ActiveCampaign Ultimate Guide

SaaS systems are common in the current e-commerce landscape. These platforms are used by many various businesses of all sizes. Organizations no longer need to install and run apps on their own PCs or in their own data centers thanks to SaaS. This removes the cost of purchasing, procuring, and maintaining hardware as well as purchasing, installing, and supporting software. Likewise, there is also business flexibility. That is why they are well-liked. Today, we’ll examine ActiveCampaign, one of these platforms. We’ll discover every aspect of this solution, including its features, costs, and other aspects.

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Introduce ActiveCampaign

Over 130,000 companies in 170 countries benefit from ActiveCampaign’s market-leading customer experience automation platform when they want to engage with their consumers in meaningful ways. The platform offers 500+ pre-built automations that combine email marketing, marketing automation, and CRM for effective segmentation and personalisation across social, email, messaging, chat, and text to organizations of all sizes. The 850+ connectors offered by ActiveCampaign, which include Salesforce, Microsoft, Shopify, Square, and Facebook, are used by more than 75% of its clients.

Nearly all of your needs in a newsletter marketing platform are met by ActiveCampaign, and their cutting-edge automations are unmatched. The entry-level subscription starts at $15 per month (for up to 500 subscribers, paid monthly), or you can upgrade to the Plus plan for $70 per month to access pro features like the built-in CRM, lead scoring, landing pages, and SMS sending.

Let’s dive into platform’ features.

The Most Important Features of ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is email marketing automation software with a built-in sales CRM. But it accomplishes much more than that. You might be taken aback by the breadth of platform functionality and options available on the dashboard when you first log in to ActiveCampaign.

Below are some of this platform’s most fundamental features:

• Use email newsletters for work. The drag-and-drop builder and professional-looking templates are included with the ActiveCampaign Email marketing solution. 
• Create campaigns that are automated. ActiveCampaign’s marketing automation builder is its true competitive advantage. Automated campaign creation is simple. Starting with templates, you can create automations that are completely unique to you.
• Utilize ActiveCampaign CRM’s Deals feature to close sales. Deals can be used to automate sales follow-up and reduce the amount of manual work required to close deals and sales. 
• Acquire additional leads. Utilizing the ActiveCampaign Landing Page Builder, you can turn visitors into subscribers and buyers. 
• On your website, use chat. To give your visitors a better overall experience, ActiveCampaign Messages combines your email, CRM, and chat/on-site messages.

ActiveCampaign is one of the uncommon solutions that combines a lot of capability without becoming overpowering. Let’s go deeper and more closely analyze each unique feature.

ActiveCampaign Marketing Automation

Many businesses do not always put their primary emphasis on automation. However, ActiveCampaign has focused on this and offers the ability to automate practically anything, including campaigns, deals, e-commerce automation, SMS, contact management, etc.

All plans feature marketing automation, but only customers of the Plus plan (starting at $70/month) and upwards can access sales automation. There are three screens you can interact with in the automation section: 

• Automations is the name of the home page. Here, you may create new automations and view a list of all your current ones.

• You may view, edit, and remove each message connected to an automated campaign using the manage message tab. 

• You can get a summary of how each automation interacts with other automations on the last screen, which is referred to as the automations map.

Furthermore, you can start from scratch when creating a new automation or choose from dozens of ActiveCampaign automation templates that are tailored for a particular result. Let’s look at them now.

Automation Templates

We examined the ActiveCampaign automation templates, often known as “recipes,” and discovered that they are both incredibly well-designed and simple to change. With 750 options to choose from, it’s simple to find what you’re looking for thanks to the categories. You can choose a template from groups like:  

• Accounting/Financial
• Any Industry
• Blogger/Author
• Consulting/Agency
• E-Commerce/Retail
• Entertainment/Events
• Fitness/Nutrition
• Healthcare
• Media/Publishing
• Online Training/Education
• Real Estate
• Software
• Travel/Hospitality
• Non-Profit

Another benefit of ActiveCampaign is that the platform does not provide generic, ambiguous templates but rather exact ones that are related to various systems and have a specific function, like recipes made especially for Shopify.

The sheer volume of recipes—which can be confusing in this amount—seems to be the only thing that might be frightening you.

ActiveCampaign Landing Pages

You have a variety of alternatives for choosing a theme here. You can create your own responsive landing page and save it as a custom page in addition to choosing from one of the 56 available templates. 

The main drawback, in our opinion, is that it is difficult to move blocks across the page when editing, despite the fact that the designs and editor are attractive and contemporary. You can only move an element between the outlined regions, not, for instance, slightly up or down. You have less creative latitude than with other website and landing page builders like Wix, thus I think ActiveCampaign has designed it up this way to ensure that every aspect is aligned. 

Although not the ideal tool, we think ActiveCampaign Landing Page is a very practical and adaptable one that will undoubtedly be useful.

ActiveCampaign CRM

This feature will be especially helpful for small business owners searching for contact management software to use in conjunction with the sophisticated email marketing capabilities. 

