Active Campaign Image Library

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

Let’s state you have the given name of only a few of your contacts, which is the case with my list. I generally do not need a first name to sign up to my list, however in some cases I get a given name, such as when someone buys a product. Would not 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 likewise filtering for generic terms included by other systems, such as a dash, or “Visitor.” If they have a first name, I state “Hey,” and after that their very first name. If they do not, I just say “Hey there,” (Active Campaign Image Library). By constructing a Message Variable in ActiveCampaign, I can easily change my welcoming according to whether I have the contact’s very first name.

Active Campaign Image Library

I created a variable that’s merely %greeting-hey%. If I have the contact’s name, it appears in the email. If I don’t have the contact’s name, it defaults to “Hey,”. Where Message Variables actually conserve me a lot of time is by enabling me use the same automation over and over again for my webinars, and I can rapidly change out all of the details.

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

And here it is in an e-mail. This message variable allows me to quickly change out a countdown timer. I did point out earlier that one of the cons of ActiveCampaign is their email editing experience. I switched from MailChimp, and MailChimp takes place to have the finest email modifying experience. I actually like to send simple emails.

Active Campaign Image Library

I have actually discovered that really hard to do with ActiveCampaign. For awhile, I was editing e-mails in ActiveCampaign’s hybrid editor, which is quite clunky. For a long time, I used ActiveCampaign’s hybrid HTML and WYSIWYG editor, which was set off by a standard design template I created. The user interface for the HTML editor appears like it was pulled from some complimentary open-source project. Active Campaign Image Library.

Nevertheless, including 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 requires that you make up totally in HTML. The alternative to this, if you wish to have control over the HTML, is to edit pure HTML, with a sneak peek on the side.

Including images to ActiveCampaign’s rich full-screen editor is a cumbersome experience. You require separate text boxes for above and listed below the image. Lately I have actually started using ActiveCampaign’s abundant full-screen editor. They have some great templates, but I still desire to send the plainest e-mail possible. They do have some plain-looking e-mails, however they have some degree of very little formatting, which you can’t remove – Active Campaign Image Library.

Active Campaign Image Library

However, with some modifications, I can make my email pretty standard. I can make it automatically use up the entire window, and I can tweak the typography to be somewhat bigger, and have a little bit more prominent. The most frustrating part of ActiveCampaign’s abundant full-screen editor is adding images. Picture you have actually simply typed out a terrific email. Active Campaign Image Library.

You can’t merely include an image to a block of text. Rather, you have to produce two blocks of text: one for prior to the image, and one for after the image. If you have actually made any format modifications, you’ll need to watch on those to remain constant. That’s one thing to handle when you desire to include one image, but when you desire to add several, it becomes a big chore.

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

Active Campaign Image Library

MailChimp’s integrated image editor is incredibly effective. You can resize, crop, and add custom text to your images. I miss out on MailChimp’s email-editing experience (Active Campaign Image Library). It would save me a little time to have that exact same experience on ActiveCampaign. However the highly-customizable automations I can construct on ActiveCampaign more than make up for that potential time cost savings.

ConvertKit’s email editing experience is really plain, but simple to navigate. Their templates are limited, which is fine with me, but their email editing experience is somewhat much easier because you can develop inline images, and you can produce a completely plain email, and even modify the underlying HTML. If you desire to make some quick edits to some e-mails in an automation, with ActiveCampaign, it’s cumbersome.

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

Active Campaign Image Library

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 edit every one, or you can Command + Click to open each in a new tab to more easily modify your whole series. Active Campaign Image Library. Contrast that with ConvertKit’s Series.

Again, it would conserve me a great deal of time to have ConvertKit’s automation e-mail editing experience on ActiveCampaign – Active Campaign Image Library. However choosing an email marketing platform resembles selecting a partner. ActiveCampaign offsets it with their Message Variables, more robust automations, and advanced segmentation. Speaking of segmentation, another reason I changed from MailChimp to ActiveCampaign was that MailChimp has actually restricted segmentation choices.

You can combine characteristics with an AND/OR operator, and you can blend and match those groups of qualities with another AND/OR operator. With MailChimp, you can just section by AND/OR, however MailChimp’s Pro plan enables more sophisticated segmenting, for an extra $199 a month. In my search for the ideal email marketing platform, I saw lots of others, some of which I have actually currently pointed out.

