Act-on- It's all about ease of use, quick access to support & your success
Updated June 16, 2015
Act-on- It's all about ease of use, quick access to support & your success
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Most Current - Cloud Based
Modules Used
- Main Program
Overall Satisfaction with Act-On
We are using Act-on in several areas:
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.
- Email Design
- Email Blasts
- Landing Pages
- Lead Nurture
- Lead Scoring
- Campaign Creation and Management
- Daily Visitors to our Website
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.
- Increased Employee Efficiency....let marketing prioritize and make sales reps know which ones to call first, which ones are interested again. I like the sales reps to spend more time on the "Good leads".
- Better informed - We have a broad product line, being able to see what pages they visited helps the rep prepare for the call.
- Oracle CRM On Demand Marketing,Pardot Marketing Automation,Eloqua,Marketo Marketing Automation,manticore
I kind of already covered this in my previous response.
Manticore - Nice people, product didn't integrate with Oracle CRM, used it for email blasting only. Such a disappointment on the integration.
Oracle CRM Marketing Automation - Good product, I believe it's being phased out since they purchased Eloqua. Long wait on support. I can't recommend it based on this. Hire a consultant to help you get started which adds to your expense.
Evaluated:
Marketo - VERY detailed, did cool stuff, but lots to program and set up. More than we needed and I didn't have time to spend that much time programming it.
Eloqua - Okay product - some good stuff here, but sales rep. was rough. Based on previous experience with Oracle support, it was ruled out.
Pardot - Good product, good sales team, seriously considered it. Plus, SF.com owns them which meant it will easily integrate with SF.com. Support - fill out the form was the tie breaker. There were a few other things Act-On shared with me that also tipped the scales as well.
Manticore - Nice people, product didn't integrate with Oracle CRM, used it for email blasting only. Such a disappointment on the integration.
Oracle CRM Marketing Automation - Good product, I believe it's being phased out since they purchased Eloqua. Long wait on support. I can't recommend it based on this. Hire a consultant to help you get started which adds to your expense.
Evaluated:
Marketo - VERY detailed, did cool stuff, but lots to program and set up. More than we needed and I didn't have time to spend that much time programming it.
Eloqua - Okay product - some good stuff here, but sales rep. was rough. Based on previous experience with Oracle support, it was ruled out.
Pardot - Good product, good sales team, seriously considered it. Plus, SF.com owns them which meant it will easily integrate with SF.com. Support - fill out the form was the tie breaker. There were a few other things Act-On shared with me that also tipped the scales as well.
Using Act-On
2 - HTML is not required, but can help if you want to color outside of the lines occasionally. Having a dedicated person to the program who primarily focuses on the day to day operation is ideal for taking full advantage of the system's operation. I use to manage it myself, but as the company found the product to be more valuable, I needed to dedicate more and more time to the system which lead to the hiring of a another person who manages it full time in addition to a few other responsibilities. This isn't so much about Act-on as it is with any marketing automation system. Ideally, you need someone to focus on it to get the full value of any system. Otherwise, there is always another project that requires your attention and pulls you away from your marketing system.
Act-On Implementation
- Implemented in-house