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Act-On

Act-On

Overview

What is Act-On?

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.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Intuitive User Interface: Users have found Act-On's user interface to be intuitive and easy to use, allowing them to complete tasks …
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Act-On review

10 out of 10
September 25, 2019
We are using Act-On to reach our customers through email blasting. We also use landing pages and forms to support our website. Currently …
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A great marketing tool

6 out of 10
May 11, 2019
Incentivized
Act-On is used by several departments. We use it for outbound and inbound marketing purposes. We also use it to score leads coming in for …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 26 features
  • WYSIWYG email editor (112)
    8.1
    81%
  • List management (111)
    8.1
    81%
  • Standard reports (112)
    8.1
    81%
  • Email deliverability reporting (112)
    8.1
    81%
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Pricing

View all pricing

Professional

$900

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

Enterprise

$2,000

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

Entry-level set up fee?

  • Setup fee required
For the latest information on pricing, visithttp://www.act-on.com/pricing

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Demos

Act-On Software Demo

YouTube

Act On! Software Demo

YouTube

Act-On Software and Touchtown: Personalization and the Buyer’s Journey

YouTube
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Features

Email & Online Marketing

Using software to manage lists, send emails, automate email campaigns, and track results.

7.8
Avg 7.8

Lead Management

The process of tracking and managing prospective customers from lead generation to conversion.

8.1
Avg 7.7

Campaign Management

Users can schedule campaigns and/or events with reminders, announcements, etc.

7.5
Avg 7.6

Social Media Marketing

Using social media networks to help amplify marketing endeavors.

8.1
Avg 7.5

Reporting & Analytics

Users can report on and analyze usage, performance, ROI, and/or other metrics of success.

8.1
Avg 7.5

Platform & Infrastructure

Features related to platform-wide settings and structure, such as permissions, languages, integrations, customizations, etc.

7.9
Avg 7.6
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Product Details

What is Act-On?

Act-On is an adaptive marketing platform that drives personal and purposeful multi-channel marketing, that aims to spark better inbound and outbound marketing, enable a tighter alignment with sales, and turn user data into substance to act-on.

The vendor states their customers range from start-ups and fast-growing young companies to well-established enterprise institutions; from marketing teams in small and medium-sized businesses, to independent teams in large enterprise corporations. They use Act-On in many different ways to realize their marketing objectives.

Act-On Features

Email & Online Marketing Features

  • Supported: WYSIWYG email editor
  • Supported: Dynamic content
  • Supported: Ability to test dynamic content
  • Supported: Landing pages
  • Supported: A/B testing
  • Supported: Mobile optimization
  • Supported: Email deliverability reporting
  • Supported: List management
  • Supported: Triggered drip sequences

Lead Management Features

  • Supported: Lead nurturing automation
  • Supported: Lead scoring and grading
  • Supported: Data quality management
  • Supported: Automated sales alerts and tasks

Campaign Management Features

  • Supported: Event/webinar marketing

Social Media Marketing Features

  • Supported: Social sharing and campaigns
  • Supported: Social profile integration

Reporting & Analytics Features

  • Supported: Dashboards
  • Supported: Standard reports
  • Supported: Custom reports

Platform & Infrastructure Features

  • Supported: API
  • Supported: Role-based workflow & approvals
  • Supported: Customizability
  • Supported: Integration with Salesforce.com
  • Supported: Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM
  • Supported: Integration with SugarCRM

Additional Features

  • Supported: Email Marketing
  • Supported: Lead Scoring
  • Supported: Website Visitor Tracking
  • Supported: Automated Programs (Trigger & Drip Campaigns)
  • Supported: Social Publishing
  • Supported: Reporting & Analytics
  • Supported: SEO
  • Supported: Forms
  • Supported: Events & Webinars

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

Act-On Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationApple iOS, Android
Supported CountriesAvailable Internationally
Supported LanguagesEnglish, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Thai, Arabic, Hebrew

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

HubSpot Marketing Hub, Net-Results, and Salesforce Marketing Cloud are common alternatives for Act-On.

Reviewers rate WYSIWYG email editor and Dynamic content and Landing pages highest, with a score of 8.1.

The most common users of Act-On are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).

Act-On Customer Size Distribution

Consumers0%
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)29%
Mid-Size Companies (51-500 employees)67%
Enterprises (more than 500 employees)4%
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Comparisons

View all alternatives
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Reviews and Ratings

(407)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Intuitive User Interface: Users have found Act-On's user interface to be intuitive and easy to use, allowing them to complete tasks quickly. Several reviewers expressed this sentiment, highlighting the platform's user-friendly design that requires minimal training.

Flexible and Catering to Different Skill Levels: Act-On has been praised for its flexibility and ability to cater to users with different skill levels. Multiple reviewers commented on how the platform can accommodate both simple and complex campaigns, making it accessible for novice users while also providing advanced features for experienced marketers.

