Automate Your Marketing and Sales with ActiveCampaign Integrations

Introduction

In a recent appearance on the Software Spotlight podcast, we had a chance to meet with marketing automation expert Xiaofei Zhang of ActiveCampaign. This article will explore how to automate your marketing and sales with ActiveCampaign integrations. ActiveCampaign began with a simple mission – to make marketing and sales automation accessible and easy to use for small and growing businesses.

As Xiaofei, Head of Partnerships, shared, “A lot of the solutions and services offered to small businesses, those companies… always very quickly want to scale up as soon as they reach some revenue and, you know, they want to go serve the bigger customers.” Small businesses were often neglected and underserved.

Founded in 2003 by Jason VandeBoom, ActiveCampaign leveraged his experience of seeing firsthand the challenges his family's small businesses faced. So VandeBoom set out to build “solutions that just create a very seamless experience for small business owners and also just help them grow their business.” The initial focus was on email marketing and marketing automation. Over time, ActiveCampaign expanded into sales automation, CRM, specialized ecommerce features, and more to support end-to-end workflows.

Michael Bernzweig of Software Oasis and Xiaofei Zhang of ActiveCampaign in video call discussing ActiveCampaign integrations.
Michael Bernzweig of Software Oasis (top) and Xiaofei Zhang of ActiveCampaign (bottom) discuss integrating ActiveCampaign with other tools during a Software Spotlight podcast episode.

From Server Closets to the Cloud

ActiveCampaign started small – as many bootstrapped startups do. For over a decade, the platform was offered as an on-premise solution maintained in “server closets,” as Xiaofei described.

In 2016, VandeBoom made a pivotal decision to transition ActiveCampaign to a SaaS model. As Xiaofei shared, “That kind of kickstarted this hyper-growth journey.” In the past 7 years, ActiveCampaign has grown from 15 employees and $6 million in revenue to over 800 employees globally and over $150 million in revenue.

That hockey stick growth curve is exactly what every startup dreams of. It took years of persistence and dedication to small business needs to get there.

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Automation and AI to the Rescue

So what exactly does ActiveCampaign provide to facilitate small business growth? According to Xiaofei, it starts with automation:

“I think for any business that is not leveraging automation, they’re still doing everything manually. I think they are losing a huge edge in productivity and efficiency.”

Marketing and sales workflows that once required manual effort can now be automated and optimized over time. As Xiaofei emphasized, “You can streamline your customer experience and grow better and like take the repetitive processes out of your day-to-day with automation.”

AI is also revolutionizing marketing automation. ActiveCampaign has leveraged AI for years for features like predictive lead scoring. They recently released a new AI Content Assistant to help draft campaign emails and an AI Automation Assistant to build workflows.

As Xiaofei explained, “With the latest wave of generative AI, it’s just opening up new possibilities.” AI can help summarize and extract insights from customer feedback or assist with market research surveys.

An Open Platform Built for Integrations

ActiveCampaign doesn't try to provide every feature themselves. As a platform company, they recognized early on the importance of integrating with other tools.

Now ActiveCampaign seamlessly connects with over 900 other apps – whether it's ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce or business tools like QuickBooks and Slack.

As Xiaofei emphasized, “If you can’t automate it, it doesn’t exist. So that’s really the philosophy behind how we approach ecosystem.” Their App Studio allows partners to build custom apps that connect deeply to ActiveCampaign's automation.

So companies don't have to replace everything to use ActiveCampaign. Instead, they can bring together all their existing tools and data to create unified experiences and workflows.

Seamlessly Connect Marketing Tools

ActiveCampaign integrations connect the solution with other platforms to enhance capabilities and create unified customer experiences.

Driven by Customer Needs

With new innovations constantly emerging, how does ActiveCampaign decide what to focus on next? As Xiaofei shared, it always comes back to core customer needs:

“At AC, the way we prioritize what to build, it has to be driven by the customers, their needs. Because sometimes I think there is an urge to build the next shiny thing, but that might not be actually what your customers are telling you that they need the most.”

ActiveCampaign stays laser-focused on solving the most significant pain points for growing small businesses through direct customer feedback and their Customer Advisory Board.

After nearly 20 years in business, ActiveCampaign continues to drive automation and innovation forward to help small businesses thrive and grow. The future looks bright for companies leveraging ActiveCampaign's platform.

