Boost Your Marketing with Act-On: A Beginner’s Guide

Empower your marketing strategy with Act-On’s beginner-friendly automation tools.

Introduction

Marketing today is more than just sending emails; it’s about creating a clear and connected journey for your audience. Act-On helps you do this by bringing all your marketing tasks into one platform. You can capture new leads, send them the right content at the right time, and hand them over to sales when they’re ready. It’s simple to use, saves you time, and gives you better results.

• All-in-one hub: Build emails, forms, pages, social posts, and reports together.
• Easy to start: Drag-and-drop tools and ready templates help beginners move fast.
• Smart automation: Send follow-ups, score leads, and alert sales automatically.
  

  Track your marketing success with Act-On’s easy-to-use Analytics dashboard.

Key Features of Act-On

1. Forms and Landing Pages

Forms are the first step to capturing leads, and landing pages give visitors a place to interact with your content. Act-On allows you to build both quickly, without needing coding skills. The forms directly connect to your lists, meaning every submission is saved automatically and ready for follow-up.

• Simple drag-and-drop builder: Create professional-looking forms quickly without coding.
• Forms directly connected to lists: New submissions are automatically added to the right marketing list or segment.
• Easy lead collection and tracking: Capture details in real time and monitor every lead’s journey from the start.

2. Lists (Your Lead Database)

Accessing the ‘Change List Columns’ option under Maintenance in Act-On

Once people fill out your forms, their details go into lists, which act as a digital database. These lists can be organized, segmented, and synced with your CRM. Keeping leads in one place makes it easier to manage campaigns, and Act-On ensures the lists stay updated automatically.

• Import leads from Salesforce, Dynamics, or Excel files: Quickly bring contacts into Act-On without manual data entry.
• Segment contacts by behavior: Organize leads based on actions such as email opens, clicks, downloads, or website visits for more targeted marketing.
• Keep data updated automatically: Continuous sync with your CRM ensures contact details, scores, and activities are always accurate and up to date.

3. Automation

Automation is where Act-On really shines. Instead of manually sending emails to every new lead, the system does it for you. A person who downloads an eBook can instantly receive a thank-you email, followed by more helpful content. This keeps leads engaged and moves them smoothly along the buying journey.

• Welcome emails after sign-up: Greet new contacts right away and introduce them to your brand.
• Follow-ups based on actions: Send targeted messages depending on what the lead does (opens, clicks, downloads).
• Nurture campaigns for long-term engagement: Keep leads warm with a series of personalized emails until they’re ready to buy.

4. Lead Scoring

Default Behavior Scoring – Tracking contact engagement based on recent activities.

Not every lead is ready to buy immediately. Act-On uses lead scoring to measure a person’s interest based on their actions. For example, someone who opens multiple emails and downloads resources will get a higher score than someone who just visits once. Sales teams can then focus on the most promising leads.

• Points for actions (open, click, download): Each interaction adds to a lead’s score, showing their level of interest.
• Higher scores = hotter leads: Leads with more engagement rise to the top and are prioritized for sales.
• Alerts for sales teams when ready: Once a lead crosses the scoring threshold, sales gets notified instantly to follow up.

5. Reporting and Analytics

Delivery Rate Analytics – Tracking Email Performance Over Time.

• Track email opens and clicks: See who’s engaging with your emails and which messages grab attention.
• Measure form conversions: Identify which forms are converting leads and where potential customers are dropping off.
• View campaign performance: Compare campaigns side by side to see which ones generate the most ROI.
• Lead-to-opportunity tracking: Monitor how many leads progress through the funnel and turn into real opportunities.
• Landing page performance: Measure visits, conversions, and bounce rates to optimize your pages for better engagement.
• Web activity insights: Understand visitor behavior on your website, including top pages and time spent.
• Social media impact: See how your social campaigns drive traffic and engagement compared to other channels.
• Revenue attribution: Tie marketing efforts directly to revenue so you can prove ROI to stakeholders.
• True Open: Act-On shows only real human email opens and clicks by filtering out bot activity. This means your reports are more accurate, your lead scoring is more informed, and you can clearly see how many people actually engaged with your email, rather than relying on inflated numbers from security systems.

The Act-On Process (Step by Step)

The Act-On Process – From form submission to sales notification

What makes the Act-On process stand out is how it simplifies and automates the entire lead journey in one connected flow. From the moment a visitor fills out a form, Act-On captures the lead information, scores and segments it based on predefined rules, and automatically notifies the sales team when the lead is ready for follow-up. While many marketing automation tools offer automation, Act-On emphasizes ease of use, quick setup, and clear visibility at every stage. This helps marketing and sales teams work together efficiently, ensuring no lead gets missed and the process runs smoothly without extra technical complexity.

• Visitor fills out a form: A new lead is captured with their details (name, email, etc.).
• Act-On adds them to a list: The contact is automatically organized into the right marketing list or segment.
• Automation sends emails: A pre-set email sequence is triggered to nurture the lead with relevant content.
• Lead gets scored: Their activity (opens, clicks, downloads) adds to their lead score, showing how interested they are.
• Sales team is notified: Once the lead hits the scoring threshold, sales instantly gets an alert to follow up.

Act-On vs. Manual Marketing

Act-On vs. Manual Marketing – Turning Disconnected Efforts into Integrated, Automated Workflows

🚫 The Challenges of Manual Marketing

• Tools are disconnected (emails, forms, reports in different places)
• Manual follow-ups mean leads slip through the cracks
• Data scattered across tools makes it hard to measure results
• Generic messages due to limited personalization
• Sales and marketing teams work with inconsistent data

✅ The Advantages of Act-On

• All tools are integrated into one platform
• Automated follow-ups keep leads engaged
• Sales are notified instantly when leads hit scoring thresholds
• Personalized messages drive better engagement
• Clear reports give a single source of truth for all teams
• Scales easily with business growth

Conclusion

Act-On isn’t just another marketing tool; it’s a complete solution that helps teams work smarter, not harder. By consolidating all marketing elements into a single platform, it reduces complexity, improves efficiency, and ensures that no lead falls through the cracks. Marketers gain time back, sales teams get higher-quality opportunities, and customers enjoy a more personalized journey.

In today’s competitive market, the difference between campaigns that “just run” and campaigns that truly deliver results often comes down to the right technology. With Act-On, you’re not only managing marketing, you’re building measurable growth, stronger customer relationships, and a clear path to revenue.

✨ With Act-On, marketing isn’t guesswork, it’s growth by design.