20 B2B Marketing Automation Platforms In 2024
10 Best B2B Marketing Automation Platform Shortlist
Here's my pick of the 10 best software from the 20 tools reviewed.
Our one-on-one guidance will help you find the perfect fit.
There are seemingly countless B2B marketing automation platforms available, so figuring out which is best for you is tough. You know you want something that provides tools for segmenting and targeting specific business audiences, nurturing leads through personalized content, and tracking the effectiveness of marketing efforts—but now need to figure out which solution is the best fit. I've got you! In this post, I make things simple, leveraging my experience as a marketing expert, and using dozens of different B2B marketing automation tools to bring you this shortlist of the best B2B marketing automation platforms overall.
What is a B2B Marketing Automation Platform?
A B2B marketing automation platform is a software solution designed for businesses to automate and optimize their marketing efforts towards other businesses. The purpose is to streamline various marketing tasks, including email campaigns, social media management, lead generation, and nurturing processes.
B2B marketing automation tools enable businesses to target and engage potential clients more effectively, with tools for segmenting audiences, personalizing communications, and tracking campaign performance. This automation leads to more efficient marketing operations, better alignment between marketing and sales teams, and improved lead conversion rates.
Overviews Of The Best B2B Marketing Automation Platform
Here, you’ll find my summaries of each tool, including my evaluation of specific features, unique points that set them apart, and pros and cons.
Best for tailored campaigns throughout the buyer's journey
Klaviyo is a marketing automation platform that offers a range of tools including email, SMS, mobile push, and web forms, as well as features for segmentation, flows, campaigns, and reporting.
Why I picked Klaviyo: The platform's flows feature allows businesses to create sophisticated automated sequences based on customer behaviors and events, ensuring timely and relevant communication throughout the buyer's journey. Additionally, Klaviyo's robust segmentation and personalization tools enable precise targeting and nurturing of leads, enhancing the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and driving higher engagement and conversion rates in the B2B sector.
Klaviyo Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include SMS and email automation, A/B testing, multichannel campaigns, predictive analytics, drag-and-drop email builder, customizable signup forms, real-time reporting, pre-built templates, and customer journey tracking.
Integrations include Shopify, Salesforce, Wix, WooCommerce, Adobe Commerce (Magento), BigCommerce, Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, Instagram, Stripe, PayPal, QuickBooks, Zendesk, and Slack.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Good reporting and analytics features
- Drag-and-drop automation builder for tailored campaigns
- Wide range of customizable email templates
Cons:
- Setting up segments can be complex
- Higher costs for more active profiles
Default is a comprehensive automation platform tailored for fast-growing B2B teams, focusing on modern lead routing and workflow automation. It allows users to build routing logic based on real-time data and customer events, simplifying revenue and marketing operations.
Why I picked Default: It offers the ability to automate lead scoring and set up triggers for timely outreach. This automation ensures that potential customers are engaged at the right moment, significantly improving conversion rates. By assigning scores to leads based on their interactions and behaviors, Default allows sales teams to prioritize high-value prospects, thereby increasing the likelihood of closing deals.
Default Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include automated workflows, scheduling, customizable forms, data enrichment from various sources, real-time data, CRM insights, follow-up tools, customizable templates, and lead assignments.
Integrations include Salesforce, HubSpot, Salesloft, Outreach, Marketo, Customer.io, Google Calendar, Slack, Apollo, and Clearbit.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Good inbound scheduling and qualification
- Robust workflow automation
- Good lead routing capabilities
Cons:
- Learning curve for more advanced workflows
- Could offer more customization options for the emails sent from Default
Wrike is a versatile project management software that allows users to organize tasks, set priorities, and manage projects efficiently.
Why I picked Wrike: Wrike offers an extensive feature set that can help boost productivity and organize marketing operations. For example, the platform offers customizable work request forms, streamlining the intake process and minimizing time wastage. Wrike also provides adjustable Gantt charts, which provide a clear visualization of project timelines and dependencies to help users manage complex marketing initiatives and ensure timely campaign execution. Moreover, with over 400 automation options, Wrike minimizes repetitive tasks, enabling marketing professionals to concentrate on activities that drive business growth.
Wrike Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include live editing, real-time commenting, workflow automations, AI integrations, multiple work views, comprehensive analytics and dashboards, proofing and approval tools, and end-to-end work management.
Integrations include PowerBI, Google Sheets, Miro, Salesforce, Tableau, Zoom, Google Drive, OneDrive, Jira, and Slack.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Comprehensive reporting tools
- Powerful collaboration tools
- Customizable project templates
Cons:
- Limited filtering options
- Onboarding can be complex and time-consuming
HubSpot Marketing is a comprehensive CRM integration tool that offers a wide range of features such as marketing automation, sales, support, chat, and CRM integration, making it the best choice for businesses looking for a complete solution.
Why I picked HubSpot Marketing: HubSpot Marketing is a comprehensive CRM integration tool that streamlines digital marketing processes and allows small businesses to compete with larger brands. It offers unique CRM integration, including lead scoring, sales forecasting, and contact management, making it a versatile and powerful platform for B2B marketing. With its ability to seamlessly integrate customer relationship management with marketing automation, HubSpot Marketing stands out as the most complete and complex option for businesses looking to optimize their marketing strategies.
