12 Best Marketing Automation Tools Reviewed (2025)

Marketing automation tools are the secret weapon for boosting productivity and marketing effectiveness.

Whether you’re a small business owner, marketer, or an indie founder, marketing automation tools help you streamline processes, simplify workflows, automate marketing campaigns, nurture leads for sales and marketing teams, and boost conversions. 

With hundreds of email marketing tools available on the market, picking the best marketing automation software can be a daunting task.

So, we compiled this listicle with the top modern marketing automation tools to accelerate task automation. So buckle up, and let’s dive into the world of marketing automation.

What are Marketing Automation Tools?

Most people assume that marketing automation tools are all about automating email campaigns. But marketing automation is more than just automating your email marketing strategy.

Think of automation as a bridge between your marketing efforts and sales funnels. Marketing automation tools aim to generate and capture leads, nurture them, and convert them into paying customers. They also simplify creating personalized user experiences, scheduling and launching campaigns, scoring leads, and tracking campaign performance.

Key Benefits of Marketing Automation

Marketing automation delivers far more than convenience—it drives measurable improvements across revenue, efficiency, and customer engagement. Below are some of the most compelling, data-backed benefits that show why automation has become a cornerstone of modern marketing.

• Higher revenue: Companies using marketing automation report an average 25% increase in sales revenue (Salesforce).
• Strong ROI: Businesses earn an estimated $5.44 for every $1 invested in marketing automation over three years (Nucleus Research).
• More qualified leads: Automated campaigns can generate up to 451% more qualified leads compared to manual workflows (The Annuitas Group).
• Better conversion rates: 77% of marketers using automation see higher conversion rates than those who don’t (Firework).
• Improved personalization: Over 70% of marketers say automation significantly improves targeting and personalization (Firework).
• Greater productivity: Automation can boost sales productivity by 14.5% and reduce marketing overhead by 12.2% (Nucleus Research).
• Higher customer engagement: 91% of marketers agree that automation helps them achieve better customer engagement (The CMO).
• Better customer experiences: 43% cite improved customer experience as one of the biggest benefits of automation (Statista).

What to Look for in a Marketing Automation Platform

When you start exploring the market, you realize that there are thousands of marketing automation solutions with equally compelling propositions. So, choosing a marketing automation solution can naturally become an overwhelming decision. 

Fundamentally, choosing a marketing automation software depends on your unique needs and preferences. Here are the five things to keep in mind: 

• Establish your financial plan and organizational requirements. Understand the monthly subscription cost, usage costs, plan limits, etc., of a marketing automation solution. Plan how much money you’re willing to spend on marketing automation and your company’s growth goals. 
• Assess the user-friendliness of the software. Before you decide, it’s important to check the UI and functionality of the marketing automation software. Make sure to pick an easy-to-use solution with a minimal learning curve that can be quickly integrated into your existing tech stack. 
• Investigate analytics and reporting alternatives. It’s important to check the reports and analytics capabilities and see if the platform captures real-time data about campaigns and customers. 
• Examine integration possibilities. One of the most critical factors while considering a marketing automation solution is analyzing the platform’s integration capabilities with your existing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform and analytics tools.
• Account for potential restrictions. Every platform has a fair usage and terms of service policy. So, before you think of hopping to a platform, check for the restrictions, limitations, and shortcomings to avoid any hold-ups at a later stage.

