Act-on is being used by the marketing and sales team here to promote products, understand customers and leads and generate leads. As I am within the first year of my employment here I am not yet using Act-On to measure effectiveness and as a part of the strategy decision making process. As a chartered marketer I can see that the system will easily integrate into the strategic decision-making process.
The sales team uses Act-on (integrated with Salesforce) to measure client activity and deliver information based on the product views of customers. This seems to work well with the alerts.
Pros
Easy to use and navigate platform - the platform is easy to use and navigate - along with the brilliant Act-On University and customer support service.
Email automation - you can easily automate based on whatever strategic requirements you have - these are measurable and modifiable.
Email promotion - you can easily create segments of data for email promotion; the emails themselves and measure the outcomes. It is difficult to put a value to these activities with the complexities of our business model.
Embeddable forms - this works really well, from creation to embedding on the website - it actually works better than rerouting a click to Act-On.
Cons
You need to think strategically on set up - things move really fast in the world of marketing and, when challenges arise, it can be a little difficult to solve the problem.
Likelihood to Recommend
I was not involved in the selection - however having used automation systems before, the usability and learning side of the programme works in its favour versus other providers.
We have implemented Act-On (after a failed attempt with another marketing automation program) to help us automate our sales and marketing process throughout the lead life cycle. Act-On is used by our sales and marketing team to prospect new leads and to nurture new, non-responsive or previously unqualified leads.
Pros
Salesforce integration. I'm able to accomplish everything that I need to accomplish seamlessly between Act-On and Salesforce.
Support. Our use of Act-On is probably fairly unique but every question or issue I throw at my customer success manager (Scott S., who is AMAZING) is always met with a convenient and innovative solution.
Automation. The automated programs are very intuitive and easy to set up, monitor and use.
Cons
Website Prospector. I've used other tools that are far more sophisticated in matching visitors with companies (instead of ISPs, which Prospector does more often than not) and in preserving a visitor's identity throughout their entire process (such as, linking an identity to an anonymous user once that user is identified via a form). I think it is probably heading in the right direction but at this point I think it's the feature that needs the most attention.
E-mail Templates. Templates are created through stationery, which while it would be very easy to use for a company sending out multiple identically-designed e-mails, is a bit cumbersome for more design-focused HTML e-mails. I'd love more flexibility with HTML and WYSIWYG HTML editing.
Likelihood to Recommend
Act-On is a fantastic marketing automation solution if you are using Salesforce - for our needs, we chose it over Salesforce's own marketing automation program because of the flexibility of the two-way syncing. I would say if your company regularly needs to use marketing e-mails that are heavily HTML-focused that the editor may not have the flexibility you are looking for and may be cumbersome. I would strongly suggest a product demo to walk through the content editors, the prospecting and the automation setup to fully see the capabilities yourself. Most of the features are head and shoulders above other options we researched for our use.
We were using an antiquated CRM to do email marketing for several academic programs. We were struggling with list management, segmentation challenges that no users could decipher, no A/B testing capability, and horrible WYSIWYG editors. Act-On solved these problems and we've been delighted. It also addressed our major issue of needing subscription preferences that could be managed by the customer... up to this point they could either universally opt out or opt in, but they couldn't take control of their own subscriptions. Act-On has that capability standard and you can customize it like crazy. It's working for us, very well. UPDATE: After a year of using ActOn, we've discovered some hurdles that are difficult to overcome. ActOn can only build lists off two objects in Salesforce--Leads and Contacts. To send emails/automated programs based on information in any other object, including Campaigns, we have to create a report in Salesforce and then bring in the results to ActOn. It makes things pretty complicated, but we're working through it.
Pros
The onboarding process. I had personal attention from my CSM and access to a "bat line" that I could call anytime I needed a quick answer. Act-On University, their comprehensive support site/forum, is so thorough and has clear instructions for every process. I've never had such a pleasant experience learning new software as I did with Act-On. I felt incredibly supported!
The software itself is intuitive, simple, and easy to use. Every time I think of a feature I wish it had, I do a quick search in the help (aka Act-On University, which is incredible), and turns out, it DOES do that! I have been delighted over and over again.
