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Should You Give Active Campaign A Try?

Sezmi Sezmi

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Our Take

ActiveCampaign is our top choice for email marketing.

A successful email marketing strategy is essential to run a blog, online business, or website.

Building a strong email network is a key thing that you can do to grow your online business.

Search engine algorithms change and social media channels lose their popularity.

Your email lists can help you reach your traffic and revenue goals.

This is one of the few marketing channels you have.

How can you choose the best email marketing platform? It must have enough functionality to enable you to send targeted emails and automate your workflow.

ActiveCampaign makes it possible.

ActiveCampaign might be the right tool for you if automation is important to you and you want more control over your email marketing strategies.

ActiveCampaign is something that we need to be aware of. ActiveCampaign is a tool we have used for our blog, and our business, for over five years.

This ActiveCampaign review will tell you everything you need to know about ActiveCampaign and how it differs from ConvertKit.

What’s ActiveCampaign?

ActiveCampaign is a cloud-based email platform that caters to bloggers and digital marketers. ActiveCampaign allows users to unlock all features.

ActiveCampaign was founded by Jason VandeBoom, CEO. ActiveCampaign started as a self-hosted service. ActiveCampaign became a software-as-a-service (SaaS), model in 2013. ActiveCampaign now has over 500 employees and 130,000 customers around the world.

Pros

• Advanced Email Automation – our choice for best email marketing automation. ActiveCampaign has over 20 ways to trigger automation.
• Excellent Email Delivery — ActiveCampaign ranks highest in email delivery according to EmailToolTester.
• ActiveCampaign offers no-cost migrations. ActiveCampaign will move your email list to a new provider at no cost.
• Emails Lists & Tags — This email service is one of the few that allows you to segment and tag your audience.
• 870+ integrations – ActiveCampaign can be linked to other services, so it is more likely there are integrations.
• 250+ premade automation — ActiveCampaign has more than 250 recipes you can use to create your automation.

Cons

• ActiveCampaign can be confusing because of the many functions it offers. The menu structure can make it difficult to find specific features.
• Personal emails can be difficult — we have found that ActiveCampaign isn’t like ConvertKit, which can send emails that look identical to personal emails. ActiveCampaign makes it difficult to personalize emails.
• Poor reporting — They should be better. The ActiveCampaign Service’s weakest part is its newer reports. These seem like an afterthought.
• APwe Does Not Include Email Sends — ActiveCampaign does not send email data via API. ActiveCampaign doesn’t offer email send data via API, so it is difficult to get open rates.
• Chat Conversations — ActiveCampaign aims to compete with Intercom.
• ActiveCampaign recently launched a landing page service. we don’t like the design and would rather use a plugin or third-party service.
• ActiveCampaign provides custom domains to the highest plan. ActiveCampaign does not provide custom domains for their Enterprise plans.

ActiveCampaign Pricing

ActiveCampaign completely changed its pricing and plans as of January 2023.

ActiveCampaign pricing can be more complicated than other companies. It is also tiered. More subscribers will cost more. Higher-level plans offer more functionality.

There are four levels to

• Lite — This package allows up to three users. It includes everything you need for email automation, lead capture, and third-party integration.
• Plus — Contact scoring, landing pages, and CRM functionality. SMS prospect nurturing is also included.
• Professional — Includes website personalization, machine-learning-based predictive sending and content tips, in-app messaging, split automation, and up to 50 users.
• Enterprise — Includes custom domains, reporting, free design services, and unlimited users.

ActiveCampaign offers many features you will need to know, but the tiers are suitable for different size operations.

For example, the Lite plan includes all that an independent business needs for email marketing automation and list building. If your company is starting to pay for ad space, the Plus plan will include landing pages and leading scoring.

Larger organizations may need more customization.

For 1,000 contacts, the Lite plan costs $29/per month. Each plan will get more expensive.

These are not all contact list. These are not all contact lists. They represent only the most popular entry points according to our experience.

If you pay annually, you can also receive a discount of up to 21% on your monthly fees

To create custom plans, you’ll need to talk with a salesperson You can also negotiate pricing or features.

The Plus plan unlocks the majority of ActiveCampaign features such as contact scoring.

ActiveCampaign offers free migration of their email service if someone is looking for a new ESP.

Enterprise users can’t have custom domain names

ActiveCampaign Features

ActiveCampaign is a SaaS platform that combines email marketing, automation, and customer relations management (CRM).

