4 Must-Have Marketing Automation Software for You

By the end of 2024, it is expected that the marketing automation industry will reach $6.4 billion. The Salesforce State of Marketing Report reports that 67% of marketing leaders have already implemented one or more marketing automation platforms, and a further 21% plan to do so by next year.

With growing numbers of marketing automation platforms causing an uproar in the market each year, finding the right one becomes increasingly difficult.

We’ve reviewed more than 150+ email marketing & automation tools and have come up with a list of 4 top marketing software. We’ve also taken the liberty of highlighting where these tools can be beneficial, so you know exactly which tools to go for. 

• Hubspot CRM
• ActiveCampaign
• SendinBlue
• Pardot by Salesforce

To simplify the broad spectrum of marketing, we’ve created five sub-fields, and we’ll talk about how each of our four top marketing software performs in these fields.

• CRM: the platforms vary in their CRM functionality, some integrate existing tools, and some don’t.
• Content: making content in various forms, such as weekly blog posts, landing pages, whitepapers, and more
• E-commerce: integration with your e-commerce platform.
• Email: Includes various tests: A/B testing, segmentation, and drip campaigns.
• Social media: monitoring all social media platforms and their integration, and CRM interaction

Hubspot CRM

First and foremost, a CRM system should provide value to its users: sales representatives, project managers, and other stakeholders. Hubspot CRM is very intuitive and simple to use, which makes a big difference for small non-IT businesses.

Download our guide on Selecting a Marketing Company for Your Practice.

If you ask me, Hubspot CRM is one of the most extensive tools I’ve used. Although it can be a bit pricey, it’s definitely worth the investment. Here are some of the top features of Hubspot CRM:

• Contact Management: While all CRMs allow you to record and store contacts and prospects, Hubspot CRM is one of the few that streamlines your entire data entry process to make your job easier.
• Deal Stages: A CRM should help you progressively move deals through the sales process. In HubSpot CRM, you simply drag and drop a deal forward.
• Daily Dashboard: A rep needs to be able to see certain data each day, such as how they compare to their quota so far, how many deals are in their pipelines and at what stage, and what they need to accomplish their goals.
• Task Management: Workflow management features in Hubspot CRM simplify your sales reps’ day-to-day tasks and allow them to follow up better. 

Hubspot CRM Pricing: For HubSpot's professional and enterprise plans, where marketing automation is included, onboarding fees are $3,500 – $6,500 range. The typical monthly cost is about $800 – $2,500.

ActiveCampaign

More than 100,000+ small businesses use ActiveCampaign to run their marketing campaigns all over the world. In addition to being a campaign management software, it’s also a marketing automation system that boasts about its intuitive construction.

Rather than presenting itself as just another tool, ActiveCampaign claims its services “like getting an extra employee without needing an extra desk’. Here’s a quick digest of the features:

• Site Tracking: You can track your users and site visitors for better contact offerings and personalized marketing opportunities.
• Event Tracking: ActiveCampaign also offers you the ability to monitor your apps, memberships, website/web app, and portal user interactions.
• Automation Goals: Automation is an essential part of today’s marketing workflows. This platform also enables you to observe user behavior through your sales and marketing funnel and dropoff patterns.
• User-Centric: ActiveCampaign is an affordable, user-friendly, and straightforward marketing automation solution. It makes perfect sense why it’s amongst the top marketing automation software in 2021.

ActiveCampaign Pricing: Its pricing is based on the number of contacts. ActiveCampaign starting pricing includes:

• Lite: $90/month
• Plus: $49/month
• Professional: $129/month
• Enterprise: $229/month

These prices are based on 500 contacts. If your business has more than 500 contacts, you can visit their website for their personalized pricing plans.

SendinBlue

When SendinBlue first launched its transactional email product in 2015-2016, it was relatively unknown. However, by 2017 they started making noise in the market with their innovative features and streamlined workflows.

Sure, ActiveCampaign may take the lead over SendinBlue when it comes to its design. However, that doesn’t mean SendinBlue is any less powerful than other marketing tools.  The automation builder from SendinBlue keeps things simple and straightforward and makes your experience truly seamless. 

• Email Automation: SendinBlue offers more automation features than many of its competitors. With workflow-based automation features, specific campaign actions can be performed in response to specific user behavior. 
• SMS Marketing Tool: SendinBlue's SMS marketing tool is another relatively new feature. Most marketing automation tools don’t currently have an SMS marketing tool to help them maximize reach. 
• Email Marketing Campaigns/Broadcast: The SendinBlue email marketing broadcast gives you the option to send an email blast to your contacts in your list. Their builder makes it easy to create emails with a straightforward visual interface.

SendinBlue Pricing: SendinBlue’s pricing includes four tiers. These are:

• Free: $0
• Lite: $25/month
• Premium: $65/month
• Enterprise: Custom quote

Pardot by Salesforce

Market automation software are usually considered B2C tools. However, Pardot by Salesforce takes a different approach in their marketing approach. Their solution is specifically focused on B2B companies. You can easily differentiate between the two by determining whether your primary goal is to guide users towards a goal (nurture) or to provide continuous interactions with them. 

You can use either effectively for your business, so don’t be too concerned with the B2B/B2C labels!

Here are four feature buckets Pardot offers:

• Lead Generation and Management: Among many of the options available are lead qualification (scoring, grading, nurturing, cutting, and dicing) and creating dynamic content. FYI Pardot calls user journeys ‘Engagement Paths’, so don’t get confused with that.
• Email Automation: Besides 10,000 email addresses included in the Pardot base package, companies can purchase blocks above this to fit their needs. Authorized users can create list emails with pre-designed templates.
• Alignment with Development: Your development staff will also want to be able to engage with the public at large but understand the power of tailoring their approach so that they can take advantage of every tool available to them.
• Quality Reporting: Pardot has built-in reporting tools that help you better assess communications effectiveness and calculate return on investment (ROI) in just a few clicks.

Pardot by Salesforce Pricing: Pardot’s pricing includes four tiers. These are:

• Growth: $1,250/month/up to 10,000 contacts
• Plus: $2,500/month/up to 10,000 contacts
• Advanced: $4,000/month/up to 10,000 contacts
• Premium: $15,000/month/up to 75,000 contacts

Marketing Automation is the New Black in 2024

Because I am so enthusiastic about marketing automation platforms, it can be easy for me to forget how many people remain uncertain about their capacities and whether or not it’s right for their business. We usually receive the following type of questions:

• Are you familiar with marketing automation?
• How can it help my business?
• Which tools are the right choice for my business?

Our top marketing automation platforms list will help companies like yours that are new to marketing automation get started. Find out which tools are the most important ones — and why they are important to you — by going through our guide.