Best Marketing Automation Software

Are you looking for a reliable marketing automation software for your business? Here is a list of the best marketing automation platforms exclusively handpicked by GoodFirms after meticulous research and analysis. The marketing automation systems listed here offer A/B testing, customizable CTAs, email marketing, Google AdWords visibility, lead management, sales intelligence, search marketing, segmentation & targeting, social media marketing, campaign management, ROI tracking, analytics, and reporting. Leverage this list of the best marketing automation software with filters for features, business size, deployment type, and pricing model. Also, check the verified user reviews for the top marketing automation tools listed here.

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List of the Top Marketing Automation Software with Reviews.

  • Salesoar

    Best Marketing Automation Software Solution
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    Salesoar automates and optimizes your Search and Shopping Ad campaigns. Through sophisticated rule based templating language and feed integration with Google AdWords and Google Merchant Center, our platform creates thousands of accurate, high ranking ads in minutes. Our clients generally see a 2x increase in ROAS in the first 6 months. Stop Wasting Time Eliminate manual labor from Google Sea ... read more about Salesoar

    Entry Level Price
    Contact vendor
    Free Trial
    30 Days
    Category Focus
    100% in Marketing Automation Software
  • eSputnik

    Marketing Automation Software and Email for B2C
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    eSputnik is a multichannel email marketing automation software for B2C. Specialized solutions for large eCommerce and Marketplace. eSputnik is a Marketing Automation Service made to embody the toughest ideas of enterprise-level solutions in a very clear and efficient way for everyone. We do not declare being the best, we are mostly spoken about this way. ... read more about eSputnik

    Entry Level Price
    $1.99 One-time
    Free Trial
    30 Days
    Category Focus
    33% in Marketing Automation Software
  • Mailchimp

    All-In-One Marketing Automation Platform for Small Business
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    Mailchimp is a marketing automation software that helps businesses grow their audience, send beautiful email campaigns, and track their results. It offers many features, including email marketing, marketing automation, and CRM. Over 13 million businesses use Mailchimp in 190 countries. Mailchimp recently released a new feature called "Customer Journey Builder." This feature allows businesses to cr ... read more about Mailchimp

    Entry Level Price
    Free version
    Free Trial
    Available
    Category Focus
    20% in Marketing Automation Software
  • ActiveCampaign

    Keep track of leads in a CRM, not in your head.
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    ActiveCampaign is a marketing automation software that helps businesses grow their sales and improve customer relationships. It offers many features, including email marketing, lead generation, sales CRM, and marketing automation. ActiveCampaign is used by over 180,000 businesses in 170 countries. ActiveCampaign recently released a new feature called "Conversational AI." This feature allows busine ... read more about ActiveCampaign

    Entry Level Price
    $9 Per Month
    Free Trial
    14 Days
    Category Focus
    14% in Marketing Automation Software
  • Marketo Engage

    The Next Generation of Marketing Automation Software is Here
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    Marketo Engage is the world’s largest marketing automation platform. It lets you streamline, automate, and measure marketing tasks and workflows to increase operational efficiency and grow revenue faster. You can also use it for advanced lead generation, lead scoring, and account management tasks. Adobe Marketo uses AI to personalize marketing campaigns and deliver the right message to the right ... read more about Marketo Engage

    Entry Level Price
    Contact vendor
    Free Trial
    N/A
    Category Focus
    25% in Marketing Automation Software
  • DashClicks

    Beautifully crafted agency solutions.
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    Our software and service hybrid is something the world has never experienced before. DashClicks is a SaaS platform built specifically for digital marketing agencies. DashClicks was created with one thing in mind, scaling. We know how complicated all these state-of-the-art software can be for agencies. We wanted DashClicks not only to be easy to use but have the ability to combine all the most popu ... read more about DashClicks

    Entry Level Price
    Free version
    Free Trial
    Available
    Category Focus
    100% in Marketing Automation Software
  • HubSpot Marketing Hub

    All-in-One Inbound Marketing Software.
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    HubSpot Marketing Hub is a popular marketing automation software choice for businesses of all sizes, but it is trendy for small companies and startups. HubSpot Marketing Hub is affordable and easy to use, even for companies without marketing experience. HubSpot Marketing Hub is a cloud-based platform hosted and managed by HubSpot. This makes it easy to get started and scale your solution as needed ... read more about HubSpot Marketing Hub

    Entry Level Price
    Free version
    Free Trial
    Available
    Category Focus
    15% in Marketing Automation Software
  • EngageBay

    Market better. Sell faster.
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    EngageBay is a comprehensive marketing automation software platform that helps businesses generate leads, nurture them, and close deals. It is scalable, so you can easily add more users and features as your business grows. The platform also offers a variety of integrations with other popular business applications, such as Salesforce, HubSpot, and Google Analytics. It is easy to use and affordable, ... read more about EngageBay

    Entry Level Price
    Free version
    Free Trial
    Available
    Category Focus
    10% in Marketing Automation Software
  • SharpSpring

    A powerful suite of sales & marketing automation tools to boost conversions and deliver results.
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    SharpSpring is a cloud-based marketing automation platform for marketing agencies and small to mid-sized businesses that rival top competitors with its features, functionalities, and performance. Email is a key aspect of your marketing and sales strategy – so you need a customer relationship management system that can keep up. Use the app to schedule personalized follow-up emails from your sale ... read more about SharpSpring

