One of the most important steps any company can take is to set up customer relationship management software (CRM).
CRM software allows businesses to handle customer management, monitor interactions, and help companies understand how their marketing campaigns and other key projects perform.
There are many different types of CRM systems on the market. Still, Act! is one of the most popular choices for small businesses because of its affordability, comprehensive features, and ability to take your sales process to the next level.
This article will provide an overview of Act! and its key features to help you decide if it is right for your company. We’ll also look at some alternatives to Act. Finally, we’ll share our thoughts on whether the software is worth the price tag.
What is Act CRM?
Act! is a powerful CRM and marketing automation software solution built for small and midsize businesses. The platform aims to help businesses improve relationships with existing customers and attract new prospects through its powerful reports, customer management, and marketing automation tools.
These functionalities include opportunity management, activity management, sales process management, contact management, relationship timelines, and various email marketing features.
The Act CRM software solution offers email integration with Gmail and Outlook so you can interact and follow up with contacts directly within the platform.
It also integrates with other Google and Microsoft products and apps to help you streamline your workflow and access more functionalities.
ACT! CRM is a powerful software tool designed to help businesses manage their customer relationships more effectively. With its intuitive interface and robust feature set, ACT! CRM allows users to track customer interactions, manage sales leads, and automate marketing campaigns. The software also provides detailed analytics and reporting capabilities, allowing businesses to gain valuable insights into their customer base and make data-driven decisions. Whether you're a small business owner or a large enterprise, ACT! CRM can help you streamline your operations and improve your bottom line.
- Customizable dashboards: The software allows users to create customized dashboards that display the information they need most, making it easier to stay on top of important tasks and deadlines.
- Contact management: ACT! CRM provides robust contact management features, allowing users to easily store and organize contact information, track interactions, and manage tasks and appointments.
- Sales pipeline management: The software includes tools for managing the sales pipeline, including lead tracking, opportunity management, and forecasting.
- Marketing automation: ACT! CRM includes marketing automation features that allow users to create and send targeted email campaigns, track engagement, and measure results.
- Integration with other tools: ACT! CRM integrates with a variety of other tools, including Microsoft Outlook, Google Apps, and social media platforms.
Act CRM Pricing
Act’s pricing structure is split into two products: It’s cloud and on-premise CRM software. As such, the platform covers the following two pricing plans:
- Act! Premium Cloud: $30/user/month (billed annually)
- Act! Premium Desktop: $37.50/user/month (billed annually)
There’s also a 14-day free trial available for the Cloud version with no credit card required. Moreover, you can sync the Cloud and Desktop plans for $40/user/month (billed annually).
However, note that both plans come with basic marketing automation tools, while emails are limited to 2500/month. There are also optional digital marketing features, which are shown in the following plans:
- Select – up to 25000 emails/month: $79/account/month (billed annually)
- Complete – up to 50000 emails/month: $199/account/month (billed annually)
- Advanced – up to 100000 emails/month: $399/account/month (billed annually)
See the comparison between different CRM softwares.
Act CRM Features List
Act! offers the following out-of-the-box features:
- Email marketing tools with access to 170+ responsive email templates
- Contact management and enrichment
- Access to Act! Insight analytics
- Task and activity management
- Mobile access
As for the platform’s optional functionalities, the Act includes the following:
- SMS, drip, and event marketing campaigns
- A fully-featured visual workflow designer
- Lead management and scoring
- Landing page builder
- Built-in A/B testing
Who Is Act CRM For?
Overall, you should choose Act if you’re looking for a CRM software solution with excellent marketing automation functionalities and wish to bring marketing and sales teams under the same roof.
It’s a powerful CRM that covers sales pipeline management, activity management, excellent analytics, and other essential customer relationship management-specific functionalities.
Meanwhile, the platform’s built-in marketing tools are uncommon in other CRM platforms. This especially goes true for the optional add-ons.
For instance, Act CRM comes with deliverability and compliance tools included. These cover all the features necessary to maintain GDPR compliance, maximize deliverability rates by minimizing spam emails and manage email opt-outs. Not to mention that you can also handle personalized campaigns.
Additionally, the CRM platform’s optional add-ons bring its marketing capabilities to the next level. As mentioned, these add-ons will unlock the platform’s landing page builder, SMS marketing tools, A/B testing functionalities, and much more.
Act! CRM Pros and Cons
Let’s summarize Act! CRM with a brief list of the platform.