Marketing Automation Platforms: Comparison Table

Tool	Best For	Starting Price	Key Strength	Free Plan / Trial
Sender	Best all-around marketing automation tool	$7/month	Powerful automation + excellent free plan	Yes
HubSpot	All-in-one CRM & marketing for SMBs	$11/month	Unified marketing, sales & CRM	Yes
ActiveCampaign	Agencies managing multiple clients	$15/month	Advanced automation & segmentation	Yes
GetResponse	Online business owners	$19/month	Funnels + ecommerce automation	Yes
Salesforce Pardot	B2B companies with long sales cycles	$1,250/month	Enterprise-grade B2B lead management	No free plan
Zoho Campaigns	Budget-conscious businesses using Zoho suite	$4/month	Tight CRM integration	Yes
EngageBay	SMBs wanting all-in-one sales, service & marketing	$13/month	Affordable all-in-one CRM + automation	Yes
Drip	Ecommerce stores needing deep personalization	$39/month	Ecommerce automation & segmentation	Yes
Mailchimp	Beginners & small businesses	$13/month	Easy-to-use editor + beginner automation	Yes
Brevo	Multi-channel marketing (email, SMS, chat)	$8/month	SMS + email + CRM + scheduling tools	Yes
Klaviyo	Ecommerce brands & DTC stores	$20/month	Shopify/WooCommerce data-driven automation	Yes
Marketo Engage	Large enterprise companies	$1,250/month	Enterprise automation + attribution	No free plan

12 Best Marketing Automation Tools: Detailed Reviews

With so many things to remember regarding marketing automation, making up your mind can take a lot of time.

We’ve simplified the process for you by listing the most popular all-in-one marketing automation platforms along with their review and pricing.

Sender — Best Marketing Automation Software

Sender is a fully-featured automated email and SMS marketing platform that helps you create, send and analyze your campaigns. It also has a great high-converting popups and forms builder for capturing quality leads.

More than 80% of people open welcome emails, and Sender makes this automation a breeze. In just a few steps, you can make your open-rates and conversions reach new heights.

The app has an email template builder for creating emails, including HTML editors for more advanced users. You can also use Zapier to connect Sender with your favorite apps like Salesforce, Slack, or Google Ads/Docs.

Sender also automatically checks if your campaign complies with the latest regulations like GDPR and TCPA, helping you avoid fines and lawsuits.

It also offers intelligent behavioral segmentation and personalization tools for your subscribers based on their behavior (e.g., triggered actions). This way, you can send targeted messages to increase engagement rates and maximize ROI.

Key Features

• Email automation. Automatically send personalized emails based on user behavior, actions, or triggers, allowing you to nurture leads and engage customers effortlessly without manual intervention;
• Intelligent behavioral segmentation. Use customer behavior data to automatically segment your audience and send the right message to the right people at the right time, optimizing engagement and conversions;
• Transactional emails. Send essential messages like order confirmations, shipping updates, and password resets with high deliverability and real-time sending, ensuring smooth customer experiences;
• Landing page builder. Design and launch high-converting landing pages using easy-to-customize, no-code templates, perfect for capturing leads, promoting offers, and driving conversions;
• 24/7 customer support. Receive round-the-clock assistance from a dedicated support team, ready to help with any questions or issues related to campaigns, automation, or setup.

Pros & Cons

Ideal For

This cheap bulk email sender is ideal for small to medium businesses. It allows you to build relationships with leads, nurture them through automated email sequences, and track your progress with insightful analytics.

Pricing

Sender’s pricing starts at $7/month for up to 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails/month. Forever free plan available for up to 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 monthly emails.

See why businesses choose Sender:

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Hubspot — All-in-One CRM & Marketing Platform

Hubspot is a full-scale marketing automation platform for small businesses. It’s an email marketing platform and a web analytics suite. The software helps you build your audience, convert leads into customers, and keep tabs on your CRM.

It has many free tools like HubSpot’s Conversion Optimization Tool to help you create A/B tests and track performance against specific data points. There are several other free features you can use to automate your routine process across sales and marketing teams.

Key Features

• Inbound marketing. Attract, engage, and delight your audience by offering value-first content and experiences that build trust, turning prospects into loyal customers;
• Automated workflow. Set up automated sequences that trigger actions like emails, tasks, or custom workflows when contacts meet predefined criteria, saving time and scaling your marketing efforts;
• Audience segmentation. Leverage behavior, demographic, and CRM data to create highly targeted segments, ensuring each message reaches the right audience for better engagement;
• Drip campaigns. Nurture leads over time with a series of automated emails that guide users through your marketing funnel, keeping them engaged and moving towards conversion;
• Over 200 integrations. Seamlessly connect HubSpot with over 200 apps, tools, and platforms, ensuring your marketing, sales, and customer service data flows effortlessly across your entire tech stack.

