Motrain boosts trial conversions by 120% with ActiveCampaign

One of the biggest challenges in customer education is maintaining user engagement. That’s where Vacouver-based B2B SaaS company Motrain steps up. Motrain helps customer education professionals acquire new customers and drive completions by enhancing their learning experiences with motivational design strategies. By gamifying the experience and adding rewards and incentives, Motrain helps keep users on track during onboarding, external training, and more.

“My journey into Motrain started with my background in public education,” shares founder Jeff Campbell. “I was fascinated with online learner engagement and how gamification could enhance that.”

It’s also where existing learning engagement solutions fell short. “I looked at what was on the market to improve learning in LMSs and wasn’t satisfied,” Jeff explains. He created Motrain to help fill this gap in the market and provide engaging, gamified learning experiences to enhance corporate e-learning systems.

Today, Motrain primarily focuses on improving experiences for customer education in the extended enterprise space. As it’s tougher to mandate non-employees to complete training courses, their experiences need to be as engaging as possible to ensure compliance, retention, and customer advocacy.

Borrowing ideas from the video game industry

When you’re trying to find an example of a compelling digital experience, you don’t need to look much further than video games. Jeff’s idea was to take the most effective mechanics from the video game industry, such as rewards, leaderboards, and progress tracking, and incorporate them into learning management systems.

As learners reach milestones and earn rewards, they develop a positive association with the company’s brand. This not only makes them more likely to engage with future training modules but also to stay updated with the company’s products and offerings. 

By blending educational content with an engaging gamification layer, Motrain effectively helps enterprises transform their training programs into powerful tools for building knowledge, loyalty, and, ultimately, driving revenue growth.

Supporting product-led growth with automation

Motrain’s conversion strategy relies heavily on product-led growth, encouraging potential users to see firsthand how the gamification elements work. At the core of this strategy, low-touch email nurtures that encourage prospects to check out demos and trials, then move to convert them to paid users once they’ve had hands-on experience with the platform. Their previous CRM, PipeDrive, couldn’t deliver. “We were using a different CRM initially, but it couldn’t provide the automation we needed,” says Jeff. 

Motrain needed more advanced automation options with users, especially during the critical two-week free trial period. They also wanted the ability to monitor user actions during the trial to understand why some users were not converting, API integration to personalize emails based on their behavior within the LMS, and conversion rate optimization (CRO) tools to analyze what was working. All of these factors are integrated into lead scores that allow the Motrain team to prioritize the best-qualified and warmest leads to maximize the efforts of the small sales team. 

When they found ActiveCampaign, it was like they’d discovered a solution that was made exactly for their needs. “We were actually looking to build our own version of what ActiveCampaign is doing, and then when we found out it already existed,” says Jeff. “Our developers were relieved!”

Unlocking new possibilities with ActiveCampaign

As soon as Motrain had made the switch to ActiveCampaign, they could set up more advanced automations across their CRM tools. “The two-week free trial sequence is a game-changer. It starts with a welcome message and continues with a timed sequence, engaging users right from sign-up.”

With ActiveCampaign’s CRM automations, the team could set up campaigns that catered to different market segments in just a few clicks, from SMBs to larger enterprises. Motrain quickly and effectively built self-service systems that catered to each segment’s specific challenges and needs. While they used to manually send two emails during the two-week free trial period, ActiveCampaign has given them the time and flexibility to automate their customer journeys that effectively encourage feedback and engagement. 

Integrating their platform with ActiveCampaign’s API allowed Motrain to personalize their interactions based on user behavior. “If a user doesn’t create a new incentive, we send a personalized email to prompt action or offer assistance through a call,” Jeff explains. The team was able to integrate tools such as Calendly with just a few clicks, making it easier than ever to schedule personal and one-to-one calls with customers and provide the support they needed to get the most out of their trial. With ActiveCampaign’s CRO tools, Motrain could easily analyze user behavior and modify its strategies accordingly, focusing on what users value in their product to drive conversions and move users towards a paid subscription.

“ActiveCampaign solved many problems for us. It was affordable, flexible, and the API integration made it an obvious choice,” Jeff recalls. This flexibility set ActiveCampaign apart from the competition and soon became a key part of Motrain’s business strategy.

Supercharged conversion rates and customer satisfaction

Since they switched to ActiveCampaign, Motrain has seen significant results. “Our conversion rates jumped from less than 10% to over 20%. It’s allowed us to focus on enterprise clients without being bogged down by the SMB side,” the founder proudly states. 

In the last three years, this has led to year-on-year growth: 100% in 2021 and 2022, and 60% in 2023. This is in large part due to their increased open rates, which now measure between 20% and 40% for automated email flows. These improvements have helped more customers engage with their trial onboarding process, demo requests, and lead magnet downloads, which in turn has driven conversions and revenue.

What’s more, the team estimates that these new processes aren’t just improving their marketing performance: they’re also saving them between 10 and 15 hours per week by eliminating manual and time-consuming tasks.

Automation-fueled business growth and Motrain’s future 

For Motrain, ActiveCampaign isn’t just a CRM: it’s an all-in-one business management tool. Automating key low-touch communications has become a core part of their marketing strategy, and has been a key factor in their growth so far. 

Think ActiveCampaign can help your small team power a bigger business impact? Start your journey with ActiveCampaign today with a 14-day free trial!