The Best Marketing Automation Software for SaaS

Workflow builder – a visible device for constructing automated workflows, and implementing customized event-triggered automation/buyer journey automation. They have a tendency to look one thing like this:

Lead nurturing – utilizing a visible workflow builder to map out automated advertising and marketing paths in your gross sales leads, like the instance above.

Customized event-triggered automation – automating a sequence of actions primarily based on customized occasions (outlined by you) which have taken place wherever inside your advertising and marketing web site or customers’ SaaS account.

Instance of a ‘customized occasion’ triggered e-mail: an e-mail robotically despatched to considered one of your customers, explaining the advantages of a free trial characteristic, triggered by them utilizing  a separate characteristic inside their free trial.

Different Advertising and marketing Automation Use Instances

• Utilizing chatbots to assist prospects searching your web site, and qualify them in your gross sales workforce.
• Onboarding customers who sign-up in your free trial, serving to them to “activate” (begin getting worth), with customized event-triggered e-mail sequences.
• Surveying individuals who signed up for a free trial and did not go on to buy your software program.
• Utilizing AI-powered instruments to assist your workforce develop e-mail topic strains, or decide one of the best time for a contact to obtain a advertising and marketing e-mail.
• Amassing leads with a web-based type, then robotically segmenting these leads primarily based on how they fill the shape and their exercise in your web site.
• Sending focused push notifications or SMS messages to a consumer’s cell phone, to re-engage them once they develop into inactive.
• Automating frequent Gross sales & Advertising and marketing processes, equivalent to dealing with marketing-to-sales hand-offs, and assigning gross sales reps to leads.

The checklist is unending, however these are among the issues probably the most profitable SaaS corporations use their advertising and marketing automation software program for.

The suitable advertising and marketing automation software program for you’ll differ primarily based in your necessities, and within the put up under I goal to weigh-up the professionals and cons for varied sorts of SaaS corporations and their ranges of maturity.

Fast truth: do you know that world advertising and marketing automation software program spend reached $5.2 billion in 2022? Complete spend is predicted to succeed in a minimum of $9.5 billion by 2027, a progress charge of 12.8% per 12 months. Supply: Markets and Markets

Advertising and marketing Automation Software program for SaaS Corporations

1) HubSpot

HubSpot is utilized by greater than 177,000 prospects. Its all-in-one platform is cut up into 5 built-in elements, which HubSpot seek advice from as:

• Advertising and marketing Hub – create touchdown pages, varieties, advertising and marketing emails, weblog posts, lead nurturing campaigns, customized event-triggered automation campaigns, ppc campaigns, and so on.
• Gross sales Hub – HubSpot’s free CRM, and gross sales instruments your gross sales workforce can use to interact leads and prospects.
• Service Hub – helpdesk software program, livechat and chatbot software program.
• CMS Hub – the place your advertising and marketing web site, its design, templates, and content material dwell.
• Operations Hub  – for integrating HubSpot and some other software program you may use collectively, protecting information clear and synchronised.
• Commerce Hub – a set of instruments and integrations that features every little thing you might want to handle funds in HubSpot.

All of the elements of HubSpot include options which allow you to and your workforce to automate as a lot as potential. They are often bought individually, or in mixed bundles.

Professionals

• Essentially the most established advertising and marketing automation platform obtainable, by way of market presence and familiarity for hiring.
• Comprises a whole lot of performance not provided by most advertising and marketing automation platforms. That is very true for its CMS and broad set of lead technology options. It is unmatched as an “all-in-one” platform.
• An excellent variety of the instruments inside its platform can be found totally free, equivalent to its touchdown web page builder, contacts device, adverts, CRM, CMS & LiveChat.
• You’ll be able to reap the benefits of HubSpot’s vast ecosystem of companions and integrators. HubSpot has an enormous community of service suppliers which can assist SaaS corporations successfully implement HubSpot and ship advertising and marketing campaigns.
• Glorious in-depth coaching and schooling assets obtainable, each by way of their web site (totally free) and from companions.
• Built-in gross sales instruments nice for SaaS corporations promoting software program with a excessive contact gross sales course of.
• Does a superb job of mixing customisability for “energy customers” and ease-of-use  for many who worth simplicity.

