The Best Marketing Automation Software for Small Businesses
Aug 27, 2024
Aug 27, 2024
10 min read
10 min read
Table of contents
- The Growing Adoption of Marketing Automation
- Reasons Marketing Automation is important for small-scale businesses
- Compounding Customer Data Under One Head
- ROI Is The Real Deal
- Consolidate Sales and Marketing Functions
- Fulfilling Customer Expectations
- Automated Greeting Program
- Retention Of Loyal Customers
- Personalization
- Key Marketing Processes to Automate
- Choosing the Right Marketing Automation Tool
- Best Marketing Automation Tools for Small Businesses
- 1. HubSpot Marketing Hub
- 2. ActiveCampaign
- 3. Mailchimp
- 4. Thryv
- 5. Insider
- Conclusion
Marketing is the blood of business - it decides how your customers react to your offered products and services, how long your business can survive, and what your customers expect from you.
Whether you invest in a high-profile marketing campaign or sell out adverts in the local newspapers, marketing functions can apply in many ways for a small or a large-scale business.
Moreover, with the introduction of technology into the business world, marketing tools have become wide open for you to secure and enhance the ever-growing relationship with your existing and prospective customers.
Digital marketing has become a critical part of modern consumerism . When we speak of technology, marketing automation is a rather beneficial concept for your business. It significantly focuses on implementing technology and automation in your business' marketing activities.
Digital media is booming! According to a recent survey, 77% of the CMOs say that they have experienced a massive rise in digital engagement.
The same report also states that one in every five businesses drives 30-40% of sales through the digital medium. Marketing automation software for small businesses is essential in enhancing customer base relevance and transforming into a demand-specific entity.
The Growing Adoption of Marketing Automation
By automating repetitive tasks, marketing automation uses software tools and technologies to facilitate marketing in multiple online channels like emails, social media, websites, etc.
It's important to note that marketing automation isn't just about saving time (although that's certainly a significant benefit).
It is about designing better and more relevant advertising messages that will be well-received by the target market and benefit the organization.
Marketing automation is highly valued in today's business environment, as seen by its quick adoption rate. According to Business Insider , 59% of CMOs have already integrated marketing automation tools into their operations.
20% of CMOs have indicated they plan to adopt marketing automation services soon, with an additional 11% aiming to implement them by the end of the year.
Reasons Marketing Automation is important for small-scale businesses
Per Salesforce’s State Of Marketing Report, around 67% of marketing leaders depend incredibly on marketing automation.
Almost 82% of the marketers agree that marketing automation has offered them a positive return on investment (ROI).
Although every business has a unique strategy for handling its marketing functions, the best marketing automation software for small businesses can help boost their return on investment, especially when they require it the most.
Here are a few other reasons to justify that:
Compounding Customer Data Under One Head
Managing your customer base's vital information is quite a task. When compiling that information for report analysis, nothing better than marketing automation tools can ease the process.
With the latest software, you can overview the data of your entire business’ customer base in a single view, making it easy to prepare detailed data reports. Moreover, marketing automation allows your business to study customer engagement and activity over your platform.
Acquiring such user-driven information can help you understand a customer’s preferences and determine what type of by-product interests them.
ROI Is The Real Deal
For every business, time and money are two crucial components that it aims to save the most regarding how it functions in its operations.
By making the most of marketing automation, your business can spend less time and effort on repetitive marketing chores that can be monitored via tech tools.
It also minimizes several operational costs. This lets you focus better on your business’s core operations and contribute substantially to sales.
Consolidate Sales and Marketing Functions
When you start applying marketing automation tips to solidify your business operations, it becomes easy for your sales and marketing departments to work as one team toward your business's growth.
For instance, once the marketing team puts forward marketing automation strategies to generate quality leads, the sales team must pitch product or service sales to those leads.
Also, lead generation attains lead scores, and sales pitches become much easier as the sales team understands lead prioritization.
Fulfilling Customer Expectations
With customers’ ever-growing expectations, your business must live up to them. One of the prime expectations of every customer is efficient communication—getting an immediate response to a product query is what they look forward to.
CRM marketing automation, email communication, chatbots, and autoresponder tools can help nurture and keep the lead engaged. Because customers can now switch to your business rivals at any minute, marketing automation enables you to focus on customer service, which is crucial in these times.
Automated Greeting Program
Most customers subscribe to the email newsletter of a business firm, and it then establishes a buyer-consumer relationship.
Your business must ensure a welcome program to create a lasting connection. This program could include a simple email informing the customer about the brand’s products/services and gaining details about the customer's expectations from the brand.
