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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

(151-175 of 219)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
February 25, 2015

Act On Review

Jim Weiskopf | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use Act-On for three clients. It allows me to keep track of a ton on information in one place. The software has been a big help in tracking website activity, leads, email effectiveness and overall prospect and customer engagement.
  • Alerts my clients of visitors to specific sections of their websites.
  • Email automation and follow-up.
  • Email marketing with tracking to the website has been used very effectively for all my clients.
  • Email software needs to be updated soon.
  • Would like to see more customization of reports. As an example need to see more than 20 results in the report that shows search terms, companies that have visited the site and on the top referring sites.
  • Need custom date ranges for all reports.
Act-On's agency model is very good and flexible.
Kristen Aucoin | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
My department uses Act-On as part of our demand generation program. We use Act-On to send automated e-mails to hundreds of thousands of customers, and to "nurture" them. By using a marketing automation software we are able to set when we send e-mails, and segment customers into different groups to market to them specifically.
  • Easy to learn the tool.
  • Able to handle hundreds of thousands of contacts.
  • Able to set delivery dates and not worry about it.
  • Would like to see Act-On integrate better with our new resource center (Uberflip).
  • Would like the design tool to be a little easier (sometimes adds in random spacing, makes certain fonts larger for no apparent reason).
  • Able to customize more in the design tool.
If you are looking for a company to execute e-mail marketing campaigns to large amounts of customers, Act-On is great. The reporting tools are also pretty good, and the support is great. The templating is easy to use and fairly basic, but my team creates basic codes and not any intense CSS templates.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Act-On helps you attract visitors to your web site, convert them to leads and qualify them a with lead nurturing and marketing automation.
  • The product has some weakness in two areas:
  • Customization of pages and forms was not as easy as it might have been. The WSYWIG HTML editor is OK for tweaks, but more comprehensive customization is difficult.
  • Product localization for other languages is difficult.
If you want a marketing automation software that is easy to work with and have seamless connection to your CRM and webinars. Go ActOn!
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We are using Act-On within our department for lead-to-revenue management. Act-on has a wonderful integration with our CRM system and is actually addressing our middle and bottom of the funnel needs (something our previous platform didn't do). The insight provided by their behavior profiling mixed with the automation rules allowed within their drip marketing feature allows us to send very targeted messages to pull leads through the funnel much faster.
  • Email nurturing and deliverability are unmatched (can say this w/ the backing of some bad experiences with other marketing automation vendors)
  • The level of support and strategic direction from our Customer Success contact is wonderful!
  • Great integration with our CRM (SFDC), had big problems with this elsewhere!
  • Revenue attribution reporting
  • Sales loves the tool and insight they see from each lead that gets automatically transferred to them
  • UI could use some work, but it's what is under the hood that counts!
  • Would like more inbound features, but we bought Moz for under $100/mo. to address this.
Act-On is great for small and mid-sized businesses or larger enterprises that are focused on sales enablement. The price and functionality are wonderful for companies with 1-1,000 or so employees, but if you are a Fortune 500 company or have dozens of marketing headcount you will probably want to look into Eloqua or Marketo.
Nini Diana | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Act-On was used (when I was using it) as a tool for communicating to prospects and customers about ongoing webinars and conferences offered by the company. It was used across the organization and integrated with SFDC. It made it possible to create lists in SFDC and use them to target the appropriate audience for the message.
  • It was easy to use the SFDC integration
  • The templates and sending mechanisms were easy for non-HTML users
  • It had a reasonably good reporting interface
  • The way it "filed" templates was a little difficult as it was long lists
  • It didn't have a ton of flexibility in design
  • It is not top of the line in terms of automation
Act-On is best for small B2B communication. I really don't think it's appropriate for large-scale B2B communications, though it does have the SFDC integration. In terms of really enhanced features, though, it's a smaller player. However, its relatively simple interface works well for small companies and is easy to manage in-house.
Carrie Scheetz | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Our Act-On account is being used mainly by our Marketing department, but we deploy messages for the whole organization. It addresses the issue we had not being able to determine if our messages were being opened and read by our audience. It allows us to get information out quickly and keep track of who receives that information.
  • Very easy to use--their user interface makes it easy to navigate around and get to the features you need
  • They LISTEN to their users--they're constantly implementing most-wanted features that their users request, not just what they feel would be best, so they're always making their product better.
  • Nice integration with CRMs--we have Salesforce.com, and one of the main reasons we chose Act-On was because it interfaced well with SFDC so our sales team would be able to adapt to using the Act-On metrics and information provided.
  • Email Reports are easy to read and see how each message is performing.
  • Compared to other systems the price was great for all of the features it included.
  • Reporting capabilities--while they provide great information, it would be helpful for me to share that report or information on a specific message easily with particular people. Currently, I have to take a screen shot to send the email message reporting numbers if someone wants to see how the message is performing. Having an easy share link or email-able graphic report would be awesome.
  • Tiered folders for the Media Library--we have 4 different divisions of our company and each has a very different portfolio of products. It would be helpful to segment each division's collateral into folders (i.e. Window Systems Division folder which drills down and has individual folders for videos, literature, data sheets, etc.)
  • Robust lead scoring--Act-On's lead scoring module is very easy to use--but we'd like to see it get a little more advanced and score on a tier basis (someone may be a qualified lead, but shouldn't be rated as high because they've opened a ton of our messages).
Get as familiar as possible with Marketing Automation if you're new to the world. Make sure you understand what you need Act-On to work with, how it will operate and integrate with your CRM system. Don't just think about the capabilities you need at that moment, try to see what you'll need down the road to fully understand and appreciate all of the features that Act-On has to offer and how it will work best for you and your company's marketing efforts.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • This system is best for small businesses who need to align their sales & marketing teams. It instantly improved our workflow processes and started driving more qualified leads to our sales team almost immediately.
  • The social media integration is not completed fleshed out yet. Would love if it was more like Hootsuite, Adobe Social, or Sprout Social. Though you can currently publish and "listen" -- it is very buggy and not very intuitive.
Act-On truly is the perfect tool for small businesses with limited marketing and sales teams who want to act like the "big dogs".
December 01, 2014

