10 Best Marketing Automation Software Shortlist
Here's my pick of the 10 best software from the 20 tools reviewed.
With so many different marketing automation software solutions available, figuring out which is right for you is tough. You know you want to automate repetitive tasks such as email marketing, social media posting, and ad campaigns—but now need to figure out which tool is best. I've got you! In this post, I'll help make your choice easy, sharing my personal experiences using dozens of different marketing automation tools with online stores of all sizes, with my picks of the best marketing automation software overall.
What is Marketing Automation Software?
Marketing automation software is a technology that manages marketing processes and multifunctional campaigns across multiple channels automatically. It streamlines, automates, and measures marketing tasks and workflows to increase operational efficiency and grow revenue faster.
The purpose is to enable businesses to automate repetitive tasks such as email marketing, social media posting, and ad campaigns, and provide tools for segmenting audiences, personalizing content, and analyzing campaign results.
Overviews Of The 20 Best Marketing Automation Software for Ecommerce
Here’s a brief description of each marketing automation software for ecommerce that showcases each software’s best use case, their noteworthy features, and some pros & cons. I’ve also included screenshots to give you a snapshot of their user interface too.
Salesforce Pardot is a marketing automation software designed to help businesses, especially those in the B2B sector, streamline their marketing processes and generate more leads. It's part of the Salesforce ecosystem, which means it can be easily integrated with other Salesforce products and services.
Why I picked Salesforce Pardot: I chose Salesforce Pardot because it offers a comprehensive set of features that can help businesses of all sizes improve their marketing efforts. It's particularly well-suited for B2B businesses, as it focuses on lead generation and nurturing, which are crucial for this type of business. Additionally, its leverage of Einstein allows you to see when leads are getting ready to buy based on their behavior and see a lead score that will tell you the quality of that lead.
Pardot also lets you take control over email campaign design through an interactive builder that makes it easy to set up email campaigns. The personalized customer journeys you can build in its engagement studio will complement this by defining specific moments in which you trigger email communications with people.
Salesforce Pardot Standout Features & Integrations
Features include lead scoring and grading that lets you assign scores and grades to your leads based on their interactions with your marketing content, helping you prioritize your efforts on the most promising prospects. Then you have engagement studio that helps you visually create campaigns in an intuitive builder. You can set up triggers, actions, and rules to automate your marketing processes and ensure that your leads receive the right content at the right time.
Integrations include bit.ly, Evenbrite, Olark Chat, Webinar, and Google AdWords.
Best marketing automation software for large marketing teams or enterprise organizations
HubSpot is a CRM platform with the necessary software, integrations, and resources to connect the customer service, sales, content management, and marketing aspects of a business. Their HubSpot Marketing Hub is a powerful product, including numerous marketing automation features that can help companies with their campaigns.
Why I picked HubSpot Marketing: Their automation tools allow you to produce marketing campaigns using real-time data gathered from customers who go through established automated workflows. You can use intuitive visual workflows and bot builders to automate emails and forms, and create robust automated campaigns through email, chat, and ads. Additionally, you'll gain access to HubSpot’s wide library of integrations to extend your campaigns across different channels.
Automating marketing campaigns through HubSpot will help you quickly move prospects down the marketing funnel, leading to more conversions. Their no-code visual editor simplifies the process, giving you tools to easily envision and create sophisticated and targeted workflows. In addition to marketing, you can also use the platform to automate other tasks, including setting up webhooks, scoring leads, rotating leads to sales, and managing data.
HubSpot Marketing Standout Features and Integrations
Features include automated workflow tools, integrated forms, landing pages, email automations, social media integrations, SEO tools, and attribution reporting.
Integrations include popular eCommerce platforms like BigCommerce, Magento, Shopify, Stripe, and WooCommerce, as well as with CRM platforms like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Industry leader in the marketing software space
- Some features are available for free
- Up to 1,000 automation workflows (Enterprise plan)
Cons:
- Pricing structure for multiple products is a bit complex
- Numerous features can take some time to master
SimpleTexting is a robust text message marketing platform with a sole focus on helping marketers reach people right where they are—on their phones. Since 2010, the company has been building out its application with tools that can benefit virtually any business.
Why I picked SimpleTexting:
As its name suggests, SimpleTexting is easy to get up to speed with. You'll find a streamlined inbox that brings all your messages into one central place, and a mobile app for texting on the go. SimpleTexting can send extended SMS messages of up to 306 characters (instead of the usual 160), and it also supports MMS messaging with up to 1,600 characters.
