ActiveCampaign Review: Best Email Automation and CRM?

Email marketing software is one of the most important investments you will make in your business, blog, or niche website. You own your list of contacts, can reach out to them at any time, and can make good use of this space to advertise products and services. With so many email marketing platforms out there today, ActiveCampaign deserves a second look. Our ActiveCampaign review will help you decide.

If you've been thinking about what you can do to drive more sales on your web page, ActiveCampaign can help with CRM, email marketing, and marketing automation all in one fell swoop.

Are you ready to tackle the issue of getting a steady newsletter sent out to your list?

Sign up for ActiveCampaign today!

ActiveCampaign Facts: What It Is & Should You Use It?

ActiveCampaign is one of the best platforms for automated campaigns, especially if you happen to be a more advanced user. Founded in 2003, it has been in the game for a long time, and its robust features and reporting show its experience. A few available functions include:

• Advanced automation for email marketing
• Multi-channel marketing
• Marketing automation
• Segmentation
• CRM
• And so much more!

Currently, they work with more than 150,000 businesses in more than 170 countries, so they know a thing or two about what works best.

In their recent review of services competing for market share, Forbes Advisor named ActiveCampaign the best for automated email marketing. But how does it stack up in terms of the competition? It's common to find that ActiveCampaign has lots of superfans, but we'll look in the next section to see who benefits the most from this platform.

Who is ActiveCampaign Best For?

The truth is that ActiveCampaign might not be the right fit for everyone. It's tailored to advanced users who need more integrations, custom reporting, and larger email lists. It can accommodate extra-large list sizes of up to 250,000 people -- and you get unlimited emails sent to that list when you opt for a higher plan.

Data is king on ActiveCampaign. Users who want to see where their email marketing campaigns are falling short of the mark and how those read and open rates are doing will love the automation reports here.

Unfortunately, these advanced features also mean it costs more for you to take advantage of their benefits. If you have the budget to spend on one platform only, ActiveCampaign should be on your shortlist.

ActiveCampaign Review: Where Does It Shine?

With some of the facts about ActiveCampaign out of the way, let's take a closer look at where this tool shines and how it can boost your email marketing campaigns. You won't want to miss these features when deciding on the best marketing automation tools.

WYSIWYG Editor

No coding experience under your belt? No problem with the What You See is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editor on ActiveCampaign. There are many options for customizing your emails, but they can all be done with a drag-and-drop editor. Using ActiveCampaign automation templates, you have all the features and frameworks needed to create beautiful messages.

This means you spend less time focusing on formatting and more time on the content contained within your email newsletter.

However, there are other options for people who want a greater degree of customization. Custom HTML is available for anyone who wants to experiment with this style.

Automation for Email Marketing and Multi-Channel Marketing

Business owners who want to run an email marketing campaign know that cookie-cutter strategies may not work in the long run. This is where marketing automation tools come into the picture. They have a workflow function that allows you to create sales automation based on segment, ensuring that every one of your recipients has a customized experience.

How can they segment your email marketing list? Consider some of these options:

• When or why someone subscribed to your newsletter
• What they purchased from your site
• What they were most interested in on your page
• Specific actions they have taken.

Plus, the ActiveCampaign marketing automation also allows for multi-channel marketing. This email nurturing sequence is just a part of their strategy.

Deliverability Rates

When it comes to your customers, you need to ensure that they are actually receiving site messages when you send them out. Email marketing can't be effective if emails never get delivered, but this may not be an issue for anyone using ActiveCampaign. They have one of the highest deliverability rates of their competitors.

In a recent study from Email Tool Tester, ActiveCampaign had a 94.2 percent deliverability rate!

Option for Built-in CRM

In addition to all of the custom reports for your email marketing, ActiveCampaign has another useful function for an additional fee: customer relationship management (CRM). CRM software is designed to help you with contact management: staying in touch with the people who want to hear from you and convincing them to purchase from your site.

What can you do through their CRM? You might be surprised at just how versatile it is for a company that specializes solely in email marketing. Here are a few ideas:

• Automate lists
• Contact management
• Deals to encourage people to buy
• Notes in customer profiles
• Set up appointments
• Send direct messages.

Ease of Migrating from Other Platforms

Have you been using other email marketing software but feel ready to make the switch? The good news is that it will be virtually painless to transition from your current email marketing services. They offer a free contact list migration to get you up and running in a snap.

This free service is available even on their lowest-priced plan (note that there are no free plan options - more on pricing later).

Reporting Capabilities

If Google Analytics isn't cutting it for your reports, then ActiveCampaign has you covered. Their custom reports touch on just about everything you could ever need for your marketing automation. Think about the possibilities if you could tap into the consumer data that drives your day-to-day business:

• Campaign performance
• Trends from your most loyal customers
• Predictive content
• Open and read rates
• Purchase tracking (on higher plans).

