12 Best marketing automation software

As in the world nowadays businesses focus more on optimizing and maximizing return on investment through efficient marketing. Marketing automation plays a significant role for companies in terms of effective management and optimization of marketing campaigns within multi-channel views.

The article below would engage with the top 12 marketing automation software solutions, their key features, and what’s most important about them to modern businesses.

What is Marketing Automation Software?

Marketing automation platforms packages brought to firms the high edge chance in the automation of repetitive marketing tasks. The technology permits firms to fine-tune workflows that permit messages getting delivered with precision, depending on the intended message content for the audience. One efficient marketing system is achieved by integrating the marketing channels: email, social media, web sites, and customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

Why Business Needs Marketing Automation Tools

1. Saves time:

This automation also saves a lot of time and thus provides significant business leverage in terms that the marketing teams would do the high-value activities instead of repetitive manual procedures.

2. Better ROI Tracking:

Since the marketing automation systems are accompanied by granular analytics and reporting, campaign performance and ROI can be found out in no time.

3. Good Lead Capture and nurturing:

The tools assist the businesses to capture, rate, and nurture leads better, hence a much greater chance of conversion.

4. Scalability:

Marketing automation systems scale well with the expansion of a business to ensure that increased demands and complexity are met without breakdowns.

5. Improved Personalization:

Use customer data to serve more personalized and relevant content to your audience.

6. Multi-channel Campaign Management:

The Marketing automation platforms allow effortless integration across marketing channels such that consistent messaging and branding are upheld.

Key Features to Look for in Marketing Automation Software

Lead Management: It captures, score and nurture leads in the sales funnel
CRM Integration: integration with popular CRM platforms for an all-round view of customer data
Analytics and Reporting: Comprehensive reporting and data visualization tools to measure campaign performance
Social Media Management: Scheduling, publishing, and analytics on social media content.
Landing Page and Form Builder: All simple, easy-to-create landing pages and forms to capture leads.
Segmentation and Personalization: Advanced segmentation to be performed along with capabilities of personalization for better messaging.

Top 12 Marketing Automation Software in 2024

For better clarity, here are the top 12 marketing automation solutions-covered below with major features, cost, pros and cons, and suggested use cases.

1. HubSpot

Being one of the most versatile and inclusive inbound marketing, sales, and customer service platforms-that in a highly competitive market-was able to maintain market leadership. On the other hand, it offers a very solid set of automation tools for managing all content, developing social media campaigns, email marketing campaigns, and helping lead nurturing in 2024.

Its strength is inclusive, combining the CRM, marketing, sales, and service hubs into just one single platform. The user interface is friendly and all-inclusive, educational resources are very comprehensive, which makes it suitable for all businesses- small or enterprise.

Key Features:

CRM
Email marketing and automation
Landing page builder and form builder
Social media management
Content management system
SEO tools
Analytics and Reporting

Pricing

Free Version
Starter: $45
Professional: $800
Enterprise: $3,200

Pros:

All-in-one comprehensive platform
Ease of Use
Extensive integration capabilities
Strong analytics and reporting

Cons:

It could be very expensive for small businesses
High-end apps are only accessible on the paid version

Best For

Small to Enterprise businesses need an integrated marketing and sales solution

Website:

https://www.hubspot.com

2. Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Salesforce Marketing Cloud is one of the most powerful free marketing automation software in use today. It features among the highest-ranked marketing automation systems in 2024, and it has been used to power a wide range of applications that include email marketing, social media management, advertising, and even customer journey mapping.

The power is deep integration with Salesforce CRM, and thus, there’s free flow of data between the marketing and sales teams. The Salesforce Marketing Cloud applies AI-driven insights such that it helps businesses to easily run personalized, multichannel campaigns at scale.

Key Features

Multi-channel campaign management
AI-powered personalization
Customer journey mapping
Advance email marketing

Tools for social media marketing
Mobile marketing capabilities
Comprehensive analytics and reporting

Pricing:

Custom pricing as per the business requirement
Typically starts from $400/ month for basic email functionality
It is a full-fledged platform and costs thousands of dollars a month.

