Often referred to as one of the leading marketing automation platforms within the space, ActiveCampaign has never stopped innovating since being founded in 2003.
But, how does it compare to other leading marketing automation platforms on the market?
In this ActiveCampaign review article, we’re going to provide you with a comprehensive overview of ActiveCampaign’s features, pricing and more to help you make the right decision when it comes to choosing a marketing automation platform for your business.
ActiveCampaign was founded in 2003 with the objective of giving businesses of all sizes access to the tools they need to compete with their biggest competitors at an affordable price and this has something that they do exceptionally well by providing one of the best-priced platforms within the market in terms of features.
While their platform has grown over the years to support businesses of all industries one thing that hasn’t grown is their accessibility in terms of pricing making it easy for even the smallest of companies to compete with the big-name brands in their space.
Features
Email Marketing
Whether it is a broadcast email, event-triggered email or entire series of personalised emails, ActiveCampaign allows you to create stunning emails that not only look the part but are designed to provide your subscribers with a brand experience that converts.
By providing ready-made templates and an easy to use drag and drop builder even the most non-tech savvy business owners can create stunning email campaigns that generate results.
Email Segmentation
Not all email subscribers are created equally and being able to send the right email at the right time and mean the difference between rags and riches.
With ActiveCampaigns advanced segmentation features, you can create highly personalised email marketing campaigns tailored to your audience to ensure they receive the most relevant content each and every time.
Subscription Forms
Working hand in hand with email marketing is none other than subscription forms.
However, switching between multiple platforms every day not only makes it time-consuming to manage your campaigns but can also lead to countless hours of data-entry.
With ActiveCampaign inbuilt subscription forms feature, you can create high converting lead capture forms that link directly with your email marketing campaigns and CRM to ensure everything is easy to access and manage all within one platform.
Dynamic Content
Depending upon your brand and target audience, you may have multiple products, services or niches you market to. You could spend countless hours creating tailored email marketing campaigns for each audience but this can become overwhelming.
With ActiveCampaign you can create dynamic content based emails that show specific content to each subscriber based upon their subscription profile cutting your time spent on email marketing in half all with the click of a button.
Split Testing
Ever wondered if your subscribers respond best to short subject lines or long subject lines? Green buttons or red buttons? Wonder no more!
With ActiveCampaign you can say goodbye to guesswork with their inbuilt split testing feature which allows you to test variations at scale so that you can find the winning formula.
From subject lines to images and more ActiveCampaign makes split testing easy as a,b,c!
Mobile App
Being able to stay ahead of your competition isn’t easy and with the speed that today’s market moves to be able to access your latest performance data with ease is critical to ensuring you know exactly how your business is performing around the clock.
With ActiveCampaign’s mobile app, you can review your campaign performance, view customer activity and manage your CRM data all from your mobile device.
Site Tracking
Knowing how your subscribers, leads and customers interact with your website can not only provide you with actionable insights into how you can improve your marketing efforts but also allows you to better market to them based upon the actions they take on your website.
With ActiveCampaign’s site tracking feature, you can track their activity across emails, forms, landing pages and more and then segment them for a more personalised marketing experience.
Event Tracking
While site tracking provides you with actionable insight into how users are interacting with your website and provides you with a goldmine of valuable insights, ActiveCampaign takes it even further by providing you with the ability to also track each subscriber’s event as well.
From button clicks to video views and more, ActiveCampaign has got you covered.
Automation Goals
Not every contact is created equally and depending upon where they are within your buyer’s journey may have a massive impact on how they respond to certain campaigns.
With ActiveCampaign’s automation goals feature, you can identify where certain subscribers are dropping off within your email marketing funnels, compare how different goals are performing and also segment those subscribers to complete specific actions.
Automation Map
Being able to identify bottlenecks within your customer journey can be difficult when you have multiple automation journeys a subscriber can go through.
With ActiveCampaigns automation map you get a bird’s-eye view of all of your automations, see how automations are connected and identify potential errors or room for improvement
Attribution
As your company grows so will your marketing campaigns and budget so being able to attribute each conversion to the right campaign is critical in ensuring you know exactly which campaign is generating the most results and which one needs optimisation.
With ActiveCampaign’s attribution feature, you can automatically trace each subscribers path from start to finish and segment them based upon source to provide them with a personalised experience while also knowing where your marketing budget is best spent.
Split Action
Being able to segment your subscribers throughout your automation not only provides you with more power over the actions they can take but also allows you to test multiple variables at the same time to find the winning formula.
With ActiveCampaign’s split action feature you can automatically segment your subscribers based upon a number of factors including wait time, actions taken and more and they create personalised paths for each subscriber.
Reporting
No platform would be complete without the ability to know exactly what results and return on investment you are getting from your campaigns and ActiveCampaign is here to make that happen.
ActiveCampaign provides you with a comprehensive breakdown of how each of your campaigns and automations is performing from open rate to click-through rate and conversion value ActiveCampaign makes it easy for you to check in on the numbers that matter most.
Integrations
Having an email marketing platform that plays well with your favourite tools not only saves you countless hours of tech support issues but also helps you get the most out of your day by reducing the need for manual data entry and more.
ActiveCampaign integrates with a growing number of leading platforms including scheduling platforms, eCommerce platforms, reporting platforms and more to ensure a flawless user experience across your entire tool stack.
Sales and CRM
What potentially sets ActiveCampaign apart from its competitors is its built-in sales and CRM functionality bringing everything under one roof and saving you countless hours lost to data entry, switching between multiple platforms and potential data errors.
Creating an all-in-one solution also allows for much greater control over each contact in terms of how you market to them and manage the relationship from subscriber right through to customer ensuring no subscriber slips through the cracks.
Pricing
ActiveCampaign offers flexible pricing options for businesses of all sizes regardless of your budget and some of the most competitive pricing within the industry with plans starting from just $15 per month for up to 500 subscribers.
Their pricing plans vary depending upon the number of subscribers and the features you require with their lowest tier pricing plans including capacity for up to 500 subscribers.
Lite – $15 month/$9 per month (billed annually)
Plus – $70 month/$49 per month (billed annually)
Professional – $159 month/$129 per month (billed annually)
Enterprise – from $279 month/$229 per month (billed annually)
FAQs
How much does ActiveCampaign cost?
ActiveCampaign’s pricing varies depending upon the number of subscribers you have with plans starting from $15 per month.
Does ActiveCampaign offer a free trial?
Yes, ActiveCampaign offers a free 14-day free trial to get started.
Can I migrate my existing subscribers to ActiveCampaign?
Yes, ActiveCampaign allows you to import your existing subscribers and also offers a migration service for those looking for additional assistance.
What customer service options does ActiveCampaign offer?
ActiveCampign provides support via live chat, telephone and email.
Alternatives
Still not sure ActiveCampaign is right for your business, here are some other platforms we recommend exploring when choosing an email marketing platform for your business.
Overall ActiveCampaign campaign is no double a clear contender when it comes to providing a feature-packed, all-in-one marketing automation platform designed to help you and your team manage your marketing and sales all under one roof.
One thing that sets ActiveCampaign apart from some of its competitors is its affordability and scalability across multiple business types with a host of features designed to support any type of business from service-based businesses to eCommerce businesses and more.
If you’re looking for a platform that provides you with a robust set of features while still offering serious bang for your buck you can’t go past considering ActiveCampaign for your business.
And there you have it! Our in-depth ActiveCampaign review article provides you with an overview of its features, pricing and more to help you make the right decision when it comes to choosing a marketing automation platform.
Ready to Take ActiveCampaign For Spin?
Interested to see if ActiveCampaign is right for your business? Get started today with a free 14-day trial which provides you with access to all features so that you can explore the platform in detail or let us take care of it for you with our ActiveCampaign consulting services including account setup, campaign creation and more to ensure you get the most out of your email marketing.
Marketing automation can be a daunting subject even for the most experienced marketers.
With so many technical terms that seem to change at the drop of a hat, it’s often too easy to become overwhelmed when it comes to knowing which terms matter.
However, with the increase in demand for automation and personalisation in email marketing, it’s almost expected that marketers to stay ahead of the game are well versed in marketing automation even if they’re not the one implementing it.
With this in mind, we’ve put together a list of 20 essential marketing automation terms that you need to know to ensure you’re setting yourself up for success when it comes to email marketing.
We’re going to cover some of the most known terms as well as some of the newest terms to emerge in easy to understand, non-technical language that everyone can understand.
Kicking things off in our list of essential marketing automation is none other than bounce rate.
A high bounce rate can not only have a major impact on the success of your campaigns, but it can also lead to your account and domain being flagged for suspicious activity.
A high bounce rate not only indicates that your list quality is poor but also that you’re not taking the necessary steps to attract and maintain a high-quality list of subscribers that you can convert into paying customers.
Regularly reviewing and cleaning your subscriber list will not only reduce your bounce rate but also lead to an increase in campaign performance.
Buyer Persona
Not every customer is the same and depending upon what products and services you are selling you may have multiple buyer personas to market to.
A buyer persona is a fictional character that represents a specific demographic within your target audience.
Generally speaking, a buyer persona will provide you and your team with an overview of their age, location, interests, goals and challenges to provide you with an accurate profile of who and how you need to target within your marketing campaigns.
Call to Action
A call to action is exactly that.
It’s your hook that not only is designed to get your audience’s attention but also get them to take action within your marketing campaign.
This can come in the form of a link, a button or a banner and designed to stand out and make them complete the designed action you want them to take.
Whether it’s visiting a blog, downloading an eBook or making a purchase on your website your call to action must be eye-catching and enticing for your target audience.
Campaign
A campaign can refer to an overall marketing campaign your brand is looking to launch or an individual once-off email campaign targeting an existing audience.
