Top CRM Marketing Automation Tools for Business Efficiency

Did you know that automating marketing activities and consolidating campaigns on a unified software platform has reduced costs for more than one in 10 businesses?

Undoubtedly, CRM marketing automation tools have revolutionized how businesses engage with their customers. They have become indispensable assets for organizations aiming to boost efficiency, personalize customer interactions, and drive revenue growth.

Given its popularity, you will find many options for CRM marketing automation tools suitable for every business size.

In this blog post, we will delve into the fundamental workings of CRM marketing automation platforms. We will also review the best CRM marketing automation software based on different business sizes.

Table of Contents

Defining CRM Marketing Automation

In simple terms, CRM marketing automation combines the capabilities of CRM and marketing automation tools to empower businesses to get the best ROI from their marketing activities.

Using these tools, you can automate repetitive tasks, analyze customer data, and create personalized experiences at scale.

By integrating customer data with marketing processes, organizations can run targeted campaigns, improve customer engagement, and optimize their overall marketing strategy.

The Benefits of Integrating CRM and Marketing Automation

Integrating CRM and marketing automation yields numerous advantages, including the following.

Run targeted campaigns

The synergy between CRM and marketing automation enables businesses to execute highly targeted campaigns. By leveraging customer data from the CRM system, marketers can segment audiences based on various filters, such as demographics, behavioral activities, preferences, etc.

This allows businesses to create highly personalized content and tailor campaigns to specific audience segments, increasing relevance and engagement.

Sales and marketing team alignment

Integration fosters seamless communication and collaboration between sales and marketing teams.

This enhanced collaboration is crucial for aligning the efforts of both teams towards a common goal—generating and converting leads into customers.

Integration breaks down silos between sales and marketing and ensures that both teams have real-time insights into customer interactions, enabling a more coordinated and efficient approach to lead nurturing and conversion.

Higher conversion rates

The combined power of CRM and marketing automation contributes to higher conversion rates. Automating the lead nurturing process ensures that leads are consistently engaged with relevant content. This helps move leads through the sales funnel and increases the likelihood of conversion.

For instance, marketing automation tools can initiate targeted nurturing campaigns based on the interactions recorded in the CRM system. Sales teams, armed with insights from these campaigns, can then tailor their approach to match the prospect’s engagement level and preferences.

The streamlined process enhances the overall conversion funnel.

Key Features of CRM Marketing Automation Software

Here are some key features to look for while considering your CRM marketing automation solution.

Customer segmentation

Every customer has unique needs, and you need to offer a targeted campaign when selling. CRM tools enable the segmentation of customer data based on various criteria, such as demographics, behavior, and purchase history.

This segmentation allows businesses to tailor marketing messages to specific customer segments, increasing the likelihood of resonating with their audience.

Lead management

CRM marketing automation tools excel in lead management, enabling businesses to effectively capture, nurture, and qualify leads. With the prospect data stored in CRM, marketers can streamline the lead nurturing process, ensuring that leads receive personalized content and timely communications based on their behavior and preferences.

Email marketing automation

Automating email campaigns is a cornerstone of CRM marketing automation. It allows you to automate email sending based on pre-defined triggers or events. For instance, if a user adds products to their cart but leaves without placing an order, you can automate sending cart abandonment emails to spark engagement again.

This results in more relevant and timely communication with customers, leading to higher engagement and conversion rates.

Reporting and analytics

Whether running an email campaign or a Google ad, keep track of how it performs.

Advanced analytics and reporting features provide valuable insights into campaign performance, customer behavior, and ROI. Businesses can continuously refine their marketing strategies by leveraging data-driven insights for better results.

Top 5 CRM Marketing Automation Tools for SMBs

Affordability is the most crucial thing when choosing a CRM marketing automation for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), followed by scalability and ease of use. These are some basic features to consider when selecting a CRM marketing automation for your small businesses.

Let’s look at some of the top CRM marketing automation tools for SMBs.

1. EngageBay

marketing automation in EngageBay — *Marketing automation in EngageBay*

EngageBay is an all-in-one CRM and marketing automation software made for SMBs with super affordable pricing. It also consolidates customer service tools, ensuring seamless communication and collaboration across various business functions.