The main challenge to successful text marketing is getting subscribers, so SimpleTexting offers web sign-up forms and short codes to help you get a list going. There's also flexibility if you want to text with your own business number or a toll-free number. Automation features include autoresponders, triggers, scheduling, and drip campaigns.
SimpleTexting Standout Features and Integrations
Features include automated text campaigns, extended SMS messaging, MMS messaging, mass texting, short codes, keywords, segmentation, and analytics.
Integrations include Constant Contact, Google Calendar, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Salesforce, Shopify, Slack, WordPress, Zapier, and Zoho CRM.
PROS
Easy-to-use interface
Mobile app
Unused credits roll over
CONS
Lightweight analytics tools
Only available in the US and Canada
Ahrefs helps businesses monitor every time their brand is mentioned online.
Why I picked Ahrefs: The platform allows you to monitor how people are mentioning your brand online. When using Ahrefs, you can understand what people say about your business or your competition and use that knowledge to grow. You can also set up mentions for relevant keywords to your business, enabling you to discover whoever is talking about the things you do but hasn’t discovered your brand yet.
Ahrefs helps organizations and SEO professionals that need a tool to simplify their marketing efforts. You can use the software to identify your competitor’s organic keywords and marketing strategies to replicate their results. Ahrefs can also audit your website to help you identify any issues your site has and understand how to fix them.
Ahrefs Standout Features and Integrations
Features include SEO auditing, keyword research tools, link management, competitor analysis, mobile search tracking, keyword tracking, and rank tracking.
Integrations include Rambox, Reportz, Marketing Miner, GuinRank, Google Search Console, AgencyAnalytics, DashThis, Klipfolio, Databox, Linkody, Pipedream, and SEO Review Tools.
PROS
An essential tool for SEO marketing
Effective site auditing capabilities
Easy-to-use interface
CONS
No free trial is available
The data isn’t always accurate
EngageBay combines tools for marketing, sales, and support in a single CRM platform at a price designed to attract small businesses. You won't find any plans over a Benjamin a month, and there's a free version you can try for as long as you like.
Why I picked EngageBay:
If you need both a marketing automation strategy and a CRM platform at a cost that doesn't crush you, then EngageBay is a good choice. It's an affordable, all-in-one solution packed with features for the entire customer journey.
However, you can still access the marketing automation tools without subscribing to the full stack. EngageBay packages its marketing, sales, and support products in standalone plans in addition to selling them as a bundle.
EngageBay Standout Features and Integrations
Features include autoresponders, drip campaigns, automated email templates, and smart segmentation. EngageBay also supports free migrations from any other platform you're currently using.
Integrations include Asana, BulkSMS, DocuSign, QuickBooks, LinkedIn, Shopify, Stripe, Twilio, WooCommerce, and Zapier. Note that third-party integrations aren't available with the free plan.
PROS
Low-cost contender for small businesses seeking an all-in-one CRM with strong marketing automation software
Great selection of integrations
Free migration service
CONS
Free version has limited exposure to automation
Contacts limited to 500 unless you choose the $49.99/month Growth plan
Best marketing automation software for lifecycle marketing
ActiveCampaign is a marketing automation tool that helps businesses win more repeat customers with drip campaigns.
Why I picked ActiveCampaign: ActiveCampaign is a top-rated marketing hub that enables companies to plan and execute complex marketing campaigns that rely on customer data. The solution makes it easy to customize each campaign based on customer behavior, allowing you to replicate a one-on-one shopping experience for each user in your contact list.
ActiveCampaign helps you gain more returning customers with personalization. The software enables you to move prospects through the awareness stages and send them upselling or cross-selling communications based on their behavior.
ActiveCampaign Standout Features and Integrations
Features include welcome emails, abandoned cart reminders, cross-sell emails, list segmentation, drag-and-drop automation workflows, CRM software, contact management, lead scoring, and forms & surveys creation.
Integrations include BigCommerce, Calendly, Magento Commerce, PayPal, Shopify, Stripe, Square, Typeform, WooCommerce, WordPress, and others.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Easy to set up powerful automations
- Simple to create branded email templates
- Out-of-the-box automation templates
Cons:
- Customizing an email’s design can sometimes be difficult
- Has a bit of a learning curve for beginners
Best marketing automation software for targeted communication
Sendinblue is a marketing automation tool that enables companies to segment their lists and target them with relevant communications.
Why I picked Sendinblue: Sendinblue helps you break down your contact list using advanced filters. You can create custom automated workflows for each customer segment, so you can target each segment with relevant messages.
