Active Campaign Road Roadshow

You can likewise see whether the conclusion rate has increased or decreased, how long it considers contacts to reach that goal, 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 lot of time and effort, and neither MailChimp nor ConvertKit (update: 9/2020 ConvertKit now has ” snippets”) has a comparable feature.

Let’s state you have the given name of just a few of your contacts, which is the case with my list. I normally don’t need a first name to sign up to my list, but in some cases I get a given name, such as when somebody purchases an item. Would not it be good to greet 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 state “Hey,” and then their first name. If they do not, I simply say “Hey there,” (Active Campaign Road Roadshow). By building a Message Variable in ActiveCampaign, I can easily change my greeting according to whether I have the contact’s very first name.

Active Campaign Road Roadshow

I developed a variable that’s simply %greeting-hey%. If I have the contact’s name, it shows up in the e-mail. If I don’t have the contact’s name, it defaults to “Hey,”. Where Message Variables really conserve me a great deal of time is by allowing me utilize the exact same automation over and over again for my webinars, and I can rapidly change out all of the information.

Here are variables for a webinar I run called “Bust Through Creative Blocks.” You can see I have a bunch of different variables here, such as the date and time of the webinar, the rate of the product, offer terms, coupon code, and more. Each time I run a 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 enables me to easily change out a countdown timer. I did point out earlier that a person of the cons of ActiveCampaign is their e-mail modifying experience. I changed from MailChimp, and MailChimp happens to have the best e-mail modifying experience. I truly like to send out simple e-mails.

Active Campaign Road Roadshow

I’ve discovered that very hard to do with ActiveCampaign. For awhile, I was editing emails in ActiveCampaign’s hybrid editor, which is quite cumbersome. For a long time, I utilized ActiveCampaign’s hybrid HTML and WYSIWYG editor, which was activated by a standard 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 Road Roadshow.

However, adding images is a little bit of a task. You have to choose them from a file web browser. There’s no drag and drop option. ActiveCampaign’s HTML e-mail editor requires 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 sneak peek on the side.

Including images to ActiveCampaign’s rich text editor is a clunky experience. You need separate text boxes for above and below the image. Recently I have actually started using ActiveCampaign’s rich text editor. They have some nice design templates, but I still desire to send the simplest email possible. They do have some plain-looking e-mails, however they have some degree of very little format, which you can’t eliminate – Active Campaign Road Roadshow.

Active Campaign Road Roadshow

However, with some adjustments, I can make my email quite basic. I can make it automatically use up the whole window, and I can fine-tune the typography to be slightly bigger, and have a little more leading. The most discouraging part of ActiveCampaign’s abundant text editor is adding images. Imagine you have actually just typed out an excellent email. Active Campaign Road Roadshow.

You can’t just add an image to a block of text. Instead, you need to create 2 blocks of text: one for before the image, and one for after the image. If you have actually made any format changes, you’ll need to watch on those to stay consistent. That’s one thing to deal with when you want to include one image, however when you want to add numerous, it ends up being a huge task.

They even have a fundamental mage editor where you can crop the image – Active Campaign Road Roadshow. MailChimp’s editor is the very best I have actually seen in all of the e-mail marketing platforms I’ve attempted. You have access to the underlying code, so you can produce a truly plain email, offered you make a fundamental template initially.

Active Campaign Road Roadshow

MailChimp’s built-in image editor is very effective. You can resize, crop, and add customized text to your images. I miss MailChimp’s email-editing experience (Active Campaign Road Roadshow). It would save me a little time to have that very 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 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 produce an absolutely plain e-mail, and even modify the underlying HTML. If you wish to make some quick edits to some emails in an automation, with ActiveCampaign, it’s cumbersome.

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

Active Campaign Road Roadshow

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 each one, or you can Command + Click to open each in a brand-new tab to more easily edit your whole sequence. Active Campaign Road Roadshow. Contrast that with ConvertKit’s Sequences.

Once again, it would save me a lot of time to have ConvertKit’s automation email editing experience on ActiveCampaign – Active Campaign Road Roadshow. However selecting an e-mail marketing platform resembles choosing a spouse. ActiveCampaign makes up for it with their Message Variables, more robust automations, and advanced segmentation. Mentioning division, another reason I changed from MailChimp to ActiveCampaign was that MailChimp has actually limited division alternatives.