Pros & Cons

Ideal For 

This powerful CRM and marketing platform is perfect for SMBs and enterprises alike. It helps businesses of any size scale effectively by offering detailed performance tracking.

Pricing 

Hubspot’s paid plans start at $11/month for up to 1,000 contacts and 5,000 emails/month. Free plan available.

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ActiveCampaign — Advanced Automation for Growing Businesses

ActiveCampaign is one of the most affordable and powerful marketing automation tools. It has a robust feature set that makes it ideal for ecommerce marketers.

It’s easy to set up, flexible enough to meet the needs of any business, and has an intuitive interface that makes managing campaigns easy.

ActiveCampaign easily integrates with Shopify, allowing you to use your email marketing service as an extension of your Shopify store. Its automation builder lets you combine email, SMS, tagging, CRM updates, and ecommerce triggers within the same automation workflow, keeping everything unified and efficient.

ActiveCampaign also helps automate emails based on what shoppers do in your store while using tools like remarketing or social media ads to drive more sales from existing customers.

Key features

• Lead scoring. Identify your most sales-ready prospects with dynamic scoring based on engagement, behavior, and purchase signals;
• Social media management. Plan, schedule, and publish posts across major platforms while monitoring performance from one unified dashboard;
• Shopify email automation. Trigger personalized product recommendations, order updates, and post-purchase sequences automatically synced with your Shopify store;
• Personalized messaging. Deliver tailored emails, product suggestions, and dynamic content based on customer interests, actions, and purchase history;
• Shopping cart recovery. Win back lost sales with automated reminders, incentives, and follow-up sequences that encourage customers to complete their checkout.

Pros & Cons

Ideal For

ActiveCampaign is a powerful marketing automation and CRM platform designed for complex, multi-channel customer journeys and digital advertising touchpoints.

It’s ideal for agencies managing multiple clients with diverse reporting needs, offering advanced segmentation, customizable automation workflows, client-specific dashboards, and robust analytics to streamline operations and deliver measurable results across every account.

Pricing

ActiveCampaign paid plans start at $15/month for up to 1,000 contacts and up to 10,000 emails/month. Free trial available.

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GetResponse — Marketing Automation with Webinars & Funnels

GetResponse is another fine and versatile marketing automation platform designed to streamline customer communication and boost engagement at every stage of the sales funnel.

This automation software empowers users with comprehensive email performance tracking through automated reports and metrics.

Additionally, it offers robust contact organization and segmentation capabilities, allowing organizations to target their audience segments precisely. It delivers every email with essential features such as notifications, receipts, and order confirmations.

Businesses can harness the power of GetResponse’s pre-built workflows to upsell, re-engage, and effectively welcome customers. This marketing automation software enables users to craft custom segments based on client behavior and leverage page visit data to deliver highly relevant information.

Companies can strategically employ automated emails to recover lost sales and employ automated product recommendations to drive increased product sales.

Key features

• Bulk email campaigns. Send high-volume marketing emails with excellent deliverability and granular performance insights;
• Prebuilt ecommerce workflows. Deploy automated product recommendations, cart recovery, and post-purchase sequences using ready-to-launch templates;
• Advanced segmentation. Target customers with precision using multi-layered filters, behavioral data, and dynamic audience rules;
• Detailed analytics & reporting. Track every step of the customer journey with real-time dashboards, cohort analysis, and deep engagement metrics;
• Sales funnels automation. Build and optimize end-to-end sales funnels with automated triggers, guided flows, and conversion-focused templates.

Ideal For

GetResponse is an all-in-one marketing automation platform combining email marketing, funnels, landing pages, and ecommerce tools. For online business owners, it’s ideal for automating customer journeys, launching high-converting sales funnels, nurturing leads with targeted email sequences, and driving steady revenue through personalized product recommendations and timely follow-ups.

