Act-On Software vs. emfluence Marketing Platform

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Act-On
Score 8.0 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
Act-On is an adaptive marketing platform designed to drive personal and purposeful multi-channel marketing. Its foci are inbound and outbound marketing, for enabling a tighter alignment with sales and turning data into actionable insights.
$900
per month
emfluence Marketing Platform
Score 10.0 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
The emfluence Marketing Platform is a marketing automation platform featuring drag-and-drop email editors and automated campaign builders, simple social media scheduling, manageable landing pages, workflow management, analytics, website tracking, surveys, and modals. The platform works for B2B and B2C marketers, marketing agencies, and CRM providers. The product supports CRM integrations and an open API for custom integrations. emfluence offers digital marketing consulting…
$1,000
per month
Pricing
Act-On Softwareemfluence Marketing Platform
Editions & Modules
Professional
$900
per month
Enterprise
$2,000+
per month
Up to 30,000 Active Emails
$1,000
per month
Up to 150,000 Active Emails
$2,000
per month
Up to 500,000 Active Emails
$4,100
per month
More than 1,000,000 Active Emails
Custom
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Act-Onemfluence Marketing Platform
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup fee$3,100 one-time fee per installation
Additional DetailsThe Professional package starts at 2,500 active contacts, 3 marketing users, 50 sales users and 30,000 API calls per day. The Enterprise allows for much more customization, the package starts at 2,500 active contacts, 6 marketing users, 100 sales users and 30,000 API calls per day. Annual contract required for all packages.The emfluence Marketing Platform offers month-to-month pricing that’s based on the number of contacts added, with no restrictions on how many emails are sent each month or by which features are used.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Act-On Softwareemfluence Marketing Platform
Features
Act-On Softwareemfluence Marketing Platform
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.6
Ratings
12% above category average
emfluence Marketing Platform
8.4
Ratings
10% above category average
WYSIWYG email editor9.10 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Dynamic content9.10 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content8.20 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Landing pages8.20 Ratings8.20 Ratings
A/B testing9.10 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Mobile optimization7.10 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting9.10 Ratings9.10 Ratings
List management9.10 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences8.20 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.6
Ratings
10% above category average
emfluence Marketing Platform
8.1
Ratings
4% above category average
Lead nurturing automation9.10 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading9.10 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Data quality management9.10 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks7.30 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
7.1
Ratings
4% below category average
emfluence Marketing Platform
8.4
Ratings
13% above category average
Calendaring6.80 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing7.30 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
9.1
Ratings
19% above category average
emfluence Marketing Platform
8.4
Ratings
11% above category average
Social sharing and campaigns9.10 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Social profile integration9.10 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.5
Ratings
15% above category average
emfluence Marketing Platform
6.7
Ratings
9% below category average
Dashboards8.20 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Standard reports9.10 Ratings7.20 Ratings
Custom reports8.20 Ratings3.70 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.3
Ratings
11% above category average
emfluence Marketing Platform
8.2
Ratings
9% above category average
API9.10 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals9.10 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Customizability7.30 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com9.10 Ratings7.20 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM8.10 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM7.10 Ratings00 Ratings
User Ratings
Act-On Softwareemfluence Marketing Platform
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.9
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.7
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Act-On Softwareemfluence Marketing Platform
Likelihood to Recommend
If you have MS Dynamics CRM, this is the automation platform for you and your operations. Act-On Software easily syncs with dynamics, and we've never had a problem with this since we set ours up years ago. If you use a different CRM, I'd check to see if other options might make more sense. Having that ability for the systems to seamlessly talk is critical.
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The reporting feature is not as detailed as we require for our documentation, so we have to organize the results into charts and graphs. For every other component of our social media and digital marketing, emfluence checks all of the boxes.
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Pros
  • The templates are easy to use and set up campaigns.
  • It's simple to use, and the email editor features a drag-and-drop interface.
  • It's easy to set up a drip campaign or a series of scheduled emails.
  • It has the flexibility of having a variety of scheduling options and the use of user experience automation.
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  • The deliverabililty and placement reporting really provide insight as to where/when your message has landed with the end user. The preflight also allows you to make sure you have less chance of hitting the dreaded spam box.
  • We have used the platform many times for RSVPing to events. It is very useful in messaging respondents and sending separate follow ups to those that haven't responded. It also allows us to be able to easily collect check in lists for staff to have at the time the event starts.
  • We use the platform in part of our communication strategy to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. The video link component has added an extra layer of fun to students and staff.
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Cons