    Entry Level Price
    $399 Per Month
    Free Trial
    N/A
    Category Focus
    20% in Marketing Automation Software
  • Keap

    Sales and Marketing Automation built to help you grow without chaos.
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    Keap CRM software is a robust client management and marketing automation software designed for small businesses and startups to govern all CRM activities from one dashboard. The system is powered by features like sales and marketing automation, lead management, contact management, etc. The software’s analytics dashboard enhances CRM strategies with complete insights on leads, marketing campaign ... read more about Keap

    Entry Level Price
    $40 Per Month
    Free Trial
    N/A
    Category Focus
    20% in Marketing Automation Software
  • Sugar CRM

    No1 Rated CRM platform for small and medium size businesses.
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    Sugar CRM is a next-generation customer relationship management software solution for all businesses. This flexible, user-centric software allows users to strategize the CRM strategy with core features like customer sales force automation, lead management, and marketing automation. With advanced features like predictive forecasting and intelligent lead prioritization, salespeople can uncover hidde ... read more about Sugar CRM

    Entry Level Price
    $49 Per Month
    Free Trial
    7 Days
    Category Focus
    25% in Marketing Automation Software
  • Insightly

    The Best CRM to Build Customer Relationships
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    Insightly is a modern, scalable customer relationship management software for businesses of all sizes. Connecting with customers and creating exceptional experiences is accessible with the Insightly online CRM tool. The CRM system facilitates marketing automation, lead management, and project management allowing businesses to become efficient in CRM strategies. The software is easily customizable ... read more about Insightly

    Entry Level Price
    $29 Per Month
    Free Trial
    14 Days
    Category Focus
    25% in Marketing Automation Software
  • LinkedCamp

    Marketing & Sales Automation Software
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    LinkedCamp is a super-efficient marketing automation tool that empowers businesses and sales industries to drive more LinkedIn connections, hundreds of leads, sales, and conversions automatically. LinkedCamp not only runs campaigns but provides you key metrics, monitor campaigns progress, and provides data on the dashboard so you can optimize your campaigns accordingly to boost conversion rate. It ... read more about LinkedCamp

    Entry Level Price
    $69 Per Month
    Free Trial
    14 Days
    Category Focus
    50% in Marketing Automation Software
  • Yespo

    Omnichannel CDP that offers ready-made tools and campaigns for medium-sized ecommerce
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    Yespo makes it easy to create a personalized user experience and quickly generate revenue from existing customers. Ecommerce marketers will be able to integrate product feeds, choose the right campaigns from 53 proposed ones, or set up their own segments and workflows without the involvement of developers. If the business has user data in third-party sources (PostgreSQL, Big Query, Google Sheets), ... read more about Yespo

    Entry Level Price
    Contact vendor
    Free Trial
    N/A
    Category Focus
    100% in Marketing Automation Software
  • Agile CRM

    All-in-One CRM Software, Sales Enablement + Marketing Automation + Customer Service.
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    Agile CRM is an all-in-one customer relationship management software that automates sales, marketing, and service under one platform. The free version of this affordable next-generation cloud-based SaaS CRM software can be best leveraged for marketing automation, customer success, lead generation, lead management, and customer service. Track every stage of your sales process, manage projects, auto ... read more about Agile CRM

    Entry Level Price
    Free version
    Free Trial
    Available
    Category Focus
    16% in Marketing Automation Software
  • Picreel

    Delightful Popups That Grow Leads & Sales
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    Picreel is an advanced and easy-to-use popup builder that helps businesses convert website visitors into customers. Its advanced targeting and segmentation capabilities allow users to create custom popups, including exit and mobile popups, using the intuitive drag-and-drop popup builder. Picreel is a powerful lead generation tool that aids businesses in getting quality leads through creative popup ... read more about Picreel

    Entry Level Price
    $0 Per Month
    Free Trial
    15 Days
    Category Focus
    50% in Marketing Automation Software
  • Pardot

    Smarter Marketing Automation
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    Pardot is a marketing automation platform that helps businesses of all sizes acquire, engage, and retain customers. It offers many features, including email marketing, automation, CRM, and social media marketing. Over 150,000 businesses use Pardot in 190 countries. Pardot recently released a new feature called "Intelligent Journey Builder." This feature uses artificial intelligence to help enterpr ... read more about Pardot

    Entry Level Price
    $1250 Per Month
    Free Trial
    N/A
    Category Focus
    25% in Marketing Automation Software
  • LeadSquared

    Lead Conversion Platform for Your Business. Discover a new way to run high-velocity sales.
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    LeadSquared is a sales execution CRM and marketing automation software platform that helps businesses generate more leads, qualify them more effectively, and close more deals. The platform combines the features of a CRM system with the capabilities of a marketing automation platform to provide businesses with a complete solution for their sales and marketing needs. LeadSquared has a unique sales e ... read more about LeadSquared

    Entry Level Price
    Contact vendor
    Free Trial
    N/A
    Category Focus
    20% in Marketing Automation Software
  • Brightpod

    When your projects are in control, every day feels like a holiday.
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    Web-based project management & time-tracking software for digital marketing & creative teams. Take the chaos out of marketing collaboration & planning. It’s time they are freed from the clutches of inflexible, generalist project management apps to stay on top of things. ... read more about Brightpod