• Unlimited Emails – There are no limits to how many emails you can send each month.
• Automations – Create complex email marketing funnels by using different triggers.
• Sign-up forms are not required to use a third-party service such as OptinMonster.
• WordPress plugin — Add ActiveCampaign forms and landing pages to your WordPress blog. Site Tracking can be used to track site activity. Chat is also available.
• Email Segmentation – ActiveCampaign lets you segment your email subscribers with tags and separate email lists.
• Email Broadcasts: Create an email broadcast, and select the time it should go out.
• More Than 870 Integrations – ActiveCampaign offers many integrations with Zapier (a third-party service).
• Powerful API: Customize your integration with the feature-rich interface to application programming (API).
• CRM with deal tracking — Share email history and chat history with colleagues to track leads and keep them informed.
• A/B testing — Test different subject lines and emails to determine which one performs the best.
• Leading Scoring — Evaluate each subscriber using metrics that measure their interaction with your email list.
• Subscribe via SMS — Offers subscribers the option to sign up and receive notifications via mobile phones
• ActiveCampign offers free migrations – ActiveCampign can help move your setup to another ESP.
• RSS Feed – ActiveCampaign allows you to email your most recent WordPress blog posts to your followers instantly.
• Two-Factor authentication – Log in securely with multi-factor authentication
• Facebook Custom Audiences — Connect your Email List to Facebook Audiences (available in ActiveCampaign’s higher-priced Plans).
• ActiveCampaign’s newest landing pages service, Landing Pages — The Plus and higher plans are available with ActiveCampaign.

Landing Pages and Web Form Builder

ActiveCampaign’s drag-and-drop email builder makes it simple to create eye-catching emails from the box. There are more than 25 templates you can choose from so you don’t have to create multiple emails.

ActiveCampaign has four forms to capture contacts

• Inline
• Floating bar
• Floating box
• Modal

You can edit the design and colors of your form just like you can with other ESPs.

ActiveCampaign lets you qualify contacts by adding a custom field to the form field.

Ask your contacts about the product they are most interested in and if they would like to schedule a demo. Based on the quality of leads that you capture, you can segment contacts and start automation.

ActiveCampaign can be a powerful tool, even if we prefer OptinMonster.

ActiveCampaign’s new feature is the landing page creator. This feature can be very useful for some users. However, a WordPress setup is not required. Third-party tools are better than add-ons. OptimizePress is our favorite service.

ActiveCampaign Segments

ActiveCampaign has a real advantage: the ability to segment your contacts This allows you to automate and manage your list.

ActiveCampaign allows you to segment using three methods

• Lists — Separate email accounts into distinct segments.
• Tags – You can add attributes to an email subscriber you have created.
• Custom Fields – Keep track of the unique information in each email you receive so that you can use it in your automation.

The three methods can be combined in many ways.

It’s easy to track users and group prospects and customers with lists. You can send different emails to customers or prospects.

ActiveCampaign’s email list is very similar to the old days when each segment was set up distinctly. ActiveCampaign lets you create unlimited lists. This allows you to create multiple email lists.

Tags can be dynamic data points that provide information on customers such as page views, purchases, and other attributes.

Custom fields allow you to store personal data like quiz results, location, or immutable characteristics like age, gender, and address.

You can use automatic segmentation to group contacts who are similar once you begin assigning tags to users and filling in custom fields.

Contacts can be automatically segmented based on:

• Customer lifetime value
• Time since your last purchase. Products purchased
• Role in the industry and job
• Email openers and Clickers
• Quiz results
• Contacts by users
• Geographic location

ActiveCampaign’s website monitoring capabilities allow such precise segmentation.

ActiveCampaign allows you to segment contacts and send targeted emails to customers.

Lead Scoring

ActiveCampaign’s lead scoring feature can be underutilized but it can prove very effective.

ActiveCampaign lets you assign scores to user actions like

• Visit specific web pages
• Downloading lead magnets
• Get a free trial
• Abandoning carts
• Completing an automation
• Emails are openable, clicked, and can be replied to

These actions allow you to choose how many points you would like to add or subtract. You can also create automation based on the user’s score or notify your sales team of hot leads.

This feature can be very powerful if used correctly. Your sales team will be able to contact qualified leads directly to offer additional support, answer questions, and provide white-glove customer care.

A small increase in conversion rates can make a huge difference if you are selling a high-end product.

Automatizations

ActiveCampaign automation is designed to work 24/7. ActiveCampaign lets you design your email drips, branches, and campaigns, unlike other email marketing companies that support only email campaigns.

ActiveCampaign can be used to automate email campaigns and is one of our favorites. ActiveCampaign does not require any additional software.

Visual Flowchart

ActiveCampaign provides a visual flowchart that helps you to set up workflows. Rather than creating one automation that covers all actions, we recommend you create separate automation that can be linked together.

ActiveCampaign Sample Automation

Triggers

ActiveCampaign triggers allow you to automate almost everything.