Pricing

GetResponse paid plans start at $19/month for up to 1,000 contacts + unlimited emails. Free plan is available.

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Salesforce Pardot — Enterprise B2B Marketing & CRM Platform

Being on the pricier side, Salesforce Pardot is a worthy addition to this list as Salesforce’s dedicated automation tool is equipped with CRM integration, behavior-based automation, and sophisticated tools that empower teams to track, nurture, and convert high-value leads.

Enhanced marketing automation capabilities integrated with the world’s leading CRM solution. Salesforce Pardot empowers collaborative efforts between marketing and sales teams to identify and nurture leads, close more deals, and optimize return on investment.

Salesforce Pardot’s suite of lead management tools includes CRM integration, email marketing, automated lead nurturing, and scoring. This helps foster synergy between marketing and sales to generate and qualify sales leads and reduce sales cycle duration.

Reclaim valuable time for your sales representatives through automated lead nurturing and instant sales alerts, enabling them to prioritize their activities more efficiently.

Key features

• Lead scoring and grading. Prioritize your most valuable prospects with automated scoring based on engagement, demographics, and intent signals;
• Multichannel automation. Orchestrate coordinated customer journeys across email, ads, social, and more to keep leads engaged at every touchpoint;
• Forms and landing page builder. Create high-converting forms and landing pages using customizable templates designed to capture and qualify leads effortlessly;
• Lead lifecycle reporting. Track how prospects move through each stage of the funnel with clear, data-rich customer lifecycle dashboards;
• Behavioral tracking. Monitor actions like page visits, clicks, and content engagement to better understand intent and trigger timely, relevant follow-ups.

Pros & Cons

Ideal For

Salesforce Pardot is built for B2B organizations that rely on complex, high-touch sales processes. It’s ideal for B2B companies with long sales cycles, offering advanced lead nurturing, precise scoring and grading, deep Salesforce CRM alignment, and detailed lifecycle reporting.

Pricing

Salesforce Pardot paid plans start at $1,250 per month with up to 50 automation rules and 500,000 contacts. No free plan available.

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Zoho Campaigns — Budget-Friendly Email Marketing with CRM

Zoho Campaigns is designed to streamline and centralize every part of your marketing and sales ecosystem, making it easier to manage leads, automate tasks, and connect customer data across channels. 

It brings powerful automation, analytics, and engagement tools into a single platform built for growing businesses.

Zoho CRM can help you automate many of your marketing and sales processes, including lead generation funnels and qualification workflows, personalized customer journeys, Facebook leads management, and HIPAA-compliant web forms.

This tool is an all-in-one CRM solution for small businesses and enterprises alike. It features contact management, sales force automation, marketing automation, ecommerce marketing solutions, and project management capabilities in one place. With Zoho CRM, you can manage every aspect of your business from anywhere using web or mobile marketing automation apps.

Key Features

• Lead generation & qualification workflows. Automatically capture and qualify leads based on predefined criteria, ensuring only the most promising prospects are passed along to your sales team for follow-up and conversion;
• Personalized customer journeys. Create tailored experiences for your customers with automated workflows that guide them through the buying process;
• Facebook leads management. Seamlessly manage and follow up on leads from Facebook ads, integrating them directly into your CRM;
• HIPAA-compliant web form. Collect sensitive information securely with web forms designed to meet HIPAA standards, ensuring that your business remains compliant while handling patient or client data;
• CRM integration. Integrate your email marketing and automation platform with your CRM, providing a unified view of customer interactions and enabling data-driven decisions.

Pros & Cons

Ideal For

Zoho Campaigns is a scalable email marketing platform that integrates seamlessly with other Zoho products. Zoho suite is perfect for B2B companies since it helps generate leads through targeted campaigns, nurture them with personalized content, and track engagement to identify qualified prospects.

Pricing

Zoho Campaign paid plans start at $4/month for 500 contacts and unlimited emails. Free Forever plan is available.

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EngageBay — Affordable All-in-One CRM & Marketing Suite

EngageBay is an affordable all-in-one marketing, sales, and customer support software for SMBs, startups, and solopreneurs.

