Marketing plays an immense part in the success of your business. A good product may mean a lot of media coverage and word of mouth, but for consumers to know about your products or services, having marketing strategies is a must. This includes the right tools to handle all the meticulous tasks while you focus on the creative.

Marketing automation is one of the key elements of every successful business. More than helping to increase customer satisfaction, it also helps teams work more efficiently and boosts return on investment (ROI). Another benefit of marketing automation is having in-depth data that is well-managed to improve relationships with existing customers and help grow businesses much faster. It can automate huge parts of the business’ marketing processes at the same time improving end-user experiences.

What is Marketing Automation?

A marketing automation tool is a software that provides marketing activities that contribute to greater marketing campaign effectiveness and efficiency. These tools are used for automating repetitive tasks such as e-mail marketing, advertising campaigns, social media scheduling, reports and analysis, and data management. While automation is the main function, the software also provides other features, such as web design, customer relationship management (CRM), and integration.

Let’s take a look at some of the top 10 automation tools today.

Top 10 Automation Tools

1. HubSpot

Since its launch in 2006, HubSpot has set the bar of what inbound marketing should be by offering several automation features. It is a comprehensive platform with a simple and intuitive user interface designed to help improve marketing effectiveness and efficiency.  

Key features:

● Automated emails and workflows

● Good data analysis and marketing metrics

● List segmentation

2. ActiveCampaign

Launched in 2003, ActiveCampaign assists in growing a business’ email marketing, sales, and CRM, adding features like email notifications that further empower marketers and salespeople. It also provides versatile eCommerce analytics and features such as page visits and geo-tracking.

Key features:

● Automated alerts and tasks

● Social media monitoring

● Site, event, and goal tracking 

3. Marketo

Founded in 2006, more than automation, Marketo also offers real-time personalization, budgeting tools, customer engagement, and calendars. One of the biggest benefits of this is that since users can customize what features they need, the dashboard is never overcrowded.

Key Features:

● Engagement metrics engine

● Keyword analysis

● Lead management

4. SendInBlue

SendInBlue launched in 2007 and is one of the most affordable email marketing tools today. It offers a free plan of marketing automation if you have fewer than 2,000 contacts as well as basic marketing automation features, phone support, and up to 300 emails per day. This automation tool has a strong set of features, including marketing automation, email campaigns, transactional emails, SMS messages, chat, CRM, social media ads, and retargeting ads.

Key features:

● Real-time deliverability reporting

● SMS marketing

● Ad tools

5. Omnisend

Built for eCommerce businesses, Omnisend was launched in 2014 and is a complete email marketing automation tool. It can be used for end-to-end activities such as collecting contact details and email addresses as well as sending emails and A/B testing. Users can create a personalized email, use well read segmentation, and integrate it with BigCommerce, Shopify, Squarespace, and a lot more.

Key features:

● Drive sales on autopilot with eCommerce automation

● Robust segmentation

● Campaign booster

6. AutoPilot

Launched in 2012 and considered as one of the marketing automation systems with the strongest visual appeal, this tool’s main objective is to integrate and sync leads, connect with customers, and create trusted customers with more constant purchases.

Key features:

● Well-designed templates

● Drag and drop interface

● Real-time collaboration

7. GetResponse

GetResponse was founded in 1998 and is an all-in-one marketing automation platform designed to help entrepreneurs, online marketers, and companies with the tools they need to create content and produce sales. You can customize your email designs, send based on sequences and triggers and optimize the campaign technologies to your needs.

Key features:

● Landing page design

● Autoresponders

● Webinar creation

8. Pardot

Pardot is a Salesforce product that was launched in 2007. It is a complete marketing automation solution to help companies generate sales pipeline, lead generation, and sales intelligence.

Key features:

● Forms and landing pages

● Progressive profiling

● Real-time sales alerts

● Automated lead assignment

9. Sprout Social

Sprout Social was launched in 2010 and is a marketing management tool that empowers businesses to integrate better social media strategies. Instead of manually updating on the providers’ websites, Sprout Social as is a one-stop location where companies can manage everything related with social media marketing, content curation, scheduling and publishing, and reporting and analytics.

Key features:

● Publishing tools

● Engagement report

● Collaboration tools

10. SharpSpring

Founded in 1998, SharpSpring is an affordable marketing automation built for small and medium businesses, but also became popular in agencies. It has one of the best user interfaces and is built to drive sales, collect leads, and increase ROI. This tool comes with the ability to integrate third-party tools , advanced email automation tools, and  a strong CRM.

Key features:

● Visitor ID

● Customized reports

● Engage leads at critical points

Marketing automation tools are meant to be used to help make life easier for anyone who is managing business online and especially for marketers. These tools are made to automate repetitive tasks and assist a team in many varied ways. 

The best approach for selecting the right tool for your business is to consider what you’re hoping to manage as well any additional criteria you might have based on what your needs are. 

For example, you may want marketing automation since achieving automation will reduce many repetitive tasks that would need your attention anyway, or perhaps you’re looking to increase productivity so we say, why not manage both? 

Whatever choice you make, it’s important that this decision has been guided by the knowledge base of marketing automation products available and how they will help.