Some example once-off email marketing campaign that you can run include:
Black Friday Campaigns
Re-Engagement Campaigns
Abandoned Cart Campaigns
For best results, your campaigns should be highly targeted, relevant and well designed.
Click-Through Rate
Another marketing automation term that often leaves people baffled is click-through rate.
While this may sound technical, it doesn’t have to be. Click-through rate is simply the total amount of people whole clicked a link within your email marketing campaign.
Depending upon what type of campaign you are running, you may have one or many links so it’s important to study how each link performed as a whole to get a clear understanding of how your audience responds to the different calls to actions within the same campaign.
Conversion Rate
Working hand in hand with click-through rate is conversion rate.
Your conversion rate shows how many people converted within a specific email campaign.
This will also depend greatly upon how you measure and track conversions within your email marketing campaigns and website as even the best marketers may not be able to track where every conversion comes from, however, having a good understanding is essential to know whether your campaign is a winner or not.
CRM
When it comes to CRM platforms, we’re not referring to dated spreadsheets that were revolutionary in the 90s.
With technology playing a major part in sales and marketing for most businesses the importance of having a reliable, easy to use CRM platform is essential to your growth.
And while solutions such as HubSpot and Salesforce, there are plenty of affordable CRM platforms available on the market that will support a growing business that won’t cost a fortune or require a science degree to operate.
We recommend taking a moment to explore the best options available for your industry and even take some time to try them out before making a final decision.
Drip Email Marketing
Often considered as one of the primary forms of marketing automation is drip email marketing.
So what is the difference between drip email marketing and traditional marketing?
Drip email marketing is often a series of time or action-based emails delivered over a couple of days or weeks.
These campaigns are often designed to automatically nurture, qualify and convert subscribers through your sales funnel while providing value at each engagement.
When configured correctly, you can also be notified when your most engaged subscribers complete a specific action within your campaign so that you can reach out to them personally.
Inbound Marketing
Working hand in hand with marketing automation is inbound marketing.
Inbound marketing is a methodology first coined in 2005 by HubSpot and while it has continued to evolve ever since the principles remain unchanged.
While outbound marketing is the process of targeting users who are not aware of your brand or service, inbound marketing is based on targeting those who are actively searching for your product or service and are therefore more likely to convert.
Lead Nurturing
Next up in our list of essential marketing automation tools is lead nurturing.
While this is often a familiar term with most marketers and business owners we thought we’d include it as there is often some confusion in terms of its true definition.
Lead nurturing is the process of regularly engaging with and providing them with value-based content and advice that is relevant to their current situation.
Now we’re not saying that you should continue to hassle them till they make a purchase or unsubscribe, however, continuing to keep your brand front and centre during the buying process is essential to not only building trust within your brand but also converting more subscribers.
Lead Score
While it is common for most smaller businesses to know each of their customers and leads by heart, as your business grows, you will no doubt start to lose track of this.
Lead score is a term applied to each subscriber based upon their likeness and readiness to buy.
This score can be determined by several factors, however, it is often designed to provide your sales team with a score out of 100 on how likely the lead is to buy so that you know which ones to follow up with and when.
Life cycle
Depending upon the product or service you are selling your customers will generally pass through what’s called a sales lifecycle which covers the different stages within their buyer’s journey from first engaging with your brand to satisfied customers.
Products or services with a low-risk factor in terms of price or quality will often have a shorter life cycle than products that cost more or are dependent upon results.
Being able to understand your sales life cycle and buyer’s journey not only ensures you have a clear understanding of your ideal customer but also allows you to have a consistently full sales pipeline to grow your business.
Open Rate
Open rate is another pretty self-explanatory term but may often get misconstrued.
Open rate refers to the overall percentage of delivered emails within a campaign that your subscribers opened.
Now in terms of being able to achieve a high open-rate, there are some best practices you can follow to ensure your campaigns receive the best open rates possible.
Sending high quality, relevant emails
Personalising and/or split testing the subject line
Ensuring you maintain a list of high-quality subscribers
Ensuring your emails receive the best possible open rate not only results in it being seen by the highest number of subscribers but also means your audience are happy to receive your emails.
Opt-In
Next in our list of essential marketing automation terms is opt-in.
This term is more a legal term as it relates to the condition that a subscriber within your list has legally opted in to receive email marketing content from your business and that you haven’t purchased their contact details (or obtained them through other methods).
This will differ depending on where you and your subscribers are based, however, a general rule of thumb is that all email marketing platforms require your subscribers to have opted in through means of a lead capture form for them to be contacted.
Personalisation
Possibly one of the most important and powerful features when it comes to marketing automation is personalisation.
Best of all, you can do this at a scale no matter how big your subscriber list is ensuring a personalised experience every time.
Sales Pipeline
While this is often a very familiar term within the business world, knowing how it relates to your marketing can mean the difference between a successful campaign or not.
A sales pipeline is pretty much a visual representation of where leads are within your sales pipeline so that your team knows which ones to follow up with and not.
But being able to create a well-defined sales pipeline that is linked in with your marketing not only reduces the workload of your sales team, but it also allows you to provide a seamless user experience for your subscribers, leads and customers.
With the help of marketing automation, you can automatically trigger tailored email campaigns based whenever a lead changes stages within your sales pipeline.
All that’s left to do is for your term to follow up with them when the time is right. Pretty nifty right?
Segmentation
Another somewhat technical term most non-marketers will often get lost on is segmentation.
Segmentation is the process dividing your subscribers into more specific segments based upon any number of criteria, some of which are:
Demographic
Geographic
Behavioural
By doing so, it not only helps you build a much more accurate profile on your subscribers but it allows you to create hyper-targeted email marketing campaigns.
Split Testing
Ever wondered if a green button performs better than a blue one? Or if your subscribers respond better to image-based emails instead of text-based emails.
Wonder no more!
Split testing allows you to test variables within your email marketing campaigns based upon any number of variables to see which ones perform better and generate the best conversion rate.
Some common split tests you can run on your email marketing campaigns include:
Subject line
Call to action
Price specific offers
Time-specific offers
Once you’ve found the winning formula, don’t be afraid to keep testing different variables, however, don’t overdo it.
Subscriber
While this one doesn’t require much explanation we thought we’d include it as no marketing automation terms list would be complete without it 😉
A subscriber is someone who has subscribed to receive email marketing content from you.
This doesn’t include lists you have obtained through data scraping, list building or other activities and some marketing automation platforms will even verify your leads if you are importing them from an external list to ensure you obtained them legally.
Tag
Tags are used to provide additional information on your subscribers.
Tags can be used for several different reasons including:
Representing an action they have taken on your website
Representing how they became a subscriber
Representing the stage they are within your sales pipeline
For some examples on how you can use tagging to better manage your subscribers, feel free to check out this comprehensive guide to tagging for some real-life examples and more.
It pays to take a minute to think about what you want to get out of tagging and then plan and document your tagging system so that everyone in your team has a clear understanding of their intention and how they should be used to avoid any confusion.
Tracking Code
A tracking code is a piece of code installed within your website.
This allows you to track specific actions completed by your subscribers so that you can better understand how they are interacting within your website and then send personalised campaigns based upon the actions they take.
Bear in mind that to work 100% subscribers need to have opted in for cookie tracking, however, if used correctly this can help in providing you with tangible data on how your subscribers and customers interact with your brand so that you can create a better experience for them.
Workflow
Last but not least in our list of essential marketing automation terms is Workflow.
A workflow provides you with a visual representation of the design, steps and processes within any marketing automation campaign.
Most marketing automation platforms now provide you with a built-in visual builder feature so that you can have a more visual experience when planning and building your automations and depending upon the type automation you are building you may need to plan this.
And there you have it, 20 essential marketing automation terms every marketer should learn ensuring they can get the most out of their email marketing campaigns.
Ready to Up Your Email Marketing Game?
Feel free to check out our best marketing automation platforms guide which provides a detailed breakdown of the leading platforms available on the market so that you can make the right decision for your business.
Which term do you find most insightful and why? Let us know in the comments.
Unsure if marketing automation is right for your business? You’re not alone.
With so many tools, strategies and platforms appearing on the market almost every day it’s often hard to get caught up in the latest trend that promises the world only to fall short of your expectations when it comes to making a visible impact within your business.
In this article, we’re going to break down some of the most common benefits of using it within your business to provide you with a better understanding of how it can help you to reduce your overheads and increase productivity.
Let’s dive in!
Benefits of Using Marketing Automation Within Your Business
A recent study conducted indicated that 92% of first-time website visitors aren’t ready to buy meaning that all of that hard-earned traffic is wasted if you don’t have a proven process for nurturing your website visitors into leads and customers.
Marketing automation allows you to nurture visitors with ease from the moment they land on your website right through to the moment they decide to be a customer removing the guesswork of knowing how they are interacting with your brand.
Increased revenue
Being able to effectively nurture your hard-earned website visitors into qualified leads not only improves your conversion rates but it also has a major impact on your revenue as well.
Research has proven that by deploying an effective marketing automation strategy can increase sales productivity by nearly 15% resulting in better cash flow for your business allowing to scale and grow your business faster.
Automated lead scoring
Ever wondered what separates a potential customer apart from a highly qualified lead?
Marketing automation allows you to know exactly which customers are most likely through automated lead scoring which provides you with a total score based upon how they have interacted with your website and content.
Whether it’s visiting your pricing page, downloading a lead magnet or completing a contact form you’ll never miss a beat with the help of marketing automation.
Better data management
With the world becoming more connected than ever, being able to accurately collect and store customer data is essential to successful sales and marketing strategy.
Marketing automation makes light work of this by automatically updating your customer data every time a customer interacts with your brand. From updating their phone number to importing data from surveys they complete you’ll be able to say goodbye to those dreaded spreadsheets once and for all.
