According to a study by Email Monday, 56% of companies today use marketing automation solutions of varying degrees of sophistication to relieve their marketing teams of redundant and repetitive tasks, but also to kick their sales prospecting efforts into high gear.
In the era of digitalized sales and marketing, decision makers are spoiled for choice, with a market driven by nearly 100 marketing automation solutions. Some of them specialize in specific segments such as the automation of emailing and/or SMS campaigns. Others adopt a 360° approach, with a wide range of functionalities from CRM to website creation, including Lead Scoring, Live Chat, e-reputation management, e-commerce, etc.
To help you make an informed choice, the editorial staff offers you today its top 10 best marketing automation solutions. On the menu: a brief description of the solution, a list of its advantages and disadvantages, and the different pricing options. Let’s go !
#1 Twilead
Twilead is the first all-in-one platform that centralizes sales, marketing and CRM functionality to help businesses grow. The solution offers advanced lead generation and marketing automation tools: simple and advanced automation campaigns, more than 40 predefined actions and templates, forms, surveys, website and sales funnel creation, etc.
Twilead also offers sales pipelines, calendars, unlimited contact management (CRM) and e-reputation management features. The Zapier plugin allows more than 750 code-free integrations. In sum, Twilead combines:
- All the power of a marketing hub, minus the cost;
- The best tools for booking, tracking and automating the Sales part;
- An unlimited CRM solution (contacts and users);
- Essential integrations to develop your business.
The advantages of this marketing automation tool
- An all-in-one marketing automation solution that replaces many software programs;
- Creation of websites (replaces WordPress) and members-only spaces (replaces Kajabi);
- A very efficient automated workflow design tool;
- The mobile application enhances the user experience (especially in the appointment scheduling manager);
- The segmentation of the email list allows to personalize the content to be sent;
- The e-reputation features make it easy to respond to customer reviews;
- Probably the most complete tool on the market (in its price range).
The disadvantages of this marketing automation tool
- to add
What is the price of Twilead?
Twilead offers three packages:
- The ” Business ” package at 75 € per month ;
- The ” Performance ” package at 140 € per month;
- The ” Expert ” package at 240 € per month.
The solution offers a free 14-day trial.
#2 Marketo Engage
Founded in 2006, Marketo is a leading provider of marketing automation solutions. The “Inc. 500” ranked company was acquired in June 2016 by Vista Equity Partners for approximately $1.79 billion. The California-based box would later be acquired by Adobe in September 2018 for $4.75 billion. With a starting price of $895 per month, Marketo is clearly targeting large enterprises (100+ employees).
Marketo is today a marketing automation software in SaaS mode that allows to automate a wide range of marketing tasks. Integrated with Adobe Experience Cloud, Marketo equips marketers to target qualified B2B and B2C prospects, generate revenue opportunities, and execute personalized marketing automation campaigns across all major marketing channels.
The advantages of this marketing automation tool
- Excellent integration with Salesforce ;
- Very active user community on the web;
- Powerful email nurturing programs;
- Great freedom in setting up automation loop triggers.
The disadvantages of this marketing automation tool
- The landing page and form editor is disappointing;
- Very limited reporting and analytics;
- The price, well above the market average.
It should be noted that Marketo was originally a lead management tool before making the jump to marketing automation. If most of the features have been updated in this sense, there are still some remnants of the old version, especially on the part of the creation of landing pages and forms.
What is the price of Marketo Engage?
The Marketo Engage pricing page lists four packages without giving a price: Growth, Select, Prime and Ultimate. Third-party sources indicate that the Growth plan starts at $895 per month, and the Ultimate plan can exceed $3,175 per month depending on need.
#3 HubSpot
This marketing automation tool dominates the SMB market, capturing 41.6% of the market share. Although it is a popular product, used today by more than 30,000 companies around the world, HubSpot is often criticized for its quality-price ratio. To quote the experts at Marketing Automation Insider: ” We don’t recommend HubSpot, because there are better alternatives that cost 20 times less.
At first glance, HubSpot seems affordable, as the service starts at $200 per month. As your business grows, you will need to pay more for access to more contacts and for any additional functionality. Example: For 10,000 contacts, you will pay $2,400 per month plus $5,000 for integration. In short: HubSpot can be interesting for a small business… but if you anticipate rapid growth, the bill may become very expensive in the short term.
The advantages of this marketing automation tool
- It is one of the easiest platforms to use. The interface is intuitive, and the learning curve is smooth, even for beginners;
- The 7-day free trial allows you to make a decision about your purchase;
- HubSpot devotes a significant budget to user education and training, including a blog regularly updated with high value-added content;
- HubSpot’s features can be found elsewhere at better prices… but HubSpot centralizes them and lets you use them on the fly, on one platform.
