Marketing automation software sets marketing departments free to concentrate on more valuable tasks, by taking over the more repetitive aspects of the job. It can also help by providing clear goals, checklists and processes that everyone from consultants to part-time marketing staff can follow, so marketing is less error-prone as well as more streamlined. From its origins as a method for automating marketing emails, marketing automation has expanded radically and although only 5% of business use it (VentureBeat Insights, 2015), many more should: 80% of companies that use marketing automation saw an increase in leads in 2014 and 77% saw an increase in conversions (VentureBeat 2015).<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not always plain sailing with marketing automation though. Many businesses are dissatisfied with their marketing automation software and as many as 20% of marketers in a recent survey were in the process of switching to a new marketing automation tool (Third Door Media, 2015). While the problem is sometimes that implementation is flawed, there is a big difference in the range of tools available. While no brief introduction can cover the variables or the huge range of options, it can offer a list of the best places to start.<\/p>\n
1: Eloqua<\/p>\n
Eloqua is for the truly committed. It\u2019s features-packed, comprehensive and expensive. One of its major benefits is that the company offers incredible support, basically tutoring individual customers in how to get the best out of the tool on their terms. Offering seriously tight CRM integration and a great marketplace, Eloqua is priced at $2, 000 per month.<\/p>\n
2: Constant Contact<\/p>\n
On the other end of the scale from Eloqua, Constant Contact is a light, small business-friendly and fast out of the blocks. If you want email marketing automation, and nothing else, right now, this could be the tool for you. It\u2019s very user friendly and simple to use, and compared to some other options on the market it\u2019s very affordable. If you\u2019re planning a more comprehensive automation drive down the line though, Constant Contact won\u2019t be able to follow you there. It\u2019s email-only. Constant Contact is priced at $15 per month.<\/p>\n
3: HubSpot<\/p>\n
HubSpot is the \u2018Jack-of-all-trades\u2019 of marketing automation. It does everything, while specialising in nothing. In some ways that\u2019s a big advantage and HubSpot doesn\u2019t even concentrate on marketing automation, seeking to offer \u2018inbound automation\u2019 instead, with its marketing automation just a component of that. For businesses looking for software that functions like a marketing department in a box, this is the nearest you\u2019re going to get, with a proven track record and a reasonable price tag of $200 per month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Marketing automation software sets marketing departments free to concentrate on more valuable tasks, by taking over the more repetitive aspects of the job. It can also help by providing clear…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-technology"],"yoast_head":"\n