The marketing automation industry has seen a significant rise with the majority of businesses using it in some form nowadays. From a $500 million market, it is expected to reach $6.4 billion by 2024. According to a recent study, around 67% of marketing leaders are already utilizing Marketing Automation Software and 21% more are planning to start using these tools too. Also, 55% of marketers are expected to increase their spending on technology by at least 10% or more.
In addition, marketing automation tools continue to grow with new software being introduced almost every year. These facts clearly show that if you are not using any of the Marketing Automation Software already, it’s time that you should consider using one. However, with thousands of options available, it’s harder at times to find the right tool for your business.
So, we have listed the 5 best marketing automation tools that you can choose from. These solutions stand out for their features and use cases.
HubSpot
HubSpot is an all-inclusive Marketing Automation Software that comes with free basic tools and plenty of enterprise-ready features to get you started. HubSpot Growth Suite includes marketing software, sales software, and customer support software, all of which seamlessly integrate with HubSpot CRM. This excellent marketing solution combines all your data and growth activities on one platform to unleash multiple automation possibilities. The software is intuitive and easy to use, making it an ideal choice for non-technical small businesses. Also, the incredible analytics enables business owners to find what is working and what’s not. You can use this fully stacked platform as a CRM, inbound marketing, and CMS software. It is also your one-stop solution to schedule emails easily and sync email forms automatically with its integrated CRM. Moreover, you can put your entire marketing campaign on autopilot without ignoring the human aspect completely.
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HubSpot optimizes and integrates different departments in one central location while streamlining business workflows. Therefore, you no longer have to jump from software to software to collect information and it allows you to automate the data transfer process. Its basic features, such as forms, landing pages, emails, and live chat options are available for free for unlimited users. Now we know why this software is preferred by small businesses. However, you can’t miss the fact that its pricing is a bit expensive as you upgrade to advanced versions.
HubSpot Growth Suite starts at $50/month for 2 users and up to 1000 contacts. To add further 1000 contact, you need to pay $11.25/month with an additional cost of $6/month. For larger and more complex campaigns, plans cost:
- Professional- $1780/month for advanced features
- Enterprise- $4000/month for all features
Features
- Auto-personalized emails
- AI-powered live chat
- Easily test CTAs
- Predictive lead scoring
- Multi-touch marketing attribution
- Social media management
- Conversion optimization tools
ActiveCampaign
Email is a crucial part of any digital marketing campaign and your Marketing Automation Software must include this aspect in some way. ActiveCampaign specializes in email marketing and focuses on improving your strategies for better results. But it’s not limited to email marketing automation and offers CRM tools, omnichannel automation, engagement tracking, instant messaging, live chat, and more. ActiveCampaign takes credit to introduce the vidual automation sequence builder. The tool is used by more than 90,000 small businesses worldwide and is popular like the best SEO software for small businesses. What makes it strongest among other platforms is its flexible and powerful marketing automation functionality, which is quite comprehensive.
Being an intuitive tool, ActiveCampaign can be used easily to build complex automation sequences without any virtual support or training. The company is constantly releasing more advanced features to keep up with the competition. Over the years, it has introduced site messages, predictive content, attribution, and many other features. Its automation split test enables users to let automation sequences optimize themselves with machine learning. Another great time-saving feature is its ability to import and share automation recipes with just a few clicks.
ActiveCampaign is one of the most affordable tools and offers economical pricing even as you grow. Its four plans are:
- Lite- $9/month (up to three users)
- Plus- $49/month (up to 25 users)
- Professional- $129/month (up to 50 users)
- Enterprise- $229/month (unlimited users)
As you upgrade the plan, you get more advanced features. Pricing varied according to the size of your list, starting with up to 500 contacts.