Improved sales tracking
Being able to build an accurate timeline of how and when a new customer has interacted with your brand can not only help you determine what’s working and what isn’t but it also gives you a better understanding of their journey from visitor to paying customer.
With marketing automation, you can track and view the journey a customer takes including which pages they visited, how they found your website and more allowing you to better invest your marketing efforts and budget.
Increased brand awareness
Creating a reputable brand takes a lot of work, being able to build a reputable brand that gets noticed is even harder and yet, even though there are countless marketing platforms and channels out there getting the attention your brand deserves can be difficult without a large team of marketers and budget to match.
Marketing automation does the heavy lifting for you regardless of how big your team or marketing budget is by automating repetitive actions within your business including sending time-specific emails, scheduling posts across social media and more.
Measurable results
Keeping track of your campaign results is critical to measuring your return on investment, however, with so many metrics and data points available being able to tie all of these together to know exactly how your campaigns are performing can be difficult.
With marketing automation, you can easily track your key metrics all under one roof including emails sent, open rates, click-through rate and revenue generated to ensure you know how each campaign is performing every minute of the day.
Personalisation
Personalisation is key to ensuring you’re able to create a unique brand experience that makes you stand out from your competition while creating a lasting impression on every visitor, subscriber and customer that comes across your website.
However, being able to create a personalised experience for every visitor that comes across your website would require a whole army of marketers and sales staff if it was to be done manually. With Marketing automation, you can personalise every step of the way from displaying specific ads, adding the subscriber’s name within emails and more.
Split testing
Ever wondered if your audience prefers text-based emails vs graphic emails? Ever wondered if leads convert better after 3 days of signing up vs 5 days?
With marketing automation, you can create tailored split tests to test every stage of your sales and marketing funnel ensuring you’re creating the best possible experience for your audience.
Better campaign planning
Ensuring your audience has a fresh batch of relevant content can be a mammoth task even for the biggest of companies, planning this content also takes an extensive amount of planning, research, creation and publishing regardless of your experience.
Marketing automation allows you to plan and create campaigns days, weeks and even months in advance by scheduling targeted engagements to be delivered when you need them.
Improved return on marketing spend
Generating a profitable return on investment not only improves cash flow within your business but also helps you to invest back into your marketing campaigns with accuracy.
Marketing automation allows your team to track and manage the return on investment across each campaign by providing you with detailed metrics on each campaign allowing you to determine how much it costs to acquire each visitor, subscriber, lead and customer.
With marketing automation, you can reduce time spent on repetitive tasks by automating common workflows in your business so that your team can focus on more important tasks including following up with warm leads and other tasks that require the human touch.
Improved processes
One of the major contributing factors of any successful business is being able to create a proven, repeatable process that can be deployed time and time again regardless of experience.
Not only does this help to reduce the time spent on specific tasks, but it also allows you to create tangible business assets and allows you to build and scale your business with step by step accuracy ensuring you and your team never miss a critical step again.
Marketing and sales alignment
Ensuring your marketing and sales team are aligning with your overall business can mean the difference between rags to riches. However, with so many working parts in each process being able to align these with ease can be a challenge.
With marketing automation, you can identify potential roadblocks within each stage of your marketing campaigns and use these to improve processes within your onboarding process, lead generation process or sales process to ensure complete synergy at every step.
Increased lifetime value
The only thing that is better than acquiring a new customer is acquiring a repeat customer who purchases from you again, not only are they familiar with your product and brand, it costs you far less to acquire their business every time they purchase from you vs a new customer.
With marketing automation, you can increase the lifetime value of your customer by creating tailored campaigns that allow you to upsell, cross-sell and down-sell with ease.
Reduced overheads
Last but not least in our list of marketing automation benefits is the added benefit of being able to reduce overheads within your business.
While hiring a team of talented and creative people will allow you to grow your business, hiring a team of people to complete tasks that can be automated at a fraction of the cost not only allows your team members to focus on bigger things but it allows you deploy systems that work around the clock for your business so that you don’t have to.
And there you have it, 16 proven benefits of why using marketing automation within your business can help improve your sales, marketing and bottom line with ease.
Ready to Grow Your Business Using Marketing Automation?
Feel free to check out our comprehensive guide of the leading marketing automation platforms available on the market which provides you with a detailed breakdown of each platform so that you make the right decision for your business.
Which topic did you find most interesting and why? Let us know in the comments.
Founded in 2012 Autopilot has come a long way in since their early day and with it have brought innovative changes for their clients and the industry as a whole.
Originating from Sydney, Australia their team has now grown to a global base spanning Australia, the USA and Europe and has completed multiple successful funding rounds by some of the biggest investment firms in the industry including Blackbird and Salesforce Ventures.
Although having experienced massive growth since their early days, they have never steered away from what made people take notice of them by keeping their platform easy to use, always putting the customer first and helping drive change in social equality worldwide.
So let’s jump in and review each of their features in more depth and see how they compare.
Features
Contact Management
Autopilot makes contact management a breeze with the ability to organise and segment your leads and customers based upon behaviour and demographics while also allowing you to sync contact data with your CRM platform easily.
Autopilot also provides you with an in-depth breakdown of every contact’s behaviour including clicks, pages visited and more so that you can get a comprehensive overview of the actions they take on your website to better understand your customer’s needs.
Automation Builder
One of the major features that set Autopilot apart from their competitors is the fact that they have invested a lot of time and thought into creating an easy to use visual automation builder giving you a birds-eye view over your entire customer journey.
Autopilot’s easy to use canvas style builder allows you to drag and drop your desired actions and build out multiple paths depending upon the action each visitor takes and provides you with proven templates to help you get started.
Collaboration
Another feature that sets Autopilot apart from their competitors is the inbuilt team collaboration features that make it easier for teams to work together on the same automation live to ensure an easy design process from start to finish.
You can then share your templates to other team members for feedback or even share them publicly for marketing collateral and brand authority.
Email Builder
Autopilot makes it easy to create eye-catching emails that your audience will love with their easy to use drag and drop email builder that features several pre-built widgets to choose from removing the need to hand-code emails.
Each email is optimised to display natively across all devices and they even offer a range of pre-designed templates to inspire you or get you started.
Personalised Messaging
Being able to nurture your website visitors across multiple channels ensures that your brand not only remains top of mind throughout each phase of the buyer’s journey but it also allows you to create more authority amongst your audience.
Autopilot lets you create and manage targeted marketing messages that can be displayed via email, SMS, Facebook Ads, Google Ads and even postcards ensuring your brand is always front and centre with your most engaged visitors
Reporting
Knowing exactly how your campaigns are performing day in, day out is critical to ensuring your campaigns are not only generating the results you expect but it also allows you to estimate future campaign results and plan accordingly.
Autopilot offers in-depth reporting capabilities at every stage of your marketing campaign and provides you with a breakdown of each channel performance while also allowing you to track your results in full via their beautifully designed mobile app.
Integrations
Having a marketing automation platform that integrates with your existing tools not only saves your hours of manual data entry but also saves countless hours lost creating and deploying marketing assets across multiple platforms.
Autopilot saves you this hassle with a huge collection of pre-built integrations and templates featuring the largest platforms within the digital marketing space.
Pricing
Autopilot offers a range of pricing options for businesses of all sizes making their platform accessible to everyone regardless of their budget with plans starting from $49 per month for up to 2,000 contacts while also offering discounts for annual subscriptions.
1 to 2,000 subscribers – $49/month
2,0001 to 5,000 subscribers – $149/month
5,0001 to 10,000 subscribers – $249/month
10,000+ subscribers – Custom
FAQs
How much does Autopilot cost?
Autopilot’s pricing varies based upon the number of subscribers with plans starting from $49 per month
Does Autopilot offer a free trial?
Yes, Autopilot offers a free 30-day trial to get you started
Can I migrate my existing subscribers to Autopilot?
Yes, Autopilot allows you to import your existing subscribers and also offers a migration service for those looking for additional assistance
What customer support options does Autopilot offer?
Autopilot provides support via live chat and email.
Alternatives
Not sure if Autopilot is right for your business, here are some other platforms we recommend exploring when choosing an email marketing platform for your business.
With its visual automation builder, comprehensive content management features and growing collection of native integrations it’s easy to see why it’s a leading choice when it comes to marketing automation platforms.
Another major selling point is that they don’t position themselves as niche specific meaning they can be deployed with ease across just about any online business regardless of industry.
With this in mind, we recommend that you consider speaking with a marketing automation consultant or even consider reaching out to Autopilot’s sales to answer any questions you may have before implementing any platform within your business.
Overall, we would highly recommend including it within your shortlist when looking for a reliable email marketing tool for your business.
And there you have it, a detailed review of Autopilot features, pricing and more to help you make the right decision when it comes to choosing a marketing automation platform.
Ready to Try Autopilot For Yourself?
Thinking about using Autopilot within your business? Get started today with a free 30-day trial which provides you with access to all features so that you can explore the platform in detail or let us take care of it for you with our Autopilot consulting services including account setup, campaign creation and more to ensure you get the most out of your email marketing.
Considering using Drip within your business? You’ve come to the right place!
Drip is undoubtedly one of the most well-known names in the marketing automation space having been founded in 2013 they continue to innovate ever since.
So how do they stack up compared to some of the other leading platforms available on the market?
In this article, we’re going to dive into Drip’s features, pricing and more and provide you with our honest verdict on the platform to help make it easier when choosing the right marketing automation platform for your business.
Drip was founded in 2013 and was one of the early innovators within the email marketing and marketing automation industry which lead to them being acquired by Leadpages in 2016.
While this naturally resulted in some early teething issues and disgruntled loyal customers moving away from the platform they still remain one of the most used platforms within the space and offer a reliable, featured stacked platform that supports businesses of all sizes.
