Let’s face it, there are two universal truths regarding marketing automation software.

1. It is not necessary for every company and marketing team.
2. If you do, choosing a marketing automation software solution takes more effort and time than buying the first one that comes to your mind.

Two things are essential when choosing the right tool to help your business:

1. Know when marketing automation is available to you.
2. Understanding your needs and specific use case

Unknowingly, many marketers make the mistake of diving into an automation solution before they actually need it. Many round-ups also miss the mark with the second part. They list expensive, all-in-one tools that not everyone needs.

This blog post will discuss how to determine if your business and team are ready for full-fledged automation. Next, we will categorize the top marketing automation software according to 7 most common use cases so that you can make a more informed decision when choosing the right tool for you.

Let’s get started right now!

What is marketing automation software?

Marketing automation involves using tools to automate marketing activities. Marketing departments automate repetitive tasks such as email marketing, social media posting, and ad campaigns. This is not only to save time but also to provide a better customer experience. These tasks are made easier by the technology of marketing automation software.

Marketing automation has seen a rapid growth from $500 million in 2012 to $6.4 billion by 2024. Salesforce’s State of Marketing Report shows that 67% of marketers already use at least one marketing software and 21% plan to begin using it.

Are you sure that you need marketing automation?

Many companies commit to marketing automation without really evaluating whether or not they need it. Companies aren’t ready for marketing automation unless they check at least three boxes.

• At least one person in your marketing team is responsible for marketing. While marketing automation software can help you scale and streamline your efforts, it cannot replace real marketing knowledge. Let’s say you are a founder, or an early employee, who believes that automation software will help free up your time. It won’t solve your problem in that situation.

• At least one marketing channel has worked for you. While marketing automation platforms can help you scale your marketing, it’s not a good idea to scale something that isn’t working yet. Automation software may not be able to help you find the right channel, but it might.

• Your marketing strategy is the foundation of all your efforts. An automation platform is not necessary to throw more spaghetti at a wall in the hope that something sticks.

• Marketing teams have more time than money. While marketing automation software can help your team accomplish more in a shorter time frame, you must be comfortable with the financial transfer that allows you to buy that time.

If all these scenarios are true for your business, then you can begin to look into a marketing automation tool. Let’s look at some factors to consider when selecting a marketing automation software.

Six factors to consider when selecting marketing automation software

• Easy to use. Marketing automation technology has advanced to the point that you don’t need 40 hours of training, or thousands of dollars for consulting fees. Today’s best tools should only require a few hours of training and offer ready-made guides. This allows you to draw on existing expertise quickly, and saves you time and effort.

• Pricing. Prices can vary from platform to platform. However, most platforms will have a fixed price for a certain number of contacts. The best pricing structures are transparent and clear. A quick way to find out the exact price is to call a sales representative based on the size of your database, the features that you require, and your company’s goals.

• Integrations. Integrations are essential for the performance of your funnel. You don’t have to modify any of your existing processes by finding a platform compatible with your existing tools. Your team and workflow should not be disrupted.

• Data security. This could be crucial depending on the size of your company. You will find advanced security typically only available in the most expensive plans on many platforms’ pricing pages. While they won’t say that any other plans are insecure, it will not have the same encryption level as corporate standards.

• Customer support. You want the best customer support possible when you are starting to use a new system. Before you choose a marketing automation tool, consider the availability of customer support channels, the urgency, and other resources.

• Reviews. While choosing the right platform is dependent on your needs and goals, it’s worth looking at how others are using the tool. Review can help you see features that are not listed on the software’s website, or in their marketing copy.

24+ best marketing automation software

After you have learned the basics of marketing automation software let’s look at the 24+ top-rated ones.

All-in-one marketing automation software

1.Leadpages

Leadpages has been praised as one of the most effective landing page builders.

Leadpages is an excellent investment for small- to medium-sized businesses. This software helps you create beautiful, functional websites and landing pages that convert well.

Here are some reasons why you would love it.

• You can include a variety of beautiful, customizable templates

• Drag and drop landing page editor

• No matter what pricing plan, you can collect unlimited leads completely free

• Useful tools for lead generation (such as pop-ups and one-click signing ups)

Here are some cons to be aware of

• This is not a complete sales funnel builder.
• You will need to spend time integrating Leadpages with other important tools to create a functional funnel.

Leadpages Prices and Plans:

• Get a 14-day trial

• Standard Plan: $37/month, $25/month (billed annually), – 1 site limit

• Pro Plan: $79/month, $48/month (billed annually), – 3 sites limit

• Advanced Plan: $321/month, $199/month (billed annually). – Up to 50 sites with a complete set of features

2. HubSpot

HubSpot marketing automation is fundamentally unique from other tools because of a few reasons. Its focus on inbound marketing, including search and content marketing, is unmatched. You also get the added benefit of the Sales and Service hubs which allow your team to work better together, even across departments.