The disadvantages of this marketing automation tool
- HubSpot imposes a 12-month contract by default;
- No A/B tests in the basic formula, or even the PRO formula. These features start with the $2,400 per month plan;
- Very high price, especially if your needs and contacts increase;
- Most of the tools offered by HubSpot are free elsewhere;
- Technical support is not free.
#4 GetResponse
GetResponse is a pioneer in the world of Marketing Automation, as the Polish company launched the first version of its software in the late 1990s. Today, the solution is used by more than 250,000 users, with well-known customers such as Carrefour, GlaxoSmithKline and Intercontinental. The GetResponse tool focuses on the fun, even didactic side, with an easy experience, even for marketers who are new to creating automation campaigns.
Setting up automated workflows is relatively easy… but the tool has the disadvantage of its advantage, with obvious limitations as soon as workflows become complex.
Advantages of this marketing automation tool
- The ” Email ” formula, rather powerful, is proposed at a reasonable price;
- A webinar feature that is quite new on the market;
- Focused reporting;
- Advanced testing features;
- Overview of email campaigns on mobile before sending;
- Very easy to use landing page creator;
- Available and responsive customer service.
Disadvantages of this marketing automation tool
- The playful and didactic side does not allow to realize complex automation loops;
- The drag-and-drop interface for email design is laborious;
- Newsletter templates (RSS-to-Html) are few and far between;
- The user interface and backend need to be improved.
What is the price of GetResponse?
GetResponse offers three packages:
- Essential: $15.58 per month;
- Pro: $48.38 per month;
- Premium: $97.58 per month.
You can test all GetResponse features for free for 30 days without entering your credit card details.
#5 ActiveCampaign
Founded in 2003, ActiveCampaign is an affordable solution for small and medium-sized businesses that want to automate simple email campaigns through a user-friendly interface. The latest updates to the solution have added integrated CRM and sales process automation capabilities. ActiveCampaign now has over 150 integrations with sales, customer support and lead generation solutions.
The advantages of this marketing automation tool
- User friendly and well thought out interface;
- Integration with over 150 different tools;
- Very reasonable pricing, starting at $9 per month.
The disadvantages of this marketing automation tool
- You have to pay a Zapier subscription to access some integrations;
- The CRM features are very disappointing;
- The email editor suffers from some recurring bugs that can frustrate.
How much does ActiveCampaign cost?
It all depends on the number of contacts in your database. Lite subscription starts at $9 per month (limited to 500 contacts). ActiveCampaign gives the following prices (per 1,000 contacts):
- Lite plan: $29 per month;
- Plus Plan: $49 per month;
- Professional Package: $149 per month;
- Company formula: on estimate.
#6 Pardot
Pardot is a SaaS marketing automation platform that provides email campaign automation and lead generation efforts for B2B sales and marketing teams. The tool also includes advanced customer behavior tracking features.
After being acquired by ExactTarget in 2012, Pardot passed into the hands of Salesforce in 2013 (which bought ExactTarget) for a whopping $2.5 billion. Of course, the tool benefits from a state-of-the-art integration with the CRM leader, with an interesting synergy. With pricing starting at $1,000 per month, Pardot is used almost exclusively by large B2B companies. It should be noted, however, that the majority of advanced marketing automation features are only available on the $2,000 per month plans.
The advantages of this marketing automation tool
- A powerful Lead Deck, with real-time updates of lead activity on the company’s website;
- Pardot is one of the few marketing automation tools that can be customized according to your needs;
- Excellent integration with Salesforce ;
- Responsive customer service.
The disadvantages of this marketing automation tool
- Strangely, Pardot is only integrated with 32 third-party applications;
- Access to the API is only available to PRO users ($2,000 per month and up) ;
- A/B tests are only available to PRO users;
- AdWords integration and dynamic email content are only available to PRO users;
- The price is (very) high.
#7 Oracle Marketing Cloud
The tool created as Eloqua in 1999 was acquired by Oracle in 2012, which renamed it to Oracle Marketing Cloud in the process. Eloqua has been a pioneer in marketing automation. Powerful, customizable and above all “scalable”, this marketing automation tool is mainly aimed at large companies and multinationals. It is used by big names such as Sony, American Express and LinkedIn. The cheapest plan costs $2,000 per month.
The advantages of this marketing automation tool
- Oracle Marketing Cloud has a wide range of integrations, with over 100 third-party platforms;
- The visual campaign editor is both powerful and intuitive;
- HyperSite Builder allows you to quickly create custom microsites with dynamic user content;
- The feedback from large companies is simply overwhelming.
