Active Campaign was started in 2003 when it offered over 10 traditional types of software. However, it narrowed down to only one application, ActiveCampaign the ESP. Active Campaigns is an adaptable and affordable email marketing application with diverse tools for automation and reporting. Though first time users may take some moments to get around with, over time it becomes an enthralling driver for traffic and conversions.
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Using Active Campaigns
To use Active Campaigns, the process of signing up is very easy; simply visit their page to provide name, email address, and business name. Then, you are directed to select any of their 3 main user plans that ties cost to the contact list. For clients who pay full annual fees, they get a 15% discount off the listed price.
- The basic plan is priced $9/month for 500 contacts to $415/month for 100,000 contacts. Clients in the basic plan have up to three users, get email-based supports and chats, access to newsletters, and features for automated marketing.
- Plus plan allows you to utilize up to 25 users and goes for $49/month for 1,000 contacts to $338/month for 25,000 contacts. Here, you get an additional custom domain, branding, and direct training.
- The Enterprise plan allows you to have as many users as possible. It also provides direct phone support, dedicated support representative, custom email server domain, and more reporting tools. Its price ranges from $149/month for 2,500 contacts to $350/month for 10,000 contacts.
The starting information puts a lot of info to the user. It gives them about 11 different windows. These include;
- All contacts
- Contacts trend
- Your email campaigns
- Automations
- Email design templates that you have saved
- The preferred contact list
- The pipelines with graph indicating sales lead. Vendors, VIP contacts and potential clients
- Scheduling feature detailing panned email campaigns
- A special checklist for new users to get started
The dashboard comes with an additional Navigation Bar at the top for faster access to Contacts, Automations, Campaigns, Lists, Apps, Deals, and Reports. Unlike the common dashboards in other apps, the Active Campaigns allows the user to put all the windows together or drag them to the preferred position on your desktop. The initial layout only demonstrates how the entire ActiveCmpaigns could look like but not what it must look like.
Managing Your Contacts Using Active Campaigns
Preparing an email list
Before getting started with any campaign, you are required to prepare a list. To do this, fill in a pop-up window that requires the user to name the list, add name, and include address of the business. You also include the URL list about the list, and a reminder to the contacts why they are included in the list.
To create lists using Active Campaigns, you can utilize the ready to use templates by simply copy pasting or import a .csv file or import contact list from major sources such as Salesforce or Google.
Adding tags
Adding tags is very useful during the campaigns when you need to sort the contact lists and split the potential ones from others as opposed to having one simple collection. Remember that contacts can also be exported from any active campaigns you are running on the home page, social media, landing page, or other platforms.
Utilizing lead scoring
This feature is constructed to assist sales teams target contacts by drawing rules and pinning accumulating points to value the contacts that meet them. This is critical for helping to drive conversion because you only work with high potential clients. The rules may be geographical regions and response rates among others.
Creating a Perfect Email Campaign
- After setting out the contact list, users pick various options to create their campaigns.
- They can opt for the standard one-short email type of campaign.
- They can go for the automated design that generates sequence of emails depending on set rules.
- The user can utilize auto-responders that send emails when a client subscribes.
- Users can go for the RSS-triggered model that sends emails when RSS-feed is updated.
- The date-based email campaign is automated to send emails to contacts on specific dates like holidays and birthdays among others.
Once you select the right campaign, EmailCampaigns provides users with 27 different templates but also allows those who want to create theirs to apply their skills. Their templates allow you to drag and drop info and then use the editor for text, images, and every detail on the page.
Sending Out the Email Campaign
Before flagging off the email campaign, make sure to check on the tracking options. For instance, users can go for Reply Tracking, Google Analytics, or Link Tracking. Make sure to include the email address for updates with previews for regular check-ups.
One issue with EmailCampaigns is that they are often flagged as spam by search engines and, therefore, risk being directed to the junk folder. This can turn off many contacts and compromise a user’s campaigns.
EmailCampaigns Reporting
One notable thing about EmailCampaigns is that every step entails utilizing various parameters. It provides a lot of reports from the campaign to know whether everything is working as anticipated. Even without utilizing Google Analytics, it is still possible to track opens links, follow clicks, shares, and location of contacts to help drive conversions. You can utilize the info to customize special offers, coordinate special campaigns, and advanced marketing strategies plan.
Customer Service and Integrations
Similar to other SaaS applications, there are different inbuilt customer services inbuilt in the Active Campaigns software. However, only those in the top tier plan, Enterprise, enjoy phone support. All the accounts have access to video tutorials, knowledge base, directed training, ticketing, and blog. These support forums allow the user to get all the information for running the campaign successfully.
In addition to support, Active Campaigns also comes with many add-ons that allow its users to select over 150 apps. It is, therefore, easy to link your campaign with other applications such as social media marketing campaigns and WordPress applications among others.
Conclusion
Active Campaigns is a great ESP that would perfectly operate for medium sized firms with a very dedicated team. Its multi-user and great scheduling features are particularly awesome especially for people with limited resources to build many tools. However, it is a great setback to charge users an extra fee for mobile phone email previews and campaigns being flagged as spam.