Features

Email marketing: The platform offers robust email marketing capabilities, including customizable templates, automated drip campaigns, and detailed analytics. SMBs can create and manage effective email campaigns to engage their audience.
Lead generation and nurturing: Facilitates lead generation through forms, pop-ups, and landing pages. Besides, automated workflows enable SMBs to nurture leads with personalized content, ensuring a smooth transition through the sales funnel.
CRM and sales automation: The CRM module allows businesses to manage contacts, deals, and tasks efficiently. Sales automation features streamline selling processes, from lead qualification to deal closure, ensuring a cohesive approach to customer acquisition.
Social media integration: Allows SMBs to integrate and manage various social media platforms. This feature enhances social media marketing efforts and provides a holistic view of customer engagement.

Pros

An intuitive design that makes it easy to navigate and use
Easily accommodates increasing data volume needs

Cons

Limitations in terms of customization options

Pricing

EngageBay offers both marketing automation and CRM bay as a standalone solution. You can choose to integrate their features and opt for its all-in-one solution.

The Free plan is suitable for startups and small businesses with basic CRM and email marketing needs.

The Basic plan is the affordable entry-level plan offering expanded features for growing businesses, some of which include lead scoring, landing page builder, etc.

For SMBs looking for advanced marketing automation and CRM capabilities, the Growth plan works the best.

Lastly, its Pro plan comes with a comprehensive list of advanced features for businesses seeking scalability and customization.

2. Insightly

Insightly combines robust CRM features with marketing automation capabilities, providing a comprehensive solution for businesses aiming to streamline their operations and foster customer relationships.

Features

Workflow automation: SMBs can automate repetitive tasks and processes with Insightly’s workflow automation, ensuring consistency and accuracy in various business processes.
Contact and lead management: Insightly enables efficient organization and tracking of contacts and leads. SMBs can easily manage customer information, track interactions, and identify opportunities for engagement.
Project management integration: Integrates CRM and project management, offering a holistic view of customer interactions and project progress. This integration enhances collaboration and ensures a unified approach to customer engagement.
Customizable dashboards: Provides customizable dashboards and reports, allowing SMBs to track key metrics and gain insights into their marketing and sales performance.

Pros

Customizable objects and fields to meet vast needs
Offers great onboarding support

Cons

Some users have complaint that items such as Contacts and Organizations don’t always link together.

Pricing

Insightly offers various pricing plans to cater to different business needs.

Plus Plan: Starting at $29 per user per month
Professional Plan: Starting at $49 per user per month
Enterprise Plan: Starting at $99 per user per month

3. Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM Plus is an integrated platform that goes beyond traditional CRM and offers a comprehensive solution for SMBs seeking efficient marketing automation. It combines CRM, marketing automation, and other business tools into a unified ecosystem, empowering SMBs to streamline their operations and enhance customer interactions.

Features

Marketing automation: Includes advanced automation tools for creating personalized campaigns, automating workflows, and nurturing leads. Enables businesses to orchestrate targeted and data-driven marketing strategies.
Omnichannel support: The platform supports multiple communication channels, including email, phone, live chat, and social media. This enables SMBs to engage with customers across various touchpoints, fostering a seamless and integrated customer experience.
Lead management: Provides a centralized hub for organizing and tracking customer interactions to effectively manage leads and contacts.
AI assistant, Zia: Provides SMBs with insights into business trends and suggests the best time to interact with customers for maximum impact.

Pros

Campaign features are easy to use
Simple CRM customization and extendability

Cons

Some users complaint about not being able to filter accounts by their related module fields

Pricing

Zoho CRM Plus offers a single affordable monthly/yearly pricing structure to ensure transparent pricing. It starts at $50 per user per month when billed annually.

4. HubSpot

HubSpot is ideal for inbound marketing, empowering SMBs with an all-in-one solution for managing customer relationships and driving marketing initiatives. Known for its user-friendly interface and scalability, HubSpot is designed to help businesses grow and succeed in the digital landscape.

