I’ve been working with Act-On Software at Goose Digital for more than a year now. In the past nine months we’ve changed and evolved a lot. As we move deeper into Marketing Automation, now seems as good a time as any to jump right in and get Act-On certified.

This past weekend I sat down and got right to it. It took me the better part of the weekend to complete all the modules in the four course packs. I wanted to get it done so I did them all back to back, but you could easily break this down and complete it in more manageable chunks.

For the most part each module includes a video and a check point quiz, and each unit is completed with a test. The entire process is smooth and much more helpful than I expected. In saying that, here are my top four takeaways from completing my certification:

  1. There is usually more than one way to accomplish a task

    I was often surprised by how some tasks were completed. There were a number of times when I found something done in a completely different way than what I had been doing (even from a different menu section entirely)! It’s always good to know of an alternate way to do things and I found an even faster way to complete some day-to-day tasks!

  2. Support is only a click away

    Right from the Start Dashboard in Act-On is an array of shortcuts at your fingertips. To be honest I generally ignored this section in the past, in favour of using the left navigation, but in doing that I missed some key items. The resources tab is a life saver! Right there only a click away is access to the Act-On University, product updates and, my personal favourite, the Customer Support Portal which houses all your tickets, open or completed.

  3. Proper Setup is key

    They say preparation is everything, so it makes sense that the first 15 or so lessons all pertain to setup. Setting up Act-On, or any marketing automation platform, is crucial. If you miss this step; best case, you to take time time while you’re on a deadline to complete a task (such as signature setup); or worst case you miss out on data collection (such as beacon codes on your website). The moral of the story: don’t skip the setup lessons and use what you learned.

  4. There’s a lot going on and Act-On is always evolving

    As I mentioned, I’ve been working with Act-On Software for well over a year. I’ve really started to dive into to some of the more strategic and nuanced areas of the system. While completing the modules I found myself blowing through modules pretty quickly, since these are things that I work with everyday, but I still found the entire certification process worthwhile.

    Something to keep in mind is that the Act-On certification primarily covers a lot of the basics, and while informative, it really only begins to scratch the surface of the capabilities of this robust platform. Add that to the fact that Act-On is always adding new features and modules, it’s easy to fall into a trap of thinking you know everything there is to know about the marketing automation platform. There are always new things to learn, blogs to read, and webinars to take part it.