Best Marketing Automation Tools 2021

The advent of technology in the marketing line has completely transformed digital marketing.

Today, various tools are designed to simplify and streamline the marketing process and activities that fall under it.

Quickly carried out operations and easy procedures can smoothly accelerate the rapidity of actions.

There are less time-consuming functions and faster implementations.

The digital world has accepted marketing with open arms and flourished it thoroughly.

Especially the marketing automation field, it has shaped itself over the years in a way so that dealing with complex responsibilities is now less challenging.

The use of marketing automation tools is much in use these days.

So, what exactly are marketing automation tools?

Marketing Automation Tools 

They allow you to figure out lead generation and how one can nurture it, marketing segmentation, lead scoring, and so much more.

In simple words, these tools let you automate your responses and connect with your target audience in the right manner.

These tools eradicate the need to employ people for repetitive marketing tasks and automatically send the required texts across text, email, web, etc.

Though not every business needs marketing automated tools. One must be aware and have the correct information about why and when the automated tool should come into use.

Without having the necessary knowledge, a business should not get it without complete consideration.

It is crucial to understand the needs of your business and act accordingly, do not pick an all-in-one marketing automated tool just for its sake.

Having marketing operations in a flow is essential for you to start using a tool.

A wide range of tools are available today, soon must know which tools offer what functions, and figure out what you should use.

For the modern marketing process, marketing automated tool is the right fit as it also serves B2B and B2C organizations. 

Let’s be clear about one thing- market automation tools are not just limited to email marketing.

It’s substantially more.

Along with this, there’s campaign management, social marketing, CRM integration, engagement marketing, marketing analytics, etc.

It allows you to boost your campaign scope and makes your team more aware of what changes they might have to bring.

Automation comes with swift personalization, which you can configure as per your preference.

The provided in-depth analysis serves as an edge for having an automation tool.

Any information you need from multi-channels, you can see through the tool’s dashboards.

A single platform will deliver to you data regarding all the campaigns that you are running.

You can design a strategy and implement it, keeping in mind your target audience and the expected customer behavior.

You will observe a gradual increase in revenue, which shall benefit the business.

Mentioned below are a few advantages of a marketing automated tool:

• Boost in ROI- Automated tools can handle follow-ups, promote upselling, and cross-selling with just a few clicks.
• Cost Reduction- Since your marketing functions will be automated, you will require fewer employees for assistance in this section. It will lead to lesser cost investment for staff.
• Time Saver- Automation leads to less action, more results. All monotonous tasks become quicker to perform.
• Clarity- With loads of work off your hands, you get time and clarity to focus on your other important work. It will lead you to be more efficient. 
• Error Reduction- All your tasks are automated and controlled, leading to lesser human error, which results in the best optimizations of your efforts.

Now the question is, how do you know whether you require a marketing tool?

In case you’ve started a business and think a marketing automated tool will help you drive your marketing, you’re somewhat mistaken.

To use a marketing tool, you first need to have well established running market operations.

Now depending upon the scale of operations and how you carry out your marketing procedure, you can decide to start making use of features of an automated tool.

Ensure you have a set strategy that is working effectively so that the software can scale your efforts.

Investing in it if your operations are not sleek and flowing yet, is not a good option.

Automated marketing will be useful if you are short of time, but have financial stability.

They allow you to do tedious long-standing work in lesser time.

No more painstaking monotonous effort towards a task but increased productivity and results.

In case you have already scaled your marketing operations, and have excelled across a platform or more, you will require an all-in-one tool.

If you’re running a small/mid-level business, the tool options will most likely change.

The selection varies for different levels of scale operations such as enterprises, small to medium level businesses, etc.

Here are the tools that will skyrocket your marketing operations:

HubSpot

HubSpot is known as one of the best tools for content marketing.

Founded in 2006, they aim at inbound leads and how to convert outbound leads.

They offer a variation of tools for management and focus on marketing, sales, and service collectively.

Lead generation, marketing automation, and analytics fall under their Marketing Hub section.

Under the sales and service section, they provide features such as email tracking, meeting scheduling, customer feedback, customer connection, etc.

Also, their other options let you connect with close leads, manage them, and connect with them.

They also have software that will increase your traffic and elevate your results.

For small business owners, HubSpot is a great option that they should consider buying.

If you’re looking for a tool that will offer you several features with primary functioning for each, this is for you. 

 The base pricing starts at $200 per month, which covers 100 contacts.

It includes features such as content creation, email marketing, content optimization, marketing analytics dashboard, social media suite, etc.

An upgrade is pro pricing at $800 per month for 1000 contacts, which cover all available features in the basic version.

Additionally, they provide marketing automation, custom workflows, and goal-based sustaining.

Pro pricing is the most preferred and chosen option.

At the enterprise level, the pricing is $2400 per month for 10,000 contacts.