Robust List and Contact Management Capabilities: Act-On's robust list and contact management capabilities have been appreciated by users, enabling seamless communication within the platform. Many reviewers mentioned this as a positive aspect of Act-On, emphasizing its effectiveness in managing contacts and facilitating targeted marketing efforts.

Unintuitive and Confusing User Interface: Multiple users have expressed frustration with Act-On's user interface, finding it to be unintuitive, confusing, and difficult to navigate. Some reviewers mentioned difficulties in finding certain features and abilities, resulting in a time-intensive process.

Limited Customization Options: Several users have mentioned limitations in Act-On's customization options. Specifically, the form builder is considered somewhat difficult to use, with limited CSS customization available, requiring manual updates on every single form. Additionally, the landing page creator lacks flexibility in terms of design and layout.

Performance Issues: Users have reported experiencing slow and laggy performance when using Act-On. Edits often fail to save or are lost if left idle for a few minutes. These issues can significantly impact productivity and frustrate users trying to complete their tasks efficiently.

Users highly recommend Act-On for its ease of use and configurability, praising its resources, innovation, and accessibility. They suggest utilizing the available tools and resources provided by Act-On, such as training video courses, help documentation, and customer service. Users also appreciate Act-On's user-friendly interface and easy accessibility to information and tools.

Another common recommendation is to leverage Act-On's capabilities for email marketing. Users advise properly segmenting email lists and testing email blasts before sending. They find Act-On to be an excellent platform for personalization, targeting specific users, analytics, and automation.

Lastly, users recommend taking advantage of Act-On's support and return on investment. They suggest getting a demo, attending training sessions, and trying Act-On for a month or two to fully experience its benefits. Users find Act-On affordable and praise its fast interface for managing customer relations effectively.

In summary, the most common recommendations from users are to make full use of Act-On's resources and tools, leverage its capabilities for email marketing, and take advantage of the support and training provided to maximize the return on investment.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(126-150 of 219)
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Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Our business is using Act-On primarily in the marketing department. As we are in our first year using the program, we are extending use of Act-On to the Sales Managers as we become more familiar and comfortable with the software. Ideally, it will eventually be used throughout the Marketing and Sales departments. Business problems that it addresses are ease of communication, contact management, and marketing automation. It allows us to easily track communication with clients and report on results.
  • The most notable thing about Act-On is how they listen to their users. Customer support is very helpful and responsive, and they genuinely do their best to supply a solution to problems, or a work-around if they need to do more extensive research or problem-solving. I have also suggested changes to the structuring of the email code to increase message deliverability, and they responded by changing the message structure, demonstrating that they take user input into consideration when making improvements to their software.
  • The message composer is good and easy to use. They are coming out with a new composer soon, which will hopefully make it even easier and turn-key; however, the current composer is still good, as it allows full access to the code which gives total design control to the user. There are also ways to compose messages that do not involve editing the code at all, making it a good composer for users of all skill levels.
  • The form builder in Act-On is helpful in identifying leads and customers, but the builder itself is somewhat difficult to use. There is not very much CSS customization available - it would be helpful if you could create a personalized stylesheet to use on all/most forms moving forward so you don't have to update the CSS on every single form. I usually end up downloading the code and applying my own stylesheet outside of Act-On. There are also some smaller things I would suggest concerning the response to the user after they submit a form, such as being able to stay on the same page when confirming their submission, and making confirmation emails easier to create. I know Act-On is working on updating their form creator based on user suggestions, so I'm hopeful it will contain some of these improvements.
  • Although Act-On has functionality to create landing pages, I have not used them because they would not be trackable in Google Analytics with the rest of our company's webpages, making it more difficult to create reports. Also, when exploring the landing page creator, I found that I did not have as much flexibility in creating the page as I needed, from a design and layout perspective. It is much easier to create landing pages on our own company site.
Act-On is excellent for smaller companies, or those looking to start small with Marketing Automation and grow. Customer Support is very helpful, so you don't have to have a lot of knowledge or skill to start with Act-On. You also have a personal support representative to meet with you consistently and help guide your use of Act-On and all that it has to offer, helping you get the most out of the software. We have found this resource to be very good.
Robert Hosier | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Our company, although very light-weight, serves a large engaged customer base. Serving as the sole graphic designer/marketer for this company presents a huge challenge to simply get everything done in a day!