You can accomplish that with a welcome program that introduces surveys about customer interests and bases the data on that. Your business can then proceed with customized services and communication with the customer.
Marketing automation can effectively act upon these programs, and with the help of data-driven tools, your initial greeting service can become a huge success.
Retention Of Loyal Customers
Marketing automation offers your business retention cues by transforming leads from abandoned carts or while on your website.
It can be concluded that it is a critical element in increasing business profits. Increasing customer retention and lead generation can trigger any business's sales.
Additionally, marketing automation aims to communicate with your customers through product-relevant messaging strategies that can encourage customer engagement.
Personalization
WAccording to Gartner, 63% of digital marketing leaders struggle to provide personalized experiences to their consumers. Customers do not like to be considered merely as a headcount; they expect customized recognition.
Therefore, marketing automation software for small businesses provides numerous ways to categorize priority customers based on their purchase and interest profiles to better target them with what they aspire to.
Once automated software creates a customer profile, your business can stay updated with customers’ needs and plan its marketing actions based on the reports.
This also lessens the burden on your marketing team, as they are not confined to researching and analyzing a large amount of information.
Key Marketing Processes to Automate
When implementing marketing automation software for small business, it's important to focus on these key processes:
- Email Marketing: Email marketing automation. Salesforce and similar platforms enable marketers to send emails based on the customers' actions, thus making communication timely and relevant.
- Social Media Management: Organize your posts, monitor the activity level, and control the overall presence on social networks.
- Lead Nurturing: Use lead nurturing to help potential customers move through the buying process.
- Analytics and Reporting: Generate automatic reports to track your marketing performance and ROI.
Choosing the Right Marketing Automation Tool
When choosing the best CRM and marketing automation tool for your business, key features that can significantly impact your decision must be considered.
Let’s look at some essential features to look for:
1. Email & Campaign Builder
A useful marketing automation platform should have an all-in-one email service that allows for a wide range of personalization. Look for tools with easy-to-use email builders that can be customized and work well on mobile devices. An easy-to-use interface is important for creating and managing targeted marketing campaigns without trouble.
2. Landing Pages & Forms
Top marketing automation tools allow you to create forms for capturing customer data that can be easily embedded into your website. Whether on your landing page, blog post, or whitepaper, these forms should be simple to integrate. Advanced options such as dynamic forms are beneficial for collecting data from multiple streams.
Good landing pages help you get leads. You can use various SaaS marketing automation tools to create landing pages tailored to your requirements and include your forms. Tracking how well these pages are doing can give you useful information about your campaigns.
3. Integrations
No single platform can fulfill every need, so compatibility with other third-party apps and integrations is vital. For example, chatbot marketing automation, email marketing automation, and more require integrations with data or data training to work better. Ensure the marketing automation tool you choose supports numerous app integrations and offers API connectors.
4. CRM
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) capabilities are crucial in a marketing automation tool. A built-in CRM lets you track marketing, sales, and customer service activities in one place. An integrated CRM streamlines information gathering and makes data accessible to all relevant team members. It can also update contact information in real-time, helping your team close leads more efficiently.
5. Cost
The price of the software is the determining factor. Limited platforms provide a purchase-and-own option. Normally, you pay a monthly fee, so it's important to ensure you make the correct investment.
Don’t go for a platform with undisclosed charges or a variable pricing model, as this can become costly rapidly.
Best Marketing Automation Tools for Small Businesses
1. HubSpot Marketing Hub
HubSpot is a comprehensive marketing automation tool that can benefit small companies. Its features include email marketing, social media management, content creation tools, and analytics.
Key features:
- All-in-one marketing software
- User-friendly interface
- Strong integration with HubSpot's CRM
- Comprehensive analytics and reporting
2. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is popular for its robust email marketing and automation features. It is ideal for small businesses that want to design complex and unique customer experiences.
Key features:
- Advanced email marketing automation
- CRM with sales automation
- Machine learning capabilities
- Robust segmentation options
3. Mailchimp
Mailchimp has grown from an email marketing platform to a marketing automation tool. It is the best email marketing and automation tool for growing businesses.
Key features:
- User-friendly interface
- Strong e-commerce integrations
- Affordable pricing for small businesses
- Built-in design tools for creating marketing materials
4. Thryv
Thryv is a do-it-all business management software that includes marketing automation features. It's designed specifically for small businesses, with 97% of its users coming from the small-business segment.
Key features:
- Customer communications
- Social media management
- Reputation management
- Appointment scheduling
5. Insider
Although Insider is not specifically marketed as a small business tool, it’s worth mentioning because it's been recognized as a leader in various marketing automation categories.
