Best Marketing Automation Tools to Grow Your Business Faster
Marketing Automation Software can help you streamline your marketing effort, gain more leads, sell more, and build better relations with your customers.
- Create & inspire customer journeys
- Capture & convert leads
- Automate events based on user behaviour
- Target the right people at the right time
- Automate your email campaigns
- Easy to use Drag & Drop editor
- Create & customize workflows
- Manage & update data automatically
- Beginner, & advanced workflow automation
- Send emails, SMS & organise contacts based on user actions
- Add A/B testing to your marketing
- Free Plan available
Done right, it can be a great software tool in your online marketing toolkit which can help you grow your business and stand out from your competitors.
But which are the best Marketing Automation tools to help you do this? Well, our top pick is HubSpot, a tool that helps you nurture your leads, personalize workflows, and automate tasks that would otherwise take up time and resources that you could spend elsewhere.
I’ve spent hours researching which tools and software can help you do this, so check out my recommendations on the top marketing automation systems available today and boost your marketing strategy.
Top Marketing Automation Software
- HubSpot – best all-round marketing automation tool
- GetResponse – best for small business
- Sendinblue – best for email marketing automation
- OptinMonster – best for lead generation
- ConvertKit – best for beginner marketers
- MeetEdgar – best for social media automation
1. HubSpot – best all-round marketing automation tool
HubSpot offer many different services and are an all-in-one inbound marketing software and one of the best CRM platforms available.
When it comes to Marketing Automation, the HubSpot Marketing Hub is where you’ll want to be looking, as it encompasses all your marketing needs.
You’ll be able to capture new leads and grow them into flourishing sales through easy-to-use email workflows to contact your customers at various stages of the sales process as needed.
An easy-to-use drag and drop style visual editor can help you quickly determine and build campaigns with specific goals in mind. You can create a variety of customer journeys to target and personalize what messages your users are seeing based on their behavior.
The automation doesn’t stop there, though, as their system lets you set up automated tasks like updating data, creating webhooks, and triggering notifications for specific user actions.
All of this doesn’t come cheap, though. Even though HubSpot’s Starter package comes in at an affordable $50/£38 per month, the Marketing Automation platform isn’t included. To access all of these tools, you’re going to need to fork out about $800/£655 per month.
There is a high price point that some small businesses won’t be able to afford. But if you can, HubSpot is well worth a look, especially as you get access to many features that can help optimize your whole sales and marketing funnels.
2. GetResponse – best for small business
GetResponse, much like HubSpot do more than help you automate your marketing, like create landing pages, integrate with social media, and are a great email marketing platform in their own right.
However, when it comes to marketing automation, the GetResponse Marketing Automation Builder is another possible software tool to add to your business.
Using a drag and drop interface, you’ll be able to set up complex automation features with ease. Whether that’s to create automated events based on a customer’s behavior or action-based events to help guide your users in the right direction towards that all-important sale.
Set up actions like link-clicked, cart-abandoned, or product downloaded to set up an automated action and filter for precision targeting.
GetResponse integrates with other online software such as the Shopify ecommerce platform, and WooCommerce to help you consolidate leads and your customer data.
After a while, you’ll be able to segment your contacts and users based on the actions they perform and see where you can fine-tune your marketing efforts.
It’ll help you enhance your email marketing campaigns by sending relevant emails with a personal touch to help grow a relationship with them and your brand.
When it comes to pricing, this is all down to the size of your email list. The Plus plan, which includes a marketing automation feature, starts at £30.34 /month for a 1,000 list size. The price goes up to a maximum of around £310 per month for a list size of 100,000.
It’s a cheaper option than HubSpot and more affordable for small businesses looking to streamline.
3. Sendinblue – best for email marketing automation
Another big player in the automating of marketing workflows is sendinblue.
With sendinblue, you’ll be able to set up your specific user rules and what happens when triggered, whether sending emails, organizing your contact lists, or updating contact information in your database.
Whether you’re inexperienced or have some knowledge in this area, the automation features you’ll be able to pick from include beginner workflow templates including abandoned carts, product purchases, welcome messages, and marketing activity to get started or create your own quickly.
Choose to use the more advanced features, and you’ll get to create a custom workflow to automate conversions based on and that adapt to your users’ behaviors.
After this, it’s time to optimize your automation, which handily sendinblue lets you do through their A/B testing conditions to see which workflow or response to action works better.
When it comes to , sendinblue pricing, the plans they offer give you another relatively affordable marketing automation solution to look at for your business.
From $65 / £41.65 per month, their Premium package is the one you’ll want to sign up for, with a minimum 20,000 email volume per month allowed. It also lets you create landing pages and Facebook ads and optimize your email and SMS send time.
If you’re looking to make the most of your email list and get your message across to your users, then sendinblue is a good marketing tool for that.
4. OptinMonster – best for lead generation
Unlike the others on this automation tools list, OptinMonster aren’t an all-in-one marketing automation tool.
Instead, they take a part of the automation workflow and go all-in on giving you a lead generation tool that helps grow your contact lists and improve sales.
With OptinMonster, you’ll be able to create targeted campaigns based on geo-location, page-based, device-based, and visitor actions (new vs. returning).
