ActiveCampaign to Sparkforge Migration Guide

This guide walks through every component you need to migrate when switching from ActiveCampaign to Sparkforge. Move them one at a time, verify each step, and you'll keep your data and workflows intact.

What to migrate

1. Contacts
2. Deals (Opportunities)
3. Email Templates
4. Landing Pages
5. Forms
6. Automations

1. Migrate contacts

Step 1: Export from ActiveCampaign

1. Log in and open Contacts.
2. Click Export at the top right.
3. Select fields: Email, First Name, Last Name, Phone, Tags, custom fields.
4. Name the export — avoid special characters like !, #, $.
5. Click Export and download the CSV.

Step 2: Prepare the CSV for Sparkforge

• Date format: all dates as YYYY-MM-DD.
• Encoding: UTF-8 to handle special characters.
• Cleanup: strip line breaks, emojis, stray special characters.
• Verify emails: remove obvious bad addresses to protect your sender reputation.

Step 3: Import into Sparkforge

1. Open Contacts > Import.
2. Upload the CSV.
3. Map ActiveCampaign fields to Sparkforge fields. Create custom fields for anything that doesn't have a native match.
4. Run the import and review the result log.

2. Migrate deals (opportunities)

ActiveCampaign deals become Sparkforge opportunities. Export deals as CSV, build a matching pipeline in Sparkforge with the same stages, then import. Map deal value, owner, and stage carefully — those are the fields that drive your reporting.

3. Migrate email templates

1. Export the HTML of each ActiveCampaign template (or copy the source).
2. In Sparkforge, open Marketing > Emails > Templates.
3. Create a new template, paste the HTML, and rebuild any merge fields using Sparkforge's custom value syntax.
4. Send a test to confirm rendering across major clients.

4. Migrate landing pages

Landing pages don't transfer automatically. Rebuild critical pages in Sparkforge's site builder. Match the layout, copy, and form fields. Update DNS or redirect rules so existing URLs route to the new pages once they're live.

5. Migrate forms

1. List every active ActiveCampaign form and where it's embedded.
2. Rebuild each form in Sparkforge with the same fields.
3. Replace the embed code on your sites.
4. Verify each submission lands in Sparkforge as a contact and triggers the right downstream automation.

6. Migrate automations

Automations are the most labor-intensive piece. ActiveCampaign automations don't import — you rebuild them in the Sparkforge workflow builder.

1. Document each ActiveCampaign automation: trigger, conditions, actions, branches.
2. Recreate the trigger in Sparkforge (form submission, tag added, deal stage change, etc.).
3. Add equivalent actions: send email, wait, add tag, update field, branch on condition.
4. Test each workflow with a dummy contact before turning it on for production.

Cutover checklist

• Contacts imported and field-mapped.
• Deals/opportunities imported into the new pipeline.
• Email templates rebuilt and tested.
• Landing pages rebuilt and DNS/redirects updated.
• Forms rebuilt and embed codes swapped.
• Automations rebuilt and tested with sample contacts.
• Old ActiveCampaign automations paused before turning Sparkforge versions on.

Get help if you need it

If migrating yourself feels like a stretch, Arcus Foundry handles full Sparkforge migrations as a service. Bring us your ActiveCampaign export and we'll stand up your new platform.