Easy to use, but not our top choice

Quick to Learn, Easy to Use

Overall, it's just been a good experience. I had to learn this software at the same time as a handful of others related to my new responsibilities, and this was definitely the easiest to pick up on.

Pros

It didn't take long for me to learn how to use it, even without hands-on guidance. I primarily focus on a monthly campaign being sent to a massive group of clients, and I was able to refer to past ones created by my predecessor as a standard template. Designing is a very simple processes.

Cons

I didn't like the reporting at first, but, now that I better understand the information I being provided, it's better.

Happy Journey from ZohoCRM/Act-On to Salesforce/Act-On

A few years ago, after consulting and then joining a growing small business, the president and I threw out Microsoft's Business Contact Manager and brought up ZohoCRM integrated with GoogleApps/Mail. The combination was a 'right-size' approach at the time, for many months. But as the customer database grew, the reporting needs and interest in integrating marketing automation intensified, we knew we needed to augment or replace the use of Vertical Response for outbound. Surveying the segment, I found and researched Eloqua, Marketo, and Act-On. As we were staffing limited, time was valuable, complex solutions were of no interest. We went with Act-On and have never looked back. The recent migration from moving from the ZohoCRM platform to Salesforce.com as the needs and demands grew has gone quite smoothly. I have seen the comments related to Salesforce by others and believe that for some who are not going to try to work towards automation, and for whom a solid Ecosystem of solutions from which to draw are not important, ZohoCRM can be an attractive solution. But, if a minimal level of usage sophistication begins to be applied, integration with other systems like Lead Management/Marketing Automation is important (and at this point, it should be for nearly any business with revenues over a few hundred $K a year) the Salesforce/Act-On combination has been killer-good,

Pros

Act-On is FAST to get running, whether using alone, or in conjunction with another platform like Salesforce. Answers, insight, follow up automation are all easily obtainable quickly without being sent to a week-long training seminar for $1500.

Cons

Act-On is still building out some capabilities that other players like Eloqua have had. But if you're just starting out, you're not likely to need those features for some time as you get your feet under you. A/O is best for small to mid-size firms.

Over-promising and under-delivering are key traits of Act-On

Overall I would give Act-On a low pass. The issues with customer service, slightly overpriced and the lack of proper development plagued my experience. If I could go back, I would have used HubSpot or Marketo. At the moment, we have cancelled our Act-On account after 3-4 years and are using a stack of SaaS solutions tied into our practice management system. This is far more cost efficient, easy to use and with better customer service. My advice would be for businesses considering using Act-On due to the price of the above-mentioned competitors to use a stack approach instead of using this system. Using Vision6/Campaign Monitor/MailChimp in tandem with a better landing page provider (Unbounce, Instapage) linked to a CRM would be far better. Stay away, particulalry due to the service - this is even more important for Australian based consumers.

Pros

The system was pretty easy to use. The set-up process for lead nurturing, forms, creating newsletters and other tools were pretty useful.

Cons

Customer service, account limits, aesthetics were below average. The customer service was woeful, the original salesperson who on-boarded me and two referral partners promised the world features wise. Lots of nice looking mocks and promises were made yet nothing provided. On the customer service side of things, on two occasions when the unique contacts and email limit was exceeded the entire system shuts-down. All nurturing campaigns cease and there is no ability to send any emails at all. It took two weeks for someone to be able to apply a temporary increase to allow our marketing efforts to continue.

ACT-ON customer service is fading fast

I was looking for an email tool that integrates with MS CRM and this product fits the bill. It allows you to drip campaigns, which is nice (albeit not intuitively). Just make sure you give yourself ample time for their assistance.

Pros

In the landscape of marketing automation systems, ACT-ON is not the most powerful solution, but it is not the most expensive. It works quite well for our needs.

Cons

I generally don't need a lot of support, but if I can't find a solution on their knowledge base, I have no choice but to call them directly. Ever since ACT-ON closed one of there offices a few months ago, it has been taking me an hour to get through on their support line. I had someone email in June and said they would get back to me very soon. After 6 weeks, I emailed them back and then received a response.

This is really a marketing tool that has build some features for salespeople

Pros

I like that it will track my emails and log them to our CRM (Microsoft Dynamics). I like that I can get a daily email letting me know of known and anonymous visitors to our website.

Cons

It's clunky to try and track down a specific email to see if the recipient has interacted with it. This is really a tool that is more valuable to marketing, but has built some features that are being sold as a sales tool. It's a nice to have, but not a need for sales.

Act-On is a great platform and partner in educating users on marketing automation best practices

Pros

The most beneficial aspect of Act-On for my team and me is the ease in which you can create attractive templates for emails, landing pages and forms.

Cons

I do not have any major dislikes as far as the software platform is concerned. There have at times been minor issues, but support always does a great job quickly rectifying the situation.

Act-On Has Become A Beneficial Process For Our Sales & Marketing Teams

We can consistently track visitors and create drip campaigns all from the same platform in a matter of minutes.

Pros

Act-On's ability to track customers that visit the website and what pages they subsequently visit afterwards.

Cons

It would be nice if Act-On would develop a system to track a visitor using an incognito window or private browser.

Some great features but a lot of big flaws (haven't used it for 2 years)

It did some things really well, but other things really poorly. I'm not sure how much they've improved these past couple years, but I would only use them again if I were to lock in a heavily discounted rate and needed an instant bi-lateral sync between Salesforce and my automation platform.

Pros

- Their support team was stellar - Their Salesforce integration is the best I've seen in a Marketing Automation Platform - Their list segmentation system features were fantastic - We were early subscribers to act-on so we had a really cheap rate

Cons

I haven't used this software for a couple years, so they may have improved a lot but here were some of my major gripes: - Extremely difficult to track lead sources - Integration with ad platforms wasn't very good - Landing page builder was terrible - Lots of limitations with forms - Email builder was quite painful to use but they made some improvements along the way while I was using them

Act-On Is A Great Marketing Automation Tool

Act-On is one of the more affordable marketing automation platforms and has great features.