Targeted campaigns include creating popups, opt-in forms, gated content, welcome screens, coupon wheel opt-ins, etc.
Their exit-intent technology helps gather more contacts as your users are about to leave, and the drag and drop builder allows you to effortlessly style your campaigns to your branding for higher conversion rates.
You’ll be able to create campaigns that integrate into various tools, including MailChimp, Drip, HubSpot, Facebook, and more, for better lead management, sharing, and personalization.
OptinMonster stands out by giving you the ability for real-time analysis, a chance to A/B split test your landing pages, and automatically personalize offers for those who’ve already opted in.
Starting at a low $9 / month for their Basic plan, you’ll get access to many of their basic options for up to 2,500 pageviews, with the Growth plan at $49 / month utilizing all of the features above, including more page-views, exit-intent, geo-location, and on-site retargeting.
If you’re looking to grow your contact list quickly and help you drive sales, then it’s one of the best lead generation tools out there.
5. ConvertKit – best for beginner marketers
An email marketing automation tool, ConvertKit helps businesses looking to gain the most out of their subscribers and users.
At its simplest, you’ll be able to send a series of predetermined emails to your subscribers to help them along the journey from a prospective buyer to an active purchaser.
You’ll be able to set up automated funnels based on user events and clearly define the customer journey and what action to take next through simple yet powerful rules.
Whether you’re looking to launch a product, sell a service, or host a webinar, you’ll be able to turn your leads into conversions more easily using ConvertKit.
An easy-to-use visual editor helps you quickly add new rule sets, change workflows, and edit content seamlessly, allowing you to see how each of your actions is performing within the workflow window itself.
If you’re unsure where to start, ConvertKit also has a selection of pre-built workflow templates to choose from, helping you get your email automation up and running quicker.
Depending on which plan you choose you’ll also be able to integrate into many only services including a CRM like Monday.com, ecommerce features like Stripe payments and some top website builders like the Wix platform.
For small businesses, you’ll be able to access their Free plan with up to 300 subscribers and limited automation. For those looking at more advanced features, the Creator Pro, at $25 per month, adds Automated Funnels & Sequences, Newsletter Referral System, and Advanced Reporting.
Great for beginners and those looking to automate small business emails.
6. MeetEdgar – best for social media automation
Marketing automation comes in all forms, but when it comes to automating your social media posts, then MeetEdgar is a good option for small businesses.
MeetEdgar gives you the tools to curate and categorize your social media posts. You’ll be able to add posts to an evergreen library that you can use to save you time and keep your social media accounts updated with fresh content, even if you don’t have the time to create new ones.
Working across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, MeetEdgar ensures that you are continually on top of things. You can set up recurring tasks to go every day, each week, or whenever you want.
The quicker you build your evergreen library, the more diverse your automated posts will be when they run out, don’t worry if you can’t grow that quick, as MeetEdgar has another tool in its social toolbox. With the click of a button, you’ll be able to generate five variations of your social media posts. This shakes things up a little, helping maintain the same message but in a different way.
With an easy-to-use scheduling dashboard, you’ll be able to schedule posts ahead of time and set up and manage your social media automation quickly, letting you get on with other areas of your small business.
A great automation tool for small businesses looking to save time yet still gets noticed on social media.
Try MeetEdgar with a 7-day free trial or pick from one of their plans starting from $24.91/month.
Marketing Automation Software Conclusion
No matter how big or small your business is, marketing automation software and tools like the ones above can help you generate more leads and drive more sales.
Before you sign up for one, it’s best to figure out your needs, resources, and digital marketing budget.
If you’re a small company, you’re probably not going to be able to afford the large monthly fee that HubSpot charges for their marketing automation services, so something like ConvertKit or GetResponse will be more affordable.
The features that each one of these tools offers also differ. Some integrate nicely into popular CRM systems and some of the best email marketing solutions but others don’t.
You’ll need to find out what you’re trying to achieve and find which one aligns with helping you reach your goals, whether that’s at the start just to create more leads or to increase sales through personalized emails and re-targeting.
Overall, if you’re looking to increase the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and want to save time, you’re going to need to start automating processes.
For the beginner marketer, ConvertKit is a great option. For those looking to generate leads, then OptinMonster is a good alternative.
For larger companies with bigger budgets and marketing teams, HubSpot is a clear winner as the best marketing automation software.
- Automate your email campaigns
- Easy to use Drag & Drop editor
- Create & customize workflows
- Manage & update data automatically
FAQs
What is marketing automation software?
Marketing automation software helps businesses automate repetitive marketing tasks, like email campaigns, social media posting, and lead nurturing.
What are the benefits of using marketing automation software?
Benefits include time savings, improved lead nurturing, better data tracking, and enhanced personalization for customer interactions.
Which marketing automation software is best for small businesses?
Tools like HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, and Mailchimp are popular among small businesses for their affordability and user-friendly features.
How does marketing automation improve lead generation?
Marketing automation captures and nurtures leads through personalized workflows, helping turn prospects into loyal customers efficiently.
Can marketing automation software integrate with CRM systems?
Yes, most marketing automation tools integrate with CRMs, allowing seamless data sharing for improved customer insights and targeted campaigns.
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