    Entry Level Price
    $29 Per Month
    Free Trial
    14 Days
    Category Focus
    25% in Marketing Automation Software
  • BenchmarkONE

    All-in-one CRM and marketing automation software built for the way you work.
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    BenchmarkONE is marketing automation and emails marketing software for small businesses and marketing agencies. We help agencies and small business owners propel relationships into sales with all-in-one CRM and marketing automation. Cut through the clutter and complexity of bulky tools with a simple, affordable platform made for you. ... read more about BenchmarkONE

    Entry Level Price
    $79 Per Month
    Free Trial
    N/A
    Category Focus
    33% in Marketing Automation Software
  • ONTRAPORT

    All Your Marketing Automation Tools in One Place
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    Ontraport is a cloud-based marketing automation software that helps businesses automate their marketing and sales processes. It offers many features, including email marketing, lead generation, CRM, marketing automation, and landing pages. Ontraport is used by over 100,000 businesses in 140 countries. Ontraport recently released a new feature called "Ontraport Forms." This feature allows businesse ... read more about ONTRAPORT

    Entry Level Price
    $79 Per Month
    Free Trial
    14 Days
    Category Focus
    25% in Marketing Automation Software
  • Klaviyo

    Klaviyo is the growth marketing platform built for online businesses.
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    Klaviyo is a marketing automation platform that is built for ecommerce businesses. It is designed to help you grow your ecommerce business by automating your marketing campaigns and personalizing your communications with your customers. Over 100,000 brands use Klaviyo in over 80+ countries. Klaviyo recently released a new feature called "Klaviyo CDP." This feature allows businesses to collect, uni ... read more about Klaviyo

    Entry Level Price
    Contact vendor
    Free Trial
    Available
    Category Focus
    33% in Marketing Automation Software
  • Marketing Creatio

    Multichannel marketing platform to orchestrate customer journeys and accelerate lead-to-revenue
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    Marketing Creatio is a holistic multichannel marketing management software powered by out-of-the-box best practice processes delivering demand generation excellence. It is a robust marketing automation software powered by out-of-the-box best practice processes for efficient lead management – from demand generation to lead nurturing, to final hand-off to sales. ... read more about Marketing Creatio

    Entry Level Price
    Contact vendor
    Free Trial
    14 Days
    Category Focus
    50% in Marketing Automation Software
  • Constant Contact

    Constant Contact makes powerful email marketing easy.
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    Constant Contact is a cloud-based marketing automation platform that helps businesses connect with their customers. It offers features, including email marketing, marketing automation, CRM, landing pages, and forms. Over 500,000 businesses use Constant Contact in 90 countries. Constant Contact recently released a new feature called "Audience Builder." This feature allows businesses to create custo ... read more about Constant Contact

    Entry Level Price
    $9.99 Per Month
    Free Trial
    30 Days
    Category Focus
    25% in Marketing Automation Software
  • Customer.io

    Marketing Automation for the Whole Customer Lifecycle
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    Customer.io is a versatile marketing automation tool for sending relevant messages based on behavior across web and mobile products. Customer.io is an automated messaging platform for tech-savvy marketers who want more control and flexibility to craft and send data-driven emails, push notifications, and SMS messages. ... read more about Customer.io

    Entry Level Price
    $150.00 Per Month
    Free Trial
    30 Days
    Category Focus
    50% in Marketing Automation Software
  • AdRoll

    B2B marketing just got easier with RollWorks.
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    AdRoll is a digital marketing technology platform that specializes in retargeting which aims to convert window shoppers into buyers of your product or service in your site. As the most widely-used retargeting solution, AdRoll utilizes different platforms such web, mobile, and even social media using advanced tools to achieve results. ... read more about AdRoll

    Entry Level Price
    Free version
    Free Trial
    Available
    Category Focus
    50% in Marketing Automation Software
  • Lessonly

    Powerfully Simple Training Software
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    Produce personalized sales content, pitch books, fact sheets, proposals, and other collateral effortlessly. Empower teammates to quickly produce and customize content, while maintaining control and reducing risk. Cascade messaging, brand, and other updates across all materials in minutes, not months. Mix and match content from different sources to craft targeted assets in minutes that tel ... read more about Lessonly

    Entry Level Price
    Contact vendor
    Free Trial
    14 Days
    Category Focus
    20% in Marketing Automation Software
  • Eloqua

    Drive Dynamic Journeys.
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    Eloqua is a comprehensive marketing automation platform that provides a unified view of your customers to see their interactions with your brand across all channels. This allows you to create more personalized and relevant marketing messages more likely to resonate with your customers. Oracle Marketing Cloud recently released a new "Oracle Journey Builder" feature. This feature allows businesses t ... read more about Eloqua

    Entry Level Price
    Contact vendor
    Free Trial
    30 Days
    Category Focus
    100% in Marketing Automation Software
  • ContactPigeon

    Marketing Automation for Ecommerce.
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    ContactPigeon is the all-in-one marketing automation solution for eCommerce. We turn one size fits all marketing communication to perfectly timed and personalized messages for each of your customers. ... read more about ContactPigeon

    Entry Level Price
    $165.00 Per Month
    Free Trial
    14 Days
    Category Focus
    50% in Marketing Automation Software

Buyer’s Guide

Marketing Automation Buyer’s Guide

Most businesses consider marketing automation to be inevitable. The advanced functionality resulting due to AI and machine learning has encouraged the marketers to believe that automating marketing activities would provide quick and better results than manual processes can leverage. As per the State of Marketing Automation 2019 Survey Report, 75% of marketers use marketing automation tools. 

