Active Trail is on the list of cost effective, but capable email tools that you might consider for your Phase 1 and above. This is my discovery style review to find out if it’s worthy of our attention.
broad overview
Active Trail pinged in my radar (‘ping!’) because of its integration support to SureTriggers. Ideally syncing an email tool between the purchase – product – delivery should be flawless.
Now the pricing is also attractive, starting from $9/mo with the standard 500-1000-2.5k-5k-10k steps. The lower tier already promises everything covered:
- Landing Pages
- Reporting
- Automations
- Full API integration
- Segmentation – dynamic groups
- A/B testing
- Dynamic & personalized content
- and even surveys … which I’m a bit suspicious of…
I have a feeling that the tool will be outdated though…based on the vibe of the site.
Let’s reg. and dive in.
Case study of a badly organized menu
OK, here is how it looks. They ask a couple of border patrol questions, like how you’re planning to abuse your subscribers. Not overly uncomfortable.
At first it reminded me of early Moosend without the charm.
Hm. Feels like a cosmetic facelift on an old house.
I like that the dashboard gives quick links to the things I’d want to do. And it’s much needed because … wtf …
Endless long tabs. Why can’t you organize these? Why isn’t fiters and groups and dynamic groups on the page of All contacts where I’d twiddle with them, and Import Status under New Contact?
You could’ve done this with 2-3 elements. Same on the emails.
Bad mojo.
Forms are from the 90’s
Let’s check the forms. Am I a snob or are these ugly to everyone?
The builder is nicely made, but the templates look shit. I’m no designer but about everything is off on it. The background from a cheap fantasy webpage from 95, the margin. It’s not Flodesk for sure.
Praying for a HTML embed.
I guess the facelift just covered the living room. Some doors are better not opened.
I hated all versions of Windows, but Win95 was my favorite to hate.
Okk, quick peak to the automations:
Automations – are good
Ahh so this is where the home staging budget went. The automation section is actually very well made. Stylish and easy to get. I’m even attracted to use it.
Until of course Win95 pops up again.
For the sake of fairness, the contact update automation is very rich. You can not only move the sub to a list but add value to a number customer field, or, as shown on the pic. update the value.
Just pick the field you want to upgrade from a short list of 500. Wtf.
Ahh..yes it was Field 16. No, 22? 6? Fuck.
Let’s add an email and check the editor. Hah…personalization fields! EEE…Which number was it again? Custom field 21?
In the Email editor – I felt something
The editor isn’t bad either, the now standard drag-and-drop boxes await you, but it seems custom dev. not whitelabel.
They offer a surprising variety of fonts, even some exotic ones like Ametic is there…not sure tho it would show as is in most inboxes.
(+10 min fiddling)
Ok, I think the editor is great. This part of the tool is very well built with some great ideas that speed up your work.
A couple examples. Buttons and links.
If you add a link, you can set triggers right within, similarly to the automation.
This is very useful. In this example we add +1 if they click the button. If we do that with all conversion links, we can later segment to the most responsive group to test stuff first. Neat.
Conditional content show/hide
This is done very simply. You can select each block to show only if certain criterias are met. Using the previous case, a higher discount is shown to the most engaged (based on that number we are keep adding to).
There is an Event Block, where you can add a date and a link to calendars. Basic (and ugly) but can come handy for some.
There is a Countdown clock animation too, although it’s a bit pixeled.
Segmentation
Dynamic groups are based on email engagement. The setup is quite tedious, through a complicated looking form, originally made by Bill Gates in 94.
Oh … ok I got it wrong. You can set up any conditions not just activity.
Interestingly filters are set up and saved elsewhere, with these segments you just apply them.
It’s logical I guess, but I think it could’ve been done better ux-wise.
Groups are lists.
And that’s it. I don’t mind list based tools, make it easy to manage subs.
Finally I found the place where I can edit the custom fields. These are basically empty slots you can use as tags or fields. The problem is that the number is fix at 25 or so, so you may run out of it.
Also, unlike with tags, you can’t add purchased courses as stickers to the user, you can just put into a field slot.
Works with memberships, where one would replace the other, not much with single courses. I guess you can use the groups for that.
Like this:
Summery
Mixed bag. Hated it, then it grew on me. The UI is often Win95. But they spent time in thinking what functionalities to ad.
Automatomation and the segmentation abilites are are put it in pair with some of the more advanced tools. Although it’s not tag based you can segment your audience well, even automate field uptates. For the price they ask that’s neat.
The Editor is fine. Have a bit of a WordPress block editor vibe, particularly around formatting, but I can imagine myself working in it without considering self-harm.
I think once you grind yourself through the initial setup of fields, filters and groups, the day-to-day operation is reasonably pleasant.
I couldn’t test the reports, but I give the benefit-of-doubt that it’s treacherously bad.
I didn’t go through the survey setup, based on how the forms looked. And because it’s an even longer Win95 form.
I think more attention to less features (as areas) would result in a much more streamlined, better organized, more likeable tool. They clearly have the ability to build complex functions great, like automation, but it feels that their attention got thinned on all the addons they built into ActiveTrail to outmuscle Convertkit or MailerLite or whoever they imagined as their competitor. SMS. Survey. Commerce. Push notifications. What’s up texts. Landing pages. Mobile app.
Too much. Like a cheap joint that cooks a 100 things, but only 1-2 tastes good.
Make a few things exceptionally well, rather than of trying to match other feature hubs. Like Flodesk.
Verdict
Based on all this I think there are better options for small businesses. I can understand why big corps like Lufthansa or Continental choose them, as their employees are compensated to suffer in Win95-vibe systems … but you want to be inspired and energized by the tools you use.
I was thinking on a single trait only they have, that you may need very much, but I can’t.
Close comparison
I think Brevo (Sendinblue) and ElasticMail are about the same with some advantages each on ActiveTrail.