Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails

You can likewise see whether the conclusion rate has increased or decreased, for how long 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 favorite feature. It saves me a lots of effort and time, and neither MailChimp nor ConvertKit (upgrade: 9/2020 ConvertKit now has ” snippets”) has a similar feature.

Let’s say you have the very first name of just a few of your contacts, which is the case with my list. I typically don’t require a very first name to register to my list, however in some cases I get a first name, such as when somebody buys a product. Would not it be good to welcome your contacts by name, in the events when you have it? You can do this, however it’s cumbersome.

I’m likewise filtering for generic terms included by other systems, such as a dash, or “Visitor.” If they have a very first name, I state “Hey,” and after that their first name. If they do not, I just state “Hey there,” (Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails). By constructing a Message Variable in ActiveCampaign, I can quickly alter my welcoming according to whether I have the contact’s first name.

Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails

I produced 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 lot of time is by allowing me use the same automation over and over again for my webinars, and I can quickly alter out all of the details.

Here vary 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 rate of the product, deal terms, voucher code, and more. Each time I run a brand-new webinar, I can alter each of these variables to match any schedule changes or offer modifications.

And here it is in an email. This message variable allows me to quickly alter out a countdown timer. I did mention earlier that a person of the cons of ActiveCampaign is their e-mail editing experience. I switched from MailChimp, and MailChimp happens to have the very best email modifying experience. I really like to send out simple e-mails.

Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails

I have actually found that really tough to do with ActiveCampaign. For awhile, I was modifying emails in ActiveCampaign’s hybrid editor, which is quite clunky. For a long time, I utilized ActiveCampaign’s hybrid HTML and WYSIWYG editor, which was activated by a basic design template I produced. The user interface for the HTML editor looks like it was pulled from some totally free open-source task. Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails.

However, including images is a little bit of a chore. You have to select 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 modify pure HTML, with a preview on the side.

Adding images to ActiveCampaign’s rich text editor is a cumbersome experience. You require different text boxes for above and below the image. Lately I have begun utilizing ActiveCampaign’s abundant full-screen editor. They have some nice templates, but I still wish to send out the simplest e-mail possible. They do have some plain-looking emails, however they have some degree of minimal formatting, which you can’t get rid of – Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails.

Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails

However, with some modifications, I can make my e-mail quite basic. I can make it immediately take up the whole window, and I can fine-tune the typography to be slightly bigger, and have a little bit more leading. The most aggravating part of ActiveCampaign’s abundant full-screen editor is including images. Imagine you have actually simply typed out a terrific e-mail. Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails.

You can’t just add an image to a block of text. Rather, you need to develop 2 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 have to keep an eye on those to stay constant. That’s something to handle when you wish to include one image, however when you wish to add numerous, it ends up being a huge task.

They even have a standard mage editor where you can crop the image – Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails. MailChimp’s editor is the very best I have actually seen in all of the e-mail marketing platforms I have actually attempted. You have access to the underlying code, so you can develop a truly plain email, provided you make a basic design template first.

Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails

MailChimp’s integrated image editor is incredibly powerful. You can resize, crop, and add custom text to your images. I miss out on MailChimp’s email-editing experience (Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails). It would conserve 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 potential time cost savings.

ConvertKit’s email editing experience is extremely plain, but easy to browse. Their design templates are limited, which is fine with me, however their e-mail modifying experience is somewhat simpler in that you can create inline images, and you can produce a totally plain email, and even modify the underlying HTML. If you wish to make some fast edits to some e-mails in an automation, with ActiveCampaign, it’s cumbersome.

I’ll click 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 suggested to or not, ActiveCampaign has handicapped Command + Click from the automation editor. If I desired to switch back and forth between different emails, I would intuitively be inclined open the exact same automation in different tabs, then open the respective e-mails from each of those tabs.

Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails

In the Automations area, there’s a “Manage 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 edit your whole sequence. Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails. Contrast that with ConvertKit’s Series.

Once again, it would conserve me a great deal of time to have ConvertKit’s automation e-mail editing experience on ActiveCampaign – Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails. But choosing an e-mail marketing platform resembles picking a spouse. ActiveCampaign makes up for it with their Message Variables, more robust automations, and advanced division. Mentioning division, another factor I switched from MailChimp to ActiveCampaign was that MailChimp has limited division choices.

