The 10 Best Marketing Automation Software

With rising businesses delivering various marketing messages to customers from every possible channel, making your online campaign stand out has become more challenging than before. Marketing teams need to come up with innovative ideas and stay ahead of their competitors. Thanks to marketing automation, the process has become easier.

Marketing automation can help your businesses identify potential customers, nurture leads, and automate important sales and marketing tasks that would otherwise consume too much time. It also improved customer acquisition and enabled marketers to target and communicate with consumers more efficiently. To make the most out of this strategy, you should know what are the best tools out there to skyrocket your Marketing productivity.

We’ll tackle the top 10 marketing automation platforms based on customer reviews and ratings. Read below and assess which software is best for your marketing campaigns. 

1. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is one of the best customer experience automation (CXA) platforms that help businesses engage meaningfully with their customers. It doesn’t only provide marketing automation functions but also email marketing and CRM. This software allows its users to send personalized messages through email, social media, chat, and text, therefore increasing their engagement and reach.

With ActiveCampaign, you can create customized campaigns and track your customers’ preferences and behavior.

Whether you’re announcing a special offer or answering your client’s concerns, the software will help you generate personalized messages that will be delivered to the right audience. The best thing about this tool is you can use the customer data to create the best content, set the ideal time, and choose the delivery channel for each customer.

The features of ActiveCampaign are truly incredible. However, due to its vast services, the learning curve may be daunting. You’ll need more time to learn its features and maximize its offers, but rest assured that their staff will assist you with the process.

Pricing: $9/month

2. Klaviyo

Compared to its competitors, Klaviyo is an easier platform to use and understand. It’s a marketing automation software that allows businesses to deliver personalized messages across different platforms and track real-time statistics.

Klaviyo focuses on email marketing, but users can send emails and SMS to their target audience all at once. Creating campaigns is also easy, whether you’re making newsletters, announcements, or invitations.

Klaviyo is a great tool for nurturing your leads and building campaigns with ease.

Pricing: It depends on the number of contacts. Below 250 contacts it’s free while the price for 251-500 contacts is $20/month. As the number of contacts increases, the price also increases.

3. Omnisend

Omnisend is one of the best marketing automation platforms that enable brands to send targeted campaigns, drive sales with ecommerce automation, and improve targeting with robust segmentation.

This software offers pre-made email templates that you can use for your newsletters and announcements. You may also add coupon codes and resend emails to non-openers automatically.

When it comes to ecommerce automation, Omnisend provides pre-built workflows to track cart abandonment, transactional emails, and welcome series. You can also create your custom workflow using the app’s Automation Editor.

Audience segmentation is another important factor in online marketing. With Omnisend, you can segment your customers based on shopping behavior and preferences. This feature allows brands to re-evaluate their campaign message and increase their conversions. The only disadvantage with this platform is you need to pay for the SMS campaigns per usage instead of a certain number of SMS contacts per month.

Pricing: $16/month 

4. Zoho Campaigns

Looking for a marketing automation tool that helps you understand your audiences more comprehensively? Zoho Campaigns is the best solution. Like Klaviyo and Omnisend, this software focuses on email and SMS marketing. However, the best part comes with the analytics.

With Zoho, you can track your target audiences’ behaviors in real-time; from opens to clicks and forwards. Bounces and unsubscribes are also automatically handled and you may add scores to your most engaged subscribers.

This tool provides a comprehensive analysis for every campaign, enabling businesses to improve their marketing strategies based on customers’ interactions and preferences.

Regarding disadvantages, Zoho’s UI is a bit confusing and setting up workflows can be complicated. But their customer support is excellent and they're always ready to assist you any time of the day. 

Pricing: $3/month 

5. MailChimp

MailChimp is one of the most popular email marketing tools. It has a simple interface and offers great features for a free version. Some of the things you can do with MailChimp are create targeted campaigns, send automated emails, and track analytics.

You can add up to 2,000 contacts to your email list and see the number of unsubscribes. If you want to add more contacts, you may upgrade to a paid subscription. 

Like other email marketing platforms, MailChimp allows businesses to monitor their campaigns; the number of clicks, opens, and rejects. But what makes this software special is its intuitive interface and easy campaign management. 

With MailChimp, you can easily create attractive email content and ensure that your emails will deliver in an accurate time. The designs are pretty simple, but they contain all the necessary information, such as banner images, CTA buttons, plus website and social media links.

