Marketing automation - 5 tools for marketing automation

Many companies use marketing automation systems to strategically approach campaigns and create effective advertising messages. You may already know a little about marketing automation, but you are not utilizing its potential. That's why we have prepared a list of tools for you that automate and support marketing activities.

What is marketing automation?

Simply put, marketing automation is the use of special software and tools that support marketing activities and streamline sales processes. Marketing automation tools replace some manually performed tasks by marketing or sales departments. This allows both departments to focus on the effectiveness of other activities, using information obtained through automation tools.

Just imagine the effects that marketing automation can bring, which itself saves time and increases efficiency by automating repetitive tasks and delivering the right and personalized message at the right time, combined with other low-code and no-code tools - comments Mike Korba, CCO & co-founder of User.com.

What does marketing automation involve?

Marketing automation aims to accelerate actions (especially repetitive ones) related to collecting valuable data about customers.

The basic functions of marketing automation include:

• monitoring and analysis of user behavior on a specific website;
• user segmentation based on interests or demographic data;
• automatic creation of personalized offers;
• creation and sending of newsletters and emails;
• monitoring of recipient reactions to emails (open/reject rates, click-through rates);
• dynamic customization of messages and marketing actions based on a user's behavior;
• post-sales support.

Before implementing automated actions, you need to create a path that triggers automation (e.g., clicking a subscription button) and a specific action (e.g., sending an automatic email).

Best marketing automation tools

• User.com
• SALESmanago
• GetResponse
• Rating Captain
• HubSpot

User.com

User.com is a CRM system that works very well for tracking potential customer traffic on a website and segmenting them based on their behavior. Importantly, it allows marketers to act effectively without violating privacy rights thanks to the Customer Data Platform solution. User.com identifies at which stage of the sales funnel a particular user is and creates their profile. This allows you to tailor the appropriate message to the customer's preferences. Moreover, the platform provides an easy-to-implement solution for marketing, sales, and customer support departments.

User.com allows you to dynamically customize pages to display products that match clicked ads or visited categories. The tool also provides access to a chatbot, allows you to send personalized emails at the right time, create loyalty programs, pop-ups, and push notifications. The tool enables automation of customer acquisition, email campaigns, as well as data collection and user segmentation. Additionally, the tool's interface is very intuitive, and you can always count on the help of marketing automation experts.

From my experience, the main factor determining the choice of a marketing automation tool for online businesses is its openness to their needs and an API-first approach. Thanks to this, organizations can easily integrate the system with their existing technology stack as well as with new tools in the future. This allows for the creation of a single, well-functioning martech ecosystem. An important advantage of such a solution is the maximum utilization of available resources - emphasizes Mike Korba.

SALESmanago

SALESmanago is a marketing automation system that provides the ability to profile customers' behavioral patterns to better understand their expectations. This allows you to surprise customers with products tailored to their needs. SALESmanago also enables real-time personalization of websites, i.e., adapting the content of the site to each individual user.

All of this leads to lead generation, i.e., engaging anonymous visitors and turning them into potential customers. Of course, the tool also offers a range of functionalities for automating communication with customers across various channels. So you can run mass campaigns, send individual messages, and display tailored content at all touchpoints between the customer and your brand.

GetResponse

GetResponse is an effective email marketing tool that allows you to create email campaigns for various purposes. Moreover, GetResponse provides functionalities related to marketing automation. In the tool, you can create a customer journey based on customer data and behavior, as well as reach users who have abandoned their shopping carts. Detailed customer data and the ability to segment them allow you to create individual campaigns, which in turn translates into sales results.

In addition to that, you will find many other functionalities in GetResponse that allow you to create conversion funnels, webinars, web push notifications, and landing pages. In GetResponse, you can use ready-made automation templates tailored to your business goals.

Rating Captain

It is also worth considering automating post-sales support, of which managing customer reviews is a very important element. In this case, Rating Captain works very well. The application collects reviews about your company through invitations sent via email or SMS to your customers. If you operate in the e-commerce industry, you can also collect product reviews and then display them on subpages in your store.

Managing reviews involves many other aspects, such as analyzing reviews, responding to them, and drawing conclusions. That's why Rating Captain analyzes the sentiment of reviews to identify the most common reasons for (dis)satisfaction of customers. This provides you with information about which aspects or processes in your company need improvement to increase customer satisfaction and, consequently, increase profits. You can also conduct a NPS survey to assess the likelihood of customers recommending your company or product.

HubSpot

HubSpot is a multifunctional platform for inbound marketing, which means acquiring customers in a way that they choose the company themselves. HubSpot offers, among other things, a free CRM, as well as automation in the areas of email marketing and social media monitoring. It also allows for content optimization, e.g., on a blog in terms of SEO.

In HubSpot, you will also find the option to create landing pages and forms to convert anonymous visitors into leads that automatically go to your CRM. The platform also allows you to create a complete picture of each potential and new customer in one integrated database. This allows you to segment and nurture contacts based on collected data and automatically assess the potential of each contact.

Marketing automation tools - summary

Implementing marketing automation streamlines many processes and allows you to create customer profiles and segment them based on behavior and consumer needs. It is worth noting that marketing automation platforms are not only solutions for marketers but also for sales departments and project managers.

Marketing automation software supports and improves activities in the areas of analytics, various marketing campaigns, the purchasing process itself, and customer satisfaction. Thanks to automation, not only will you save a lot of time, but you will also increase their effectiveness. However, for marketing automation to bring results to your company, it must be well thought out.