Act-On vs Dynamics 365 For Marketing

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Our analysts compared Act-On vs Dynamics 365 For Marketing based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Marketing Automation Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Act-On Software Tool
Dynamics 365 For Marketing Software Tool

Product Basics

Established in 2008, Act-On is a comprehensive platform that offers marketing professionals all the standard features in an automation tool, alongside several other unique features.

Sophisticated email automation, landing page construction, analytics, automated campaigns, useful templates, and social channels are just some of the features that are available to users. This product is ideal for medium to large enterprises, especially those that have dedicated marketing departments.

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Dynamics 365 For Marketing empowers businesses to automate repetitive marketing tasks, personalize customer journeys, and gain insights into campaign performance. This cloud-based solution caters to mid-sized and enterprise organizations, particularly those already invested in the Microsoft ecosystem. Key benefits include streamlined email marketing, lead nurturing through automated workflows, and real-time customer analytics. Popular features encompass landing page creation, social media management, and marketing automation journeys. User experiences highlight ease of integration with existing Microsoft tools, robust reporting capabilities, and a user-friendly interface. However, some users mention initial setup complexity and limitations in email design flexibility. Pricing starts at a mid-range monthly cost per user, with additional tiers offering increased functionality and storage. Consider evaluating your organization's marketing needs and desired level of customization before making a decision.

Pros
  • Seamless integration
  • Intuitive interface
  • Robust reporting
  • Personalized journeys
  • Real-time analytics
Cons
  • Initial setup complexity
  • Limited email design
  • Learning curve
  • Potential cost
  • Customization constraints
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$1,000 Monthly
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$1,000/User, Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
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Product Assistance