Features

Email marketing: Eables SMBs to design, schedule, and track email campaigns. Furthermore, it offers analytics to measure engagement and optimize their email marketing strategy over time.
Landing pages and forms: HubSpot enables SMBs to capture leads by embedding forms on their website and building a responsive landing page.
Social media management: Its integration with social media platforms allows you to schedule posts, monitor engagement, and analyze social media performance from a unified platform.
Campaign management: You can easily run targeted marketing campaigns and analyze their performance to ensure higher ROI. It ensures that you can keep track of all your campaigns from a single dashboard.

Pros

Intuitive design eliminates the need for extensive training
Easy Salesforce integration

Cons

Can be relatively expensive for SMBs looking to expand

Pricing

HubSpot offers a tiered pricing structure.

Starter: Ideal for startups and small businesses, starting at $18 per month.
Professional: Geared towards growing businesses, starting at $800 per month.
Enterprise: Comprehensive features for larger organizations, with custom pricing.

HubSpot also provides a free version with limited features, allowing businesses to explore and get started with the platform at no cost. The pricing flexibility caters to the diverse needs of SMBs at different stages of growth.

5. Freshsales (Freshworks)

Freshsales, part of the Freshworks suite, is a robust CRM marketing automation solution tailored for SMBs. It provides businesses with a comprehensive tool to manage leads, streamline sales processes, and engage with customers effectively.

Features

Mobile CRM: Enables you to respond to leads, do follow-ups with leads, check in to meetings, and analyze dashboards from anywhere.
Built-in phone and chat: Enables you to engage with your prospects and customers on their preferred channels, including phone, chat, or email – ensuring a seamless customer experience
Advanced reporting: Provides in-depth analytics and reporting tools, allowing SMBs to track the performance of marketing campaigns, measure lead engagement, and assess the overall effectiveness of their strategies.
Workflow automation: Simplifies complex processes by automating repetitive tasks, setting up trigger-based actions, and creating personalized communication sequences based on user behavior.

Pros

Seamlessly integrates with various tools and applications
Offers competitive pricing plans without compromising on features

Cons

Some users didn’t find tech support up to the mark

Pricing

SMBs can choose a plan based on their team size and the required functionality level.

Free: Allows sales teams to engage leads fast with built-in chat, email, and phone
Growth: Offers a powerful CRM automation useful for growing sales teams
Pro: Ideal for managing multiple sales teams and growing revenue
Enterprise: CRM comes with advanced customization options and controls

Top 5 CRM Marketing Automation Tools for Mid-Market Companies

Selecting the right CRM marketing automation tool for mid-market companies involves careful consideration of integration capabilities, user-friendliness, and scalability. Each of the mentioned tools has its strengths, and the best choice depends on the specific needs and goals of the business.

6. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign offers a CRM marketing automation solution tailored for mid-market companies. Its robust features, emphasis on customer experience automation, and user-friendly interface make it an ideal choice for businesses seeking powerful and scalable marketing automation.

Features

Dynamic customer journeys: Helps create personalized and dynamic customer journeys, enabling businesses to engage with their audience more specifically and meaningfully.
Email marketing: Offers dynamic content and automates highly tailored email campaigns to nurture leads and drive conversions.
Automation workflows: Provides a visual automation builder that simplifies the creation of complex workflows, from lead nurturing to customer onboarding, streamlining operations and saving time.
Lead scoring: Enables mid-market businesses to prioritize and focus on leads with the highest potential and increase the chance of conversions.

Pros

Active and responsive customer support
Super easy to set up and use

Cons

Some users found it difficult to create a more personalized path for each customer type

Pricing

ActiveCampaign bundles up CRM and marketing automation platforms and offers tiered pricing based on the number of contacts and additional features. Pricing starts at $93 per month for up to 100 contacts.

The pricing model provides flexibility for mid-market companies to choose a plan that aligns with their specific needs and budget.

7. Keap (formerly Infusionsoft)

Keap, formerly known as Infusionsoft, stands out as a top CRM marketing automation solution tailored for mid-market companies. With its robust features and emphasis on automation, Keap empowers businesses to streamline their marketing processes and effectively nurture leads.