You can combine qualities with an AND/OR operator, and you can blend and match those groups of qualities with another AND/OR operator. With MailChimp, you can only segment by AND/OR, nevertheless MailChimp’s Pro strategy permits more advanced segmenting, for an extra $199 a month. In my look for the perfect email marketing platform, I saw numerous others, some of which I’ve already mentioned.

Active Campaign Road Roadshow

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

Active Campaign Road Roadshow

To begin developing an automation in ActiveCampaign, start with a “trigger.” There are a number of methods you can set off an automation, including: When a tag is included When a contact subscribes to a list When a contact sends a type E-commerce and on-site options (readily available in the “Pro” strategy) When the contact reaches a specific 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 an e-mail Notify a group member Wait conditions If/then conditionals Split traffic for screening 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 remove tags Include a note Lead scoring, SMS and site messages, and Facebook Custom Audience management are all “Pro” functions – Active Campaign Road Roadshow.

Contrast with ConvertKit‘s Automations, which are more restricted. On ConvertKit, you can trigger an automation when: The contact submits a type The contact buys A tag is contributed to the contact A custom field is upgraded with a specific value From there, you can produce Conditions, to inspect whether the contact has a certain tag or custom-made field value.

Active Campaign Road Roadshow

You can also create Events, which are a bit like ActiveCampaign’s Goals, but without the reporting. You can track an Occasion when: A tag is added or eliminated The contact buys A date takes place A customized field is updated with a certain worth 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 method I construct my list is through an e-mail course. ActiveCampaign makes it easy for me to develop my email course exactly how I want to develop it. Many online marketers develop really basic e-mail series for their “e-mail courses.” A contact register, and after that that contact instantly starts getting lessons.

It was easy to develop with ActiveCampaign, but impossible when I was with MailChimp. I do not do that approach. My email course is by hand synced with this countdown timer on my website. You have to sign up by Friday night, and a brand-new course starts each Monday morning. When I first tried this methodology, I was on MailChimp.

Active Campaign Road Roadshow

Here’s the automation I use to invite new trainees to my Style Pitfalls course. There’s a few things going on here: The automation sends out all contacts a “welcome email (Active Campaign Road Roadshow).” The automation verifies 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 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 registration for next week’s class. They’ll get the pump up e-mail 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 exact same e-mail to everyone on my list. I wish to send them the suitable email for their level of engagement – Active Campaign Road Roadshow. Active Campaign Road Roadshow. Here’s the automation I utilize to promote an evergreen webinar: First it verifies that they haven’t currently bought the item I pitch in the webinar.

Active Campaign Road Roadshow

Then it sends out a series of e-mails to get them interested in the webinar, and to motivate them to register. If they sign up, they instantly hit the “Objective” toward completion of the webinar, and the automation ends. If they do not register, they get included to an automation promoting a rebroadcast of the webinar. Active Campaign Road Roadshow.

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, attended, missed, or based upon for how long they stayed in the webinar. These tags can then activate automations within ActiveCampaign.

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

Active Campaign Road Roadshow

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

This automation can be frustrating at initially, and this is one of those cases where I want ActiveCampaign had a more out-of-the-box option. But, since you can do anything with ActiveCampaign, sometimes you have to construct things from scratch. ActiveCampaign has an option to delete non-active customers, which I don’t suggest.

Some customers do not have actually tracking turned on, so their opens aren’t recorded. Others still wish to be subscribed however have been hectic. Here’s my reactivation sequence: I send out 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 currently clicked on the confirmation link in the previous email, they have actually currently been eliminated from the automation utilizing a different automation) – Active Campaign Road Roadshow.

Active Campaign Road Roadshow

The automation then unsubscribes them. My emails likewise have a link to a kind 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 use to filter those contacts out. Active Campaign Road Roadshow. I utilized to include this tag when they clicked on a link, however when people do not have tracking on, it makes those links not work so dependably! I only send an easy “do you still want my emails?” confirmation.