How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

You can also see whether the completion rate has increased or decreased, for how long it considers 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 function. It conserves me a ton of time and effort, and neither MailChimp nor ConvertKit (update: 9/2020 ConvertKit now has ” bits”) has a similar feature.

Let’s say you have the given name of only some of your contacts, which holds true with my list. I typically do not require a given 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, however it’s troublesome.

I’m likewise 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 simply state “Hey there,” (How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign). By constructing a Message Variable in ActiveCampaign, I can quickly change my welcoming according to whether or not I have the contact’s first name.

How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

I produced a variable that’s simply %greeting-hey%. If I have the contact’s name, it shows up in the email. If I don’t have the contact’s name, it defaults to “Hey,”. Where Message Variables actually conserve me a great deal of time is by allowing me use the 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 cost of the product, deal terms, voucher code, and more. Each time I run a new webinar, I can change each of these variables to match any schedule changes or deal 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 a person of the cons of ActiveCampaign is their email editing experience. I switched from MailChimp, and MailChimp takes place to have the very best email editing experience. I actually like to send basic emails.

How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

I have actually discovered that really difficult to do with ActiveCampaign. For some time, I was modifying emails in ActiveCampaign’s hybrid editor, which is quite clunky. For a long period of time, I used ActiveCampaign’s hybrid HTML and WYSIWYG editor, which was triggered by a fundamental template I created. The user interface for the HTML editor appears like it was pulled from some totally free open-source job. How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign.

Nevertheless, adding images is a little a chore. You need to choose them from a file browser. There’s no drag and drop alternative. ActiveCampaign’s HTML e-mail editor needs that you make up entirely in HTML. The alternative 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 rich text editor is a clunky experience. You need separate text boxes for above and below the image. Lately I have started using ActiveCampaign’s abundant text editor. They have some great templates, but I still desire to send out the plainest e-mail possible. They do have some plain-looking emails, but they have some degree of very little format, which you can’t get rid of – How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign.

How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

However, with some changes, I can make my e-mail pretty standard. I can make it automatically take up the whole window, and I can fine-tune the typography to be somewhat bigger, and have a little bit more prominent. The most aggravating part of ActiveCampaign’s abundant full-screen editor is including images. Imagine you’ve just typed out a fantastic e-mail. How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign.

You can’t simply include an image to a block of text. Instead, you have to develop 2 blocks of text: one for prior to the image, and one for after the image. If you’ve made any format modifications, you’ll need to keep an eye on those to remain consistent. That’s one thing to deal with when you wish to add one image, but when you wish to include several, it becomes a huge chore.

They even have a standard mage editor where you can crop the image – How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign. MailChimp’s editor is the finest 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 really plain e-mail, provided you make a fundamental design template initially.

How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

MailChimp’s built-in image editor is extremely powerful. You can resize, crop, and add custom text to your images. I miss out on MailChimp’s email-editing experience (How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign). 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 possible time savings.

ConvertKit’s email modifying experience is really plain, however simple to navigate. Their design templates are restricted, which is fine with me, but their e-mail editing experience is slightly simpler in that you can develop inline images, and you can develop a totally 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 troublesome.

I’ll click 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 suggested to or not, ActiveCampaign has disabled Command + Click from the automation editor. If I wished to switch backward and forward in between numerous emails, I would intuitively be inclined open the exact same automation in different tabs, then open the respective emails from each of those tabs.

How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

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 quickly modify your entire sequence. How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign. Contrast that with ConvertKit’s Series.

Once again, it would save me a great deal of time to have ConvertKit’s automation email modifying experience on ActiveCampaign – How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign. However choosing an email marketing platform resembles choosing a spouse. ActiveCampaign offsets it with their Message Variables, more robust automations, and advanced division. Mentioning division, another factor I changed from MailChimp to ActiveCampaign was that MailChimp has actually restricted segmentation options.

You can combine qualities with an AND/OR operator, and you can blend and match those groups of traits with another AND/OR operator. With MailChimp, you can just section by AND/OR, nevertheless MailChimp’s Pro plan allows more advanced segmenting, for an extra $199 a month. In my search for the ideal e-mail marketing platform, I saw numerous others, some of which I’ve currently pointed out.

