Agency version allows us to use with multiple clients.
Updated November 23, 2014

Agency version allows us to use with multiple clients.

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Act-On

Pros

  • Solves all the typical automation needs.
  • Integrates seamlessly with Salesforce
  • Lead scoring and website tracking
  • Best-in-class email engine
  • Integration with gotowebinar

Cons

  • 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.
  • Shorter sales cycle
  • More qualified leads to sales
  • Better identification of leads in general
Hubspot.

Hubspot is generally more expensive but barriers to entry are higher, even beyond pricing. Training costs, for example, are much higher.

Also, we use a client version of Act-On called "Instances". This means that we can share the product with customers who do not have to actually buy the product. They essentially use our product and we can manage all accounts centrally from our instance. Hubspot does not have this kind of agency version. If we were using the Hubspot platform, out customers would have to also purchase the product. This introduces too much friction into the relationship.. With Ac-On, we don't need to even discuss software tools. we can immediately start talking about marketing campaigns.

It is a quality product, customer service is top-notch and they continuously improve the product, all for an exceptional value.
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.

Using Act-On

B2B
5 - Marketing and Sales
1 - IT
  • Act-On was an all-in-one solution for our digital marketing needs. It became our email marketing tool, gave us the ability to create web forms for lead capture and connected with our CRM system seamlessly to keep sales involved to close the loop.
  • Website visitor tracking and lead scoring.

Evaluating Act-On and Competitors

Constant Contact

Act-On Implementation

Act-On Training

  • Online training
Really straightforward. Walk you through whatever you need, but also have extensive library of tutorials and videos and FAQs. Documentation is very helpful. Training people are great. They will cover topics in as much detail as you want.

Act-On Support

Customer support is great. Anytime I have had an escalated issue, tech support has solved it. It depends on issue. Some issues take longer, but typically I can call and speak to someone who can resolve an issue right away.
Not Sure - n/a

Using Act-On

Incredibly intuitive.

Act-On Reliability

Always up.
Product performs great.

Integrating Act-On

There integrations are solid overall. Obviously, the more popular apps (e.g. Salesforce and WebEx) are the better integrations, but the others are catching up. They continue to add new integrations and improve the ones they already have. I'm a big fan of GotoWebinar and that integration is well done and very helpful.
  • Salesforce
  • Gotowebinar
  • Microsoft Dynamics (on-premise)
  • Sugar CRM
I have used the product in a couple of different companies. One was using Salesforce, and integration with the Salesforce platform is seamless. On-premise Microsoft Dynamics was a bit more challenging. We were one of the first clients to use the on MS Dynamics on-premises integration. They had a lot more experience with the SaaS version of MS Dynamics, but not the on-premises version. It wasn't well documented and there were some teething problems. This integration was certainly not completely baked and the integration was much less feature rich than, for example, the Salesforce integration. I've also integrated with Sugar CRM and found it to be a solid integration.
  • Wordpress
There is a Wordpress integration, but I would like to see that expanded. Specifically an RSS feed reader for automating emails for blog updates.
  • File import/export
  • Single Signon
  • API (e.g. SOAP or REST)
Obviously, understand what apps you need to integrate with and use that as your basis for selecting an automation platform. Prioritize which ones are must haves and which ones are nice to haves. Act-On could use a few new additions, but for the most part they have the major ones covered.

Relationship with Act-On Software Inc.

They have a standard month-to-month model

Comments

More Reviews of Act-On

  1. Home
  2. Marketing Automation Software
  3. Act-On Reviews
  4. User Review of Act-On