You can create highly targeted workflows with the software’s visual editor. It can be used for simple follow up messages, or complex campaigns that include multiple touch points throughout the customer journey.

HubSpot Marketing Automation provides pre-set triggers and conditions as well as customer actions. This allows you to easily automate your email campaigns with drip campaigns.

However, there are both advantages and disadvantages to using this all-in one software: It does a little of everything but not at a deep level.

Pricing plans:

• Starter Plan: Starting at $50/month
• Starts at $890 per month for Professional Plan
• Enterprise plan: Starting at $3,200/month

3. Moosend

Moosend is a powerful tool for marketing automation. This software is unique because it supports multiple channels.

Moosend allows you to quickly get started with pre-built templates, which allow for powerful automation workflows. Multiple channels can be added to the same automation workflow. These include SMS, email and Facebook Messenger. Push Notification is also available. It also features a WYSIWYG visual builder (What You See is What You Get) and templates that make it easy to create workflows, landing pages and forms as well as emails.

There is a free plan that allows you to send basic emails, and three paid plans that offer different features. Moosend’s management tools will be most useful for medium- to large-sized businesses.

Pricing plans:

• No Cost Plan
• Pro Plan: $10/ month
• Pricing for Enterprise Plans:

Software for email marketing automation

4. AVADA Email Marketing

AVADA email marketing automation app is a well-known tool for small and medium merchants who want to grow their businesses. This platform is simple and easy to use. It allows non-tech-savvy users to send emails to convert and engage customers.

The software is specifically designed to improve abandoned cart campaigns. It follows up with prospects and reminds them to buy again. AVADA Email marketing offers templates that are ready to use and save admins a lot of time.

You can also segment and target your email recipients to achieve the best results. The software offers a professional and friendly customer service team that will ensure you have amazing experiences with your email marketing campaigns.

AVADA Email Marketing offers a 14-day free trial and a free plan. So, get it started today!

Pricing plans:

• No Cost Plan
• Pro Plan: $9/ month

5. ActiveCampaign

Digital Marketing is a must-have. Active Campaign is a specialist in email marketing.

ActiveCampaign can be a great option if your goal is to improve your email marketing strategy. It’s also affordable and offers many automation features that can be used to generate leads from any part of your funnel.

Multiple types of email can be set up, including targeted and triggered emails as well as autoresponders, scheduled, automated, broadcast, and automated funnels. It’s also easy to create those emails with the intuitive drag-and drop designer. Or, you can use one of 25+ pre-made responsive mobile design templates. ActiveCampaign is a great choice, whether you’re just starting out or looking to scale and optimize your email marketing strategy.

The software offers omnichannel automation that includes instant messaging, SMS, Facebook and live chat. ActiveCampaign is not just for email marketing automation.

Pricing plans:

• Lite Plan: Starting at $9/month
• Plus Plan: Starts at $49/month
• Starts at $129/month for Professional Plan
• Starts at $229/month for Enterprise Plan

6. Customer.io

Customer.io is an email automation tool that’s designed for subscription-based companies. It focuses on engaging customers through their entire lifecycle. There are tons of integrations that make it simple to channel data from all your technologies and create automated segments and emails that resonate.

This software integrates seamlessly with your website and mobile apps, so you can view data in real time. You can also trigger actions by entering predefined rules. The software allows you to create personalized messages quickly and easily.

Other features include conversion tracking and customer profiles, A/B Testing, and in-context Conversations.

Pricing plans:

• Basic Plan: Starts at $150/month
• Premium plan starts at $995/month

7. Drip

Drip, as its name implies, is a tool that streamlines the drip email process. It includes email gathering technology, premade templates, and drag-and-drop elements to make it easy to create. Some of the features for email marketing and automation include:

• Email builders
• Email campaigns
• Emails for one-off purposes
• Automation workflows
• Multi-channel marketing

Drip’s email marketing automation was built for Ecommerce businesses. It can also work with any other E-commerce tools. Drip offers more than just email marketing automation. All of your messaging is consistent and works together to get more customers to buy.

Pricing plans starting at $19/month

Social media automation software

8. Hootsuite

Hootsuite allows you to create posts ahead of time to be published across multiple platforms. This software has more than 10,000,000 subscribers and provides users with one dashboard where they can manage all their accounts.

Hootsuite gives you real-time updates on all activities that are taking place on social media channels, including when your brand was mentioned and what was said about it. The analytics section allows you to determine the best times to post content and generate detailed reports.

