
The world of marketing is a busy one: There’s always a deadline approaching, content to create and distribute, and a fire to put out here or there. Sometimes, it feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day, so finding quick and easy ways to help make magic happen can go a long way. Whether those methods involve content distribution tools, tips to streamline processes and cut time, or tricks and hacks that can make our lives easier, I think every marketer can agree on the need to find the next best thing.
Marketing automation is no different: We need tools to help move our projects through the pipeline and measure our success through metrics like engagement, leads generated, and conversions. Below is a list of helpful marketing automation platforms to consider using if you aren’t already:
The Influence & Co. team has sung HubSpot’s praises before, and that’s because HubSpot helps both our marketing team and our sales team do their jobs so much more efficiently. Plus, it’s the No. 1 inbound marketing program in the world — and for good reason.
Its software integrates blogging, social media monitoring and publishing, contacts, SEO, email marketing, marketing automation, and analytics all on one platform.
HubSpot allows us to showcase the ROI of our marketing efforts, optimize our content strategy, manage our blog, grow our social presence, and bring content and SEO together. HubSpot claims to help your business generate leads, close deals, and manage your pipeline, and its wide range of pricing and features options make it a good solution for small businesses and enterprise organizations.
A Salesforce company that helps sales and marketing teams with lead management, Pardot has created software that features email marketing, automated lead nurturing, lead scoring CRM integration, and ROI tracking.
Pardot claims to maximize efficiency, accelerate the pipeline, drive revenue, and align marketing and sales. Specifically, Pardot allows you to track prospects’ interactions with your site, then score these prospects based on the parameters you set. By doing so, you can save time by engaging with the most viable prospects.
Hatchbuck earned a place on G2 Crowd’s “Best of 2015” list by ranking highest in customer satisfaction for CRM and marketing automation. Its software features email marketing, lead management, campaign management, and analytics for small business owners. Its lead management feature includes online behavior tracking, CRM lead integration and nurturing, and data quality management, while its campaign management and analytics features include event and webinar marketing and ROI, revenue, and web analytics.
Hatchbuck allows you to keep tabs on prospects using tasks and hot-lead alerts, drip campaigns, autoresponders, and data-driven insights. It also claims to be easy to learn and use, as well as super affordable. (Full disclosure: Hatchbuck is an Influence & Co. client.)
Marketo helps marketing and sales professionals drive revenue and improve marketing accountability. Its software features include search marketing, landing pages, web personalization, social media and behavior tracking, email marketing, nurturing, ad targeting, mobile engagement, sales intelligence, and CRM integration. Marketo claims to streamline marketing processes, generate better leads, and dramatically improve sales performance.
Accelo sets itself apart from a lot of automated software out there with the level of customization its interface offers, as well as its ability to integrate with your systems. Its cloud-based software features automatic email capture, automated time sheets, and intelligent business processes and forecasting. It also pretty much eliminates data entry by automatically bringing together all of your emails and appointments with clients into a CRM that grows with you.
Ultimately, Accelo claims to be specifically tailored for professional services, making it easier to manage enterprise-level automation, project management, CRM, billing, and time tracking.
Do you currently use any of these marketing automation platforms? If so, let us know about it in the comments!
Taylor Oster is a marketer and designer with a passion for using helpful, educational, high-quality content to achieve tangible business results. Connect with her on Twitter or LinkedIn.