The platform lets you capture lead info through forms, emails, and landing pages, segment them, and launch campaigns. On top of that, EngageBay offers powerful features like A/B testing to help you optimize messaging, dashboards to track vital KPIs and team metrics, and, notably, a free-forever CRM.

Finally, EngageBay boasts powerful features, including A/B testing to help choose the best variant, dashboards to track important KPIs and team metrics, and a free-forever CRM.

Key features

• Drip campaigns. Nurture leads automatically with timed email sequences that guide prospects through the buyer journey and keep them engaged over time;
• Omnichannel marketing. Launch coordinated campaigns across email, SMS, and social using ready-made templates designed to boost conversions;
• Visual automation builder. Create and manage complex customer journeys with an intuitive drag-and-drop workflow editor that simplifies automation;
• Audience segmentation & personalization. Target customers with precision using behavior, demographics, and purchase history to deliver highly tailored messages;
• Sales pipelines. Track deals, monitor progress, and manage your entire sales process from one place, ensuring smoother handoffs and better team visibility.

Pros & Cons

Ideal For

EngageBay is a unified marketing, sales, and service platform built with small and medium-sized businesses in mind. For SMBs looking to streamline their operations, it offers affordable automation, email marketing, CRM, and live chat tools—all in a single package.

Pricing

EngageBay paid plans start at $13/month with up to 500 contacts and 3,000 emails per month. Free plan is available.

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Drip — Ecommerce Marketing Automation & CRM

Drip, another email marketing veteran, offers a powerful platform for personalized email and onsite marketing. While not as popular as Mailchimp (another old-timer), this marketing automation solution offers equally powerful behavior-based automation and deeper ecommerce personalization.

One thing I liked about Drip is its streamlined approach to automation. Users can effortlessly run targeted campaigns and gather valuable customer insights, transforming website visitors into loyal customers.

Drip streamlines marketing campaigns with automation, making it an excellent email marketing automation platform. Users can create automated campaigns across email and onsite channels using a user-friendly workflow builder or choose from over 20 proven workflow templates.

Drip’s analytics dashboard focuses on revenue performance, and personalized recommendations help stores make informed decisions. A/B testing empowers users to optimize messaging for maximum audience resonance.

Key features

• Smart customer insights. Gain a clear picture of each customer with detailed behavioral data, purchase history, and engagement trends;
• Powerful personalization features. Deliver hyper-relevant messages using dynamic content, tailored recommendations, and individualized product suggestions;
• Behavior-driven automation triggers. Launch timely emails, offers, or workflows based on actions like browsing, clicking, or abandoning carts;
• Cross-channel marketing. Coordinate email, SMS, social, and on-site messaging to create seamless, unified customer experiences;
• Analytics and split testing. Track performance with in-depth reporting and optimize campaigns using A/B tests to boost conversions.

Pros & Cons

Ideal For

Drip is the perfect fit for DTC and ecommerce businesses that rely on segmentation and behavior-based automations. If you want to deliver tailored product journeys, boost conversions with dynamic recommendations, and nurture shoppers across email and SMS, Drip provides the tools to grow repeat sales without complexity.

Pricing

Drip paid plans start at $39/month for up to 2,500 subscribers. 14-day free trial available.

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Mailchimp — Beginner-Friendly Email Marketing Platform

Mailchimp is one of the most accessible and widely used email marketing platforms, offering a beginner-friendly interface and essential automation tools. While it’s debatable whether ‘the king of email marketing’ retained its status, I can assure you that it didn’t lose the qualities that made it into such an industry behemoth.

It helps small businesses launch campaigns quickly with drag-and-drop editing, prebuilt customer journeys, and AI-assisted content generation. While its intuitive interface removes the need for technical expertise, allowing users to automate workflows and create targeted messaging that grows engagement and drives conversions—all from one unified platform.

With built-in ecommerce features and audience management tools, Mailchimp makes it easy to stay connected with subscribers and send polished campaigns without needing advanced technical skills.