While a change in direction led to them becoming an eCommerce first platform they still offer a platform that can be used across businesses in all verticals while remaining strongly customer-centric as outlined in their brand manifesto.
So let’s dive in and explore those features in more detail and see how they stack up.
Features
Customer Data
One of Drip’s core focusses is around customer data and the ability to create highly personalised marketing campaigns based upon how your customers interact with your brand and website from being able to apply tags to subscribers once they complete a specific action to segmenting specific customers based upon their buying habits Drip has you covered.
While these features may not be required within all businesses, they don’t skimp on features that allow you to create marketing campaigns that stand out from your competitors regardless of your subscription plan making their features available to everyone.
Personalisation
While marketing automation platforms help you to reduce some the manual workload that’s required to run a successful online business, it’s important to remember that personalisation is still a major factor in determining the success of your campaigns.
Drip has you covered by allowing you to create behaviour based automations that allow you to create personalised automation paths based upon buying habits or browsing habits of your subscribers to ensure they receive the human touch every time.
Engagement
Being able to keep your subscribers and customers engaged at each stage of the buyer journey is not only essential when creating brand loyalty but it also increases your chances of turning your hard-earned visitors into satisfied customers.
Drip allows you to create triggered reminders via email, SMS and also allows you to show targeted ads to visitors through Facebook and Instagram ensuring your brand is kept top of mind right through they complete a purchase within your website, schedule a meeting with your team or whatever goal you wish to achieve.
Optimisation
Being able to track and monitor your campaign performance can have a major impact on being able to attribute what’s driving the most results within your business but it also allows you to replicate those results with ease.
From automatically attributing revenue to each customer to providing a detailed breakdown of how each campaign performs in terms of open rate, click-through rate and replies Drip provides you with comprehensive reporting features across your entire business.
Integrations
With online businesses requiring a diverse range of platforms to operate these days, ensuring you have a marketing automation platform that works well with your preferred platforms can have a huge impact on your choice.
Thankfully, Drip supports an ever-growing collection of platforms in just about every category ensuring your data can be easily transferred with ease. You can also connect Drip with 100’s of platforms using leading task automation platforms ensuring your data never misses a beat.
Pricing
Drip offers a range of pricing options for businesses regardless of size to ensure their platform is accessible to all with plans starting from $19 per month for up to 500 subscribers.
1 to 500 subscribers – $19/month
501 to 2,000 subscribers – $29/month
2,0001 to 2,5000 subscribers – $39/month
2,501 to 3,000 subscribers – $49/month
3,001+ subscribers – from $59/month
FAQs
How much does Drip cost?
Drip’s pricing varies based upon the number of subscribers with plans starting from $19
Does Drip offer a free trial?
Yes, Drip offers a free 14-day trial to get you started
Can I migrate my existing subscribers to Drip?
Yes, Drip allows you to import your existing subscribers and also offers a migration service for those looking for additional assistance
What customer support options does Drip offer?
Drip provides support via live chat and email.
Alternatives
Still unsure if Drip is right for your business, here are some other platforms we recommend exploring when choosing an email marketing platform for your business.
Overall, Drip is a hot contender when it comes to leading marketing automation platforms and is a crowd favourite with us in terms of design, features and reliability which doesn’t cost a fortune compared to some of the other platforms available on the market.
While they heavily promote themselves as an eCommerce email marketing platform, this doesn’t mean it can’t be used across almost any business regardless of your industry.
With this in mind, we recommend that you consider speaking with a marketing automation consultant or even consider reaching out to Drip’s customer service team for a personalized demo before implementing any platform within your business.
With this in mind, we would highly recommend including it within your shortlist when looking for a reliable email marketing tool for your business.
And there you have it, a detailed review of Drip’s features, pricing and more to help you make the right decision when it comes to choosing a marketing automation platform.
Ready to Give Drip a Test Drive?
Thinking about using Drip within your business? Get started today with a free 14-day trial which provides you with access to all features so that you can explore the platform in detail or let us take care of it for you with our Drip consulting services including account setup, campaign creation and more to ensure you get the most out of your email marketing.
Thinking about using ConvertKit in your business? You’re not alone!
As more and more businesses evolve digitally and start to build and grow their online presence ConvertKit stands out as one of the leading contenders on the market.
But, how does it compare to other leading marketing automation platforms on the market?
In this article, we’re going to provide you with an in-depth review of ConvertKit’s features and pricing and more to help make it easier for you to choose the right marketing automation platform for your business.
ConvertKit was founded to help creators (bloggers, authors, podcasters etc.) build and grow their brand online through email marketing and since this day they have remained true to their word helping people from across the globe make a living doing what they love.
While this has resulted in their platform evolving over the years to tailor towards their needs, they have not let this get in the way of creating a well designed, reliable platform that is used by thousands of business owners every day.
Features
Email Marketing
ConvertKit allows you to create and send simple yet stunning emails with ease through the easy to use email builder while putting a big emphasis on keeping things simple to ensure a great user experience for your subscribers.
Landing Pages
Another feature that sets ConvertKit apart from other competitors is they provide you with a built-in landing page builder while allowing you to create mobile responsive, user-friendly landing pages that let you turn website visitors into subscribers and paying customers.
They also offer a large collection of conversion optimised templates to get started and their platform integrates well with your existing tools to ensure a hassle-free creation process.
Commerce
Looking to turn your audience into paying customers? ConvertKit has you covered with their built-in commerce features which allow you to sell your digital products with ease. Whether its an eBook, paid newsletter, music or coaching service ConvertKit provides you with an easy to set up payment gateway making payments simple and stress-free
Email Sign Up Forms
Converting your website visitors into subscribers shouldn’t be complicated. With ConvertKit they also provide you with a built-in email sign up form builder allowing you to embed your signup forms across just about any website page you need.
Whether it’s an embedded form, popup form or more ConvertKit allows you to create and deploy your forms as you see fit saving you time and money switching between multiple platforms.
Automations
With the world becoming more connected and global than ever before, being able to reach a global audience while providing a personalised experience can make or break your brand.
ConvertKit allows you to build highly personalised automations to your subscribers no matter whether they are based in Australia, Canada or Tahiti. From creating time-triggered follow-up emails to separate paths based upon an action your subscriber takes ConvertKit does the heavy lifting for you so that you can focus on what matters most.
Creator Pro
For those looking to really take their email marketing to the next level ConvertKit also provides a number of pro features including the ability to review individual subscriber engagement levels, track deliverability, create subscriber-specific advertising campaigns and more.
Reporting
No platform would be complete without the ability to know exactly what results and return on investment you are getting from your campaigns and ConvertKit is here to make that happen.
ConvertKit provides you with a comprehensive breakdown of how each of your campaigns and automations is performing from open rate to click-through rate and conversion value ConvertKit makes it easy for you to check in on the numbers that matter most.
Integrations
Having an email marketing platform that plays well with your favourite tools not only saves you countless hours of tech support issues but it also helps you get the most out of your day by reducing the need for manual data entry and more.
ConvertKit integrates with a growing number of leading platforms including scheduling platforms, eCommerce platforms, reporting platforms and more to ensure a flawless user experience across your entire tool stack.
Pricing
ConvertKit offers flexible pricing options for every business regardless of size and budget including a free email marketing plan for up to 1,000 subscribers and plans from $29 per month for those looking for drip email marketing campaigns.
0 to 1k subscribers– $29 month/$25 per month (billed annually)
1k to 3k subscribers– $49 month/$41 per month (billed annually)
3k to 5k subscribers – $79 month/$66 per month (billed annually)
5k+ subscribers – from $99 month/83 per month (billed annually)
FAQs
How much does ConvertKit cost?
ConvertKit’s pricing varies depending upon the number of subscribers you have with plans starting from $29 per month.
Does ConvertKit offer a free trial?
Yes, ConvertKit offers a free 14-day free trial to get started.
Can I migrate my existing subscribers to ConvertKit?
Yes, ConvertKit allows you to import your existing subscribers and also offers a migration service for those looking for additional assistance.
What customer service options does ConvertKit offer?
ConvertKit provides support via live chat and email.
Alternatives
Still not convinced if ConvertKit is right for your business, here are some other platforms we recommend exploring when choosing an email marketing platform for your business.
Overall ConvertKit provides their customers with a well designed, easy to use platform that doesn’t cost a fortune while also offering everything you need to build and grow an audience with their inbuilt landing page builder, sign up forms and eCommerce features.
While they do lean heavily towards catering towards creators, this isn’t to say it can’t be used with just about any business given the fact that creating high-value content is a major contributing factor to building a successful brand in today’s world.
With this in mind, we use and recommend ConvertKit for all of our email marketing campaigns and would highly recommend including it within your shortlist when looking for a reliable email marketing tool for your business.
And there you have it! A comprehensive review of ConvertKit’s features, pricing and more to help you make the right decision when it comes to choosing a marketing automation platform.
Ready to Try ConvertKit For Yourself?
Thinking about using ConvertKit within your business? Get started today with a free 14-day trial which provides you with access to all features so that you can explore the platform in detail or let us take care of it for you with our ConvertKit consulting services including account setup, campaign creation and more to ensure you get the most out of your email marketing.
When it comes to implementing a new software platform within your business it can be an overwhelming experience, especially when it comes to marketing automation.
With many technical aspects to take into consideration, most business owners often find themselves with countless questions to ask when looking for the right marketing automation platform that suits their individual needs.
A recent study conducted by Social Media Today also indicated that 75% of businesses are using some form of marketing automation within their business which means if you’re not in that percentage you’re not only leaving money on the table when it comes so saving time and resources but you stand a strong chance of being left behind by the competition.
With this in mind, we have taken the time to make your research process easier by outlining 14 critical questions to ask before using marketing automation within your business.