Selecting the best marketing automation software for a small business can not only add to its profitability but also enhance its reputation. Regardless of being a first-time buyer or intending to change the existing marketing automation software, if you are wanting to enhance your marketing strategies and achieve successful results, this buyers' guide to marketing automation software is for you.

What is Marketing Automation?

Marketing automation is a smarter approach that helps sales and marketing personnel to automate the tasks like -

  • Creating, launching, and managing online marketing campaigns
  • Tracking and managing prospects, leads, and customers
  • Measuring marketing efforts to make informed decisions

Marketing automation can revolutionize your marketing by minimizing the use of resources and maximizing the returns on investment. It can streamline your campaigns, improve accountability within the team members, provide better customer experiences, and generate accurate reports. 

What are the Best Practices of Marketing Automation?

The 5 best practices of marketing automation include -

Knowing your buyers’ persona before implementing a marketing strategy is a must. Interviewing customers, conducting surveys, analyzing reports, etc., can give you information about your buyers and help you in designing an effective marketing strategy.

Building a Workflow

Building a workflow while implementing a marketing strategy is important. All the team members should be on the same page and should have complete information about the process to be followed.

Capturing the Right Information

Capturing the right information from your visitors is important to approach them effectively. With the correct information on hand, you can analyze the buyers' persona, their journey, and create personalized content accordingly.

Create Solid Content

Content is something that is a driving force to capture the attention of your customers. The content you create and publish should establish an impressive reputation for your business in front of your buyers.

Leads Segmentation

Neither all the buyers are the same and nor are their requirements. Segmentation of the customers based on their persona, journey, geographical location, age, gender, etc., is important before approaching them with an effective marketing strategy.

What are the Key Components of Marketing Automation?

There are four major key components that can make marketing automation successful -

Listing/Segmentation - Listing and segmenting the audience based on their journey, requirements, geographical location, gender, and other factors.

Lead Scoring - Lead scoring is assigning value to the leads based on their possibility of converting.

Trigger - Trigger is a specified time or condition when a marketing campaign should be launched — for example, sending a discount coupon to the customer who is close to the purchase decision.

Action - Action is something that comes after the trigger. For example, sending a welcome email immediately after the customer signs up.

How does marketing automation relate to the customer journey?

There are four stages of a customer journey - Introduction, Exploration, Purchase, and Retention. Marketing automation plays a major role in each stage of the customers’ journey. 

Discover

At this stage, your buyers are not looking forward to buying from you. They are just discovering the products or services being provided by a brand. To engage customers at this stage, you need to post content on social media or send emails consistently, so that they can consider contacting you when they require the products or services you are providing. A marketing automation software can assist you in scheduling and automating the process of engaging your customers at the awareness stage.

Explore

At this stage, your customers are exploring, evaluating, and comparing your products and services with the available options in the market. For example, if one of your prospects is exploring your products on your website, you can send them the discount code to grab the opportunity. Marketing automation software helps you in monitoring the activities of your customers and acting on them immediately.

Purchase

At this stage, the customer is in the process of making the decision to purchase your products or services. Now, it becomes important to provide an excellent and seamless shopping experience to your customers, so that they give positive feedback about your business. Marketing automation software can help you in sending automated emails to the customers after a purchase, approaching them in a meaningful way, and assisting them at each step of their purchase decision.

Retention

Retaining the current customers and acquiring new business out of them, is one of the biggest achievements of any business. Competition being so fierce, it is difficult to stop your customers from getting attracted to other products and services available in the market. A marketing automation software can help in upselling and reselling to maintain the loyalty of your customers, ultimately accelerating the ROI of your organization.

What is Marketing Automation Software?

The software is an all-in-one marketing platform that is developed with the aim to automate, streamline, monitor, and measure marketing activities and processes so that businesses can gain operational efficiency, achieve their sales goals, and expand exponentially.

Whether it is about sending marketing emails, prioritizing your customers, creating landing pages, or measuring the success of your different marketing programs, marketing software can make your business processes and marketing efforts seamless ultimately resulting in improved productivity, reduced costs, and maximized conversions.

How Is Marketing Automation Software Different from CRM?

Marketing automation software is often confused with CRM. Many CRMs even have a marketing automation module, which makes marketers think about whether they should invest in marketing automation software or CRM. If you look into the features and capabilities of CRM, you would realize that CRM adds value to the sales department, but misses out on the requirements of the marketing department.

CRM is used to manage contacts and track opportunities. Marketing automation software is used for automating marketing programs, enhancing customer relationships, and measuring marketing efforts. This is the primary difference between both of them. 

Click to go through the buyer’s guide to CRM.

Let’s go through the capabilities of marketing automation software and how it can help your business.

What Does Marketing Automation Software Do?