Key Features

• Drag-and-drop email builder. Create professional emails quickly using customizable templates and a simple visual editor;
• Prebuilt automation journeys. Launch welcome sequences, birthday emails, product follow-ups, and more with plug-and-play automations;
• Audience management tools. Segment subscribers based on tags, behaviors, and demographics for more targeted messaging;
• AI content assistant. Generate subject lines and copy suggestions to speed up content creation;
• Basic ecommerce automation. Send abandoned cart emails, product recommendations, and order follow-ups for connected stores.

Pros & Cons

Ideal For

Mailchimp is ideal for beginners, freelancers, and small businesses who want an easy, straightforward email marketing platform with simple automation and polished templates—without needing advanced workflows. However, if you’re looking to save money, it’s also worth exploring Mailchimp alternatives.

Pricing

Mailchimp paid plans start at $13/month for 500 contacts. Free plan is available.

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Brevo — Affordable Full-Featured Marketing Platform

Brevo offers a comprehensive suite of automation features that extend beyond traditional email and SMS marketing. It empowers users to create intelligent automations for various campaigns, including email marketing and SMS outreach.

What sets Brevo apart from other marketing automation tools is its ability to conduct split tests on these automations. You can compare messages, timing, or entire paths in real time. Brevo then identifies the best-performing version and adjusts your sequences automatically. This helps every journey improve over time and boosts engagement and conversions.

Furthermore, Brevo isn’t solely a marketing automation solution; it also serves as a CRM and offers a highly convenient meeting scheduling tool.

While its CRM functionalities are relatively basic, the meeting scheduler stands out, automatically generating booking pages with unique URLs for scheduling appointments, streamlining the scheduling process significantly.

Key features

• Lead tracking & scoring. Track and score leads based on engagement and behavior, ensuring you focus on high-potential customers for better conversion rates;
• Workflow automation. Automate repetitive marketing tasks and set up custom workflows to streamline your processes, saving time and improving efficiency;
• Multi-channel marketing automation. Manage and automate campaigns across email, social media, SMS, and more, providing a unified experience across multiple channels;
• Drag-and-drop email builder. Create stunning, responsive emails with ease using a simple drag-and-drop builder—no coding required;
• Ecommerce integration. Seamlessly connect your ecommerce platform to automate product recommendations, abandoned cart emails, and other key marketing tasks.

Pros & Cons

Ideal For

Brevo is a multi-channel marketing platform offering email marketing, SMS, push notifications, and marketing automation tools in one place. For travel & hospitality industries’ professionals, it will help deliver personalized booking confirmations, send pre-trip information, and nurture customer relationships with targeted offers and promotions.

Pricing

Brevo’s paid plans start at $8/month for up to 500 contacts and 5,000 emails/month. Free plan available. 

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Klaviyo — Ecommerce Email & SMS Marketing Platform

Klaviyo is a performance-driven email and SMS platform designed for ecommerce brands aiming to increase revenue using data-rich automation.

With deep integrations into Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce, Klaviyo pulls in real-time behavioral data—allowing merchants to create highly targeted flows that drive sales. Predictive analytics, dynamic segmentation, and powerful revenue attribution make it one of the most advanced email/SMS tools for online stores.

Klaviyo isn’t perfect, however. Pricing rises quickly as your list grows, and the platform has a noticeable learning curve for beginners. While, outside of ecommerce, integrations feel limited, the template editor can be glitchy, and deeper customization often requires diving into code—or paying someone else to do it.

Key Features

• Real-time behavioral segmentation. Build precise segments based on browsing, purchase history, events, and predictive scores;
• Advanced automation flows. Deploy high-ROI workflows like abandoned cart, win-back, cross-sell, and post-purchase sequences;
• Ecommerce-first integrations. Sync instantly with Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and top retail apps;
• SMS marketing. Reach customers through personalized text campaigns and multi-step SMS flows;
• Revenue attribution dashboards. Track sales, conversions, email impact, and customer lifetime value with precision.

