ActiveCampaign - All of the email tools you’ll ever need, in one toolbox.
January 06, 2020
ActiveCampaign - All of the email tools you’ll ever need, in one toolbox.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Other
Overall Satisfaction with ActiveCampaign
We use ActiveCampaign for all of our email communications, from initial email signup onboarding to abandoned cart autoresponders, ticketing for questions or support, weekly email newsletters, and automated highly segmented emails with more information and details after someone has visited a specific page for a specific number of times.
The automation capability greatly reduces our time spent answering general questions, as we can create automations for virtually anything that is repetitive and time-consuming. Frequently asked questions through email are responded to by tagging that question to trigger a sequence of emails from one to multiples to answer the initial question and ask further questions to drill down to the reason for the initial question.
For example, if someone asks why their plants had pest insects on them, we would start the answer by tagging "pest question" to trigger the initial email outlining the general answer, with a question at the end if they need or want more details. If they click "yes", that triggers a series of emails explaining how soil fertility and weed population factors into pest insect problems, and gives links to articles we've written answering those questions.
The automation capability greatly reduces our time spent answering general questions, as we can create automations for virtually anything that is repetitive and time-consuming. Frequently asked questions through email are responded to by tagging that question to trigger a sequence of emails from one to multiples to answer the initial question and ask further questions to drill down to the reason for the initial question.
For example, if someone asks why their plants had pest insects on them, we would start the answer by tagging "pest question" to trigger the initial email outlining the general answer, with a question at the end if they need or want more details. If they click "yes", that triggers a series of emails explaining how soil fertility and weed population factors into pest insect problems, and gives links to articles we've written answering those questions.
- Automation: one of ActiveCampaign's primary strengths. Because it is so powerful it can be confusing at first, but their learning library and Facebook community make it easier.
- The email signup process is very easy, yet is completely customizable depending on the need. Our general email signup form is very simple, but some of our content upgrades on specific articles are more detailed, which helps us get the subscriber the right information at the right time.
- It is difficult to re-send a single email in a sequence or newsletter to an individual. You have to create a custom group, then add just that email to the group before sending it out a second time. This could be easier!
- The workflow in creating an automation and the email sequence for that automation could be simpler or more intuitive. You can create the emails and then add them into the automation sequencing, or create the sequencing with placeholders for the emails, but you can't go from a sequence to creating an email easily.
- We use ActiveCampaign to integrate with our eCommerce platform, BigCommerce. ActiveCampaign accepts all of the data for orders, item names and SKUs to create tags based on buying behavior.
- This has enabled us to drill down and get much more personalized with tags and therefore send more timely and useful emails that educate and nurture our customers, whether they are new or existing.
- Our open and click-through rates have increased since we migrated to ActiveCampaign, possibly due to a better targeting system and a more pro-active staff at AC that works to manage their relationships and reputation with the email service platforms.
We have used all of the above platforms previously over the past decade, migrating from Constant Contact to iContact, then to Emma and finally GreenRope before migrating to ActiveCampaign, where we have stayed for the past 4 years. All of the previous email platforms had some combination that we needed as we grew our business and needed increasingly sophisticated tools to give our customers the right email with the right information at the right time. After all, that is pretty much what every ESP promises in their ads, right? Constant Contact and iContact were the most basic, and we outgrew them when we started needing to segment and personalize our emails, instead of just doing a weekly blast. Emma and GreenRope were the easiest and most enjoyable to work with—both had great staff that provided excellent support and really cared about their clients. We moved away from them only due to needing tagging and better personalization functionality. We don't need appointment scheduling or booking functionality, as our business is strictly online and email, so a CRM system wasn't as valuable to us as to other types of companies.