Active Campaign Bandcamp

You can likewise see whether the completion rate has increased or reduced, how long it considers contacts to reach that objective, and you can browse all contacts to see who did and didn’t reach the objective. ActiveCampaign’s Message Variables is my preferred function. It saves me a lots of time and effort, and neither MailChimp nor ConvertKit (upgrade: 9/2020 ConvertKit now has ” bits”) has a similar feature.

Let’s state you have the given name of just some of your contacts, which is the case with my list. I normally do not require a given name to sign up to my list, however sometimes I get a given name, such as when someone purchases a product. Wouldn’t it be good to welcome your contacts by name, in the cases when you have it? You can do this, but it’s troublesome.

I’m also filtering for generic terms added by other systems, such as a dash, or “Visitor.” If they have a given name, I say “Hey,” and then their very first name. If they do not, I simply state “Hey there,” (Active Campaign Bandcamp). By developing a Message Variable in ActiveCampaign, I can quickly alter my welcoming according to whether or not I have the contact’s first name.

Active Campaign Bandcamp

I created a variable that’s simply %greeting-hey%. If I have the contact’s name, it appears in the e-mail. If I do not have the contact’s name, it defaults to “Hey,”. Where Message Variables really conserve me a great deal of time is by enabling me use the same automation over and over again for my webinars, and I can quickly alter out all of the details.

Here are variables for a webinar I run called “Bust Through Creative Blocks.” You can see I have a lot of various variables here, such as the date and time of the webinar, the price of the product, offer terms, discount coupon code, and more. Each time I run a brand-new webinar, I can change each of these variables to match any schedule modifications or offer changes.

And here it is in an email. This message variable allows me to easily change out a countdown timer. I did mention earlier that a person of the cons of ActiveCampaign is their email editing experience. I switched from MailChimp, and MailChimp occurs to have the very best email editing experience. I truly like to send basic emails.

Active Campaign Bandcamp

I’ve found that really hard to do with ActiveCampaign. For awhile, I was editing e-mails in ActiveCampaign’s hybrid editor, which is rather cumbersome. For a long period of time, I used ActiveCampaign’s hybrid HTML and WYSIWYG editor, which was set off by a basic template I developed. The interface for the HTML editor appears like it was pulled from some totally free open-source project. Active Campaign Bandcamp.

Nevertheless, adding images is a bit of a task. You need to choose them from a file web browser. There’s no drag and drop option. ActiveCampaign’s HTML email editor needs that you compose entirely in HTML. The option to this, if you desire to have control over the HTML, is to edit pure HTML, with a preview on the side.

Including images to ActiveCampaign’s abundant full-screen editor is a cumbersome experience. You require separate text boxes for above and below the image. Lately I have started using ActiveCampaign’s abundant full-screen editor. They have some nice templates, however I still desire to send out the simplest e-mail possible. They do have some plain-looking e-mails, but they have some degree of minimal formatting, which you can’t get rid of – Active Campaign Bandcamp.

Active Campaign Bandcamp

However, with some adjustments, I can make my email quite basic. I can make it automatically use up the entire window, and I can fine-tune the typography to be a little larger, and have a little more leading. The most discouraging part of ActiveCampaign’s abundant text editor is including images. Envision you have actually just typed out a terrific e-mail. Active Campaign Bandcamp.

You can’t merely add an image to a block of text. Instead, you need to create two blocks of text: one for prior to the image, and one for after the image. If you have actually made any format changes, you’ll need to watch on those to remain constant. That’s something to deal with when you wish to add one image, but when you wish to include numerous, it becomes a huge task.

They even have a standard mage editor where you can crop the image – Active Campaign Bandcamp. MailChimp’s editor is the very best I’ve seen in all of the email marketing platforms I have actually tried. You have access to the underlying code, so you can develop a really plain email, provided you make a standard design template first.

