The Best Marketing Automation Tools for Small Businesses

Marketing is important to any business either small or large. But as customers are evolving, so does the unpredictable marketing landscape. This necessitates relevant businesses likely to spend more and more time in order to keep up with the latest trends and evidence. 

Keeping up with what small businesses should be assessing or targeting could be fatiguing, stiffing, and time-taking. To perform promotional activities at all levels of a business, marketing automation is the most viable option for small and medium enterprises.  

Marketing automation for small business is basically an assortment of software that automates marketing function for the businesses. The software is intended to help line up and finish marketing responsibilities in a more structured and effective way.  

But what does that mean for a small business? A small business is defined as an independently owned and operated company that is restricted to size and revenue depending on the industry. Marketing automation has altered the way marketing teams can extent to new clients by providing modest businesses with top-notch tools. Look for an agency that offers cost-effective retargeting services, apart from email marketing, SEO and content marketing services.

This article constitutes estimations of marketing automation fees for small business. Reading the full -article would not, therefore, be a waste of time.  

Market Automation Tools 

Marketing automation tools for small business make the job a little more effortless, so the team can focus the time and attention on other energies that drive revenue. 

To accomplish this, there is a need to drive traffic to the website, transform that traffic into leads, and close those leads into customers. Where marketing automation actually marks an impression is the conversion and closure stages of this process. 

Marketing automation software for small business could be organized in the following categories. 

1. Email Marketing Automation 

Marketing channels and trends have evolved over time. While some of the trends being temporary, one of the channels “email” has continued more or less to be the same. In fact, email continues to be the best channel for marketing automation with both B2C and B2B, especially small business marketers. Approximately, 77 % of B2C and 87% of B2B marketers use this channel to nurture their audience. Marketing automation for B2C small business is trendy and lucrative.  

Here is a list of top email marketing tools: 

ConvertKit 

It is one of the popular preferences for small businesses. To create emails it has a simple email builder that looks appealing on all devices. The cost of using ConvertKit ranges from $25 USD per month (paid annually) for up to subscribers around 1,000. It has a 14-day free trial that does not require a credit card. 

Constant Contact

Constant Contact is the best email marketing automation service for small businesses. It can be used to set up a structure of emails that will go out automatically to fresh subscribers. It costs from $20 per month with basic automation features, however, the plan for advanced automation features starts at $40 per month. 

Drip 

Drip is yet another intelligent email marketing automation service with exception of WooCommerce integration. It has 14-day free trial. Drip costs $19 USD monthly for 500 subscribers and approximately  $39 USD for 2,500 subscribers.  

Sendinblue 

Sendinblue, being one of the best WordPress email newsletter plugins, is a great tool for cloud-based relationship marketing. It consists of a range of templates to create emails. It is unique and best in the sense as it is completely free for 300 emails per day, but in case of sending more than 300 emails, the plan starts from $25 USD per month. 

2. WordPress (Onsite Marketing Automation) 

Small businesses use WordPress tools directly on their website. They configure marketing tasks on the website automatically and effectively. The reliable and fair-price onsite marketing automation tools have been given below to give you a better picture of their use and efficiency.  

ChatBot 

ChatBot is similar to having a virtual assistant for a business website with availability of 24/7 prompt response. After a 14-day free trial use, it costs $50 per month. ChatBot enables you to address customer queries in a quicker way. You have the option of integrating other communication tools with ChatBot for receiving notifications.  

Intercom 

Intercom is often looked as a live chat tool. With the help of this marketing automation tool, in-app messages can be sent that go far beyond just text. Images, videos, emoji, and even apps can be used to help with small business marketing. It is easy to choose and induct without involving a developer. It even possesses additional add-ons. Intercom costs $39 per month, with additional add-ons being priced separately as and when needed.  

OptinMonster (Onsite Retargeting) 

The Onsite Retargeting feature of OptinMonster basically helps small businesses to target and retain a customer who seems to leave your website. It comprises powerful display rules that easily target people based on the pages they view, what device they use, and how they have interacted with the website in the past. It is billed annually at the rate of $49 for per month.

Marketers, bloggers, and websites love using OptinMonster for its unlimited features and benefits.  Especially, e-commerce and online shopping websites make the best use of this tool in terms of saving time, energy and conventional marketing cost.  

RafflePress 

RafflePress is a sensational WordPress plugin. Including visiting a page on the website, taking part in a survey, or watching a video, RafflePress offers embedded benefits for $49 per annum.

Smash Balloon 

Four different WordPress plugins are offered by Smash Balloon for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,  and YouTube. The estimated annual pricing of one plugin equals $49. However, marketers mostly buy the “All Access Bundle” that costs $299 for a year. 

3. Content Marketing Automation 

Use of content marketing automation is just inevitable in the present day corporate world. Some of the best tools for content marketing automation have been mentioned to help you grasp a  professional comparison.  

Google My Business Auto Publish 

Google My Business Auto Publish is a modestly suitable plugin. It lets small businesses to automatically publish content to their ‘My Business’ Google account. This means that the posts will instantly appear on the Google business profile. This tool is a free marketing automation software for small business, in fact for all businesses. 