My experience with Act-On

Marcus Crellin | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Act-On is being used to send out emails to help engage our user base.
  • Very easy to manage emails and keep control of what is being sent our to my users
  • Even though I am not an expert with HTML I still found it easy to customise my emails
  • The email scheduling facility I found to be very powerful and you can really get to work on setting up quite complex structures to send emails out to your users
  • The only problem I found with Act-On is the sync facility between Act-On and my own file transfer protocol (FTP). It always came up with errors and it took a long time to resolve with the support team. Recently the problem has come back so none of my lists are being synced correctly which means my automatic programs do not have the correct users
Act-On has really made a difference to our business. Their advice and implementation of automated email responses made a change in converting non paying members into premium customers at a low cost to the company. I would not hesitate to recommend them.
Ian Nate | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Automated programs and emailing are fantastic - can automate the sending of program messages, or pushes and pulls to Salesforce, automatically.
  • I would say the UI isn't the prettiest I've seen
Love the company - vision, focus, philosophy - they have all been fantastic to work with. I expect only great things from them in the future.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Solves all the typical automation needs.
  • Integrates seamlessly with Salesforce
  • Lead scoring and website tracking
  • Best-in-class email engine
  • Integration with gotowebinar
  • Social sharing is not as advanced as Hubspot, but it keep getting better. A recent new update, in particular, has improved it quite a bit.
  • Hubspot has something similar to Hootsuite built-into the product platform. This includes things like its own proprietary URL shortening tool. Act-On uses bit.ly, which is adequate but not as good. Although we can publish to social media channels from Act_on, it does not have the more sophisticated management features that you find in Hubspot.
They have a great product and offer great value. The product doesn't have all the bells and whistles that some of the larger automation platforms have, but it's significantly less costly, and they have all the things you really need.
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Act-On as a go-between for our sales and marketing departments. While it does require an experienced Salesforce Admin on our company's side to access the more advanced option, it's a great tool for lead generation for our sales team.
  • Monitoring lead score
  • Sending notifications to sales people when a new lead comes in
  • The functionality isn't as straight forward as it could be. The naming of some options/settings is not intuitive and doesn't always mean what it sounds like.
Act-On is great for a sales-oriented B2B company. It's not very industry specific beyond that so it may not be a good fit for hospitality, tourism, etc. that requires more specific metrics.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Our Marketing and Sales departments use Act-On. It addresses marketing automation, marketing effectiveness, Webinar marketing, and reporting. It allows us to build intelligent marketing campaigns to take prospects down whatever path we want them to take. It also allows the marketing department and sales users to see if our emails and landing pages are effective. We also utilize the forms to gather more information and validate information on our prospects.
  • Ease of use: Act-On is very user friendly, and it is fairly easy to become familiar with the way the platform works. The automated program builder is especially user friendly.
  • Customer service: Before and after purchasing Act-On we received great customer service from our sales rep, who is still in touch with us today, and our customer success manager.
  • Webinar Integration: The integration with WebEx is great, so that we can promote and measure the attendance of our webinars with ease.
  • Reporting: The reporting capabilities are not as robust as we would like
  • Automated program flexibility: Although the automated programs are very useful, since they are so user friendly we've found that they are not capable of advanced intelligence that we would like to experiment with