Key features:
- Cross-channel experience building
- AI-powered intent prediction
- Personalization capabilities
Conclusion
If you're ready to start improving your business's marketing, consider exploring marketing automation tools for ecommerce and other small business solutions.
Saffron Edge allows you to transform your business’ marketing strategies by linking technology with them, positively affecting your lead generation actions and customer retention.
Our end-to-end, highly optimized marketing solutions enrich our clients' professional experience. To know more, give us a call now!
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is marketing automation software, and how can it help small businesses?
Marketing automation software streamlines marketing tasks like email campaigns, social media posting, and lead nurturing. For small businesses, it helps save time, improve efficiency, and target customers more effectively, driving growth with limited resources.
2. How can small businesses benefit from using marketing automation?
Small businesses can benefit from marketing automation by automating repetitive tasks, personalizing customer interactions, tracking campaign performance, and managing leads more efficiently. These actions help optimize marketing efforts and boost ROI.
3. What are the essential features of marketing automation software for small businesses?
Look for features such as easy-to-use email marketing tools, lead management, CRM integration, basic analytics, and automation workflows. These features help small businesses manage their marketing activities without overwhelming complexity.
4. How much does marketing automation software cost for small businesses?
Costs vary widely depending on the features and scale. Many marketing automation solutions offer tiered pricing or plans specifically designed for small businesses, ranging from affordable entry-level options to more comprehensive packages.
5. Can marketing automation software integrate with other tools I use?
Yes, many marketing automation platforms integrate with popular tools such as CRM systems, social media platforms, and e-commerce solutions. Integration helps streamline processes and ensures seamless data flow across your business tools.
6. How can I get started with marketing automation if I’m new to it?
Start by identifying your key marketing goals and tasks. Choose user-friendly software with good support and resources. Begin with basic features, set up automated workflows, and gradually explore more advanced capabilities as you become comfortable.
7. What are some common mistakes small businesses make with marketing automation?
Common mistakes include overcomplicating workflows, not personalizing messages, neglecting data analysis, and failing to update and optimize campaigns regularly. Avoiding these pitfalls can help ensure your automation efforts are effective and aligned with your business goals.
8. How can marketing automation improve customer engagement?
Marketing automation enhances customer engagement by delivering personalized content and timely messages based on user behavior and preferences. Automated follow-ups, targeted campaigns, and segmented communication help build stronger relationships and increase customer satisfaction.
Dental Marketing | Why are you still unable to find new patients?
Dental marketing services are a form of Digital Marketing that focuses solely on strategies and tactics that are customized to maximize results for dental practices. They comprise of: Email marketing A website/app and strategizing ways to drive traffic to it Social media marketing (SMM) Search engine optimization (SEO) Pay-per-click advertising (PPC) Digital marketing is an organism that is fast evolving. Each year new ways of marketing content are being developed. Marketing automation, influencer marketing, and conversion-focused marketing are only a few of the handful of marketing strategies that are being used. Why do you need a website? In this rapidly digitizing world, any business, even medical practitioners, has made it a necessity to develop a website of their own. The Healthcare industry, especially dentistry, is aggressively competitive and to sustain in a cut-throat competition, having a digital presence is an essential requirement. The online web has a greater reach when it comes to advertising Through social networking sites, display advertising, affiliate marketing, etc., any business can advertise itself, but first, it is essential to have a well functioning and efficient website. Having a website increases the visibility of your practice, which has to be one of the most important reasons to have one. It is the most comfortable and convenient way through which an individual can get to know more information about your company. By developing a website and publishing your work, you earn credibility. With a well-planned website and an online marketing strategy, your business will grow due to the cost-effective nature of digital marketing. Social media is the new form of advertising. In this era of marketing, one of the best ways to advertise yourself is through the help of social networking sites, a.k.a. Social media. Some of the leading platforms to market your content is: Facebook Pinterest Instagram Linkedin Snapchat Twitter Youtube Social media marketing can help you achieve a lot of your business goals, such as: It increases the traffic on your website, as more and