Pros

Act-On gives our marketing teams the ability to send out email drip campaigns and monitor website visitors.

Cons

Act-On is a very in-depth software and takes quite a bit of time to understand and become familiar with.

Love the Tool

The product just keeps getting better and better.

Pros

The Customer Service Team goes above and beyond.

Cons

There is an expression, "you don't know what you don't know." Act-On has been a great service for my clients for different reasons, but there is nothing that Act-On hasn't been able to solve for my clients. So nothing comes to mind.

Invaluable Marketing Asset

Pros

Act-On is a robust, yet easy-to-use solution that combines multiple marketing applications into one. It has been a workhorse for us. While it can serve more than a dozen vital functions, including social media management and ABM, I most appreciate its integration with our CRM system (Microsoft Dynamics 365) and how it can be used to automate nurture programs, score leads based on behavior/engagement, and monitor web site visitor activity. I’m also very impressed by members of the tech support team who are very patient and have bailed us out of an after hours pinch more than once.

Cons

Keeping up with the constant evolution of Act-On is a full-time job. I often feel like we’re 5 steps behind in understanding newly released features and everything it can do. Of course, that’s a good problem. My only true critique is that the organization seems to have gone through some growing pains and lost its personal touch along the way. When I first selected and implemented Act-On at my previous company 4 years ago, I felt like our sales rep and implementation team were truly invested in our success. I was so impressed by the product and Act-On’s customer success team that I implemented it again at my next company and recommended it to several peers. However, faces began to change quickly, and we had 3 different reps in the same year. Our new contacts were less interested in our success and more interested in what we could do for them. One became obsessed with recruiting our company as a reseller. Things have settled down, but I don’t feel like they value our business as much as they once did.

Act-On for small B2B business

We needed a platform to help us segment and reach customers across many varied products lines, and this has helped. Adding in customer service analytics and social media mindshare, and we are pleased with what Act-On provides.

Pros

Ease of use is first and foremost. To create, segment and automate emails of value that will reach our varied customer base is key for us. The social media aspect of Act-On is also a valued feature that not only allows us to plan when our content is shared but what content hits at the right time. We don't use the scoring as much as most companies probably do, but our dive into behavioral analytics through Act-On is yielding great results as well.

Cons

Main dislike: More personalization for our sales force to view how their customers are responding. Dashboard is fine, for sure, but we'd love a better way for them to witness the contacts happening.

Best Cost-Effective Marketing Automation Software

Our company has tried different Marketing vendors, and not every experience has been a pleasant one. This is why I can say with confidence that Act-On is the best Marketing Software that we have found. Not only do they deliver a great product, but the customer experience has been stellar from Day One. You can really feel they care about their customers and I especially love the fact that I am not treated like just a client number. It's always great to find a vendor that takes such great care of their clients. Our Product Management and Marketing Teams are definitely #TeamActOn! One of the things that Act-On does better is their Salesforce integration which works both ways, meaning that no matter where the lead information originates, it will synchronize correctly as it should, which was not the case with other software we tried. Act-On's out-of-the-box Webinar integration with GoToMeeting and WebEx simply works and there's no need to purchase or subscribe to additional "Apps" as was the case with other Marketing platforms. We really appreciate their service--it has helped our Marketing Team be more efficient and take our Marketing campaigns to the next level. Did I mention that our Sales Team loves seeing who's visiting our website? They even have their own Act-On Tab in Salesforce with leads in their territory based on Act-On's lead scoring. I feel that Act-On provides the best value from the marketing software that I've personally vetted. They recognize that sometimes you don't market to the same individuals all the time, which is why their pricing model is based on the number of active contacts you e-mail each month. Unlike other vendors, you are not locked into a 12-month or greater commitment contract. The contract is on a monthly basis and you can cancel at anytime--they truly earn our business on an ongoing basis. If I had to change anything, I would probably request for greater reporting capabilities when it comes to integrating our Google AdWords campaign, but it looks like they plan on rolling out some improvements in that area soon. Overall, Act-On is a great service and we plan on being a customer for many years to come.

Dynamics Compatible, Great Value

An unexpected benefit has been in the customer support department. Proactive email drips for recent purchasers helps that team provide great service consistently through scheduled email programs with tips and tutorials.

Pros

The Dynamics integration was a crucial part of my decision to adopt this software for my company. Ease of use is comparable to any other robust marketing automation tool. We've seen huge value in this purchase.

Cons

Unfortunately the software does not function well on iOS devices.

Budget-friendly marketing automation that does what we need

We've worked with Act-on for more than three years and have appreciated what it accomplishes for us. Customer service has always been responsive, as well. If you can't necessarily affort one of the major players in the market, Act-on is a great alternative.

Pros

The automated programs make staying in touch with customers and prospects very easy. You can set up quite complicated programs that incorporate not only emails to the target audience but that also notify internal staff and other functions.

Cons

It's not as complete as some other systems. For instance, the website info you can get is not super detailed or useful. As well, connecting with a CRM that isn't already integrated is not a simple task.

Great but with a learning curve

It’s been a great tool but because we couldn’t utilize all the features internally, we had to hire a consultant.

Pros

This is a very robust email marketing program with marketing automation capabilities. We switched to Act On to be able to take advantage of setting up automated campaigns based on user behavior both in our emails and on our website.

Cons

Because the automation capabilities are so robust, this software has a very steep learning curve. It would not have been feasible for us to use this for marketing automation in-house without a full time person just using Act-on. We had to hire a consultant to be able to use this software.