Active Campaign User Signature

To begin building 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 added When a contact registers for a list When a contact submits a kind E-commerce and on-site choices (readily available in the “Pro” strategy) When the contact reaches a specific point in another automation.

From there, you can start developing the actions in your automation. Some actions that are offered in ActiveCampaign’s automations are: Send out an e-mail Alert a team member Wait conditions If/then conditionals Split traffic for testing Skip 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 present automation Post a webhook Subscribe or unsubscribe the contact to/from lists Update contact information Include and get rid of tags Include a note Lead scoring, SMS and website messages, and Facebook Custom Audience management are all “Pro” features – Active Campaign User Signature.

Contrast with ConvertKit‘s Automations, which are more minimal. On ConvertKit, you can trigger an automation when: The contact sends a type The contact purchases A tag is included to the contact A custom field is updated with a particular worth From there, you can produce Conditions, to check whether the contact has a particular tag or custom field value.

Active Campaign User Signature

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 included or gotten rid of The contact buys A date takes place A custom field is updated with a specific value You don’t create 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 easy for me to construct my email course exactly how I ‘d like to construct it. Lots of online marketers develop very basic e-mail sequences for their “e-mail courses.” A contact register, and after that that contact instantly begins getting lessons.

It was simple to build with ActiveCampaign, but impossible when I was with MailChimp. I don’t do that method. 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 begins each Monday early morning. When I initially attempted this methodology, I was on MailChimp.

Active Campaign User Signature

Here’s the automation I use to invite new trainees to my Design Pitfalls course. There’s a couple of things going on here: The automation sends all contacts a “welcome email (Active Campaign User Signature).” 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 students ready for next week’s course, and motivate them to share it with friends.

The contact will begin getting lessons the following Monday 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 early 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 email to every person on my list. I wish to send them the suitable email for their level of engagement – Active Campaign User Signature. Active Campaign User Signature. Here’s the automation I use to promote an evergreen webinar: First it validates that they have not already acquired the product I pitch in the webinar.

Active Campaign User Signature

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

This enables me to customize my messaging, in other automations, based upon the contact’s engagement with the webinar. Here’s the WebinarJam combination panel: I can include tags based upon whether the contact registered, attended, missed, or based upon for how long 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 emails go to spam or Gmail’s promos tab. People who do not open my e-mails make it harder for other emails to get to the individuals who actually desire them! The “Pro” strategy of ActiveCampaign has actually lead scoring built in.

Active Campaign User Signature

Here’s an automation I received from ActiveCampaign’s library of automations, which I utilize to tell which contacts aren’t engaging with my e-mails. 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, gets rid of all of those tags, and starts this automation over once 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 service. But, due to the fact that you can do anything with ActiveCampaign, in some cases you have to build things from scratch. ActiveCampaign has an option to erase non-active subscribers, which I do not recommend.

Some subscribers do not have tracking switched on, so their opens aren’t recorded. Others still want to be subscribed but have been busy. Here’s my reactivation series: I send one e-mail asking if they still wish to be subscribed, and briefly explaining why I keep my e-mail list tidy. In one week, I send them another e-mail (if they already clicked the verification link in the previous e-mail, they’ve already been removed from the automation utilizing a separate automation) – Active Campaign User Signature.

Active Campaign User Signature

The automation then unsubscribes them. My emails likewise have a link to a form where they can enter their email address to let me know that they do not have tracking enabled. This type adds a tag that I utilize to filter those contacts out. Active Campaign User Signature. I utilized to add 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 an easy “do you still desire my e-mails?” confirmation.

Active Campaign User Signature

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

Let’s say you have the first name of only a few of your contacts, which is the case with my list. I generally don’t require a given name to sign up to my list, but often I get a very first name, such as when someone buys a product. Would not it be nice to welcome 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 first name. If they don’t, I just state “Hey there,” (Active Campaign User Signature). By constructing a Message Variable in ActiveCampaign, I can easily change my welcoming according to whether or not I have the contact’s very first name.

