Top Act-On Competitors:
The Best Act-On Alternatives for Your Business
Act-On is a cloud-based solution that helps businesses automate inbound and outbound marketing functions such as email marketing, website and blog management, social media marketing and more.
In addition to marketing automation, Act-On helps businesses manage sales-related tasks with its third-party customer relationship management (CRM) integrations, which include Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, SugarCRM and more. Businesses can use these integrations to track details about prospects such as the company webpages they visit, emails they click on and more.
In addition, Act-On offers third-party integrations with many popular business tools such as Zendesk, Survey Monkey, WordPress, Cisco WebEx and more.
Key features of Act-On include:
- Email marketing: Allows users to create automated email campaigns and offers reports on metrics such as email open rates, click rates and more.
- Website management: Helps users create landing pages using a drag-and-drop design functionality and scores pages on SEO best practices such as page titles, keywords etc.
- Social media management: Enables companies to push content to and identify prospects on social channels with built-in integrations for Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
- Website visitor tracking: Offers reports on data such as the most-viewed landing pages, which keywords visitors search for etc.
Reviewers at Software Advice like Act-On for being an inexpensive marketing automation tool. However, it may not be the ideal solution for your business, depending on your needs and requirement.
For instance, if email marketing is a business priority for you, then a best-of-the-breed tool such as MailChimp is a common choice among users. Likewise, when it comes to ease-of-use and customization, some reviewers at Software Advice prefer HubSpot.
On the other hand, MailChimp and HubSpot are more expensive options compared to Act-On, so some users on a budget prefer Hatchbuck as an alternative solution.
We'll cover the above-mentioned alternatives, along with Pardot and Marketo, in this comparison report. Read on to learn more about these alternative solutions to Act-On, or give us a call at (844) 687-6771 and we’ll walk you through the key functionalities of each product.
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Most Asked-About Act-On Alternatives
In this section, we’ll look at three marketing automation solutions that are searched for most often online alongside Act-On.
Note: you can learn more about our Alternatives methodology here.
HubSpot
HubSpot combines sales management with marketing automation capabilities. It offers functionalities ranging from lead tracking and email marketing to web content management, SEO optimization and more.
Businesses can connect their websites with HubSpot and track the performance of each webpage. It’s also possible to create an entirely new website using landing page templates, which can be customized according to a company’s brand guidelines.
On Software Advice, users appreciate HubSpot for being a well-rounded sales and marketing solution. One reviewer notes:
“The best thing about the HubSpot CRM is that it is another extension between the marketing team and the sales team. It has helped us all be on the same page and continues to help us grow and work together.” - Sean from Hi5 Creative
Key features of HubSpot include:
- Marketing automation: Helps companies create and manage drip email campaigns, social media marketing and more.
- Website tracking: Monitors site performance including click rates on call-to-action buttons, number of sessions etc.
- Sales management: Enables companies to create sales pipeline stages and track team performance metrics such as sales quotas achieved, deals lost and more.
- Email marketing: Helps businesses create marketing emails using preloaded templates, set up A/B tests and generate reports on open rates, bounce rates and more.
Marketo
Marketo is a cloud-based solution that helps businesses execute marketing programs, manage sales leads and track marketing ROI.
As a marketing automation tool, Marketo helps companies segment prospects according to their behavior on the company's website, including the specific pages they visit, how often they visit and more. Using this information, businesses can create and send targeted email campaigns to leads with the built-in email marketing tool. Likewise, companies can carry out other marketing activities such as social media marketing campaigns and webinar launches.
Marketo offers a reporting dashboard for tracking leads generated by marketing programs. Businesses can view details such as lead sources (websites, online ads, inbound calls etc), total number of leads, days required to close a deal and more.
Additionally, companies can track prospects from the time they interact with a marketing campaign to their eventual conversion. This capability helps track the revenue generated by each campaign and determine marketing ROI.
Many reviewers at Software Advice like Marketo for its easy integrations with various customer relationship management (CRM) solutions. One reviewer explains:
“No other MA [marketing automation] platform will match the SFDC [Salesforce Developer Community] integration (including SMC [Salesforce Marketing Cloud]), which makes it a no-brainer for any SFDC customer truly investing in MA. The partner community is vast with integrations to do almost anything you need. And, of course, the marketing piece is insanely customizable to the customer journey.” - Brent from Strike Social
Marketo offers the following key features:
- Lead management: Helps businesses segment prospects based on details such as their demographics and the industry they belong to, as well as their behavior on the company's website.
- Marketing automation: Enables companies to build drip email campaigns, social media campaigns, landing pages, web forms and more.