How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

ConvertKit. If I weren’t on ActiveCampaign, I would probably be using ConvertKit. Their automations are a lot easier to build, though they aren’t as versatile as ActiveCampaign’s, and their segmentations alternatives aren’t as sophisticated either. They likewise don’t have goal tracking, or Message Variables. MailChimp. You already understand that I changed from MailChimp to ActiveCampaign.

How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

To start constructing an automation in ActiveCampaign, start with a “trigger.” There are a number of ways you can activate an automation, including: When a tag is added When a contact subscribes to a list When a contact sends a kind E-commerce and on-site alternatives (readily available in the “Pro” plan) When the contact reaches a particular point in another automation.

From there, you can start developing the actions in your automation. Some actions that are available in ActiveCampaign’s automations are: Send an e-mail Inform an employee Wait conditions If/then conditionals Split traffic for screening Avoid to other parts of the automation Track goals (The contact can skip to the objective’s place 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 website messages, and Facebook Custom-made Audience management are all “Pro” functions – How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign.

Contrast with ConvertKit‘s Automations, which are more restricted. On ConvertKit, you can activate an automation when: The contact submits a form The contact purchases A tag is contributed to the contact A custom-made field is updated with a certain worth From there, you can develop Conditions, to examine whether the contact has a particular tag or customized field value.

How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

You can likewise produce Occasions, which are a bit like ActiveCampaign’s Objectives, but without the reporting. You can track an Event when: A tag is included or removed The contact purchases A date happens A custom-made field is updated with a specific value You don’t create emails in ConvertKit’s Automations.

For more on how ActiveCampaign compares to ConvertKit, read my ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign contrast. The primary method I build my list is through an email course. ActiveCampaign makes it easy for me to develop my e-mail course precisely how I ‘d like to build it. Many marketers develop extremely easy e-mail sequences for their “email courses.” A contact indications up, and after that that contact instantly begins getting lessons.

It was easy to construct with ActiveCampaign, however impossible when I was with MailChimp. I don’t do that technique. My e-mail course is manually synced with this countdown timer on my website. You have to register by Friday night, and a brand-new course starts each Monday early morning. When I initially tried this approach, I was on MailChimp.

How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

Here’s the automation I utilize to welcome brand-new students to my Design Pitfalls course. There’s a few things going on here: The automation sends out all contacts a “welcome email (How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign).” The automation validates that it’s not Friday. If it’s not Friday, the automation waits until 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 pals.

The contact will start 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 e-mail 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 the very same email to every person on my list. I wish to send them the appropriate e-mail for their level of engagement – How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign. How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign. Here’s the automation I utilize to promote an evergreen webinar: First it confirms that they haven’t currently acquired the item I pitch in the webinar.

How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

Then it sends a series of emails to get them thinking about the webinar, and to encourage them to sign up. If they sign up, they instantly hit the “Objective” toward completion of the webinar, and the automation ends. If they don’t register, they get contributed to an automation promoting a rebroadcast of the webinar. How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign.

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 signed up, participated in, missed out on, or based upon the length of time they remained in the webinar. These tags can then activate automations within ActiveCampaign.

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

How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

Here’s an automation I obtained 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 adds a “0 days” tag. As time passes, it includes brand-new tags for 7 days, 1 month, 60 days, etc Each time they open an e-mail, a different automation removes them from this automation, eliminates all of those tags, and begins this automation over once again.

This automation can be frustrating in the beginning, and this is among those cases where I wish ActiveCampaign had a more out-of-the-box option. However, because you can do anything with ActiveCampaign, in some cases you need to construct things from scratch. ActiveCampaign has a choice to delete non-active customers, which I do not recommend.

Some subscribers don’t have actually tracking switched on, so their opens aren’t recorded. Others still want to be subscribed however have actually been busy. Here’s my reactivation series: I send out one e-mail 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 e-mail (if they currently clicked the verification link in the previous e-mail, they’ve currently been removed from the automation utilizing a different automation) – How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign.

