Item: Act-On Software
Rating: 9
Author: Carrie Scheetz

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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.

Pros and Cons

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).

Return on Investment

It's been tremendous for us as far as having the information available that we need. We are able to show what communications are getting through to our customers and what they particularly like receiving information on.
It's given our sales team a whole other tool in their arsenal with respect to the pieces of information they now have access to. They can see which of their customers are visiting what product pages and it allows them to reach out and strengthen those conversations and they didn't have that previously before Act-On.
We are able to qualify and convert leads much faster because of Act-On. Instead of throwing leads at our sales team after a trade show, we can pull them in and nurture those leads through marketing, and pass them off once they become more qualified--this saves our sales team time and effort without wasting time chasing a dead lead.

Alternatives Considered

Marketo Marketing Automation,Eloqua,Kentico

While all of the above are great products, I selected Act-On for a host of reasons. One being how easy it was to see the product and get a feel for how it would fit within our business. When we started with Act-On it was much smaller, and has since grown. I still get the same one-on-one feeling from them and they continue to improve their product. Another reason, was pricing. We got all of the features we needed without having to pay more for certain features. I didn't get that with some of the other companies we spoke to. The Act-On price fit within our budget and we got what we feel is a good product.

Likelihood to Renew

It's very easy to use and you are able to implement it very quickly. We love the support that we have received from the Act-On team, and they truly care about their customers. I love that even if there's a feature that isn't currently active on Act-On, I know that the product will only get better and better as they evolve and add. Another plus is that pretty much everything you see when you demo Act-On is INCLUDED. You don't have to buy a separate reporting module to know how your emails are performing or who's visiting your website. They don't charge you based on the number of emails you send and that has been a paramount reason why we love Act-On.

Likelihood to Recommend

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.

Users and Roles

We have 5 Marketing users who use Act-On on the marketing/admin side of things. We deploy most of the emails from this side of the account. We report the metrics for how emails are performing, as well as what pages are being visited on the website.

Our sales users access Act-On from our Salesforce.com interface. They are able to send emails to prospects and customers, see the metrics of those messages as well as determine what prospects are looking at on the website.

Support Headcount Required

3 - We have myself, and our two web specialists that help support Act-On on an on-going basis. There isn't a lot that is required to support Act-On. I mainly use the system to monitor daily the actions happening within the website and how messages are performing. Any issues can be rectified with our Customer Success Manager at Act-On quickly.

Business Processes Supported

Email Marketing--getting information out to our customers about their accounts, events, follow-ups from events or trade shows, new product announcements
Information collection--we use forms generated in Act-On to gather information about visitors
Integration within our CRM system--allows our sales team to see what visitors are doing on the website so they can time follow-up appropriately.

Innovative Uses

I have used it for internal purposes to track attendance at our tradeshows for staff and for them to order their uniform attire.

Future Planned Uses

Expand internal usage
Follow up on Quality complaints

Products Replaced

Key Differentiators

Price
Product Features
Product Usability
Positive Sales Experience with the Vendor

Price was the ultimate deciding factor. We received so much value for the price it was a no-brainer that we needed to go with Act-On as our marketing automation provider.

Evaluation Lessons Learned

I have more experience with Marketing Automation now, so I would have more scenarios and questions to ask to see how the system would work for us. I would look at longer term goals and probably look a little less on price.

Training Types Used

Online training
Self-taught

Online Training

Act-On had a lot of resources, and their staff was great at answering any questions I had to make sure we got started on the right foot. Looking back, I would have preferred some additional training sessions since we didn't have any previous experience with Marketing Automation and best practices.

Ease of Act-On Training

It was really easy to learn the features of the system without formal training. The area that we lacked was in Marketing Automation 101 and the basic best practices and processes since we had never used a marketing automation system before.

Support Rating

Sometimes it does take awhile for my customer service rep to get back to me, but when he does he usually has the answer I'm looking for. If he can't answer it, he will put the support ticket in for me and someone usually contacts me within a few hours of putting that request in. They are great at following up to make sure that my problem was solved before closing out the ticket.

Act-On Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response	None

Premium Support

No - Premium support is Act-On's support. They don't charge extra to get in touch with one of their product engineers.

Bug Resolution

Yes - Yes--it typically gets reviewed immediately and I know within about an hour what the status is. If it's going to take more time or work they are great about letting me know that and where it stands. I am able to go in and review any support tickets that I submit and see their status. Act-On has also been great about letting its whole community know about any reported bugs and what they have done to fix them.

Exceptional Examples of Act-On Support

We had some issues connecting our CMS (Content Management System) and getting our documents to be "searchable" on our website. It was an issue that Act-On was not familiar with, and wasn't really their fault, but they pulled a team together to help us resolve the issue anyway. They also made sure to follow up and see how things were working after we implemented the change.

Usability

It is really easy to use and navigate on your own without much knowledge or help. They've also made recent improvements to their email composer that allows you more control over the placement of text blocks without having to do complete workarounds to get a desired effect (like putting 2 column text blocks in). It's now very drag and drop which is really easy.

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar	None

Easy Tasks

Segmenting Lists
Sending Emails
reviewing activity within our CRM system
Composing forms

Difficult Tasks

HTML building (I don't have a lot of experience with this and find it difficult to build emails using HTML and CSS Styling)
Integrating forms within landing pages

Mobile Interface Availability and Impressions

Yes - it's pretty basic. I don't use it very often except to check on the performance of an email from time to time when I'm out of the office or provide metrics to my supervisor. It really only looks at the email sends and information.

Pre-Sale Experience

They were great to work with. We saw several demos from them, as we'd add different team members in that would need to approve this purchase. They did them and answered all questions we had. Our sales rep was very knowledgeable and really gave us an in-depth look at how the system worked.

Post-Sale Experience

They really reached out to make sure we had everything we needed to get started with the system. We had a few calls with our dedicated Customer Success Manager who walked us through getting our account set up and checked in every couple of weeks to make sure everything was still going ok.

Key Negotiation Points

We negotiated a couple of additional marketing users as well as our sales user price since we had such a large number.

Dealing with Act-On

We had a good experience with this and Act-On was really easy to work with so I don't see much additional help or tips that would be appropriate for here.

Act-On's the System to Grow With!

Overall Satisfaction with Act-On