Act CRM Pros
- Both pricing plans include the platform’s full-featured CRM system
- Excellent sales and marketing automation tools
- Email deliverability tools included
- Fully customizable sales pipelines
- Powerful reports and analytics
Act CRM Cons
- The User Interface is a little outdated and can get tricky to navigate
- Optional features can get quite expensive
Act CRM Alternatives and Competitors
Act CRM is a solid platform for small and midsize businesses. However, its expensive add-ons and clunky UI may disappoint some customers.
Let’s see how Act stack up to some of its competitors and see in which aspects they might be a better choice.
Monday Sales CRM is a powerful customer relationship management platform designed to help businesses manage and grow their sales pipeline. It offers a range of features, including lead capture forms, contact management, deal tracking, and analytics, making it easy to manage your sales efforts in one place.
Salesforce is one of the best cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software that helps businesses manage their sales, marketing, and customer service activities. It provides a centralized platform for managing customer data, tracking sales leads, and automating marketing campaigns. With Salesforce, businesses can improve their customer engagement and drive revenue growth.
HubSpot is a powerful marketing, sales, and customer service software that helps businesses grow and manage their customer relationships. It provides a range of tools and features to help businesses attract, engage, and delight customers, including lead generation, email marketing, social media management, CRM, and more. With HubSpot, businesses can streamline their marketing and sales processes, improve customer engagement, and drive growth and revenue.
Oracle Netsuite CRM is a powerful customer relationship management software that helps businesses manage their customer interactions and relationships. It provides a comprehensive suite of tools and features that enable businesses to streamline their sales, marketing, and customer service processes. With Oracle Netsuite CRM, businesses can easily track customer interactions, manage leads and opportunities, automate sales processes, and provide exceptional customer service. The software also offers advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, allowing businesses to gain valuable insights into their customer data and make informed decisions. Overall, Oracle Netsuite CRM is a highly effective solution for businesses looking to improve their customer relationships and drive growth.
Pipedrive is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform designed to help businesses manage their sales pipeline. It offers a range of features, including lead and deal management, email tracking, and analytics, making it easy for businesses to track their sales efforts in one place.
Maximizer CRM is a powerful customer relationship management software that helps businesses manage their customer interactions and sales processes. It provides a comprehensive set of tools for managing customer data, tracking sales leads, and automating marketing campaigns. With Maximizer CRM, businesses can streamline their sales processes, improve customer engagement, and increase revenue. The software is highly customizable and can be tailored to meet the specific needs of different businesses. It is easy to use and provides real-time insights into customer behavior, allowing businesses to make informed decisions and improve their overall performance. Overall, Maximizer CRM is a valuable tool for businesses looking to improve their customer relationships and drive growth.
Zoho CRM is a cloud-based customer relationship management software that helps businesses manage their sales, marketing, and customer support activities. It provides a centralized platform for businesses to store and manage customer data, track sales activities, and automate marketing campaigns. With Zoho CRM, businesses can streamline their sales processes, improve customer engagement, and increase revenue. The software offers a range of features including lead management, contact management, sales forecasting, email marketing, and social media integration. Zoho CRM is designed to be user-friendly and customizable, allowing businesses to tailor the software to their specific needs. The output of Zoho CRM is improved customer relationships, increased sales, and a more efficient sales process.
ACT! CRM is a powerful software tool designed to help businesses manage their customer relationships more effectively. With its intuitive interface and robust feature set, ACT! CRM allows users to track customer interactions, manage sales leads, and automate marketing campaigns. The software also provides detailed analytics and reporting capabilities, allowing businesses to gain valuable insights into their customer base and make data-driven decisions. Whether you're a small business owner or a large enterprise, ACT! CRM can help you streamline your operations and improve your bottom line.
Freshsales is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software that helps businesses manage their sales processes and customer interactions. It provides a range of features such as lead management, contact management, deal management, email tracking, and analytics. With Freshsales, businesses can streamline their sales operations, automate tasks, and gain insights into their sales performance. The software is user-friendly and customizable, allowing businesses to tailor it to their specific needs. Freshsales is suitable for businesses of all sizes and industries, from startups to large enterprises.
Close CRM is a customer relationship management software that helps businesses manage their customer interactions and sales processes. The software allows users to track leads, manage customer data, and automate sales tasks. With Close CRM, businesses can streamline their sales processes, improve customer relationships, and increase revenue.
Salesforce
The Sales Cloud, Salesforce’s CRM system, is a much better choice for larger organizations or those seeking advanced customization options and scalability.