Sendinblue enables you to engage your customers via website chat, email marketing, or SMS marketing. You can also create targeted user experiences with dedicated landing pages for each customer segment. The software also enables you to export your contact lists to social media ad accounts, so you can include them in your retargeting campaigns.
Sendinblue Standout Features and Integrations
Features include contact segmentation, marketing automation, retargeting, CRM, A/B testing, landing page creation, forms & surveys, and email heatmap functionality.
Integrations include BigCommerce, Elementor, LeadSync, Magento, Microsoft Dynamics, PrestaShop, Shopify, Thrive Leads, WordPress, and others.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Easy to customize emails
- Straightforward onboarding
- No limit to subscriber database
Cons:
- Automating a drip marketing campaign is not very intuitive
- Advanced tutorials can be difficult to find
Ortto is a marketing automation solution that helps ecommerce businesses understand which marketing channels works best for them with detailed attribution reporting.
Why I picked Ortto: Ortto is a platform that connects to all your work tools through native or third-party integrations. The software pulls data from all your tools to create detailed reports on your marketing activities and their results. This helps you understand what works and why, so you can redistribute your budget and improve your results.
Once you understand your data, you can use Ortto to make the most out of it. The software uses all the information at its disposal to create audience segments. You can use these segments to create tailored customer journeys and place the right message in front of your target audience, no matter which lifecycle stage they’re in.
Ortto Standout Features and Integrations
Features include SMS marketing, popups, surveys & forms, in-app nudges, analytics and reporting, email marketing, email templates, multilingual marketing, and customer journey templates.
Integrations include Calendly, Facebook, Google Workspace, Livechat, Pipedrive, Salesforce, Stripe, Zendesk, and others.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Great attribution functionality
- UI is easy to navigate and understand
- Enables you to track KPIs across multiple platforms
Cons:
- Platform can slow down when processing large sets of data
- No possibility to delete creates audiences in bulk
Intercom is where automation meets customer service. Founded in 2011, the company has become a leading choice for support services thanks to its beautiful app, lightning-fast speed, and time-saving features.
Why I picked Intercom:
Whether you're running chat support or scheduling an onboarding call, Intercom has a way to make everything fast and smooth. It's the poster robot of marketing automation software for customer service.
Intercom's Messenger matches your website's branding and presents customers with self-serve options for everyday support inquiries. Additionally, the Resolution Bot uses automation and machine learning to handle common conversations so humans don't have to. Intercom also offers a configurable inbox that combines all your channels and features keyboard shortcuts and macros to help you move quickly.
Intercom Standout Features and Integrations
Features include intelligent chatbots, a customizable inbox, a branded messenger, a knowledge base, customer profiling, segmentation, and automation tools. Intercom has three main products—Support, Engage, and Convert. Features vary depending on your selected package.
Integrations include Calendly, Facebook, Google Analytics, Instagram, Jira, Mailchimp, Salesforce, Stripe, Twitter, and Whatsapp. Custom integrations are available as well.
PROS
Smart chatbots and self-service capabilities
One inbox for all communication channels
Custom integrations
CONS
Pricing is opaque
Onboarding can be slow due to software complexity
Eloqua helps businesses win over customers through customized campaigns across multiple channels.
Why I picked Eloqua: The software is a marketing automation tool that will help you monitor customers’ journeys across multiple channels, such as email, video, search, and mobile. Eloqua allows you to plan automated campaigns while personalizing them simultaneously. Its lead management tools enable you to efficiently manage data and maximize your organization’s sales. The platform is a versatile automation tool that helps you build and maintain long, valuable customer relationships.
Eloqua helps large-sized brands and marketing teams that need a solution to personalize and simplify all stages of their marketing process. It can personalize and simplify each step of the process because of its multiple data connectors. Thanks to its real-time reporting and insights, you can use Eloqua to determine when to engage with audiences in their buying journey.
Eloqua Standout Features and Integrations
Features include A/B testing, sales intelligence, analytics and ROI tracking, customizable CTAs, dynamic content, search marketing, website visitor tracking, audience segmentation, lead scoring, landing pages, web forms, and email drip campaigns.
Integrations include Domo, ClickSend, Opensense, BigMarker, Zendesk, Dropbox, Contently, Veelo, Chili Piper, SnapApp, Kaltura, Synthio, and SurveyMonkey.
