Marketing brings in leads, and sales turn them into customers — but what happens in between? Many businesses struggle with the disconnect between their marketing and sales efforts. That’s where CRM and marketing automation come in.
While they serve different purposes, integrating them can create a seamless system for tracking, nurturing, and converting leads more effectively.
Whether you’re a small business or an enterprise, understanding how these tools complement each other can help create a more seamless and data-driven customer experience. We’ll also share the eight top CRM marketing automation tools that you can consider using for your business for increased efficiency.
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Table of Contents
What is Marketing Automation?
Marketing automation refers to the use of software to streamline and automate repetitive marketing tasks, allowing businesses to engage with leads and customers more efficiently.
This includes automating email campaigns, social media posting, lead nurturing, customer segmentation, and behavioral tracking — all without requiring constant manual effort.
It’s not just about improving efficiency and boosting conversions but also enables personalized customer experiences at scale. To achieve this, businesses set up workflows that trigger personalized messages based on user actions.
For instance, if a lead adds an item to their cart but doesn’t complete the purchase, an automated system can send a personalized abandoned cart email, possibly including a special discount coupon as an incentive.
Here’s an example (this landed in my inbox):
Marketing automation frees up time so your team can focus on more strategic tasks. Plus, its built-in analytics provide valuable insights, helping your marketing team refine campaigns and make data-driven decisions.
What is CRM?
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a software solution designed to manage a company’s interactions with current and potential customers.
It serves as a centralized database that stores customer information, including contact details, purchase history, communication records, and preferences. CRM systems help businesses track customer interactions across multiple touchpoints — whether through emails, calls, meetings, or social media — ensuring a comprehensive view of each customer relationship.
Modern CRM software has evolved into a powerful sales and customer management tool, consolidating various sales team tasks. From tracking the sales pipeline to automating follow-ups and scheduling meetings, it enables sales teams to nurture prospects more efficiently.
This leads to better customer service and fosters stronger, long-term relationships, driving loyalty and repeat business.
For instance, EngageBay’s sales CRM allows users to make and receive calls directly from the platform, eliminating issues like misdialing, long wait times, and call drops.
What is the Difference Between CRM and Marketing Automation?
While CRM and marketing automation both help businesses manage customer interactions, they serve distinct purposes.
Purpose and focus
Marketing automation is designed to generate, nurture, and qualify leads through automated marketing campaigns. It focuses on engagement at scale, using tools like email sequences, behavioral tracking, and segmentation to move prospects through the sales funnel.
In contrast, CRM is centered around managing customer relationships after a lead has been qualified, helping sales teams track interactions, close deals, and maintain long-term relationships.
Primary users
Marketing teams primarily use marketing automation to execute and optimize campaigns. It ensures that potential customers receive personalized content at the right time.
On the other hand, CRM is a tool for sales and customer support teams. It helps them keep track of leads, follow-ups, and ongoing customer interactions to drive revenue and retention.
While both tools store customer information, CRM is more sales-driven, and marketing automation is engagement-driven.
Benefits of Marketing Automation
Marketing automation helps businesses save time, improve campaign efficiency, and deliver personalized customer experiences at scale.
Here are some key benefits of using marketing automation.
1. Increased efficiency and time savings
Marketing automation reduces manual work by handling repetitive tasks like email follow-ups, lead scoring, and social media posting.
This frees up marketing teams to focus on strategy and creative initiatives rather than routine processes.
Besides, campaigns can run 24/7 without manual intervention, ensuring consistent engagement with potential customers.
2. Enhanced lead nurturing and conversion rates
Not all leads are ready to buy immediately. You need to nurture leads over time through automated workflows by delivering targeted content based on behavior and interests.
This keeps leads engaged until they’re sales-ready, improving conversion rates without excessive manual effort.
3. Personalized customer experiences at scale
Modern customers expect tailored interactions rather than one-size-fits-all messaging. Marketing automation enables businesses to segment audiences based on demographics, behavior, and engagement history.
This ensures personalized email sequences, product recommendations, and offers — thereby enhancing engagement and customer relationships.
4. Better data-driven decision making
Marketing automation’s built-in analytics tools track customer behavior, campaign performance, and conversion patterns.
Businesses can use these insights to optimize strategies, refine messaging, and allocate resources more effectively. Features like A/B testing and performance tracking help marketers make informed decisions that boost ROI.
5. Improved customer retention and loyalty
Marketing automation isn’t just for acquiring customers and nurturing them — it also helps with customer retention.
Automated follow-ups, personalized offers, and re-engagement campaigns help maintain strong relationships. Features like loyalty programs, anniversary emails, and VIP offers can be delivered effortlessly, enhancing customer satisfaction and repeat business.