All of this is possible when you utilize ActiveCampaign in tandem with your Google Analytics account. This type of powerful reporting capability is what sets ActiveCampaign apart from most email marketing platforms that are vying for your attention.

Disadvantages in our ActiveCampaign Review

While there are a lot of reasons to consider ActiveCampaign's email marketing programs, there are some serious drawbacks that we don't want to gloss over (also be sure to check out ActiveCampaign vs Drip). Consider whether these will influence your decision before signing up.

Not Beginner Friendly

While it does have a drag-and-drop editor, beginners may really struggle to make good use of the site. The custom reports and in-depth features are what attract seasoned email marketers to the platform. Make no mistake that beginners can benefit from these tools too!

It's best to have them at your fingertips whenever you feel ready to dive into the sales pipeline. That being said, it can feel a little overwhelming for people who are just getting started with their email marketing.

Not Cost Effective for Simple Automation

This goes hand in hand with the last point. ActiveCampaign is not one of the least expensive email marketing platforms on the market today. If you're a beginner and don't yet need any fancy tools to keep the wheels on your business, then this may not be the best use of your hard-earned money.

Simple automation is possible, but you could go with a less expensive option if you don't need the list segmenting and reporting offered here.

Charges for Previews

There might be a great drag-and-drop feature to their email marketing, but you have to know what to do to make the most of it. If you want to preview your emails and you happen to be on their lower tier, you're going to have to pay for it. They charge Lite users $5 per five tests (Plus and Professional plans receive five free tests each month).

No Phone Support

When you have trouble with your email marketing or sales automation, where do you turn? Some people hate the chat and email options offered by many companies because they can take longer to get to the bottom of things.

If you want the touch of a real person on your account, you'll be disappointed with the options of ActiveCampaign.

Integrations May Require PRO Zapier (Additional Cost)

While they do have an extensive library of more than 900 integrations, some users find that they don't have all the tools they would hope for. Instead, you may need to think about using Zapier to connect your favorite programs to the marketing automation tools. In some instances, you may even need PRO Zapier, which can come at an additional cost.

Pricing for ActiveCampaign: No Free Plan

Of course, you might be wondering at this point whether our ActiveCampaign review will show you how affordable it is. Unlike many email marketing platforms that offer a free plan to those with only a handful of subscribers, ActiveCampaign lacks this option.

Plus plans and Professional plans are even more expensive ($49 and $149 per month, respectively). The main difference between these two plans is the number of users, three to five, as opposed to just one on the Lite plan. You get more features like a landing page builder, popups, and more integrations.

You'll have to pay for the features you want and you get only a free trial for the first 14 days.

ActiveCampaign Alternatives

Not convinced that you want to pay for their drag-and-drop builder, or you need something for email marketing beginners? Here are a few alternatives that can help you enhance your marketing efforts.

Constant Contact

Beginners love Constant Contact because it is extremely simple to use and analyze customer data. A key feature of this email marketing platform is its powerful segmentation features. Automation is an area where it shines, proving that you don't need something as expensive as ActiveCampaign to get good results.

Plus, you also get lead gen and ad software to make the most of your campaigns. You even get some free stock photos to use in your designs.

Pricing is a lot more affordable on this platform, with Lite plans starting at $12 per month. It also offers an optional add-on for SMS campaigns ($10). Much like others, you will pay more depending on how many contacts you have, but this base price covers 500 subscribers.

See our full Constant Contact review here for more details.

GetResponse

GetResponse is another option that is extremely easy to use and great for beginners. It's an all-in-one solution with pre-built funnels, along with other key features that make your experience with the tool as seamless as possible. Don't forget that it also offers marketing automation tools that can help you. It even offers a wide variety of opt-in forms and landing pages.

Plus, it's great for beginners because it offers 24/7 customer support in eight languages.

Webinars and paid ad management are also great functionalities that aren't included in ActiveCampaign, even at more advanced levels.

The cost of GetResponse is pretty in line with Constant Contact at $15.60 per month (billed annually) for up to 1,000 subscribers.

For more information, see our GetResponse review or our head-to-head comparison of ActiveCampaign vs GetResponse.

Final Thoughts: What Does Our ActiveCampaign Review Mean for You? 

Are you ready to start growing your eCommerce businesses and managing your email campaigns? If so, you need the right tools to help you communicate with your customers or audience. ActiveCampaign offers a lot of bang for your buck if you happen to be a more advanced user. However, beginners may not find the value in it right away.

It's perfectly fine to start with a less expensive and less robust tool, as ActiveCampaign allows for free contact list migration when you're ready to scale up.

If ActiveCampaign sounds like the right fit for you today, sign up here!

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