The benefits of marketing automation are impossible to ignore. Statistics show that a whopping 77% of entrepreneurs and small business owners saw an increase in conversion rates after switching to marketing automation. What's more, these same users found that using a marketing automation platform lowered their marketing costs by over 12%.
The benefits of automated marketing aren't just financial. Automated marketing saves a business a lot of time and hassle by automating tasks that would otherwise have to be handled by one or more employees. Even more importantly, if offers invaluable insight into consumer trends and shopping habits.
With automated marketing, a business owner can identify a target audience at a glance, know what this audience is looking for, and then deliver the desired products/services. Automated marketing also enables a business owner to see what isn't working, so he or she can adapt marketing campaigns with a low return on investment.
There are many multiple marketing automation platforms to pick from. This should theoretically make it easy for a business owner to find the one that best suits his or her needs and budget. However, the multiple options often make it difficult for entrepreneurs to know which company's services, products, and features are the best.
While some marketing automation platforms are arguably better than others, in most instances, the best platform for a business will be determined by a company's budget, industry, location, business model, and target audience, among other factors. Following is a comprehensive overview of two of the best-known platforms, Klaviyo and Activecampaign.
Activecampaign vs Klaviyo
Activecampaign has been in operation since 2003. It is a U.S.-based company but has offices in Australia, Europe, and South America. It is valued at over $1 billion.
Klaviyo was founded in 2012, almost a decade after Activecampaign. However, it has grown exponentially since its inception.
This is thanks in large part to Shopify's August 2022 announcement that Klaviyo would be its recommended email solution partner for the Shopify Plus Merchant Platform. At present, Klaviyo has offices in the United States and UK.
Klaviyo vs Activecampaign: Services
Klaviyo Features
Automated email platform. Klaviyo offers multiple email marketing solutions including pre-built email templates and segmentation tools for custom email creation. Segmentation is built not only on a business owner's settings but also on real-time information. This includes products recently viewed, items ordered, abandoned shopping cart information, information on items back in stock, best-selling items, etc. As information changes, Klaviyo email segmentation automatically adapts to meet consumer needs. A/B testing is regularly conducted to identify the emails with the highest return on investment.
SMS. SMS marketing is simple, fast, and effective. It also has a higher click-through rate and response rate than email marketing. Klaviyo not only enables business owners to send personalized messages with ease but also helps business owners boost their SMS subscription rate by using various channels to encourage consumers to sign up for instant messages. Klaviyo can send SMS messages to consumers in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada.
Signup forms. Klaviyo has multiple sign-up form templates to make it easy for a business to encourage customers to sign up for email or SMS marketing updates.
Social media advertising. Done right, social media advertising can boost a business by enabling it to reach the right people at just the right time. Klaviyo provides stellar advertising options for both Facebook and Instagram. It also does automation split testing to identify the most effective advertising methods.
Activecampaign Features
Email marketing software. Activecampaign offers the same email marketing automation tools Klaviyo supplies, but there are some important differences between the two platforms. Activecampaign segments its email marketing platform to provide targeted services to B2B business owners, B2C business owners, and commerce businesses. Furthermore, a user can select specialized templates and services based on industry. Options include education, hospitality/travel, technology, fitness, non-profit, small business and blogger/influencer.
Marketing and engagement automation. Activecampaign's marketing and engagement automation platform saves a business owner a lot of time and hassle by sending automatic emails based on consumer behavior and interests. Emails are segmented to ensure that potential and current customers receive personalized information and help. Automation split testing enables a new business to see which messages are the most effective. What's more, the platform notifies a company if a sales representative needs to get personally involved with a consumer.
Landing page and website form creation. An engaging website is key to bringing in new customers and building brand loyalty. Activecampaign helps new business owners build engaging, optimized landing pages quickly and easily. It also offers website forms to make it easy for business owners to collect personal data.
SMS marketing. Activecampaign offers SMS marketing services inside the United States and on an international level.
Klaviyo vs Activecampaign: Ease of Use and Customer Service
Both marketing automation platforms use a "what you see is what you get" interface to make it easy for business owners who aren't tech-savvy to use the services and features with ease. Both sites also have a blog with advice on topics such as email marketing, automation workflows, sales automation, creating a successful marketing campaign, etc.
Activecampaign allows users to connect more than one offline or online store to a single account. This service is not available from Klaviyo.
Klaviyo has over 200 integrations to allow for customized used on commonly-used e-commerce platforms. Activecampaign, on the other hand, has more than 870 integrations.
Both companies provide services online. However, Activecampaign offers more deployment options than Klaviyo. Klaviyo is a cloud, SaaS, web-based platform that can be accessed by smartphone. Activecampaign offers the same access options but also be installed on a desktop computer. It is compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems.