Active Campaign User Signature

I created a variable that’s just %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 really conserve me a lot of time is by enabling me utilize the exact same automation over and over once again for my webinars, and I can quickly alter out all of the details.

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 cost of the product, deal terms, coupon code, and more. Each time I run a brand-new webinar, I can alter each of these variables to match any schedule modifications 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 discuss earlier that one of the cons of ActiveCampaign is their e-mail editing experience. I changed from MailChimp, and MailChimp happens to have the best e-mail modifying experience. I really like to send easy e-mails.

Active Campaign User Signature

I have actually discovered that really 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 time, I utilized ActiveCampaign’s hybrid HTML and WYSIWYG editor, which was set off by a basic template I developed. The interface for the HTML editor looks like it was pulled from some totally free open-source task. Active Campaign User Signature.

Nevertheless, including images is a little bit of a chore. You need to choose them from a file web browser. There’s no drag and drop option. 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 sneak peek on the side.

Adding images to ActiveCampaign’s abundant full-screen editor is a cumbersome experience. You require separate text boxes for above and below the image. Lately I have actually begun using ActiveCampaign’s abundant full-screen editor. They have some nice design templates, but I still desire to send out the simplest email possible. They do have some plain-looking e-mails, but they have some degree of very little format, which you can’t get rid of – Active Campaign User Signature.

Active Campaign User Signature

But, with some changes, I can make my email quite standard. I can make it instantly use up the whole window, and I can tweak the typography to be a little bigger, and have a bit more prominent. The most discouraging part of ActiveCampaign’s rich full-screen editor is including images. Picture you have actually simply typed out a great e-mail. Active Campaign User Signature.

You can’t simply add an image to a block of text. Rather, you have to create two 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 deal with when you desire to include one image, however when you wish to add a number of, it ends up being a big chore.

They even have a standard mage editor where you can crop the image – Active Campaign User Signature. MailChimp’s editor is the very best I have actually seen in all of the email marketing platforms I have actually attempted. You have access to the underlying code, so you can develop a truly plain email, offered you make a fundamental template first.

Active Campaign User Signature

MailChimp’s integrated image editor is exceptionally powerful. You can resize, crop, and add customized text to your images. I miss out on MailChimp’s email-editing experience (Active Campaign User Signature). 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 offset that possible time cost savings.

ConvertKit’s e-mail editing experience is really plain, but simple to browse. Their templates are limited, which is great with me, but their email editing experience is somewhat easier because you can develop inline images, and you can produce an absolutely plain email, and even modify the underlying HTML. If you wish to make some fast edits to some emails in an automation, with ActiveCampaign, it’s cumbersome.

I’ll click an e-mail, 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 indicated to or not, ActiveCampaign has handicapped Command + Click from the automation editor. If I wanted to switch backward and forward in between different e-mails, I would intuitively be inclined open the very same automation in different tabs, then open the particular e-mails from each of those tabs.

Active Campaign User Signature

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 brand-new tab to more easily modify your entire series. Active Campaign User Signature. Contrast that with ConvertKit’s Sequences.

Again, it would save me a great deal of time to have ConvertKit’s automation e-mail modifying experience on ActiveCampaign – Active Campaign User Signature. But choosing an email marketing platform is like choosing a partner. ActiveCampaign makes up for it with their Message Variables, more robust automations, and advanced division. Mentioning division, another reason I switched from MailChimp to ActiveCampaign was that MailChimp has restricted division alternatives.

You can combine qualities with an AND/OR operator, and you can mix and match those groups of qualities with another AND/OR operator. With MailChimp, you can just sector by AND/OR, however MailChimp’s Pro strategy permits more advanced segmenting, for an additional $199 a month. In my look for the ideal email marketing platform, I saw lots of others, a few of which I’ve already discussed.

Active Campaign User Signature

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