The software was rather simple for us to utilize. You can create several deal pipelines, adjust existing phases, and build brand-new ones to fit your individual sales process. The pipeline can be manually moved deals through thanks to the drag and drop program. 

ActiveCampaign Email Marketing

Campaigns and individual emails can both be used in email marketing. You have a choice of six different varieties, including: 

• Standard 
• Automated
• RSS triggered
• Split testing 
• Date based 
• Autoresponder 

You select the appropriate recipients for that email by selecting an email list in your account after deciding on the type of email you want to create. Beyond lists, site tracking and event monitoring provided by ActiveCampaign add another level of targeting that you may employ in specific campaigns.

ActiveCampaign Integrations 

There are numerous ActiveCampaign integrations, and more are being introduced on a daily basis. Any software (even no official, like homemade) can be integrated using Zapier or the open API. 

Deep integrations are what you might refer to as e-commerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and Woocommerce. This goes beyond the obvious and enables you to retrieve additional contact information, add tags, expand the contact’s record, obtain purchase history, and more. 

Among the most well-liked integrations are: 

• BigCommerce, Shopify, and WooCommerce 
• Editor of emails at ActiveCampaign, BEE 
• Facebook plugin for WordPress 
• Internet analytics 
• Calendly 
• CRM SalesForce 
• Basecamp
• And even more

The platform also has some sort of App Store where you may use various tools and acquire practical additions.

Let’s explore a couple ActiveCampaign Integrations in more detail. Starting with Shopify.

Shopify Integration

The ActiveCampaign for Shopify connection is a one-way sync that transfers actionable purchase and abandoned cart data for both logged-in customers and non-logged-in visitors directly from your Shopify store into your ActiveCampaign account. Among the advantages you gain from this approach are:

• Automatically take care of your clients. Shopify users can utilize purchase behavior to convert one-time consumers into recurring customers when connected to ActiveCampaign. Send discount offers to new clients automatically after their initial purchase at a certain period, ask for evaluations through text, and more.
• Become knowledgeable about your customers. You may keep track of what your customers have bought and make suggestions for next purchases accordingly. This can be done through advertising emails, SMS messages, and other formats.
• Establish brand loyalty. Reach out to clients in a personalized way to establish a relationship with them and convert first-time buyers into brand aficionados.

We have only covered the most basic aspects of integration. You can gain a lot more advantages from it and simplify some areas of your everyday routine.

SalesForce Integration

Make your ActiveCampaign account fields and Salesforce account object fields sync in both directions. Send an ActiveCampaign campaign built for a lead or contact to them via their Salesforce record. Enter the lead or contact into a Salesforce record-based ActiveCampaign automation.

You will receive various helpful features from this connection, such as:

• Take maximum advantage of useful knowledge. Your leads and consumers are communicating their wants to you. With ActiveCampaign, you can follow up with customers and deliver the content they want to see using the data from Salesforce Essentials.
• Automate to close more sales. You can qualify your leads without doing anything. Make sure you obtain the appropriate leads for your company and clinch the purchase at the ideal time.
• Utilize ActiveCampaign for Salesforce to activate your complete client experience. To build a more individualized customer experience that converts leads into repeat customers, ActiveCampaign for Salesforce combines the strength of Customer Experience Automation with data from Salesforce.

Jotform Integration

With Jotform’s integration, you can send newly created or changed contacts to a list in your ActiveCampaign account by matching certain form data to corresponding contact fields in ActiveCampaign.

With this integration, you gain the following advantages:

• Quickly gather new leads. To generate more leads and close more business, create effective online contact forms, lead gen forms, or registration forms using Jotform.
• Automate your routine. With no human data entering necessary, automatically send data to ActiveCampaign to maintain your data synchronized across all platforms.
• Enhance the experience for customers. Don’t hold up your customers. Utilize our free integration to get in touch with contacts and handle business more quickly.
• Don’t keep your customers waiting. Get in touch with contacts and process deals more efficiently using our free integration.

Additionally, you get the following features:

• Registration forms
• Signup forms
• Payment forms
• Contact forms
• Questionnaire forms
• Lead generation forms
• Event registration forms
• Subscription forms
• Quote forms

WooCommerce Integration

With ActiveCampaign for WooCommerce, all of your customers’ information, including abandoned shopping carts and marketing opt-in status, is instantly synced with ActiveCampaign. Because of this integration, you can:

• Real-time synchronization of all clients’ purchase information with ActiveCampaign
• ActiveCampaign and WooCommerce should be updated with the same data.
• Gain visibility to each synchronized order and take control of your historical data sync.
• You may start, pause, and stop your historical data sync whenever it suits you; you don’t have to worry about it running during busy times.
• Order sync confirmation once it has been completed, along with information about any orders that don’t sync
• Set the time frame for when a cart should be regarded as abandoned.
• On your checkout form, include a checkbox for customers to consent to receiving marketing messages.
• Set the opt-in checkbox’s text and whether it is checked by default.
• Automates when a customer leaves a cart empty

WordPress Integration 

Your ActiveCampaign account and your WordPress website are linked by the plugin. This addon will enable you to: Forms from ActiveCampaign can be published to any page, post, or sidebar. To keep track of who visits your WordPress site, use site tracking.

