Choosing the Best Marketing Automation Tool (Guide)
This is how you will definitely find the suitable marketing automation software for your company
- Why you should automate your online marketing with a marketing automation tool
- The biggest advantages of marketing automation software
- Marketing Automation Programs You Should Keep an Eye Out For
- 6 Factors You Should Consider When Selecting Your Marketing Automation Tools
By automating your online marketing, you save a whole lot of work. For this, you can use marketing automation tools, with which you can, for example, automate Leads generation, acquire or contact customers. Sounds like a dream? It is! But in addition to the sheer amount of different tools, there are countless categories of marketing automation like CRM, Social Media and E-Mail Marketing. The tools also all have different functions.
You are probably wondering what the best solution for your business is? And as always with difficult business decisions, the answer is: it depends on your company and Budget as well as your requirements. Therefore, we will show you how to compare the numerous software and tools for automating your marketing and have provided a checklist to help you make your decision.
But first, let us give you a brief outlook on why you should use automation for your marketing channels.
Why you should automate your online marketing with a marketing automation tool
Marketing automation uses suitable software to trigger and execute marketing processes automatically. For this purpose, automation workflows, i.e., fully automated paths, are created which are automatically processed after triggering. This way, a large part of your marketing can take place independently. You can send emails automatically, expand your database or collect other data. This can then be used to generate leads and win customers. This not only makes the work of online marketers easier, but is also helpful when business areas of the company are to be scaled and if you want to play in the same league as larger competitors.
The biggest advantages of marketing automation software
- Time saving in marketing, because the management of typical tasks is eliminated. This makes your work faster and more efficient.
- Shorter sales cycles due to reduced response times in automated order processes
- Increased closure rate in sales, as exciting potential customers are automatically forwarded to the appropriate sales employees. These could then make personal contact and close the leads.
- Detailed analysis of multichannel marketing campaigns makes it possible to better evaluate and compare the contributions of individual channels to success.
- Lower Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC), higher average shopping cart values with an increased purchase frequency, and higher Conversion Rates (CR) in e-commerce
- Improvement of the approach to demanding customer groups through personalized advertising
- Increase in brand awareness through automated direct communication with customers on social media.
Marketing Automation Programs You Should Keep an Eye Out For
As already mentioned, there is a large number of tools that are suitable for the automated management of marketing campaigns. You should compare these to select the right software for your company. It is important for you to know whether you are looking for a marketing automation tool for E-Commerce, Social Media, E-Mail Marketing, CRM, sales, or Lead Generation. Because you need to make sure that the provider offers the necessary functions to cover the desired area of application in marketing.
That's why you should get an overview of the popular Marketing Automation Softwares & Tools before you start the selection process. It's worth taking a look at OMR Reviews. There, you can get information about the marketing tools and software and compare them to each other. You can also choose the right tool for you and your requirements based on the experiences and reviews of the OMR community.
The most popular Marketing Automation Softwares on OMR Reviews
The OMR community was particularly fond of these marketing automation tools:
- HubSpot Marketing Hub
- Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)
- Emarsys
- ActiveCampaign
- Klaviyo
- Salesforce Pardot
- Mailingwork
- socialPALS
- Apteco Marketing Suite
All further marketing automation software can be found on OMR Reviews in the Marketing Automation category.
The following seven criteria will then help you in your decision-making process to select the optimum software for your company's marketing.
6 Factors You Should Consider When Selecting Your Marketing Automation Tools
1. User Interface of the Marketing Automation Software
Once you have gained an overview of the various companies and tools, you should look at how simple or overwhelming the user interface is. Even though most providers claim to have an easy-to-use, intuitive software, that is not always the case.
Comparing the user interfaces and User Experience is worthwhile to find out whether the operation is easy to learn and helps you find the suitable software. For this, you can look at the stored screenshots of the software on OMR Reviews. These can be found directly under the brief tool description on the product page. Alternatively, you can request a demo of the tools and test them extensively. Ask yourself the following:
- Is the navigation of the software clear and explicit? Try to perform a simple task such as implementing a short workflow or an email campaign and judge how difficult it was to accomplish this task.
- Does the tool contain contextual information or a help blog? Some tools include additional information on titles and metrics or explanations of tool functions. This makes the entry into use of the tool easier for you and your employees.
- Is it difficult to accomplish a simple task? If so, this might indicate that efficient work with this marketing automation tool could be limited.