Pros & Cons

Ideal For

Klaviyo is perfect for DTC brands, ecommerce marketers, and online retailers who want advanced personalization, deep store integrations, and powerful revenue-focused automations.

Pricing

Klaviyo paid plans start at $20/month for up to 500 contacts. Free trial is available.

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Marketo Engage — Enterprise-Grade Marketing Automation

Marketo Engage is a high-performance marketing automation suite built for enterprises managing complex customer journeys across channels.

Adobe’s tool excels in lead nurturing, scoring, multi-touch attribution, and cross-department alignment. With robust integrations—especially with Salesforce—Marketo supports sophisticated B2B strategies at scale and gives large teams the tools they need to automate, personalize, and analyze every stage of the marketing funnel.

For me, the lead scoring and attribution modeling are truly best-in-class. Marketo tracks every touchpoint and assigns value in a way that actually reflects how prospects move through the funnel —the kind of visibility you need when you’re expected to prove marketing’s contribution to revenue.

The Salesforce integration is equally strong. Data flows cleanly, workflows connect across both systems, and nothing feels forced or fragile. If your organization already runs on Salesforce, that integration alone can make Marketo worth the investment.

Key Features

• Advanced lead scoring & qualification. Prioritize sales-ready leads using behavioral and demographic scoring models;
• Cross-channel automation. Build multi-step journeys across email, ads, web personalization, and events;
• Dynamic content personalization. Tailor experiences based on firmographics, behavior, or CRM data;
• Salesforce-native integration. Sync campaigns, scoring, and activities instantly with CRM workflows;
• Multi-touch attribution. Measure the revenue influence of every campaign with detailed analytics.

Pros & Cons

Ideal For

Marketo Engage is ideal for large B2B enterprises, SaaS companies, and organizations with long sales cycles who need sophisticated lead management, advanced attribution, and enterprise-grade automations tied closely to their CRM.

Pricing

Pricing is quote-based, depending on database size and feature bundles. No free plan is available.

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Marketing Automation Use Cases & Examples

Email marketing campaigns are one of the most effective ways to build trust and foster long-term relationships with your audience. When done right, they not only educate and engage but also help turn casual subscribers into loyal customers. 

Below are some practical examples of high-performing automated campaigns that illustrate just how impactful email marketing can be.

Welcome email sequence workflow

A welcome sequence, one of the staples of email marketing, is triggered when someone joins your list, which gives you an opportunity to introduce them to your brand, products, and values. Naturally, welcome emails have one of the highest open rates amongst email campaigns (averaging between 50% and 91%).

These emails help set expectations, highlight popular content or offers, and encourage first actions—such as exploring your catalog or completing their profile. A strong welcome series builds trust early and significantly improves long-term engagement and retention.

Here is a great welcome email example by Food 52: 

Food52’s welcome email creates a warm first impression with a friendly, personal tone. The body text (“We’re so happy you’re here”) kicks things off in a very heartwarming tone. While a clean, no-fluff CTA and $10 off discount combo completes the first impression with a gentle nudge toward making that first purchase.

Abandoned cart recovery

When a shopper leaves items in their cart without purchasing, an automated recovery sequence steps in. These emails can include friendly reminders, social proof, product benefits, or limited-time incentives to bring the customer back. Abandoned cart automations consistently recover lost revenue by re-engaging high-intent shoppers at the perfect moment.

Here’s an example of an abandoned cart email by ASOS:  

ASOS’s abandoned cart email works well because the call-to-action is clear and direct, the message creates urgency by reminding shoppers that stock is limited, and the design highlights the abandoned item front and center. This combination makes the product hard to ignore and encourages customers to come back and complete their purchase.

Lead nurturing drip campaign

A lead nurturing drip campaign delivers a steady sequence of helpful, relevant emails that guide prospects through the buying journey at their own pace. Each message builds on the last—offering education, product insights, social proof, or solutions to common objections—so leads feel supported rather than pushed.