If you have a lot of experience using automated programs, you may find Act-On to be a bit too simple for you. Act-On is perfect for those companies who are implementing an automated marketing platform for the first time, or whose users do not have a lot of experience. Act-On is also very well suited to companies who use WebEx for webinars, since the integration is very useful.
Alisha Rappaport-Zubrow | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Act-On for our newsletters, employee and clients, and email blasts. It is being used currently by marketing and will be used by sales. It allows us to share information with our clients and with our employees. We have three offices and it allows our employees to see what is going on in the other offices and throughout the company.
  • Customer service, this saved the account. If were not for the amazing customer service we received from Joe Brown, we may have left this product.
  • Product support, the training that is provided to me in order to allow me to get the most from the software for my client makes a huge difference in the way I work.
  • Software capabilities, the software allows us to integrate Salesforce and create specific templates based on the needs of our client.
  • Letting the customers know the training and support that is available to them.
  • More functionality in the ability to find areas that you are looking for.
  • Having more variety of templates available.
Act-On is well suited for marketing and use of the interface with Salesforce.
John Bersentes | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We are using Act-On within TMP Government a wholly owned division of TMP Worldwide Advertising & Communications LLC.
  • Email Marketing
  • Landing Page Design, Development, and Deployment as well as tracking and social sharing
  • Metrics and Analytics
  • Integration with Website for tracking visitors and lead scoring
  • Social Sharing and LinkedIn Group Moderated Posts Status if pushing out to multiple groups.
  • Database Queries could be more user friendly
Use of Act-On for government clients as needing to be compliant to the paper work reduction act could be problematic should the need to address use of cookie based tracking warrant consideration. For commercial users that wish to leverage the benefits of an inbound marketing automation platform - it is solid and the flexible monthly terms provides a great option for the novice user like myself.
Jeff Penson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We currently use Act-On in our marketing department to support our sales and client support teams. The software helps with everything from lead generation and website visitor tracking to brand recognition through social media channels and webinars.
  • CRM Integration - the software integrates seamlessly with our current CRM system (Salesforce.com).
  • Reporting and Analytics - allows you to create custom reports and view data and results from various campaigns in real-time and gives you the ability to download and share those reports.
  • Reverse IP Lookup - gives clients a view of what companies and which sales and marketing targeted prospects are visiting your website as well as what pages they viewed.
  • Templates - The templates are a little bland and basic, they could add some "drag-and-drop" features that would be helpful
  • Revenue attribution and revenue impact reports automatically emailed to key people; similar to the website activity reports we get daily.
  • Automation tracks - have preset drip campaign tracks for users to just drop their campaigns in
I cannot think of many scenarios or companies in which Act-On would not make sense. The only one I can really think of would be is if a company is under 100 employees.
October 09, 2014

Like Minded

Steve Peterson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Act-On is being used by the entire company and is helping us communicate and nurture prospects and clients we have gathered over the years. It enables us to remain Top of Mind.
  • Easy to manage
  • Effectively priced for the ROI
  • Tight integration with Salesforce
  • Reporting could be better in understanding changes in traffic patterms
  • When capping out with licenses, do not run automated programs that do not have license bandwidth necessary
We are a start-up so I use the expression of Act-On and our company were "like minded". The ACT-On solution spoke to a company that had no previous marketing experience.
October 09, 2014