Cons

• Full breadth of HubSpot’s providing will be overwhelming, there are a whole lot of instruments you should utilize and whereas that is nice for an all-in-one providing, it additionally presents rather a lot to be taught!
• It takes time to completely implement paid variations of HubSpot’s software program, relying on how a lot of the platform you select to make use of.
• Increased price than some opponents as a result of its breadth and depth of performance. Its workflow builder requires HubSpot Skilled. Customized occasion triggered automation requires HubSpot Enterprise (though word our tip on the finish of the Encharge evaluate for a intelligent approach round this). 

Pricing

Conclusion

HubSpot is probably the most absolutely featured advertising and marketing automation platform for SaaS corporations, therefore occupying our #1 suggestion spot. It really works significantly properly for SaaS corporations promoting into mid-sized companies or the enterprise, the place you’ve a multi-stage gross sales course of and purchases are likely to revolve round gross sales workforce interactions fairly than a completely self-serve mannequin.

Having used HubSpot Skilled for Cobloom since 2013 (and HubSpot Enterprise on behalf of purchasers), we will attest to the distinctive software program and assist we’ve got acquired all through. HubSpot has mastered the stability of offering energy and customisability to those that require it whereas remaining easy-to-use for everybody.

For SaaS corporations which have a buyer lifecycle centered round a freemium product or lower-touch gross sales course of, different platforms could also be a greater match.

2) ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is a advertising and marketing automation platform that serves greater than 185,000 energetic prospects worldwide. Its related providing for SaaS corporations spans 2 core elements:

• Advertising and marketing – create touchdown pages, varieties, advertising and marketing emails, lead nurturing campaigns, customized event-triggered automation campaigns, and so on.
  
• Gross sales – ActiveCampaign’s CRM, and gross sales instruments that can be utilized to handle leads and shut prospects.

Professionals

• Decrease price than most advertising and marketing automation platforms.
• You should purchase a bundle of ActiveCampaign’s Gross sales & Advertising and marketing instruments, which embody a CRM. This dramatically reduces potential integration complications.
• Customized occasions are included in decrease tier packages, which is nice for start-ups with lower-touch gross sales processes. It means you are able to do customized event-triggered advertising and marketing emails for cheaper than you’ll be able to with HubSpot, with out some other integrations.
• Has SMS capabilities, helpful if what you are promoting is concentrating on shoppers, fairly than companies. Most different instruments require integrations for this.
• AI-powered e-mail sending characteristic lets you optimise the instances your emails are despatched to contacts above-and-beyond most different platforms.
• Glorious buyer assist availability, reps exit of their approach to make sure buyer success.

Cons

• Its advertising and marketing automation platform was initially created with B2C companies in thoughts. Extra established B2B SaaS corporations with the next contact gross sales course of typically discover HubSpot a greater match, as ActiveCampaign’s CRM is not as complete.
• It is not as a lot of an “all-in-one” providing as HubSpot, extra of a “half-in-one”. It would not at present supply a weblog, CMS, assist desk, chatbot, dwell chat and search engine marketing instruments as a number of examples.

  You may want to make use of another instruments along with ActiveCampaign if that performance is essential to you and never already coated.

• Some customers discover among the tooling is a bit clunky/glitchy, equivalent to the e-mail advertising and marketing instruments, for instance.
• Reporting instruments aren’t as mature as different options, and might be improved.

Pricing

Word: the “Enhanced CRM” is an additional which begins at $68/mo, for fuller CRM performance

Conclusion

ActiveCampaign will often be an ideal match for SaaS corporations with a low or no contact gross sales course of, as a result of its origins as a B2C platform and the accompanying performance that brings.

It is also an affordable choice for SaaS corporations which have a “mid-touch” gross sales course of (most customers sign-up for a free trial and have conversations with gross sales) as a result of its well-integrated CRM, must you go for the Enhanced add-on.

3) Ortto

Ortto is a advertising and marketing automation platform that serves greater than 11,000 energetic prospects, and has a extra specialist featureset than ActiveCampaign.