Look at one of the better examples of a nurturing email template by Framebridge:

This lead-nurturing email strikes the perfect balance between helpfulness and casual marketing, offering a lighthearted tutorial that boosts brand recall while genuinely educating the reader.

By turning frame-hanging tips into a memorable moment, it subtly reminds subscribers why they may need new frames in the first place. The strategically placed CTA then guides them naturally toward browsing the store, keeping the experience both engaging and conversion-friendly.

Re-engagement automation

A re-engagement email campaign is designed to win back subscribers who haven’t interacted with your brand for a while. These automated messages remind inactive contacts why they signed up in the first place—often using fresh content, special offers, or friendly check-ins to spark interest again. 

Here’s a re-engagement email marketing campaign from Animoto:

Animoto’s re-engagement email takes a simple, effective approach by directly asking inactive subscribers whether they still want to hear from the brand. The message is brought to life with vibrant, playful colors that immediately draw attention and set a friendly tone.

A clear CTA encourages users to update their preferences, guiding them to the email preference center and giving them control over how—and whether—they stay connected.

Event-triggered campaigns

Event-triggered campaigns are automated messages sent in response to specific actions or behaviors a customer takes—such as signing up, viewing a product, abandoning a cart, making a purchase, or hitting a milestone like a birthday. Because they’re directly tied to real-time activity, these campaigns feel timely and relevant, helping brands deliver highly personalized experiences.

Here’s a stellar example from MunkPack:

This event-triggered birthday campaign works because it feels festive, personal, and value-packed from the moment it hits the inbox. The vibrant colors, balloons, and celebratory visuals instantly create excitement, while the birthday discount adds a meaningful incentive to shop.

By tying the offer directly to a customer’s special day, the email strengthens emotional connection, boosts loyalty, and increases the likelihood of a purchase—all without feeling salesy or forced.

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FAQs

How much does marketing automation software cost?

The price of marketing automation software typically depends on the platform and the size of your contact list. Entry-level tools like Sender or MailerLite often start around $7–$15/month. While mid-tier solutions with advanced automation and segmentation features, such as Klaviyo or Kit, usually fall between $20–$40/month. 

Enterprise platforms—especially those with multi-channel automation, CRM integration, and advanced reporting—like Salesforce Pardot and Hubspot Enterprise can cost anywhere from $1,000 to $4,000+ per month. 

Which marketing automation tool is best for small businesses?

For most small businesses, Sender is one of the best marketing automation tools available. It combines powerful email and SMS automation with an easy-to-use interface and highly affordable pricing. Small teams can create automated workflows, segment audiences, and send high-converting campaigns without needing technical expertise or a large budget.

Plus, Sender offers a generous free plan, making it an ideal choice for businesses that want advanced automation features at a low cost.

Are there free marketing automation tools available?

Yes, several marketing automation tools offer free plans, including popular options like Mailchimp and HubSpot. However, Sender stands out as the best free marketing automation tool thanks to its generous limits and robust feature set

Its free-forever plan includes up to 2,500 subscribers, 15,000 emails per month, and full access to automation workflows, segmentation, and email/SMS features.

What’s the difference between email marketing and marketing automation?

Email marketing focuses on sending one-off or scheduled email campaigns to subscribers. While marketing automation guides customers through personalized journeys that are pre-built and respond to users’ actions (e.g., purchase a product or finish a sign-up). 

Key Takeaways

• Marketing automation helps streamline repetitive tasks. Free up your team to focus on marketing automation strategy, creativity, and high-impact work while maintaining consistent communication with your audience;
• Choose a platform that fits your tech stack and business goals. The right platform will ensure that it integrates smoothly with your CRM, ecommerce platform, and other essential tools;
• Leverage email automation. Employ email automation to deliver personalized, behavior-driven experiences that nurture leads, re-engage subscribers, and guide customers;
• Start with a free plan or trial. Use a free plan to test features, validate workflows, and ensure the platform aligns with your needs before migrating your full contact list;
• Monitor performance and iterate regularly. Use analytics and A/B testing to optimize your automations, improve engagement, and drive better long-term results.