Written by Ria du Plessis - Digital Marketing Expert Updated 9/2/2021 |
What Is Apptivo?
There are so many aspects to running a business that you’ll need to control, and with Apptivo, they aim to give you a solution to most of these. With an infrastructure containing over 65 individual apps, you’re given the flexibility to pick and choose which of these tools to adopt.
Apptivo Pros & Cons
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Pros
- All-in-one platform - You could spend a lifetime browsing the hundreds of different tools and services built to help organize and grow your business. When you have multiple functions all rolled into one though, it just makes things a whole lot easier. With over 65 apps, you’re able to work on many different areas of your business in one place
- Support for new users - On any of the paid plans, you get the option of training to understand how to start using this platform for your specific needs. Live 24/7 chat and email with 24/5 phone support means that help is never too far away
- Mobile app - Available on both iOS and Android, the Apptivo app gives you access to a lot of features across the board, from contact list management to sales reports and finances. Unfortunately, one of the functions this app doesn’t support is email marketing. Bummer.
- Pay per user - This makes for a very cost-effective platform especially for entrepreneurs and small businesses who might normally be priced out. Some similar alternatives on the market can start off in the hundreds of dollars, so the fact this starts at $10 for a basic package means anyone can jump in and scale their users in the future if needed
Cons
- Set up takes time - With over 65 apps to pick from and with different interfaces for many of them, setting up your personal platform can be a tedious process. You’ll need to work out which apps do what, which you need, how to use them, how to integrate information and then how to organize everything to your liking
- Limited documentation - With so many apps and functions to choose from, you’d expect some guidance to help navigate you through the platform. Instead, you’re just met with a couple of notifications letting you know where to find your apps, then that’s it. If you need guides (which is most likely), you’ll have to navigate between different windows to access the basic user manual, which can get annoying
Who Is Apptivo Recommended For?
Individuals or small teams wanting an all-in-one system for operating an array of tasks will benefit greatly from this product.
The very fair user-based pricing gives you access to a whole range of features that might carry a heavy price tag if you were to go elsewhere.
Who Is Apptivo Not Recommended For?
If you’re planning on using this primarily for the “Campaigns” email marketing app, you’ll be quite limited with the features on offer. There’s no A/B testing and basic automation is only available from the Premium plan up.
This also isn’t a tool for bulk emailing if you’re a solo operation. The capacity to send bulk emails is only available from the Premium plan and is initially limited to 1,000 per user per month, although you can increase this at $2 for 1,000 extra.
Apptivo Pricing
Plan | Price | Emails/user/month | Number of Apps | Email Marketing Features |
Starter | $0 | - | 8 | No email marketing features |
Lite | $10 | - | 18 | Templates, campaign reports |
Premium | $15 | 1,000 | 46 | Campaign management, marketing automation, scheduling |
Ultimate | $25 | 3,000 | 57 | All email marketing features |
Enterprise | custom | 5,000 | 65 | All email marketing features |
Price plans are split up by how many apps you’re able to integrate on each plan. Be wary that some early plans limit the amount of functionality for email marketing features, with marketing automation only available from the “Premium” plan and up.
Cancellation / Refund Policies
You’re free to cancel at any time and at no cost. You’ll be able to use the platform still up until your next billing, at which point your account will terminate. Payments are non-refundable unless you were charged without permission.
Apptivo Features
As an overall service, you have an abundance of choices for apps that’ll help you in various capacities. I’m primarily looking at email marketing tools, so that’s what I’ll concentrate on when going over some features in this section.
· Ease of Use
It’s a combination of features that make this platform easy to use but mainly, it stems from having all your processes operating from one central hub. Each app also comes with customization options to tailor them to your own needs, with notification settings to notify multiple users when changes occur.
· Email Designer
In the Campaign app, you’re given both a HTML and drag-and-drop builder to work with. A selection of 21 unique email templates is available to use as a foundation to start building your own campaigns. Not the greatest selection in the world, but enough to get you going.
· Learning Resources
A YouTube channel with over 40 videos ranging from 5 minute quick tips to full hour-long webinars provides expert support for the visual learners. However, if you’re one that likes to read the manual, the “User Manual” here is basic and provides no real depth.
· Customizable Dashboard
Having so many individual apps might seem complicated, but a central hub gives you access to all the apps at your disposal all from one place. This comes with a customization option so you can display exactly what you need for quick access.
· Newsfeed Timeline
A super useful feature for an all-in-one platform. See what every user is walking on in a single timeline which you can filter. Handy, for relaying information between departments to ensure a more fluid workflow and better communication. You can enable newsfeed and email notifications from various functions within different Apptivo apps.
· Spam Testing
There’s nothing worse than investing lots of time and effort into an email campaign only for it to be flagged as spam. But within the Campaign app, you’re able to test the spam content with the “SpamAssassain”, which will give you a score and details into what’s affected the score. You can then use this information and make changes to avoid the dreaded spam folder.
· Campaign Reports
An essential way to improve your emailing strategy is to analyze the performance of previous campaigns. With Apptivo, you can track open and click rates, bounces and unsubscribes in a clear timeline view for easy analysis with a timeline view.
FEATURES SCORE: 3/5
Apptivo Automation Features
The first thing worth mentioning is that email automation features, including scheduling and sending to multiple recipients, only become available from the Premium plan. But even once you get to these plans, email marketing automation is very limited. There’s no option for trigger-based emails or drip campaigns, for example, only individually scheduled emails.
When designing your email template, there is the option to automatically populate “attribute” fields, which you can insert easily within the drag-and-drop editor. This allows you to address customers on an individual basis.
Apptivo Software Integration
Third-party integration capabilities include Google Suite, Microsoft Office, Dropbox, WordPress, and Slack but lack compatibility with other CRMs, contact list managers or email marketing tools in general. Not ideal if you already use other systems you’d wish to integrate.
Unfortunately, they leave a lot to be desired even when integrating internally between different apps. Seeing as this platform is built around giving you everything you need in one place, integration between these apps is important. The fact that only certain apps are compatible with each other is a bit of a missed mark.
Apptive Alternative Brands
HubSpot - A market leader for all-in-one marketing tools. HubSpot might be a bit more expensive, but with that you’re getting a highly reputable platform with top support systems and flexibility in the way you set up. The HubSpot Marketing Hub is a solid tool for email campaigns.
Omnisend - If you’re set up with ecommerce and on the hunt for complementary tools for marketing, this software will expand your reach beyond just the email inbox. With accessible builders, you’ll be designing and automating eye-catching campaigns in no time at all.
Sendinblue - Connect your store, create meaningful, professional-looking campaigns without the need of experts, build your subscriber list organically. This platform is always looking for ways to help you achieve your marketing goals with an ever-increasing list of useful features.
Conclusion
For an all-in-one, cost-effective platform covering multiple areas of business, this is a decent place to start for those on a tight budget operating with a small team.
But this review is for email marketing capabilities, and here they’re lacking quite a bit. A couple of nice features don’t really make up for missing some more essential tools, and the lack of integration leaves you with only the basics.