About the Company
ActiveCampaign has been around for a while, but it is only recently that it transitioned to a SaaS-based business model. Since 2003, it was known as a consulting firm and on-premise software provider, helping SMBs automate their marketing experience. It changed gears towards the latter half of the decade, raising $20 million in 2016 and another $100 million in 2020 to power its SaaS product – the ActiveCampaign Experience Automation Platform.
Today, the ActiveCampaign Experience Automation (CXA) Platform has over 130,000 customers around the world and a workforce of 750 employees.
Its flagship platform uses machine learning, automation, and easy native integrations to personalise the customer experience, segment audiences, and orchestrate marketing activities. Let us review its features in more detail.
Inside the ActiveCampaign Experience Automation Platform
The platform offers a simple solution to your marketing automation needs, letting you delve as deep as you would require or deploy basic automations, at a few clicks. For this flexibility of usage, G2 has named ActiveCampaign a leader in multiple categories from small businesses to mid-market companies and enterprises, applauding its set-up process, measurable outcomes, and customer relationship approach.
Machine learning (ML)
ActiveCampaign uses ML to predict key insights you should act on. It tells you the probability of winning a particular deal, how likely customers are to open an email at a specific time, and which content is likely to resonate the most. This ensures that your automated workflows are as intelligent as with human intervention.
Migrating to ActiveCampaign
The platform comes with a free migration service if you are looking at a brownfield implementation. This includes data importing, and the recreation of opt-in forms, email templates, and automation workflows. If there is a difference in functionality, ActiveCampaign accepts requests to add that functionality to its platform.
Automation tools
This is where the ActiveCampaign Experience Automation Platform really shines. It has an impressive marketplace of automated workflows, called Recipes, to address common use cases like gathering feedback after an e-Commerce purchase or setting loan renewal reminders in real estate. There are industry-specific as well as cross-industry Recipes that can be deployed at a click.
Omni-channel integrations
You can connect the ActiveCampaign Experience Automation (CXA) Platform with all your major marketing channels including email, web pages, messaging/text, social media, and chatbots. This lets you automate workflows across channels and make the most of each channel’s personalisation and targeting capabilities.
Integrations
Expectedly, ActiveCampaign integrates with a wide range of apps natively, including CRM solutions, databases, developer tools, and project management. You can find the full list of apps here, or use the platform’s APIs to build your own.
Chrome extension
This is a particularly powerful integration that forms a key part of ActiveCampaign’s value proposition. By setting up the Chrome extension, you can manage workflows from your Gmail account, receive alerts, check on CRM information, add new contacts, and update your pipeline.
Mobile application
ActiveCampaign’s mobile view deserves a special mention. It optimises the UX for mobile users, so you can perform most of its core functionalities without leaving your smartphone. Assigning tasks, managing customer accounts, reaching out to customers, monitoring campaign automation, and previewing emails – these are some of the daily tasks you can do from your phone.
Why ActiveCampaign Experience Automation (CXA) Platform Makes a Difference
At a time when most marketing automation platforms target the mid-sized to enterprise/Fortune 500 bracket, ActiveCampaign offers a refreshingly simple alternative. It promises an easy setup at little to no costs. It packs in sophisticated ML algorithms, and getting started is as easy as opting in for a free trial – no credit card required. The company has paid a lot of attention to the usual barriers to entry in this space, addressing it via a pure-play SaaS approach. To that end, it also has a detailed library of learning content, a forum, documentation, and its own user community to help you along the adoption journey.
What We Think
Starting at just $9 per month for 500 contacts, the ActiveCampaign Experience Automation (CXA) Platform makes marketing automation accessible to literally everyone (including independent consultants and influencers). On the opposite end of the spectrum, the company also caters to agencies with multiple clients of their own, therefore requiring larger deployments. It is this flexibility that makes ActiveCampaign a potential leader in its space, and definitely deserves a look no matter the current state of your marketing automation maturity.