We’ve covered everything from common questions you may have about marketing automation to product features, pricing, integrations and set up to ensure you have a comprehensive understanding of marketing automation and how to get the most out of it for your business.
Sounds good? Let’s get started!
Questions to Ask Before Using Marketing Automation
What is the difference between email marketing and marketing automation?
Is email marketing still effective?
Which is the right marketing automation platform for me?
How much does a marketing automation platform cost?
What automation features does the platform provide?
Should I use an all-in-one marketing automation solution?
What integrations do they provide?
Do they offer a free migration service?
How do I import my existing contacts?
What ongoing support options do they provide?
What campaigns am I looking to create?
How do I track the return on investment from my marketing automation campaigns?
Do I have the experience to build my own campaigns?
Is marketing automation right for your business?
What is the difference between email marketing and marketing automation?
First up is one of the most common questions people have when it comes to marketing automation, “What is the difference between it and traditional email marketing?”
Email marketing platforms often allow you to send static email campaigns to a list of subscribers that have often opted into your mailing list or requested emails on a once-off or ongoing basis.
With marketing automation, not only can you incorporate email marketing within your strategy but it also allows you to create highly personalised campaigns based upon the actions the individual subscriber, lead or customer takes within your website or sales cycle.
Drip Marketing Automation Workflow
From sending time-specific email campaigns to updating their contact record within your CRM or showing a specific retargeting ad through Facebook, the choices are endless.
Is email marketing still effective?
A big misconception that people often have when it comes to deciding if email marketing and marketing automation is right for their business is that email marketing is dead?
Email Marketing ROI
With new platforms and channels appearing almost daily, there were a lot of rumours that email marketing was soon destined for the internet graveyard alongside other game-changers like Myspace and Hotmail. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
While the days of sending irrelevant, sales focussed emails are long gone, sending high value and relevant email campaigns are still one of the best ways for building and growing your own audience and business today.
Which is the right marketing automation platform for me?
Just like choosing any software platform, there is no shortage of choices when it comes to marketing automation platforms available on the market!
While some are often built with specific industries in mind, most platforms are universal and can work across every industry imaginable including accountants, hotels and construction firms.
It’s important to conduct some research on the best marketing automation platforms available and see how they stack up in terms of pricing, features and support for your industry, you may even want to reach out to their platform directly for a personalised demo or sales meeting.
Most will also offer a free trial so that you can test out the platform first hand as well.
How much does a marketing automation platform cost?
Another thing to take into consideration when choosing a marketing automation platform is of course pricing, with platforms ranging from free to thousands of dollars a year it’s important to ensure that you’re getting the best bang for your buck.
Depending upon which platform you choose, some charge based upon the number of subscribers while others charge based upon features so it’s important to factor this in.
Drip Marketing Automation Pricing
If used correctly, marketing automation can be seen as an investment rather than a cost as it works 24/7/365 saving you time and money spent on manual outreach campaigns.
What automation features does the platform provide?
Just like when buying a car, it’s important to check under the hood to see what features each platform provides and at what price point.
ConvertKit Features
Some essential features to take into consideration are:
Automation triggers
Personalisation options
Email templates
Contact management
Supported integrations
Segmentation
Reporting
Customer support
As previously mentioned, some platforms offer a host of features and simply charge based upon the number of active subscribers whereas others have been known to charge for certain features which may end up costing you more than you had expected so do your homework.
ActiveCampaign Features
Should I use an all-in-one marketing automation platform?
Another thing to take into consideration when choosing a SaaS platform for your business is whether to go with individual offerings or opt for an all-in-one solution.
While having your entire marketing and sales stack under one platform can be beneficial in terms of data management and time saved switching between multiple tools there can also be setbacks from selecting an an-in-one platform as well.
Often platforms that offer countless features are good at some things but not great at anything which often leads to features not working as well as they do on other platforms so it’s best to compare the pros and cons for each platform before committing to it.
What integrations do they provide?
While most marketing automation platforms offer an extensive array of integrations with other SaaS platforms it’s always important to dig a little deeper and see just how well each of the platforms work together when it comes to native integrations.
MailerLite Integrations
Failing this, you can always look to automate workflows between your SaaS platforms using tools such as Zapier or Integromat which in some cases may be a better option as it allows you to keep all of your integrations in one easy to manage workspace.
Do they offer a free migration service?
Most of the leading marketing automation platforms will often offer a free migration service from your existing email marketing platform including the importing of contacts and configuration of your account to make the process easier, however, you will need to create your own campaigns.
ConvertKit Migration Services
It’s best to double-check how your current and existing platforms manage and store data to ensure a smooth migration process and limited downtime.
How do I import my existing contacts?
As mentioned above, most providers will often provide free migration services to ensure an easy onboarding process and make it easy for you to get started on the platform.
In the event you are importing contacts from an external source, most providers will often need to verify how you obtained this data to comply with GDPR and privacy laws as only those who have opted into receiving marketing mastering can be imported into the platform.
What ongoing support options do they provide?
Depending upon your own personal technical knowledge, you may require ongoing support to ensure you get the most out of the platform and can resolve any issues if and when they arrive.
Most platforms will commonly offer support via telephone, live chat, support tickets and email and some may even offer support in different time zones and languages.
What campaigns am I looking to create?
Now that you’ve covered most of the technical and product questions, it’s now time to determine exactly what type of campaigns you are looking to create.
Depending upon your individual business needs and customer profile will impact what type of campaigns you create, however, we’ve covered some of the most common campaigns below.
Lead nurturing campaigns
Customer onboarding campaigns
Customer referral campaigns
Product launch campaigns
Event-based campaigns
Re-engagement campaigns
Take a moment to note down your ideal customer profiles and build a list of what campaigns most relate to them and use it as a reference when creating your campaigns.
How do I track the return on investment from my marketing automation campaigns?
All major marketing automation platforms offer built-in reporting to ensure you can accurately track and optimise your campaigns.
The most important metrics to take into account are:
Open Rate
Click-Through Rate
Bounce Rate
Conversion Rate
Revenue Generated
Depending upon what type of business you are and how you track and manage your conversions will determine the outcome of each of these metrics, however, most of these results should be able to be tracked if configured correctly.
Do I have the experience to build my own campaigns?
Next up you need to determine if you have the experience to build your own campaigns or whether it’s better to engage with a marketing automation specialist in the creation of your campaigns to ensure they convert well.
Alternatively, most providers will often provide you with a range of pre-built templates, training videos and more to assist you in building your first campaigns.
Is marketing automation right for your business?
Finally, the most important question you need to ask yourself is whether marketing automation is right for your business and in 99% of businesses the answer is YES!
Whether it’s to save time in managing manual email marketing campaigns, reduce overheads from creating traditional marketing campaigns or simply growing your business to new levels, marketing automation can be deployed across any business regardless of size or industry.
If you’re unsure of exactly how you can use marketing automation within your business consider scheduling a free 20-minute consultation with our team so we can learn more about your brand and provide you with a clear roadmap to using marketing automation with your business.
And there you have it, our comprehensive list of 14 questions to ask before using marketing automation within your business to ensure you make the right decision.
Happy Automating
Get Your Free Questions to Ask Before Using Marketing Automation Checklist
However, for many non-tech savvy business owners knowing how to deploy it effectively within your business can result in it being put on the back burner.
So with this in mind, we thought we’d make the process a little easier by outlining 6 ways you can use marketing automation with your business that will help you streamline your marketing campaigns and help turn subscribers into brand advocates year-round.
Ways to Use Marketing Automation Within Your Business
Turning leads into paying customers doesn’t happen at the drop of a hat, especially when you’re selling high-end products or services.
Being able to also identify which of your leads are the most engaged and where they are at within your buyer’s journeys is also paramount to building trust. With marketing automation, you can create personalised campaigns that provide leads with relevant content that help them make an informed decision and bridge the gaps within their decision making process.
By creating an automated multi-sequence email marketing campaign that delivers relevant content within each email you can then know where each of your leads within your buyer’s journey so that you can then follow up with them personally.
Customer Onboarding Campaigns
Customer Onboarding Campaigns
Ensuring a smooth onboarding process can make or break your brand’s reputation.
However, being able to provide a tailored customer onboarding experience for each and every customer isn’t easy as most customers will require different levels of support.
With marketing automation, you can create customer-centric onboarding campaigns that ensure they receive tailored content and resources that help them throughout their onboarding process and ensure they become lifelong customers.
Customer Referral Camapigns
Customer Referral Campaigns
One of your best sources for creating brand awareness and attracting new customers is none other than your existing customer base.
Not only are they already familiar with you and your brand, most loyal customers often love sharing their favourite brands with those they know which provides you with a great opportunity to create a knock-on effect when it comes to winning new business.
Whether it’s as simple as asking for a review to be left on Google Business or Facebook, incentivising them with a promotional discount or gift in exchange for referring new business marketing automation allows you do this with ease.
Product Launch Campaigns
Product Launch Campaigns
Another opportunity for generating new business from existing customers or leads are product launch campaigns.
While every lead may not be the right fit for your products or services on the first outreach, a recent product or service you may have launched may now be exactly what they need. You can also use this strategy to keep your current and existing customers aware of products or services that may complement their existing purchases.
Event Based Campaigns
Event-Based Campaigns
Working hand in hand with product launch campaigns are event-based campaigns.
Depending upon what products or services you offer in your business, event-based campaigns allow you to nurture your subscribers, leads and customers and different times within the year.
Whether it’s Christmas, birthdays, end of the financial year or Black Friday by creating personalised event-based campaigns it provides you with another great opportunity for nurturing and converting your subscribers year round no matter what the occasion.
Re-Engagement Campaigns
Re-Engagement Campaigns
Last but not least in our list of ways to use marketing automation within your business is none other than re-engagement campaigns.
