Marketing automation has become a real buzzword of late, for many it just seems like the lazy marketers go to, but it's about more than that. Marketing automation is something CRM managers have been killing themselves, fighting with marketing, finance and development to create since the beginning of digital and many companies have realised that.

Hence the reason for so many marketing automation tools or larger companies building marketing automation tools for the enterprise market, from Adobe to Oracle, they've all got one for you. While marketing automation can become expensive and complicated on that level of businesses it need not be for the small business to start up.

Marketing automation for the little guy

It is possible to build your marketing automation system using a mix of other tools, but there are free and open-source options out there that can be just as effective as an expensive self-build or paid-for tools.

Marketing automation is something that should be used to scale and to find cheaper alternatives to traditional marketing channels and drive ROI.

It is more than just clever triggers and algorithms but finding customer touchpoints and reassuring them at the right time, and this comes not from fancy tools but from trial and error.

So how do you get into the marketing automation game without breaking the bank? Check out these nine tools to get you going at no cost to you

If you're looking for a more straightforward email tool to just send direct emails in batches check out our article on 5 Free Email Suite Options

1. Leadsius

Perfect for small businesses, Leadsius offers one of the most robust marketing automation systems for free. All features included in the premium accounts are also available in the free version; only the number of contacts and users are limited.

Features include: *free version

250 contacts

1 user

Form and landing page creator (unlimited)

Email creator and templates

List management (static only, no dynamic lists)

Reporting – emails, forms, web analytics

Support – knowledge base and community support

If you think you’ll need more contacts or users, consider upgrading to the paid version Leadsius offers, starting at $75/month for 500 contacts.

Visit Leadsius

2. Jumplead

Jumplead encourages marketers to use its product to “explore and learn for free, grow at your own pace.” Starting with their free version, you can get a taste for what their marketing automation solution can do for your business.

Features include:* free version

200 contacts

200 website visitors

100 emails

1 user

Live chat support

It’s a pretty basic package, so it’s only really useful for small-scale campaigns.

Visit Jumplead

3. SalesAutoPilot

Packaged as a free trial, SalesAutopilot does let users have access to a free account for as long as they’d like. They also don’t limit the features available, so you can honestly get a feel for the software before deciding to upgrade to their paid account. However, there are still a few restrictions to keep in mind.

Features include: *free version

400 emails/month

1 user

Email and sales automation (event-triggered actions, landing pages, A/B testing)

E-commerce module

Text message sending, personalised PDFs, telemarketing support

Sales CRM module

Affiliate module

Helpdesk module

To get yourself on the sales autopilot platform for free you will have to request a trial account. The trial account includes 400 free emails per month in our Email Marketing Module and unlimited emails for one user per account in our CRM Module. Whenever your needs exceed the 400 email limit, or you want to add more than one user to your account, you can switch to the Starter or Pro plan instantly, with the option of switching back over at any time in the future (only one plan change per month is allowed).

Visit SalesAutoPilot

4. Mautic

An open-source solution, Mautic’s marketing automation system is “100% customizable for your particular needs and situations.” You can download it straight from their website and get started right away.

Features include:

Monitor leads

Create emails and build lists

Landing pages

Lead nurturing

Reports

Mautic also hosts a community for its users to get involved with the product’s development. This features truly makes the download less of a transaction and more like collaboration.

Visit Mautic

5. Pimcore

Pimcore is another open-source option for your marketing automation needs. It’s mainly a content management system, but its product does offer marketing automation features.

Features include:

Email marketing

A/B testing

Analytics

Social media integration

Targeting

You can download Pimcore directly from their site and use it via the CMS or API while also offering you a private demo version for you to get a feel of the platform. They have a community board for users to share their ideas or needs.

Visit Pimcore

6. OpenEMM

While it advertises itself as an email marketing app, OpenEMM has marketing automation tools in its open-source offerings.

Features include:

List management

Contact database

Targeting and event-triggered actions

Email template creation

Reporting

OpenEMM does offer a demo version of its product, so you can try it out before downloading the entire system. They also provide a lot of great resources for users on their support page, including video tutorials, user forums, and a newsletter.

Visit OpenEMM

7. Drip

Drip has a super slick user interface and comes with beautifully designed popups/forms. It makes setup very easy and no fiddling around with other 3rd-party apps and plugins to fix your half-baked marketing service. Drip is also extremely easy to integrate with your site (just a few lines of code) or via Google Tag Manager, which already makes me giddy.

Features include: *free version

Subscribers list of up to 100

Unlimited Email Sends

Unlimited Users

Drip email opt-in widgets

API Access

Email marketing automation

3rd-Party Integrations

Purchase notifications

Lead scoring

Its free package may limit you in terms of subscribers, but it does give you a lot in terms of functionality that's great for finding your feet with automation that works for your site.

Visit Drip

8. MailChimp

MailChimp has always had marketing automation capabilities, but for the most part, it was reserved for their paid clients, however this month they've announced that they allow free users to use marketing automation services.

Features include: *free version

Up to 2,000 subscribers

12,000 emails per month

API Access

Email marketing automation

3rd-Party Integrations

Purchase notifications

Lead scoring

You will need to know a little about the MailChimp API and setting up integration with your site, but once that's out of the way you can personalise your marketing with powerful automation. MailChimp automation will talk to your customers just like you want it to. Save time so you can focus on other aspects of your business.

Visit Mailchimp

9. Albacross

Albacross is a lead generation, CRM and marketing automation business tool with a host of marketing benefits and specialises in improving lead acquisition. Using Albacross, you can capture leads from these visitors by installing a lightweight tracking code on your website which is also compatible with Google Tag Manager and popular CMS's like WordPress.

If you would like to try out their service, Albacross offers users a free 14-day trial of their services or you can contact them directly to book a demo.

The free trial and upgrade to their premium package include:

Unlimited website visitors

Unlimited Users

1000 leads Export

100 Personal Emails

1 Domain

Visit Albacross

10. User.com

User.com is a full-stack marketing automation software ideal for turning more of your visitors into happy customers. User.com allows you to gather information about your prospects, communicate with them via live chat, chatbots, gather contact information by using popups, send automated emails and SMS and much more.

The tool makes it easy to create automated paths where you can pinpoint the moments your leads receive messages. It will save you time and make sure your communication is consistent.

User.com has a freemium starter pack that is 100% free and includes:

Basic track and analyze user information and behaviour in your product

Live Chat which got up to 60 days history.

CRM - up to 50000 contacts.

Knowledge Base for your customers and team

Calendar integration with Google Calendar

Web Push campaigns up to 50k subscribers

Advanced users segmentation

Visit User.com

The salvation of marketing automation

While marketing automation may not be the silver bullet that turns your business profitable overnight, it does take a lot of the heavy lifting off your hands when it comes to rescuing potential customers, salvaging a sale and improving your conversion rate if implemented correctly.

Marketing automation can also increase your CAC, CLV and even reduce your ROI so starting early and starting small is a great way to used to what it can do, what its potential is for your business and how you can scale it and augment it with other marketing channels going forward. The more you know, and the more refined your automation becomes, the better your results will be. So explore, have fun and good luck on your road to automation marketing.

Contact us

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Recommended reading

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Tags: email marketing, marketing automation