more people get to know it. It helps in building conversions. It helps in raising your brand awareness. It helps in creating a positive brand identity and increases brand credibility. It creates a platform for one-on-one interaction with the customers. Difficulties faced while acquiring new patients. As per American Dental Association," The number of people in the US having private dental benefits has declined steadily from 2000 through 2012. While dental care utilization is at its highest level ever among children, the same among adults is in steady decline, with only 35.4 percent of working-age adults visiting the dentist in 2012." Also," There are various reasons why adults do not visit a dentist. The most apparent reason is financial barriers, with one study finding that one out of five individuals is unable to afford needed dental care. At the same time, "supply-side" barriers are falling, with fewer individuals reported problems with dentist office hours or the distance to a dental office being too far." Source ADA Health Policy Institute analysis of Harris Poll survey data collected in April 2014. Notes: Results based on 965 observations. Four major reasons as to why you are unable to attract more patients: Content marketing strategy is old and ineffective: In this modern world, the youth and their parents are on the internet. The mindset of the target audience has undergone a change, and they now have to be advertised to an audience, with a different content strategy, content that is engaging and relatable to them. Better and unique ad campaigns have to be implemented. Different age groups are to be targeted, and unique content has to be pushed out to them, such that they are kept engaged and entertained. No brand awareness: According to the American Dental Association, as of 2018, there were 199,486 practicing dentists in the United States. This translates to 61.0 dentists per 100,000 population. With the help of digital marketing, many of your competitors have years of exposure to the potential of the dental audience in your area. Which is where you lag behind. Without a digital presence, your brand awareness is close to nil. Ineffective content: The quality of the content that your post on your website has to be of high standards. It is a fact that the quality of your content and the traffic your website gets are both interconnected. It is not always possible that a website pushes out great content, also not everyone can afford to hire a content developer for the job. In these circumstances, the traffic that is on the website, views this unengaging content, thus forcing them to bounce from the site. High dental patient acquisition cost: Dental Marketing is very strategic in nature and requires a lot of planned execution and strategizing. One way to increase traffic and reach your target audience is through Pay Per Click Advertising. Essentially, it is a way through which you can buy your visitors, rather than earning them ‘organically’. But this process requires significant expertise to have a high-performing ROI(rate of interest). If processed incorrectly, your customer acquisition cost will sky-rocket due to the high spending on the PPC advertisement. This causes your budget and your business to go unstable, without getting any results from the PPC investment. Dental marketing trends and how to brand yourself. Active social media presence: Having a social media presence will be profitable for your practice. Research states that almost 75% of patients research a medical facility online before scheduling a visit which means that the time and money you invest in social media marketing automatically generates positive results because patients are actively seeking better dental options. The content that you post helps you gain quality traffic and trust from your visitors. Online booking and scheduling: With the advancements in digital marketing, businesses can now advertise and sell their services online. With the help of dental marketing, you can set up a website/app, which the patients can access to schedule appointments. Also, having a digital presence helps build credibility, and by posting your content online, you enhance your trust levels. Video content: Videos are always better than images, that is the unspoken truth. What better way to advertise and showcase your work than a video? Social media marketing has opened a truckload of opportunities for you to share your work, in such a way that is both entertaining and informative. The best way through which people learn technical stuff is through video content. When you post your work online in the form of videos, the trust you gain from doing a good job is tremendous. Social media is ever-expanding, and you can use it to your advantage in various ways. Patient reviews: One of the most significant aspects through which the dental marketing businesses benefit is patient reviews. Once satisfied with your work, the patient is asked for feedback, which gets uploaded straight to your website in the form of reviews. This could be a “star rating” or “comments.” The viewers visiting your site read the reviews, which in turn helps build trust and credibility. Patient reviews hold significant importance for online business because the majority of the population creates a perception about a brand/company based on its positive and negative reviews. For more information or expert consultation, give us a call today. ...