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Streamline Your Business with ActiveCampaign Integrations

Integrations allow you to connect ActiveCampaign with other tools you already use, eliminating repetitive manual processes and providing a seamless experience for your customers. Xiaofei believes integrations are critical to ActiveCampaign's product and platform strategy. ActiveCampaign integrations with other software platforms allow you to connect your marketing automation seamlessly with tools like CRM, e-commerce, and more. With over 900 ActiveCampaign integrations available, you can build a powerful martech stack tailored to your business needs.

Welcome New Leads Instantly with Slack

Send Slack notifications when a contact fills out a form or enters a workflow in ActiveCampaign. This allows your team to take immediate action when new leads come in. You can also create ActiveCampaign tasks based on conversations happening in Slack channels to keep all customer activities organized.

Nurture Leads with Automated Facebook Campaigns

Bring new leads from Facebook ads into ActiveCampaign automatically by syncing the two systems. This builds your contact database for lead nurturing. You can even trigger customized Facebook ad campaigns when contacts hit milestones in ActiveCampaign workflows to target your outreach. Setting up ActiveCampaign integrations for Facebook is quick and easy – simply connect your ActiveCampaign account and authorize data sharing.

Streamline Invoicing with QuickBooks Integration

Automatically create invoices in QuickBooks when payments come in through ActiveCampaign to save time on administrative tasks. You can also update contact details in ActiveCampaign when new customers are added in QuickBooks to keep data in sync. ActiveCampaign integrations enable you to trigger automations based on actions in other platforms like QuickBooks, creating sophisticated cross-channel campaigns and connectivity.

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Build Valuable Automated Workflows

Welcome new contacts with a customized series of emails after signup. Nurture leads based on interactions like email opens and form fills with targeted relevant follow-ups. Even sync ecommerce transactions between your store and ActiveCampaign to track customer activity for a complete view of each contact.

The key is choosing integrations that eliminate repetitive manual work by connecting ActiveCampaign with tools you already use. This streamlines your workflows and provides a better customer experience. According to Xiaofei, “If you can't automate it, it doesn't exist.” Leveraging ActiveCampaign integrations gives you a complete view of your customer lifecycle and helps you deliver personalized messaging.

Real Workflows

Marketing automation helps small businesses streamline their customer experience and improve by taking repetitive processes out of day-to-day operations. Welcome emails when a new contact signs up can make customers feel valued. Lead nurturing based on engagement, such as email opens and form submissions, helps businesses build relationships over time. Tracking ecommerce transactions and syncing data between apps improves communication and coordination.

Xiaofei said, a lot of the challenge is, how do they maintain an amazing customer experience and how do they manage their customers better? So first of all, they can serve them better, but then… You can also grow over time, right? Cause a lot of times demand gen is a challenge.

Streamline Marketing with Automation

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Conclusion

ActiveCampaign's vast integration capabilities can save businesses time and improve communication when streamlining marketing and sales processes. As highlighted, ActiveCampaign seamlessly connects with over 900 applications, allowing you to integrate your favorite tools and automate workflows.

Imagine never manually syncing data between apps again. ActiveCampaign's automated syncing capabilities do the heavy lifting for you, saving countless hours. Alerts and notifications trigger across integrated tools in real-time, improving communication tenfold. Complex workflows become effortless as data and actions flow between apps automatically. All your data consolidates into ActiveCampaign for centralized, holistic reporting.

With integrations spanning CRM, ecommerce, email, chat, and more, ActiveCampaign likely has a tailored solution to meet your unique needs. Bring your favorite tools into the platform and unite your tech stack through the power of integrations. If streamlining workflows is a priority, ActiveCampaign's integrations are a must-have. Connecting ActiveCampaign to your existing stack lets you optimize workflows immediately. Save time, boost productivity, and improve internal communication – all with the help of ActiveCampaign's unparalleled integrations.

Watch our edition of Software Spotlight featuring ActiveCampaign. Host Michael Bernzweig interviews Xiaofei Zhang of ActiveCampaign to discuss the Chicago-based marketing automation company's founding in 2003 and impressive growth. Zhang details how ActiveCampaign transitioned to a SaaS model in 2016, kickstarting tremendous expansion to over 150 million in revenue and 800 employees globally today.

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