ActiveCampaign’s CEO Said They Did The Right Thing, Even Though It Caused Slower Growth

In this episode I talk with Jason VandeBoom. Jason is the founder and CEO of ActiveCampaign.

ActiveCampaign is a marketing automation platform used by many online and offline businesses. It has evolved to become a unique solution that excels in the arena it plays in.

Jason started the company in 2003. They offered email, marketing, and customer support type software you uploaded and installed on your own server. You had to be slightly tech savvy to understand the details and get it up and running. And that caused some issues.

In 2010 they decided to slip away from those products and focus on one ideal solution. And that’s where Jason found his struggles and thinks they would be different today if they made some different decisions.

Here’s what we discuss:

• How they decided to transition from 8 products to only one, ActiveCampaign.
• Why you don’t want to sell tech heavy software to tech fearing people.
• How they survived going from selling 4 and 5 figure purchase contracts to offering a single product starting at $9 per month.
• Why it was important to Jason to take their time to get revenue back up after the transition.
• Why you face certain risk challenges when you’re bootstrapped and self-funded.
• Why he thinks they lost out of potential growth and could be a much larger company today if things went differently, and why that’s important to you.
• Why he views their past caution as a good thing, and how it allowed ActiveCampaign to make huge improvements in the last year.
• Why it’s important to do the right thing for existing clients, even when it slows down growth.
• The double-edged sword you face when offering a low priced product.
• Why it’s important to have single focus clarity.
• How their single solution has allowed them to provide better service, reduced new hire training problems, and made everyone in the company more focused.
• How to integrate human touch points even with marketing automation.
• How ActiveCampaign clients use their platform in ways they never imagined.

Enjoy the show.

Mentioned in the show:

• ActiveCampaign
• Feedly