HubSpot Marketing Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include marketing automation software that allows businesses to create automated campaigns using workflows and bot builders, automate routine tasks with email and form automation, and extend campaigns across various channels such as SMS and in-product marketing. Additionally, HubSpot provides a free online form builder, a free landing page builder, free email marketing tools, a drag and drop email editor, social media management tools, and multi-factor A/B testing.
Integrations include Gmail, Google Calendar, Outlook, Zapier, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Zoom, Slack, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Mailchimp, Instagram, Twitter, Canva, Salesforce, Eventbrite, Stripe, Hotjar, Asana, and Jira.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Progressive profiling
- Social media monitoring to track brand mentions and trends
- AI-powered content creation
Cons:
- Limited customization for larger marketing projects
- Mobile app limitations
Attentive is an SMS marketing platform that enables businesses to have one-on-one conversations with customers across the buying journey.
Why I picked Attentive: The platform empowers marketing teams to increase revenue through relevant and engaging SMS campaigns. Attentive uses a mobile-first approach to help your business boost engagement by allowing you to reach your customers where they are. The platform offers high deliverability rates when using Attentive, so you can be confident your messages will reach your audience.
Attentive Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include audience management tools that enable your team to personalize messages through comprehensive profiles and precise targeting. You’ll also have access to analytics that help you understand the impact of your campaigns and enhance growth.
Integrations include connections with third-party tools and applications to help your business scale faster, such as Aftership, Gorgias, Hubspot CRM, Mailchimp, Okendo, Pipedrive, Salesforce, Triple Whale, Zendesk, Zoho CRM, and other software options. You can also create custom integrations with Attentive’s API or a paid Zapier account.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Quick campaign setup
- Easy to use
- Excellent user interface
Cons:
- Some integration limitations
- Reporting needs improvement
Drip provides effective segmentation capabilities that empower B2B marketing teams to create targeted email campaigns.
Why I picked Drip: With Drip, you and your marketing team can use segmentation tools based on audience behavior and preferences you can use in your email marketing automation. The platform analyzes your customer journey, allowing you to optimize your email segments and marketing strategies. Drip is built for ecommerce businesses, so you can create personalized and relevant content based on your segmentations using data from your other ecommerce tools.
Drip Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include tools to help you create and manage multichannel marketing strategies through a simple visual workflow builder. Drip also provides insight capabilities that empower you to see the impact of your marketing strategies, enabling your team to boost conversions.
Integrations include over 150 native connections with top business tools to help you gather the right information and increase productivity, such as ActiveCampaign, ClickFunnels, Gravity Forms, Hubspot, MailOptin, Segment, Sleeknote, Stripe, WebinarJam, Wicked Reports, and other software options. You can also create custom integrations through Drip’s API or by using a paid Zapier account.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Excellent email segmentation capability
- Helpful AI assistant
- Wide collection of templates
Cons:
- Steep learning curve
- Can be buggy and slow
Mailchimp is an email marketing automation tool that helps marketing teams contact customers and prospects.
Why I picked Mailchimp: Mailchimp deserves a place on this list because it's one of the most used email marketing tools on the market. The platform provides everything your B2B business needs to collect emails and send email campaigns. Although Mailchimp is growing and offering other marketing tools you can implement in your company, its email marketing features include email templates, analytics, segmentation, A/B testing, and more.
Mailchimp Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include a customer journey builder that automates your marketing and converts more customers at scale with messages that fit their specific needs and behaviors. You’ll also have access to a content optimizer feature that compares your email content to other top-performing campaigns and offers practical suggestions to enhance results.
Integrations include connections with third-party applications and systems to make Mailchimp more beneficial for your business, such as Google Analytics, Help Scout, Instapage, Jotform, LiveChat, Mixpanel, QuickBooks Online, Salesforce, Typeform, Zendesk, and other software options. With Mailchimp’s API or a paid Zapier account, you can create custom integrations between the platform and your current toolset.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Simple to implement
- Enables fast campaign setup
- Excellent email editor
Cons:
- Interface can be confusing
- Creating complex automations is challenging
GetResponse is a comprehensive marketing automation platform that provides a robust landing page builder tool that empowers businesses to collect leads and start the process of turning them into paying customers.
Why I picked GetResponse: The platform offers an AI-powered landing page builder that helps your marketing team create landers in a few quick clicks. GetResponse’s AI enables you to reach your target audience with landing pages that are tailored to your company and encourage signups. The AI within GetResponse uses your industry and the keywords you provide to generate optimized messaging throughout the landing page, a complete layout, and native content blocks.
GetResponse Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include tools that send personalized and relevant emails automatically to leads throughout the customer cycle. You can also use GetResponse to send effective SMS messages to reach your customers directly.