Active Campaign Bandcamp

MailChimp’s built-in image editor is very powerful. You can resize, crop, and include custom-made text to your images. I miss MailChimp’s email-editing experience (Active Campaign Bandcamp). It would save me a little time to have that same experience on ActiveCampaign. However the highly-customizable automations I can construct on ActiveCampaign more than make up for that possible time cost savings.

ConvertKit’s email modifying experience is very plain, however easy to navigate. Their design templates are limited, which is great with me, however their email editing experience is a little simpler in that you can produce inline images, and you can develop a totally plain email, and even edit the underlying HTML. If you wish to make some quick edits to some e-mails in an automation, with ActiveCampaign, it’s cumbersome.

I’ll click on an email, and it takes me to the editor for that e-mail. Note that I can’t even Command + Click to open it in another tab. Whether they implied to or not, ActiveCampaign has disabled Command + Click from the automation editor. If I wished to change backward and forward in between various emails, I would intuitively be inclined open the very same automation in numerous tabs, then open the particular e-mails from each of those tabs.

Active Campaign Bandcamp

In the Automations section, there’s a “Handle Messages” location. From here, you can see all of the messages in each of your automations. You can modify every one, or you can Command + Click to open each in a new tab to more quickly modify your entire sequence. Active Campaign Bandcamp. Contrast that with ConvertKit’s Series.

Once again, it would save me a lot of time to have ConvertKit’s automation email modifying experience on ActiveCampaign – Active Campaign Bandcamp. But picking an email marketing platform is like picking a spouse. ActiveCampaign offsets it with their Message Variables, more robust automations, and advanced segmentation. Mentioning division, another factor I switched from MailChimp to ActiveCampaign was that MailChimp has restricted segmentation alternatives.

You can combine characteristics with an AND/OR operator, and you can blend and match those groups of traits with another AND/OR operator. With MailChimp, you can only sector by AND/OR, however MailChimp’s Pro strategy permits more advanced segmenting, for an additional $199 a month. In my search for the best e-mail marketing platform, I saw lots of others, some of which I have actually already mentioned.

Active Campaign Bandcamp

ConvertKit. If I weren’t on ActiveCampaign, I would most likely be utilizing ConvertKit. Their automations are much simpler to construct, though they aren’t as flexible as ActiveCampaign’s, and their segmentations options aren’t as advanced either. They likewise do not have goal tracking, or Message Variables. MailChimp. You already know that I changed from MailChimp to ActiveCampaign.

Active Campaign Bandcamp

To begin building an automation in ActiveCampaign, start with a “trigger.” There are a number of methods you can activate an automation, consisting of: When a tag is added When a contact signs up for a list When a contact submits a kind E-commerce and on-site choices (offered in the “Pro” plan) When the contact reaches a specific point in another automation.

From there, you can start developing the actions in your automation. Some actions that are offered in ActiveCampaign’s automations are: Send an email Notify an employee Wait conditions If/then conditionals Split traffic for testing Skip to other parts of the automation Track objectives (The contact can avoid to the goal’s place in the automation.) Start or end another automation, or end the existing automation Post a webhook Subscribe or unsubscribe the contact to/from lists Update contact information Include and get rid of tags Include a note Lead scoring, SMS and website messages, and Facebook Custom Audience management are all “Pro” features – Active Campaign Bandcamp.

Contrast with ConvertKit‘s Automations, which are more limited. On ConvertKit, you can activate an automation when: The contact sends a form The contact purchases A tag is contributed to the contact A customized field is updated with a certain worth From there, you can produce Conditions, to check whether the contact has a particular tag or custom-made field worth.

Active Campaign Bandcamp

You can also produce Occasions, which are a bit like ActiveCampaign’s Goals, however without the reporting. You can track an Event when: A tag is added or gotten rid of The contact makes a purchase A date happens A customized field is updated with a certain value You don’t develop emails in ConvertKit’s Automations.

