the essential features of ActiveCampaign, a Chicago-based company. It not only allows autoresponders based on variable conditions, but it also enables automation of your contacts and list management within its CRM system, which is known as ‘Deals.’ The ‘Deal System’ allows you to add notes to contacts, set up appointments, and send direct messages to them.

Also, ActiveCampaign has site messages feature that can send targeted messages straight to the visitors of your website.

The Dashboard may seem a little bit busy at first glance, but it is not hard to understand how useful it is to have all your information in one place.

ActiveCampaign Pricing

activecampaign pricing

ActiveCampaign offers four types of plans that start from 500 subscribers. The amount for each plan goes up as the number of subscribers increase. Each plan includes many features such as automation, autoresponders, and an email template builder.

The prices of ActiveCampaign plans include free migration. ActiveCampaign will transfer you from any email marketing platform.

Lite

The Lite plan starts at $9 per month. It includes unlimited sending, email marketing automation, sends newsletters, marketing automation, chat, and email support. It is available to up to 3 users.

Plus

The Plus plan starts at $49 per month. The plan includes everything from the Lite plan, unlimited sending, CRM and sales automation, contact, and lead scoring. The plan is available to up to 25 users.

Professional

The Professional plan starts at $129 per month. It includes everything from the Plus plan, unlimited sending, predictive sending, predictive content, site messaging, and attribution. It is available to up to 50 users.

Enterprise

The Enterprise plan starts from $229 per month. The plan includes everything from the Professional plan, unlimited sending, custom mail server domain, and dedicated account representative.

ActiveCampaign Features

activecampaign features

ActiveCampaign lets you find out what works and what does not work in your business structure. It allows you to dig into your data to find opportunities for growth.

ActiveCampaign creates custom forms to get more customers, collect emails, and start your automation. Customers always appreciate forms customized for their interests or needs. You do not impress your customers by sending them generic forms because they are aware that it is the same thing that you send out to everybody else.

It lets you see what people do when they visit your website. The information you gathered will let you turn them into your customers.

You can quickly master the use of this tool through the support and training provided by ActiveCampaign. There is a library of tutorial videos and help guides that you can easily access.

ActiveCampaign assists you in moving everything from the email marketing software you are currently using to this new one for free. Yes, no charges.

ActiveCampaign lets you work your Gmail account so you can manage your contacts from anywhere online, using whatever device you have on hand.

The advanced segmentation tools enable you to group your contacts by age, location, and any behavior you want to consider.

You can measure your marketing success by creating customizable and automated goals.

Through iOS, you can access your contacts, check tasks, send an email, and update deals on the go with your Apple devices.

ActiveCampaign Trial

ActiveCampaign does not offer a free plan. If you want to give ActiveCampaign a try, you can test drive it for 14 days without having to pay anything. The moment you commit to a paid plan, you can avail of their free migration offer.

ActiveCampaign Pros and Cons

PROS:

  • Compelling automation – It is one of the best automation out there. ActiveCampaign is not only powerful but also easy to use.
  • Thorough reporting – It offers reporting on all areas such as geo-tracking, click-maps, and page visits. Purchase tracing is available on higher plans.
  • Excellent deliverability – ActiveCampaign proved to be one of the best tools in ensuring the delivery of emails.

CONS:

  • The features of ActiveCampaign can be overwhelming – for people who are after a quick and straightforward email solution, the characteristics of ActiveCampaign may be considered as a disadvantage.

Conclusion

Some people may be put off by the absence of a free version for ActiveCampaign. But for $9 a month with the Lite plan, you are almost paying nothing if you take into consideration all the features that you will enjoy. If you are after sending only essential newsletters, you can find many cheaper options. The advanced features of ActiveCampaign might make nervous people who are new to the email marketing campaign. But do not think that this tool is difficult to use because it becomes easy once you get the hang of it.

If you are serious about email marketing, you will appreciate every functionality that ActiveCampaign offers. Their pricing is very reasonable. You will pay a little bit more if you are a large organization, but you will also benefit from the advanced tools, personal training, email marketing platform, and 24/7 support and personal training.

ActiveCampaign is highly efficient in counting subscribers, allowing you to segment and delete inactive ones.

This ActiveCampaign review highly recommends this tool. However, this tool is not for people who need a low-maintenance and beginner-friendly tool. It is also not recommended for people who need only simple automation. They can easily find more budget-friendly options, which are very easy to use. If these are your needs and you will be getting ActiveCampaign, you will pay a lot of money for the extras that you do not need, and you do not know how to use it.

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ActiveCampaign for Great Customer Experiences