Features such as custom-event automation, custom event reporting, predictive lead scoring, revenue reporting, etc. are available.

Marketo

Marketo has been serving efficiently for nearly a decade. They offer features that will suit best for large-scale companies and small scale firms that are growing at an exceptional rate.

Marketo is a cloud-based tool that will help you draw out measurable results with an array of functions.

From lead management to account-based marketing, they promote customer marketing, which encourages you to maintain contact and form a bond with your customer.

Marketo goes beyond the basic functioning of features and lets its customers have extensive experience of advanced features.

If you are running a budding enterprise, and might not need such high-level functions, you can opt for a lesser expensive option.

But if you think you’ll be experimenting with these features in the future, you must get Marketo so that you don’t have to switch all your campaigns and system in the future.

This tool is a perfect fit for companies with large marketing operations and comes with a free trial, so you can experience how much it suits your operations.

As for the pricing, Marketo offers four packages that are-

–Select works best for growth marketers who are in their initial marketing phases and are developing.

This package allows essential marketing automation with a large number of features that will work towards scaling your marketing efforts, upgrading your marketing tools, and impacting your revenue.

The pricing depends on the database size.

–Prime is mainly for progressive marketers with full lead and account-based marketing. AI-powered personalization is possible with this package.

All the features in Select are present in this package, with added extensive options.

–Ultimate includes Prime characteristics and is a complete engine with powerful automation and attributes.

– Enterprise provides the highest level of scale flexibility and operations.

All prices depend on the size of the database.

OmniSend

OmniSend lets you work on multiple channels from one platform and expand your functioning by integration in the same automation workflow.

They implement omnichannel functionality in which your customers can have rich experience and automatically receive messages through the channel they’re using.

It provides you with the right tools, such as advanced targeting, and persuades your first-time visitors to indulge in a purchase.

They take care of measures to take at each step of a customer journey, right from a visitor to the repeat buyer.

Sending the right messages, converting to shoppers, and keeping track of sales performance all in one place is possible.

This tool seems to be the best fit for e-commerce brands that are focusing on their growth.

You can request a demo to check out the features yourself. 

They display three packages that are-

Standard starts at $16 per month for SMS and email marketing and automation.

Pro starts at $99 per month with all standard features along with advanced omnichannel marketing features and several highlights.

Enterprise comes at custom pricing with top-level customization specially designed for your enterprise.

Oracle Eloqua

Eloqua unfurls their services across B2B marketers as well as companies.

They design automated campaigns for a business that can stretch across online as well as offline channels.

It works to segment your audience and generate leads so that your audience is motivated to make purchases.

Their personalization can do wonders for a business and align sales and marketing.

At every stage of the cycle, they will provide you with the right solution that you seek.

They measure your progress very easily with their robust reporting and in-depth insights so you can act firmly in your decisions.

To maintain transparency, they also publish system performance information on their websites that showcases reliability and scalability. 

For pricing information, you will have to contact Oracle directly.

Pardot

Pardot offers the best marketing automation across B2B companies.

Considered as the world’s number 1 CRM, it empowers companies to generate more revenue by boosting their sales.

They employ complete sales force engagement and account-based marketing.

You will receive tailor based marketing solutions and business analytics to polish your functioning.

They engage buyers to close deals, but they also work on growing and maintaining relationships with your customers.

It is a complete marketing automation tool that covers streamlined lead management, lead generation, artificial intelligence, ROI analytics, and sales alignment.

They are offering three editions that are Growth, Plus, and Advanced.

You can request a demo to test it out.

Growth- Starts at $1250 per month.

Plus- Starts at $2500 per month.

Advanced- Starts at $4000 per month.

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign will take care of all your marketing tactics and actions.

Producing dynamic content and email marketing is only the beginning, they also design newsletters, according to your customers’ interests.

ActiveCampaign’s main focus lies in enriching their customer’s experience by catering to their every need.

They make your job easier by automating every little task that could be consuming more time than required.

There is a variety of pre-built automation available that will suit any type of business, large or small.

All the significant sales-related data about your customers is accessible in one place.

They are constantly renewing and refining their features as per the convenience of businesses so that there is no hindrance to growth.

Price subscriptions

Lite- $9 per month (basic features with up to 3 users).

Plus- $49 per month (Lite and additional features with up to 25 users).

Professional- $129 per month (Plus and extra features with up to 50 users).

Enterprise- $229 per month (Professional and extra features with unlimited users).

The main motive of marketing automation is to make your work easier and less tiresome.

The given tools provide free demos, so after analyzing your business and the needs, take a trial, and pick whatever makes your work run smoothly.

I use most of these tools for lead generation and eCommerce marketing for my clients at Eleven Technolab

Make sure you find the appropriate tool and optimally utilize the given features.

Marketing automation has come a long way, so it’s best to keep up with the current technology and avail of all benefits it offers.

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