Features

Email marketing and segmentation: Allows mid-market companies to segment audiences and create targeted campaigns, enhancing engagement and conversion rates.
Contact management: Can organize and track interactions with leads and customers, ensuring a centralized hub for all customer-related data.
Automation campaign builder: Keap’s visual campaign builder simplifies the creation of complex automation workflows. You can design intricate campaigns that automate marketing tasks, lead follow-ups, and customer interactions.
Lead capture and management: Enables you to easily capture lead information with the help of landing page builder and embedded forms and organize leads to nurture them towards conversions.

Pros

Strong integration capabilities with eCommerce functionalities
Incredibly high level of customization

Cons

Max plan can be comparatively pricey to other mid-market solutions

Pricing

Keap offers tiered pricing plans to cater to the diverse needs of mid-market companies.

Pro: Starts at $159 per month for up to 1,500 contacts
Max: Starts at $229 per month for up to 2,500 contacts
Contacts: Starts at $279 per month for up to 2,500 contacts

8. SharpSpring

SharpSpring is a robust CRM marketing automation platform that aims to provide a unified platform for all your business activities. It combines the power of sales automation, marketing automation, and CRM in a single solution, eliminating the need to integrate multiple platforms.

Features

Dynamic landing pages: Offers the creation of dynamic landing pages that adapt to user preferences and behaviors, improving the overall user experience and increasing the likelihood of conversion.
Automate customer journey: It allows you to automate each stage of the customer funnel and ensure they experience a seamless buying experience.
Behavioral email automation: Allows mid-market companies to create highly personalized email campaigns based on user interactions and automate targeted email sequences.
Lead scoring: Allows businesses to prioritize leads based on their engagement level and focus their efforts on leads that are most likely to convert, optimizing the entire sales process.

Pros

The support team is responsive
It has an easy interface and offers seamless integration

Cons

There are certain restrictions on list imports

Pricing

SharpSpring pricing starts at $449 per month and offers a full-fledged CRM and marketing automation platform.

9. Brevo

Brevo stands out as a leading CRM marketing automation solution with a focus on scalability and advanced functionalities. It empowers businesses to elevate their marketing strategies and foster stronger customer relationships.

Features

Advanced lead management: Enables companies to effectively capture, nurture, and qualify leads. Its detailed segmentation based on various criteria ensures personalized interactions with leads at every stage of the customer journey.
Multichannel marketing campaigns: Leverage Brevo to design and run multichannel marketing campaigns – from email marketing to social media integration.
Real-time analytics and reporting: Gain actionable insights into campaign performance and customer behavior in real-time, allowing for continuous optimization of marketing strategies.
Better collaboration: Shared data and insights foster a more coordinated approach, enhancing lead nurturing and improving the overall efficiency of the conversion process.

Pros

Fosters collaboration between sales and marketing teams
Intuitive email builder

Cons

Customer service can be slow in responding at times

Pricing

Brevo offers four pricing plans for its marketing automation platform.

Free: Completely free with unlimited contacts
Starter: Ideal for growing businesses, its pricing starts at $25 per month with unlimited contacts
Business: Best suited for eCommerce and marketing managers, its pricing starts at $65 per month
BrevoPlus: Has custom pricing and works well for large enterprise

10. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a robust sales-focused CRM tool known for its usability and pipeline management features. Its intuitive interface and powerful automation features make it a preferred choice for organizations seeking to streamline their sales and marketing processes.

Features

Pipeline management: It excels in visualizing and managing sales pipelines. Easily customize pipelines to match your unique sales processes and get a clear overview of deals at various stages.
Automation management: Automate repetitive tasks, trigger actions based on specific conditions, and ensure a smooth workflow, enhancing overall efficiency.
Sales forecasting: The platform uses historical data and pipeline information to provide accurate sales forecasts, aiding in strategic decision-making and resource allocation.
Customization: Offers extensive customization options, allowing businesses to adapt the system to their specific needs.

Pros

User-friendly interface
Seamlessly integrates with a variety of third-party tools

Cons

Have limitations in comprehensive marketing automation features

Pricing

Pipedrive offers various pricing plans, as follows.

