Act-On Software vs. emfluence Marketing Platform

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Act-On
Score 8.2 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
Act-On is an adaptive marketing platform designed to drive personal and purposeful multi-channel marketing. Its foci are inbound and outbound marketing, for enabling a tighter alignment with sales and turning data into actionable insights.
$900
per month (starts at 2,500 active contacts)
emfluence Marketing Platform
Score 8.0 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
The emfluence Marketing Platform is a marketing automation platform featuring drag-and-drop email editors and automated campaign builders, simple social media scheduling, manageable landing pages, workflow management, analytics, website tracking, surveys, and modals. The platform works for B2B and B2C marketers, marketing agencies, and CRM providers. The product supports CRM integrations and an open API for custom integrations. emfluence offers digital marketing consulting…
$1,000
per month
Pricing
Act-On Softwareemfluence Marketing Platform
Editions & Modules
Professional
$900
per month (starts at 2,500 active contacts)
Enterprise
$2,000
per month ( starts at 2,500 active contacts)
Up to 30,000 Active Emails
$1,000
per month
Up to 60,000 Active Emails
$1,200
per month
Up to 80,000 Active Emails
$1,400
per month
Up to 100,000 Active Emails
$1,600
per month
Up to 150,000 Active Emails
$2,000
per month
Up to 200,000 Active Emails
$2,400
per month
Up to 250,000 Active Emails
$2,600
per month
Up to 500,000 Active Emails
$4,100
per month
Up to 1,000,000 Active Emails
$5,400
per month
More than 1,000,000 Active Emails
Custom
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Act-Onemfluence Marketing Platform
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeRequired$3,100 one-time fee
Additional DetailsThe Professional package starts at 2,500 active contacts, 3 marketing users, 50 sales users and 30,000 API calls per day. The Enterprise package starts at 2,500 active contacts, 6 marketing users, 100 sales users and 30,000 API calls per day. Annual contract required.The emfluence Marketing Platform offers month-to-month pricing that’s based on the number of contacts added, with no restrictions on how many emails are sent each month or by which features are used.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Act-On Softwareemfluence Marketing Platform
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Act-On Softwareemfluence Marketing Platform
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
7.8
113 Ratings
0% above category average
emfluence Marketing Platform
8.4
6 Ratings
8% above category average
WYSIWYG email editor8.1112 Ratings9.16 Ratings
Dynamic content8.192 Ratings8.66 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content7.292 Ratings8.26 Ratings
Landing pages8.1108 Ratings8.24 Ratings
A/B testing8.195 Ratings8.25 Ratings
Mobile optimization7.2103 Ratings7.75 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting8.1112 Ratings9.16 Ratings
List management8.1111 Ratings8.26 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences7.187 Ratings8.24 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.1
113 Ratings
5% above category average
emfluence Marketing Platform
8.1
5 Ratings
5% above category average
Lead nurturing automation8.1104 Ratings9.15 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading8.1104 Ratings7.74 Ratings
Data quality management8.1102 Ratings8.24 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks8.195 Ratings7.33 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
7.5
77 Ratings
2% below category average
emfluence Marketing Platform
8.4
3 Ratings
10% above category average
Calendaring6.88 Ratings8.23 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing8.176 Ratings8.63 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.1
71 Ratings
8% above category average
emfluence Marketing Platform
8.4
3 Ratings
11% above category average
Social sharing and campaigns8.169 Ratings8.23 Ratings
Social profile integration8.163 Ratings8.63 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.1
114 Ratings
8% above category average
emfluence Marketing Platform
6.7
6 Ratings
11% below category average
Dashboards8.1109 Ratings9.16 Ratings
Standard reports8.1112 Ratings7.26 Ratings
Custom reports8.184 Ratings3.76 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
7.9
107 Ratings
4% above category average
emfluence Marketing Platform
8.2
5 Ratings
8% above category average
API8.167 Ratings8.63 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals8.171 Ratings8.63 Ratings
Customizability8.189 Ratings8.25 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com8.165 Ratings7.22 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM8.136 Ratings8.22 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM7.129 Ratings00 Ratings
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Act-On Softwareemfluence Marketing Platform
Small Businesses
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Score 9.5 out of 10
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Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
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Score 9.3 out of 10
PFL Direct Mail Platform
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Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
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Score 9.3 out of 10
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Score 9.3 out of 10
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User Ratings
Act-On Softwareemfluence Marketing Platform
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(219 ratings)
9.1
(6 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.9
(112 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.1
(32 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(14 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(13 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.3
(39 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.7
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.3
(16 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(22 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.4
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Act-On Softwareemfluence Marketing Platform
Likelihood to Recommend
Act-On
Act-On simplifies the creation of landing pages, web forms, email campaigns, and other types of marketing automation. Designing a customer journey using the workflow builder (a nurturing flow) is possible. It is used in various ways and in a variety of contexts. Tactical's knowledgeable support team helped us unlock Act-On's potential for complex integrations and marketing campaigns. In some areas, it would be beneficial to improve functionality.
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emfluence Digital Marketing
The reporting feature is not as detailed as we require for our documentation, so we have to organize the results into charts and graphs. For every other component of our social media and digital marketing, emfluence checks all of the boxes.
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Pros
Act-On
  • Establishes a simple but very decisive way of how to perform specialized marketing work.
  • It includes the monitoring of advertising networks or account management on digital platforms and social networks.
  • The support is solid; it takes all the suggestions and doubts I have regarding the software.
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emfluence Digital Marketing
  • Custom landing pages to dive deeper into campaigns and track results
  • Responsive customer service with any problems we come by
  • A/B testing
Read full review
Cons
Act-On
  • The designer tools, especially for emails, were often difficult to use. The formatting of the text would be all over the place and change / refuse to change at random. Moving boxes around was shifty and sometimes nearly impossible. It just wasn't customizeable enough. No "undo" functionality either.