Act-On is a Class Act

Nannette Nolan | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We are currently using Act-On as an organization-wide solution for our email, marketing automation and lead generation and lead warming. The email capabilities alone have been worth the investment - the ability to segment, visibility into the engagement, trend spotting, A/B testing capabilities, and the like are making all the difference in how we connect with our current and prospective members. The platform is easy to use and set-up and allows me to quickly see current campaign activities and also generate reports and dive deeper into the data. The platform integrates with much our existing marketing channels (social channels, Google Words and Google Shortener, SalesForce, GoToMeeting, etc) and allows us to tie our efforts to actual event registrations, page views, email opens/clicks, etc. We use their custom forms to help capture leads and roll them into relevant marketing campaigns. I can also set up drip campaigns to help target those most interested in our member services and groups. And we use the data we get from Act-On to isolate and troubleshoot inactive members.

  • The email building, delivery and reporting is a terrific tool. I can build, test, modify and send email all from within one easy platform and see engagement stats (and act upon those stats and segments) with a few clicks. So quick and easy.
  • Their forms are indispensable. We have opted to create many of our campaign forms through Act-On because integrating those contacts into relevant marketing messages is so easy. There's no doubt that we'd be missing these leads otherwise.
  • I really appreciate the subscription tools and the visibility into bounces and opt-outs. This has given our audience and us more choices in terms of what types of messages they view.
  • The integration with other platforms (SalesForce, Outlook, webinars, social media channels, etc) is a huge plus. Instead of managing several platforms, we can work from within the Act-On platform or outside of it and our efforts are reflected within the Act-On tool without very much effort.
  • I would love to see them do more with their social tools. Currently, this is one area where they have good basic functionality but not nearly enough to make me stop using Hootsuite which has the ability to batch schedule and integrates with online searches through their web widget.
  • They have the ability to A/B test and we can set up multivariate test but would love to have the ability to more easily test different days and time of days less manually.
I use Act-On every day and can hardly image a time before Act-On. We use it as one of our main communication tools and monitor our marketing activities. Again, I don't tend to use its social media schedule and insight tools mostly because Hootsuite has filled in that space nicely. I can't honestly think of any circumstances in which I wouldn't use Act-On generally. I wouldn't use their tools for blog pages but could conceivably create a micro site if needed. We also don't use them as an event registration because we have a membership platform that we have to tie into and so have not as yet explored that option but might in the future.
Farrah Raine Bannister | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Act-On is used to manage the email marketing portion of our lead generation and nurture programs. It allows us to create and track email marketing efforts from start to finish and sync this data in to SFDC as our CRM.
  • Act-On allows me to create involved high touch programs and track them efficiently.
  • The customer service could not be beat, I can speak with my trainer within a few hours notice and I never feel like I am a burden.
  • I have been pleasantly surprised at how flexible the product has been to accommodate my company’s unique lead management process.
  • Templates and the design features are lacking; lack of intuitive navigation is frustrating. Actions are hidden from view unless you know to hover in the correct place. Makes for a clean interface but maddening user experience.
Have your program goals laid out prior to starting implementation; it makes it easier to proceed with the integration instead of having to analyze and make those decisions WHILE you are setting up. Understand your data flow and the “buyer journey” before you start clicking, it will make the whole process a lot smoother.
Kaylee Goldhammer | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
My organization uses Act-On to qualify leads, automate email messages and create forms/landing pages. It is being used by the Sales team to easily prioritize leads by reporting on recent engagement and to send emails to multiple people through our Salesforce org. Additionally, it logs all emails into SFDC which makes it easier for our sales team and drives internal user adoption.
  • The customer service is amazing. I've had contact with several Act-On employees and they each are extremely genuine and helpful. They respond quickly and are willing to help find out-of-the-box solutions to unique issues.
  • We have experienced successful automated list management techniques that would have taken hours on excel to compare and modify.
  • Our ability to easily create landing pages and forms have allowed us to diversify the type of content we provide without needed the assistance of our IT department.
  • With so much content collected over time, It would be helpful to have better organization system ie subfolders.
  • There tends to be some deliverability confusion from time to time. On our end it registers that the message got through but the recipient never actually sees it.
As all companies are unique, I have found continued success with Act-On's ability to find solutions to problems that are most likely only experienced in our instance. Even though the software is easy to use, it's capable to become complex in order to better fit our exact needs.
Michael Artinger | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
As a small life science instrument company, we have a very targeted customer base, so ad-words and social aren't very effective. The ability to plan, implement and track content marketing is our primary approach, and Act-On gives me excellent visibility of the results in real-time. We have more than quadrupled our lead database and can prioritize who our internal sales team and distributors follow-up with based on a ranking of their Act-On Activity score in our CRM.
  • Easy to implement and use, especially for small marketing teams
  • Effective integration with SFDC allows dispersed sales teams to access Act-On information within the CRM
  • Outstanding technical support -- awesome people!
  • Cost-effective pricing
  • Initially, I'd say that the analytics could be more powerful, but the expected release of a new version with funnel reporting should go a long way towards addressing this.
Act-On is an ideal solution for small to mid-sized companies with lean marketing teams that don't have a lot of resources to set-up a system. Since we focus on content marketing using high quality, thought-leader materials (white papers, presentations, etc.), I can't speak to the integration with social, SEO optimization or ad-words. The sales process was very low pressure, and they really wanted to understand our business model and how the system would address our specific marketing requirements.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Act-On for web to lead logistics, various types of marketing email campaigns, sales email communications (marketing template usage and prospect/customer outreach), internal communications, customer notifications and more. We utilize the reporting in conjunction with salesforce.com reporting to validate the effectiveness of our marketing activities and show ROI to the business. Currently it is utilized primarily by marketing but also some sales teams. We've utilized automation programs for nurture campaigns as well.