Pros:

Enterprise grade power-packed features
It has a very good integration with Salesforce CRM
Advance AI and also Machine learning
Scalable even to the most massive organizations

Cons:

Steep learning curve
Too expensive for small and medium-sized business organizations
Often tricky to establish and run

Best for:

Mature organizations with multichannel, complex marketing needs

Website:

https://www.salesforce.com/products/marketing-cloud/overview

3. EngageBay

EngageBay is one of the best marketing automation softwares in the all-in-one marketing, sales, and services platform for small to medium businesses in 2024 at costs below its closest peers. Strength would come for EngageBay through its full-featured offerings on email marketing, lead generation, contact management, and customer support. Its user-friendliness paired with a budget price tag is what makes this platform so good for businesses to assume marketing automation without much ado.

Key Features:

Includes email marketing and automation
Includes Landing page, form builder
Adds CRM and contact
Live chat and helpdesk
Appointment scheduling
Sales pipeline management
Reporting and analytics

Pricing:

Free plans with a feature of contact up to 1,000
Basic: $14.99 per user/month
Growth: $49.99 per user/month
Pro: $79.99 per user/month

Pros

Affordable prices for small businesses
Feature-rich
Easy interface
Good customer support

Cons

Less advanced functionalities compared to enterprise apps
Pretty recent entrant in the market

Best For:

Small to medium-sized businesses looking for an economical all-round solutions

Website:

https://www.engagebay.com

4. Mailchimp

Mailchimp, beginning as an easy-to-use email marketing tool had, by the year 2024, developed into an all-inclusive marketing platform with the view of creating and sending emails, automating, CRM, designing for web, and other online marketing aids. Strength Every business; small or big corporations can use it. With this intuitive design tool and pre-built templates, marketers can also create highly professional-looking campaigns within the shortest amount of time.

In the recent time frame, AI-driven insights and predictive analytics help further amplify its potential, making Mailchimp a good choice for a data-driven marketing strategy.

Key Features:

Email marketing, automation
Customer Journey Builder
Website and landing-page creation
Social ad campaigns
Behavioral targeting and segmentation
A/B Testing
Analytics and reporting

Pricing:

Free plan available (up to 2,000 contacts)
Essentials plan-$11/month
Standard plan-from $17/month
Premium plan-from $299/month

Pros:

Easy-to-use interface
All features
Scalable for large businesses
Super integration power

Cons:

Costs vary based on the number of contacts
All advanced features only available on more expensive plans

Best or:

Small and medium businesses and online stores

Website:

https://www.mailchimp.com

5. ActiveCampaign

By 2024, ActiveCampaign managed to dominate the leaderboard of marketing automation software companies with the most powerful ability to automate and a strong connection to the CRM. The software it produces will allow for complex workflows, which can consist of multiple steps that can be initiated based on particular actions taken by a user in behavior, preference, and activities.

What makes it special, however, is the fact that it features extremely advanced marketing automation capabilities at a significantly lower price than most of the competing enterprise-level solutions. Its heavy investment in both machine learning and predictive sending enabled ActiveCampaign to deliver personalized customer experience at scale.

Key Features

Advanced Email Marketing Automation Software
CRM with Sales Automation
Site tracking and event tracking
Predictive sending
Dynamic content
SMS marketing
Detailed reporting and analytics

Pricing:

Lite. This plan begins at $15/month
Plus. This plan begins at $70/month
Professional. This plan starts at $159/month
Enterprise. The enterprise plan costs based on quote from ActiveCampaign

Pros:

Most of the work can be automated
The CRM system is included in it
Compared to enterprise, it is quite pocket-friendly .
Good support to the customer

Cons

It takes more time in searching for features that are provided in higher plans
The interface is also complex enough for a new user

Best for

For Small to medium-sized business owners who would like total automation.

Website:

www.activecampaign.com

6. Omnisend

OMNISend tops 2024 as the best e-commerce-focused marketing automation software, quite simply because it boasts fantastic native integration with popular e-commerce platforms for creating campaigns omnichannel in nature – email, SMS, push notifications, et al. Its strength lies in ecommerce-specialized features like a product recommendation engine, cart abandonment workflows, and even order tracking.