For one, the Sales Cloud includes some functionalities not available in Act. There’s opportunity scoring, built-in collaboration tools, or customizer service tools.
Additionally, the platform is highly customizable. You can easily build custom automated workflows, reports, and sales processes.
You can also tweak the dashboards by adding custom colors or logos, so your team feels more at home when using the platform. Not to mention that you can create fully-custom apps to enhance the Sales Cloud’s functionality.
Lastly, there’s scalability. Salesforce has grown to include many other products besides the CRM system. For instance, there’s the Marketing, Customer Service, and Commerce Cloud.
These solutions integrate seamlessly, making Salesforce an excellent option if you want to branch out as your company grows. You can also integrate Salesforce with thousands of other apps through AppExchange.
Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a CRM solution specifically built for small companies. As such, the platform prioritizes affordability and ease of use, making it an excellent choice if you’re worried about Act’s clunky UI.
Pipedrive adopts a highly visual approach. Its interactive dashboards are clutter-free, and you can easily access most of its features, making navigation and sales pipeline management a breeze.
Pipedrive’s dashboards are also customizable via a drag-and-drop interface. Customization is easy, and you get to tweak the platform to suit you best.
There’s also the platform’s AI-powered sales assistant, which Act lacks. This tool leverages AI technology to analyze past sales performance and suggest how to improve your sales process.
As for marketing automation, Pipedrive is similar to Act. Pipedrive also offers plenty of add-ons that bring the platform’s functionality to its full potential, like the Campaigns add-on.
Zoho CRM
Like Pipedrive, Zoho CRM is also built with small companies in mind. With prices starting from $14/user/month, the platform is highly affordable and offers excellent value for money, considering its features.
You can specifically access sales forecasting, scoring and workflow rules, etc. As for marketing automation, Zoho CRM offers plenty of templates for emails with the ability to send emails in bulk and social media profile integration.
The problem is the cheapest paid pricing package allows for limited customizable reports (up to 100).
Moreover, Zoho also includes a free version available for up to three users. This package includes up to lead management, ten custom email templates, workflow automation rules, and more.
Lastly, like Salesforce, Zoho integrates with thousands of other apps via the Zoho Marketplace.
Overall, Zoho is an excellent alternative if you’re looking for a solid with a free version.
HubSpot CRM
Found under the Sales Hub, HubSpot’s CRM caters to businesses of all sizes. The platform is highly easy to use, and its pricing plans are designed to accommodate small, medium-sized, and large corporations.
However, what sets HubSpot apart from the other tools mentioned above is that it includes a free version available for unlimited users.
The free plan offers basic functionalities like live chat, email and meeting scheduling, email tracking with notifications, sales pipeline management, contact management, and more. Another HubSpot stand-out lies in the ability to use the free CRM with free tools from other HubSpot products.
For instance, you can build landing pages, handle basic marketing automation, get access to customer service tools, and manage website content. That said, HubSpot is the perfect option for those seeking a free all-in-one solution for handling key projects covering multiple departments.
There’s also the HubSpot App Marketplace, where you can integrate the platform with 1000+ other apps.
Other HubSpot advantages lie in the software’s extensive customization options and scalability.
Freshsales
Freshsales stands out due to its phone calling and AI-powered functionalities. The platform uses AI and ML technology to analyze sales performance and uses that information to identify sales trends and provide suggestions on increasing sales pipeline effectiveness.
AI tools can also play a role in maintaining customer communications. More specifically, the platform can automatically respond to prospects and keep them engaged until you intervene.
As for Freshsales’ phone calling features, the platform offers a built-in phone system with voicemails, conference calling, call masking and recording, queue transfers, and much more.
Furthermore, Freshsales also covers a free plan with no user limit, similar to HubSpot. This version includes the basic phone system, AI chatbots, and contact management. Overall, Freshsales is an excellent choice for those seeking a CRM system for maintaining and improving customer communication.
Act CRM Review Conclusion
Overall, Act CRM is a solid platform. It is fairly easy to use, and its marketing automation functionalities are top-notch, allowing you to attract more deals and close sales opportunities faster and easier.
It’s also excellent for customer management. Act offers an easy-to-follow pipeline view, making sales pipeline management, tracking deals, and keeping track of contact records a breeze.
However, before you choose Act, keep in mind that plenty of other tools outdo Act in other aspects, like the ones mentioned above. That said, evaluate your business needs before making a choice.