Keep in mind that the creation of marketing campaigns takes time and that you have further to-dos that you need to complete for your company. How quickly the user interface can be learned significantly determines how quickly you can implement automations and speed up your processes.
2. Features and native integrations of the Marketing Automation System
Since all tools have different functions, it is worth comparing the range of functions. This way you can select software that has all the capabilities you need for your marketing. In addition, you should take a look at the native integrations. This is important to ensure that you can seamlessly integrate or connect your current tools and technologies. You don't want to have any nasty surprises.
When comparing suitable tools, you should therefore ask yourself:
- Does the automation tool have all the functions you need? To answer this question, it may be helpful to create a list of all the features you need in advance.
- Are software and tools you already use supported by native integrations? This makes it easy to link the different applications and is essential to exchange data between them without problems.
- Does the tool have an open API interface? It is important that the marketing automation tool has an open API interface if you want to connect self-developed applications or if you want to develop such in the future.
3. Tools and Learning Contents of the Marketing Automation Software
If you get a new marketing automation tool, it can be of great advantage if there are tools and learning resources available online for this purpose. These include forums, blog articles, guides, explanatory videos or webinars that can help you learn the tool faster, solve upcoming problems and questions on your own and get the most out of the tool. In addition, it is helpful to check out on YouTube and other blogs to find out if there is a community that publishes Content in the form of tutorials and blog articles on the marketing automation tool.
In the search for the right software, you should therefore carry out a comparison of the available tools and learning resources. These questions could help you:
- Which tools and learning resources are available and how are they prepared? Take a look at what topics there are content on, in what formats they are available and how extensive they are.
- How can you access the content? Most learning resources are provided free of charge. But this is not always the case.
- Is the content up to date? If resources and learning resources are not continuously updated, they may not be helpful.
4. Customer Service of the Software Provider
When introducing a new tool, you may face a challenge that you cannot solve on your own despite tools and learning resources. In this case, it is important to have the option to fall back on a reliable customer service. This should ideally be reachable quickly via email, live chat and/or telephone. With some tools, you even have a personal contact person available.
You should pay attention to this when comparing and evaluating the customer services of marketing automation tools:
- What types of customer service are available? Find out if the customer service is reachable via email, live chat or telephone, or preferably via all three channels.
- How quickly does customer service respond? Some tools' customer service responds 24/7 while others you must expect to wait one or more days for a response.
- Is there a personal contact person? This can be helpful as it usually means quick and detailed help and thus offers the optimal support for you.
5. Users, Experiences & Reviews of the Marketing Automation System
As already described, it is important to find the appropriate tool for your company and to place the greatest value on your requirements in order to take your marketing to the next level. However, you should not be wearing blinders, but learn from the experiences and reviews of other users and take a look at the user base. What other customers have to say about the software can help you identify further strengths and weaknesses of the marketing automation tools that you would otherwise not have noticed.
That's why it's worth checking out OMR Reviews, where the best Marketing Automation Softwares & Tools are authentically rated. Customers also share their experiences with the software in detail. Additionally, they answer what they like best and least about the software and what problems they solve with the tool. This helps you get an impression of how marketing automation tools can be used to assist in the daily work routine.
You should keep these questions in mind:
- How big is the user base of the tool? The size of this shows how popular this tool is in its category and can assist in comparison.
- How many reviews are there of the software and what is the average rating? The number of reviews can also show how popular a marketing automation tool is, while the average rating concisely represents the satisfaction of the customers.
- What experiences do the users describe? The authentic experiences of users can help in decision-making by showcasing the strengths and weaknesses of the tools in daily business.
6. Marketing Automation Software Prices
When comparing prices of marketing automation tools, you should bear in mind how much budget you can and want to spend on such software. It may even be worthwhile to forego less important features if this means costs can be saved. When it comes to the price of the software, it is therefore a question of weighing the costs against the benefits – the keyword is: cost-benefit analysis.
Therefore, you should ask yourself the following when considering the price of the marketing tool:
- What is the base price and are there any additional costs?
- Are there different prices depending on whether I pay monthly or yearly?
- Are there various packages that have different prices depending on the range of functions?
The prices for software will also be available on OMR Reviews in the future. There you can conveniently inform yourself about the price of all tools on one website.
We hope we could help you with this guide in the selection of a suitable marketing automation tool. If you follow these six tips, nothing should stand in the way of your successful marketing automation strategy.