The automation features are wonderful; it's simple to create an automated program with their drag/drop interface.
Cons
The integration with Salesforce is clean, but the process of adding information from SFDC to my lists in Act-On could be clearer. I struggled for the first few weeks understanding what all I needed to do to include new information from my CRM.
I loved my CSM, but her schedule was packed so full that I could only get on her calendar once a week. We needed to get up and running really quickly so I ended up having to do a lot of my onboarding myself, which meant I missed some things. We rectified them eventually, but I wish I'd had better access to my CSM in the early days.
It would be helpful to more easily push subscription information back to my CRM system. We had to do this with a "hack" and it isn't pretty.
Likelihood to Recommend
Appropriate for: small to medium size shops without majorly sophisticated email marketing needs, it's perfect. We may outgrow Act-On in 4-5 years, but it was exactly what we needed to get to the next level in automation and functionality.
We are using Act-On within our department for lead-to-revenue management. Act-on has a wonderful integration with our CRM system and is actually addressing our middle and bottom of the funnel needs (something our previous platform didn't do). The insight provided by their behavior profiling mixed with the automation rules allowed within their drip marketing feature allows us to send very targeted messages to pull leads through the funnel much faster.
Pros
Email nurturing and deliverability are unmatched (can say this w/ the backing of some bad experiences with other marketing automation vendors)
The level of support and strategic direction from our Customer Success contact is wonderful!
Great integration with our CRM (SFDC), had big problems with this elsewhere!
Revenue attribution reporting
Sales loves the tool and insight they see from each lead that gets automatically transferred to them
Cons
UI could use some work, but it's what is under the hood that counts!
Would like more inbound features, but we bought Moz for under $100/mo. to address this.
Likelihood to Recommend
Act-On is great for small and mid-sized businesses or larger enterprises that are focused on sales enablement. The price and functionality are wonderful for companies with 1-1,000 or so employees, but if you are a Fortune 500 company or have dozens of marketing headcount you will probably want to look into Eloqua or Marketo.
VU
Verified User
Manager in Marketing (Education Management company, 1001-5000 employees)
We currently use Act-On as our email provider in the marketing department. It simplifies our email process and allows us to set up automated programs, manage our email lists, and schedule sends so that we can work ahead of the curve.
Pros
Customer support: Act-On has incredible support. My customer success manager, Jacob Moserrat is always available to answer questions or walk me through a process if I'm unsure.
Scheduling sends: Creating and scheduling emails is very straight-forward and easy. The user interface is simple and user-friendly.
Deliverability reports: As with my customer success manager, Patrick Cappy, my senior delivery analyst is always available if I have any questions or concerns. He responds in a timely manner and the reports are great.
Cons
I would love to see an easier way to send remails. Currently, there is an option to resend emails to those who haven't opened an email but I feel it could be easier. I would love to see it set up as an option when I'm scheduling the initial send.
We are currently testing out another email provider (signed up at the same time as Act-On) and they have a free text-to-join option. I would love it if Act-On had something similar so that we could quickly and easily sign up new customers to our email list.
Likelihood to Recommend
I'm currently with a fairly small company with a relatively small email list for now. I'm unsure how well and easily it would perform with a really large company. I am relatively new to the company as well as Act-On so I don't think I can answer this question fairly. So far, I have really enjoyed working with Act-On, over the other email provider we're working with so I'd recommend them to a colleague.
VU
Verified User
Manager in Marketing (Higher Education company, 1001-5000 employees)
Act-On is being used by our company as a lead nurturing, email launching and media database. It's mainly used by our marketing department to solve organizational issues with forms, media tracking and lead nurturing.
Pros
Act-On has been nothing but amazing in the last two years that we've been using the platform. From lead nurturing, so implementing forms and sending out communication, the platform can do it all. Customer service is top notch. If you can't find a solution in their Knowledge Base, they will do everything in their power to move mountains and fix any problem.
Cons
We have had problems with the integration of Act-On with SalesLogix.
Likelihood to Recommend
Having some knowledge of HTML in order to have an easier time to implement forms and other assets on your website would be helpful.