The disadvantages of this marketing automation tool
- It is simply the most expensive marketing automation tool on the market (starting at $2,000 per month) ;
- Implementation is slow and complicated, as the tool is designed for large organizations;
- Curiously, Oracle Marketing Cloud does not allow to track the ROI of advertising campaigns on Google Adwords ;
- Early adopters feel that the interface has become less intuitive over the years.
The price of Oracle Marketing Cloud
Oracle offers a “Basic” package at $2,000 per month, a “Standard” package at $4,000 per month, and an “Enterprise” package on request, depending on the number of contacts and the desired features.
#8 MailChimp
MailChimp is the best known email campaign automation platform on the market. Its generous free package, which offers up to 2,000 contacts, has attracted millions of users worldwide. In 2017, a milestone year for the vendor, the solution was gaining an average of 14,000 new customers per day. Unfortunately, the solution has been a victim of its own success, with performance declining over the past three years.
The advantages of this marketing automation tool
- The free package is quite generous, with a maximum of 2,000 contacts;
- Quality reporting: customers, geo-tracking, social networks, Google Analytics integration… ;
- Simple and powerful template editor;
- More than 500 integrations and add-ons;
- The solution is regularly updated with new features. Recently, MailChimp has integrated an appointment scheduling feature as well as an online store builder.
The disadvantages of this marketing automation tool
- The free formula is gradually being stripped of major features. MailChimp has recently removed email scheduling from the formula;
- Customer support is only available free of charge for the first 30 days of the subscription (including email and Live Chat);
- MailChimp prohibits affiliate marketing;
- Segmentation has always been a weak point at MailChimp.
What is the price of MailChimp?
MailChimp offers 4 packages:
- Free plan (2,500 mailings per month and 500 contacts maximum);
- Essentials” package: $11 per month;
- Standard package: $17 per month;
- Premium package: from $299 per month.
Attention: the price of the formulas increases according to the number of contacts desired (except for the “Premium” formula).
#9 Keap (ex InfusionSoft)
Designed specifically for the needs of small businesses, Keap (formerly InfusionSoft), is a robust emailing solution that integrates customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing automation features into a single interface.
The automation features are calibrated for small businesses using traditional workflows. The Drag & Drop system makes it easy for marketers who are new to marketing automation to get started. Workflows are presented in a visual form, actions have recognizable icons and can be moved along the funnel. The base price is $199 per month per user account.
The advantages of this marketing automation tool
- The Visual Campaign Builder is a benchmark in user experience;
- With over 300 applications on the InfusionSoft marketplace, API and Zapier integration, the tool can be connected to hundreds of third-party tools;
- Responsive customer support and excellent onboarding;
- It is one of the only marketing automation tools to integrate e-commerce features (order forms, payment processing, order fulfillment, inventory tracking, etc.).
The disadvantages of this marketing automation tool
- Keap charges a hefty start-up fee ($1,999);
- No native integrations (additional cost), despite the marketplace with over 300 applications and extensions;
- An unreliable deliverability, despite the figures announced by Keap ;
- Keap does not allow to configure IP addresses for sending emails.
The price of Keap (ex InfusionSoft)
Keap offers four packages, plus a start-up fee:
- Essentials: $199 per month;
- Deluxe Sales: $299 per month;
- Deluxe eCommerce: $299 per month;
- Complete: $379 per month.
#10 SendinBlue
Founded in 2007 by Armand Thiberge and Kapil Sharma, SendinBlue is a French company that publishes a SaaS software suite for small and medium-sized businesses that want to manage marketing campaigns (emailing and SMS), automate workflows, manage a database of contacts, advertise on Facebook, retargeting and landing pages SendinBlue also offers A/B testing and quality reporting.
The advantages of this marketing automation tool
- The price, which remains reasonable compared to some competitors like HubSpot ;
- The email automation features are perfected, with several triggering possibilities depending on the visitor’s behavior on the website;
- Transactional emails and SMS;
- The WordPress plugin is up to date;
- Free CRM.
The disadvantages of this marketing automation tool
- The web application sometimes suffers from frustrating slowness;
- The free formula is limited to 300 emails per day, which is half as many as MailChimp, for example;
- Very limited number of templates;
- Few integrations with third-party applications.
What is the price of Sendinblue?
SendinBlue offers a pretty impressive free plan, which includes basic marketing automation functionality, unlimited contacts and up to 300 emails per day. Paid plans start at $25 per month for 20,000 emails.