Essential Plan: Starting at 9.90 per user per month (billed annually)
Advanced Plan: Starting at $19.90 per user per month (billed annually)
Professional Plan: Starting at $39.90 per user per month (billed annually)
Power Plan: Starting at $49.90 per user per month (billed annually)

Each plan offers additional features and capabilities, making Pipedrive a scalable solution for mid-market companies looking to enhance their CRM and marketing automation efforts.

Top 5 CRM Marketing Automation Tools for Enterprises

Large enterprises often need a CRM marketing automation tool encompassing many advanced functionalities and a large customer database. Besides, it should be easily compatible with other existing business tools to ensure an easy flow of data and unified functionality.

11. Salesforce Pardot

Salesforce Pardot, an integral part of the Salesforce suite, stands out as an exceptional CRM marketing automation solution for enterprises. With seamless integration into the Salesforce ecosystem, Pardot empowers businesses to create personalized and targeted marketing campaigns while aligning marketing and sales efforts.

Features

Out-of-the-box analytics: Gives insights into your campaign performance and applies predictive analytics to those insights to help make more strategic decisions.
AI scoring: It uses AI to analyze lead engagement and prioritize leads with a higher chance of conversions.
Cross-channel support: Enables businesses to engage with customers at multiple platforms and provide a unified, seamless customer experience.
Account-based marketing dashboard: This shows how account-based efforts influence targeted accounts and help you optimize what’s working and what’s not.

Pros

A huge community eager to assist and collaborate
Works seamlessly with Salesforce

Cons

Some users found Salesforce training to be overly confusing

Pricing

Salesforce Pardot has three pricing plans – Growth: $1,250+ per month; Plus: $2,500+ per month; Advanced: $4,000+ per month.

12. Marketo (Adobe Experience Cloud)

Marketo stands as a premier CRM marketing automation solution designed for enterprises. Renowned for its comprehensive features, Marketo empowers businesses to create personalized and targeted customer experiences at every touchpoint.

Features

Content intelligence: This feature enables personalized lead nurturing campaigns based on prospect behavior, ensuring a tailored approach to each potential customer.
Sales team alignment: Ensures that both sales and marketing teams have access to the CRM data, leading to more coordinated journeys between both departments.
Analytics and reporting: Marketo provides in-depth analytics and reporting tools, offering enterprises actionable insights into campaign performance, customer behavior, and ROI.
Scalable automation workflows: Allows enterprises to design complex workflows that align with their specific business processes and ensures that automation grows alongside to accommodate the evolving needs of a large and dynamic customer base.

Pros

Seamless Salesforce integration
A great customer support and community

Cons

Poor landing page and form builder

Pricing

For pricing details, contact the Marketo sales team. Enterprises can choose from different packages and add-ons based on their unique requirements.

13. Oracle Eloqua

Oracle Eloqua is a high-end marketing automation tool designed for the complex marketing requirements of large enterprises. This robust platform goes beyond conventional marketing automation, offering a comprehensive suite of tools that lets you create, personalize, launch, and manage marketing campaigns at a large scale.

Features

Advanced lead scoring: Enterprises can define criteria to categorize leads and focus marketing efforts on high-potential prospects.
Campaign orchestration: From email marketing to personalized content delivery, its campaign orchestration capabilities ensure a cohesive and targeted approach.
Advanced intelligence: Provides access to AI that helps select the right audiences, engage customers intelligently with relevant emails, and deliver the best customer experiences.
Analytics and reporting: Provides a dashboard to track and measure business impact with detailed marketing reports efficiently.

Pros

Has a large range of great integrations
Intuitive visual campaign builder

Cons

Slow implementation time

Pricing

Oracle Eloqua offers custom pricing, requiring businesses to contact Oracle’s sales team for a tailored quote.

14. SAP Marketing Cloud

SAP Marketing Cloud is a comprehensive CRM marketing automation solution designed for large-scale businesses looking to run personalized, data-driven marketing campaigns. It integrates seamlessly with other SAP solutions, providing a holistic approach to customer engagement and marketing efficiency.

