Business competition moves fast. Customers expect personalized, relevant communications across every channel. Marketing automation software is now essential infrastructure for brands to keep pace and drive growth.
This definitive guide will compare the 13 top marketing automation platforms (MAP) of 2023 to help digital marketing leaders select the right solution to:
- Save time by eliminating repetitive tasks
- Orchestrate tailored multi-channel campaigns
- Gain data to optimize decisions
- Prove marketing’s financial impact
By connecting critical technologies, datasets and workflows, MAPs enable 1:1 engagement that delights customers and outperforms competitors still doing mass blasts.
This guide examines MAP category leaders HubSpot, ActiveCampaign and Salesforce Pardot in-depth. We will also map software packages to specific customer profiles so you can zero-in on options that best fit your needs.
Let’s explore how modern marketing automation can transform your results!
Leading Marketing Automation Software Compared
There are over 7,000 MAP options in the market! Here is a hand-picked list of 13 top solutions across a range of capabilities and budgets:
| Platform | Starting Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| HubSpot | $45/month | SMBs seeking all-in-one inbound marketing platform |
| ActiveCampaign | $9/month | SMBs that value ease of use and flexibility |
| Salesforce Pardot | $1,250/month | Enterprises and sales-driven organizations |
| MarketoChimp | $299/month | Established ecommerce brands that leverage email |
| Drip | $49/month | Ecommerce brands focused on conversion optimization |
| Keap | $99/month | Solopreneurs and small service businesses |
| GetResponse | $15/month | Small businesses that value webinars and email marketing |
| ConvertKit | $29/month | Bloggers and digital course creators |
| Ontraport | $297/month | Businesses that integrate sales automation |
| Omnisend | $16/month | Ecommerce merchants that leverage SMS, push notifications and more |
| AutopilotHQ | $333/month | Transactional and behavioral automations |
| Iterable | Custom pricing | Cross-channel personalization at scale |
| Emarsys | Custom pricing | Large enterprises with complex marketing needs |
| Adobe Campaign | Custom pricing | Global enterprises that leverage wider Adobe stack |
| Sailthru | Custom pricing | Advanced personalization and predictive marketing |
| Oracle Eloqua | Custom pricing | Complex B2B organizations |
Now let‘s analyze leading solutions targeting major market segments.
HubSpot Takes Friction Out Of MAP for SMBs
HubSpot aims to provide growing mid-market companies an integrated inbound marketing, sales and service platform. With over 140,000 customers across 120 countries, HubSpot offers both breadth and scale.
The platform overlays robust marketing automation on top of a broader suite spanning:
- Email and landing page builders
- CRM and sales acceleration tools
- Analytics and attribution
- Service and support applications
- 200+ app integrations
By centralizing essential systems and datasets for attracting, engaging, delighting and measuring customer relationships, HubSpot enables SMBs to execute sophisticated campaigns and fine-tune investments – all on an easy-to-use platform designed for general business users.
Specific marketing automation capabilities include:
- Intelligent workflows adapting to customer behaviors
- Personalized multi-channel nurturing tracks
- Pop-ups, landing pages, forms and site messaging
- Lead segmentation, prioritization and scoring
- Marketing performance analytics and reporting
- Global multi-lingual email deliverability
Drag-and-drop canvas makes building workflows and landing pages simple:
For mid-market companies running lean teams hungry to punch above their weight with proven inbound tactics, HubSpot delivers the app ecosystem and automation power to drive growth.
HubSpot marketing automation pricing starts at $50/month for up to 1 million contacts. More advanced tiers with expanded limits and functionality serving enterprises are also available.
ActiveCampaign: Marketing Automation Made Easy
ActiveCampaign attracts over 150,000 SMB customers with its ease-of-use and flexibility catered to growing teams.
While providing enterprise-grade functionality like customer journey orchestration, deep segmentation and advanced automations, ActiveCampaign maintain‘s simplicity in its UX and self-serve onboarding for less technical users.
Noteworthy features include:
- 500+ Pre-built automations and email templates
- Drag-and-drop workflow and landing page builders
- Multi-channel support for SMS, chat, social media and more
- Built-in CRM with sales acceleration features
- 70+ app integrations and customization options
Leading customer Lumoid saw email revenue climb 152% year-over-year powered by content personalization in ActiveCampaign.
Other major brands leveraging ActiveCampaign include Shopify, IBM and Mercedes-Benz.
Pricing starts at just $15/month making it accessible for early-stage and bootstrapped firms still needing enterprise-class capabilities without the setup headaches.
For growing firms seeking robust, flexible marketing automation that just works, ActiveCampaign should be shortlisted.
Salesforce Pardot Aligns Marketing & Sales Ops
In markets, Salesforce requires no introduction. The CRM leader acquired B2B marketing automation specialist Pardot back in 2012 to complement its stack. While enterprise-focused, Pardot offers capabilities tailored to complex sales-and-marketing environments.
Tightly integrated with Salesforce CRM and other applications like CPQ and Service Cloud, Pardot provides B2B revenue teams true alignment.
By leveraging permissions-based account and contact data from Salesforce into customer engagement programs, Pardot enables personalization and trigger-based rules rivaling consumer web giants.