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Live Online
Videos
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Documentation
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Videos
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Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
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Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
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24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Make Sense of Digital Breadcrumbs: Better track and score campaigns with this piece of software. This tool helps marketers attain a high-level overview of their campaigns and enterprises.
  • Inbound Marketing: Act-On provides support for inbound marketing techniques, enabling users to organically and dynamically pull in leads from across channels.
  • Outbound Marketing: Automated campaigns, lead scoring and list management are built into the software to support outbound marketing techniques and conversion tracking.
  • Sales Effectiveness: The software helps to unify sales and marketing teams effectively by providing a sales-funnel overview and campaign attribution, assisting users in scoring their leads.
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  • Enhanced Efficiency: Automate time-consuming tasks like email marketing, lead nurturing, social media posting, and customer segmentation, freeing up your team for strategic initiatives.
  • Personalized Customer Journeys: Create tailored experiences across multiple channels based on customer behavior, preferences, and demographics, leading to increased engagement and conversions.
  • Data-Driven Insights: Gain actionable insights into campaign performance, customer interactions, and lead quality through comprehensive dashboards and reporting, enabling data-informed decisions.
  • Seamless Integration: Connect seamlessly with other Microsoft Dynamics 365 apps, such as Sales and Customer Service, for a unified view of customer data and shared insights across teams.
  • Improved Lead Nurturing: Develop targeted nurture campaigns that automatically deliver relevant content and offers to prospects based on their interests and actions, fostering stronger relationships and moving leads through the funnel efficiently.
  • Enhanced Customer Engagement: Deliver personalized messages and experiences that resonate with customers across multiple touchpoints, fostering loyalty and repeat business.
  • Optimized Campaign Performance: Track campaign results in real-time, identify what's working and what's not, and make adjustments quickly to maximize ROI.
  • Increased Sales Productivity: Equip sales teams with qualified leads, contextual insights, and personalized content to improve their effectiveness and close more deals.
  • Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: Deliver exceptional customer experiences through personalized interactions, timely responses, and relevant content, leading to increased satisfaction and retention.
  • Boosted Marketing ROI: Make informed decisions based on data-driven insights, optimize resource allocation, and drive measurable results from your marketing efforts.
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  • CRM Integration: Act-On can integrate with SalesForce, Microsoft Dynamics, SugarCRM, NetSuite, Infor and Simpleview. Using any of these integrated CRMs, marketers can engage segmented contacts through targeted account activity.
  • Account-Based Marketing Automation: Account profiles provide an overview of accounts and buyer behaviors, giving users a clear picture of aggregate customer behavior.
  • Progressive Profiling: Collect information without making customers fill out a large number of forms. Adaptive forms, which present and collect information incrementally over time, help users gain valuable insights without being intrusive.
  • Targeted Email Automation: With easy-to-use templates, code-free interfaces and a diverse template catalog, users have access to a variety of content to push out through automated email campaigns. Act-On also integrates its analytics platform into its email outreach, letting users track open rates and measure success.
  • Report Sharing: The solution’s analytics platform can generate robust and interactive reports for users to easily share with decisionmakers.
  • Data Studio: This program comes equipped with an analytical engine called Data Studio, which can pull data from a variety of sources such as CSV, Excel, Amazon, Google and Microsoft Azure.
  • Social Media Engagement: Build brand awareness with automated social posting and metrics aggregation. Act-On’s content curation engine provides insights into content that can generate higher levels of engagement for a user’s business.
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  • Customer Journey Management: Create a strong buyer pipeline by running webinars and meetings seamlessly. Use prospects’ preferences and behavior to personalize their experience. 
  • Campaigns: Create assets quickly using design tools, templates and reusable content blocks, attracting the right prospects using telemarketing, events, emails and more. 
  • Sales and Marketing: Create a single view of prospects by unifying data across leads, opportunities and contacts. Identify and target the most promising opportunities using insights, influence customers using relevant content, reduce costs, and increase conversion chances by tracking important leads. Ensure smooth collaboration using shared tools and calendar. 
  • Email Tools: Compare and choose the right messages using A/B testing, improve open rates using spam scores and an automated scheduler, and define target audiences. 
  • Analytics: Increase campaign effectiveness using marketing analyzers and dashboards, and understand customer needs in detail through response information. 
  • Adaptable Platform: Simplify deployment processes using a no-code visual editor, integrate data from third-party apps, and inform target segments by using segmented APIs and customer journeys. 
  • Compliance: Built-in features help comply with privacy regulations. Add channels to extend campaign reach, as well as request, capture and store consent. 
  • Third-Party Integrations: Integrates with certain pre-built solutions such as HootSuite, Dynamics 365 Connector, TeleSign, Infobip SMS and Viber, Simple Marketing Hub, and Sprinklr Modern Care. 
  • Dynamics 365 Product Integrations: Integrations with related Microsoft apps enable things like commerce, provide a customer data platform, support customer service tasks, aid smooth sales navigation, and offer customer insights. 
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Product Ranking

#50

among all
Marketing Automation Software

#30

among all
Marketing Automation Software

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User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 656 reviews
Great User Sentiment 3929 reviews
84%
of users recommend this product

Act-On has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 84% when considering 656 user reviews from 2 recognized software review sites.

86%
of users recommend this product

Dynamics 365 For Marketing has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 86% when considering 3929 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

n/a
4.0 (3)
4.26 (250)
4.3 (3872)
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4.4 (24)
4.15 (406)
3.3 (30)

