Marketing automation is the use of software to automate repetitive tasks, such as email follow-ups, social media postings and drip campaigns. This software takes care of these tasks, saving you time and money. Digital marketing automation can include email marketing, content marketing, social media, mobile marketing and analytics.
This article will outline the five best marketing automation tools including their pros and cons. It will compare the following software:
What are the benefits of marketing automation?
According to Adestra, 75% of respondents say that time saving is the foremost benefit of marketing automation software. Many businesses report that they increase leads and conversions with marketing automation. Once the software is set up to perform a particular task, the process is automated for the future.
The software will:
- Identify leads and grade them as cold, warm or hot.
- Nurture leads through the sales process.
- Personalise communications to your database of contacts.
- Choose the behaviours that will trigger an email or other action.
- Increase conversions by targeting ‘hot lead’ customers and those with the highest purchasing potential.
Pricing: Marketing professional from $540/month
What is Hubspot?
HubSpot is inbound marketing software that helps your business get found online. The software has a methodology, and the tools, to attract new visitors, convert leads, close sales and delight your customer base.
Who should use this software?
Hubspot is ideal for medium to large businesses.
Features
- Complete sales automation.
- Contact information.
- Activity history.
- One central CRM tool.
- Automate email campaigns.
- Emails with ready made templates.
- Personalise communication.
- Workflows – whether you’re building simple follow-up campaigns or complex, multi-stage journeys with multiple branches.
- Build professional looking landing pages.
- Monitor your social activity on Facebook and Twitter.
- Share tracking.
- Web analytics.
- SEO/Keyword analytics.
- Basic reporting.
- Easy to use and intuitive platform.
- HubSpot’s blog provides extensive articles for business owners who want to learn more about online marketing.
- Easy to learn software.
- Requires a 12-month contract.
- Steep price increases as your database list grows.
HubSpot is an all-in-one ‘inbound marketing software’ with tools for sales, marketing, CRM and analytics. This all-in-one approach can be convenient for businesses who want to perform their tasks from one dashboard.
Pricing: From $29/month
What is Active Campaign?
Active Campaign combines the power of email marketing, marketing automation and CRM. Send newsletters, keep in contact with your customers and leads, and create automated marketing and sales workflows.
Who should use this software?
Active Campaign is ideal for small to medium businesses.
Features
- Sales automation.
- Contact information.
- Activity history.
- Contact and lead scoring.
- Automate email campaigns.
- Emails with ready made templates.
- Personalise communication.
- Email segmentation.
- SMS Marketing and Messaging.
- Dynamic content.
- Build professional looking landing pages, using integrations.
- Monitor your social activity on Facebook and Twitter.
- Share tracking.
- Web analytics.
- Basic reporting.
- Affordable marketing automation software.
- User-friendly interface.
- Helpful pointers so that your workflows run smoothly.
- Simple to segment your subscribers.
- Easy to learn.
- No setup fee.
- Limited dashboard customisation options.
- No landing page builder. Use integrations.
- CRM and email builder designs are a little outdated.\
- No native integrations.
Pricing: From $1,195/month
What is Marketo?
Marketo is one of the most well known marketing automation tools. It is a mature tool which offers your business a full range of features that assist you with marketing and sales automation. Marketo helps you attract and engage leads, moving them through a personalised sales funnel.
Who should use this software?
Marketo is suitable for high growth and large enterprises. Mostly used for B2B sales and not as helpful for e-commerce or B2C businesses.
Features
- Complete sales automation.
- Contact information.
- Activity history.
- One central CRM tool.
- Lead scoring and grading.
- Online behaviour tracking.
- Automate email campaigns.
- Emails with ready made templates.
- Real-time triggered emails.
- Personalise communication.
- Workflows – whether you’re building simple follow-up campaigns or complex, multi-stage journeys with multiple branches.
- Build professional looking landing pages.
- Dynamic content.
- Social listening and tracking.
- Social sharing and campaigns.
- Social analytics and profiling.
- Web analytics.
- SEO/Keyword analytics.
- Basic reporting.
- Revenue cycle metrics.
- Marketo has an extensive knowledge base.
- Create a tailored solution to suit your needs with customisations.
- Integrates seamlessly with Salesforce.
- Easy to use with an intuitive interface.
- Complex pricing structure.
- Custom solutions are difficult for people without a software background.
- Limited reports and analytics.
- Difficult to use landing page and form builder.
- Steep price differences between plans.
Pricing: From $1000/month
What is Pardot?
Pardot is B2B marketing automation created by Salesforce. It allows marketing and sales team to create, manage and measure digital marketing campaigns from one platform.
Who should use this software?
Pardot caters to Salesforce users who would like to automate their marketing campaigns.
Features
- Complete sales automation.
- Contact information.
- Activity history.
- One central CRM tool.
- Lead scoring and grading.
- Online behaviour tracking.
- Automate email campaigns.
- Emails with ready made templates.
- Real-time triggered emails.
- Personalised communications.
- Workflows – whether you’re building simple follow-up campaigns or complex, multi-stage journeys with multiple branches.
- Build professional looking landing pages.
- Dynamic content.
- Social listening and tracking.
- Social sharing and campaigns.
- Social analytics and profiling.
- Web analytics.
- SEO/keyword analytics.
- Basic reporting.
- Real time activity updates for prospect’s activity.
- Easy to customise.
- Excellent Salesforce integration.
- A small number of integrations.
- API access only available to professional users.
- A/B testing only available to professional users.
Pricing: Starts at$129/month. Set up costs up to $1999.
What is Infusionsoft?
Infusionsoft gives you the tools you need to sell and market your products online. The software is a fully integrated CRM, marketing and e-commerce solution and automates. It helps small businesses automate their sales and marketing without growing the number of staff they employ. Infusionsoft is a fully integrated CRM, marketing and e-commerce Solution.
Who should use this software?
Small to medium enterprises, between two and 25 employees.
Features
- Contact information.
- Activity history.
- Likelihood to buy.
- One central CRM tool.
- Manage your sales pipeline.
- Automatically qualify leads.
- Create campaigns.
- Personalise communication.
- Build professional looking landing pages.
- Emails with ready made templates.
- Automated email campaigns.
- Sell products, services and subscriptions.
- Online storefront.
- Hard to implement with a steep learning curve.
- No social CRM.
- No social media listening.
- Unexpected costs of add-ons.
- Salesforce integration.
- Gmail and Outlook integration.
- Bulk social media posting.
Want to find out more about how your business can harness the power of marketing automation? Find out how you can save time and money with tools that match your business needs. Contact our expert digital marketing team today and book your FREE 30 minute marketing automation consultation.