Functionality extends across all facets of automated marketing:
- Multi-channel campaign orchestration
- AI-driven behavioral scoring and personalized content
- Dynamic form and landing page generation
- closed-loop analytics and return on spend tracking
Illustrating the power of linking marketing automation to a mature sales engine, one Healthcare logistics provider achieved a 585% ROI in 18 months with Pardot accelerated lead gen and sales ops efficiency.
While pricing starts at $1,250/month, Pardot packs high-octane B2B marketing equal to the enterprise tools of mega vendors. For complex sales organizations running Salesforce, no alternative offers tighter fit.
Mapping Software Features to Your Needs
Every marketing leader will have unique requirements based on strategy, resources and in-house capabilities when evaluating MAPs.
Here we map specialized features across the 15 major platforms to common needs:
Beyond checking boxes on core features, take time to formalize the critical outcomes you aim drive through adoption:
- What customer experiences do you aim to orchestrate that were not possible at your scale before?
- How can consolidating data sources create smarter audience segmentation and journeys?
- What measurements matter most to showcase marketing’s increased financial impact?
Anchoring on these objectives and requirements guides both platform selection and how you phase rollout to the business.
Best Platforms Fit For Buyer Personas
Here we map the most seamless, impactful software options across 10 common buyer personas.
| Buyer Profile | Top Platform Choice | Runner Up | Third Option |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Services Business Owners | Keap | Ontraport | HubSpot |
| Bloggers & Course Creators | ConvertKit | ActiveCampaign | MailerLite |
| B2B Lead Gen Consultants | ActiveCampaign | Ontraport | Drip |
| Established Multi-Channel eComm Brands | Klaviyo | MailChimp | Omnisend |
| SMB Agencies Managing Client Accounts | ActiveCampaign | MailerLite | Sendinblue |
| Enterprises Seeking MAP For DTC eCom Venture | MailChimp | Klaviyo | Salesforce Commerce Cloud |
| B2B SaaS Firms | HubSpot | ActiveCampaign | Marketo |
| Complex Sales-Driven Enterprises | Salesforce Pardot | Oracle Eloqua | HubSpot Enterprise |
| Sophisticated CX Personalization | Salesforce Marketing Cloud | Adobe Campaign | Sailthru |
| Predictive Sales Intelligence | Infer | 6sense | Demandbase |
Take time to formalize your objectives, customer engagement models, sales cycles and existing tech stack capabilities as you evaluate options for maximum setup for success.
How To Implement MAPs for Maximum Results
Selecting a robust platform marks a great starting point – but precise implementation will make-or-break your marketing automation outcomes.
Follow this blueprint in rolling out your chosen system:
Set Objectives
Define exactly what success looks like for your marketing automation initiative across first 12 months:
- Revenue growth target
- Cost savings from consolidating platforms
- Email open and conversion rate lift
- Time savings creating multi-channel campaigns
Clean Data, Integrate Systems
- Audit contact data quality – fill gaps to create accurate, rich records
- Connect to essential databases like your ecommerce store or payments
- Enable CRM linkage and confirm shared field mapping
Start Simple, Small Scale
Prioritize 1-2 foundational workflow automations like post-purchase nurturing over advanced lead scoring tactics requiring more data inputs. Let small wins gain confidence.
Closely Track Performance
Go beyond campaign-level metrics to specific automations and experiences. Feature adoption tied to Rev. impact builds allies.
Create Internal Feedback Loop
Socialize performance metrics bi-weekly across marketing, sales, CX and finance stakeholders. Increase management familiarity with platform.
Building expertise across your team to tailor and optimize automation functionality quarter-over-quarter proves the path to drive transformative value long term.
Cutting Edge Innovations Advance MAPs
Already indispensable in streamlining operations, reducing costs and strengthening customer experiences, marketing automation platforms grow more powerful by the month.
Cutting-edge innovations in 4 key areas will shape next generation platforms:
Generative AI Content
- Natural language algorithms that auto-generate on-brand email body copy, social posts and more based on past top performing themes and offers
Predictive Segmentation
- Machine learning models that dynamically categorize contacts based on likelihood to convert or churn. Enables ultra-targeted journeys.
Persona-Based Channel Selection
- Intelligent rules that determine optimal channel – email, web, mobile, Direct Mail, paid media to reach each subscriber next based on historical engagement patterns
Journey Optimizer Algorithms
- Self-learning models that tailor the timing, sequence and offers within multi-wave automations to maximize customer lifetime value. Continuously optimize journeys.
As customer expectations for relevant communications and experiences continue rising across industries, AI and ML will unlock next-level personalization and contextual triggers at scales no manual efforts could ever match.
Key Takeaways Choosing Your MAP
Now more than ever, marketing automation drives results. By orchestrating intelligent, personalized journeys coordinated across channels, brands accelerate revenue growth and loyalty – while requiring less internal resources manually executing campaigns.
As this guide outlines, today MAPs enable companies of all sizes to punch above their weight class executing sophisticated multi-wave customer experiences that convert.
Do your homework selecting the right platform tailored to your specific business needs – then start small while tracking performance closely to ensure maximum impact of your investment.
Automation‘s benefits compound over time. Set your goals and metrics at the outset to ultimately showcase marketing‘s financial contribution spotlighted on the boardroom scorecard that matters most – Revenue Growth!