Act-On streamlines and coordinates our out-bound marketing activities enough that I can generate impressive amounts of leads in our market with less time and resources. I rely on Act-On's dashboards and reporting functionality. On a daily basis I am alerted and can monitor everything from campaign effectiveness to pulling leads from website traffic to keeping a close eye on competitors. The powerful and user-friendly design tools built-in to the platform save me loads of time in creating effective, compliant, and functional messaging. Act-On's intuitive automated marketing campaign system allows me to put together substantial campaigns in minutes....obviously I'm a huge fan.
  • I rely on Act-On's dashboards and reporting functionality. On a daily basis I am alerted and can monitor everything from campaign effectiveness to pulling leads from website traffic to keeping a close eye on competitors.
  • The powerful and user-friendly design tools built-in to the platform save me loads of time in creating effective, compliant, and functional messaging.
  • Act-On's intuitive automated marketing campaign system allows me to put together substantial campaigns in minutes.
  • But if you're in the marketing business you constantly get pitches from companies like Act-On that promise all the above and more - and yes, I would say most of these companies' platforms work relatively the same - but the Act-On 'feature' I value most is my customer support team - Act-On not only hugely supports their product, but goes to great lengths to develop your expertise to match your individual goals. From every layer of support - online, phone, Act-On University, etc - I have received amazing levels of expert development and patient customer support. To a stressed-out, caffeine-riddled, designer/marketer...this is invaluable.
  • Act-On is continuously improving their user experience and really seems to listen to feature requests so these are usually taken care of before I get to the level of expertise! But I would say a few data tie-ins here and there to export particular reports...etc. Probably a nuanced usage based on our particular needs.
I would ask any of these companies how they support the product and really check out their resource libraries, learning centers, etc.
Tom Grissinger | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We are using Act-on in several areas:
  • Email Design
  • Email Blasts
  • Landing Pages
  • Lead Nurture
  • Lead Scoring
  • Campaign Creation and Management
  • Daily Visitors to our Website
The system is used primarily by Marketing, but the results and an occasional email blast is sent out by the sales team.
The software helps prioritize which prospects we should be contacting and in what order. It helps to move leads through the qualification process and supplements sale's efforts. Sales can view all activity completed by marketing within the individual records.
  • Support - Call the number, they answer the phone. No long holds, instant answers to your questions. Other systems often have your fill out a online form and take over a day to call you back. Imagine you are trying to get something set up and you hit a roadblock. Other systems, wait a day and they will get back to you. Call Act-on, they give you the answer an you are able to move forward. They resolve most questions on the first call. They are even open until 6PM pst. I couldn't find this with any other vendor. This is where they shine in comparison.
  • Ease of Use - Lots of just point and click in creating emails, landing pages and forms. Very easy to use. No HTML required. Lots of great templates to start with. It's just a matter of getting use to where things are. From there, you can quickly start creating emails. I was able to send out an email within a week of launching.
  • Account Managers - You are assigned an account manager who follows up with you. He/she audits how you are using the system and makes sure you are using all of the features. This is not just a sold you the software and you are now on your own. If you don't reach out to them, they will reach out to you. Act-on wants you to be succcessful.
  • Integration with Salesforce.com - Set up in minutes. Works great.
  • Every once in awhile, I find a desired feature that is missing. It's usually very minor and I can find a work around. However, they encourage you to provide feedback and they usually address these in the next release.
  • Professional Services - This was the only disappointment I've encountered in working with them. It was clear it was outsourced in India (Tech support and all other employees are US though) and the quality control was just not there. I needed to go through each of them with a fine tooth comb. Some graphics were clearly missing. Additionally, I had some complaints from staff that the list cleaning service (outsourced) removed from our database, exisiting customers that we knew were current when it was cleaned. I've heard, they have since brought back the professional services in house which should address my concerns.
I reviewed many different systems (Oracle, Pardot, Marketo, Eloqua, etc.), I found most seemed to offer pretty much the same stuff. The Eloqua rep didn't want to give us the time of day. We talked to an inside sales rep who was great. With my sales background, I gave him all the qualifying info he needed. The Eloqua sales manager made him go back and ask me more questions giving the impression, I wasn't worth his time. When we finally did talk to him, I was so put off by his attitude of "prove to me you are worth my time", it just wasn't worth exploring it further for us.

There were only some minor differences between all the products - mostly how they did things. I narrowed it down to Pardot and Act-On. Both seemed easier to use and didn't come with a reputation of being challenging to use. Ease of use - CRUCIAL.... How much time will you have to use these systems? You need something you can quickly figure out and use.

What did vary? Support.

How soon can I get help?

With Pardot, you fill out a form and they get back in one day. Still good service compared to other providers. I've used Oracle and they sometimes didn't get back to me until days later. I've been told by Pardot users that they use to be like Act-On in terms of answering the calls...but now that SalesForce.com owns them, you fill out a form to get support. Imagine you are in the middle of completing an email and you have a little question that is stopping you from getting it done.

With Act-On, they pick up the phone and the rep instantly resolved my question. Here, call their toll free number and try it out: (844) 336-3191.

Their support is friendly, knowledgable, based in California and were not going to let me go until they resolved my question and even made suggestions. In one case, the guy uploaded my email for me and then showed me how he did it.
June 16, 2015

Act-On is a Winner!

