Act-On vs Emma

Act-On

If you are not familiar with Marketing Automation, you should consider whether you have the resources to manage a platform and your content. You do not have to be a techy to work with Act-On, however some HTML and CSS skills come in handy. With Act-On you are up and running in no time. When connecting with a different CRM such as Salesforce, NetSuite, Dynamics or other native integrations, you will learn that Act-On provides all the APIs you need and more importantly all the support you will need.

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Harold Klaassen

Managing Consultant

HakaperoMarketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees

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Emma

Emma is well suited for large organizations like co-ops, franchises, or agencies where you have many sub accounts that you manage, and where you want to push down creative to. I have not tried Emma from the perspective of a small business owner, and therefore cannot comment on that use

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Lauren Busby

Digital Marketing Manager

CCA Global PartnersRetail, 201-500 employees

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Feature Rating Comparison

Act-On

7.3

Emma

8.4

WYSIWYG email editor

7.9

8.7

Dynamic content

7.1

8.1

Ability to test dynamic content

6.7

8.6

Landing pages

7.0

—

A/B testing

6.9

8.1

Mobile optimization

6.8

9.0

Email deliverability

7.8

9.0

List management

6.4

8.0

Triggered drip sequences

9.2

7.7

Act-On

7.3

Emma

—

Lead nurturing

7.0

—

Lead scoring and grading

7.4

—

Data quality management

7.9

—

Automated sales alerts and tasks

6.7

—

Act-On

7.6

Emma

—

Calendaring

6.8

—

Event/webinar marketing

8.5

—

Act-On

7.9

Emma

—

Social sharing and campaigns

7.9

—

Social profile integration

7.9

—

Act-On

5.7

Emma

8.5

Dashboards

5.5

8.8

Standard reports

6.0

8.7

Custom reports

5.7

8.1

Act-On

7.3

Emma

—

API

9.2

—

Role-based workflow & approvals

6.8

—

Customizability

6.7

—

Integration with Salesforce.com

8.0

—

Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM

6.1

—

Integration with SugarCRM

7.0

—

Pros

Delivers all (most important) features a marketeer needs
Intuitive
Great support
Friendly pricing
Fast paced feature development

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Harold Klaassen

Managing Consultant

HakaperoMarketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees

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Ease of resending newsletters to non-openers. This is something I had to figure out how to do on my own but it was surprisingly simple.
Drag and drop functionality. I've showed coworkers how to recreate the newsletters in my absence easily.
Dashboard view showing quick metrics like open rate/click rate/number of subscribers is great, but I especially like the click map that shows where on the newsletter our subscribers are clicking.

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April Muller

Audience Engagement Manager

Manifest.Marketing and Advertising, 201-500 employees

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Cons

As with all new entrants into the market, there are features to make it better...however there is a product request hub which is regularly monitored, for me its acceleration of these ideas into the platform.
Deeper integration with Google Analytics to understand traffic coming onto the site, from what channel/source and attributing this to the contact/lead and funnel reports.
Out-of-box data out integrations with BI solutions such Tableau and MS Power BI.
A full marketplace of vendors who can connect with Act-On e.g. SMMS, IP Tracking, Call Tracking.

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Mark Terry

Digital Marketing Manager

Cobweb SolutionsInformation Technology and Services, 51-200 employees

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This is tiny, but the undo feature doesn't work in the editor which is pesky at times.
I'd like to see styles (on the editor drop down) added when getting custom templates.
I'd love to see the addition of conversations added to the software. Right now I manually add replies to emails to a custom field on the contact's record to keep track of that qualitative data.

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Toni Eftink

Director of Project Management

Element 74Marketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees

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Likelihood to Renew

Act-On8.9

Based on 112 answers

Because I like the road the product is on, I like the people, and I think it will become a clear leader in it's marketing automation space.

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Diogo Cabral

CRM & Marketing Automation Lead

Driven®Information Technology and Services, 1-10 employees

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Emma9.7

Based on 5 answers

It's a simple tool to use for our users and has great features

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Kow Samman, MBA

Productivity Solutions Product Manager

Azusa Pacific UniversityHigher Education, 1001-5000 employees

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Usability

Act-On7.2

Based on 31 answers

Again, these systems take time to learn, and there's so much under the hood that usability is an issue with any marketing automation software. Act-On provides a nice balance.