Basically, the software includes inbuilt applications that are designed to optimize & streamline marketing tasks efficiently and effectively. It can help your employees to focus on strategic activities instead of monotonous activities, and eliminate human errors. Moreover, it helps increase customer engagement, grabs more sales opportunities, and stays ahead of competitors. Some of the key activities of marketing automation software include -

Lead Capturing, Tracking & Monitoring

The software can capture the leads based on the visitors on your business website, track their information, monitor their activities, and perform marketing activities accordingly to achieve successful results.

Email Campaign Management

A successful email campaign management requires storing and accessing accurate customer information, consistency, and professional design. Marketing automation software includes features that can help in sending professionally designed emails to the right people at the right time.   

Social Media Marketing

A marketing automation software can schedule your posts on various social media marketing platforms. Posting effective updates on social media platforms can help in better conversions and benefit the business consistently.

Resources Management

The task of managing resources in an optimum manner is highly significant to run a business with high profitability. The marketing automation software facilitates you to minimize your overheads and maximize ROI.

Landing Page Creation

The software includes design templates that allow you to create appealing landing pages helping to attract new customers and retain the present ones.

A/B Testing

A/B testing helps in determining the user’s reaction to two different products or services. Marketing automation software can make the process of A/B testing easy and evaluate the results accurately.

Integrations

No more juggling between different software and excel spreadsheets. Marketing automation software easily integrates with 3rd party tools like email, CRM, social media, to provide the user with everything from a single interface. 

Analytics & Reporting

A marketing automation software generates comprehensive and accurate reports which help businesses to make informed decisions and prepare successful marketing strategies for the future.

How Does a Marketing Automation Software Work?

The way marketing automation software works depend on the tasks to be accomplished. For example, if you are trying to run an email marketing campaign, the below-mentioned tasks can be sorted by using marketing automation software.

Step 1 - Segmenting based on activities and buyers' journey.

Step 2 - Selecting the target audience.

Step 3 - Designing a professional email.

Step 4 - Feeding the email content.

Step 5 - Executing the campaign.

Step 6 - Measuring the open & click rate.

Step 7 - Shortlisting warm and hot leads.

Step 8 - Moving warm and hot leads to CRM.

Step 9 - Reengaging the leads and prospects.

What are the Types of Marketing Automation Software?

Based on Deployment

On-Premise Software is hosted on the server of the business organization. It requires specific hardware configuration and complex installation.

Software-as-a-Service is a web-based software that is hosted by a service provider and made available to clients using multiple devices and platforms using the internet.

Based on License

Open-Source Marketing Automation Software provides free code that can be customized as per the business requirements. It is free to download and deploy.

Free Marketing Automation Software is free software that is available on the cloud or can be downloaded with the source code, which cannot be customized.

Paid Proprietary Marketing Automation Software can be used on the cloud or can be downloaded after paying weekly/monthly/subscription or one-time charges.

How Did Marketing Automation Tools Come Into Use?

Marketing is the fuel of any business. Regardless of the type and size of the business, it requires marketing its products and services to survive and grow. At one point in time, due to increased consumer awareness, and their buying habits, marketing is required to get infused to technology to cope up with the rising competition in all the sectors. So, let's have a look at how marketing automation software came into use.

In earlier times, spreadsheets were used for storing the data of leads and potential clients and access it while contacting them through phone or email. It was in 1992 when Unica - a subset of CRM came into existence. The Internet was at its initial stage at that time. In 1999 Eloqua was introduced, which was transformed into a marketing automation service in 2003. Later on, in 2005-2008, new marketing automation tools like Hubspot, Marketo, Ontraport, etc., were introduced, which included email marketing automation, social media optimization, and many other marketing automation tools.

Upcoming Trends in Marketing Automation Software

Marketing software has evolved with time and is continuously growing due to the simple reason that businesses know the potential positive effects of marketing automation, which is adding up to their profits. So, here are the upcoming trends in marketing automation software, you must be aware of to pick the right one for your growing business.

Personalized Content

Personalized content helps in providing a better customer experience, which ultimately leads to increased sales. People always appreciate recommended products based on their past purchases, or an email addressing their first name instead of a common term. Personalized context is definitely a driving force to business growth, and marketing automation software can help in deploying this strategy.  

Machine Learning

Once a user clicks a link or an ad, the behavioral data is consumed by Machine Learning systems, which can then be used in future marketing campaigns and while approaching the buyers during their entire journey. This would not only help in marketing effectively but also enable you to provide better customer experiences.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) would help in studying user behavior, engaging the customers, encouraging cross-selling, ensuring customer retention, and retargeting the customers in a highly effective manner. Artificial Intelligence can take marketing automation to the next level in an era when customers demand quick and personalized services.

Chatbots

Chatbots can make your business work 24/7. You don't need to be at your desk all the time to keep your customers happy. Chatbots would talk to your customers even if you are not around. It can capture entire information from the customers like their preferences, queries, etc., and help you to take quick action on it. Chatbots are already playing a very important role in customer service and marketing departments and would be highly used in the majority of organizations very soon.

Customer Retention

In the coming future, the retention of the customers would be more important along with acquiring new customers due to the increasing competition and new products/services being introduced every day. With the right marketing automation platforms having the latest features, it would be easy for marketers to innovate and execute strategies that help in customer retention.