Features

Customer segmentation: Enables large companies to create precise customer segments based on multiple factors, including demographics, behavior, and preferences, to ensure highly targeted marketing efforts.
Marketing campaign automation: Helps with the automation of end-to-end marketing campaigns – from initial lead capture to personalized content delivery and follow-up.
Personalization engine: Leverages AI and machine learning to analyze customer data and deliver hyper-personalized content.
Integration with SAP ecosystem: Ensures a unified view of customer data across the organization, fostering better collaboration and alignment between marketing and other business functions.

Pros

Has a user-friendly interface
Have various weekly dashboards useful in multiple data modeling

Cons

Has a high learning curve

Pricing

Prospective users are encouraged to contact SAP for a personalized quote based on their organization’s needs.

15. Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Marketing

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Marketing is a comprehensive CRM marketing automation solution that offers deep integration and extensive features. It is ideal for enterprises already using Microsoft products, providing a unified CRM platform for marketing, sales, and customer service teams.

Features

Customer journey mapping: Enables enterprises to create and visualize end-to-end customer journeys – from awareness to conversion.
Event management: Dynamics 365 for Marketing facilitates end-to-end events with the help of features like attendee registration, session management, and post-event surveys.
Multichannel marketing: Supports multichannel marketing campaigns, including social media, web, and online advertising, to help maintain a consistent brand presence across various channels.
Know your customers: Provides a unified platform that combines the marketing, sales, and service data to form a clear picture of your customers.

Pros

Wide range of integration capabilities
AI-powered workflow automation capabilities

Cons

Some users found the interface to be complicated

Pricing

Enterprises can contact Microsoft for a customized quote based on their specific needs and scale.

Disclaimer: A note about the tools

It’s crucial to note that all the tools mentioned above do not provide fully integrated CRM and marketing automation functionalities in a single platform.

For instance, HubSpot and Oracle Eloqua offer extensive integrated solutions covering both CRM and marketing automation. But Zoho CRM and Freshsales, though known for one aspect, provide functionalities or integrations for the other.

Businesses should assess each tool based on their specific needs, considering factors like feature depth, integration capabilities, scalability, and cost. Keep in mind that software capabilities can evolve rapidly with updates and versions.

Choosing the Right CRM Marketing Automation Platform

Choosing the right tool ensures alignment with specific business needs while optimizing budget utilization. It helps maximize efficiency and effectiveness in CRM and marketing automation efforts.

Here are a few factors to consider while choosing the right CRM marketing automation platform for your business.

1. Assessing your business needs

Begin with conducting a thorough assessment of your business needs. This involves identifying the specific functionalities and features that align with your marketing goals and customer relationship management requirements.

By identifying crucial elements, you can tailor your choice to a tool that can address current challenges as well as provide room for future growth.

2. Considering your budget

When considering your budget, prioritize features that align with your business needs. Striking a balance ensures you invest wisely.

It helps you choose a CRM marketing automation tool that delivers essential functionalities without exceeding financial constraints. This strategic approach guarantees a cost-effective solution tailored to your specific requirements.

3. Trials and demos

The significance of hands-on experience can’t be ignored when choosing a CRM marketing automation tool.

By testing the tool through free trials, businesses can assess user-friendliness, compatibility with their processes, and overall suitability.

Best Practices for Implementing CRM Marketing Automation

Here are a few best practices to follow to realize the full potential of your chosen CRM marketing automation solution.

Training and onboarding

Provide comprehensive training and onboarding sessions to empower your team with the necessary skills for effective utilization of the CRM marketing automation tool. This practice enhances user adoption, maximizes the tool’s potential, and fosters a smoother integration into daily workflows.

Data management and governance

Effective data management and governance across platforms is the foundation for the successful adoption of any CRM marketing automation platform. Ensure data quality to enhance the accuracy of customer insights and optimize the performance of your CRM marketing automation system.

Continuous evaluation and adaptation

Regularly assess the tool’s performance, measure outcomes, and adapt strategies accordingly to ensure ongoing optimization and alignment with evolving business goals.

Wrap Up

Businesses can enhance efficiency and build lasting rapport for sustained growth by seamlessly integrating CRM and marketing automation.

The use of CRM marketing automation is reshaping how organizations engage with customers. It streamlines processes and builds lasting connections, making it an indispensable ally in today’s competitive market.