Active Campaign Image Library

ConvertKit. If I weren’t on ActiveCampaign, I would most likely be using ConvertKit. Their automations are a lot easier to construct, though they aren’t as flexible as ActiveCampaign’s, and their divisions options aren’t as sophisticated either. They also do not have objective tracking, or Message Variables. MailChimp. You currently understand that I changed from MailChimp to ActiveCampaign.

Active Campaign Image Library

To start constructing an automation in ActiveCampaign, begin with a “trigger.” There are a number of ways 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 form E-commerce and on-site choices (available in the “Pro” strategy) When the contact reaches a certain point in another automation.

From there, you can begin building the actions in your automation. Some actions that are readily available in ActiveCampaign’s automations are: Send out an email Inform an employee Wait conditions If/then conditionals Split traffic for testing Avoid to other parts of the automation Track goals (The contact can avoid to the goal’s location 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 details Include and get rid of tags Include a note Lead scoring, SMS and site messages, and Facebook Custom Audience management are all “Pro” functions – Active Campaign Image Library.

Contrast with ConvertKit‘s Automations, which are more restricted. On ConvertKit, you can set off an automation when: The contact submits a kind The contact makes a purchase A tag is contributed to the contact A customized field is upgraded with a specific worth From there, you can develop Conditions, to check whether the contact has a certain tag or custom-made field value.

Active Campaign Image Library

You can also create Events, which are a bit like ActiveCampaign’s Objectives, however without the reporting. You can track an Occasion when: A tag is added or eliminated The contact makes a purchase A date happens A custom-made field is upgraded with a certain value You don’t produce emails in ConvertKit’s Automations.

For more on how ActiveCampaign compares to ConvertKit, read my ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign comparison. The primary way I develop my list is through an email course. ActiveCampaign makes it simple for me to construct my email course exactly how I want to construct it. Numerous online marketers construct really basic email series for their “e-mail courses.” A contact register, and then that contact right away starts getting lessons.

It was simple to construct with ActiveCampaign, but difficult when I was with MailChimp. I don’t do that approach. My email course is manually 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 first tried this methodology, I was on MailChimp.

Active Campaign Image Library

Here’s the automation I use to invite brand-new students to my Design Pitfalls course. There’s a couple of things going on here: The automation sends out all contacts a “welcome e-mail (Active Campaign Image Library).” The automation confirms that it’s not Friday. If it’s not Friday, the automation waits up until it is Friday. At 11am, it sends out a “pump up” email to get the trainees prepared 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 enrollment for next week’s class. They’ll get the pump up e-mail the following Friday 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 person on my list. I want to send them the proper e-mail for their level of engagement – Active Campaign Image Library. Active Campaign Image Library. Here’s the automation I use to promote an evergreen webinar: First it confirms that they have not already bought the item I pitch in the webinar.

Active Campaign Image Library

Then it sends out a series of e-mails to get them interested in the webinar, and to encourage them to register. If they sign up, they immediately hit the “Goal” toward the end of the webinar, and the automation ends. If they do not sign up, they get added to an automation promoting a rebroadcast of the webinar. Active Campaign Image Library.

This enables me to personalize 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, went to, missed out on, or based upon the length of time they remained in the webinar. These tags can then set off automations within ActiveCampaign.

It costs me cash, and it makes it most likely that my emails go to spam or Gmail’s promos tab. People who don’t open my e-mails make it harder for other emails to get to individuals who really desire them! The “Pro” strategy of ActiveCampaign has lead scoring integrated in.

Active Campaign Image Library

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

This automation can be frustrating in the beginning, and this is one of those cases where I want ActiveCampaign had a more out-of-the-box solution. But, due to the fact that you can do anything with ActiveCampaign, sometimes you need to develop things from scratch. ActiveCampaign has a choice to delete non-active customers, which I do not advise.

Some subscribers do not have actually tracking switched on, so their opens aren’t taped. Others still want to be subscribed however have actually been hectic. Here’s my reactivation series: I send out one e-mail asking if they still wish to be subscribed, and briefly discussing why I keep my e-mail list tidy. In one week, I send them another email (if they currently clicked the verification link in the previous email, they have actually already been removed from the automation using a separate automation) – Active Campaign Image Library.

Active Campaign Image Library

The automation then unsubscribes them. My e-mails also have a link to a kind where they can enter their e-mail address to let me understand that they don’t have tracking allowed. This form includes a tag that I use to filter those contacts out. Active Campaign Image Library. I utilized to include this tag when they clicked a link, however when people do not have tracking on, it makes those links not work so reliably! I only send a basic “do you still desire my emails?” verification.