Best Practices for Marketing Automation
Implementing marketing automation effectively is crucial to maximize its benefits and avoid common pitfalls. Follow these best practices to ensure success:
1. Define clear goals and KPIs
Clearly outline your objectives — whether it’s lead generation, higher engagement, improved conversion rates, or better customer retention.
Setting specific goals helps you design effective workflows and identify key performance indicators (KPIs) to track success and refine your strategy accordingly.
2. Segment your audience for targeted messaging
A good marketing automation system lets you segment your audience based on demographics, behavior, purchase history, or custom criteria.
Proper segmentation ensures personalized and relevant communication, leading to higher engagement and conversions.
3. Nurture leads with multi-step workflows
Effective marketing automation goes beyond sending a single follow-up email.
Create multi-step workflows tailored to different stages of the buyer’s journey.
For example, an upsell workflow might include a product recommendation email, a discount offer, and a follow-up highlighting product benefits.
This structured approach keeps prospects engaged and moves them closer to conversion.
4. Ensure seamless integration with CRM and sales tools
For maximum impact, marketing automation should be integrated with CRM and other sales tools.
This ensures a smooth flow of customer data between marketing and sales teams, enabling personalized follow-ups and efficient lead management. Without integration, businesses risk missing out on key customer insights.
How do CRM and Marketing Automation Work Together?
CRM and marketing automation are powerful on their own, but together, they create a seamless customer experience by bridging the gap between marketing and sales.
Marketing automation generates and nurtures leads through targeted campaigns, personalized emails, and behavior-based workflows.
Once a lead is qualified, CRM takes over, helping sales teams track interactions, manage relationships, and close deals efficiently.
By integrating the two, businesses get a centralized view of customer data, ensuring that marketing, sales, and support teams are aligned.
This alignment allows for smoother lead handoffs — marketing can track lead engagement and score prospects based on their interactions, while sales teams gain real-time insights into customer behavior, making their outreach more relevant and timely.
Additionally, support teams can access the full history of a lead journey with your company. This enables them to provide better, more personalized service to increase the chances of conversions.
With a unified CRM marketing automation system, businesses can create cohesive customer journeys — from the first touchpoint to post-purchase follow-ups. This ensures no leads fall through the cracks and every customer interaction feels seamless and personalized.
5 Best CRM Software with Marketing Automation
SMBs and startups need smarter tools to manage customer relationships and drive growth.
CRM software with built-in marketing automation streamlines lead nurturing, sales tracking, and customer engagement — all in one platform, enabling businesses to scale efficiently.
| CRM with marketing automation software | Starting price | Free plan | Free trial | G2 ratings |
| EngageBay | Starts at $13.79 per user per month | Yes | Yes | 4.6/5 |
| Insightly | Starts at $349 per month (billed annually) | No | Yes | 4.2/5 |
| HubSpot | Starts at $15 per month (billed annually) | Yes | Yes | 4.4/5 |
| Zoho CRM Plus | Starts at $57 per user per month | No | Yes | 4.3/5 |
| Freshsales Suite | Starts at $9 per user per month (billed annually) | Yes | Yes | 4.2/5 |
Let’s look at the top 5 CRM marketing automation platforms.
1. 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.
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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 (priced at $13.79 per user per month) is the affordable entry-level plan offering expanded features for growing businesses, some of which include lead scoring, landing page builder, tag manager, etc.
For SMBs looking for advanced marketing automation and CRM capabilities, the Growth plan (priced at $59.79 per user per month) works the best.
Lastly, its Pro plan (priced at $110.39 per user per month) comes with a comprehensive list of advanced features for businesses seeking scalability and customization.
**The mentioned price is on annual billing.
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: Businesses 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 across multiple channels. Businesses 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 businesses to track key metrics and gain insights into their marketing and sales performance.
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Pricing
Insightly offers various pricing plans to cater to different business needs. It combines CRM, marketing, AppConnect, and service needs in its all-in-one platform.
- Plus Plan: Starting at $349 per month (billed annually)
- Professional Plan: Starting at $899 per month (billed annually)
- Enterprise Plan: Starting at $2,599 per month (billed annually)
3. HubSpot
HubSpot offers an all-in-one customer platform to manage customer relationships and execute marketing initiatives efficiently.
With its user-friendly interface and scalable features, HubSpot empowers businesses to grow and succeed in the digital landscape.
Features
- Email marketing: Enables businesses to design, schedule, and track email campaigns. Furthermore, it offers analytics to measure engagement and optimize their email marketing strategy over time (limited to the Professional plan).