How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

The automation then unsubscribes them. My e-mails also have a link to a form where they can enter their email address to let me understand that they don’t have tracking made it possible for. This type adds a tag that I use to filter those contacts out. How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign. I utilized to include this tag when they clicked a link, however when individuals don’t have tracking on, it makes those links not work so dependably! I just send a simple “do you still want my e-mails?” verification.

How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

You can likewise see whether the completion rate has actually increased or reduced, 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 objective. ActiveCampaign’s Message Variables is my favorite function. It saves me a lots of time and effort, and neither MailChimp nor ConvertKit (upgrade: 9/2020 ConvertKit now has ” bits”) has a similar feature.

Let’s state you have the given name of just a few of your contacts, which is the case with my list. I typically do not require a first name to sign up to my list, however often I get a given name, such as when somebody buys an item. Wouldn’t it be good to welcome your contacts by name, in the events when you have it? You can do this, but it’s troublesome.

I’m likewise filtering for generic terms included by other systems, such as a dash, or “Visitor.” If they have a first name, I state “Hey,” and then their given name. If they don’t, I simply state “Hey there,” (How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign). By developing a Message Variable in ActiveCampaign, I can quickly change my welcoming according to whether or not I have the contact’s given name.

How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

I produced a variable that’s just %greeting-hey%. If I have the contact’s name, it appears in the email. If I don’t have the contact’s name, it defaults to “Hey,”. Where Message Variables actually save me a great deal of time is by allowing me use the exact same automation over and over again for my webinars, and I can quickly 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 price of the item, deal terms, discount 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 allows me to easily alter out a countdown timer. I did mention earlier that one of the cons of ActiveCampaign is their email editing experience. I changed from MailChimp, and MailChimp occurs to have the very best email modifying experience. I really like to send out easy e-mails.

How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

I’ve found that extremely tough to do with ActiveCampaign. For awhile, I was editing emails 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 activated by a standard design template I developed. The user interface for the HTML editor appears like it was pulled from some totally free open-source task. How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign.

Nevertheless, adding images is a little a chore. You need to choose them from a file internet browser. There’s no drag and drop alternative. ActiveCampaign’s HTML email editor requires that you compose entirely in HTML. The option to this, if you want to have control over the HTML, is to modify pure HTML, with a preview on the side.

Including images to ActiveCampaign’s rich full-screen editor is a cumbersome experience. You require different text boxes for above and listed below the image. Recently I have started utilizing ActiveCampaign’s rich full-screen editor. They have some great templates, but I still wish to send out the plainest e-mail possible. They do have some plain-looking emails, however they have some degree of minimal format, which you can’t remove – How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign.

How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

However, with some adjustments, I can make my email pretty basic. I can make it instantly take up the entire window, and I can modify the typography to be somewhat bigger, and have a little more prominent. The most aggravating part of ActiveCampaign’s abundant full-screen editor is adding images. Imagine you’ve simply typed out a great e-mail. How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign.

You can’t simply add an image to a block of text. Rather, you have to produce 2 blocks of text: one for before the image, and one for after the image. If you’ve made any format changes, you’ll need to keep an eye on those to stay consistent. That’s one thing to deal with when you wish to include one image, but when you wish to include numerous, it ends up being a huge task.

They even have a basic mage editor where you can crop the image – How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign. MailChimp’s editor is the very best I’ve seen in all of the email marketing platforms I have actually tried. You have access to the underlying code, so you can produce a really plain email, supplied you make a standard design template first.

How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

MailChimp’s built-in image editor is very powerful. You can resize, crop, and add custom-made text to your images. I miss MailChimp’s email-editing experience (How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign). It would conserve me a little time to have that exact same experience on ActiveCampaign. But the highly-customizable automations I can construct on ActiveCampaign more than make up for that potential time savings.

ConvertKit’s email editing experience is very plain, but simple to browse. Their templates are restricted, which is great with me, but their email modifying experience is slightly much easier because you can produce inline images, and you can develop an absolutely plain email, and even edit the underlying HTML. If you desire to make some fast edits to some e-mails in an automation, with ActiveCampaign, it’s troublesome.

