It allows employees to remove the human error element and to use their time on other tasks. It’s also effective for streamlining several areas of your marketing campaign such as: creating consistency in your branding message, generating quicker response times and tracking valuable customer data to improve targeted marketing strategies and more.

You can automate web content, email, social media and SMS. If you’d like to automate all of these areas you might want to consider a suite program. If you prefer to focus on just one of these areas, then you’re better off choosing a best-of-breed that specialises in that category. Without further ado. here are some of the best marketing automation tools (divided into suite and best-of-breed).

Marketo (General)

Marketo is perfect for large businesses who want one-stop shopping that will cover all their automation needs. But, it also allows you to pick and choose among categories and buy specified bundles such as mobile marketing, email marketing, lead management, customer base marketing, consumer marketing and email marketing.

Especially popular among users is its stacked list of workflow functions that allows you to drag and drop commands in an orderly fashion. Marketo also beats competitors in its streamlining of A/B testing of landing pages, an essential feature for maximising site performance. Also, its content calendar makes it easy for you to optimise one of your site’s most valuable assets, content.

Marketo also developed a product especially for small businesses: Spark. Spark allows businesses to set up and monitor marketing campaigns of any type. There are also one-to-one internet marketing training courses available where small business owners can discuss the problems occurred and get the insights from marketing professionals.

Hubspot (General)

Hubspot is widely acclaimed for its simplicity, Hubspot is another favourite among big businesses. It’s kind of the Apple of marketing tools – employees overwhelmingly prefer its intuitive user interface. Once you’ve set it up, it’s easy for your marketing team to manage it on their own without having to call in a specialist.

Though it’s not the cheapest software out there, the fact that it allows you to fly it solo with barely a wrinkle in its management features makes it worth the while for those who want a hassle-free program and, if you’re going to buy an automation program, hassle-free is kind of the point.

And what about small businesses? Hubspot team takes them into account as well. They designed a CRM system for small business and made it easy to learn. This system doesn’t require any changes in the current sales process, so your sales team should love it too.

Act-On (General)

Act-On reviewers give it top ratings for user interface and user experience. They’ve been described as a budget version of Hubspot, offering similar features at lower prices. Solid data and tools, easy-to-understand analytics, reliably streamlined. If cost is an issue, you’d be hard-pressed to find a reason not to use this tool: benefit is stellar.

Omnisend (General)

Omnisend is for those who need to graduate from simple email marketing automation to a full omnichannel marketing strategy. An all-in-one marketing automation platform, Omnisend has tons of great features, especially for those who sell online.

Omnisend offers omnichannel features, like being able to add several channels within the same automation workflow: email, SMS, web push notifications, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber, and more. They also allow you to connect your subscriber list to Google and Facebook for retargeting ads. Also, you’ll have no problems building your subscriber list with Omnisend. They offer embedded sign up forms, exit-intent popups, landing pages, and even a gamified Wheel of Fortune sign up form.

eSputnik

eSputnik is an omnichannel marketing automation software designed to help B2C and eCommerce businesses skyrocket their ROI, increase conversions, and improve customer retention through timely and relevant communications at scale.

eSputnik offers a comprehensive set of features, enabling online retailers of any size to engage with their customers in the most meaningful and effective way. The list of benefits includes a convenient no-coding email template editor, versatile marketing automation capabilities and actionable analytics reports. Beyond email, eSputnik enables its clients to reach their subscribers through SMS, IM, and push notifications.

Infusionsoft (General)

Infusionsoft is one of the most popular automated marketing software suites designed for small businesses. They offer most of the same features as the big-scale marketers above: CRM, automated lead capture and follow-up, personalisation based on information tracking, sales automation and online sales. Comprehensive analytics and system integration round it out. Prices reflect their small-business compatibility.

SendPulse (Email and notifications)

SendPulse have an email automation tool that your able to use remind your customers about the product they added to their cart or send them a “thank you note” after they have made the purchase.

Their automation tool works with multiple channels which means that you’ll be able to send SMS or WEB push notifications as well as emails. Conversion count, visual statistics, data filters and other features will come in handy and make your marketing campaign a bit easier task to accomplish.

Hatchbuck (Email)

Hatchbuck is a new all-in-one CRM marketing software specially tailored for small businesses. It has high customer satisfaction rates along with state of the art contact managing, follow-up automation and tracking. Touted for its simplicity and elegant drag and drop email templates.

Autopilot (Email)

Autopilot is another highly praised email marketing & marketing automation software. Sign up for their conceptually designed “journey” through customer building, message personalisation and analytics in a very simple interface. Customers also like the price which makes it affordable for small businesses.

TextMagic (SMS)

TextMagic provides businesses with bulk text messaging service, including automated messages. They have a lot of convenient features including email conversion into SMS, two-way SMS chat online and texting directly from your businesses app. It works in over 200 countries, so it’s ideal for international businesses. Lots of free tools and a helpful blog are also available. They offer a free trial, and after that, it’s a pre-paid service, no contract.

Enger (SMS)

Enger is another SMS messaging service that automates your message scheduling, provides a sign-up handle on your website’s landing page, unlimited groups and subscribers and real-time analytics. They boast its simplicity and DIY-ability.

Hootsuite (Social media)

Hootsuite boasts 800 of the Fortune 1000 as clients, Hootsuite is a premium social network integration software. Automated publishing, analytics, content management, customer targeting and post scheduling are some of its main features. Hootsuite University offers tutorials on how to use all their cool features, such as the app directory, a library of more than 100 useful apps. They offer tiered prices for small, medium-sized and large enterprises and a 30-day trial.

Sprout Social (Social media)

Sprout social is another popular social media automation software, their features include unlimited custom reports, advanced scheduling and team collaboration tools. You can join social conversations, provide rapid responses to customer issues and experience optimal social marketing.

Customers like their easy-to-use dashboard and appreciate the “Smart Inbox” that shows you all your Twitter, Facebook and Google+ profiles in one stream. Still missing: integration of LinkedIn in their stream. No matter what you’re looking to automate, the companies on this list are sure to provide you with the solutions you need.