Act-On vs Adestra

• Act-On's customer service is exceptional, they are quick and thorough when you are needing help. For example, we could not figure out how to automate a birthday date for our birthday campaign and the representative was able to walk through the process with myself and another team member. This is a strength of Act-On because many other companies do not have customer services that will speak with you, they direct you to blogs or informational sessions.
• The landing pages that Act-On has created for use on the web is exceptional. The formatting is very user-friendly and the templates are great to navigate. The landing pages allow you to make the page fit whatever campaign or reason you are in need of. This is a strength of Act-On because the landing pages resolve the issue of having to create actual web pages.
• The spam feature of Act-On's emails is a great add on. This feature allows you to test how the spam alerts are triggered in your email and how you can fix it. This has helped many emails be developed in a way so that they reach many more people than they would have without this feature. many other programs do not have this feature.

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• Adestra's "dynamic" list allows users to consolidate multiple lists in combination with data filters and exclusion lists. This implements segmentation and is a powerful marketing tool.
• Adestra's MessageFocus API integration provides developer-tools for list, campaign or transactional automated requirements.
• Campaigns can be sorted into project folders. This allows marketers to group campaigns together for management or reporting requirements. Moving or copying campaigns from one project to another is a simple process.
• Data downloads via Reporting is available at every level, from overview to individual KPI.
• Creating "core" tables helps marketers develop lists with similar attributes. Whether a list has many fields or simply the one required email address field, a "core" table helps to quickly map data labels from spreadsheet to online database. Creating data labels on the fly is a simple process, as well. The "core" table also groups similar contacts into one core database.
• Any list can be quickly "emptied" for to manage refreshed data. The contacts within the "emptied" list would still be members of the "core" table and so the process does not negatively impact reporting.
• Unsubscribes can be managed in one list (as a default) or individual lists. Creating individual unsubscribe lists -- dependent on business requirements -- would allow for a preference center, whereby recipients could be given a choice as to which campaigns they receive.
• The Form tool creates signup forms, simple surveys and landing pages. These can be hosted via Adestra or otherwise on the web. The tool provides for branding and proprietary cascading stylesheets, with a number of actions available through a drag-and-drop interface.

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• Landing Page Design. The drag and drop builder is OK. But it feels very limited for someone who has a good knowledge of HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc. Inevitably, there will be something that you simply can't do in Act-On that you could do in a standard web design environment.
• No Server Side Scripts. There isn't any way to retrieve data in your lists and add it to a landing page. Basically, you can't use any data stored in an Act-On list and add it to a landing page.
• It's limited. There is simply some data you can't pull from Act-On and into a 3rd Party Reporting app.

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• As of this writing, there are at least 3 different editors available (a drag-and-drop, a WYSIWYG and HTML). However, only a small template library is available if requested through support. Those expecting to find ready-built templates for re-branding would find them through the third-party EDM Designer drag-and-drop editor.

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• Increased employee efficiency for sure, I am able to churn out so many more emails than if I did it manually.
• Better customer service - we honor opt-outs and unsubscribes automatically, ensuring that our prospects do not receive any more emails than they want.
• ROI - the ability to schedule emails and plan ahead helps us stay on top of our marketing calendar and produce more marketing messages, leading to more sales. Well worth the investment.

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• For companies that focus on goals and analytics, Adestra provides all the necessary tools.

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