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David Wank, DMD

Web Developer, Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Consultant

Short Hills Design, LLCInternet, 1-10 employees

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Emma10.0

Based on 2 answers

Clean UI, simple and intuitive to use, very easy to use email builder/formatting

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Verified User

Professional in Marketing

Telecommunications Company, 51-200 employees

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Reliability and Availability

Act-On9.1

Based on 14 answers

This product has never been down when I needed it

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Ian Nate

Sr. Online Marketing Manager

Adaptive Computing51-200 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

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Performance

Act-On8.2

Based on 13 answers

Occasionally, email test messages can be slow - but still within 5 minutes

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Ian Nate

Sr. Online Marketing Manager

Adaptive Computing51-200 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

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Support

Act-On8.8

Based on 38 answers

The customer success manager assigned to each accounts after you become a client are amazing.

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Angie J Anderson

Practice Lead | Managing Consultant (Demand)

StarshotMarketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees

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Emma2.0

Based on 1 answer

I hate that to get support I have to submit a question to a public forum and wait for a response. I just want the ability for a quick live chat to answer my simple help questions quickly or at the very least submit a ticket via email and get a status update.

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Verified User

Professional in Marketing

Telecommunications Company, 51-200 employees

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In-Person Training

Act-On8.7

Based on 4 answers

My Account Manager has led me through countless amounts of training on the product as a whole and through some of my integrations.

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Vinny Poliseno

Digital Marketing Manager

Salsa Labs, Inc.Internet, 51-200 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

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Online Training

Act-On9.3

Based on 16 answers

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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Carrie Scheetz

Tradeshow & Event Specialist

Quanex Building Products Corporation1001-5000 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

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Implementation

Act-On8.6

Based on 22 answers

I had a dedicated integration/setup person who was excellent. And they brought on specialized people as needed to help with certain things (DKIM setup, lead scoring setup, etc).

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David Wank, DMD

Web Developer, Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Consultant

Short Hills Design, LLCInternet, 1-10 employees

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Emma7.0

Based on 1 answer

No answer on this topic is available.

Alternatives Considered

I'm sure our team went through the whole vetting process. I was not involved in that part so I am unable to really say how Act-On compares to other solutions in the market. I can say that my experience has been nothing less than excellent and that I think my team made the right decision

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Melodie Pierson

Regional Team Lead

Project InsightComputer Software, 51-200 employees

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Emma is a good alternative, but I think MailChimp may be a better and more affordable alternative. Especially since MailChimp is continuously releasing new features and improving their product

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Kow Samman, MBA

Productivity Solutions Product Manager

Azusa Pacific UniversityHigher Education, 1001-5000 employees

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Return on Investment

We've been able to pinpoint engaged prospects based on their responses and behaviors to a mix of digital marketing efforts.
We've streamlined our webinar creation, marketing, and analysis.
We've been able to build workflows and triggers in Salesforce that help automate the sales process based on Act-On activities such as form completion.

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Beth Dean

Marketing Coordinator

Nextep, Inc.Outsourcing/Offshoring, 51-200 employees

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Great response and RSVP tracking
Flexible, responsive design
Could use a few new fonts or plug-in to Google Font list

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Andrea Janda

Office Coordinator at Department of History

Portland State UniversityHigher Education, 201-500 employees

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Pricing Details

Act-On

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Yes

Entry-level set up fee?

Required

Act-On Editions & Modules

Act-On

Edition

Professional

$9001

Enterprise

$2,0002

1. per month (starts at 2,500 active contacts)

2. per month ( starts at 2,500 active contacts)

Additional Pricing Details

The 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.

Emma

General

Free Trial

Yes

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Yes

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Emma Editions & Modules

Emma

—

Additional Pricing Details

—

Add comparison

Likelihood to Recommend

Act-On

Emma

Feature Rating Comparison

WYSIWYG email editor

Dynamic content

Ability to test dynamic content

Landing pages

A/B testing

Mobile optimization

Email deliverability

List management

Triggered drip sequences

Lead nurturing

Lead scoring and grading

Data quality management

Automated sales alerts and tasks

Calendaring

Event/webinar marketing

Social sharing and campaigns

Social profile integration

Dashboards

Standard reports

Custom reports

API

Role-based workflow & approvals

Customizability

Integration with Salesforce.com

Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Integration with SugarCRM

Pros

Cons

Likelihood to Renew

Usability

Reliability and Availability

Performance

Support

In-Person Training

Online Training

Implementation

Alternatives Considered

Return on Investment

Screenshots

Pricing Details

Act-On

General

Free Trial

Free/Freemium Version

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Entry-level set up fee?

Act-On Editions & Modules

Edition

Additional Pricing Details

Emma

General

Free Trial

Free/Freemium Version

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Entry-level set up fee?

Emma Editions & Modules

Additional Pricing Details

Rating Summary