I’m starting to look at various 3rd party CRM solutions that integrate well with AC (I’ve seen the huge number of available CRM integrations on ACs app page). I’m aware that AC has it’s own CRM, but I’m not convinced I want to go that route (not sure I want to get locked into the higher price point and not sure I want to put all my eggs in one basket). I do recognize the importance of integration though. We’re a small company with a very small marketing and sales department, so budgets are pretty tight. I’m considering these CRMs (I’m open to others): Contactually, Nimble, OnePageCRM, Pipedrive, ZohoCRM, and SugarCRM. One of the important factors in selecting a CRM will be the ability to only have selected contacts count against my AC contact limit, so I’ll likely need to be able to do something like only add contacts with an IntegrateWithAC” tag/flag set. Another important factor is that I don’t want to have to use Zapier. Any thoughts or recommendations? Thanks guys!
I understand your concerns about not wanting to move up to the higher price tier, but there are a lot of advantages to having your CRM tied together with your email marketing and marketing automation. All the automation tools can be used to create an automated pipeline. You can leverage Lead & Contact scoring to identify your best opportunities based on how they’re interacting with your campaigns and website and then create deal records for your best leads. Basically you can do a lot of things that aren’t possible when you integrate with another solution.
For your situation I would recommend an integration with PieSync as we integrate with all of the CRMs you mentioned. You’ll be able to create a 2-way contact sync between your CRM and AC. You have a choice of syncing all contacts, or selecting only a segment of your CRM, filtered by tag/contact group (CRM dependant). Here is a list of available integrations with AC.
As Brian, Im also curios which CRM did you choose at the end?
Let me know if you require any additional help/info.
Grega
Most CRM’s are designed to deal with the "traditional’ types of business and not online only - which is where AC has shown to be super effective. But missing the types of functions that ‘traditional’ business are some part style and some part function. I do really like the overall view of the CRM but some of the ‘custom field’ field features that have been around forever just seem to be left out.
Most companies need the ability to track where leads come from and report on them. Rather than just a ‘tag’ a dynamic field that be added. Yes companies get referrals from people, websites, etc and if you run some type of services business you are not going to use an affiliate tool like iDevAffiliate.
Some simple way to tie contacts/companies together. This has been around since the early days of Act and all the other PC based.
Custom Reporting - drag & drop reports, by date, source, referral, etc. If you are serious about serving that community someone needs to have a simple way to know what’s going on. Certainly if you manage multi-reps the current views are just not very useful at all.
Like I have said in previous posts, the automation/email engine is outstanding - especially since we can add all kinds of logic to what message to send to who and when. Imagine if a 30M Manufacturer could actually combine their activity with the visibility needed for anything beyond 1 person. Hope this helps and happy to share anything I have. I would send my Act2000 but I lost my floppy disks.
Keeping your tool accessible and powerful is the key!
We’ve actually not selected a CRM yet. I’m just looking ahead for options. As newline360 mentions for his scenario, we are also a “traditional” business where both online and offline activity and lead sources are relevant. We’re actually a technical B2B company that provides custom services. I’ll probably start looking in more detail in the next few months. IMHO AC should consider providing use of their CRM with the base level plan, as I don’t believe the CRM is the hard part (not trying to insult anyone if I’m wrong ) , and it could drive more adoption as a one stop shop for marketing automation + CRM for SMBs.
We have loved using Pipedrive honestly. It’s great. Haven’t used the CRM in ActiveCampaign yet, mostly because there’s no reporting. I need reports on deal flow and win/loss percentages, etc.
Improved Deals reporting coming very soon. I’ll try to remember to post an update to this thread when it’s released. Best way to stay on top of feature releases is to subscribe to our blog.
You can integrate AC to major CRMs (Salesforce, Dynamics CRM, Zoho CRM, SugarCRM, Netsuite, Pipedrive) with the help of Skyvia. Here you can find more info about it - ActiveCampaign Marketplace (https://www.activecampaign.com/apps/skyvia) or visit Skyvia’s site (https://skyvia.com/).
Has anyone implemented a CRM that handles what’s missing from ActiveCampaign as a front end to AC? The issue is that there is so much crossover now with CRM’s doing deal automation that it’s hard to avoid duplication of functionality as well as cost.
AC really does not do traditional Sales well, for managing prospects and leads when you start the journey with an SMS, a referred name only, or a message over social media.
“AC really does not do traditional Sales well, for managing prospects and leads when you start the journey with an SMS, a referred name only, or a message over social media.”
I was struggling to understand why some basic stuff is missing from contact management and deal reports but this explains it. The tool seems designed for the mainly online only type of business.
@sparkeleven + @cobblestonelearning the feeling is mutual over here as well. I’m interested to hear what others are doing as well. We’re fully built in AC + expanding so the lack of a workable dashboard for sales + one specific spot to see ALL of your tasks is a hindrance as well as “forcing” a contact to have an email when early in the process they might not.
