Active Campaign Plans

You can also see whether the completion rate has actually increased or decreased, the length of time it takes for 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 feature. It conserves me a lots of effort and time, and neither MailChimp nor ConvertKit (upgrade: 9/2020 ConvertKit now has ” snippets”) has a similar function.

Let’s say you have the very first name of just some of your contacts, which is the case with my list. I normally do not require a given name to register to my list, but often I get a first name, such as when someone purchases an item. Would not it be great to welcome your contacts by name, in the events when you have it? You can do this, however it’s troublesome.

I’m also filtering for generic terms added by other systems, such as a dash, or “Guest.” If they have a first name, I say “Hey,” and after that their first name. If they do not, I just say “Hey there,” (Active Campaign Plans). By building a Message Variable in ActiveCampaign, I can easily alter my greeting according to whether or not I have the contact’s given name.

Active Campaign Plans

I developed 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 actually conserve me a great deal of time is by allowing me utilize the very same automation over and over again for my webinars, and I can rapidly change out all of the information.

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 cost of the product, offer terms, voucher code, and more. Each time I run a brand-new webinar, I can change each of these variables to match any schedule changes or offer changes.

And here it remains in an email. This message variable enables me to quickly change out a countdown timer. I did mention earlier that one of the cons of ActiveCampaign is their e-mail modifying experience. I switched from MailChimp, and MailChimp occurs to have the finest e-mail modifying experience. I actually like to send basic e-mails.

Active Campaign Plans

I’ve discovered that very hard to do with ActiveCampaign. For some time, I was modifying e-mails in ActiveCampaign’s hybrid editor, which is rather cumbersome. For a long period of time, I utilized ActiveCampaign’s hybrid HTML and WYSIWYG editor, which was triggered by a fundamental template I developed. The interface for the HTML editor appears like it was pulled from some free open-source project. Active Campaign Plans.

Nevertheless, including images is a bit of a chore. You need to select them from a file browser. There’s no drag and drop alternative. ActiveCampaign’s HTML email editor needs that you make up entirely in HTML. The option to this, if you desire to have control over the HTML, is to modify pure HTML, with a preview on the side.

Adding images to ActiveCampaign’s abundant text editor is a cumbersome experience. You require separate text boxes for above and below the image. Lately I have actually started using ActiveCampaign’s rich full-screen editor. They have some nice design templates, however I still desire to send the simplest email 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 Plans.

Active Campaign Plans

But, with some modifications, I can make my e-mail quite standard. I can make it automatically use up the whole window, and I can tweak the typography to be slightly larger, and have a bit more prominent. The most frustrating part of ActiveCampaign’s rich text editor is adding images. Envision you have actually just typed out a terrific email. Active Campaign Plans.

You can’t just include an image to a block of text. Rather, you have to produce 2 blocks of text: one for prior to the image, and one for after the image. If you have actually made any formatting changes, you’ll have to keep an eye on those to stay constant. That’s something to handle when you want to add one image, however when you want to include numerous, it ends up being a big chore.

They even have a basic mage editor where you can crop the image – Active Campaign Plans. MailChimp’s editor is the best I’ve seen in all of the email marketing platforms I’ve tried. You have access to the underlying code, so you can create a genuinely plain email, offered you make a basic design template initially.

Active Campaign Plans

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

ConvertKit’s e-mail modifying experience is really plain, however easy to navigate. Their design templates are restricted, which is great with me, but their e-mail modifying experience is a little easier because you can create inline images, and you can create a completely plain e-mail, and even edit 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 email, and it takes me to the editor for that email. Note that I can’t even Command + Click to open it in another tab. Whether they meant to or not, ActiveCampaign has disabled Command + Click from the automation editor. If I wanted to switch backward and forward between various e-mails, I would intuitively be inclined open the exact same automation in various tabs, then open the respective e-mails from each of those tabs.

Active Campaign Plans

In the Automations area, there’s a “Handle Messages” location. From here, you can see all of the messages in each of your automations. You can modify each one, or you can Command + Click to open each in a new tab to more easily modify your whole sequence. Active Campaign Plans. 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 Plans. But selecting an e-mail marketing platform resembles choosing a partner. ActiveCampaign offsets it with their Message Variables, more robust automations, and advanced division. Speaking of segmentation, another reason I changed from MailChimp to ActiveCampaign was that MailChimp has restricted division options.

You can integrate 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 strategy enables more advanced segmenting, for an additional $199 a month. In my look for the perfect email marketing platform, I saw many others, some of which I have actually already pointed out.