Features
- Advanced reporting
- Engage (automation maps, subscription forms, and site tracking)
- Nurture (event tracking, list segmenting, and dynamic/predictive content)
- Convert (contact and lead scoring, win probabilities, and split actions)
- Support (Predictive sending, A/B split testing, SMS, and e-commerce)
- Pre-built automation recipes
- iOS CRM app
Constant Contact
Modern marketing is not possible on one channel. You have to be present across all the digital platforms and devices to stay competitive. Although there are several omnichannel software available for marketing automation, Constant Contact is the top choice for most businesses to align their email, social media, and other digital marketing efforts. Its easy-to-use unified dashboard lets you push new social media posts and reply to messages instantly on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn from one place. Also, you can set up automated email sequences and drip campaigns. There are several social media marketing tools that help in posting creative content on different portals. Scheduling social media posts for the next month or quarter and syncing messaging with email campaigns are hassle-free. In addition, using its customizable emailer, you can segment your messaging with individual sequences based on your knowledge about contacts.
No matter if you have collected information manually about members in the contact list or used Constant Contact to capture details on your landing pages, you can set up email sequence tracks easily and it will send automatically based on triggers. So, if you have set up a series of posts about an upcoming event, you will have unique email sequences for people on the East coast and a separate one for the Pacific coast. All the plans of Constant Contact come with social monitoring, posting, and messaging but for more useful features, you have to buy the Email Plus plan. It allows you to set up automated behavioral and welcome sequences and includes dynamic content in your emails as well.
- Standard Email Plan- $20/month for up to 500 contacts
- Email Plus- $45/month for up to 500 subscribers
Features
- Organized email marketing
- Unlimited email sends and automated email resends
- Automated behavioral and welcome sequences
- Custom form builder
- Highly customizable emailer
- Unified dashboard
Sendinblue
Another popular Marketing Automation Software on the list is Sendinblue, which is packed with numerous features for customer marketing. Sendinblue started as a digital company but soon built a powerful email marketing tool that evolved into a well-liked marketing automation software in no time. It was considered an underdog by many in the email marketing world but gradually it began making waves with its excellent product. Yes, its visual marketing automation builder may not seem to be as attractive as other options but that doesn’t make it less powerful. In fact, it is quite refreshing to use as compared to other options that need contacting support and reading documentation to complete basic tasks. Along with scheduling emails for better customer relationships, it also lets you easily automate segmentation and marketing messages.
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Sendinblue is known as a stable, good, and relatively simple marketing automation tool. It was one of the first companies to announce GDPR compliance and its history shows that it has successfully offered many features that you can hardly find elsewhere, including real-time deliverability reporting and SMS messaging. Additionally, SendinBlue has a free plan that comes with phone support, up to 300 emails per day, and basic marketing automation functionality.
This marketing automation plan costs $65/month for:
- 20k monthly emails
- Three users
- Five landing pages
For 40k emails, you will have to pay $79/month.
Features
- SMS campaigns
- Reporting and lead scoring
- Send time optimization
- GDPR-compliant
- Real-time statistics
- Workflow automation
- Email heatmap for engagement
Omnisend
Omnisend may be a relatively new tool but that doesn’t stop it from becoming a leading tool marketing automation platform for e-commerce businesses and making its place on our list. It offers powerful automation workflows and pre-built templates designed keeping online merchants in mind to help you get started quickly. Although Omnisend is not the best option, it comes with a number of innovative features, such as Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp integration. Thus, enabling e-commerce marketers to automate their marketing efforts across multiple channels. As it caters to e-commerce agencies, its email templates are built to solve specific challenges faced by the industry marketers, be it reducing cart abandonment or driving more product reviews. Another big advantage of Omnisend is that it integrates seamlessly with your e-commerce platform. Whether you are using Magento, Shopify, or any other e-commerce solution, it will hook in and you can trigger your marketing campaigns according to your customer behavior.
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Omnisend also allows you to add several channels within a single automation workflow, including push notifications, email, SMS, etc. You can see regular reports to evaluate the impact of your marketing campaigns on sales. Furthermore, it uses a user-friendly WYSIWYG visual builder and templates, which makes it easier to create forms, landing pages, popups, and emails.
- Pro- $59/month
- Standard- $16/month
Features
- Drag & drop content editor
- Web push notifications
- Audience sync for ads
- Message engagements
- Sales dashboard
- Advanced reporting
Conclusion
Every marketing automation tool is unique with its own set of pros and cons. So, when you pick the right software for your business, make sure that you analyze each factor and make the decision that is worth your money, resources, and efforts.