It integrates with over 35 social media APIs including Google, Facebook and Twitter as well as LinkedIn, Instagram and LinkedIn. It supports Google Analytics.

Pricing plans:

• Professional Plan: $19/month
• Team Plan: $99/month
• Business plan: $599/month
• Pricing for Enterprise Plans:

9. Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a powerful social media toolkit that offers tons of amazing features. It can be used to schedule posts and monitor influencers, find competitors, track keywords, discover mentions, and analyze your stats.

Sprout Social’s publishing wing is great for teams too. It makes it easy to work together on strategy and execution. It is affordable, easy to use and suitable for small and medium-sized businesses. No credit card required.

Pricing plans:

• Standard Plan: $99/user/month
• Professional Plan: $149 per user/month
• Advanced Plan: $249/user/month

10. Buffer

Buffer was originally a social media content management platform. It has evolved to reflect how brands use social media channels today.

Buffer’s best feature is its ability to provide enough data to help you choose the right time to post content. Buffer’s analytics system provides valuable insight into how your social media strategies compare to those of other brands.

Buffer has unique benefits from an UX and automation perspective. Adding content is simple, especially when using a browser extension. A panel guides you through what information you should fill out, including description, image and social networks you want to post to. It also tells you when the post will be sent.

It is easy to use and includes all the tools you need. Buffer is constantly improving to meet the growing demands of social media.

Pricing plans: Buffer Publishing:

• Pro Plan: $15/ month
• Premium Plan: $65/ month
• Business plan: $99 per month

Buffer Analyze:

• Pro Plan: $35/ month
• Premium Plan: $50/ month

11. Mention

A subscription to Mention will ensure that you are always aware of when your brand is mentioned in social media conversations. This software is packed with information that will allow you to perform brand monitoring, competitor analysis, and much more.

Mention links directly to you with the people discussing your brand. This will make it easier for you to reach out to them immediately and answer any questions they may have. This will help you to get new leads and increase your sales.

Pricing plans:

• Solo Plan: $29/ month
• Pro Plan: $99/ month
• ProPlus Plan: $199/ month
• Company Plan: $450 per month

Software to automate customer journeys

12. Act-on

Act on integrates multiple inbound, outbound and lead nurturing programs into one large enterprise to maximize their return.

Software also tracks digital KPIs across various categories such as traffic conversions and landing page conversions. Email performance, social media engagement, content downloadings, and email performance are all tracked automatically.

You can also create custom analytic dashboards that are real-time and available for external use. This will ensure your clients and team always have the latest information.

Pricing plans:

• Starts at $900/month for Professional Plan
• Enterprise plan: Starting at $2,000/month

13. Infusionsoft by Keap

Infusionsoft, a marketing automation platform that is part of Keap is designed to improve communication between your company’s leads and customers. It is a great choice for solopreneurs and small businesses.

It is possible to set up complicated decision trees depending upon which lead magnet someone signed up for, how many emails they open and click or any other contact property data.

Pricing Plan: Starting at $140/month

Software for advertising automation

14. Adroll

Adroll has been a popular digital advertising automation tool for years. It makes it simple to run ads on every channel, from social media to email.

You can create customized experiences that increase marketing efficiency by using cross-device and platform retargeting.

Adroll’s key features include flexible segmentation, flexible LiquidAds, dynamic LiquidAds and thorough analytics. Expert optimization and conversion reporting are also some of its most important features.

Pricing plans:

• Starter Plan: $0
• Essentials Plan starts at $9/month
• Growth Plan: Starts at $19/month

15. Reveal Bolt

Revealbolt automates only two platforms: Facebook and Google. The software allows media buyers to scale their campaigns efficiently while spending less time managing their ad accounts.

You can also access detailed analytics on ad campaigns, which allows you to quickly find the most successful campaigns and double down on them. The platform allows you to create rules that optimize campaigns, and can even generate full campaign reports.

Pricing Plan: Starting at $99/month

16. Zalster

Zalster was launched in 2015. It is an incredible tool to automate ad campaigns. This software, powered by AI, optimizes advertiser’s budgets, targets groups, and ads and produces the best results.

Zalster

The automated algorithms of Zalster optimize everything around the clock. Zalster’s best feature is its dedicated Client Success Manager. This person can help with any technical or strategic query.

Pricing Plan: Starting at $39/month

Software for pricing automation

17. Prisync

Prisync provides a powerful pricing automation platform for E-commerce. E-commerce is a market that tends to have the most price-conscious customers. It’s important for brands to be able to react quickly to changes in the marketplace.