Outbrain 

This tool streamlines the content of businesses in popular online publications. It is in partnerships with the mega-sites of BuzzFeed, CNN, US Weekly, MSN, the Wall Street Journal, The Guardian and others. Outbrain believes in customized pricing and is equally compatible for small and big businesses.  

Zapier 

Zapier is an online automation tool that connects your apps: Gmail, Slack, Mailchimp, and others. Zapier is a great way to transfer content from one place to another. The businesses can create a  Zap to automatically produce a new story whenever a novel post in WordPress is published. The free-of-cost plan of Zapier gives businesses up to 5 Zaps and 100 tasks per month. Zapier bills annually for its paid premier plans that are usually priced at $19.99 per month. 

4. Social Media Marketing Automation 

AgoraPulse 

AgoraPulse is one of the result-oriented tools for social media management and marketing. Under the effect of AgoraPulse, a small business can get unlimited reports to figure out the ROI of social media efforts. With AgoraPulse, it is easier to allocate draft posts, comments, and messages to diverse teammates. 

You will find a built-in CRM in AgoraPulse. Therefore, this amazing tool is considered to be the representative of the best inexpensive marketing automation and CRM combo tools for small business. It has a 28-day free trial and then offers cost variants according to the requirements of a business. 

Buffer 

Fully compatible with website and mobile, Buffer is a long-running scheduling tool for social media. It schedules content ahead of time for multiple marketing networks comprising of Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter. Buffer bills annually @ $12 per month.  However, you can enjoy a 14-day free trial.  

Hootsuite 

Hootsuite is a general social media management platform that brings together all your social content under one app. For small businesses having a social media team, Hootsuite is really supportive, as it gives strong team management and permissions. It has free trials for 1 user and  3 social media profiles. The paid plans offered by Hootsuite are priced from $29 per month, and then it is billed annually with a cost starting from $79 per month. 

ManyChat 

ManyChat sends automated Facebook messages so that the customers can buy directly from  Facebook Messenger. ManyChat even sends its customer coupons in order to prompt them to purchase. It has a basic feature free plan. However, their Pro plan for up to 500 subscribers starts from $10 per month. 

Mention 

Mention having a ‘listen’ feature lets businesses observe social media, blogs, review sites, and the entire pages of the website. For a single alert, Mention offers free of cost market automation service. Paid plans are billed annually starting from $79 per month. 

Tailwind 

Tailwind has scheduling tools of Pinterest and Instagram that let businesses plan posts ahead of time. For Instagram, it gives effective hashtag suggestions. Exactly 10 pins can be scheduled with a single click for Pinterest. It has a free trial with no requirement of credit card, and then $9 per month for each social media profile. But for Instagram and Pinterest, payment has to be made separately. 

5. Sales Automation (CRM) 

There are many dominant tools for sales automation to help keep trail of everything relating to customer relationship management, marketing, and sales.  

HubSpot 

HubSpot, best known for marketing automation platform, launched a free email marketing tool that supports a lot of small businesses for transactional email requirements. The point that makes HubSpot email marketing appealing is its native integration with other HubSpot tools, such as the free-forever CRM. Its paid plan starts from $33.60 per month with billing on annual basis. 

Freshsales 

Freshsales is a great CRM having an approach of sales-orientation. It customs AI-powered lead scoring that automatically ranks leads based on which ones are more likely to convert. It has 21-day free trial, then it is billed annually starting from $12 per month. For a consistent magnification of sales, Freshsales is considered to be one of the best marketing automation for small business. 

MonsterInsights 

MonsterInsights is the best Google Analytics plugin. It helps in understanding where users are coming from and what they are doing on the website. In fact, the marketing plans and forecasts are easily accomplished using MonsterInsights.  

Reviewers top marketing software for small businesses  

The reviews of top marketing automation software for small business have been chalked out by the experts. These reviews are based on various parameters. A few of these reviews are being given underneath to help you decide on their validity.

1. HubSpot is the best overall marketing automation software. 
2. OptinMonster is the best tool for landing page lead generation. 
3. ConvertKit is the best marketing automation software for small business.  

Growth Hacking Guides 

Nine out of ten – 90% – of small business startups ultimately flop. But through some growth guiding tips, you can guarantee that the business falls among the top 10% that succeed. 

1. Make use of automation as much as possible 
2. Do not be anxious to invest more in automated tools  
3. Train employees on the software to be used 
4. Track buyer intent and engagement  
5. Emphasize on content marketing
6. Create appealing blogs and guest posts  
7. Prioritize your customer's satisfaction 
8. Get Social media followers and likes
9. Hire an expert digital marketing team  
10. Track directed social media ads 
11. Measure results constantly using automation tools

If as a small business, you are planning on adopting marketing automation for your business, go ahead and see how fine it does in improving your bottom line. By automating your monotonous tasks, you can concentrate more on providing quality products and an enjoyable experience to your customers. The best help you can get from correct marketing automation includes ever-increasing reach, engagement, conversion rate and sales revenues.