Benefits of Using a Marketing Automation Software

If you are considering a marketing automation service for your business, it becomes significant to understand what to expect and the benefits it can deliver before you start looking out for the options. So, here are some key benefits of using marketing automation software -

Reduces Staffing Costs

A marketing automation software can set up marketing campaigns that can be automatically triggered based on certain criteria. Moreover, posting social media posts, and sending personalized emails can also be automated. In short, a single employee can do the job of 50 employees with the help of marketing automation tools, resulting in reduced staffing costs.

Increases Sales

Marketing automation platforms can automate the process of customer follow-ups, not letting you miss even a single opportunity. Moreover, it can help you cross-sell and up-sell in an effective manner. Proper lead management and prioritization with the help of marketing automation software, obviously would lead you towards increased sales and high revenue generation.

Saves Time

Most of the marketing automation platforms allow scheduling & posting social media posts for different platforms from a single interface. Though there may be different software for this task, it would be great if you have a single platform for tracking leads, posting social media posts, and triggering email marketing campaigns all from a single platform.

Improves Accountability

Using marketing automation tools means clearly defined processes and accurate reporting, which shows the performance of each team member. This makes everyone involved with sales and marketing responsible for their tasks and tries their level best to perform well and display their caliber.

Encourages Creativity

By using marketing automation software, you are replacing manual processes with automated processes. So, now your email campaigns, social media posts, lead nurturing, and many more marketing tasks are being managed using computerized rules. This frees up the time of your staff to focus on creative tasks that can enhance productivity and efficiency in your organization.

Streamlines Processes

Implementing a marketing automation solution allows you to visualize the entire customer journey and provides you the opportunity to streamline the processes accordingly. This helps in refine targeting and nurturing the leads, for example, automatically sending an email about the product information as soon as the customer completes the purchase on your online store. 

Improves Productivity

Your marketing automation software provides you the complete information about your team about who is doing what. You can manage your resources and assign tasks to people based on their skills and qualifications. This way, you can improve productivity and make the most out of the hours you have.

Augments Customer Retention

A marketing automation solution helps you in targeting your customers at all stages of the customer journey. Moreover, it also allows triggering marketing campaigns over multiple platforms. Updating present customers with the latest updates in your products would help you in augmenting customer retention and achieving higher returns.

Helps in Making Better Decisions

The reports generated by marketing automation platforms tell you about the success of your marketing efforts, target audience, returning customers, marketing expenses, returns. Precisely, it can provide important information that can help you in making better decisions that can be remunerative for your business in the long run.

Must-Have Features of a Marketing Automation Software

Marketing automation software is beneficial for improving the marketing and sales of your products and services. But, to select the right one which suits your business, it becomes essential to know the features to consider in a marketing automation solution as mentioned below -

Lead Management

Lead management would help you in identifying prospects, capturing leads, tracking their journey across the sales funnel, personalizing content, targeting potential customers, and ensuring high conversions.

Email Marketing 

Email marketing automation would help you in scheduling email campaigns, sending personalized emails, categorizing email recipients, tracking email marketing strategies to reduce bounce rate, recording communication, and analyzing results like open & click rate.

Social Media Marketing

Marketing automation software can maintain your social media accounts, schedule your posts and updates, track the performance of your social media campaigns, respond to your customer queries, build targeted advertisements, and respond to your customer queries promptly.

Segmentation

The marketing automation solution you select should allow you to segment the leads and prospects, to select your target audience suiting to the marketing campaign. Triggering emails or sending messages without targeting the right audience can result in a fiasco wasting your valuable time and money.

Analytics and Reporting

To make informed decisions, you need to pick the marketing automation tool that allows you to collect and analyze comprehensive data, generate customized reports as per your business logic, monitor campaigns, measure performance, and ROI.

How to Choose the Right Marketing Automation Software for your Business?

In addition to the features to be considered while selecting a marketing automation software, below are some factors that you need to consider before you decide to invest in one -

Costs - In many cases, the marketing automation software vendors may charge some hidden costs, extra fees to deploy, or future maintenance costs. You need to check the exact cost of the marketing automation tools and decide whether it suits your budget or not before selecting one.

Limitations - Many marketing automation platforms have limitations in terms of features, email recipients, social media platforms, or it is not scalable as per your requirements. You need to check the limitations of the marketing automation tools before you purchase them.

Mobile-Friendly - In this era, when everything is done using mobile, starting from buying groceries to booking flight tickets, it would be difficult if you are not able to manage your business marketing on the go. So, you need to ensure that the marketing automation solution you choose is mobile-friendly.

Integration - Before you purchase a marketing automation software, you need to analyze whether you require it to integrate with the other tools you are currently using for your business for updating social media posts, email campaigns, maintaining customer database, etc.

User-Friendliness - If your employees and team members don’t use the marketing automation software you have purchased, then that investment would be a waste. Ensure that the marketing automation tool you buy is user-friendly so that your staff adopts it easily and makes optimum use of it. 

Support - The marketing automation solution provider should be offering prompt support so that you can easily resolve problems if stuck in the middle of a task due to a technical issue.

Reviews - Check the reviews of the users who are already using the marketing automation software you are about to buy to select the best one.