Options embody advertising and marketing automation, e-mail advertising and marketing, lead nurturing campaigns, customized occasion triggered automation campaigns, push notification/sms advertising and marketing, dwell chat, in-app messaging, pop-ups, and varieties & surveys.

Whereas Ortto would not embody a CRM, it does embody a Buyer Information Platform you should utilize to retailer all of your buyer information in a single place.

Professionals

• Decrease price than many advertising and marketing automation platforms.
• Properly-designed, fashionable consumer interface.
• Ortto AI gives superior advertising and marketing automation capabilities which are not obtainable in lots of different instruments but, equivalent to topic line ideas, and open charge predictions for emails. It will probably even auto-generate dwell chat responses in your customer support/gross sales reps primarily based on content material out of your web site, knowledgebase and previous assist tickets.
• Has push notification and SMS capabilities built-in.
• Useful template library for getting began, which incorporates some SaaS Startup examples.
• After being built-in together with your different instruments, can be utilized to create helpful dashboards. For instance, when you combine it with Stripe, you possibly can create a recurring income dashboard.
• Discounted start-up package deal is on the market to SaaS corporations of their first 12 months of enterprise who’ve raised lower than $3M USD, have lower than 10 staff and a most of 20k contacts.

Cons

• Though Ortto gives a decrease price different to all-in-one advertising and marketing automation platforms like HubSpot, it is essential to notice that you’ll want to make use of further instruments like a CRM, CMS, touchdown web page builder, weblog, and so on to fill the gaps.
• Some individuals have had destructive experiences with their customer support. The software program is designed to be largely self-serve.
• Some customers report destructive experiences with their Salesforce integration, for these of you utilizing Salesforce CRM and never trying to migrate.

Pricing

Conclusion

Ortto is a good answer for SaaS corporations which need a specialised advertising and marketing automation device with out all the extra bells-and-whistles. We have discovered the software program comparatively straightforward to make use of, shortly creating emails and even customized event-triggered automation flows. 

Its AI performance for topic line concepts, customer support responses and different content material will even supply worth to these eager on bettering productiveness. It is at present fairly distinctive amongst main advertising and marketing automation software program suppliers on this regard, though HubSpot does have a device in beta which you’ll ask to be enrolled into.

4) Adobe Marketo Have interaction

Marketo is a advertising and marketing automation platform utilized by ~30,000 web sites. It is sometimes utilized by scale-up SaaS corporations, versus start-ups.

The software program is advertising and marketing centered, and doesn’t embody a CRM. Performance spans e-mail advertising and marketing, lead nurturing campaigns, customized occasion triggered automation campaigns, touchdown pages, varieties, A/B testing, account-based advertising and marketing, reporting and search engine marketing. Additionally they present a chatbot which can be utilized to interact guests whereas they’re utilizing your web site, and content material suggestion engine.

Professionals

• Can be utilized to implement superior advertising and marketing automation campaigns.
• A flexible platform which will be customised extensively, and used to implement multi-channel advertising and marketing campaigns.
• Extremely granular information analytics & reporting.
• Content material suggestion engine may be helpful for SaaS corporations which have massive volumes of revealed content material.

Cons

• Many customers discover the design and tooling general fairly dated.
• There is a steeper studying curve and vital complexity to become familiar with for these in your workforce utilizing the software program, as compared with different platforms we suggest above.
• Product providing is far narrower than HubSpot, and dearer than ActiveCampaign/Ortto.
• Requires integration with an exterior CRM and CMS system, there is not any choice to purchase/use a Marketo CRM or CMS.
• Many customers discover that integrating Marketo with different software program requires a whole lot of unanticipated guide work.
• No providing that is appropriate for start-ups, there aren’t free instruments or a package deal that basically serves early stage corporations.

Pricing

Marketo sadly doesn’t publish its pricing, you might want to converse to their gross sales workforce for a quote. Their packages begin at round $900 per thirty days.

Conclusion

The instances the place Marketo may make sense are often scale-ups that require deeper (extra conventional) enterprise performance, and firms that prioritise instruments like Marketo’s content material suggestion engine.