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Act-On has been instrumental in our company's digital email campaign expansion. It's connectors to Salesforce and GoToWebinar as well as the ability to connect through our website makes it one-stop-shopping easy to track campaign activity.
  • Ease of use - Act-On was super easy to implement and hit the road running. It has only gotten better over time as their engineers and developers continually improve the product.
  • Support - As with any application, there are always exceptions to the rule. Any time we had an issue or question not covered in their resource knowledge base, our CSM would get whatever support resource was required involved to come to a quick and successful resolution.
  • Reports - Tracking statistics of campaigns is at your fingertips, showing bounces, opens, click-throughs and opt-outs. They are developing more customizable reporting which will be awesome!
  • Hard Bounce Report - have a customizable option for date range.
  • General Reporting - be able to have one place to extract customizable reporting, such as in Salesforce.
Act-On has greatly improved reporting and continues to enhance or develop features to make it more user-friendly and more competitive with the larger automated marketing tools. Their technical support is amazing and our dedicated account manager is always available to field questions and assist us! We have grown along with Act-On over the last few years and they continue to treat their customers as #1 priority.

Jim Lovelady | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Our business lacked the technology and expertise to nurture interest among clients, prospects, and leads. With the addition of Act-On software, we're able to integrate marketing automation with our CRM and provide the sales organization with marketing qualified leads that are ready to buy. The ability to lead score and provide timelines of interactions with clients, prospects, and leads has enabled the sales team to become more relevant with each customer touch and produce a level of value that puts our business on the level of a resource versus just another vendor.
  • Automated Campaigns - Save the time of manually keeping track of individuals and sending them appropriate follow-ups. Set up conditional statements, so that the follow-up you send to a particular individual is based on their profile or behavior. Create early exit conditions, so leads that convert or become hot prospects can move into another program, or be sent straight to sales.
  • Email Marketing Engine - Create and launch high quality email marketing campaigns with a simple drag and drop interface. No need to know HTML. Optimize your email using list segmentation and lead scoring to ensure relevant messages go to the right people. Use dynamic content so that an email message will change according to the recipient's profile. Integrate forms and landing pages with email campaigns to encourage higher conversion rates. Set trigger emails that respond immediately to prospect actions with personalized messages. Test and optimize your campaigns with A/B testing. Determine the best converting campaigns even before you go live by running A/B tests to segments of a target list across a broad range of parameter. Include trackable links so you can track and measure performance results, including opens, click-throughs, bounces, and other data.
  • Lead Scoring - Work with your sales department to determine which buying signals to score, and with what values. Use negative scoring to identify and people who are least likely to buy, such as job seekers or people with low authority. Lead scores become part of a lead or contact's dynamic history, providing more intelligence for follow-up. Leads that pass a certain threshold can be automatically sent to the sales team.
  • CRM Integration - Keep raw or top-of-funnel leads in your marketing database and nurture them until they become qualified. Move only qualified leads into your CRM for sales to work with, so sales isn't distracted by low-priority leads. Return sales-qualified leads that don't close to marketing for further nurturing.
  • Database - Import and export lists easily, without creating duplicate records. Segment lists for targeting by any number of characteristics or actions. Import a list from a CRM, and export chosen data to a CRM, updating without overwriting data improperly.
  • Our experience with Act-On Software has been nothing but positive.
One of our key questions related to CRM integration. Not only is the integration with Salesforce seamless, but, we discovered that Act-On software is "native" to several other technologies used by our business making our choice to work with Act-On a very easy one.
Tricia Tamkin, MSE, MSS, ECRE | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Act-On for marketing automation. The software does a great job managing our email marketing campaigns, website visitors and certification testing. We have better metrics, make better business decisions, and ultimately sell more classes because of the software.
  • Some of the best customer support from any vendor I've ever experienced.
  • Very intuitive software. They know what we need before we need it.
  • The software is flexible and can be used in a variety of ways.
  • My only suggestions are minor functionality enhancements. I would love to be able to click an icon that automatically copies an external URL. Silly thing that would save me an extra step.
Am I reaching out to prospective or existing customers via email?
Do I want to increase revenue?
How important is ease of use?
How important is world class support?
Donna Lord | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • The lead nurturing functionality is easy to use
  • The integration with Salesforce provides additional insight into contacts for my sales team without having to login to another database.
  • The visitor alerts have been extremely helpful at getting to prospects in real time.
  • Creating landing pages or forms is a little clunky.
  • Testing mailings has too many steps, especially when you need to go back and edit the mailing and then go through the testing procedure again.
  • A more organized method of storing lists and assets.
For a small marketing team like ours, the functionality is great and the customer service is top-notch.
Beth Dean | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Nextep's Marketing team uses Act-On. It helps us with our email communications, testing, analytics, and automation. We also utilize it heavily for our webinars and special web landing pages.
  • Web landing pages - allow us to create special web pages for promotions or other items we'd like to be able to track.
  • Salesforce Integration - Act-On has smooth Salesforce integration, porting in a prospects activities into his or her Salesforce record.
  • Customer Support - this was one of the main reasons we selected Act-On. Their customer support is top notch, both from our dedicated account managers and from the general help line we sometimes use when we're stumped.
  • Reporting - I wish the reporting was a bit more sophisticated and detailed with Salesforce records without having to build specific segments to make it work.
Though Act-On is easy to use on my end, there are some areas where I could see it being difficult for those who aren't tech-savvy. It's a bit heavy for those who are after simply email blasting capability alone. I would recommend this to companies who really want to take their digital marketing and prospect engagement to the next level and have the expertise on staff to do it.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Act-On's analytic data is spot on and gives me the ability to take meaningful action when clients and potential clients interact with our content. My biggest headache with software similar to Act-On is how to engage other departments and business units. Act-On's simple and robust connect to other software platforms allows our teams to work in the software programs that work best for them while still representing strong data.