Average Cost of a Marketing Automation Software

The price of a marketing automation software varies depending on the features it offers, the number of users it allows, and other scalability factors. The cost of marketing automation platforms can be as low as $9/month to $1250/month. For example, you can use ActiveTrail, which costs $9/month, or Pardot, which costs $1250/month depending on the features you require, and the number of users who would be using it.

If you are looking for marketing automation software for small businesses, you can go for eSputnik, which costs only a $1.99 one-time charge. You don't require to pay every month to keep on using it. The features in this tool specially used for marketing automation for small companies might be limited, but if your budget is a constraint, this option can suit you.

Also, there are free and open-source marketing automation platforms available like Mautic or OpenEMM, which you can also customize as per your business requirements. You can view the list of the top free and open-source marketing automation software here.

If you are looking for advanced features in your marketing automation solution which cheap or free software cannot provide, we would suggest you go for the marketing automation tools that offer free trials like MarketoAct-on, ActiveCampaign, Keap, and many others mentioned in the complete list of marketing automation software intricately curated by the GoodFirms’ Team.

When Is The Right Time To Invest In Marketing Automation Software?

Before investing in marketing automation software, you need to conduct a self-assessment test within your organization and get answers to the below-mentioned questions.

  • Do you have more leads than your business can handle?
  • Do you have more leads but a low conversion rate?
  • Do you want to generate more leads?
  • Do you want to implement a highly effective marketing strategy?

If the answer to all the above questions is yes, then this is the right time to invest in marketing automation software for your business.

How to Ensure Successful Implementation of Marketing Automation Software?

Buying the best marketing automation software is significant, but implementing it in the right manner is still more important. Failing to implement the marketing automation tool correctly can be disastrous for a business in terms of finance, productivity, and overall reputation. So, here are some vital points you need to consider to ensure the successful implementation of marketing automation software.

Define your goals

You need to know exactly what your organization is wanting to achieve by implementing marketing automation software. Most organizations hope to grow revenue, but there may be other reasons like improving customer experience, streamlining the buying process, analyzing buyers' journeys, and many more.

Ensure Compatibility With Marketing Strategy

Having the best marketing automation software, but a poor marketing strategy can never yield the expected results. Marketing automation software can only automate the process; it cannot guarantee success if teamed with an ineffective marketing strategy.

Drive for Excellent Content Strategy

Content plays an important role in conversions. Make sure that you get fresh & crisp content posted for marketing your products and services. The quality, volume, and frequency of the content you post online can help you in the marketing automation process highly effective.

Provide Training to your Staff

Introducing a new marketing automation system in the organization would not be enough. You need to train your staff and ensure that they use it. Tell them the benefits and motivate them by showing the successful results achieved by using the marketing automation software.

Why Does Marketing Automation Fail?

The below quote by Bill Gates would clearly define why marketing automation fails for many companies;

“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”

Besides that, there are 6 common reasons due to which marketing automation fails -

  • Lacking human efforts
  • Misinterpretation of buyers’ journey
  • Implementing the same marketing strategy for different buyers
  • Blasting emails at the wrong time
  • Not publishing impressive content
  • Posting updates or sending messages at the wrong time

Why Referring to GoodFirms’ List of Marketing Automation Solutions Can Help?

Picking the best marketing automation software can be overwhelming when there are a plethora of them available in the market. There might be several questions coming into your mind while selecting one; after all, it is about investing your valuable time and money. We would recommend you to go through the list of the best marketing automation software listed by the GoodFirms' team, as it includes the reviews of the users and a detailed description of each one of them, which can help you in selecting the right one for your business.

Why GoodFirms?

  • GoodFirms team follows a highly intricate research process and has been successful in providing the listing of around 9000 software being used in different business sectors.
  • The list of software curated by the GoodFirms team can make your selection process easy, as it includes unbiased reviews of the users who are already using these tools.
  • The in-depth research conducted by GoodFirms has proven to be highly reliable and has won the trust of renowned companies and software vendors, as it is based on the latest technologies trends prevailing in the current market. 

Key Take-aways

The use of the word "automation" means to set it and forget it. But, in the case of marketing automation, we need to manage changes on an ongoing basis constantly. Several disruptions are going on externally in the market and internally in the organization. We need to continually review the rules, processes, and strategies we have implemented along with the marketing automation software. Also, we need to ensure that sales and marketing departments are aligned and on the same page. The perfect combination of the best marketing automation software with perfect marketing planning and strategies can result in the consistent growth of a business.

So, if you are not using a marketing automation software, or looking forward to going for an advanced one, you need to act now, as we are in an era that requires our business to be sound in terms of technology, and strategy both to compete and stay ahead of the time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Both Sales And Marketing Teams use the Marketing Automation Software?

Yes, it is a potential tool for both your sales and marketing teams. Marketing automation software enables the journey of prospects through the sales funnel with optimal use of resources. With automated processes, marketing automation tools engagingly manage the leads and provide your sales and marketing teams to push the prospects through the sales funnel without any hassle. Automated marketing campaigns, social media campaigns, and email marketing save your team's time and resources. 

What Type of Marketing Automation Sales And Marketing Teams Need?

Sales and Marketing teams need automated marketing solutions for: 

  • Qualified lead generation
  • Lead nurturing
  • Lead scoring
  • Marketing analytics
  • Email automation
  • Social media marketing automation
  • Customer onboarding 
  • Setting sales and marketing funnels.