PROS
Users can gather and evaluate customer information
Excellent reporting capabilities
Rigorous nurturing features generate high-quality leads
CONS
Lack of AI and machine learning
Support documentation is overwhelming
The Best Marketing Automation Software for Ecommerce Comparison Chart
This comparison chart summarizes basic details about each of my top marketing automation software systems for ecommerce. You can view pricing details and the availability of free trials or demos side-by-side to help you find the best software for your budget.
Tools | Price | |
---|---|---|
Salesforce Pardot | From $1250/month | Website |
HubSpot Marketing | From $18/month | Website |
SimpleTexting | From $45/month | Website |
Ahrefs | From $99/month when paying month-to-month or $83/month when billed annually | Website |
EngageBay | From $14.99/month (750 contacts) | Website |
ActiveCampaign | From $39/month | Website |
SendinBlue | From $25/month | Website |
Ortto | From $99/month | Website |
Intercom | From $74/month (billed annually) | Website |
Eloqua | Customized pricing upon request | Website |
Compare Software Specs Side by Side
Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.
Compare SoftwareOther Options
Here are a few more worthwhile options that didn’t make the best marketing automation software for ecommerce list:
- MailChimp
Best overall affordable option
- Ontraport
Best for entrepreneurs
- GetResponse
Best for automating customer engagement
- Social Champ
Best for social media automation
- Act-On
Best marketing automation software for small marketing teams
- Constant Contact
Best for lead nurturing
- Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Best for enterprise accounts
- Rejoiner
Best marketing automation software for increased customer lifetime value
- Klaviyo
Best marketing automation software for direct-to-customer brands
- Hubspot Marketing Hub
Best overall marketing automation software
How I Selected the Best Ecommerce Marketing Automation Software
Perhaps you're wondering how I selected the best marketing automation software for ecommerce for this list? To develop this top 10 list, I initially evaluated a wide range of ecommerce marketing automation software with positive user ratings.
For the next step, I compared each software using the selection criteria below to see how each system stacked up against the next one. I also drew on my previous experience using automation software to pinpoint the features that add a lot of value.
Selection Criteria
Here’s a short summary of the main criteria I used to develop my list of the best ecommerce marketing automation software for this article:
Audience segmentation
Marketing automation cannot produce results without audience segmentation because your prospects and customers are in different stages of awareness, so you should address them accordingly.
Templates
Designing emails and/or landing pages from scratch is time-consuming, so I selected automation software that offers a variety of templates to choose from.
Multi-channel marketing
Even though each ecommerce business has one channel that earns more than others, the reality is that you cannot focus on a single channel in today’s crowded business environment. That’s why I selected tools that allow you to automate marketing activities across multiple channels.
Software integrations
Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a marketing tool that does it all. As a result, your marketing automation software should integrate with the rest of the marketing apps you use on a daily basis.
Pricing
Marketing automation software helps you put your sales funnels on autopilot, so they’re priced accordingly. I selected tools that offer a good value for their cost.
People Also Ask
Have additional questions about marketing automation software? No worries, I’ve got your back.
What is marketing automation software?
Marketing automation software is a type of tool that helps you automate tasks commonly associated with marketing campaigns, such as email marketing, lead generation, campaign management, social media advertising, and more.
What does marketing automation software do?
Marketing automation software helps you attract and retain more clients with less effort. The end goal of using marketing automation software is to increase your profits without increasing your workload.
How will marketing automation software benefit my ecommerce business?
Marketing automation software offers multiple benefits, such as increased marketing efficiency, better customer engagement, increased customer lifetime value, and increased profits.
As Yasin Altaf, Executive Director of GoodCare Software, said:
“As an online business, staying in consistent contact with your target audience is the basis of your success. Automation software for email campaigns can send out information for promotional or retentional purposes or as soft reminders to lost customers or for abandoned carts. Businesses can also boost cross-selling and up sales by offering bundled packages or product suggestions based on learned user behavior. Lastly, AI marketing automation software can be used to gather leads for specially created landing pages.”
Other Ecommerce Marketing Software Reviews
Here are a few other lists of key ecommerce marketing software that you can consider for your overall marketing strategy.
- Ecommerce Marketing Tools
- Marketing Resource Management Software
- Ecommerce Content Marketing Platforms
- Ecommerce Email Marketing Software
- Marketing CRM Software
- Marketing Attribution Software
More Ecommerce Resources
Marketing automation software can take your business to the next level. Here are some other top-notch resources if you want to learn more about growing your ecommerce business:
- What Is Marketing Software And How Can It Benefit Your Business
- What Is Ecommerce Marketing Automation And How Can It Improve Your Business Strategy
- Omnichannel Marketing Strategy For Beginners + Useful Tools
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