Item: ActiveCampaign
Rating: 9
Author: Brooke Hender

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use ActiveCampaign to manage my business - all information to clients, or potential clients, goes through here. The time I used to take to follow up with prospective clients has been freed up through automation. I'm able to create my regular newsletters and get an idea of the responses. I am a sole trader and investing in ActiveCampaign really made a difference in how I'm able to engage and develop relationships with people. I published a short ebook earlier this year and it is managed through AC and provides me with insights into what appeals and what doesn't in follow-up automation.
There is a learning curve and there are still areas to focus on and utilize for my benefit. It's not a cheap product but it does provide good value if you fully leverage what it offers.

Pros and Cons

Newsletters/campaigns - I've found it easy to create the newsletter I want to send out.
Contact information - particularly the tagging facility which really is useful.
Reporting information - great to get insight into what is working and what is not.

Deals - I'm finding that this area doesn't yet reflect how I'd like to work. WIP.
Campaigns - I've praised this and rightly so, but there are still improvements to be made in formatting and flexibility.
Pricing - particularly for sole traders.

Return on Investment

Better understanding of my potential clients and how to engage with them.
Easy creation of newsletters with the ability to monitor overall impact.
Cost a consideration for smaller businesses.

Key Insights

Do you think ActiveCampaign delivers good value for the price?

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?

Would you buy ActiveCampaign again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Zapier

Likelihood to Recommend

For a business with multiple employees, I can see how this can be such a critical piece of software. For sole traders it is useful, but harder to justify financially. Like all software that has flexibility, it requires time to invest in it to get it working and mistakes will be made. I've certainly 'gone back to the start' once or twice in certain areas.

Recommended, with caveats

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with ActiveCampaign