  • For example, I don't want our sales team to have to learn Act-On. Because the system they use every day - Salesforce - is tightly integrated with Act-On, they can see from within Salesforce what path a prospect has taken thorough our website, and what offerings they have been looking at. This allows them to have a much higher-oder conversation with the prospect. Because they have a lot of knowledge about what the customer wants, they can be much more targeted in their messaging and shorten the time to sale.
  • Act-On does email marketing management very well. Not only am I getting analysis from the email, but also the traffic patterns my clients and potential clients are creating once they enter my site. This is powerful when engaging directly with my market - they feel we have tailored our approach just for them.
  • My biggest issue is that the survey module is not great. In particular, the survey analytics are not detailed enough for us to make business decisions. We survey our customer base quite a bit to understand what is important to them, so this is important. It would be great if the survey analytics were integrated with the excellent Act-On analytics. But they are separate.
  • Because of the survey weaknesses, we use Survey Monkey and Act-On unfortunately does not provide a connector to this product.
The more you take advantage of the Act-On software the more you will benefit and connect with your target markets.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Act-On is used by our marketing department to create and track all of our digital marketing campaigns and materials including e-mail campaigns, webinars, and white paper downloads. We integrate it with our Salesforce CRM so that our sales team can access all of the information in their daily workflow. Thanks to Act-On, our sales team has greater visibility into their sales leads and I've received compliments from our sales team that they love getting their Act-On alerts. In today's world, I can send a sales rep a marketing lead and tell them how they got to our website, what blog articles they've read, and just give them much more context so that they can have a better conversation with our current and prospective clients.
  • Third-Party Integrations like Salesforce CRM and Webinar services (WebEx, GoToMeeting) work exceptionally well when compared to other marketing vendors, and there are no additional charges or need to purchase third-party plug-ins from an "app exchange" in order to get this functionality.
  • Customer Service is critical for any company that we work with. And with Act-On, you really do feel like a customer and they treat you like an actual person, not just another client number.
  • Marketing List Management - Act-On's contact list management is superior when compared to other marketing software vendors from my personal experience. They understand that sometimes you may want to delete list of contacts you no longer wish to market to, while other marketing vendors won't let you because they want to keep charging you for the same number of contacts, regardless of whether you send them e-mails or not.
  • Media Library Management - Again, they have a great and easy to use interface for their media library, where we can upload pretty much any type of file like white papers, PDF's, and images to use in our marketing campaigns or even to embed on our website or external landing pages. We tried another vendor's file system, and it was just not very easy to use and renaming files a nightmare--something that just simply works and is never an issue with Act-On.
  • Better reporting capabilities for revenue attribution specifically with Salesforce CRM.
  • A tool for dynamic Calls-To-Action (CTA's).
  • More flexibility with Landing Pages or an integration with Unbounce landing pages. For the time being, we have to manually embed forms on our Unbounce landing pages, which works, but takes more time than if there were an out-of-the-box integration with the system.
Act-On is a great service for tracking website and digital marketing campaign activity that integrates well with Salesforce CRM and webinar software (GoToMeeting, WebEx). I personally think their landing pages are very limited from a design perspective, but Act-On is a great tool that saves time and their interface is easy to use and will help any marketing department improve productivity.
Kate Puetz | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use the Act-On platform as our day-to-day marketing automation software. Right now, only the marketing department is using the tool and we are still learning all the in's and out's. We made the switch to Act-On from MailChimp almost a year ago and still learn something new at least every week. Act-On is jam-packed with features that are important to our business, including prospecting and easily automated campaigns. It also has a brand new composer for emails that is much more user friendly than their older version. That's a great new improvement that benefits our business since we don't have a email/HTML designer on staff. Act-On also has a good support team, but an even greater customer success/account management team.
  • Lead nurturing is something that the Act-On software does well. This is important, especially to our business, since the path-to-purchase for our target customer can typically be several weeks or even months. We want to be able to have a partner platform where it is easy to identify interested targets and nurture them along the path to purchase.
  • I like Act-On's new email composer. This is a new feature within the platform and it was definitely a welcomed change. This updated feature really gives us the ability to create professional-looking emails easily without needing to know HTML.
  • Act-On's account team members and support team are always kind and patient, even when you feel like you might be asking the most ridiculous question!
  • I'd like to see Act-On have some better social integration tools. For example, as of right now, it's difficult to incorporate social posting to our LinkedIn or Facebook Company Page through Act-On since the page was created in a way where we can't connect the profile to Act-On for automatic posting.
  • I'd love it if Act-On included an interactive calendar feature within the platform for planning purposes!
I think Act-On is a great tool for lead nurturing. However, because of the cost and size of our database, it isn't necessarily the most economical tool for prospecting (ie. identifying leads, etc.) So, I would encourage anyone looking into Act-On for a small business (small budget) or large database to really identify what their goals are before picking a platform like Act-On. If you have budget restraints but a huge database you're prospecting, you might want to consider other options or using Act-On only as the lead nurturing portion of your email marketing process.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We currently utilize Act-On to nurture and engage prospective job candidates for our clients (we utilize a different software for business development and lead generation). It allows us to market directly to specific segments of our internal database based on candidate's location and practice preferences. This allows us to provide highly targeted opportunities to candidates that they are likely to be interested in.
  • Their marketing automation is top notch, with the ability to nurture contacts based on a variety of possible actions
  • Their new composer is very user friendly and makes creating beautiful, responsive emails a breeze
  • The tracking and reporting capabilities allow you to see the effectiveness of individual emails and entire campaigns