- Landing pages and forms: HubSpot enables SMBs to capture leads by embedding forms on their website and building a responsive landing page.
- Meeting scheduling: HubSpot’s meeting scheduling feature allows users to share a booking link, enabling prospects and customers to schedule meetings directly based on real-time availability. It syncs with Google and Outlook calendars, eliminating back-and-forth emails.
- Mobile app: HubSpot’s mobile app allows users to manage contacts, track deals, and monitor marketing campaigns on the go. With real-time notifications and task management, it helps teams stay connected and productive from anywhere.
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Pricing
HubSpot offers a tiered pricing structure.
- Starter Customer Platform: Starting at $15 per month (billed annually)
- Professional Customer Platform: Starting at $1,170 per month for up to 5 seats (billed annually)
- Enterprise Customer Platform: Starting at $4,300 per month for up to 7 seats (billed annually)
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.
4. Zoho CRM Plus
Zoho CRM Plus is an integrated platform that goes beyond traditional CRM, offering a comprehensive solution for businesses looking to unify their sales and marketing efforts.
It centralizes business data, customer interactions, and workflows — ensuring a customer-centric approach at every touchpoint.
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.
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Pricing
Zoho CRM Plus offers a single affordable monthly/yearly pricing structure to ensure transparent pricing. It starts at $57 per user per month when billed annually and has a 30-day trial period.
5. Freshsales Suite
Freshsales Suite is a robust CRM and marketing automation solution designed for businesses of all sizes. It offers a comprehensive platform 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.
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Pricing
SMBs can choose a plan based on their team size and the required functionality level.
- Free: for up to three users
- Growth: Starting at $9 per user per month (billed annually)
- Pro: Starting at $39 per user per month (billed annually)
- Enterprise: Starting at $59 per user per month (billed annually)
Other notable CRM marketing automation tools
6. Keap
Keap integrates marketing, CRM, sales, and service into a unified platform under a single plan. Pricing starts at $249 per month (billed annually) for up to two users and 1,500 contacts, with costs increasing as your business scales. It offers an extensive set of features, including lead management tools, reporting capabilities, and more.
7. Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM
Constant Contact’s Lead Gen & CRM platform offers an all-in-one solution that combines lead generation, marketing automation, and customer relationship management to help businesses attract and convert leads more effectively. It offers real-time analytics that links marketing spending to sales performance, pipeline growth, and revenue impact. Reach out to their sales team to get a quote directly.
8. Salesmate.io
Salesmate is a comprehensive CRM marketing automation platform designed to enhance business efficiency. It offers features such as customizable sales pipelines, email tracking, and robust integration options with third-party applications. Pricing plans are structured to accommodate various business needs, starting at $23 per user per month if billed annually.
Wrap Up
Businesses can boost efficiency and foster long-term customer relationships by integrating CRM and marketing automation. Together, these tools create a unified system that enhances customer engagement, streamlines processes, and drives repeat business.
This also eliminates the hassle of managing multiple software solutions for different tasks. Instead of juggling disconnected tools, businesses can ensure a smooth flow of information across teams, improving collaboration and decision-making.
For SMBs and startups seeking an affordable yet powerful solution, EngageBay is an excellent choice. It offers a free plan for up to 14 users with essential CRM and marketing automation features. Even its paid plans are budget-friendly, providing an extensive suite of tools to help your business grow efficiently.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is marketing automation in CRM?
Marketing automation in CRM refers to the use of automated workflows within a CRM system to streamline marketing tasks like email campaigns, lead nurturing, and customer segmentation. It helps businesses engage prospects efficiently while maintaining a unified customer database.
2. What is the difference between marketing automation and CRM?
CRM vs marketing automation — CRM focuses on managing customer relationships, sales pipelines, and data while marketing automation software is designed to automate email marketing automation tools, lead scoring, and campaign tracking. Together, they create a seamless flow from lead generation to customer retention.
3. What is the purpose of marketing automation in CRM?
The purpose of marketing automation in CRM is to enhance lead management, personalize customer interactions, and improve efficiency. It allows businesses to automate repetitive tasks while keeping customer data centralized for better decision-making.
4. Do you need both CRM and marketing automation?
Yes, using both CRM and marketing automation ensures a smooth transition from lead generation to customer retention. While CRM automation helps sales teams manage customer relationships, marketing automation nurtures leads and drives engagement, creating a cohesive growth strategy.
5. How do you integrate CRM with marketing automation tools?
Most modern CRM and marketing automation software offer native integrations or API connections. Businesses can sync customer data, automate lead handovers, and track interactions across platforms to create a unified CRM for marketing automation workflow.