Super user-friendly interface and templates for automation-all included in the system. Omnidesk offers really easy and fast activation of sophisticated marketing tactics. Given its singular purpose of helping e-commerce agencies generate sales and keep customers, many online retailers of any size have come to choose it as their preferred solution.

Key features:

Email marketing automation
SMS and push-notification marketing
Product recommendation engine
Sophisticated segmentation
Workflows of cart abandonment
Pop-ups and signup forms
E-commerce analytics and reporting

Pricing:

Freemium plan provides free plans to 250 contacts
Standard plan: starting at $16/month
Pro plan starts at $99/month
Enterprise plan has custom pricing available

Pros:

Very strong on e-commerce
Has Omni-channel marketing capability
Has user-friendly interface
Pre-built automation workflows

Cons:

Lacking much in terms of features if a business isn’t doing e-commerce
Their higher-tiered plans can be pretty expensive for small businesses

Best For:

E-commerce business of all sizes

Website:

https://www.omnisend.com

7. Constant Contact

Constant Contact now has evolved into the richest all-in-one marketing platform of 2024. There is much more to this software than what began with email marketing. Today, the software provides a set of features about the management of social media, digital advertising, and e-commerce marketing. Its strength lies in its simplicity and user-friendliness, primarily towards small businesses and nonprofit organizations.

The website offers templates and a drag-and-drop editor that you could use very quickly to create truly professional-looking campaigns. Since the automation features of some of its competition are not as advanced, and with a super easy-to-use interface with deliverability guaranteed.

Key Features:

Email marketing
Social media management
Digital advertising tools
E-commerce marketing features
Event management
Survey and polls
Reporting and analytics

Pricing:

Core plan- Starting at $9.99/month
Plus plan- Starting at $45/month
Custom pricing for high-volume senders

Advantages

Ease of use interface
High deliverability rate
Good customer support
Good variety of template customization options

Cons

Limited number of advanced automations
Priced a bit more expensive than some other providers who may offer similar functionalities

Best For:

Small businesses and nonprofits who need an easy-to-use marketing platform

Website:

https://www.constantcontact.com

8. Marketo Engage (Adobe)

Although Marketo Engage has acquired Adobe Experience Cloud, it is still leading in B2B marketing automation until 2024. Its product catalog manages all leads, email marketing, and account-based marketing. The company can deal with complex multi-touch marketing campaigns across diverse channels making it a much-sought-after tool for lead marketing.

Its challenging analytics combined with it being embedded into other Adobe resources for marketing makes it an enticing proposition to the more discerning users who have significant marketing requirements. Marketers have enhanced its value by using more AI-driven insights and predictive analytics in delivering personal experiences at scale.

Key Features:

Advanced Lead Management/Scoring
Account Based Marketing Email
Automation Landing Page
Form Creation Social Media Marketing
Revenue attribution modeling
Varied third-party integrations

Pricing :

It has custom pricing which can adapt itself to the requirements of any business.
It can reach millions or thousands per month.

Pros:

It is strong in B2B marketing
Boasts of very powerful analytics and reporting
Immense opportunities for customization
Very strongly integrates with the Adobe Experience Cloud

Cons

Hard to learn curve
Expensive to small and medium scale businesses
Uncomplex to establish and keep running

Best For:

Large B2B companies that have a variety of marketing needs requirement

Website:

https://business.adobe.com/in/products/marketo/adobe-marketo.html

9. GetResponse

The GetResponse is sold based on its flexibility as an all-inclusive, one-stop-shop for marketing tools ranging from big companies to small business applications. Some of the tools that the software owns include: really detailed tools for email marketing, automated marketing solutions, creating and hosting landing pages and webinars.

The extremely strong features it is provided with complement an interface not too challenging in any way, so whatever marketer, whether naive or very experienced, it will prove easy to work with GetResponse.

