Item: ActiveCampaign
Rating: 9
Author: Nathan Littleton

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We're using ActiveCampaign as both a CRM and email marketing tool across the whole business:

Managing contacts and recording our interactions with them
Sending regular emails to our mailing list to stay in touch with them and provide educational content
For automations as part of products and services we sell (onboarding and course delivery)

It helps us to stay in touch with people - the advantage over other apps is that it's CRM + email marketing in one, so we can see contact activity relating to email campaigns in the same place as notes, telephone call records, etc.

Pros and Cons

The email builder has a lot of customization options when compared with other email marketing apps.
The automation builder is incredibly powerful, particularly when combined with contact tagging. With 'tag added' and 'tag removed' as triggers for automations, there's huge scope for building automation.
Forms and landing pages are very useful, especially for list building.

My biggest frustration is with the email campaign reports. The UI appears to almost be from a different, much older app entirely. The data I can see about campaigns at a glance is very limited compared to other email marketing apps.
More flexibility with Zapier would be a real improvement.
The campaign creation process, although mostly excellent, feels a little clunky at times. For example, when choosing a segment to send to (that includes all contacts with a specific tag) I can't see who is in that segment without a number of additional clicks.

Return on Investment

Definite return on investment
Streamlined processes as CRM and email marketing are in one place
Automated online course delivery, saving a huge amount of time

Alternatives Considered

Campaign Monitor, Mailchimp, ConvertKit, Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) and Constant Contact

The key reasons I've chosen ActiveCampaign over others are:

Combined CRM and email marketing in one place
Contact tagging (some other email apps have this, some don't)
Powerful automation builder
Generally a very good UI

Key Insights

Do you think ActiveCampaign delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with ActiveCampaign's feature set?

Yes

Did ActiveCampaign live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of ActiveCampaign go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy ActiveCampaign again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Xero, Dropbox, Stripe, Elementor, WordPress, Todoist: To-Do List & Task Manager, Conversion.ai, Craft, Teachable, Thinkific, Stripo, Campaign Monitor

Likelihood to Recommend

Although there are some areas for improvement, I do think it's the best combined CRM and email marketing app available right now - it's flexible enough to cover use cases for those new to using email marketing as well as those with advanced automation. It's perhaps less appropriate for those who aren't tech-savvy - there is a training available but the learning curve is a little steeper than with other email marketing apps.

The best all-round email marketing and CRM app

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with ActiveCampaign