What is a Sales Funnel? How Marketing Automation Software Helps to Set up a Sales Funnel?

Sales Funnel refers to the series of activities that leads/prospects go through to become your paid customers. From lead generation, sales calls, follow-ups, and conversion to customer retention, the sales funnel includes the complete journey of a prospect towards becoming a paid customer. Marketing automation software increases the customer's awareness, interest, and knowledge about your business and your products and services. It also helps customers in decision-making and purchases action. Marketing automation tools can establish, optimize, and also measure the success of sales funnels. 

How Beneficial Is the Marketing Automation Software for Small Businesses?

Marketing automation software for small businesses is an application specifically designed to execute, manage, and automate marketing tasks for small businesses. Sales and Marketing teams of SMBs and startups can deploy this application to increase leads, revenues, and profits. The marketing automation software for small businesses offers functionalities such as content management, lead generation, automated sales funnels, lead onboarding, automated campaigns, and many more.

How Much Does a Marketing Automation Platform Cost?

The price of a marketing automation software varies depending on the functionalities it offers, the number of campaigns it can automate, the types of sales funnel it can set, and other scalability factors. The cost of marketing automation platforms can be as low as $9/month to $1250/month. If you have budget constraints, try free and open-source marketing automation software.

Can Marketing Automation Improve Sales?

Marketing automation deploys integrated processes, automated marketing techniques,  and optimized sales pipelines to mitigate all challenges related to sales and marketing processes. It improves diminishing lead quality and decreasing customer retention rate. Marketing automation led aligned dynamic marketing processes that help businesses to improve sales and ROI. It also improves the chances of a lead's readiness for buying by providing the best sales journey experience. 

Can I automate my social media outreach campaigns with a marketing automation tool?

Yes, apart from lead generation, workflow automation, email marketing automation, and analytics, the marketing automation system is a robust tool for the automation of social media marketing campaigns. It has features such as RSS feed auto-updates, automated comments, social bots, and many more functions specifically designed for social media campaign automation.

What Are the Popular Integrations Recommended with Marketing Automation Software?

Marketing automation software tools can be paired with CRM systems, ERP solutions, Email marketing software, Social media marketing tools, and Inbound marketing tools for enhanced functionality.

Who are the best-rated Marketing Automation Software on GoodFirms?

GoodFirms has listed 200+ Marketing Automation Software based on reviews & ratings. Here are Best-rated Marketing Automation Software:

  • DashClicks - (5/5 Ratings, 18 Reviews)
  • Yespo - (5/5 Ratings, 6 Reviews)
  • Brightpod - (5/5 Ratings, 4 Reviews)
  • EngageBay - (4.8/5 Ratings, 13 Reviews)
  • SharpSpring - (4.5/5 Ratings, 12 Reviews)

What are B2B Marketing Automation Platforms?

A B2B marketing automation platform (B2B MAP) is a software platform that streamlines the demand generation workflows and automates repetitive tasks for better ROI. Right from creating awareness to retaining customers, B2B marketers rely more on insights and metrics to generate strategies and to be creative to attract customers. It is critical to have an automated system to gather, assemble and analyze data to create multichannel engagement that can optimize performance. This way, the B2B marketing team stays efficient and productive.

Who are the free Marketing Automation Tools on GoodFirms?

The Free Marketing Automation Tools on GoodFirms, based on verified client reviews and ratings, include:

  • AdRoll - (5/5 Ratings, 3 Reviews)
  • Omnisend - (5/5 Ratings, 1 Review)
  • Agile CRM - (4.6/5 Ratings, 5 Reviews)
  • Brevo - (4.5/5 Ratings, 2 Reviews)
  • Autopilot HQ - (4/5 Ratings, 1 Review)

Who are the best marketing automation for small business on GoodFirms?

The Best Marketing Automation For Small Business on GoodFirms, based on verified client reviews and ratings, include:

  • Zoho Marketing Automation - (5/5 Ratings, 2 Reviews)
  • Omnisend - (5/5 Ratings, 1 Review)
  • Marsello - (5/5 Ratings, 1 Review)
  • DotcomPal - (5/5 Ratings, 1 Review)
  • Webmecanik Automation - (0 Review)

Who is the best marketing automation for email marketing on GoodFirms?

The Best Marketing Automation For Email Marketing on GoodFirms, based on verified client reviews and ratings, includes:

  • ActiveCampaign - (4.5/5 Ratings, 31 Reviews)
  • HubSpot Marketing Hub - (4.4/5 Ratings, 14 Reviews)
  • Mailchimp - (4.3/5 Ratings, 176 Reviews)
  • Marketo Engage - (4.2/5 Ratings, 30 Reviews)
  • Keap - (3.9/5 Ratings, 12 Reviews)

Who is the best marketing automation for lead generation on GoodFirms?

The Best Marketing Automation For Lead Generation on GoodFirms, based on verified client reviews and ratings, includes:

  • BenchmarkONE - (4.8/5 Ratings, 4 Reviews)
  • Pardot - (4.4/5 Ratings, 5 Reviews)
  • Insightly - (4.3/5 Ratings, 7 Reviews)
  • LeadSquared - (3.8/5 Ratings, 4 Reviews)
  • LinkedCamp - (3.7/5 Ratings, 7 Reviews)
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