  • Their social publishing feature is very weak and doesn't provide the insight necessary to fully manage your social media presence
  • There are limited options in customizing call-to-action buttons
This is very much geared towards email marketing. If you would prefer a fully integrated marketing platform, this isn't the solution for you. This is instead a great tool to use as part of marketers toolkit, along with a good CMS, social media manager, etc.)
Angie J Anderson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Currently using Act-On for several clients marketing campaigns. By leveraging Act-On we were able to connect our clients CRM (Dynamics CRM) to Act-On and bridge the gap between sales and marketing by making sure the hot leads were front and center
  • Connection to Dynamics CRM (not all email automation tools connect)
  • Customer Service is amazing - we have been treated the same way from them wanting our business to now being a customer
  • Building Emails, Landing Pages and Forms has been very easy even without a designer or developer
  • Marketing List should be able to be sorted by the client, we should be able to move most used lists up to the top
  • Additional Webinar connections
Like anything, there needs to be a "needs / want / wish list" assessment done. But depending on the list, I would definitely suggest Act-On
Kimberly Kitchen | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use, and facilitate the use of, Act-On for a professional service provider. Their sales team uses Salesforce to track leads, prospects and accounts in the sales funnel while the marketing team send out emails to generate interest and increase awareness on various topics. The two sides were not connecting. By using Act-On, and it's integration with Salesforce, we are now able to connect the dots. We know what prospects are nurturing themselves through the sales process by signing up for webinars and downloading content from the website. We can also see when a lead comes in through the website, what their specific path was - how many emails have they opened, what campaign were they originated in, what content did they spend the most time on, etc...
  • Integration with Salesforce database
  • Email reports
  • Ease of creating webforms and embedding on site
  • Timeline reporting shows user engagement at most macro or micro level
  • Although integration with SalesForce is critical, there are certain things we can't do, like pull a SalesForce report based on email activity
  • Adjusting scoring is very tricky. We had a registration form being filled out at a trade show and Act-On attributed all the submissions to the 1st person who filled out the form. Trying to fix it was nearly impossible.
  • Reports take forever to download and aren't as intuitive as most other analytics.
If your sales team uses Salesforce, I imagine Act-On will be the best option because of the ease of integration. I would say it isn't well-suited for someone who doesn't know their way around html code for emails. I've used other email marketing tools that are easier drag-and-drop templates but Act-On is more robust and you'll need to dive into the html to get your fonts and spacing just right.
Kimberly Pendergrass | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Act-On for email marketing and website tracking. It has increased visibility into website traffic and provided an easy way to get started with marketing automation.
  • Lead Scoring - Allows profiles to "build" and scores based on your parameters.
  • Automation programs - Confusing to set up but if you can get it going, it works well.
  • Web Traffic Monitoring - Easy to see who has been on your site.
  • Landing pages and forms - difficult to customize unless you know how to code.
  • Buggy at times although if you reach out to Act-On they are quick to find a resolution.
  • Emails - I have [noticed] that graphics don't come through unless the receiver clicks "view images"
Act-On is great for organizations who are just getting started with marketing automation. It's perfect for SMBs.
Stefani Shepherd | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Act-On is utilized by our marketing department for all outbound email campaigns, to better support integrated client campaigns and by our sales people to track their daily emails. Act-On provides great analytics on what our readers are viewing and clicking so that we can create more relevant messages. We also use these analytics to provide leads to our sales teams and clients.
  • Excellent training tools and customer support
  • Easy-to-use interface
  • More help on list management / contact clean-up
We selected Act-On because it was a great solution for a small business but still provides the same functionality that large organizations use.
Mark Jacoby | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Initially deployed as a replacement for an email only system. Act-On has been implemented to replace this previous platform. It is being used exclusively with our Marketing and outbound teams for email, forms, landing pages. We have also implemented the forms into our internal processes to clean up and standardize these processes and outputs.
  • The program is fairly easy to implement. From set up and roll out the Customer Success Managers are there to support you and ensure you understand and fully utilize the platform.
  • Act-On support, sales, CSM, and support techs are fantastic. The flow of information regarding updates, new features are fantastic - in addition, any issues I have run into have been immediately addressed and followed up on.
  • Act-On's integration with our social media and CRM are simple and easy. There is more information that I can currently consume (great problem to have)
  • The structure is there to build surveys, however it can be clumsy and reporting like a poll or showing results is not very good at this time. I still need to use other survey tools and would like to have it all in one.
  • The template options are ok, but could use some help.
From set up to implementation, including transfer of contacts - [everything] was simple and the support was fantastic. Having no experience with marketing automation I found the team and training at Act-On to everything I needed to get started.
Dan Brockway | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Act-On heavily in the Marketing department to manage external communications and website visitors. The results are used by Marketing and Sales departments to identify people who are actively interested in our products and services.
  • It is very easy to setup a list of contacts, segment that list and send targeted messages to the segments. Then track the responses and make more segments based on the behavior of the audience.
  • It provides daily insights into who is using our website and how. With lots of options to embed forms that help convert users from anonymous to known visitors.
  • It tracks the behavior of website users even before they provide their name, then links all that history to the known contact.
  • The ability to make responsive email templates that are customizable to my company brand needs work.
  • It would be nice if the segments of a contact list could be ordered by the user. After all after you've been making lots of segments for lots of campaigns, the list gets pretty long.
Act-On is awesome at managing email campaigns and tracking website visitors. We've used it a little in tracking webinar campaigns and it's convenient that it includes that integration. Unfortunately we use an off brand CRM system so we don't get the benefit of direct CRM integration. That said, Act-On does provide a mechanism for automatically transferring the contact data so we can import it into our CRM. Not ideal, but a good solution given our CRM system.
March 18, 2015

