Your Business Can’t Grow Without One Of These Marketing Automation Tools
Marketing automation is the process of streamline and automating marketing tasks using CRM based software. Combining traditional CRM tools with a growth marketing platform, it's a one-stop growth stack for your business.
Marketing automation software completes your repetitive tasks, organises them into workflows and provides relevant customised content, turning leads into customers and sales.
There is a mix of simple and freemium to enterprise-level platforms but all provide similar functions:
- Manage your contacts, leads and sales.
- Provide customised automated marketing workflow to customer segments throughout the sales lifecycle.
- Provide performance reporting.
The marketing automation tools your business needs this year
Mailchimp
This is an entry-level all-in-one email marketing platform. You can easily create, send and analyse your marketing campaigns through their platform. Start with the Freemium (up to 12,00 emails to 2,000 subscribers) and move up to Premium as your business grows to take advantage of many more features like template customisation and workflows.
Mailchimp features include:
- A CRM to manage import, subscribers and un-subs from your current lists
- Allows for Segmentation, multiple lists and tags, merge and personalisation
- Simple drag-and-drop email, newsletter and sales templates, content management, and landing pages.
- Reporting and analytics and A/B testing
- 750+ 3rd party integrations like Shopify & WooCommerce, WordPress, Facebook & Hubspot means you can connect Mailchimp to just about any other software you might be using.
Although it is limited to email only, our digital agency believes it's an excellent way to kickstart your marketing campaigns for any Sole Trader or small business. Its UI is very easy to navigate, drag and drop templates are a dream and the price is right as a free tool.
Pardot
This robust B2B Enterprise Marketing Analytics tool is layered on top of the well-known enterprise Salesforce CRM). They are a giant in the industry with a hefty price tag to match starting at $1,250 per month.
Focussing on the financial services, health care, manufacturing and media industries, their extensive set of tools will help your medium to enterprise-sized business engage buyers, grow relationships, and close deals.
Pardot solutions include:
- B2B Marketing Automation - Create, deploy, and marketing campaigns. Easily streamline marketing and sales through lead generation and management, email marketing, and sales. With customised ROI reporting, and utilising AI with Pardot Einstein.
- B2B Marketing Analytics
- Salesforce Engage - CRM and MA combined in this powerhouse to build tailored campaigns, deliver an exceptional buyer experience, and close deals faster.
Specialised features include:
- Emails, customised forms and landing pages
- Social tracking
- A/B testing
- Dynamic content merges
- Engagement and lead nurturing campaigns
- ROI reporting
- Keyword tracking
- Multi-touch attribution models across all channels
- A plethora of integrations including bit.ly, EventBrite, Google Ads, and Webinars.
Pardot is an expensive option compared to Marketo and HubSpot software. Paired with Salesforce it's a very powerful tool. The email builders are clunky for beginners compared to Mailchimp and reporting is limited unless an upgrade is acquired.
Marketo Engage(Adobe Experience Cloud)
Adobes' strategic play into the cloud experience is Marketo Engage - to ensure your business is engaging and measuring across every marketing strategy. Increase your business ROI with its powerful CRM Lead management tools and an endless variety of custom workflows.
Features include:
- Email marketing with robust A/B testing variable
- Deep personalisation
- Segmentation in combination with dynamic content
- AI predictive content providing relevant content from your website
- Trigger real-time campaigns using filters for behaviours and demographics.
- An interactive calendar
- Intelligent nurturing in stages that are highly customised with drag and drop content and workflows.
- Robust analytics dashboard with important metrics and notifications and content drill-downs.
Although third party integrations are very limited (which Adobe is notorious for) and the learning curve is steep and requires rigorous attention, the unlimited set of tools and dynamic customisation, reporting, segmentation and personalisation is top-shelf at almost all entry levels up to Enterprise, with the price to match.
Read more in "The Ultimate Digital Marketing Resource Guide" by Click Creative
Hubspot
Hubspot is a full-featured growth suite software platform that focuses on Inbound marketing, sales, and customer service. They’ve coined the "attract, engage, delight" Flywheel customer engagement model using content marketing as their foundation.
The entry level Starter Growth Suite for small businesses can easily scale and grow to professional and enterprise levels and includes:
Marketing Hub - To grow, convert and build inbound campaigns
- Lead generation
- Marketing Automation
- Analytics
Sales Hub - prospects, automation, close deals
- Advanced CRM
- Meeting scheduling
- Quotes
Service Hub - connect, exceed, turn into advocates
- Tickets
- Feedback
- Knowledge base
CMS Hub - content management and personalised experience
- Fully functional website platform
- Drag-n-drop editor
- SEO recommendations
- Website themes
They offer a great 'always free' CRM and marketing tools option, with introductory features such as clever CRM, forms, email marketing, ad management, live chat, and a reporting dashboard.
With a monster list of integrations including bit.ly, Hotjar, beacon, EventBrite, Facebook Ads, Gmail, Google Ads & Calendar, Slack, Survey Monkey, Zapier and Zoom, Hubspot is guaranteed to work with any platform you are already using. Hubspot also offers a remarkable knowledge base with courses and qualifications, so you can become an expert at Inbound and lifecycle marketing.
It's quick and easy to learn and use for emails and general marketing, workflows are endlessly customisable and it truly is the one and only CRM and MA tool your business will ever need.
Starter level pricing is reasonable and along with the exceptional customer support, it's the real winner in this game.
Clickfunnels
Although marketing funnels are a little off centre to what most standard MA tools look like, they’re still a great marketing automation alternative to a full website or eCommerce business. A great funnel will turn website visitors into email subscribers, and email subscribers into customers or clients. It’s closer to a shortcut quick sales tactic and favours the bold in just about any industry.
The Clickfunnels platform includes:
- Custom-built landing pages
- Custom sales pages with multiple lead generation funnel techniques to choose from
- Provides the sales portal - a website isn't even required!
- Allows for up sells, resells
- Re-marketing and follow-ups through email, socials, text and desktop notifications
- Features the Etison Editor for Drag n drop funnel builder
- Has smart shopping carts
- Standard mail and Facebook platform marketing automation
- Integrations include Zapier with WooCommerce, ManyChat, Goto Webinar and Klaviyo.
Their strategies are tried, tested and true, their marketing outrageous, and the results are indisputable. Pricing starts with a single funnel, but that's all you will need to kickstart your automated marketing funnel.
Marketing automation is a great way to increase your sales while decreasing your cost. MA platforms are designed with the end game in mind: attracting, converting and retaining customers. Whether you are starting from scratch and learning about automated sequences or old hat, there is a platform for your business to improve better ROI and build customer advocates for life.
If you are considering new marketing strategies for your business we would love to hear from you. Our experienced team at our boutique agency are ready to help you supercharge your business for growth and profitability.