• It begins without the use of a trigger
• Fill out a form
• Join a mailing list
• Unsubscribe to a list
• Emails are openable/read
• Open an email and click on the link.
• Go to the webpage
• Recording the event
• Emails with Shares
• Forward an email
• Email Replies
• Tag is an additional tag
• The tag has been deleted
• Changings in the Field
• We have reached our goal
• Date
• RSS-based
• Injects into the pipeline
• Changes at the deal stage
• Status changes in deals

ConvertKit doesn’t currently allow you to create automation without a trigger. ThriveCart can trigger automation within ActiveCampaign.

Take Action

What actions can you take to follow an event? Here is a list of ActiveCampaign options.

• Wait
• If/else
• Split
• Go to
• Goal
• Different automation?
• This automation has been over
• Stop another automation
• Webhook
• Do math

ConvertKit doesn’t allow webhooks to be created through its API. ConvertKit does allow webhooks to be created via its API.

Conditions

ActiveCampaign provides advanced options for testing your email subscribers’ emails, including

• Date created
• Tag added
• Tag removed
• Click on a link
• An email was sent to
• Geometry Based on IP Addresses
• A page was visited
• Total sites visited
• Visitor’s time zone

To a certain degree, it is. For ActiveCampaign customers, it can be overwhelming.

Automatization Templates

ActiveCampaign has more than 250 templates you can download. Some templates require payment.

Automation may include:

• Re-engagement
• Cart abandoned
• Upsell
• Webinar reminder
• Services to the welcome

These templates will help you get started. You can modify these templates to meet your specific needs.

Integration

is something most people realize only after they have bought an email service provider.

The choice you make in SaaS can often determine the software tools you have access to.

ActiveCampaign is different.

ActiveCampaign is compatible with more than 860 platforms. ActiveCampaign integrates seamlessly with all of the services we’ve used over the years.

ActiveCampaign integrates services from third parties to

• Accounting — Includes FreshBooks and Harvest and QuickBooks, Xero, Xero, and Zoho.
• Analytics — This includes Google Analytics and Dasheroo.
• CMS — Includes Asana, Drupal, Evernote Drupal, and Evernote Joomla!
• CRM — Insightly, Salesforce, Google Calendar, and Contacts are all included.
• Developer Tools and Databases — This includes Airtable (Google Sheets), MySQL (Google Sheets), CloudWork, Zapier, and CloudWork.
• Ecommerce — Gumroad. PayPal. Shopify. Square. Stripe. WooCommerce. Stripe.
• Event Management — Calendly. Eventbrite. Zoom.
• Forms — This includes AgileForms as well as ClickFunnels, JotForms, JotForms, and Leadpages
• Lead generation — Includes Bloom, ConvertFlow, and Facebook Custom Audiences.
• Social and Sales — ClickSend SMS and Slack are all included

ActiveCampaign makes setting up APwe access easy. After creating a new account, you will find your APwe key under your developer tools. ActiveCampaign offers an APwe documentation portal and a forum where developers can ask questions.

ActiveCampaign might not be able to integrate with every service. Zapier is likely to be able to do the job.

Email Deliverability

Email delivery refers to the ability of an email service provider (ESP) to ensure that your messages reach the recipients. The core of email marketing is email marketing.

Many factors influence email delivery. ActiveCampaign delivered 97% of its emails according to a recent study. This is almost 5% higher than MailerLite.

ActiveCampaign users use a common IP pool to send emails. This ensures deliverability and warmth.

If you have more than 100,000 people to whom you send emails regularly, a dedicated IP can be purchased for $750. You are responsible to make sure that the IP stays in good standing.

ActiveCampaign is not bulletproof in terms of deliverability.

Base email templates can feel a little generic. You must tweak the design and create compelling content to make your emails stand apart.

ActiveCampaign may also switch your account from being “good” to “better” depending on your mailing lists.

Avoid spam mail folders. ActiveCampaign must be a success.

Email Analytics & Reporting

we use Woopra Analytics software to track visitors. ActiveCampaign connects with Woopra so that it reports on clicks and opens to Woopra.

ConvertKit, on the other hand, doesn’t integrate with Woopra. It can’t send emails or click links to any third-party services and can’t open the email.

Last Thoughts about ActiveCampaign

Even the most basic ActiveCampaign plans have plenty of functionality for a fair price.

ActiveCampaign’s ability to adapt to changing needs is what we love most about it.

ActiveCampaign will be your only option, and you won’t need to switch providers.

ActiveCampaign can be a great choice if you’re looking for an email service provider which allows you to automate your emails.

Today’s market has many ESPs.

The death email lists reports are exaggerated

Email is not going away. Because of the trust issues users have in social networks as well as low engagement rates, it’s even more important to create an email list.

ActiveCampaign is a customer of mine for over five years. we first used it with Investor Junkie, which we later sold. It is still what we use on our blog. we also provide consulting services to clients about how to use ActiveCampaign efficiently.

we don’t want to send weekly emails. ActiveCampaign is what you use.