Overall Satisfaction with Act-On
We were using an antiquated CRM to do email marketing for several academic programs. We were struggling with list management, segmentation challenges that no users could decipher, no A/B testing capability, and horrible WYSIWYG editors. Act-On solved these problems and we've been delighted. It also addressed our major issue of needing subscription preferences that could be managed by the customer... up to this point they could either universally opt out or opt in, but they couldn't take control of their own subscriptions. Act-On has that capability standard and you can customize it like crazy. It's working for us, very well.
UPDATE: After a year of using ActOn, we've discovered some hurdles that are difficult to overcome. ActOn can only build lists off two objects in Salesforce--Leads and Contacts. To send emails/automated programs based on information in any other object, including Campaigns, we have to create a report in Salesforce and then bring in the results to ActOn. It makes things pretty complicated, but we're working through it.
UPDATE: After a year of using ActOn, we've discovered some hurdles that are difficult to overcome. ActOn can only build lists off two objects in Salesforce--Leads and Contacts. To send emails/automated programs based on information in any other object, including Campaigns, we have to create a report in Salesforce and then bring in the results to ActOn. It makes things pretty complicated, but we're working through it.
- The onboarding process. I had personal attention from my CSM and access to a "bat line" that I could call anytime I needed a quick answer. Act-On University, their comprehensive support site/forum, is so thorough and has clear instructions for every process. I've never had such a pleasant experience learning new software as I did with Act-On. I felt incredibly supported!
- The software itself is intuitive, simple, and easy to use. Every time I think of a feature I wish it had, I do a quick search in the help (aka Act-On University, which is incredible), and turns out, it DOES do that! I have been delighted over and over again.
- The automation features are wonderful; it's simple to create an automated program with their drag/drop interface.
- The integration with Salesforce is clean, but the process of adding information from SFDC to my lists in Act-On could be clearer. I struggled for the first few weeks understanding what all I needed to do to include new information from my CRM.
- I loved my CSM, but her schedule was packed so full that I could only get on her calendar once a week. We needed to get up and running really quickly so I ended up having to do a lot of my onboarding myself, which meant I missed some things. We rectified them eventually, but I wish I'd had better access to my CSM in the early days.
- It would be helpful to more easily push subscription information back to my CRM system. We had to do this with a "hack" and it isn't pretty.
- We can create an email and launch it to leads/contacts in a fraction of the time, freeing up our marketing and sales teams to focus on other work. It's wonderful!
- The clear segmentation process will help to ensure we make fewer mistakes, and send to the right folks all the time -- which is good for our reputation as an organization.