Spot On, Act-On!

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Our organization uses Act-On Software as a marketing automation program, and my department (marketing) is able to integrate it with the sales department's CRM (Salesforce).
  • CRM Integration
  • Performance Measurements
  • Personalized Templates
  • Library and List Management
  • Surveys and Sign ups
  • A sort of spell check for legal issues we know to keep in mind. We can't use certain language as a pharmacy, so it'd be great to put in certain words and have them highlight in red when we use them to make sure we aren't using them in a restricted way.
This is best for small-to-mid-sized companies, as it's much more affordable than some other automation solutions out there, but doesn't sacrifice the functionality that makes marketing automation software so useful. The customer service there is friendly, willing to answer questions no matter how stupid they seem and offering tips to get the most out of your efforts.
March 18, 2015

Act On user

Alan Bradford | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Act-On as a component of our agency lead management and generation discipline. We set up, administer, and create content in Act-On for our clients. Primarily this is for outbound email, list management, and lead routing via CRM.
  • The marketing list management interface works very well.
  • The interface, when compared directly against solutions like HubSpot or Marketo seems about a generation behind in UI, look, and feel. Functionally it works fine, but look-wise it does not rise to the top.
Act-On is very suited for established large companies. It does not have a lot of "new web" type look and feel, so should be very familiar to most users.
Deb Puku | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Act-On for a variety of purposes. We provide personalized landing pages for our affiliate partners that link to online sign up sheets for their membership to access. It's like an interactive, individual website for each one. From those landing pages, our partners have an online sign up sheet for their customers, allow them to refer people to our service. These landing pages can be changed often as we have updated information.

