If there is one competitive segment of digital marketing solutions, it is marketing email solutions. When social media is the go-to marketing choice, savvy marketers still know the value of email. The list of marketing email customers promising this, that, and the other can be somewhat overwhelming. ActiveCampaign and MailChimp are popular marketing automation platforms. MailChimp delivers an accessible and affordable option for small-to-medium-sized businesses, while ActiveCampaign provides advanced features like powerful automated workflows.
Additionally, they both use accumulated data and automation to create personalized email campaigns intended to convert more subscribers to clients. In this blog, TechNinjaPro is going to compare two of the big hitters in email marketing customers.
A Complete Overview: ActiveCampaign vs. MailChimp
ActiveCampaign is useful for experienced marketers who already know how to navigate email marketing software and know-how to set up autoresponders and develop segments. Since ActiveCampaign lets you manage business accounts and individual client accounts, it is a perfect choice for both B2B and B2C marketers.
MailChimp is a perfect option for novice email marketers. Its robust features include advanced segmentation and personalization choices, which are also useful for marketers who need to create more complex campaigns. On the other hand, MailChimp is an easy-to-use software that offers an abundance of in-app digital marketing tips customized and tailored according to your experience and goals.
Product Overview
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is an email marketing software that leans from customer’s data and delivers efficient, personalized messages. ActiveCampaign includes a customer relationship management component that organizes all customer data, consolidates communication channels, and automatically conducts prospect tracking.
With its friendly user interface, users can build and execute email campaigns, create custom goals, consolidate all data and view detailed reports. ActiveCampaign also integrates with many different popular apps, like Zoom and Shopify.
MailChimp
MailChimp is one of the most significant marketing automation software that automates compelling email campaigns tailored toward clients’ individual needs. MailChimp features a dashboard to help customers better understand all corresponding data it collects. It integrates with popular ecommerce platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, and Google.
Features: ActiveCampaign vs. MailChimp
Both MailChimp and ActiveCampaign have a robust feature set but in different areas. MailChimp’s features include its autoresponder templates and its ability to create segments automatically based on user’s past behaviors. ActiveCampaign features include B2B contact management and segmentation.
What ActiveCampaign Provides
ActiveCampaign offers a limited choice of email templates which means you have to put more effort into designing your customized messages and thinking about how to start an email campaign. However, these templates are created with specific goals such as product recommendations, discount codes, or welcome emails.
Email testing
Once you have created your message using ActiveCampaign’s drag and drop email, there are tons of features to help you ensure your email is error-free and ends up in your recipients’ inboxes rather than their spam folders. ActiveCampaign’s email testing options are perfect, as you can see what your message looks like across both desktop and mobile.
There is also a spam check feature, which analyzes factors such as an address, the email customer you are using, and your email domain to predict whether your email will be marked as spam.
Segmentation
ActiveCampaign segmentation feature is a big part of why it is a market leader. Its segmentation allows you to create specific segments based on a variety of criteria. You can add multiple conditions, such as location, source, page views, and purchasing behavior. ActiveCampaign is useful for B2B marketers as it allows you to manage contacts by business rather than by individual. For example, you can create an account for a business with multiple contact points and details on the company, including turnover and size.
Other features include:
- Send one-time emails to a targeted list.
- Send emails as soon as a customer joins your email list automatically.
- Schedule email campaigns with distribution on specific times and dates.
- Create complex, automated workflows by combining triggers, actions, and logic.
- Create a drip campaign for new customer onboarding.
- Perform A/B split testing to know which emails are most successful.
What MailChimp Providers
MailChimp’s email editor is easy to use, without any explanation required. You can simply drag and drop content blocks such as text, images, and videos and then personalize the look and feel of these blocks according to your business and the goal of your email. You can easily change fonts, colors, shades, indents, and grammar checking can be completely customized to your business.
Autoresponder Templates
MailChimp is another top email marketing solution. Its drip campaigns are top-notch, as they automate many manual processes to make it easier to create complex campaigns. Instead of building autoresponders, you can use built-in templates to create drip campaigns for purposes such as order notification, welcome campaigns, cart abandonment, and win-back campaigns. It builds the sequences and sets the interval between emails; all you have to do is create each email you need to send.
Segmentation
MailChimp is an alternative to ActiveCampaign, as it automatically creates segments based on past customer behavior. MailChimp’s machine learning-based algorithm analyzes customer’s behavior and interactions with your company, such as email newsletter clicks and the number of site visits. Its algorithm predicts how possibly a customer is to make a purchase. MailChimp also uses this information to predict how much they are possibly to spend on each purchase.
Other features include:
- It allows users to create and design emails using a drag and drop interface, prepared templates, or custom coding.
- It also uses built-in photo editing and collaborative features like shared comments.
- It connects to an online store to showcase certain items or products.
In this comparison, MailChimp provides a broader range of features, and its autoresponder templates ad automatic segment creator make it stand out.