With this integration, you could do things like:

• Track contact visits made to your WordPress site
• Have two-way conversations with page visitors via ActiveCampaign Conversations
• Publish ActiveCampaign forms to your WordPress site

The platforms that you can use to connect your ActiveCampaign account are numerous. We examined the primary ones, and as a result, we can say that the platform offers a wide range of potential integrations.

ActiveCampaign Pricing 

Even if we endorse ActiveCampaign, you should evaluate its costs. Even while the cheapest plan starts at $15, costs soon increase as you add subscribers. The cost of using ActiveCampaign is on the higher end of the email marketing scale. Additionally, a 14-day free trial is available here with no fees.

The four ActiveCampaign pricing tiers start at Lite ($9/month). Marketing automation and email marketing are components of the beginning plan. Plans with more features include lead scoring, landing pages, and the ActiveCampaign CRM. The price of a platform depends on how many connections you have and what features you select.

ActiveCampaign Pros and Cons 

Let’s try to quickly grasp the benefits and drawbacks of this option for you.

Pros 

• Stunning automation. One of the best instruments for automation, in our opinion, is provided by this solution. Additionally, it is not only reliable but also simple to use, making ActiveCampaign even more practical.
• Free migrations. As a result of ActiveCampaign’s free migration, you may quickly switch from another platform to it.
• CRM. The platform’s CRM is quite robust. The automations and this feature are smoothly integrated to increase productivity within your company.
• Email Builder. Despite not being the most stylish, it is strong and allows you a lot of adaptability.
• Comprehensive Reporting. Provides reporting on all topics, including page visits, click-maps, and geo-tracking. For higher tiers, push notification tracking is available. Excellent tool to help you boost sales and customer loyalty.

Cons 

• No free option. Unfortunately, ActiveCampaign does not offer a free version, so if you require an uncomplicated tool, you must find more affordable options. After a 14-day free trial, you have to buy a subscription to the service.
• The Challenge for Beginners. If you’re new to email marketing automation, it takes some time to get your head around the complex capabilities.
• On-site chat is not for everyone. Conversations (also known as on-site chat) is an add-on that is not a part of the basic plan.

Do you need ActiveCampaign’s services?

We’ll now talk about the circumstances in which we recommend using this service and the conditions in which it would be best for you to search another. 

We advise using this platform if: 

• Your company needs an integrated sales and marketing platform. The built-in CRM of ActiveCampaign effortlessly connects to all of your email marketing data, enabling sales teams to move rapidly. Adding features like lead scoring and social data to your sales follow-up procedures might also be helpful.
• A tool for multi-channel marketing is required. ActiveCampaign also enables you to create landing pages, deliver SMS and tailored “Conversations” to website visitors, set up chatbot automations, and even control how Facebook advertisements are shown to contacts in addition to emailing. If you want to be able to concentrate a significant portion of your marketing and provide your clients with a better overall experience, this is a fantastic option.
• Businesses want to expand. Companies who have some expertise with email marketing or are prepared to step up their efforts should start using a marketing automation solution. You don’t need to be an expert; all you need to do is watch the onboarding videos.

We don’t advise using this tool if: 

• You require a simple, user-friendly tool. marketers who wish to send out straightforward newsletters. ActiveCampaign gives a extremely strong options, and chances are you won’t make use of all the capabilities. We suggest that you look into some alternatives in this situation. 
• You simply require basic automations. We’d advise more affordable choices if you merely want to build up fundamental email sequences.

ActiveCampaign Alternatives

Given that not everyone will find ActiveCampaign to be suitable, here are a few options that offer many of the essential functions you’ll need to conduct efficient email marketing.

If you’re primarily interested in delivering email newsletters and don’t require the sophisticated functionality offered by ActiveCampaign, Sendinblue is an excellent option. They do that, but it’s not as intricate as ActiveCampaign’s. Sendinblue work with transactional emails and newsletters, both of which it excels at.

With a ton of pro features and effective automations, GetResponse is a strong competitor to ActiveCampaign. They offer their platform in more than 20 languages, in contrast to ActiveCampaign, and they have great design and testing tools.

In the world of email marketing, Mailchimp is the huge multinational giant and has developed into a comprehensive arsenal for businesses. Despite the fact that it might not perform some tasks as well as ActiveCampaign, it makes up for this by being easier to use and free for small lists.

One of the more reasonable options is MailerLite, and their free plan is actually rather generous. They take an outstanding approach to email marketing design and provide templates with a contemporary aesthetic. 

Conclusions 

So, we’re prepared to make conclusions on the platform. It’s quite difficult to criticize ActiveCampaign because they not only provide practically everything you could possibly need in an email marketing platform, but they also do it very well. This ActiveCampaign review, in our opinion, demonstrates why this product is among your finest options if you’re searching for an all-in-one digital marketing platform. The automated workflows of competing products pale in comparison to their real-deal marketing and sales automation. Yes, you must have the courage to use the platform and learn how to use it, but the effort is well worth it. We advise you to try out this option.

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