Prisync’s fully automated pricing system ensures that you are always up to date on competitor pricing and how it compares with yours. The best thing about Prisync is that it updates prices four times per day and generates dynamic reports on your preferred products. You will also receive regular email alerts as well as instant notifications about price and stock changes.

Pricing plans:

• Professional Plan: $59/month
• Premium Plan: $129/ month
• Platinum Plan: $229/ month

18. Be informed

Informed provides a repricing platform for online sellers and E-commerce businesses. This platform is ideal for sellers who want to be supported by a team of experts and have easy set-up.

This tool supports 13 marketplaces so it works regardless of where you sell online. This tool is unique in that it lets you choose whether to create your own repricing strategy, or use its AI-powered suggestions.

It helps businesses to establish a profit margin and see where the majority of their revenues come from. The best part is that Informed works with E-commerce wizards to extract actionable reports and identify growth opportunities.

Pricing Plan: Starting at $49/month

19. Skuuudle

Skuuudle is a tool for brands that have a large product catalog. It makes it easy to compare prices and match products at scale. This will ensure you don’t miss a sale due to price. It is one of few tools that can pull data from E-commerce marketplaces as well as direct sellers.

This automated pricing software provides human-quality guaranteed data. The software’s reports are finalized by an experienced QA analyst.

Pricing plans:

• Essential Plan: PS89/month
• Professional Plan: PS119/month
• Corporate Plan: PS999/month
• Pricing for Enterprise Plans: Custom pricing

20. Wiser

Wiser offers one of the best pricing automation tools available. The software automatically adjusts to market changes and adapts your pricing strategy so that it works for both you and your customers.

This US-based company was founded in 2013. It ensures clients that they receive data fast and accurately. It analyzes online and in-store data to assist retailers with a variety of pricing-related tasks such as price intelligence and tracking MAP.

It can help you with everything, from A/B Testing your prices to estimating the demand, so you can find your sweet spot and maximize your profit. Any retailer, online or offline, can use its services to gain market and consumer insights without having to do it manually.

Pricing plan: For pricing information, contact Wiser

Software for loyalty and referral marketing automation 

21. Referral Rock

Referral marketing can be powerful but you must encourage and capitalize on it. Referral Rock makes setting up the right kind of referral program for your company easy, from refer-a friend, influencer marketing and business partner programs. It’s easy to set it up once, and the referrals will come in on their own.

To provide seamless customer interaction across all touchpoints, you can easily create your referral program right into your customer interactions or marketing channels. This software is easy to use and can be set up quickly.

Pricing plans:

• Starter Plan: $200/ month
• Growth Plan: $400/month
• Established Business Plan: $800/ month

22. TapMango

TapMango a customer loyalty automation platform takes the punch card system of old and modernizes them for today’s customers. TapMango offers a variety of promotions and flexible reward structures. It also has a mobile app that can be customized to your brand. TapMango makes it easy to reward loyalty and refer customers.

TapMango’s fully automated POS integration makes it easy to convert sales transactions into loyal clients. TapMango can integrate with most POS systems such as Lightspeed and Square.

Pricing plan: TapMango asks you to contact them regarding pricing information

23. Friendbuy

Friendbuy makes it easy to launch your referral campaign. It uses lightweight code snippets that make it simple to go live. The widget templates are optimized for mobile use and encourage sharing. Active referrals can be made from anywhere in your website or mobile app.

Software automates fulfillment of any type of reward, including coupon codes, loyalty points and gift cards. Friendbuy uses robust algorithms to detect fraud and determine eligibility for reward points.

Track your performance in real time through each stage of the referral funnel.

Pricing plans:

• Starter Plan: $249/ month
• Deluxe Plan: $749/ month
• Pricing for Enterprise Plans:

24. ReferralMagic

This software can transform your customers and users into referral magnets. How is this possible?

ReferralMagic allows you to easily integrate referral tracking software on your website. You can also integrate the right referral program into your SaaS and rebrand or resell it to your clients. It is customizable based on your business requirements.

Let’s look at why businesses and brands should consider using ReferralMagic to promote their business. ReferralMagic has many advantages that make it stand out among other marketing automation tools.

• It allows you to leverage your existing customers
• It effectively tracks all types of traffic to your site
• You can customize it to meet your needs.
• It’s cost-effective
• It’s customer-centric
• It is dedicated to your goals

ReferralMagic is a referral marketing wizard, as its name suggests.

Pricing plans:

• Monthly Plan: $245/month
• Annual Plan: $2205/year
• On-premise: $9700 (one-time license fee)

The bottom line

Marketing automation software is not for everyone.

You can transform marketing insights into A+ execution at large by identifying your needs and selecting the right tool to meet them. This will allow you to spend less time worrying about the details and increase your ability to grow your business.