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Intuitive Interface: Act-On's user-friendly interface streamlines campaign creation and management, reducing the learning curve for users.
Robust Reporting: Advanced reporting capabilities provide detailed insights into campaign performance, allowing users to track results and optimize future efforts.
Email Marketing Automation: Automated email sequences nurture leads, deliver targeted content, and improve campaign efficiency.
Social Media Integration: Act-On seamlessly integrates with social media platforms, enabling users to manage campaigns and track engagement across multiple channels.
Excellent Customer Support: Act-On provides responsive and knowledgeable customer support, ensuring users receive assistance when needed.
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Integration: Seamless integration with other Microsoft Dynamics 365 apps, creating a unified customer view and streamlined workflows.
Personalization: Robust segmentation capabilities and user-friendly journey builder for creating personalized experiences across email, web, social, and more.
Reporting: Comprehensive dashboards and customizable reports with real-time insights into campaign performance and customer engagement.
Automation: Streamlined automation of tasks like email sends, lead nurturing, lead scoring, and social media posting, saving time and effort.
Ease of Use: Intuitive interface and drag-and-drop functionality make it relatively easy to learn and use for users of varying technical abilities.
Customer Support: Access to extensive resources, training materials, and responsive support from Microsoft.
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Unintuitive Interface: Act-On's user interface is often criticized for being complex and difficult to navigate, leading to a steep learning curve for new users.
Limited Integrations: Act-On lacks integrations with popular third-party applications, making it challenging to connect with other systems used in the marketing ecosystem.
Costly: Act-On's pricing can be prohibitive for small businesses and startups, with limited flexibility in pricing options.
Lack of Reporting Capabilities: Users have reported that Act-On's reporting features are limited, making it difficult to gain insights into campaign performance.
Poor Customer Support: Some users have experienced delays and unsatisfactory responses from Act-On's customer support team.
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Setup Complexity: Initial configuration and setup can be time-consuming and may require technical expertise, especially for complex implementations.
Learning Curve: The extensive features and functionality can take time to master, requiring a learning curve for new users.
Email Design Limitations: Some users find the email design capabilities to be somewhat restrictive compared to other marketing automation platforms.
Customization Constraints: While customizable, certain aspects of the platform may not be as flexible as some users would like, potentially limiting specific use cases.
Potential Cost: Pricing can be considered mid-range to expensive, depending on the number of contacts and features required, potentially making it less accessible to smaller businesses.
Integration Challenges: While integration with other Microsoft Dynamics 365 apps is seamless, integration with external systems may require additional effort or third-party connectors.
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Act-On consistently receives high praise for its intuitive user interface, which allows marketers to quickly create and automate campaigns without extensive training. It is also lauded for its robust reporting capabilities, which provide detailed insights into campaign performance. However, some users have reported occasional bugs and glitches, and its customer support has been criticized for being slow to respond at times. Compared to competitors like HubSpot and Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Act-On is often seen as a more affordable and user-friendly option, particularly for small and mid-sized businesses. Its focus on ease of use and affordability sets it apart from more complex and expensive solutions. Act-On's intuitive drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to create automated workflows, and its pre-built templates help users get started quickly. Overall, Act-On is a solid choice for businesses looking for an affordable and easy-to-use marketing automation solution. Its strengths lie in its user-friendly interface, robust reporting capabilities, and affordability. While it may not have all the bells and whistles of more expensive solutions, it offers a comprehensive suite of features that can meet the needs of most businesses.

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Dynamics 365 for Marketing garners mixed reviews from users in the last year, showcasing its strengths in integration and personalization but also revealing areas for improvement. Proponents laud its seamless integration with other Microsoft Dynamics 365 apps, creating a unified customer view and streamlined workflows. "It's like having all my marketing tools under one roof," one user shared. This tight integration is particularly valuable for B2B and complex B2C organizations already invested in the Microsoft ecosystem. Users also appreciate the robust segmentation and journey builder capabilities, enabling personalized experiences across email, web, and social media. "I can tailor campaigns to specific customer segments, which has boosted engagement and conversions significantly," commented another user. This focus on personalization stands out compared to some competitors, giving Dynamics 365 an edge in customer-centric marketing. However, some users find the initial setup and configuration to be complex, requiring technical expertise for larger implementations. Additionally, the platform's extensive features come with a learning curve, potentially overwhelming new users. Compared to more user-friendly competitors, this can be a significant drawback for less tech-savvy teams. Limitations in email design flexibility also emerge as a pain point for some reviewers, who miss the creative freedom offered by certain competitors. While Dynamics 365 provides adequate design tools, it may not cater to highly customized templates or advanced visual effects. Pricing can also be a hurdle, with the mid-range to expensive tiers potentially putting it out of reach for smaller businesses. Users seeking a cost-effective alternative may find better options elsewhere. Overall, Dynamics 365 for Marketing shines in its seamless integration and focus on customer-centric personalization, making it a strong contender for B2B and complex B2C organizations within the Microsoft ecosystem. However, potential users should be aware of the initial setup complexity, learning curve, and email design limitations, and weigh these against its strengths before making a decision.

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