Marketing automation platform Act-On is rolling out a host of new features to its multi-channel marketing automation software.
Act-On, which caters to small and midsize companies revealed four new capabilities for its platform:
Funnel reports
For B2B digital marketers, funnels are the lifeblood of revenue generation, and Act-On is adding the ability to track the performance at every stage developed for each funnel. Act-On says it’s added value is generating “dynamic reports” which take continuous snapshots of information instead of traditional reports which only give you information at a certain point in time.
The Act-On Funnel Reports measure overall flow and velocity of leads, track prospects through important conversion points, and compare results across different time periods. These include dynamic performance reviews of progressive funnel stages, such as lead generation campaigns, lead capturing, lead nurturing and finally revenue generation.
“Data for these reports can be taken from multiple sources, including CRM systems and the company’s own lists,” says Act-On CMO Atri Chatterjee. “Users can also customize their funnel based on their own processes, and compare the same stages over different time periods side by side.”
Here’s what a customizable dashboard for a Funnel Report looks like within the Act-On system:
Customizable user interface and dashboard
Taking a page out of Adobe’s Marketing Cloud systems, Act-On is also giving users the ability to customize their dashboards, choosing which performance reports they would like to display and which marketing channels they would like easy access to. In this way, the software is customized to each member of the marketing team and the role in which they operate. For example, the webmaster can customize the dashboard to display the website performance stats up front, while the email team can tweak it to show funnel reports or the results of a lead gen campaign.
Updated content editor with responsive design capabilities
For small marketing teams, the ability to update content for websites, email campaigns and mobile apps without going to the IT or web development team is crucial. Act-On’s new content editor allows marketers with basic design knowledge to create and edit content to be deployed on different marketing channels, all without requiring HTML or CSS knowledge. The content can be created with simple drag-and drop functionality and it automatically generates responsive and adaptive properties, making it easy to render on any device.
Here’s what the new content editor looks like:
Expanded integrations with CRM and email platforms
Act-On is extending its email tracking capabilities outside its own platform to email services that sales and marketing teams are already using, such as Gmail and Outlook.
In addition, it is adding a CRM layer that allows its platform to integrate with all top level CRM systems, including Salesforce, SugarCRM, Netsuite and MS Dynamics. Chatterjee says this level of integration gives marketers much more flexibility in the automation platform they want to use, since most mid-level automation systems out there (read Hubspot) integrate exclusively with one major CRM provider (read: Salesforce.)
With the introduction of these new features, Act-On is giving its customers a layer of software sophistication previously unavailable for small and midsize marketers. Most enterprise level systems provide the ability to create customizable funnels, while SMB marketers with more basic software are given predetermined funnels to work with. Act-On now exists somewhere in-between, giving marketers the ability to customize funnels and reports, but making it easier to do, so that a development team doesn’t need to be used to set it up.
The new features will be included in an upgrade for all existing Act-On customers at no extra cost to their subscriptions.
