The world of marketing is a pretty busy place, and judging by the many repetitive tasks that a marketer must perform on a regular basis, a very tedious one as well. Email marketing campaigns, for example, typically involve sending out thousands of emails to generate leads. Imagine having to send all those emails manually. Thankfully, the Gods of Information Technology took pity on marketers and granted them the power of marketing automation software.
As the name implies, marketing automation software is designed to automate any marketing action on your to-do list, be it sending out emails, managing all your contacts, or tracking website traffic. It’s hard to imagine going through all these marketing tasks manually and achieving goals successfully. For marketers, marketing automation platforms have become indispensable tools to the point where they are the primary reason anything ever gets done. Here are some of the best marketing automation software for 2017.
Pardot
Even marketing newbies can use Pardot with ease. This Salesforce product boasts of impressive features that include search and social marketing capabilities, intuitive user interface, unlimited branching options, and drop-down and graphical automation branching. Pardot is widely regarded one of the best marketing automation tools on the market today.
SharpSpring
A pretty comprehensive marketing automation tool, SharpSpring is perfect for small-medium businesses that don’t have massive marketing and sales teams in place. It counts integrated call tracking, universal CMS compatibility, 3rd party CRM integration, and core campaign management among its myriad of features. Its capability to incorporate other applications makes it one of the most flexible platforms available today.
HubSpot
HubSpot is one of the most powerful marketing tools out there. Marketers use this pioneering automation platform it to create campaigns that are smarter and more data-driven, thanks to its capability of combining marketing, sales, and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions. HubSpot is designed to boost the marketing efficiency and effectiveness of organizations, particularly startups and small businesses.
Campaigner
Its many advanced features make Campaigner an excellent email marketing service. The interface is easy to use and quite helpful. Campaigner is also loaded with great-looking templates. Should any issues come up, you can always call its 24/7 hotline. And if you want to take it for a test drive, just use your credit card to avail of a free trial that is utterly generous by any standard.
Act-on
Helping companies generate more revenue on their marketing investments is one of the primary capabilities of Act-on. The key service areas of this cloud-based integrated marketing automation software include inbound, outbound, lead nurturing programs, account-based marketing automation, automation, CRM integration, and reports and analytics.
Infusionsoft
If you’re a small organization with a maximum of 25 personnel, Infusionsoft can help you hit measurable sales and marketing goals. This CRM and email marketing platform makes contact management, billing and payment, follow-up, and other repetitive tasks so much more comfortable. Its features include a smooth drag-and-drop email builder, custom auto-responders, and intuitive but straightforward contact and lead management.
Active Campaign
ActiveCampaign is a features-heavy marketing platform that also offers exceptional online support. With capabilities like intelligent behavioral based emails, third-party integrations, intelligence-driven automation, data-driven segmentation, and auto-responder options, ActiveCampaign has earned a reputation as an all-in-one marketing platform.
Marketo
Marketo is an incredibly powerful suite of marketing tools that owes a lot of its reputation to its vast collection of cool features such as web and mobile personalization, lead generation, website visitor tracking, search marketing, campaign management, and of course, email marketing. Marketo is highly-customizable, with lots of functionality, all of which help sales and marketing professionals drive revenue and improve marketing accountability. This tool is best suited for large enterprises with massive marketing teams.
GetResponse
GetResponse is an email marketing service that is quite easy to use. Its third-party contact integration and support are solid. The free 30-day trial that it offers is top-notch, if only for the fact that you can try all its advanced features free of charge. Other features include a user-friendly tracking tool, a freeze accounts option, and unlimited messages.
Oracle Eloqua
Marketing campaigns typically take weeks to launch, but with its extensive collection of marketing automation tools, Oracle Eloqua can help organizations do it in days. This fantastic platform also allows marketers to come up with campaigns across email, display search, video, mobile, and other channels. Eloqua boasts of features such as email marketing, webinars, automated demand generation, up-sell campaign, multi-channel marketing, event automation and management, and many more.
Constant Contact
Businesses that host events will find Constant Contact quite the handy platform, if only for its event registration management capabilities. Professional-looking and easy to use, Constant Contact features built-in templates for emails, a user-friendly editor for customizing campaigns, Google Analytics integration. It also has tools that allow you to create signup forms and import Gmail and Outlook contacts.
Net-Results
As with most other marketing automation software, Net-Results aids companies in generating and nurturing leads, managing social media, automating sales, integrating CRM, and email marketing. Its segmentation capabilities are also quite potent. Net-Results also offers such services as revenue performance management, lead scoring, and sales enablement, among others.
iContact Pro
Creative marketers are going to have a field day with this features-heavy marketing automation software. It has a robust analytic suite that makes gauging your contacts’ full sales potential easier. As for your social media needs, iContact Pro also has you covered. It also has a flexible and intuitive builder that allows you to create your email templates. The customer support is also something to look forward to, as you get your representative for your account that you can directly reach.
AdRoll
Easy to set up and use, the AdRoll marketing suite boasts of a proprietary real-time bidding algorithm called BidIQ. If you want your ads placed right with minimal charges, BidIQ is your friend. AdRoll also provides 500 ad exchanges, which boosts your chances of targeting prospects of all interests. You also get unlimited access to prospects and audiences, and you can use any device, browser, operating system, or any app to do so.
Given the sheer number of platforms out there, it’s safe to say that the ones mentioned above are just the tip of the marketing automation software iceberg. Since most marketing suites offer free trials, you would do well to take advantage of them to decide which one would serve your marketing efforts best.
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