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Why Google Tag Manager Can Improve Your Site’s Conversion Rates
Needless to say, digital marketing has at least one thing vaguely defined: a good content. What can qualify as a good content? We have had surveys that took the length of the content as a parameter while others relied on the emphasis of visuals, more data to gain more user attention. However, there is still no sure-shot formula that can explain what a good, successful content is. Even through web analytics, the ideal content parameters have not emerged. It is hard both for marketers as well as industry influencers to determine what content can yield you better in terms of traffic acquisition, conversion, tendency to get viral, etc. Where are our metrics failing? Maybe the key to exploring this can be found in the way we treat our metrics. We certainly keep a check on Page Views, Bounce Rates , and other stuff, but then do they give you the complete picture, if at all? Not Tracking Content Interaction While the Page Views and Bounce Rates do tell you about the user’s behavior on the page, but the crucial information about the user’s interaction with the web page is missing. Did the user read the whole page, did he scroll below to check more, and did he share the content after he scrolled to the bottom or was it shared just after a 2 sec glance? Such information can reveal to us about the impact content generated on the audience and how to convert impressed visitors into future customers. Unless you know how the user interacted with your web page, you can’t do much about improving the user experience either. Google Tag Manager Your business can perform better when it can extract accurate data from your website. Instead of deploying each tag to measure the activity log and keep a track of such crucial website data, you can use Google Tags to make things work simpler and quicker. Google Tags are snippets of website codes, generally in JavaScript, to track the visitor behavior and understand the efficiency of your site. Adding tags and setting up campaigns will work only when it is efficiently managed. While redundant or incorrectly applied tags hamper the site performance and result in duplicate costs or missing data, it is a very time-consuming task for IT team to add or modify tags. Image: SourceHaving a tag manager such as Google Tag Manager can help you create multiple tags that can be managed single-handedly without incurring any delay in time. Define your triggers and get the most up-to-date tag configuration whenever someone visits your site. Apart from monitoring custom activities, Tags can: Minimize Coding Errors Since manual tagging can be difficult and time-taking for any team, Google Tag Manager will help you condense the tags in a manageable form. No more worrying about improperly applied or duplicate tags: your data is secure, and the costs are optimized. Decrease Load Times Your page loads slow due to several factors, one of them is having a lot of individual tags inserted in the web pages. Wouldn't it be helpful if you could replace all the tags with one or two line of code? That is what GTM does. Loading code asynchronously, GTM deploys the application that is relevant to the visitor and the page. This feature reduces the page loading time and boosts the performance of the site. As per a study by Aberdeen Group, even a second's delay in site's response can lower the conversion rate up to seven percents. When your code is streamlined, and no individual tags offer resistance in page loading, your site can bring more visitors and can have better conversion rates. Ever changing digital marketing business requires you to keep your site relevant. While analytics tools like Google Analytics are helpful in extracting the data accurately, factors like deployment delay and site's performance are often dubious under GA. Also, sometimes one may forget to add a Google Analytics event to a critical form submission, or there might be errors in changing a key configuration setting. With a strong tool like Google Tag Manager, things can become more seamless, thereby allowing the marketers access to a larger range of information resources. Working perfectly on both desktop sites as well as mobile apps, this can reduce the manual effort and increase both the preciseness of website data and the performance of the site. ...
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A Quick checklist for your Brand Launch
Branding is a crucial component to focus on while building a promising business. Many companies flourish or witness downfall on the basis of their brand identification. People are ready to spend on the popular brands which hold a good reputation in the market. When you plan about a strong and engaging branding strategy, optimizing your website for the search engines like yahoo, google and bing will become much simpler. To ensure a successful brand launch, here are five key points to check before you introduce your product or service in the market; 1. Logo and Website Design The present lifestyle demands appealing things. You need to broaden your understanding about the message your business wants to convey in a visual sense. This can help you create a design which complements your branding strategy. You should pay attention about the detailing of your logo. What you want to represent and portray through your logo should be focused on. This step is often ignored during the process of branding. Exploring an idea behind the logo is a task which should be handled by the internal business member and graphic web designer mutually for the best results. 2. Social Network Business Profiles When it comes to building branding of your business, creating Social Media profiles is absolutely necessary. Building social network business profiles can help you to Connect with your users or customers Get more exposure online Revisit your online reputation Every business owner wants his business to rank higher in Search Engine results when people browse for their services or product. This aspect of high rank in Search Engine is noticed by the user while browsing the brand. This first impression is a golden opportunity that will make the visitors want to explore your brand. 3. SEO Applying Search Engine Optimization on your website is not easy like an icing on the cake. SEO is one of the most important base ingredients t0 be considered while launching your brand. When you launch your brand, you shouldn’t sideline Search Engine Optimization. It is the only tool that helps in improving the user experience of the visitors. Understanding a broad perspective of SEO is essential in order to make the functioning of website proper. Making a website SEO friendly at a later stage can be a tough task. Hence you can save your crucial time by investing in SEO services for optimizing your brand initially. 4. Publicity Establishing your brand as a key player in the market involves dedication, time and hard work to build connections. You need to improve your search visibility in your industry by highlighting your USPs. Joining social communities and using them properly includes lots of efforts and time. If you spend quality time in these communities, then your business can attain its goal timely. 5. Testimonials Testimonials may not be an instant way to showcase the outstanding features of your product or service. However, many customers assess whether your brand is valuable or not on the basis of these testimonials. It’s always a great idea to position your branding strategies in such a way that it sells an experience instead of just a product. All of the tactics that you’ve curated to sell your product need to portray real-life examples and testimonials which attract the visitors without much effort. These visually engaging elements will increase the effectiveness of your website further boosting branding. Launching your brand in the 21st-century market can be a tedious task. The above-mentioned steps will definitely help you plan your branding strategies easily. Get in touch with us to know more about branding and other digital marketing tips. ...
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