You can integrate qualities with an AND/OR operator, and you can blend and match those groups of characteristics with another AND/OR operator. With MailChimp, you can only segment by AND/OR, nevertheless MailChimp’s Pro plan enables more sophisticated segmenting, for an extra $199 a month. In my search for the perfect email marketing platform, I saw many others, a few of which I have actually already discussed.

Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails

ConvertKit. If I weren’t on ActiveCampaign, I would probably be utilizing ConvertKit. Their automations are a lot easier to build, though they aren’t as flexible as ActiveCampaign’s, and their segmentations alternatives aren’t as sophisticated either. They also do not have objective tracking, or Message Variables. MailChimp. You currently know that I switched from MailChimp to ActiveCampaign.

Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails

To begin constructing an automation in ActiveCampaign, begin with a “trigger.” There are a variety of ways you can trigger an automation, including: When a tag is added When a contact registers for a list When a contact submits a kind E-commerce and on-site choices (available in the “Pro” strategy) When the contact reaches a particular 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 e-mail Notify a staff member Wait conditions If/then conditionals Split traffic for testing Skip to other parts of the automation Track goals (The contact can avoid to the objective’s location 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 Include and remove tags Add a note Lead scoring, SMS and site messages, and Facebook Custom Audience management are all “Pro” features – Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails.

Contrast with ConvertKit‘s Automations, which are more limited. On ConvertKit, you can activate an automation when: The contact sends a kind The contact buys A tag is contributed to the contact A custom field is updated with a particular worth From there, you can develop Conditions, to inspect whether the contact has a certain tag or custom field value.

Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails

You can also create Events, which are a bit like ActiveCampaign’s Goals, however without the reporting. You can track an Event when: A tag is added or eliminated The contact buys A date happens A custom-made field is updated with a particular worth You do not produce emails in ConvertKit’s Automations.

For more on how ActiveCampaign compares to ConvertKit, read my ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign comparison. The primary method I build my list is through an e-mail course. ActiveCampaign makes it simple for me to build my e-mail course exactly how I want to construct it. Numerous marketers develop really basic email sequences for their “e-mail courses.” A contact signs up, and after that that contact instantly begins getting lessons.

It was easy to construct with ActiveCampaign, but impossible when I was with MailChimp. I do not do that approach. My email course is manually synced with this countdown timer on my site. You need to register by Friday night, and a brand-new course starts each Monday early morning. When I first tried this approach, I was on MailChimp.

Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails

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 all contacts a “welcome email (Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails).” The automation validates 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 all set for next week’s course, and encourage them to share it with buddies.

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

When I run a webinar, I don’t wish to send out the very same e-mail to everyone on my list. I wish to send them the suitable e-mail for their level of engagement – Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails. Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails. Here’s the automation I utilize to promote an evergreen webinar: First it validates that they haven’t already bought the product I pitch in the webinar.

Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails

Then it sends out a series of emails to get them thinking about the webinar, and to motivate them to register. If they register, they immediately hit the “Objective” towards the end of the webinar, and the automation ends. If they do not sign up, they get included to an automation promoting a rebroadcast of the webinar. Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails.

This enables me to tailor 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, or based upon for how long they remained in the webinar. These tags can then trigger automations within ActiveCampaign.

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

Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails

Here’s an automation I obtained from ActiveCampaign’s library of automations, which I use to inform which contacts aren’t engaging with my e-mails. When a contact subscribes, this automation adds a “0 days” tag. As time passes, it includes new tags for 7 days, thirty days, 60 days, etc Each time they open an email, a different 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 among those cases where I want ActiveCampaign had a more out-of-the-box solution. But, because you can do anything with ActiveCampaign, in some cases you need to build things from scratch. ActiveCampaign has an option to delete inactive customers, which I don’t recommend.

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

Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails

The automation then unsubscribes them. My e-mails also have a link to a form where they can enter their e-mail address to let me understand that they do not have tracking allowed. This type adds a tag that I utilize to filter those contacts out. Active Campaign Reviewing My Emails. I utilized to add this tag when they clicked a link, however when people do not have tracking on, it makes those links not work so dependably! I just send out a basic “do you still want my emails?” verification.