Particular person specialist instruments like content material suggestion engines can typically be discovered cheaper elsewhere nonetheless, after which built-in with the platforms we have advisable above, if they seem to be a core requirement (solely SaaS corporations with huge quantities of content material would discover a content material suggestion engine helpful).

5) Pardot (Salesforce Advertising and marketing Cloud Account Engagement)

Pardot was acquired by Salesforce in 2007 to assist them construct out their portfolio of merchandise, and supply their prospects advertising and marketing automation software program.

It is one of many extra fashionable advertising and marketing automation platforms as a result of it is owned by Salesforce, who market it to their current base of CRM prospects.

It incorporates E-mail Studio, which is utilized by SaaS corporations to do e-mail advertising and marketing, lead nurturing, sms/push notifications, and extra superior AI-powered campaigns.

Professionals

• Can be utilized to implement advertising and marketing automation campaigns of various complexities.
• Owned by Salesforce, a properly trusted model throughout the SaaS house. Should you’re inside a big organisation and making an attempt to get software program permitted, a model like Salesforce is prone to be trusted.
• Comprises enterprise performance which will be helpful for bigger scale-ups.

Cons

• Excessive price in contrast with different platforms.
• It has a dated, non-intuitive consumer interface.
• Many customers appear to battle with fundamental features throughout the software program, like e.g. looking for contacts, or creating emails which visually seem the way in which they need them to.
• Requires a whole lot of work to combine with different software program.
• Wants technical abilities like SQL information as a way to use among the extra fundamental instruments like segmentation, which against this is simple to do in most fashionable automation software program.
• Must host touchdown pages and so on on a separate subdomain to your primary advertising and marketing web site, as a result of how the know-how works. This negatively impacts your search engine marketing.

Pricing

Conclusion

Pardot is tougher to make use of than different platforms, requiring extra coaching and specialist experience. Salesforce have grown their product providing primarily by buying different corporations, and which means their software program has develop into unnecessarily advanced.

No matter these downsides, Pardot remains to be utilized by SaaS corporations. On the value level we’re not sure why an knowledgeable Scale-up would immediately select it over alternate options like HubSpot, nonetheless, even when they wished to proceed utilizing the Salesforce CRM. That is because of the current power of HubSpot’s enterprise performance and high quality of their Salesforce CRM integration.

6) Encharge

Encharge would not supply a complete advertising and marketing automation platform just like the beforehand reviewed corporations. They take a special strategy to automation altogether.

Encharge focuses particularly on serving to SaaS corporations to transform extra leads and free customers into paying prospects with action-driven lead nurturing emails and customized event-triggered automation.

The device will be built-in with platforms like HubSpot, or used with out some other advertising and marketing automation platform being in place.

Professionals

• Decrease price than many advertising and marketing automation platforms.
• Targeted on SaaS. Working with Encharge you will obtain SaaS-specialised assist, one thing which most advertising and marketing automation platforms solely supply by way of their accomplice networks.
• All packages embody customized event-triggered automation.
• Good answer for start-ups and scale-ups which have a “low contact” gross sales course of concentrating on small-medium sized companies, oriented round a free plan or free trial.
• Will be built-in with a lot of different instruments to ship in-app messages, carry out duties in your CRM, add customers to PPC audiences, and so on.

Cons

Pricing

Conclusion

Finally, whether or not to decide on an all-in-one answer or a  slim automation device like Encharge is not only a matter of which device to make use of, but additionally a query of your SaaS firm’s software program philosophy and operational preferences.

Should you worth simplicity, an all-in-one platform can be greatest for you. The platform will scale simply together with your SaaS, and permit you to not fear about integrating as a lot disparate software program. A platform is sort of all the time the correct answer for a scale-up with a excessive contact gross sales course of.

In contrast, when you simply need a lead nurturing/customized event-triggered e-mail automation device, and have a decrease contact (and even absolutely automated) gross sales course of, then utilizing Encharge for lead nurturing/consumer onboarding might be a superb transfer for you. 

Professional tip: utilizing Encharge together with HubSpot Professional is a intelligent method to ship event-triggered emails with out having to improve to HubSpot Enterprise, and prices a lot much less.