Active Campaign Plans

ConvertKit. If I weren’t on ActiveCampaign, I would most likely be utilizing ConvertKit. Their automations are much easier to build, though they aren’t as versatile as ActiveCampaign’s, and their segmentations options aren’t as advanced either. They also don’t have objective tracking, or Message Variables. MailChimp. You already know that I changed from MailChimp to ActiveCampaign.

Active Campaign Plans

To start developing 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 subscribes to a list When a contact sends a type E-commerce and on-site choices (available in the “Pro” plan) When the contact reaches a certain point in another automation.

From there, you can begin constructing the actions in your automation. Some actions that are offered in ActiveCampaign’s automations are: Send an e-mail Alert a staff member Wait conditions If/then conditionals Split traffic for screening Skip to other parts of the automation Track goals (The contact can avoid to the objective’s place in the automation.) Start or end another automation, or end the current automation Post a webhook Subscribe or unsubscribe the contact to/from lists Update contact information Add and get rid of tags Add a note Lead scoring, SMS and website messages, and Facebook Custom Audience management are all “Pro” functions – Active Campaign Plans.

Contrast with ConvertKit‘s Automations, which are more restricted. On ConvertKit, you can set off an automation when: The contact sends a type The contact purchases A tag is contributed to the contact A customized field is upgraded with a certain worth From there, you can produce Conditions, to inspect whether the contact has a specific tag or custom field worth.

Active Campaign Plans

You can also create Occasions, which are a bit like ActiveCampaign’s Goals, however without the reporting. You can track an Occasion when: A tag is included or removed The contact buys A date occurs A custom field is upgraded with a certain value You do not create e-mails in ConvertKit’s Automations.

For more on how ActiveCampaign compares to ConvertKit, read my ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign contrast. The primary way I develop my list is through an email course. ActiveCampaign makes it easy for me to build my e-mail course precisely how I ‘d like to develop it. Many marketers build really basic e-mail sequences for their “e-mail courses.” A contact register, and then that contact immediately starts getting lessons.

It was easy to develop with ActiveCampaign, but difficult when I was with MailChimp. I don’t do that approach. My email course is by hand synced with this countdown timer on my site. You have to register by Friday night, and a new course starts each Monday morning. When I first tried this approach, I was on MailChimp.

Active Campaign Plans

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

The contact will begin getting lessons the following Monday early 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 want to send out the very same email to everyone on my list. I wish to send them the suitable email for their level of engagement – Active Campaign Plans. Active Campaign Plans. Here’s the automation I use to promote an evergreen webinar: First it confirms that they haven’t already purchased the item I pitch in the webinar.

Active Campaign Plans

Then it sends out a series of emails to get them interested in the webinar, and to encourage them to sign up. If they sign up, they instantly hit the “Goal” toward completion of the webinar, and the automation ends. If they don’t register, they get included to an automation promoting a rebroadcast of the webinar. Active Campaign Plans.

This enables me to personalize my messaging, in other automations, based upon the contact’s engagement with the webinar. Here’s the WebinarJam combination panel: I can add tags based upon whether the contact registered, attended, missed out on, or based upon the length of time they stayed in the webinar. These tags can then set off automations within ActiveCampaign.

It costs me money, and it makes it more most likely that my e-mails 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 actually want them! The “Pro” strategy of ActiveCampaign has actually lead scoring integrated in.

Active Campaign Plans

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 new tags for 7 days, 1 month, 60 days, etc Each time they open an e-mail, a separate automation eliminates them from this automation, eliminates all of those tags, and starts this automation over again.

This automation can be frustrating at initially, and this is one of those cases where I wish ActiveCampaign had a more out-of-the-box option. However, since you can do anything with ActiveCampaign, in some cases you need to develop things from scratch. ActiveCampaign has a choice to delete inactive subscribers, which I do not advise.

Some customers do not have tracking switched on, so their opens aren’t taped. Others still wish to be subscribed however have been busy. Here’s my reactivation series: I send one e-mail asking if they still wish to be subscribed, and briefly describing why I keep my email list tidy. In one week, I send them another e-mail (if they already clicked the confirmation link in the previous e-mail, they’ve currently been gotten rid of from the automation utilizing a different automation) – Active Campaign Plans.

Active Campaign Plans

The automation then unsubscribes them. My emails likewise have a link to a form where they can enter their e-mail address to let me understand that they don’t have tracking made it possible for. This form adds a tag that I utilize to filter those contacts out. Active Campaign Plans. I used to include this tag when they clicked a link, but when people do not have tracking on, it makes those links not work so dependably! I just send a simple “do you still desire my emails?” verification.