For more on how ActiveCampaign compares to ConvertKit, read my ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign contrast. The main method I build my list is through an email course. ActiveCampaign makes it simple for me to develop my e-mail course precisely how I wish to build it. Lots of online marketers construct very basic email series for their “e-mail courses.” A contact register, and then that contact right away begins getting lessons.

It was simple to construct with ActiveCampaign, however impossible when I was with MailChimp. I don’t do that approach. My e-mail course is by hand synced with this countdown timer on my website. You need to register by Friday night, and a brand-new course begins each Monday early morning. When I initially attempted this approach, I was on MailChimp.

Active Campaign Bandcamp

Here’s the automation I utilize to welcome new trainees to my Design Pitfalls course. There’s a couple of things going on here: The automation sends all contacts a “welcome email (Active Campaign Bandcamp).” The automation validates that it’s not Friday. If it’s not Friday, the automation waits till it is Friday. At 11am, it sends out a “pump up” e-mail to get the trainees ready for next week’s course, and motivate them to share it with pals.

The contact will start getting lessons the following Monday morning. If it is Friday and after 7pm, the contact missed out on enrollment for next week’s class. They’ll get the pump up email the following Friday early morning, and lessons the Monday after that. It was difficult for me to automate this with MailChimp.

When I run a webinar, I don’t wish to send the same email to every individual on my list. I desire to send them the proper email for their level of engagement – Active Campaign Bandcamp. Active Campaign Bandcamp. Here’s the automation I use to promote an evergreen webinar: First it confirms that they have not already acquired the product I pitch in the webinar.

Active Campaign Bandcamp

Then it sends a series of e-mails to get them thinking about the webinar, and to motivate them to register. If they sign up, they immediately hit the “Objective” toward completion of the webinar, and the automation ends. If they do not sign up, they get contributed to an automation promoting a rebroadcast of the webinar. Active Campaign Bandcamp.

This allows me to customize my messaging, in other automations, based upon the contact’s engagement with the webinar. Here’s the WebinarJam integration panel: I can add tags based upon whether the contact signed up, participated in, missed out on, or based upon how long they stayed in the webinar. These tags can then activate automations within ActiveCampaign.

It costs me money, and it makes it most likely that my emails go to spam or Gmail’s promos tab. Individuals who do not open my emails make it harder for other emails to get to individuals who truly desire them! The “Pro” strategy of ActiveCampaign has actually lead scoring integrated in.

Active Campaign Bandcamp

Here’s an automation I received from ActiveCampaign’s library of automations, which I use to tell which contacts aren’t engaging with my e-mails. When a contact subscribes, this automation adds a “0 days” tag. As time passes, it adds brand-new tags for 7 days, 1 month, 60 days, etc Each time they open an email, a separate automation removes them from this automation, removes all of those tags, and starts this automation over once again.

This automation can be overwhelming initially, and this is among those cases where I want ActiveCampaign had a more out-of-the-box solution. However, due to the fact that you can do anything with ActiveCampaign, in some cases you need to construct things from scratch. ActiveCampaign has an alternative to erase inactive customers, which I don’t recommend.

Some subscribers don’t have tracking switched on, so their opens aren’t recorded. Others still desire to be subscribed however have been hectic. Here’s my reactivation series: I send one email asking if they still wish to be subscribed, and briefly explaining why I keep my email list clean. In one week, I send them another email (if they already clicked on the verification link in the previous e-mail, they’ve currently been gotten rid of from the automation using a different automation) – Active Campaign Bandcamp.

Active Campaign Bandcamp

The automation then unsubscribes them. My emails likewise have a link to a kind where they can enter their email address to let me understand that they do not have tracking enabled. This type includes a tag that I use to filter those contacts out. Active Campaign Bandcamp. I used to add this tag when they clicked on a link, but when people do not have tracking on, it makes those links not work so reliably! I only send out an easy “do you still desire my emails?” verification.