There are many tools out there to help you manage your marketing automations. The goal of the Battle of the SaaS series is to better explore the tools that are available to business owners so they can find the right solution for their business.
We all understand the importance and power of using email in our business and at this point automating the sending of the emails to maximize our reach, and save time with follow up. As we compare these tools it is important for you to know what you really need the software to do for you.
Welcome to Battle of the SaaS
**Let’s Talk About Features**
While cost of ownership is important, knowing what you are getting yourself into is just as important. We will dive into pricing, but not yet.
These marketing automation saas tools are full of features. Some features that many do not know exist or what to do with them. Let’s talk about the features that matter.
As we compare Infusionsoft and ActiveCampaign you will learn that Infusionsoft offers a few direct services that ActiveCampaign does not, mainly an eCommerce Shopping Cart, but we will get into the other options a little bit later.
Email and Automated Follow Up
Most likely the main reason you are looking for a tool like Infusionsoft or ActiveCampaign is the automated email sending.
Both tools offer a drag-and-drop interface to allow you to build out your email sequences with ease.
Easy enough to select what triggers the emails to send and easy enough to set delay timer.
But after that they seem to get very different, Infusionsoft separates their sequences into campaigns which can organize multiple sequences at once while ActiveCampaign has their automations set up individually.
Campaigns vs Automations
Infusionsoft Campaigns offer a large overview of what you hope to accomplish, from the first Goal that will bring the user in until the last goal that will remove the user from the entire campaign.
Campaigns can have multiple sequences and multiple goals that can perform multiple functions. Users can move about the sequences based on goals that are achieved within the campaign. There are some more advanced settings available from a campaign standpoint.
Automations can are one concurrent sequence that can perform multiple functions with a clear start and stop to the automation. In ActiveCampaign can move users around to different automations based on their actions. You can organize these automations into Groups for easier tracking.
Email Broadcasts
Infusionsoft Broadcasts allow for a simple drag-and-drop email builder for you to create your broadcast. You can send off of a “Saved Search” or search for the segment you want to send to on the fly. Select your date and time then SEND!
ActiveCampaign Campaigns, stemming from their pre-automation platform, campaigns are where you will schedule your broadcast emails. With a simple drag-and-drop email builder. Simply schedule and select your list then segment your list and send.
ActiveCampaign also allows for RSS and Date Based based sending
The CRM and Managing Opportunities
Both systems offer the ability to manage user data and a sales pipeline while automating various aspects of that process. However there are some very strong differences you will see in way that user data is handled and the pipeline stages are managed.
CRM Custom fields
Infusionsoft offers the ability to create fields and stores those fields in tabs and headers. You can have a maximum of 100 custom fields for each data set (Contact, Opportunity, Tasks/Notes, Orders, Subscriptions). You can use the data in these fields to trigger automations, send it in emails and calculate the data as well.
ActiveCampaign manages the custom fields in the Lists. [*note: To simplify your system, we recommend you create a MASTER LIST and move through automations via a Tagging system] They store this data and it is accessible on a small scroll box in the user profile. You seem to be able to create numerous fields for your lists, but there is no way to directly run automations based on these fields you created.
Opportunities
Infusionsoft offers an extremely customizable Opportunity Management solution. You can setup Deal stages, custom fields, and even require a checklist to be completed before moving a contact onto the next stage.
You can setup your dashboard and organize your pipeline for a quick and easy view and then access each opportunity through a search.
You can create automation sequences that can activate upon moving a stage (both into and out of), but without some custom API work you are not able to automate the Stage Move.
The ActiveCampaign Drag and Drop Visual Pipeline at first glance seems fantastic. You can simply move people into different stages of the sales cycle. You can add tasks, emails, and notes all right there. You can even make Stage moves from an Automation (Pretty cool).
You can setup multiple Pipelines and create different stages for each pipeline. You can also view the deals by company level or your contact level.
But, if you look a little further you will discover that this is not a great sales CRM tool and is extremely basic.
Making A Sale
Infusionsoft offers a built in e-commerce / sales platform that will give you the ability to make sales online. You can integrate with your own payment processor or use their new Infusionsoft Payments (powered by WePay).
Creating products is simple. You can then create order forms that will allow your contacts to make a purchase. While the out-of-the-box order forms leave much to be desired, you can quickly spiff them up with something like Spiffy or get a custom programed order form from a developer friend or off Upwork.
ActiveCampaign offers not such solution. If you are looking to make online sales and use AC, you will need to look for a second solution. One option that has a direct API integration with ActiveCampaign is SamCart.
Reporting Your Data
Infusionsoft stores a lot of data for you and because of that, offers the ability to create custom reports. Infusionsoft has many out-of-the-box reports to get you some information quickly. But the real power comes with the custom report you create so that you can see the data that is important to you.
There are a few third-party options that will give you a better way to visualize your data such as Graphly or Wicked Reports.
ActiveCampaign’s reporting is very basic. You can view the performance of your Automations — email by email and contact activity trends. The deals report gives you a number of actives in stages and the close rate by each stage, but no real revenue tracking.
Integrations
Infusionsoft has a large network of integrations and solutions to help you make even more things happen with your business. There are Zapier integrations along with custom API built integrations available.
ActiveCampaign has a main focus on using Zapier to handle the integrations. While Zapier offers a lot of integration support, this is just another piece of SaaS that you need to use.
Cost of Ownership
While Infusionsoft does have an upfront cost, ActiveCampaign does not, in-fact they even have a 14 day free trial.
Infusionsoft has a retail base price of $199
And with all the good automation features you need, ActiveCampaign starts at $49
But that really isn’t apples-to-apples comparison there.
Here is where you need to watch yourself.
If you have more than 25k subscribers you will start to see ActiveCampaign’s monthly cost be more than Infusionsoft.
Summary
What is right for your business?
Do you need the all in one? Do you just need a powerful email automation tool?
Do you have a lot of contacts? Do you send a lot of emails?
I have personally worked with both platforms, in fact, I sell and services both tools. There are some features that I like about one and some that I like about another.
While I may have a personal preference to one over another…
The truth is. There is no one right solution.
Do a needs analysis for your business and find the tool that works best for you.