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

How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

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 edit every one, or you can Command + Click to open each in a brand-new tab to more quickly modify your entire sequence. How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign. Contrast that with ConvertKit’s Series.

Again, it would save me a lot of time to have ConvertKit’s automation email editing experience on ActiveCampaign – How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign. However choosing an e-mail marketing platform is like selecting a partner. ActiveCampaign offsets 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 limited segmentation alternatives.

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 just sector by AND/OR, nevertheless MailChimp’s Pro strategy enables more sophisticated segmenting, for an extra $199 a month. In my look for the ideal email marketing platform, I saw lots of others, a few of which I have actually currently mentioned.

How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

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 versatile as ActiveCampaign’s, and their divisions options aren’t as sophisticated either. They likewise do not have goal tracking, or Message Variables. MailChimp. You already know that I switched from MailChimp to ActiveCampaign.

How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

To begin building an automation in ActiveCampaign, start with a “trigger.” There are a variety of ways you can activate an automation, including: When a tag is added When a contact registers for a list When a contact sends a kind E-commerce and on-site options (available in the “Pro” strategy) When the contact reaches a particular point in another automation.

From there, you can start building the actions in your automation. Some actions that are offered in ActiveCampaign’s automations are: Send an email Inform a staff member Wait conditions If/then conditionals Split traffic for screening 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 existing automation Post a webhook Subscribe or unsubscribe the contact to/from lists Update contact details Include and eliminate tags Include a note Lead scoring, SMS and site messages, and Facebook Custom Audience management are all “Pro” functions – How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign.

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

How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

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

For more on how ActiveCampaign compares to ConvertKit, read my ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign comparison. The main way I develop my list is through an e-mail course. ActiveCampaign makes it simple for me to develop my email course exactly how I want to build it. Many online marketers build extremely easy email series for their “email courses.” A contact register, and then that contact immediately starts getting lessons.

It was simple to build with ActiveCampaign, however 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 website. You have to register by Friday night, and a brand-new course begins each Monday early morning. When I initially attempted this approach, I was on MailChimp.

How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

Here’s the automation I utilize to welcome new students to my Style Pitfalls course. There’s a couple of things going on here: The automation sends all contacts a “welcome e-mail (How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign).” 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 a “pump up” email to get the trainees all set for next week’s course, and encourage them to share it with pals.

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 e-mail 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 e-mail to everyone on my list. I want to send them the proper email for their level of engagement – How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign. How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign. Here’s the automation I utilize to promote an evergreen webinar: First it confirms that they haven’t currently bought the product I pitch in the webinar.

How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

Then it sends a series of e-mails to get them thinking about the webinar, and to encourage them to register. If they sign up, they immediately hit the “Goal” toward the end of the webinar, and the automation ends. If they do not register, they get included to an automation promoting a rebroadcast of the webinar. How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign.

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 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 activate automations within ActiveCampaign.

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

How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

Here’s an automation I got 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 adds a “0 days” tag. As time passes, it adds 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, eliminates all of those tags, and begins this automation over once again.

This automation can be frustrating initially, and this is among those cases where I want ActiveCampaign had a more out-of-the-box service. But, since you can do anything with ActiveCampaign, in some cases you need to construct things from scratch. ActiveCampaign has an option to erase non-active customers, which I do not advise.

Some subscribers do not have tracking turned on, so their opens aren’t tape-recorded. Others still wish to be subscribed but have been busy. Here’s my reactivation sequence: I send out one email asking if they still wish to be subscribed, and briefly describing why I keep my e-mail list tidy. In one week, I send them another email (if they already clicked the confirmation link in the previous email, they have actually currently been gotten rid of from the automation utilizing a separate automation) – How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign.

How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign

The automation then unsubscribes them. My emails also have a link to a kind where they can enter their e-mail address to let me understand that they do not have tracking made it possible for. This type adds a tag that I use to filter those contacts out. How To Set Up A Freebie On WordPress With Active Campaign. I utilized to add this tag when they clicked a link, however when people don’t have tracking on, it makes those links not work so dependably! I only send out a basic “do you still desire my emails?” confirmation.