More effective than that, the AI-optimized content creation and optimization nature of the platform makes it even more effective in terms of ease and speed of establishment for successful marketing campaigns.

Key Features

Email marketing and automation
Landing page and form builders
Webinar hosting
Conversion funnels
AI-powered content generation
E-commerce marketing tools

Pricing

Basic plan: $15 per month
Plus plan: starting at $49 per month
Professional plan: starting at $99 per month

Benefits

Has a full-featured set of features
Has an easier interface
Very competitive pricing
Has webinar hosting to host

Cons:

Advance features are only available on the high-tier plans
CRM functionality is limited to a few competitors

Best Use:

Best suited for small to medium-sized businesses that need a flexible marketing tool.

Website:

https://www.getresponse.com

10. Oracle Eloqua

Oracle Eloqua continues to be one of the most prominent enterprise-level marketing automation platforms in 2024, strong on capabilities and scalable. Tools also offered in the software include multi-channel; email, social media, or mobile marketing. However, what it stands very strong in is its ability to handle highly complex, data-driven marketing campaigns at a large organizational level.

For example, with all such advanced lead scoring and profiling capabilities, combined with integration with segmentation, marketers are poised to provide highly personalized experiences across touchpoints.

Over the past few years, the consistent development and advancement of Eloqua in terms of AI and machine learning has further improved the ability of the solution to provide predictive insight and optimize campaign performance at scale.

Key Features

Advanced Marketing Automation
Lead management and scoring
Account-based marketing
Campaign management on multiple channels
Personalization and content management
Analytics and Reporting
Stiff analytics and reporting

Pricing:

Custom quote for each business need
Generally ranges to hundreds of thousands of dollars per month

Benefits

Enterprise-level features
Advanced Segmentation and personalization
Scalable big corporation
Powerful integration capabilities with the Oracle environment

Drawbacks

More steeper learning curve
Costly for Small and medium size businesses
Tough to set up and manage

Best For

Large-sized enterprise organizations with complex, multi-channel marketing requirements

Website: https://www.oracle.com/cx/marketing/automation/

11. Klaviyo

Klaviyo has grown up as one of the leaders in marketing automation through 2024. This means that the platform offers an integrated set of lead management, email marketing, and account-based marketing tools. This marketing automation tool is perfect for e-commerce platforms.

The power of klaviyo at connecting the dots between marketing and sales efforts is its strength through data and insights. Considering that its software has recently highlighted AI-powered analytics and engagement studio capabilities, this further boosts its capabilities in the development of sophisticated, personalized marketing campaigns for users.

Key Features

Lead scoring and grading
Email marketing and nurturing
Account-based marketing
Landing page and form builders
ROI reporting and analytics

Pricing

Growth: $1,250/month up to 10,000 contacts
Plus: $2,500/month up to 10,000 contacts
Pro: Advanced: $4,000/month up to 10,000 contacts
Premium: Custom

Pros

Powerful marketing capabilities
Advanced lead scoring and grading
Strong reporting and analytics

Cons:

Advance features are only available on the high-tier plans

Best For:

E commerce companies to help their business grow

Website:

https://www.klaviyo.com

12. Drip

Drip is one of the strongest e-commerce marketing automation software systems in 2024 for online retailers. An all-in-one tool offering various features based on its activity that allows all e-commerce businesses to tailor revenue-driving marketing campaigns. Strengths in deep integration with the most sought-after e-commerce channels and utilizing customer behavior data to build highly targeted automations.

An additional strength in driving sales and retaining the customers of online stores is the AI-powered product recommendation and predictive analytics feature of the platform. The service, Drip has grown into a de facto solution for businesses which look to optimize the possibilities of Internet sales through its friendly interface and e-commerce-focused functionality.

Key Features:

E-commerce-centric marketing automation
Visual workflow designer
Refined segmentation and personalization
Multi-channel marketing (email, SMS, social)
Recommendations of products
Revenue attribution
Integration with popular e-commerce shops

Pricing

This plan starts at a price of $39 per month for up to 2,500 contacts.
For larger contact lists, the company charges on a custom basis.