While it’s important to remember to respect your subscriber base and never flood their inbox with irrelevant offers and emails by simply maintaining a well-maintained list of active subscribers is a proven way to generate a positive return on investment for your existing subscribers and removing those that more than likely will never buy your products or services.
By creating high-value re-engagement campaigns that allow you to segment and remove non-engaged subscribers you can rest assured to always have a quality list of subscribers.
And there you have it, 6 proven ways you can use marketing automation with your business to help you get the most out of your email marketing campaigns.
Ready to Take Your Marketing Automation Campaigns to the Next Level?
Feel free to schedule a free automation consultation with us today to learn more about how we can help build marketing automation campaigns that your audience will love.
Get Your Free Ways to Use Marketing Automation Checklist
Sending the right email at the right time can mean the difference between rags and riches.
Unfortunately with the increase in globalisation and the evolution of online business, this has become harder with a lot of businesses serving customers across multiple time zones.
So how can you be sure that every email is delivered at the ideal time to your new subscriber no matter if they are living in San Francisco, Hong Kong or Siberia?
With the help of a little tool called marketing automation of course.
Chances are, you’ve possibly already heard of it? Think of it like traditional email marketing but with the ability to know exactly what actions your subscriber (or customer) has taken so that it can engage with them through personalised email based upon that action all while you’re out spending time with your family or sitting in on an important meeting.
Sounds too good to be true right? Wrong!
In fact, marketing automation has been around for a number of years now but continues to advance at a rapid rate due to the advances in technology and internet access throughout the globe, ensuring you never miss an opportunity to convert a subscriber into a customer again.
So with this in mind, we thought we’d provide you with a breakdown of the leading marketing automation platforms to use in 2023 including the pros and cons of each one as well as our verdict on which marketing automation platform to use within your business and why?
Ready, let’s get into it!
Things to Consider When Choosing a Marketing Automation Platform
Before deploying any marketing channel, strategy or tool it’s always important to consider what you are looking to achieve out of it? To help you out with this decision-making process, we’ve included some common questions that may come to mind:
What campaigns are you trying to automate and why?
How are you looking to use marketing automation?
How can I align my emails with my buyers’ journey?
What objectives do I want to achieve using this strategy?
Now that you’ve got these questions mapped out it’s time to decide on which platform you should use to deploy this strategy within your business.
Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered for this step too.
Which Marketing Automation Platforms Should I Consider Using
As with any SaaS platform available on the market, there is no shortage of options available on the market making it hard when it comes to choosing the right marketing automation platform but we’re going to cover some of the industry leaders as well as a few of our preferred platforms to help make it easier for you.
While all of these platforms will do the job, each of them varies in terms of key features, pricing and who their intended user base as these are important depending upon what time of online business you are looking to start or are currently running.
So with our contenders lined up, let’s dig into each one in detail and determine which is the best marketing automation platform you should use within your business and why.
Best Marketing Automation Platforms – ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign
First up in our marketing automation platform showdown is ActiveCampaign. Originally starting out as a consulting firm before transitioning to a SaaS platform that has now become one of the leaders within their industry, ActiveCampaign remains true to its original foundations by providing a solution that allows businesses of any size to run effective marketing campaigns with a strong focus on small businesses which still remains true to this day with over 70,000 small businesses using the platform every day.
Overview
Where ActiveCampaign favours strongly are its focus on providing an all in one solution allowing you to communicate effectively through email and SMS while keeping everything inside of an easy to navigate CRM so you can keep track of each engagement.
They also win points by allowing you to build out advanced automation’s that track just about any action a visitor, subscriber or customer takes within your website so that you can reach out to them at exactly the right moment to ensure each and every communication is within context to where the person is within your buyer’s journey.
Key Features
Ability to create and send emails based upon specific goals (broadcast, triggered, targeted, auto-response and scheduled) emails
Ability to create highly targeted and relevant automation’s
Fully integrated CRM and pipeline management features with iOS app support
Built-in SMS and website messaging features for cross channel communication
Pricing
ActiveCampaigns fairs quite favourably when it comes to pricing with options available to suit both big and small businesses. Unlike most other options that may require you to use multiple platforms for contacting and managing your leads and customers, their platform incorporates everything to provide one easy to use solution.
While their plans do allow for multiple users within each tier, their pricing does however change based upon how many contacts you have.
The below pricing includes up 500 contacts
Lite – $15 per month/$9 per month (billed annually)
Plus – $70 per month/$49 per month (billed annually)
Professional – $159 month/$129 per month (billed annually)
Enterprise – $279 month/$229 per month (billed annually)
Conclusion
If you’re looking for an all-in-one solution with a strong focus on automation while keeping things simple you can’t go past ActiveCampaign in terms of features and pricing. Unlike other platforms that have been known to abandon low pricing tiered clients when they start to scale ActiveCampaign remains true to small business meaning you won’t be shown the door when you least expect it which can be a nightmare for any business vested within a platform.
Best Marketing Automation Platforms – MailerLite
MailerLite
Next up in our contenders for top marketing automation platform is MailerLite. Some may call it your typical rags to riches as within their first year of business they only generated €1,652 revenue proving not all companies make it to internet stardom overnight.
Today, they help over 600,000 businesses, startups and freelancers around the world to connect with their subscribers delivering over 1 billion emails every month and comprise a team speaking 12 languages so chances are you’ll feel right at home.
Overview
What I love about MailerLite is that they have remained true to their roots by providing an affordable solution that anyone can make use of when starting out with pricing starting at $0 until you reach your first 1,000 subscribers with affordable pricing options no matter how big or small your list becomes.
They are also an industry leader when it comes to customer support by offering 24/7 live support with an average response time of fewer than 5 minutes meaning they’re on hand when you need them most (no matter where you run your business from).
Key Features
Integrated landing page and pop-up builder allowing you to build conversion optimised campaigns all from within one centralised platform
An ever-growing list of integrations enabling you to connect it with other platforms
Easy to use drag and drop email builder with pre-built templates
Ability to split test email variables including design, headings and more
Pricing
MailerLite not only provides an easy to use platform but helps you save across the board by allowing you to create landing pages and pop-ups within their platform meaning fewer overheads which is important for any business when starting out.
While their free plan does come within some limitations it will more than likely provide you with everything you need to get up and running, however, their paid plans start at $10 and include every single feature which is rare to see within most SaaS offerings.
1 to 1,000 Subscribers – $0 per month (with limitations)
1 to 1,000 Subscribers – $10 per month/$84 per year
1,001 to 2,500 Subscribers – $15 per month/$126 per year
2,501 to 5,000 Subscribers – $30 per month/$252 per year
5,001 to 10,000 Subscribers – $50 per month/$420 per year
Conclusion
MailerLite is an ideal choice if you’re just starting out as they not only offer one of the most affordable options on the market, they also save you having to pay for a landing page builder and pop-up builder which don’t always come cheap.
By also providing an all-in-one solution you’re able to save time having to learn how to set up and use multiple platforms and time is money as they say. Well played guys!
Best Marketing Automation Platforms – Drip
Drip
Next up in our list is a company that up until recently was a crowd favourite and possibly even the undisputed leader when it comes to marketing automation, Drip.
Chances are, if you’ve been in the market for a marketing automation platform or looking to switch you would have probably stumbled upon a lot of negative press relating to Drip recently.
We’re not going to lie, in some ways they pissed off a lot of long time customers within recent months with deliverability issues, a drop in customer support standards and not to mention a massive price change right on Christmas/new years resulting in a lot of businesses having to make drastic changes while on holidays. Uh oh!
But bare with us here, as we still think they provide a product well worth considering and we’re going to explain why we think they still deserve a spot on this list now.
Overview
If you’re not aware of the history behind these changes, let us sum it up for you in a nutshell.
Originally founded in 2013 they quickly rose through the ranks to become one of the best platforms in terms of features, price and customer service. Next thing you know, Drip was acquired by landing page builder leader LeadPages and everyone was thrilled.
Unfortunately, this is where the problems mentioned above began and people got frustrated and started looking for alternatives as Drip wasn’t cutting it for them.
Now while this has had some impact on their street cred, their platform is still one of the best on the market with a stack of features you simply won’t get with other platforms.
Still not convinced? Let’s have a look at them in more detail below.
Key Features
Detailed insights into customer data allowing you to get a full overview of each and every action a user takes through the use of tags, custom fields and customer behaviour
Advanced personalised features ensuring you’re sending the right email at exactly the right time using segmentation, behaviour based actions and personalised content
Ability to integrate with other marketing channels for cross channel marketing
Advanced optimisation of campaigns through the use of revenue attribution, split test, and detailed insight dashboards for every subscriber and campaign
Pricing
Since we last revised Drip they have made some changes in terms of their pricing and they now offer pricing plans starting at $19 per month for up to 550 subscribers which makes them a great contender for those just starting out in marketing automation.
They also offer a 14-day free trial which provides you with plenty of time to take the platform for a test drive so that you can determine if it is the right platform for you and your business.
0 to 549 Subscribers – $19 per month
550 to 2,499 Subscribers – $29 per month
2,500 to 2,999 Subscribers – $39 per month
3,000 to 3,999 Subscribers – $59 per month
4,000 to 4,499 Subscribers – $79 per month
5,000 to 5,499 Subscribers – $89 per month
5,500 + Subscribers – from $99 per month
Conclusion
With their recent backflip in pricing it now makes them one of the best value platforms on the market for both beginners and seasoned marketers looking to create advanced automation’s and while they now heavily promote themselves as eCommerce focussed they offer one of the best feature stacks on the marketing making it a great choice for almost any business owner. You may also want to consider exploring some of the video training, pre-built templates or even schedule a free demo with Drip directly to see it in action.