It allows us to show metrics associated with marketing activities and assess the success/failure of individual project/programs. It allows us to provide email notification to sales reps about web form submissions when an existing salesforce lead has interacted with us via our website. The reporting and website visitor module also provide sales team members with visibility into the actions of leads to determine how serious the prospect/customer is about purchasing.
  • Act-On is very intuitive and user friendly. Sales and marketing users are able to utilize the basic functionality with limited training and support.
  • Act-On provides the "tools" to create programs as simple or complex as needed. If a simple email campaign or web form is needed, it can be created very quickly. For highly complex campaigns combining email messages, landing pages, web forms, web to lead functionality, post submission communications, etc., that require much more strategic vision and logistical planning, they are able to help in any way needed, as well as troubleshoot when any issues arise.
  • Jacob Monserrat is an outstanding Customer Success Manager. He is very knowledgeable and understands the logistics between Act-On and Salesforce as well as marketing automation programs. If he doesn't have an answer about something, he will let me know and then find someone who does.
  • When I used Act-On, the reporting for automated programs could have been improved. It was provided in a separate report with different data points than what was provided in normal message reporting. Roll up reports there would have been useful as well.
  • The sales users had visibility into all marketing user activity through their view in Salesforce and it would have been useful for marketing to be able to limit it as desired.
  • I would have liked more granular options for assigning privileges to Marketing users. While I was the Act-On administrator they did add more (I believe it was based, at least in part, on my feedback), but there is still room for improvement.
While smaller companies would probably benefit from the social media tools, larger organizations most likely already have more robust programs in place so won't utilize it. I recommend asking about compatibility with your CRM, specifying cloud based or premises based. The more complex your sales structure, the more questions you should ask around their accessibility and visibility into your marketing activities. You should explain the ways you'd like to utilize Act-On and then ask for a Customer Success Manager that will be knowledgeable in those areas and able to support you in the way you will need.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Act-On to as our primary email marketing system, sending to licensed professionals nationwide. Act-On allows us to track our email response rates, as well as having some capabilities for integration into CRMs, like Salesforce.