Klaviyo offers email, live chat, and help desk support. Activecampaign offers these forms of support along with an FAQ section, forum, knowledge base, and phone support. Unfortunately, neither site provides 24/7 support from a live customer service representative.
Klaviyo offers webinars and documentation to help new users get started on the platform. Activecampaign, on the other hand, provides in-person training, live online training, webinars, documentation, and training videos.
Klaviyo vs Activecampaign: Costs
Klaviyo Prices
Klaviyo offers a free version of its platform for business owners who have fewer than 250 contacts. This can be ideal for new companies with a limited budget who want to jumpstart their email marketing campaign with automated SMS and email marketing services.
Rates rise once a business has more than 251 contacts. Klaviyo charges $35 a month for email and SMS services (or $20 a month for its email marketing platform) if a business has between 251 and 500 contacts. Costs are as high as $1,970 a month for companies that have between 145,001 and 150,000 contacts.
The scalable price plan is a plus for companies as they only pay for the services needed at any given time. Upgrading or downgrading from a plan is an automatic, seamless process.
Activecampaign Prices
Activecampaign does not offer a free version of its platform. However, it does offer a free trial period, with no credit card information required for set-up.
Activecampaign users pay a flat fee for services, and there are four plans to pick from. These are Lite, Plus, Professional, and Enterprise. A person can pay for a marketing and CRM plan, or simply pay for transactional emails.
For marketing and CRM plans, monthly fees vary depending on the number of contacts a business has. For the Lite plan, the fee is only $9 a month for companies with fewer than 500 contacts.
It rises to $49 a month for the Plus plan and $149 a month for the Professional plan. Enterprise clients are required to obtain a custom quote. As the number of contacts grows, the fees increase for each plan, rising as high as $449 a month for the Lite plan if a company has more than 75,000 contacts.
Activecampaign vs Klaviyo: What Customers Say
Klaviyo has an average 4.7-star review ratings. Activecampaign has an average 4.6-star review ratings.
Klaviyo Reviews
Users have given Klaviyo high marks for being easy to set up and easy to use. The company also does well with providing fast results after set-up. The onboarding process is streamlined even though Klaviyo does not have have as many training features as Activecampaign.
The biggest complaints about Klaviyo have to do with its software and bandwidth. Some have described the software as "rudimentary" while others note the server bandwidth and API functions are lacking.
Activecampaign Reviews
Activecampaign gets high marks from business owners who say it is professionally made, easy to use, and offers great value for the money spent. It has also been praised for its outstanding customer service.
Others, however, say that the software version of the automated platform is defective. This has not only caused frustration for some users but even resulted in lost work.
Klaviyo vs Activecampaign: Overall Performance
Klaviyo and Activecampaign are both great automated marking services; however, each platform has its own set of pros and cons.
Klaviyo
Klaviyo is the tool of choice for anyone who needs a free marketing service to jumpstart a marketing campaign for a brick and mortar or e-commerce business. The fact that it's free for the first 250 contacts makes it easy for a new business proprietor to get professional marketing help at no cost.
Klaviyo is also ideal for use for any ecommerce business, as it is specifically designed for commerce stores. It's the perfect email marketing solution for Shopify; as soon as it's installed, it will start syncing the last ninety days of Shopify data to give business owners valuable insight into customer experience and satisfaction. Once the past ninety days of data are synced, Klaviyo brings in the rest of one's historical data, providing a treasure trove of valuable information to ecommerce business owners.
Activecampaign
Perhaps the biggest drawback of Activecampaign is its price structure. A scalable structure is ideal for most businesses, especially online ones that may scale in size fairly rapidly with the right marketing plan. The lack of a free plan is yet another drawback, as users who need immediate professional help on a budget will likely gravitate to Klaviyo and, once on the platform, stick with it even after they have more than 250 contacts.
However, Activecampaign offers far more features than Klaiviyo. Some of these features may not matter much to businesses that don't need them, but they can make a world of difference to many ecommerce stores. The multiple integrations make Activecampaign the platform of choice for many entrepreneurs who may not use the most popular ecommerce or blogging platforms.
The ability to send SMS messages to anyone in the world is a huge plus for international companies and companies that want to reach an international audience in the future.
Furthermore, Activecampaign's customer service is second to none. Its multiple training options are a huge asset to entrepreneurs who need to learn how to use the platform to its fullest potential, without undue delay. Its help services make it easy for users to get fast help to avoid potentially devastating downtime.
Choosing the right automation platform for a business can spell the difference between success and struggling to get by. While it is possible for a business owner to switch to another platform at a later date, it's best to pick the right one from the get-go and then stick with it to avoid data loss and marketing disruptions.
Those who are considering the two platforms outlined above will want to pay close attention to the strengths and drawbacks of each program to ensure the one they work with is the best choice for their business needs.