- Marketing ROI: Tracks revenue generated by various marketing activities, from trade shows to advertising campaigns.
- Mobile marketing: Helps companies deploy mobile engagement strategies such as push notifications, SMS and email marketing campaigns.
Pardot
Pardot is a cloud-based marketing solution that integrates natively with Salesforce CRM. It offers functionalities such as email marketing, lead management and ROI reporting.
As an email marketing tool, Pardot helps businesses create campaigns using premade email templates. Emails can be scheduled with automation rules and sent to different prospect segments based on where they are in their buyer’s journey. Once the emails are sent, businesses can access engagement metrics such as open rates, click-thru rates and more.
Pardot integrates seamlessly with Salesforce to offer functionality such as lead management (including lead scoring) and ROI reporting. Businesses can view a prospect’s details and scores in Pardot as well as in Salesforce CRM. This visibility streamlines lead tracking for companies already using Salesforce. Additionally, the solution offers integrations with other third-party CRMs such as Microsoft Dynamics and NetSuite.
On Software Advice, users appreciate the integrations Pardot offers. One reviewer specifically mentions MailChimp:
“I like the seamless integration of old MailChimp templates. Scheduling out e-blasts is pretty easy and intuitive.” - Jerod from Rowmark, LLC
Key features of Pardot include:
- Lead scoring: Assigns points to prospects based on their interactions with landing pages, email messaging and customer agents over live chat.
- Pipeline management with Salesforce integration: Enables businesses to view and track details of prospects within Salesforce CRM
- Email marketing: Helps companies design campaigns and track their effectiveness using A/B testing.
- Marketing ROI: Offers insights into the success of email campaigns and conversion rates of leads.
MailChimp
As a best-of-breed email marketing solution, MailChimp offers many capabilities for managing email campaigns. These range from designing mobile-friendly emails to tracking their performance with A/B testing.
With MailChimp, businesses can customize different email components, such as the header, body and footer, using a drag-and-drop editor. MailChimp also offers users with coding knowledge the ability to edit the CSS to further customize elements such as fonts and colors used in the email.
Along with email creation, MailChimp gives users the ability to specify automation rules. Companies can create drip email campaigns, which are triggered when prospects perform certain actions such as signing up for a free trial, registering for a webinar or downloading an e-book by filling out an online form.
Additionally, companies can track the performance of email campaigns through email open rates, bounce rates, click-thru rates and more.
Users at Software Advice like MailChimp for its simple and easy-to-use interface. One reviewer says:
“It's intuitive and easy to train others on. Templates are attractive and simple to customize. In just a few minutes each week, a professional looking email can be composed and scheduled.” - Jeremy from Tales of the Cocktail
Here’s a quick look at MailChimp’s capabilities:
- Premade email templates: Helps businesses create campaigns using ready-made email templates.
- Automation: Enables companies design email campaigns and set up automated rules (blog subscription emails, free trial sign-up emails etc) for delivering them to different customer segments.
- Reporting: Offers reports on metrics such as the total number of emails sent, click-thru rates, open rates and more.
- Integrations: Offers multiple third-party integrations with popular tools such as Pipedrive, WordPress, BigCommerce and more.
Hatchbuck
Hatchbuck is a cloud-based marketing automation solution. Using the tool, businesses can create email campaigns, design online forms, track landing pages, manage contacts and track leads.
The solution offers a drag-and-drop email builder for novice users, while those with coding experience can create emails using HTML. Similarly, users can create online forms and webpages on a “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” (WYSIWYG) editor.
As a self-proclaimed “small business CRM,” Hatchbuck helps companies track prospects on websites based on the actions they take (time spent on a webpage, clicked events etc.) and qualify them on a lead scoring dashboard.
One point to note is that businesses looking for enterprise-level CRM features might find Hatchbuck limiting. One reviewer mentions:
“It is not the most comprehensive, so if you are looking for a very detailed platform then go with Marketo, Pardot or Eloqua. These are more robust, but are not for everyone. The platform could probably have a little more flexibility with tagging options.” - John from Acumen Studio
Here’s a brief summary of Hatchbuck’s key features:
- Email marketing: Enables businesses to design emails and schedule campaigns.
- Landing page and web form creation: Automates the creation of landing pages and web forms through the WYSIWYG editor.
- Lead tracking and management: Allows businesses to monitor prospects on websites and track leads on a sales pipeline.
Next Steps
This report on Act-On alternatives is intended to give you a brief overview of the different marketing automation software options on the market. However, there are many similar solutions out there. To learn about even more options, give us a call at (844) 687-6771 for a free consultation.
You can also fill this short questionnaire, and we will send custom price quotes to your inbox.
