Active Campaign Templates

You can also see whether the completion rate has actually increased or decreased, for how long it takes for contacts to reach that goal, and you can browse all contacts to see who did and didn’t reach the goal. ActiveCampaign’s Message Variables is my preferred function. It saves me a heap of effort and time, and neither MailChimp nor ConvertKit (update: 9/2020 ConvertKit now has ” bits”) has a comparable feature.

Let’s say you have the given name of only a few of your contacts, which holds true with my list. I typically don’t require a very first name to sign up to my list, but sometimes I get a given name, such as when someone purchases an item. Wouldn’t it be nice to greet your contacts by name, in the cases when you have it? You can do this, however it’s cumbersome.

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

Active Campaign Templates

I produced a variable that’s merely %greeting-hey%. If I have the contact’s name, it reveals 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 lot of time is by allowing me utilize the very same automation over and over again for my webinars, and I can quickly 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 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 change each of these variables to match any schedule changes or offer modifications.

And here it remains in an e-mail. This message variable enables me to easily alter out a countdown timer. I did point out earlier that a person of the cons of ActiveCampaign is their email editing experience. I switched from MailChimp, and MailChimp takes place to have the finest email editing experience. I really like to send out basic emails.

Active Campaign Templates

I’ve found that extremely tough to do with ActiveCampaign. For some time, I was modifying e-mails in ActiveCampaign’s hybrid editor, which is quite clunky. For a long time, I utilized ActiveCampaign’s hybrid HTML and WYSIWYG editor, which was set off by a standard design template I produced. The interface for the HTML editor appears like it was pulled from some totally free open-source job. Active Campaign Templates.

However, adding images is a little bit of a task. You have to select them from a file web browser. There’s no drag and drop alternative. ActiveCampaign’s HTML e-mail editor requires that you make up completely in HTML. The alternative to this, if you wish to have control over the HTML, is to modify pure HTML, with a sneak peek on the side.

Including images to ActiveCampaign’s abundant text editor is a clunky experience. You require separate text boxes for above and below the image. Lately I have started utilizing ActiveCampaign’s abundant full-screen editor. They have some nice design templates, but I still desire to send the plainest email possible. They do have some plain-looking e-mails, but they have some degree of very little format, which you can’t eliminate – Active Campaign Templates.

Active Campaign Templates

However, with some changes, I can make my email quite fundamental. I can make it instantly take up the entire window, and I can fine-tune the typography to be a little larger, and have a bit more prominent. The most aggravating part of ActiveCampaign’s rich text editor is including images. Picture you’ve simply typed out an excellent email. Active Campaign Templates.

You can’t merely include an image to a block of text. Rather, you have to develop 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 keep an eye on those to remain consistent. That’s something to deal with when you want to add one image, but when you wish to include a number of, it ends up being a big task.

They even have a fundamental mage editor where you can crop the image – Active Campaign Templates. MailChimp’s editor is the very best I’ve seen in all of the e-mail marketing platforms I have actually tried. You have access to the underlying code, so you can create a really plain email, offered you make a basic design template first.

Active Campaign Templates

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

ConvertKit’s email editing experience is really plain, however easy to navigate. Their design templates are limited, which is fine with me, however their e-mail editing experience is a little easier because you can create inline images, and you can create a completely plain e-mail, and even modify the underlying HTML. If you wish to make some quick edits to some e-mails in an automation, with ActiveCampaign, it’s troublesome.

I’ll click 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 indicated to or not, ActiveCampaign has handicapped Command + Click from the automation editor. If I wished to change back and forth between different e-mails, 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 Templates

In the Automations area, there’s a “Handle Messages” area. 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 brand-new tab to more quickly modify your entire series. Active Campaign Templates. Contrast that with ConvertKit’s Sequences.

Once again, it would conserve me a great deal of time to have ConvertKit’s automation e-mail modifying experience on ActiveCampaign – Active Campaign Templates. However picking an e-mail marketing platform is like choosing a partner. 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 integrate qualities with an AND/OR operator, and you can mix and match those groups of traits with another AND/OR operator. With MailChimp, you can only sector by AND/OR, however MailChimp’s Pro plan enables more advanced segmenting, for an extra $199 a month. In my search for the best email marketing platform, I saw numerous others, a few of which I’ve already pointed out.

Active Campaign Templates

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 divisions choices aren’t as sophisticated either. They likewise don’t have objective tracking, or Message Variables. MailChimp. You currently understand that I switched from MailChimp to ActiveCampaign.

Active Campaign Templates

To begin developing an automation in ActiveCampaign, begin with a “trigger.” There are a variety of methods you can set off an automation, consisting of: When a tag is added When a contact subscribes to a list When a contact sends a kind E-commerce and on-site choices (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 available in ActiveCampaign’s automations are: Send an e-mail Alert a team member Wait conditions If/then conditionals Split traffic for screening Avoid to other parts of the automation Track goals (The contact can skip 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 information Include and eliminate tags Include a note Lead scoring, SMS and site messages, and Facebook Custom-made Audience management are all “Pro” features – Active Campaign Templates.

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

Active Campaign Templates

You can also create Events, which are a bit like ActiveCampaign’s Objectives, but without the reporting. You can track an Event when: A tag is included or gotten rid of The contact makes a purchase A date occurs A custom field is upgraded with a particular value You don’t develop e-mails in ConvertKit’s Automations.

For more on how ActiveCampaign compares to ConvertKit, read my ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign comparison. The primary way I build my list is through an e-mail course. ActiveCampaign makes it simple for me to construct my e-mail course precisely how I wish to construct it. Many marketers develop really simple e-mail sequences for their “e-mail courses.” A contact indications up, and then that contact immediately begins getting lessons.

It was simple to develop with ActiveCampaign, but difficult 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 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 Templates

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

The contact will start getting lessons the following Monday early 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 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 desire to send out the very same e-mail to everyone on my list. I wish to send them the appropriate e-mail for their level of engagement – Active Campaign Templates. Active Campaign Templates. Here’s the automation I utilize to promote an evergreen webinar: First it validates that they have not already acquired the product I pitch in the webinar.

Active Campaign Templates

Then it sends a series of e-mails to get them thinking about the webinar, and to encourage them to register. If they register, they right away hit the “Objective” towards 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 Templates.

This enables me to tailor my messaging, in other automations, based upon the contact’s engagement with the webinar. Here’s the WebinarJam integration panel: I can include tags based upon whether the contact signed up, participated in, missed out on, or based upon the length of time they remained in the webinar. These tags can then trigger automations within ActiveCampaign.

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

Active Campaign Templates

Here’s an automation I got from ActiveCampaign’s library of automations, which I use 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, 30 days, 60 days, etc Each time they open an e-mail, a separate automation eliminates them from this automation, eliminates all of those tags, and begins this automation over once 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 service. But, due to the fact that you can do anything with ActiveCampaign, in some cases you have to construct things from scratch. ActiveCampaign has an option to erase inactive subscribers, which I do not advise.

Some subscribers don’t have actually tracking turned on, so their opens aren’t tape-recorded. Others still wish to be subscribed however have been hectic. Here’s my reactivation series: I send out 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 currently clicked the confirmation link in the previous e-mail, they have actually already been removed from the automation using a different automation) – Active Campaign Templates.

Active Campaign Templates

The automation then unsubscribes them. My emails also have a link to a kind where they can enter their email 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 Templates. I used to include this tag when they clicked a link, however when individuals don’t have tracking on, it makes those links not work so reliably! I only send a simple “do you still want my e-mails?” verification.