Customer Support: ActiveCampaign vs. MailChimp
Some email marketing platforms offer different levels of support depending on which pricing plan you opt for. It is necessary to check this out before you entrust to get in touch with your software vendor when you have an issue.
ActiveCampaign Customer Support
ActiveCampaign offers email support and live chat to all of its paint plans. Live chat support is available on the following schedule:
- Monday- Thursday from 8 am – 12 am, CTS
- Friday from 8 am – 4 pm, CTS
- Sunday from 4 pm – 12 am, CTS
You can access phone support if you pay for its enterprise plan. ActiveCampaign makes it simple to get in touch with its customer support team through its Contact Us button on the main page. It also offers an online community where you can get peer-to-peer help to solve your problems.
What MailChimp Provides
MailChimp makes you pay for your support. If you are on a free plan, you get access to only email support. If you opt for a paid plan, you get access to live chat support. Phone support is only offered if you choose the premium plan, and even then, it is only provided Monday through Friday.
When you try to access MailChimp support, it directs you toward its knowledge base. First, you have to search your queries there before contacting customer service support. It also hides its contact details, which makes it hard to get in touch.
Ease of use: ActiveCampaign vs. MailChimp
If you select email marketing software, it is essential to consider how fast you can get up and running and how much training you need.
ActiveCampaign is a complex software that provides a wide range of features. It presents quite a sharp learning curve if you are a beginner user. It is not easy to know where to get started, as many features depend on completing another step.
For example, you cannot create a lead score until you have set up a segment. This is something experienced marketing managers might already know, but it is not clear if you are new to ActiveCampaign.
It also does not provide a lot of in-app support. A perfect solution would be an introduction video that walks users through everything the platform has to offer, explains where all the valuable features are located, and details how to use different features.
It assumes that you already have knowledge and experience in email marketing. ActiveCampaign also tends to overcomplicate processes. For example, you cannot create an email list in just one click; you have to add a URL and a description.
On the other hand, MailChimp is a helpful and supportive platform you need when you are just starting with email marketing. You do not want to spend a lot of time getting up and running and learning to use a new piece of software. MailChimp personalizes its advice based on your goals and your email marketing experience.
MailChimp displays in-app messages to guide you through different tasks, such as creating an email by using its drag and drop editor. It offers loads of help while you are getting set up, explaining how you can complete tasks and why it is good to take specific actions. For example, it describes the advantages of segmenting your contacts.
Integration with other software
Most email marketing platforms offer a broad range of integrations, but it is also essential to note whether they have an API to develop your own Integrations to the software you are currently using. ActiveCampaign offers more than 250 integrations with a variety of commonly used business software. This includes:
- Salesforce
- Shopify
- Google Analytics
- Typeform
- Pipedrive
- Unbounce
- WooCommerce
It has an API that allows you to integrate the email marketing software with any other business software. ActiveCampaign’s developer portal offers extensive documentation to help you get started.
On the other hand, MailChimp offers more than 210 integrations to a wide variety of software in different categories, including productivity, content management, and ecommerce. These integrations include:
- WooCommerce
- Canva
- Eventbrite
- Acuity Scheduling
- ShopSync
- Google Analytics
- Pay Pal
It also offers an API to allow you to build your own integrations with software. If you need assistance building integrations, then you need to contact an external expert as MailChimp does not provide any support in this area.
Spam & design testing
MailChimp provides an efficient way of design testing. Aside from your standard desktop and mobile previews, It also offers an inbox preview feature that lets you preview emails in many email clients. If you have a monthly paid plan, you will have 25 inbox preview tokens to use every month. You get a link checker that picks up any missing links and an application where you can preview your email on your mobilephone. However, there is no spam testing provided.
On the other hand, ActiveCampaign has a spam check that automatically checks every email before sending it. Design previewers are restricted to desktop and email previews. Email client previews are not included, at least not for free.
Pricing: ActiveCampaign vs. MailChimp
It is crucial to make sure you know how pricing changes based on different plans and the number of contacts you have. The cost of MailChimp and ActiveCampaign goes up as you add more contacts.
ActiveCampaign does not provide a free plan, but it does offer a free 14 day trial with all of the features included. ActiveCampaign also provides four paid pricing plans with the price of each depending on the number of contacts you have.
MailChimp provides a free plan that lets you send up to 10000 emails per month to 2000 contacts. The free plan includes basic templates, does not have A/B testing, does not let you build landing pages, adds a MailChimp footer, and does not allow you to schedule emails by time zone.
Conclusion
Both MailChimp and ActiveCampaign have easy-to-use and straightforward drag and drop interfaces and professionally designed templates to help users create professional mailers. Both platforms offer strong workflows and testing choices. The difference between these two email marketing platforms appears more when we look at their approach to data. MailChimp provides an informative dashboard, interactive graphs, and comparisons. ActiveCampaign focuses on the completion of CRM, goals, and sales.
Usually, MailChimp has better pricing, but ActiveCampaign has more features for businesses that need to build their CRM and improve sales.