Pros

Focused so much on e-commerce
Eases workflow building process through visual interface
Flexible segmentation powers
Amazing integration with e-commerce integration

Cons:

Extremely pricey for larger email lists
Has very minimal non-e-commerce friendly functionalities

Best For:

E-commerce business looking to segment through marketing automation.

Website:

https://www.drip.com

7 Pro tips to select the best Marketing Automation Software for your business

Selecting the appropriate marketing automation software for your company is an activity to attain the highest marketing potential and ROI. Here are the key points that need to be taken into consideration:

1. Set up your goals: Define what you want to accomplish with marketing automation. Is this lead generation, customer retention, or a process of marketing ?

2. Your Needs: Run analysis of your current practice in marketing and find out which of the most in need of improvement. This helps you differentiate the features that you may or may not need.

3. Budget: Marketing automation software falls in an altogether pretty wide price range. Find out how much you can invest, and at the same time, calculate the amount the software can likely return.

4. Features: Analyze the key features you’ll need-email marketing, lead scoring, CRM integration, analytics, and multichannel capabilities. Make sure the feature set meets the solution requirement.

5. Usability: Ensure that it comes with an easy interface to be accepted easily by your team. A high stiff learning curve may delay the implementation process and even the adoption.

6. Scalability: Choose software that will grow alongside your business. It has to be able to handle more contacts, complex campaigns, features as your business expands.

7. Integration: It should have features of integration with the rest of the tools you use the most, especially your CRM system.

Conclusion

The best marketing automation software is very critical in that it might go a long way to influence, or have an influence on, marketing efforts as well as the growth of business. With that said, after careful consideration of your goals, needs, budget, and the features offered by the different platforms, you may select a solution that fits perfectly with your business objectives.

Comparison Table

Software Name	Pricing	Best For	Website
HubSpot	Free, Starter: $45, Pro: $800, Enterprise: $3,200	Small to Enterprise businesses needing integrated marketing/sales solutions	www.hubspot.com
Salesforce Marketing Cloud	Custom pricing, typically from $400/month	Mature organizations with complex, multichannel marketing needs	www.salesforce.com
EngageBay	Free, Basic: $14.99, Growth: $49.99, Pro: $79.99	Small to medium businesses seeking economical, all-round solutions	www.engagebay.com
Mailchimp	Free plan, Essentials: $11, Standard: $17, Premium: $299	Small and medium businesses and online stores	www.mailchimp.com
ActiveCampaign	Lite: $15, Plus: $70, Professional: $159	Small to medium businesses needing total automation	www.activecampaign.com
Omnisend	Free for 250 contacts, Standard: $16, Pro: $99	E-commerce businesses of all sizes	www.omnisend.com
Constant Contact	Core: $9.99, Plus: $45, Custom for high-volume senders	Small businesses and nonprofits needing easy-to-use platforms	www.constantcontact.com
Marketo Engage (Adobe)	Custom pricing, varies by business needs	Large B2B companies with complex marketing requirements	www.adobe.com
GetResponse	Basic: $15, Plus: $49, Professional: $99	Small to medium businesses needing flexible marketing tools	www.getresponse.com
Oracle Eloqua	Custom pricing, varies widely	Large enterprise organizations with complex marketing needs	www.oracle.com
Klaviyo	Growth: $1,250, Plus: $2,500, Pro: $4,000	E-commerce businesses	www.klaviyo.com
Drip	Starting at $39/month	E-commerce businesses optimizing internet sales	www.drip.com

FAQs

Q: What is marketing automation software?

It automates the routine tasks and workflows so that one can have the most efficient and more personalized marketing approach.

Q: How much does marketing automation software typically cost?

Ranges from zero, free plans for a small business to thousands of dollars per month for enterprise solutions.

Q: Can marketing automation software replace my marketing team?

Yes, it is added to your team to supplement rather than replace human ingenuity and strategy.

Q: How long does it take to implement marketing automation software?

This depends completely on the complexity of the implementation project: from a few weeks for easy configurations to several months for complex enterprise integrations.