MailChimp is a great tool for email marketers, but its contact limit for the free version can be a downside. There are also instances that email campaigns are delivered on the user’s Spam or Promotion folder, affecting the business’ overall domain score. 

Pricing: $9.99/month

6. Pardot

Pardot is Salesforce’s B2B marketing automation solution. This software focuses on CRM, email marketing, lead nurturing and scoring, and ROI reporting. 

If you’re a B2B brand, Pardot can automate your marketing activities and help increase your conversions. It allows its users to track all visitors’ interactions on their site and score prospects based on set parameters. 

Regarding the Salesforce integration, you can sync your newly-created contacts, leads, and prospects with Pardot and vice versa. That way, your records will be more comprehensive and you can enhance your customer relationship management. 

This tool also enables users to design and test emails, landing pages, and social media posts all in one platform. If you’re already using Salesforce, Pardot will be a no-brainer. It’s easy to use and truly effective for your CRM and online marketing.

Like Klaviyo, Pardot’s price may be too high for what you get. Automation functions and designs are also limited. But overall, it’s an essential tool for mid-sized marketing. 

Pricing: $1,250/month

7. Hubspot

As its name implies, HubSpot is the best hub for all marketing spots. It’s an ecosystem that covers all business aspects, including sales, marketing, CMS, service, and website. Because of its wide range, HubSpot is considered one of the top marketing automation solutions that helps brands acquire new customers, attract web visitors, and convert leads. It allows your sales and marketing department to manage all their campaigns in one place.

You may ask: what makes HubSpot unique? The tool focuses on inbound marketing efforts, which means that its CTAs and forms are uniquely tailored to individual leads for a more personalized sales experience. 

This software also allows you to optimize your content for Search Engines. Most importantly, HubSpot can take care of all your online campaigns; from website to social media and landing pages. 

The only disadvantage of this tool? It’s expensive, and it gets more expensive as it upgrades and improves its services. 

Pricing: $1,279/month (prices may vary based on the software you’re using, i.e. marketing, sales, service, etc.)

8. SharpSpring

SharpSpring is one of the most flexible revenue growth platforms in the market. It offers behavior-based email marketing, dynamic forms, third-party CRM integration, landing page builders, and social media management. 

Plus, SharpSpring is cheaper compared to other top marketing automation software that offers the same services. Marketers usually say that this tool is an affordable HubSpot alternative. 

If you’re looking for a CRM platform that works for your brand, SharpSpring is the best solution. It’s customer-oriented, allowing businesses to change their email content based on the consumer’s behavior and personality. 

It also offers a ton of engagement features and easy sales tracking process. Overall, SharpSpring is a platform where marketers and sales representatives can seamlessly integrate their workflows and activities.

The con? Some bugs and design issues on the landing page creation, which are currently addressed by the SharpSpring team. 

Pricing: $550/month

9. Marketo 

Marketo is another tool that has Salesforce as its primary CRM integration. And it’s one of the biggest benefits of choosing this platform as your business’ official marketing automation software. 

With this integration, you can access individual customer information conveniently, generate sales reports automatically, and use gathered analytics to identify new lead opportunities and set sales goals. Marketo is already a great platform itself, and the Salesforce CRM integration can help boost your business and customer information management.

Apart from CRM services, the software also offers social marketing, analytics, lead management, email marketing, and landing page creation. Like HubSpot, Marketo can be expensive and may not have the best user interface. 

Pricing: Not disclosed. You may contact Marketo directly. 

10. DialogTech

As its company claims, DialogTech is the leading call tracking solution for marketers. It’s the best platform for businesses that value inbound calls. 

When customers call, the software automatically translates the conversations into useful insights to deliver more personalized customer experiences, increase sales conversions, and improve ROI. 

You can easily route calls to different numbers and the auto attendant feature makes the call routing simple and effective. If your business relies on cloud-based telephony solutions and phone calls for customer acquisition, DialogTech is the best conversation intelligence tool for you.

However, most users would request a cheaper plan with lesser features. The platform tends to have expensive plans with features that may not be useful for other users, especially for small companies. 

Pricing: $15/month 

Conclusion

The best marketing automation software can help your business capture new leads, analyze campaign performance, and improve your marketing efficiency. Different marketing automation vendors offer various services and your choice depends on your goals, needs, and values. 

You now have an idea of what the best marketing automation tools are. Now it's your job to balance your business needs and requirements and make an informed decision. Remember, it all starts with your marketing team’s efforts and the willingness to invest in advanced technology for your business’ growth and success.