Marketing automation software automates marketing tasks, streamlines marketing workflows, and measures the outcomes of marketing campaigns. These tools provide a central marketing database for all marketing information and interactions, helping marketers create segmented, personalised, and timely marketing experiences for customers.
These platforms provide automation features across multiple aspects of marketing including email, social media, lead generation, direct mail, digital advertising, and more. A key component of marketing automation tools is the provision of analytics features to determine the success of an entire campaign across segments and channels.
There are a number of different marketing automation software providers out there, all with a variety of different offerings and costs. Here, TechRound compares the top marketing automation software for 2021…
TechRound Compares: Marketing Automation Software
TechRound has reviewed the best marketing automation software, find our list of the top services below:
- 1: Omnisend
- 2: ActiveCampaign
- 3: SharpSpring
- 4: Hubspot Marketing Hub
- 5: Mailchimp All-in-One Marketing Platform
1: Omnisend
Price: Starts at $0.
Omnisend is a software platform that allows integration with ecommerce platforms, pre-built automation workflows, and intuitive.
More than 50,000 ecommerce brands use Omnisend to grow their businesses on autopilot, converting their customers with quick-to-build, highly-relevant emails & texts.
You can try all Omnisend features free on a 14-day trial. After 14 days, you can decide whether to keep paid features or keep using the free plan that helps you grow. Omnisend invites Freelancers and Agencies to join the Omnisend partner program. This program is created to help Freelancers and Agencies accelerate their growth, win more clients and receive industry leading revenue share for referred and managed accounts.
2: ActiveCampaign
Price: Starts at $9 per month (paid yearly).
ActiveCampaign’s category-defining customer experience automation platform (CXA) helps over 130,000 businesses in 170 countries meaningfully engage with their customers.
The platform gives businesses of all sizes access to 500+ pre-built automations that combine email marketing, marketing automation and CRM for powerful segmentation and personalisation across social, email, messaging, chat and text.
3: SharpSpring
Price: Starts at $399 per month.
SharpSpring is a comprehensive revenue growth platform with robust sales and marketing automation features, functionality and performance.
SharpSpring is one of the most flexible platforms on the market, offering powerful, behaviour-based email marketing, native or 3rd party CRM integration, dynamic forms, landing page and blog builders, social media management, universal CMS compatibility, and integration with hundreds of applications.
SharpSpring is usually less than 1/3 the cost of the competition, is the easiest company to work with and the easiest platform to use.
4: HubSpot Marketing Hub
Price: Starts at $0.
With Marketing Hub, all your marketing tools and data are on one easy-to-use, powerful platform. You’ll save valuable time and get all the context you need to provide a personalised experience that attracts and converts the right customers at scale. Plus, marketers can keep data at the centre of everything they do because Marketing Hub is built as part of the HubSpot CRM platform.
When using the full CRM platform, marketers can achieve unparalleled alignment with sales to prove ROI and validate investments. Whether it’s strategies, services, or software — HubSpot allows you to scale your company, not complexity. HubSpot has everything you need to grow better.
5: Mailchimp All-in-One Marketing Platform
Price: Start at $0.
Mailchimp’s all-in-one Marketing Platform helps small businesses market smarter so you can grow faster. As the backbone for your customer relationships, they provide AI-powered, user-friendly tools anyone can use to be successful.
Mailchimp puts your audience at the centre so you can send marketing emails and automated messages, create targeted ad campaigns, build landing pages, send postcards, facilitate reporting and analytics, and sell online. Millions of businesses and individuals – from community organisations to Fortune 100 companies – trust Mailchimp to connect with their audience with the right message, at the right time, in the right place.
What Is Marketing Automation Software ?
Marketing automation is all about using software to automate marketing activities. Many marketing departments automate repetitive tasks such as email marketing, social media posting, and even ad campaigns — not just for the sake of efficiency, but so they can provide a more personalised experience for their customers. The technology of marketing automation makes these tasks easier.
In order to be included in the Marketing Automation software category there are certain conditions that must be met, including the following:
- Automate two or more of the following: email, social media, SMS, and digital ads.
- Provide advanced email marketing capabilities including A/B testing, spam filter testing, scheduling, segmentation, and detailed performance reporting.
- Act as a central marketing database for marketing information and interactions
- Allow dynamic segmentation of marketing campaign targets.
- Contact targets across multiple channels after specific actions, triggers, or periods of time.
- Perform lead management to include lead nurturing and lead scoring.
- Generate forms and landing pages to collect prospect information.
- Provide analytics and reports that track the entire lifecycle of a campaign, including ties to revenue and/or campaign ROI.
Why Do I Need Marketing Automation Software?
Firstly Marketing Automation Software provides businesses with enhanced customer insights. Alongside the standard name and email address, marketing automation software provides businesses with extra information, like location data, behavioral insights and job titles; making segmentation much easier and allowing your marketing teams to communicate with your audience more effectively. If you’re lacking this customer data, you may be missing out on ways to stay one step ahead of your competition.
Generating better leads is the goal for any business. In order to achieve this, you need a detailed view of potential customers and their behavior, so you can market effectively to them. Marketing automation tools allow you to achieve this goal, allowing you to understand your audience more than ever. Tracking methods such as following a user’s journey through your website, allows your marketing team to understand the intent of your visitors and what stage of the funnel they are at. As a result, further communications can then be customised and the leads your business generates will be of a higher standard.
Can I Get Marketing Automation Software on a Free Trial?
Most Marketing Automation Software Platforms offer free trials. Some platforms request you sign up via email for a free trial often being the span of 30 days whereas others will offer a taster trial session. Free trials are effective because they allow you to compare between different products and pick the right one for your business.
Some marketing automation software might even offer a free version of their services. These free versions can be great for those wanting access to a handful of basic services from the provider. However, it’s important to note that most free versions of marketing automation software have limited features available. To get access to all of the features a marketing automation software service has to offer, you’ll typically have to opt for a paid-for plan with the provider.
How Much Do Marketing Automation Software Services Cost?
Marketing Automation Software can cost anywhere between £0 and £500 per month. The cost of the service will typically be dependent upon both the type and number of features available in a plan. These plans are also usually paid for either monthly or annually.
Many marketing automation software providers also offer a free trial or free version, helping prospective users to explore the services before committing to a paid-for plan. This can help businesses to see whether the services offered by certain providers are the best fit for their marketing needs.
