As a small business owner, you’re often tasked with managing marketing alongside running your business. Even if you do have a dedicated marketing team, it may be a small and nimble crew. You and your team know digital marketing is a cost-effective way to build brand awareness and connect with potential customers. However, effective digital marketing can be time-consuming.

Enter marketing automation tools. These digital platforms automate some of your more repetitive and tedious marketing tasks. The best marketing automation tools for small businesses enable you to execute your digital marketing strategy without sacrificing time you could be spending with customers. 

Check out these tools to make your life easier while reaping the benefits of digital marketing. 

Key Benefits of Marketing Automation

Essential Features To Look for in Automation Tools

When choosing the right marketing automation tools for your business, consider these features: 

• Automation capabilities: Look for a platform that automates multiple marketing mediums, such as SMS, email, and social media.
• Integration capabilities: Look for platforms that integrate with your existing software, such as social media management or CRM platforms, to simplify your digital transformation. 
• Personalization: Choose platforms with the ability to personalize content to customers at different stages of their journey with your brand. 
• Analytics and reporting: Decide your preferred level of analytics and reporting and choose platforms that offer the data analytics and reports you need to perfect your digital marketing strategy.
• Price considerations: Determine your budget before you start shopping for marketing automation platforms. Consider long-term costs, including subscriptions and tech support.

If you’re unsure where to begin, we break down the top 10 marketing automation tools, starting with those offering a full range of capabilities. 

All-in-One Marketing Automation Platforms

These marketing automation platforms have a full range of features to help you manage customer outreach and stay on top of digital marketing trends. 

• HubSpot is an all-in-one tool offering multiple automation solutions, email personalization, customer tracking, and lead scoring, among others. It lets you create personalized emails and dynamic content with a single tool. This user-friendly platform handles email outreach, generates leads, and manages client relationships. 
• Marketo is another full-service business-to-business marketing and CRM platform that lets you personalize messages for different channels. You can create landing pages and convert them to social media posts, manage leads, and track social media engagement. This tool is great for segmentations, personalized digital campaigns, and analytics. 
• Marketing Cloud Account Engagement — formerly Salesforce Pardot — automatically qualifies leads from forms, landing pages, social media posts, and other channels. It offers customizable templates and other tools to personalize outreach automatically. Use it to find and nurture leads. 
• Keap is a full-service marketing and automation platform customized to small businesses. It offers customizable email and text message templates, landing page builders, and automated outreach. Keap also offers other small business automations, such as invoicing and payment processing. Use this tool if you want to cut down on your tech portfolio. 

E-Commerce Marketing Automation

Digital marketing in e-commerce is unique, so a generic platform may not be the best tool for your business. These marketing automation tools meet the specific needs of e-commerce businesses: 

• Klaviyo offers omnichannel automation tools for email, SMS, mobile marketing, push notifications, reviews, and other digital channels. This tool lets you automate workflows to trigger customer messages on the right platform. For example, you can send an automated product review request after customers receive their merch. Use this tool to make customer communication consistent across digital channels. 
• Drip lets e-commerce companies personalize email outreach based on a customer’s interests, behavior, and purchase history. Its customizable templates cover multiple messaging strategies from flash sales to cart abandonment. It also lets you send retargeting messages based on how people interact with your social media. It is an affordable tool for smaller e-commerce businesses seeking to grow their email lists. 
• Omnisend is another e-commerce-specific marketing automation platform for personalizing outreach through email, text messages, and push notifications through your app. It also offers customizable analytics reports that help you tailor customer outreach based on previous campaign success. This platform is affordable and easy to use. 

Choosing the Right Tool for Your Business Needs 

As a small business owner or marketer, you must balance your marketing needs with your budget. You might not need a full-service automation tool like HubSpot if you’re only interested in growing your email list. 

Optimize can help you choose the right platform for you based on specific analytics. Schedule a free consultation to learn more about our services and our Optimize HQ dashboard.