We use the automated email program for our customer base as a means to educate them passively. There's a 1-2 month wait period for the customer while we process their job, and the auto emails allow us to "touch" the customers on a frequent basis so they know we're still working on them.
  • We are a small business, and Act-On has allowed us to carry a significant marketing program without us having the technical expertise.
  • The dashboard is very intuitive. You can see all of your landing pages, sign up sheets, automated programs and email templates at a glance. It organizes your information for you so you'll always be able to quickly find what you need.
  • The template builder is very easy to use. We've been through other email marketing programs before and they just weren't flexible enough. Act-On is particularly powerful because it does so much more than just emails.
  • Act-On is a great product to start using right away. After using Act-On for a couple of years, we finally have some requests like a bigger desktop space to format pages in, and some minor requests in building out the automated programs.
When we first learned about Act-On, we thought it was too much for our needs. Little did we know of all the ways we could use the product to our benefit. Now it's an integral part of our sales and marketing, to our partnerships with affiliates and to our customer base. We didn't anticipate that in the beginning, but it was very easy to grow into.
Catheline Shin | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Act-On will be implemented so that both marketing and sales can benefit from its ability to track the effectiveness of campaigns, ROI, customer profiles, and time/effort management. It will be implemented by marketing with advice from sales and marketing will be the primary drivers of this software platform. Right now, there are many manual processes in place but despite valiant efforts to track campaign effectiveness, in reality, there are many knowledge gaps in the processes. Act-On Software's marketing automation platform will allow us to increase the number of campaigns, will enable us to track individual activity, manage our social media presence, deliver better MQLs and SQLs through the lead funnel, and will be the ultimate tool we will use to refine our strategies.
  • Easy to implement. It's not completely painless (after all, it is a complex system here) but compared to on-boarding times given by other marketing automation competitors, Act-On is remarkably intuitive, and you will be using the system inside 30 days or less.
  • Integration with major players. We use WebEx and Salesforce and Act-On integrates nicely with both of these systems and rather painlessly.
  • Customer Support. Let me put it to you this way: their customer support and attention is so good that we became friends and kept in touch. They are thorough, care about your success, and will get your issue solved if it is within the system's capabilities. They are a smaller company and to me, this is a benefit. It means you don't get lost in the shuffle.
  • They are always rolling out new features. They ask for feedback and ideas and their engineers get to it. They have much stronger reporting capabilities now than they did a year ago and have recently added a inbound marketing feature that is nice if you run extensive AdWords campaigns.
  • WebEx. It's a bit of a sticking point because it's not Act-On's fault but the limitation that WebEx posed on their API. So really, I am mad at WebEx. They change the interface without informing anyone and suddenly my event will not work correctly because of something I did not tick.
  • Campaigns. They have added additional functionality so it is not a current complaint but I had always wished we had a campaign view with various activities rolled in for reporting. Now they do.
  • Social Dashboard. It's pretty good but every time I tried using it, the LinkedIn Company page function did not work. Not sure if it is fixed now.
Act-On is great if you are a small to mid-size company looking to maximize your marketing spend. It is well-priced and excellent value --it's based on your list send rather than your database size or users etc. I have auditioned many providers including Silverpop, Marketo, Eloqua, and Lyris and it was definitely a Goldilocks and the three bears for me. Too many features, too few features, and just right.
Lauren Franco | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Act-On is being used to execute strategic marketing campaigns companywide. There are three primary departments that regularly use the tool:

  • Marketing: Email deployment, Landing Page creation, Forms, Webinar Integration
  • Sales: Email templates, Tracking Hot Prospects, Lead Scoring, Segmentation
  • Account Management: Email templates, Automated Campaigns for onboarding new accounts
Act-On has helped us streamline the rollout of marketing campaigns, reach more of our customers on a regular basis and build stronger relationships with our prospects.
  • Fantastic training and on-boarding process. It is a significant commitment of time up front but you will learn the tool and maximize your ROI.
  • They are always rolling out new features and improvements.
  • Their support line is always available and they always resolve any issues.
  • The forms are more challenging than they need to be. Once you figure them out they aren't so bad but they can be time consuming. I would like to see a few predesigned templates - that would help speed up the creation and execution.
  • It would be nice to have a more advanced editor tool. The current one is good but I feel there are still some limitations.
Act-On made the most sense for our organization based on several different factors. We understood our own internal capabilities and what resources we were able and willing to dedicate to this platform. Before purchasing a marketing automation tool you must identify a budget and how you will use the features offered at each price point. Just because you might be able to afford more functionality doesn't mean it's a good deal if you're not going to use it. Act-On was the perfect balance for us and has enabled us to do what we needed to accomplish.
Travis Piepho Founder and President at Prospectr | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We are using Act-On for our internal email marketing initiatives, but also for all of our clients as well. We have operated 100's of Act-On accounts. This is an integral piece for our entire organization. Act-On solves business problems surrounding data management, email delivery, email and internet marketing automation. Compared side by side with many of the other providers Act-On wins. We have found their customer support and product superior to many other ESP and Marketing Automation houses that we have tried.
  • Act-On has great customer support. You receive help immediately, or within 5 minutes from when you reach out to the support team.
  • I have been extremely impressed with the support
  • Act-On's automated program feature has made it possible to nurture email recipients based on specific interactions for much longer with more insight that with other platforms we have used.
  • Automated Program Reporting could be better. This has been addressed because Act-On and it's great customer support has manually helped create weekly reports for our review, but the automated program reporting definitely could be a little better.
What is your overall send volume? What is your budget? What are you looking for?
Steve Wilson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Act-On is used as a tool to promote the cross-sell of software to new clients. As clients come on board we use the content and marketing automation platforms to promote complimentary products.
  • I love the website prospector, this allows me to understand who is watching, what they are looking at, and importantly, how many staff from each organization have visited.
  • The webinar functionality allows me to build an audience and integrate with our WebEx account.
  • The support offered throughout implementation and ongoing account management is fantastic.
  • I think there could be greater use of email and landing page templates, although this has been improved in latest release (still in Beta)
If you are looking for an agile product that can quickly adapt to your needs, Act-On is a great choice. I had limited knowledge of marketing automation tools prior to this engagement, but the intuitive software and excellent support has made it easy.
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