Last year when Swiftpage acquired Kuvana, the makers of Inbox Guru (later to be known as Act! Marketing Automation), they communicated to their customer base that marketing automation was integral to their future.
For the uninitiated, Marketing Automation was defined by PC Mag as “the smarter and more powerful older sibling of email marketing. Marketing automation lets marketers plan extended customer interactions without requiring manual intervention.”
Swiftpage first introduced Act! Marketing Automation as an upgrade option last November when they released Act! v21, and then later bundled it with Act! and rebranded the new package as “Act! Growth Suite” during this year’s spring launch.
The new “Act! Growth Suite” became the centerpiece of their product offerings, and they both tightened the integration between Act! (the CRM trusted by millions for over 30 years) and Marketing Automation, and introduced three new tiers of Growth Suite – Professional, Premier, and Ultimate, which were tailor made to fit the marketing needs of most small businesses.
If you’re still unconvinced Swiftpage is all in with marketing automation, consider the following.
- The former president and founder of Kuvana, Chad Ruff, was hired as the Chief Technical Officer (CTO)
- Swiftpage quickly announced the deprecation of Swiftpage Emarketing (SPEM) late last year, and discontinued it entirely on June 30th
- Act! Pro is Swiftpage’s only CRM product that does not support AMA, and it was removed from their website in February, and later announced for sunsetting next summer.
- Act! eMarketing was removed as a “Freemium” offering with Act! Premium subscription last November
With all these changes, it should not come as a surprise that with the release of Act! v22 in November, Swiftpage will move forward with a single subscription offering, Act! Growth Suite, and Act! Premium will cease to be available as a standalone CRM product without marketing automation. Remember Swiftpage started as an emarketing company before they acquired Act!, so in many respects they’re returning to their core focus of helping customers grow their business through the power of emails.
This focus has certain implications for existing Act! Premium subscribers, and these changes should be read and understood carefully, as it impacts all current subscribers in different ways.
Act! Subscribers paying $25 (on-premise)
Firstly, if you’ve joined Act! Premium subscription the last few years, you’re likely enrolled in the on-premise rate of $300/user/year, in which case we’ve got some great news! Your account can be left alone, or you can upgrade to Growth Suite Professional for only $5/user/month more at your next renewal, and enable a Professional marketing automation service with your subscription.
Act! Loyalty Subscribers paying less than $25/user/month
Secondly, if you’re on one of the older “Loyalty” subscription packages with support included, this is good news for you too! Despite enjoying years of below-market rates for Act!, you’re also eligible to step into the same deal as the first group, and get Growth Suite Professional for the exact same preferred rate - only $300/year/user.
With the Professional tier previously costing up to $948 per annum, the choice will be easy for some customers to upgrade to the power of Act! Marketing automation for as little as $8 extra per annum.
That’s right, for only pennies extra per month, you get the following Act! Marketing Automation tools:
- 10,000 sends per month
- An interactive drag and drop template editor with mobile & desktop preview
- Social sharing, landing pages, and lead capture tools
- A visual workflow designer, drip marketing, and surveys
- And Marketing calendar, real-time campaign metrics, and deliverability & compliance tools
Act! users on perpetual plans
The third and final audience that should tune into this deal is the current off-plan Act! customers. These are the past users of Act! who have perpetual licenses of Act! dating back to 2005, or users that were previously on subscription, but opted. Which ever group you fall into, if you want to upgrade to the latest version of Act! and step up your marketing game, Growth Suite will be available to from October 8th through to the end of year for only $300/user/year.
Yes, you read that right, if you’ve ever owned or subscribed to Act! in the past, you’ll get all the “on-plan” discounts as current subscribers just for signing up for Growth Suite through December 31st.
Business growth has never been this easy, or this inexpensive, so Act! now and call 1-833-ACT-BOLD to speak to a member of our Act! Success team.