Best Marketing Automation Platforms -Sendinblue
SendInBlue
An often overlooked contender in the marketing automation platforms space is SendInBlue and while at times it simply comes down to the fact there are a lot of options on the market we think SendInBlue deserves its spot amongst the big players within the industry.
Not only nail it in terms of their branding they also have been around long enough to earn their fair share of loyal users and have crafted a full-stack solution that can be used in many ways as an all in one marketing solution for your business.
Overview
Founded over 10 years ago they now boast over 80,000 customers across 160 countries and deliver 100 million emails every day for their customers.
Where they win points also in our showdown is by offering everything the budding business owner needs all inside of one easy to use dashboard. From email marketing to SMS marketing, chat, segmentation, marketing automation, CRM, landing pages, signup forms and even a Facebook Ads builder they have everything on offer for a very reasonable fee.
And while many sceptics argue that a tool that does everything isn’t generally good at anything we beg to differ on this occasion.
Key Features
Ability to build multi-channel campaigns all within one platform that can be deployed via email marketing, SMS marketing and chat
Create highly personalised marketing campaigns based upon specific actions taken by the website visitor through advanced segmentation
Convert visitors into strangers using through the use of their landing page builder, sign up form and CRM functionality without having to switch between multiple platforms
Detailed analytics including open rate, click-through rate, heatmaps and a/b test results so that you can measure and optimise every campaign
Pricing
Another area they fare favourably in is their pricing, unlike most platforms that charge based upon how many contacts you have SendInBlue focuses on upon features instead and even then their top tier with all features starts at $66 per month… hot damn!
They do however cap based upon the number of emails per month but even then, their limits are extremely generous so it’s very unlikely you would reach these limits.
Free – $0 per month (300 emails per day)
Lite – $25 per month/$300 per year (100,000 emails per month)
Essential – from $39 month/$374.40 per year (1,000,000 emails per month)
Premium – from $66 month/$633.60 per year
Enterprise – customised pricing only
Conclusion
If you’re looking to get bang for your buck you can’t go past SendInBlue as a full-stack solution that saves you time and money and lets you manage everything from one dashboard.
Our only negative point that could be said about this platform is that their CRM does not feature a deals pipeline which may be essential for some businesses but this is nothing can be managed through the use of one of their natively supported CRM plugins or just about any CRM platform on the market with the help of Zapier.
Feel free to explore their extensive offering of features in more detail here or if you prefer to see it in action you can sign up for a free account and try it out for yourself (no credit card required).
HubSpot
Best Marketing Automation Platforms – HubSpot
We’re now down to the final two in our marketing automation battle and the next contender stepping into the ring is probably one of the most well-known brands within the marketing world.
Founded in 2006, Hubspot has grown at incredible rates through the use of their inbound marketing methodology, certification programs for both marketers and agencies and multiple conferences they hold annually to lure companies, marketers and agencies alike into the world of HubSpot and it’s core beliefs around marketing.
But does any of these actually help you and your business in the end? Well, let’s take a look more in terms of how they stack up when lined up against our other contenders.
Overview
HubSpot has also opted for an all in one solution rather keep everything within one place which is always a good idea if you are looking to manage everything in ease and while they do offer a reasonable tool stack including a CRM, lead capture forms, pop-up forms and email marketing all for free this is just a handful of features you need for true marketing automation.
What’s the catch? If you actually require the marketing automation component that’s going to set you back a tidy $800 per month, billed annually as well as a $3,000 onboarding fee.
That’s a total of $12,600 per year UPFRONT!
Now, the numbers don’t lie and we’re not here to badmouth anyone here, we’re just presenting all of the leading options and laying the cards out on the table for you to see for yourself.
And if the numbers are anything to go by, the numbers don’t lie. Their revenue grew from $255,000 in 2007 to $15 million in 2010 so clearly, they have a loyal allegiance of customers.
In terms of features, you get for this price, you get the whole kit caboodle including marketing automation, smart content personalisation, blog and content creation tools, SEO and content strategy, social media tools, landing pages, split testing and a whole bunch of nifty tracking analytic reporting tools but I guess you’d expect that and if you’re shelling out $10k+.
Key Features
All in one solution to create entirely integrated marketing campaigns using marketing automation, landing pages and lead capture forms
Professional onboarding with HubSpot or a partner agency
Create track and manage deals using their inbuilt CRM and sales pipeline
Advanced reporting and analytics with the ability to create split tests based on results
Pricing
Now, we’ve already broken down the fees involved in HubSpot above so we’re not going to go into too much detail here but there is a lot more than meets the eye when it comes to committing to a platform like this and while it is a great solution for many businesses it may not be for you.
We thought however we’d include both their free and paid offerings though below as their free platform does have a lot to offer and also plays nicely with some of the other mentioned platforms within this list when integrating them together.
Free Marketing Tools – $0 per month
Marketing Hub– $10,375 per year (billed annually) + $3,000 onboarding fee
Conclusion
So the only question you’re probably wondering is why on earth would I pay $12,600 upfront per year with no guaranteed return on investment?
Well, at the end of the day you’re buying into more than just the software. You’re committing to a long term strategy to grow your business through both organic and paid growth all done from within one integrated platform with ongoing support and guidance.
This does not actually mean you’re buying a marketing team who’s going to run the show for you while you sit back and collect the rewards, HubSpot and inbound marketing require long term commitment and the aid a certified inbound marketer or agency who knows how to get the most of the platform and can help you work towards your goals.
If however, you’re a small business, don’t have an in-house marketing team, or simply aren’t at a stage where you can invest $12,000+ into a long term strategy HubSpot is NOT for you.
Best Marketing Automation Platforms – ConvertKit
ConvertKit
Last but not least in our search for the best marketing automation platform is a platform that is renowned for its customer service, providing free migration services from their competitors.
ConvertKit is a crowd favourite amongst many online creators (bloggers, authors, podcasters, designers) having been founded by a former freelance web designer turned content creator himself so who better to understand the needs and wants of this audience?
Not only this, they place a strong emphasis on standing by their core values and have set themselves some pretty big milestones within their overall mission to help online creators make a living from doing work you love (isn’t that everyone’s dream?).
So, with this in mind, let’s take a look at ConvertKit in more detail in terms of features so you can see if it’s a right fit for you and your business.
Overview
ConvertKit was built with online creators in mind so naturally, they have remained true to this by providing a stack of features that are suited towards this market, however, most of these features can be deployed across varied business models.
Now, this isn’t to say it can’t be used within traditional businesses but depending upon your specific requirements it may not be able to meet all your needs and sorry to burst your bubble here but very rarely will any software do this.
Key Features
Easy to create embedded opt-in forms with advanced reporting so that you can keep track of growth and understand your visitors and subscribers
Ability to create advanced email marketing automation’s so that you can send the right email at the right time keeping your subscribers engaged
Manage all your subscribers using their well-designed dashboard
A growing collection of integrations making it easy to connect with other platforms
Pricing
ConvertKit doesn’t hold anything back when it comes to pricing claiming “ConvertKit will be the best money you’ve ever spent to grow your audience” and it’s easy to see why by offering affordable plans which include all features no matter which tier you choose.
0 to 1k subscribers– $29 month/$25 per month (billed annually)
1k to 3k subscribers– $49 month/$41 per month (billed annually)
3k to 5k subscribers – $79 month/$66 per month (billed annually)
5k+ subscribers – from $99 month/83 per month (billed annually)
Conclusion
While ConvertKit does cater to a more niche market, we simply couldn’t resist including them in our list of contenders for marketing automation platforms. With a great back story, core values and a clear mission that remain true to this day, affordable pricing and amazing customer support what more could you ask for from a marketing platform?
They also provide free product demos to help you get a full understanding of how their platform works so that you can make an informed decision before making the final call.
And the winner is…
Now that we have weighed up all the options and you have an overview of each one, you’re probably waiting for us to pick the winner? Well, this comes down to your individual needs as no business is the same, however, here’s our picks on which one to use and recommend.
ActiveCampaign – Great all in one solution for those looking to integrate their marketing and sales due to their inbuilt CRM and deals management features.
ConvertKit – When it comes to building out advanced automation’s, you can’t go past ConvertKit and it’s what we use in house to keep our subscribers up to date and share our latest insights.
SendInBlue – Ideal for those just starting out or those who are looking to combine their marketing all in one place due to its landing page builder and pop up forms.
And there you have it, our top marketing automation tools for you can implement within your business in 2021 for better email marketing results year-round.
Get Your Free Marketing Automation Platform Comparison Sheet
If the epic 1980’s hit by The Buggles was anything to go off, video killed the radio star, right?
And yet, just as they have disbanded and reunited to many times to keep count marketing trends come and go.
So it’s no wonder that when the new kid in digital marketing (chatbots) arrived on the block it only took a matter of time before everyone began chasing the next big craze as a means to market their brand online in the hopes of reaching internet stardom overnight.
And while there is no second-guessing that chatbots have played a massive impact in shaping how digital marketing is done in today’s day and age it’s important to remember that we can’t forget the fundamentals that actually determine whether your brand is an actual success of just another dream destined for the internet graveyard.
Having a high-quality product or service people actually want to buy
Providing award-winning customer service and after-sales support
Being able to target the right people at the right time
So before we actually get into things in a little more detail let’s start by debunking the myth at hand and this isn’t something that you can simply just google as when you actually look a little closer you’ll notice that most of the top-ranking articles claiming email marketing is dead are actually published by companies that provide chatbot services or software, go figure!
And the same applies if you search for comparisons on an email marketing vs cold calling and many other marketing trends going back through the ages. So with this in mind the question you should really be asking yourself is …
‘Which one is right for my business?’
Now, if we were actually a company that sells only chatbot services, we’d probably rant and rave about it and give you a million and one reasons why you must use one, but… we’re not. So we’re going to present you with our honest opinion on each as well as break down how and when you should be using them within your business.