  • The only way to collect information expansively over time (there's a term Act-On uses for it, I can't recall) where it adds questions to the form each time a user fills it out, is if the person were to fill out the same form multiple times. I know this does happen for some websites/resources, but as a company that wanted to collect new information each time someone filled out any form, regardless of the resource or the URL, that was simply not an option, and that doesn't really make a lot of sense. I know it's not really possible to track someone but if they filled out the first part of the form and then it added new questions to answer, and then they submitted and got through the gating, that would actually be helpful.
  • There was no "trash can" of sorts in case you deleted something by mistake. This could be so stress-inducing if it was a major project. My coworker did this once, contacted Act-On, they couldn't even recover it.
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emfluence Digital Marketing
  • I do have issues sometimes when making a website popup. I specify certain measurements of my popup yet when it shows up on my website, the graphic doesn't adjust and I have a bunch of white space. But that could also be my website.
  • When adding a new contact into the contact section, once you hit save, the contact information stays on the screen instead of an empty contact profile so you can immediately add the next person.
  • Sometimes when I update a template, The unsubscribe link will link to my email address instead of the person the email is being sent to.
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Likelihood to Renew
Act-On
It's my single biggest asset in my current role. With limited resources, its enabled Anachron to punch well above our weight marketing wise and although we're still at the beginning of our journey I know the system can scale with us
Read full review
emfluence Digital Marketing
No answers on this topic
Usability
Act-On
It's good, but not quite brilliant. Some parts of the interface are still a bit outdated. The product has been evolving very fast, though, and I believe in a few months it will be up there with the best of them, interface wise as well.
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emfluence Digital Marketing
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
Act-On
I have always found them quick to respond to my query by web inquiry. In those instances when I call, I have always reached help quickly. They are conscientious and skilled in discussing my concern and finding a solution to my problem. Other tech organizations should use Act-On as a model for top-notch customer service.
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emfluence Digital Marketing
No answers on this topic
Performance
Act-On
Great for the most part. Sometimes there are little lags, but that's likely because I'm requesting to see a lot of data at one time.
Read full review
emfluence Digital Marketing
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Act-On
Since we start using Act-on for ourselves and our clients, we have been supported very well. Often we need to integrate with legacy systems and we find the support team on our side during the whole endeavor. Always asking if they can help us further, always willing to do a better job. The support of Act-On is one of the main differentiators
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emfluence Digital Marketing
No answers on this topic
In-Person Training
Act-On
Dan D. was great. He took the time to understand how I needed the program to run, and was very flexible to our special CRM setup.
Read full review
emfluence Digital Marketing
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Act-On
Act-On had a lot of resources, and their staff was great at answering any questions I had to make sure we got started on the right foot. Looking back, I would have preferred some additional training sessions since we didn't have any previous experience with Marketing Automation and best practices.
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emfluence Digital Marketing
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Act-On
What impressed me most is that Act-On showed full committment in making our implementation successful, even when it required additional support from their team. This gave me a lot of warm and fuzzy feelings. Most other software software vendors are not anywhere close to being this responsive and effective
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emfluence Digital Marketing
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Act-On
Act-On is easier to use than Marketo, but not as visually appealing and user-friendly as HubSpot. It's much better than Pardot, as Pardot feel clunky every step of the way. SharpSpring is comparable because of its price point but surpasses Act-On in its tools and intuitive interface. We selected Act-On because of the pricing model and thought all things would be close to parity with other options. It depends on the team you have. If you have developers and a marketing team that knows some html/css, you can get by with Act-On.
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emfluence Digital Marketing
They were the only company that could solve our specific problems. When we looked at larger companies like Constant Contact, they weren't as capable at handling our specific needs for a reasonable price. Some companies need to charge us programming hours. Bigger companies couldn't help our issue. emfluence is more flexible.
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Scalability
Act-On
Before I feel like I need more features, the Act-On customer service reps are contacting me telling about new features as part of my account.
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emfluence Digital Marketing
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Act-On
  • With the Automated Series, we were able to put in place campaigns that generated revenue that took no time to continue running once set up. This was a positive feature allowing employees to work on another project while the campaign ran on their own.
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emfluence Digital Marketing
  • It's allowed for us to generate more traffic to our client's websites.
  • It's allowed for us to generate more leads from email marketing through emfluence.
  • Visual click maps, more customized dashboard and email templates, and a deeper dive in data would help further business objectives.
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ScreenShots

Act-On Screenshots

Screenshot of List Segmentation - Segmentation using behavioral, demographic and/or firmographic dataScreenshot of the Quickstart PageScreenshot of Landing Page Composer - landing pages are designed with a drag and drop function

emfluence Marketing Platform Screenshots

Screenshot of search perimeters and contact characteristics using the Dynamic Marketing Group Query Builder.Screenshot of Google Analytics, used to measure the success of email and social media alongside spikes in website traffic. Granular reports can be scheduled for an overview of surveys, landing pages, forms, social posts, emails, and list growth.Screenshot of the drag-and-drop Workflow Canvas visual interface used to create automated marketing campaigns, plus send contacts from a single group into branches based on email views, clicks, or custom queries.Screenshot of the interface to build branching into automated workflows based on opens, clicks, or custom decisions (based on custom or out-of-the-box contact fields, dates, and more).Screenshot of a schedule with a month's worth of social media and email, built using the drag and drop marketing calendar.Screenshot of custom email templates, which can be reused or rebuilt with a drag and drop editor.