What are the common features of marketing automation software?
Marketing campaign management: Access a centralized dashboard to plan, create, and execute marketing campaigns. Users can customize campaigns by adding different stages as well as monitor the real-time performance of each stage.
Lead management: Simplify the process of handling leads, from capture to conversion. This feature includes lead capture, segmentation, scoring, nurturing, tracking, and qualification capabilities.
Segmentation: Group leads or audiences based on attributes such as demographics, behavior, and purchase history. This segmentation helps deliver personalized content to target the right audience.
ROI tracking: Use analytics and reporting capabilities to measure the return on investment (ROI) of marketing efforts. This involves tracking key performance indicators such as conversion rates, click-through rates, and customer acquisition costs.
Multi-channel marketing: Engage with audiences across channels, including email, social media, web, and mobile. Marketers can craft tailored messages and content for each platform to maximize audience engagement.
What are the benefits of marketing automation software?
Identifies cross-selling and upselling opportunities: A marketing automation tool uses customer behavior and purchase history to identify cross-selling and upselling opportunities. For instance, your business can use this software to identify customers who have purchased a product or service and send them targeted offers for complementary offerings.
Improves customer engagement: By automating repetitive tasks, the software saves your marketing team bandwidth to focus on delivering more personalized content and experiences to customers. It also helps segment prospects based on their interests and behavior, enabling marketers to send targeted messages and offers and boost customer engagement.
Boosts sales and revenue: Marketing automation software streamlines lead generation by automating lead capture, scoring, and routing, enabling your business to reach more potential customers. It also facilitates effective lead nurturing through targeted content and offers based on customer interests and behavior. As a result, your business can boost its chances of conversions, which, over time, can lead to a noticeable increase in your sales and revenue.
Reduces human errors: A marketing automation platform eliminates the risk of human error in marketing activities. Whether it's sending emails with accurate information, scheduling social media posts at the right time, or segmenting customer lists without mistakes, the software ensures marketing tasks are executed with precision and consistency. This not only maintains your brand's reputation but also saves time and resources that would otherwise be spent on correcting manual errors.
How much does marketing automation software cost?
Most marketing automation software tools on the market are priced on a “per user, per month” basis, and their entry-level pricing plans range from $4.67 to $108+*. An enterprise product that’s priced higher may include additional features such as advanced reporting, active campaign monitoring, social media marketing integration, advanced customer experience tracker, unlimited automation, Google Analytics integration, and marketing strategy building.
*The pricing included is for the entry-level/lowest-priced offerings found on vendor websites as of Nov. 02, 2023.
Key considerations when purchasing marketing automation software
Outline your marketing goals and needs. Marketing objectives can vary based on factors such as the business type, industry, and goals. Therefore, your marketing team needs to define its specific goals with automation software. Do they want to increase leads, standardize manual operations, or enhance customer engagement? Understanding these objectives will help you identify features to shortlist in the marketing automation platform.
Assess data security and compliance. Marketing automation solutions store large volumes of data, including customers’ personal and behavioral information. Therefore, look for robust data security and compliance features, such as two-factor authentication and role-based access control, to protect your data. The software should also comply with relevant data protection regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Evaluate software scalability. As your business grows, your marketing team will need software that can scale with your operations. Before purchasing any marketing automation tool, consider whether it can accommodate your anticipated growth and handle increased volumes of leads, customers, and campaigns without significantly modifying your existing infrastructure or incurring additional costs.
Sources
Products evaluated for the pricing calculation were taken from Capterra’s marketing automation software directory. The pricing ranges exclude freemium versions of the products. The features highlighted were identified based on their relevance and the percentage of products in Capterra’s directory that offer them.
