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Active Campaign
CRM Software, Email Marketing Software
Founded
Languages
English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
Software Objective
Best suited for
What does the software offer
User Expertise
Active Campaign is an easy to start system with user level technical understanding at a basic level. It has easy to follow instructions of how to verify your domain (which must be done to send secure emails). The system is laid out for ease of use and provides recommendations for using each part. The more technical aspects are developing custom fields and automations so just to note you will need more technical knowledge to work through these. Active Campaign have recently split up their system, so there are now separate user options for sales versus marketing. This is quite frustrating as you need to be aware of which elements you need in order to purchase the right system. You can get both as a bundle but the pricing is much higher now than with previous costs. Active Campaign have added a lot more direct integration to the system which has come with a large growth strategy by Active Campaign in 2022-23 to focus in on the specific elements that you need – Marketing with emails and automation, or Sales with CRM and sales engagement (deals). AI has now been integrated into Active Campaign to give more power to generating ideas for content. With anything AI related, it’s only a tool so use it with a clear purpose in mind.
User level technical knowledge to set up
Accessibility / Customisation
Ease of Use for a beginner
Customer Service
Customer Service Notes
Recently Active Campaign have made some large-scale changes with their software, but to the detriment of their Customer Service. When you reach out for support, try to provide instructional videos to guide them in what issue you are having. This can help speed up a solution for you. Be aware that some packages no longer offer online support, so check this when you purchase your package. Blue Ninja have a direct link to customer service to get support so if you get stuck, please reach out and we can help you. Active Campaign have now launched an email building tool that rivals Mailchimp. Unfortunately there are still bugs in the system which are causing headaches to users but Active Campaign are working through those. Users can log requests for updates directly to Active Campaign which are evaluated by developers and integrated if possible.
Training
In person, Online, Webinars, Documentation, Videos
Help Documentation
Data Migration
Ability to Import, Ability to Export, Integrations
Data Management
Data is only as good as collected, so think about what data you are collecting and why. Make use of the custom fields to tailor your contact information and also deal information to fit what you need to collect. You can also hold contacts in Active Campaign and as long as they are not active on a list, they can still be included and not count towards your contact total. Remember on the mobile app it's showing you the total number of records in the system, not active users. Check regularly that your tags are not duplicating (ie. there is a space or spelling error) and your unsubscribed and bounced list. You can leave those records in the system, and it may help to know who has unsubscribed in case they follow up with you via another avenue such as direct email or social media - you'll still have their information. You want to leverage tags a lot more than lists. This may seem counter-intuitive but for Active Campaign, tags are magical! Keep the number of lists down as your unsubscribe process is tied to each list, and you don't want people unsubcribing from one, only to keep getting emails on another. As long as you have a subscription you have access to your data. If you wish to cancel your account, you can choose which day you wish to end your subscription on. Active Campaign will help you to close and export your data.
Does it offer a free trial?
Yes
Keywords
Automation, Customer Service, Customer Support, Campaigns, Email Marketing, Leads, Business
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