  • Building email and landing page templates are difficult, the drag and drop builder is not straightforward, and requires coding knowledge
  • The workflow tool is cumbersome and not as intuitive as I'd expect a best in class marketing software's to be
  • Domain connections and domain management functionality made it difficult to manage multiple company domains and subdomains for pages
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  • The email builder is hit and miss. Sometimes it brings in outside code, even when I paste text that matches the format, which loses us time and money.
  • More control of email templates, it feel as if it is over simplified.
  • Reporting lacks some depth in information and tracking specific users.
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Likelihood to Renew
It's my single biggest asset in my current role. With limited resources, its enabled Anachron to punch well above our weight marketing wise and although we're still at the beginning of our journey I know the system can scale with us
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No answers on this topic
Usability
It's good, but not quite brilliant. Some parts of the interface are still a bit outdated. The product has been evolving very fast, though, and I believe in a few months it will be up there with the best of them, interface wise as well.
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No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
I have always found them quick to respond to my query by web inquiry. In those instances when I call, I have always reached help quickly. They are conscientious and skilled in discussing my concern and finding a solution to my problem. Other tech organizations should use Act-On as a model for top-notch customer service.
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No answers on this topic
Performance
Sometimes the server loading speed is a little slow but most often runs fine and if it doesn't their tech support is quick to respond
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Since we start using Act-on for ourselves and our clients, we have been supported very well. Often we need to integrate with legacy systems and we find the support team on our side during the whole endeavor. Always asking if they can help us further, always willing to do a better job. The support of Act-On is one of the main differentiators
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No answers on this topic
In-Person Training
Dan D. was great. He took the time to understand how I needed the program to run, and was very flexible to our special CRM setup.
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No answers on this topic
Online Training
The system is very user friendly, I think we were up and running within a day or so of having the product. It took very few online training for me to learn a large chunk of the functionality of this system.
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
What impressed me most is that Act-On showed full committment in making our implementation successful, even when it required additional support from their team. This gave me a lot of warm and fuzzy feelings. Most other software software vendors are not anywhere close to being this responsive and effective
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
We chose Act-On for its ability to support our customers within a single account. The Marketing Network is a huge benefit to our business and the offerings we provide to our customers. In previously working with Hubpsot and Salesforce, we found the support to be lacking - often being referred to a forum or landing page rather than getting hands-on guided help from a knowledgeable person on their team. We LOVE Act-On and the team that they have servicing our account!
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It definitely does a better job for what we are doing for client than ClickDimensions, but Salesfusion is a platform that we ideally would like to use for all of our clients due to it's customization.
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Scalability
Before I feel like I need more features, the Act-On customer service reps are contacting me telling about new features as part of my account.
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • Positive- quick setup for webinars between 3 different tools, made it easy to do in high volume
  • Negative- lots of processes with the designer tools that made email/landing page design take longer than it should have, costing man hours
  • Positive- email automation with different types of campaigns we could have flowing at once or could span across multiple audience segments made it so we could consistently create touch points and increase our engagement, thus our ROI over time
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  • We always have a very high rate of open percentage, which usually lead to more registration. We can track that we can have a large uptick in registrations after certain emails have been sent.
  • The more results we can gather like social media clicks, shares and likes and the email opens we can share with sponsors, the more they will come back as a sponsor and also possibly be more investing in our organization.
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ScreenShots

Act-On Screenshots

Screenshot of the Automated Journey Builder. Here, users can personalize customer interactions from awareness to loyalty.Screenshot of the Analytics Dashboard. This is used to compare performance over time, filter by segment, and export report components.Screenshot of the Email Composer. Here is where users design emails optimized for desktop and mobile with a drag and drop builder.

emfluence Marketing Platform Screenshots

Screenshot of search perimeters and contact characteristics using the Dynamic Marketing Group Query Builder.Screenshot of Google Analytics, used to measure the success of email and social media alongside spikes in website traffic. Granular reports can be scheduled for an overview of surveys, landing pages, forms, social posts, emails, and list growth.Screenshot of the drag-and-drop Workflow Canvas visual interface used to create automated marketing campaigns, plus send contacts from a single group into branches based on email views, clicks, or custom queries.Screenshot of the interface to build branching into automated workflows based on opens, clicks, or custom decisions (based on custom or out-of-the-box contact fields, dates, and more).Screenshot of a schedule with a month's worth of social media and email, built using the drag and drop marketing calendar.Screenshot of custom email templates, which can be reused or rebuilt with a drag and drop editor.