B2B companies are swiftly adopting marketing automation for its array of benefits. But how do you decide which tool is ideal for your brand?
Automation is no longer a buzzword. It is ruling the marketing domain, simplifying everything from social media ads to email campaigns, scheduling, and publishing content. Marketing automation software finds its application in every business component, streamlining processes and operations.
These platforms automate repetitive tasks in a marketing plan, from lead generation to email marketing. Some of the tasks that marketers can automate using this software include email responses, delivery of personalized messages, social media posting, SEO keyword research, CRM updates, lead qualification/scoring, and contact management.
There are countless automation tools to level up your marketing strategy. The compatibility of the software with your business will depend on several factors, such as business goals, features you are seeking, and available resources. To help you make the right decision, we have compiled a list of marketing automation tools to enhance your campaigns.
Key Benefits
Let’s take a look at the advantages of integrating marketing automation tools to scale up your marketing operation.
Increase prospect funnel
Lead generation is an essential step in marketing automation, involving several steps. Automating leaves more time to focus on the overall marketing strategy and nurture leads. More prospects means more customers. With this software, you can get detailed insights into consumer behavior patterns through tracking methods like following a user’s path through site visits.
Personalizing the buyer’s journey
77% of buyers prefer tailored content targeted at every stage of their research. With marketing automation tools, you can streamline the process of creating target-specific content and schedule them for a timely launch. It also helps you to extract data from the content you generate, giving a clear picture of customer engagement. How are your social media channels performing? Is your website getting frequent visits? Marketing automation software helps get answers to such questions relevant to your content marketing strategy.
Big data for better decisions
Although big data is gaining importance, not all businesses know how to use it to their advantage. With marketing automation, you can seamlessly embrace big data, acquiring valuable information at scale. These tools are the best solution for measuring campaign performance and predicting consumer behavior. You get a comprehensive overview of prospects with much ease.
Sales & Marketing Alignment
It’s not surprising that integrating sales and marketing teams can seem like being on the edge for some businesses. But it’s an important component of successful marketing. With more and more innovations introduced, the buying cycle also transforms. This emphasizes the need for sales and marketing teams to grow closer, fostering efficient collaboration. In case these departments are not aligned, it can affect process quality and outcomes of deliverables. Marketing automation can improve the lead quality for your brand.
Criteria for selecting the best marketing automation tool
Here’s a list of criteria to help you find the best marketing automation software.
Automation capabilities
Most tools automate at least two channels: emails, ads, and social media. You can check the automation capability, ranking, and workflow.
Integration
Find out whether it helps with content management, customer relationship management, pipeline management, etc. Make sure you check if it aligns with the tasks you’d like to automate. The marketing automation software that integrates with these tools ensures smooth workflow.
Price to value
The price of these platforms ranges from free to high costs. When you research this feature, you will be able to perform a value comparison of the various options out there.
Reporting & Analytics
An efficient marketing tool must have this feature of reports and analysis. The top platforms offer reports with which you can apply metrics and visualize data for future strategy.
Marketing Automation Tools: Top 10 picks
Let’s walk through the best tools for scaling up your marketing operation.
ActiveCampaign
With this platform, you can integrate working automation into real human processes. It is based on the concept of adding features, such as notification emails, empowering marketing and sales teams, and not replacing them. ActiveCampaign collates email marketing, automation, sales automation, and CRM tools in a single channel. This comprehensive platform is ideal for managing customer relationships and driving brand growth.
Sender
It’s an affordable tool specific for helping with email and SMS marketing automation. This software is your perfect go-to for expanding your business without exceeding your budget. Sender provides a series of features, such as intelligent automation, segmented lists, and a pop-up builder. With this, you can grow your subscriber lists, increase customer engagement, and accelerate the ROI cycle.
Omnisend
The functionality of this channel distinguishes it from the other platforms. When you choose Omnisend, you can easily add multiple channels, such as emails, push notifications, and social media, to the same automation software. You can launch an immersive experience for your customers, by delivering messages automatically through their preferred channels.
Marketo
This platform works for any channel and engagement. It is compatible with several operational tasks, from digital advertising to social media management. The flexibility Marketo offers makes it a perfect choice for large-scale marketing operations.
HubSpot
A popular marketing automation tool, its focus on inbound marketing makes it stand out among other platforms. It offers the additional benefits of CRM, Sales, and Service Hubs, allowing teams to work in synergy across different departments. With Hubspot, you can showcase your brand expertise on different channels. It enables you to launch campaigns designed to succeed by streamlining the marketing activities. You can access several benefits, from leveraging the power of workflows, chatbots, and email triggers to increasing audience reach. Hubspot offers data-driven insights that promote the optimization of your overall marketing plan.
Pardot
It is a perfect choice if you are looking to manage account-based marketing. A collaboration of Pardot with Salesforce allows to foster sales and marketing alignment. This is a robust tool to help brands get more high-value leads, accelerate the sales pipeline, and get an insight into the overall marketing performance. It simplifies market segmentation and categorizes customers into groups. You can find a variety of templates for emails, landing pages, and forms on this platform.
Customer.io
This marketing automation software works well with various channels. When you select this, you can customize messages along with automation. It helps brands adhere to customer-centricity while automating operations. You can automate multiple channels, from email to SMS, push notifications, and apps. One of the features that stand out is its A/B testing capabilities, allowing you to test up to 8 variations of a newsletter. The detailed analysis gives you an idea about what’s working and what isn’t. A highlighting feature of this platform is its prompt customer support. With Customer.io, you can take email marketing to the next level, knowing that the right content is delivered at the right time.
Orrto
The features that make Orrto worth choosing are its extensive user activity tracking and reporting. It is among the premium automation solutions, automating SMS and email campaigns while being user-friendly. The bright interface also adds to its appeal, and its workflow builder comes with a revision history. If you make an error, you can easily restore the previous version. Additionally, Orrto also offers an effective reporting/analytics feature. You can track the behavior of nearly every user by keeping tabs on email open rates, reactions, and subscriptions.
Brevo
The best part about this marketing automation tool is it is free! With this, you can automate more than four channels. And it offers more than a marketing workflow— Brevo is also a CRM and meeting scheduling platform. This all-in-one tool benefits users by offering a toolkit to enhance customer relationship management. Bravo’s AI integration makes it easy for you to craft impactful email subject lines and manage email marketing.
Mailchimp
The marketing tool has expanded from an email marketing tool to a well-established automation solution. You can go for this to deliver robust and user-friendly email automation. It is integrated with several features to promote the prospects funnel and customer retention. This is the ideal fit for your business if you have established customer reach and have a lead-nurturing strategy in place. Its customizable templates are a highlighting feature. Mailchimp is integrated with audience segmentation and A/B testing, helping brands launch target-specific campaigns aligning with customer pain points.
Wrapping it up
Businesses have to deal with various processes, each requiring precision and being time-bound. However, companies often struggle with managing these routine tasks. Marketing automation is your go-to solution for streamlining workflow operations. The selection of the best tools is crucial for effectively launching marketing strategies and enhancing customer experience. You can leverage the features of these platforms to propel a well-designed marketing plan. Identifying the distinct requirements of your brand will help you select the relevant marketing automation software. With the right tools, you can transform data-driven insights into impeccable execution on a large scale.