ActiveCampaign's Email Marketing Strategy
Here's their 4 part email marketing strategy and how it converted me to a paying customer while on free trial
I started a 14 day free trial with ActiveCampaign.
For those who don’t know, ActiveCampaign provides marketing, sales, and customer experience automation.
FYI - ActiveCampaign has 150K customers with $165M ARR.
In 14 days I received:
4 phone calls
16 emails
I sorted the emails into 4 categories/types:
1) Jumpstart
2) Social proof
3) Templates
4) Sales
Here's their repeatable trial conversion process step by step for you to use!
1) Jumpstart
Immediately after signup - Quickstart Guide
It gives links to:
create your first automation
connect your tools
craft your first campaign
schedule demo
The goal here is to get me to take action ASAP after sign up momentum.
20 minutes after signup - CEO welcome (at least his account)
This email offers links to :
webinars/videos
free migration service
live chat
user community
ActiveCampaign course
These are value adding but more complementary compared to message 1. Notice how in the email above they gave links to get started (create your own automations, connect your tools). The second message provides support to reduce friction in the process.
So now that you’re setup, here are resources that can help. And if you’re not set up, you have access to live chats and now a course to help you get started.
Within the hour, I got a call from a sales rep (very nice touch).
Thanked me for joining and answered any questions. He explained the getting started links incase I missed them. He learned more about me/my needs and suggested ways to get the most out of the trial.
Key Takeaways up to this point:
Go one step further than your competition
Be memorable, and connect with users early in a genuine way
The faster and more involved I got, the better my chances of converting
The easier it was for me to find helpful resources, the more I wanted to use it
Clarity of the message made next steps very simply
2) Social Proof:
"26,000+ people use *this* automation."
If 26K people are using it, so should you!
They also give a pre built "automation recipe" and 3 email templates.
They capitalize on FOMO with ways to get started ASAP.
Simple enough, with a clear CTA to capture the user in the exact moment.
3) Templates
They leveraged templates many times:
125+ beautiful email templates
48 landing page templates
The templates reduced friction and got me more setup, faster.
Next thing you know I have 3 campaigns ready.
After the trial ends, I'll lose the work if I don't convert...
Hint - that's EXACTLY what they want! That’s the goal with all trials.
Think about it...
The more progress you make, the more time you sink into the trial, the harder it is to leave everything behind.
If you can make it extremely easy to get started and offer resources to gain maximum value out of the product while on trial…you’re in good shape.
4) Sales
The same sales rep who called me, also sent follow up emails.
He said it's his job to make sure I get the most out of the trial.
He checked in to answer any questions and see how I was feeling on trial.
He was my contact if I wanted to talk to a real person who knew my:
Goals
Needs
Trial progress
(from previous conversations)
I always had a human to connect with if needed
Very nice touch
Key Takeaways:
In a trial, provide resources that either:
1) Help users get started/set up ASAP (ex: quick start guide/links) - more invested, the better
2) Help user get maximum value out of the product - (templates, support)
3) Educate unsure + active trial users (videos, webinars)
This builds up the time investment for the user on trial, helps them experience maximum value, while educating users who need more guidance to get to a purchase decision.
For reference, this is the list of all 16 emails I received in order:
1) Thanks for joining
2) Welcome from Jason
3) Free live training offer
4) Schedule a meeting with sales rep
5) 26,000+ use this automation
6) Check out our pre build automation templates
7) 125+ beautiful email templates
8) Check in from sales rep
9) Integrate my tools
10) Week 1 check in
11) 48 landing page templates
12) Accelerated on boarding + community intro
13) Sales check in
14) Move email contacts to ActiveCampaign
15) Trial ending
16) Thank you
TLDR:
ActiveCampaign converted me from trial to paid plan with
4 phone calls, 16 emails
Email types:
1) Jumpstart
2) Social proof
3) Templates
4) Sales
You can steal this recipe to convert users at scale
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