ActiveCampaign

Puntos a favor

Instead of boring the hell out of you making a long list of all the things I like about AC, I would resume them in just 3 "little" things I care of:

- Reputation: They REALLY care about sender reputation. And, you know... an email that doesn´t get to my suscribers is like loosing money out of my pocket. So, I´me really happy the way they´re handling things on this department

- Ease of use + functionalities: Most other services only offer one of them things. But I want them all. AC covers all my needs regarding this issues (and I´m a choosy guy, you know).

- It´s scalable!: This is a biggy. As your businees grows, you´ll have a new set of needs when it comes to automation. AC scales as your business thrives so you don´t have to switch companies never again.

Puntos en contra

I´m a Spanish user and would love a full Spanish translation (at the moment we hace a partial translation) for Spanish users.

Puntos a favor

Marketing automation tools and templates
Deliverability excellent in our experience
CRM was enough for our needs, helping coordinate 5 staff.
Can use in Gmail, which helped our non-Tech sales people.
Reporting that helps quantify engagement and ROI

Puntos en contra

CRM was not the strongest, yet enough for our needs
Marketing automation services generally are separate from emails you send to larger lists in my approach. Would like an option for sending mail outside the automation to lists, but that may simply be different skill sets (haven't found a solution we like).

Puntos a favor

ActiveCampaign is one of the best kept secrets in the marketing world. The automation builder is both easy-to-use AND powerful. You can trigger actions and segment by almost any criteria you can imagine. In a lot of ways, the automation builder rivals the (what I consider) best-in-class solutions such as Marketo. The email builder is intuitive and the template library comes with a lot of good looking emails to start from. Zero HTML/CSS needed. The built-in SMS messaging is really cool and somewhat unique in the industry. Building an automation consisting of emails and SMS messages is drag and drop, with no integrations needed. While it's limited (as of today) the CRM is really intuitive and clean. If they continue to add functionality in this area they may have something incredible in a couple years. Importing contacts is simple and goes far beyond the typical CSV file. Google contacts, Google Sheets, other email providers. no problem. Possibly the best import tools I've seen in this industry.

Puntos en contra

The most obvious one is the lack of a landing page builder. Having landing pages in the tool would be ideal, but solutions such as LeadPages can be easily integrated. Having to pay for email compatibility testing (for different devices) is a bit annoying, feels like you're being "nickel and dimed." The reporting leaves a lot to be desired. I'm really hoping they invest in this area (much more important than having built-in landing pages in my view), as it would really elevate the solution and make it an easy choice vs the Infusionsofts of the world.

Puntos a favor

My favorite part about ActiveCampaign is the automation features. Using this Automations, you can set up complex marketing email campaigns. I use this to develop a welcome series and a reactivation series for people on our list who stop engaging.

Puntos en contra

The part that I did not like is very simple. There is no "Undo" button in the email editor interface. Control + Z doesn't work either. You would think for a basic email design interface an undo option would be standard.

Puntos a favor

ActiveCampaign specializes in providing email marketing solutions with an intuitive, visual (albeit a bit slow) interface for creating and sending email campaigns and logical drips (i.e. If Email A opened send Email B or else send Email C). The CRM is a nice add-on if you don't already have a way to manage your client relationships.

Puntos en contra

The CRM is quite clunky and doesn't have the power and flexibility of platforms that were designed with that functionality in mind.