The entire organization uses Act-On. While I use it specifically for report tracking, email design, and email campaign implementation; my users find its ability to track the history of individual emails and marketing pieces sent to clients to be worthwhile and incredibly helpful. That level of history detail gives them the ammunition they need to be knowledgeable on calls, making them better marketers in the process.
  • Easy to understand reporting on response rates for emails.
  • Incredible integration with CRM, specifically Salesforce.
  • Easy to build emails, landing pages, and forms; all of which help you to engage clients more readily.
  • Open rates in reports can be a little suspect; but that's not necessarily the fault of Act-On. Open rates are determined when a client downloads images in an email, which is an industry standard.
The system is easy to pick up, but difficult to master. I say it's difficult, only because there are so many options and so much customization. To choose Act-On is to have a completely customizable system, so be prepared to play around with it first before implementing campaigns on a mass scale.

It's better suited for smaller campaigns (in the 100 to 10,000 send range), but works effectively on large [campaigns] as well. Make sure you target your audience.
Charles Harte | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I started a company to assist OEM buyers with custom manufacturing sources. Success requires creation of a data base of contacts, and then a robust system to communicate with them as well as organize responses. After a great deal of research I chose Act-On in 2012, and have had zero reasons to think it was not the very best choice. The system is comprehensive, fairly easy to use (even for an old guy like me) and the best thing is infinite access to my success counselor, who's been wonderful. As one-man company heavily involved in marketing (not a skill area), the success counselor has been essential in the company's progress.
  • Since I have experience with only Act-On, I cannot compare them to other alternatives. However, the price is fair and reasonable. The tools for creating messages are all I ever would need, and easy to use.
  • Segmenting the total data base, add or subtract contacts, and keep track of all the above is pretty easy to do. Tracking the results of a message campaign is also pretty easy to use.
  • A problem with absolutely any aspect of Act-On can be swiftly addressed via the success counselor I'm assigned. This is the 3rd one I've had; all have been outstanding. When they don't know the answer, further Act-On assets are deployed, and I ALWAYS have gotten satisfied with results. This is the #1 reason I chose Act-On, and it was a good decision for me.
  • There are very many features I've not yet used, but are available when I am. Thus, it looks like Act-On will meet my needs for as far as the eye can see.
  • Manipulating the data base is pretty easy and well designed. But choosing actions to track could be improved--for example, if I wanted to know results in a particular month over several years I don't think I can do that. It is also cumbersome to select individual web pages' visitors for tracking. I think it would be relatively simple to allow some segmentation/organization of a website and then use that organization's results for tracking. Now, only individual web pages can be chosen.
  • I'm not sure if I can alter my data base, which has been grown over several years using different sources. As a result, fields are duplicated and some redundant ones are present. I'm not aware of a method to tell the system to consolidate "these named fields" and put all into "this field". This capability would be helpful.
Obviously cost/contact capacity/# of users are obvious considerations. Next would be how easy is help available and what limitations exist?
Prabal Roy | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
1. For outbound email campaign for generating contacts and turn them into leads.
2. For capturing in bound leads who visited our company website
3. Historical data capture regarding email campaigns sent.
  • Act-On can monitor traffic to our web pages, when the same contact visits our site more than once, the email address, and possibly additional information is captured for generating in bound leads.
  • Daily auto generated of inbound traffic from various regions of the world provides international geographical interest in our company
  • Generate metrics from Act-On to measure the efficacy of our marketing campaigns.
  • Templates of graphics and email letters creation is very simple.
  • Can not think of any. It met all the requirements that I had in my job.
Act-On product met all our needs.
Paul Booyens | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

We use Act-On for Automated Sales Campaigns in a B2B environment.

Act-On offers, under one umbrella, all the Marketing Automation tools that we need to run large and small campaigns. I specifically like the fact that, as an experienced user and working with your Help Desk, I can invariably find a way to create personalized and targeted sales messages for almost any business use-case I have.

Combining dynamic content, personalized fields, Landing Pages and images I have been able to deliver professional looking emails and collateral to my customers.

  • Combining dynamic content, personalized fields, Landing Pages and images I have been able to deliver professional looking emails and collateral to my customers.
  • Having to log-in to the Act-On Community of Users site to contribute - I think it should be easier for me to open the Act-On Community site while I am working in Act-On on a campaign so that I can easily share my experience and learn from the other power users.
Can it deliver industry level marketing automation solutions at a cost effective price? Can it integrate with other online tools eg Cisco Webex? Can our current employees use the product and become power users? Is there knowledgable support for the product? Can we get meaningful reporting from Acton? We found a positive answer to all of these questions with Act-On.
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