Sounds good? Let’s get into it!
Email Marketing vs Chatbots – Email Marketing
Email Marketing
Stepping into the ring first is email marketing, that tried and tested marketing heavyweight that continues to battle you in your endless search to get to inbox zero.
And while email marketing has copped a lot of slack in recent times it’s important to remember that when executed in the right way it’s proven to generate a positive return on your marketing spend each and every time. Don’t believe us? We’ll let this fancy graph do the talking…
Email Marketing ROI
The Power of Email Marketing
That’s right, email marketing has been proven to generate a return on investment of up to $40 for every $1 invested. Now that DOES NOT mean every email you send starting today is going to generate you $40? Otherwise, I’d be sitting on a beach in The Bahamas right now sending emails like wildfire instead of writing this article.
What it does mean, is unlike paid advertising where you’re paying each and every time they click on one of your ads, if you are able to entice them to hand over their beloved email address (we’re not talking an AOL account here either) you’re then able to continue to nurture them consistently overtime without investing a whole lot more money.
Golden Rules of Email Marketing
So what are some golden rules to follow when using email marketing? We’ll we’re going to cover 5 simple rules you should remember for maximum results that can be applied to any email marketing strategy across any industry.
Put yourself in your customer’s shoes
Depending upon what product or service you’re trying to sell, sometimes sales don’t happen overnight so going in for the sale straight away before allowing the customer time to build trust within your brand is a surefire way to have them clicking unsubscribe quicker then they joined.
To avoid this map out your buyer’s journey from the first point of contact right through to conversion and after-sales retention and align your email marketing to match.
Automate where possible BUT always keep it human
While technology has helped in improving the email marketing experience of today, it’s important to remember that you’re selling to human beings and no robots (yet) so while you are able to automate your email marketing experience to align with each individual subscribers buyers journey, timezone and more don’t forget to keep all interactions authentic.
To do this, you should only send emails which are in context with their stage within your buying cycle, make it easy for them to contact you or even end each email with an open-ended question as this will encourage them to respond.
Always be testing
Another beauty of marketing automation is that it allows you to test specific variables to determine what best your subscribers respond to and then use that feedback to make incremental adjustments until your email campaigns are a well-oiled marketing machine.
Some variables you can test are:
Subject Line
Body Copy
Call to Action
Sending Time
Always remember to only run one test at a time and consider waiting until you have enough data to actually determine whether your tests are conclusive or not.
Keep in contextual
If you’re selling to multiple demographics always remember to keep each email contextual. The last thing you want to be doing is sending a newly acquired customer a discount code they shouldn’t have received, not only will they feel cheated you will make yourself look like a rookie.
To avoid doing this make sure that you create segments for your audiences and triple check each and every automation to ensure its squeaky clean before launching it.
It’s all in the list
Quality always beats quantity almost every time so ensure that your thinking long term when acquiring subscribers and while offering a free MacBook vs a free ebook is probably going to open the floodgates for subscribers the chances of those looking for the free MacBook buying from you is pretty damn slim so don’t be that kind of marketer.
Always remember to think of the end goal when launching a new campaign and conduct regular list cleaning to ensure you’re not paying for any unwanted subscribers.
So now that we’ve covered the basics of email marketing, some fancy graphs proving it still works and shared 5 golden rules you’re probably wondering…
Which Email Marketing Tool Should I Use?
There is no shortage of email marketing tools on the market, however, here are 3 email marketing tools we use and recommend for best results
MailerLite
MailerLite is ideal for startups and cash strapped business owners, easy to set up and offers a collection of templates as well as lead capture form builder integrated.
Price –$0 to $50+ Per Month
ConvertKit
ConvertKit is great for building advanced automation’s with a strong focus towards content creators while providing industry-leading customer support.
Price –$29 to $79+ Per Month
Drip
Drip is perfect for building more complex automation’s with ease using their visual builder. Strong focus on serving e-Commerce marketing but works great with any business.
Price –$49 to $122+ Per Month
Putting It All Together
So the question that remains is… ‘Should I be using email marketing within my business?’
And the answer is absolutely! If you run a business with an online presence email marketing is a foolproof strategy to not only generate you new business but to build an audience of loyal and trusted subscribers who will continue to engage with your brand for years to come.
Email Marketing vs Chatbots – Chatbots
Chatbots
So we’ve just spent the last 10 minutes telling you how great email marketing is, surely we’re not going to flip the coin sell you on chatbots now? Well yes, we are.
And the simple answer to why we’re doing this is that they are essentially two different marketing channels which provide different experiences so using one ( or both) has the potential to bring you vastly different results and we’re now going to explain some of the key differences between the new kid on the internet marketing block and how you can use both to provide your visitors with the best possible user experience.
Conversation vs Communication
In recent years there has been a massive shift in the way humans communicate.
We now live in a world of smartphones where you can do anything at the push of a button (ahem, we mean screen). Need to order a car from point A to point B? You have Uber. Want a burger delivered from your favourite restaurant? You have Deliveroo.
So it’s no second-guessing we live in a generation where an instant response has become normal and one of the ways companies have adapted to this is through the use of Chatbots.
What Is a Chatbot?
Chatbots are essentially modern-day automated customer service representatives that will work around the clock for your brand so you don’t have to.
Chatbots are the modern-day solution to being able to provide your website visitors with an interactive, more personalised experience when browsing your website without the need to have customer service reps spanning the globe or a whole team dedicated to live chat answering questions your website visitors may have about your product or service.
Why Is It Important to My Business?
To give you a real-life example, let’s say you are a software startup with a small team based out of the United Kingdom but you target clients spanning the US, Australia and Asia. It’s pretty hard to be able to provide instant answers to your website visitors across all of these countries right?
Not anymore thanks to chatbots.
Through the use of a chatbot you can provide each visitor with a personalised and interactive user experience that can guide them to a specific page, help schedule a meeting or answer a range of questions that they may have about your product before helping them set up a free trial while you’re spending time with your family or catching up on some much-needed shut-eye.
The next day, you’re there ready to pick up exactly where your new teammate left off. No more delayed responses using dated contact forms which generally get lost in context or visitors who leave frustrated because your team couldn’t be there to answer their questions.
Still not convinced? Here’s another fancy graph to back it up
Predicted use cases for Chatbots
Power to the People
One of the most important and overlooked details business owners and marketers forget about when deciding on which one is right for them is that they forget that they are not the customer and its sometimes best to leave it up to the customer to decide which channel is right for them.
Some visitors may want answers straight away when browsing your website and a chatbot will help you in doing exactly this whereas others may prefer downloading a guide and reading it themselves which you can then convert into a subscriber and follow up with them later through the use of marketing automation and email nurturing.
How to Use a Chatbot Within My Business
So with this in mind, let’s explore the best ways you can be using chatbots within your business that align with your overall marketing strategy and doesn’t leave visitors hanging.
Selling to a modern generation
If you’re looking to capture a younger audience and keep them engaged chatbots are for you.
They allow you to create an interactive and modern-day communication channel and provides them with instant answers to the questions with less strain on your resources.
Guiding visitors to where they need to go
Depending upon the size of your business and what you’re offering, you may have multiple target audiences and products making it difficult for visitors to find what they need easily.
Through the use of an interactive chatbot, you can navigate them to specific products or services based upon predefined questions ensuring a visitor never gets lost again.
Booking sales meetings and product demos
Let’s say a visitor stumbles upon your website outside of your business hours and wants to book a product demo with your team? They could try calling you or complete a contact form and wait for your response the next day which creates unwanted friction.
In just a few easy steps, you can schedule a product demo for a preferred date and time. All that’s left for you to do is follow up, attend the meeting close the deal.
Reducing overheads
Live Chat was one of the first methods that truly changed how website users communicated with brands in real-time. Unfortunately for most businesses this created a massive drain on time and would often result in you having to answer the same questions time and time again.
Chatbots solve this issue by allowing you to create a more streamlined user experience without having to employee team to manage it full time. If and when a visitor requires your team’s input you can be on hand to pick up where the bot left off.
Targeting new audiences
Building a list of high quality, engaged subscribers is no easy feat. What’s more, is conversions through emails are often earnt through continued nurturing and not instant selling.
With Facebook’s active users growing daily, it’s become the new behemoth in marketing with over 2 billion active users on Facebook and 1.3 billion active users on Messenger meaning you can run targeted chatbot ads directly inside of Facebook.
And there you have it, 5 perfect examples of how you can be using a chatbot within your business that can be used alongside email marketing which has you wondering…
Which Chatbot Platform Should I Use
Just like with email marketing, tech companies are vying for their piece of this new marketing trend and there is no shortage of chatbot platforms on the market but here are our recommendations:
ManyChat
Ideal for building chatbots directly within Facebook Messenger.
Price –$0 to $45+ Per Month
Continually
Ideal for creating an interactive and personalised website experience for your website users.
Price –$0 to $129+ Per Month
Intercom
Creating an integrated email marketing and conversational marketing experience for your website.
Price –$49 to $136+ Per Month
Putting It All Together
Now that we’ve provided you with an overview of the differences between email marketing and chatbot the decision is in your hands on whether you choose to use one or both within your business and while you may have some doubts it’s important not to rule out both until you have truly tested them within your market as that will be the true decided.
The Future of Marketing
While there is no second-guessing that marketing has come a long way in recent years, one thing that has always stood the test of time is the ability to get your brand and offer in front of your target audience as effectively as possible.
And whether it’s through email marketing, chatbots or the next new game changer to come in the near future it’s important not to forget that it’s how you connect and communicate and build trust within your brand that matters most.
Shopping Basket
⚡Claim your free app integration analysis
Fill out this form – and get a personalized app integration analysis. No strings attached.