Integrations include native connections with over 100 popular business tools, such as Google Analytics, Jotform, LeadsBridge, Magento, OptinMonster, Outgrow, Salesforce, Shopify, WooCommerce, Zendesk, and other software options. You can also use the platform’s API or a paid Zapier account to create custom integrations with your current systems.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Fast customer support times
- Original email templates
- Quickly creates landing pages with AI
Cons:
- Advanced features have a steep learning curve
- Limited report customization options
Keap is a comprehensive business growth and automation tool that offers a range of features and resources to help small businesses manage and grow their operations.
Why I picked Keap: I like that Keap's marketing automation includes email marketing capabilities. B2B businesses can leverage templates and automation to craft personalized campaigns and ensure tailored and timely follow-ups at any stage of the customer journey. Its automation tools can handle tasks like lead nurturing, following up on abandoned carts, and sending welcome emails. Additionally, Keap offers a CRM that provides businesses with a centralized communication hub for more consistent marketing efforts and customer interactions.
Keap Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include SMS marketing, appointment scheduling, invoicing, payment processing, multi-channel communication, dynamic form creation, lead capture, pipeline management, marketing and sales automation, contact management, and sales reporting.
Integrations include PlusThis, AdEspresso, BigCommerce, AppointmentCare, Bonjoro, Gmail, Jotform, Outlook, ScheduleOnce, WordPress, Wistia, and Zapier. Keap also has an open API for custom integrations.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Robust CRM features
- Many customization options
- Automated email campaigns
Cons:
- Can be pricey for businesses with limited resources
- Not ideal for larger businesses with more complex needs
Adobe Marketo Engage is a B2B marketing automation platform that helps teams improve customer experiences at every touchpoint and simplify the customer journey.
Why I picked Adobe Marketo Engage: The platform helps enterprise-sized organizations track audience behavior, allowing them to find the right customers for campaigns. Adobe Marketo Engage also offers a complete toolset to help your business with account-based marketing, lead management, email marketing, and multi-touch attribution. It’s the perfect choice for organizations that need a solution to personalize experiences across multiple touchpoints and share information between your marketing and sales departments.
Adobe Marketo Engage Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include tools to help you build robust landing pages with data capture forms; it comes with customizable templates you can personalize, eliminating the need to start from scratch. The platform also offers all standard reporting and analytics capabilities that provide crucial summaries of the data you collect.
Integrations include connections with over 600 applications, such as Bynder, Domo, Hevo, Hubspot CRM, Pipedrive, Salesforce, Slack, Twilio, Wrike, Zoho CRM, and other software options. You also have the option of creating custom integrations with a paid Zapier account or through the platform’s API.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Excellent training tools
- Many tools for advanced users
- Intuitive to use
Cons:
- Interface is outdated
- Building campaigns can be challenging
The 12 Best B2B Marketing Automation Platform Summary
| Tools | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Klaviyo.com | From $45/month | Website |
| Default | Pricing upon request | Website |
| Wrike | From $10/user/month (min of 2 seats) | Website |
| HubSpot Marketing | From $800/month + $45/month for additional seats | Website |
| Attentive | $300/month + 0.02/SMS | Website |
| Drip | From $39/month | Website |
| Mailchimp | From $13/month | Website |
| GetResponse | From $15.60/month (billed annually) | Website |
| Keap | From $249/user/month (billed annually) | Website |
| Marketo | From $895/month | Website |
Compare Software Specs Side by Side
Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.
Compare SoftwareOther Options
As I mentioned earlier in this article, many B2B marketing automation platforms are available for you to choose from. So, to give you more selections, I added this brief list of other options that will also help you handle your marketing campaigns.
- Oracle Eloqua
For cross-channel marketing
- SuperBuzz
For AI-powered traffic generation
- ActiveCampaign
All-in-one B2B marketing automation platform
- Leadfeeder
For lead generation
- Salesforce Pardot
For marketing analytics
- HubSpot CRM
For automating inbound marketing
- Zoho CRM
For customer relationship management (CRM)
- monday CRM
For customer data management.
- Dialpad
For AI-based automation tools.
- StackAdapt
Self-serve advertising platform.
Selection Criteria For B2B Marketing Automation Platform
Here’s a short summary of the main selection and evaluation criteria I used to develop my list of the best B2B marketing automation tool for this article:
Core Functionality
To be considered a B2B marketing automation platform worth considering, each platform needs to offer the same or similar core functionality. The following describes the functions I look for when adding relevant options to this list.
- Lead generation and nurturing; generate and nurture leads throughout the sales funnel. They allow businesses to capture leads through various channels such as website forms, landing pages, and social media.
- Campaign management and analytics; enable businesses to create, manage, and optimize marketing campaigns across multiple channels, including email, social media, and search.
Key Features
Automation is at the heart of the tools I added to this list, but some offer more features you can use in your business than others. Because marketing can involve many types of techniques and methods, many tools can focus on one or two of the following features or more if it’s more robust:
- Email Marketing: Robust email marketing features can come as a part of some B2B marketing automation solutions, enabling you to create, automate, and optimize email marketing strategies and tailor messaging according to your customer data.
- Multichannel Marketing: Top B2B marketing automation tools can support multiple marketing channels, such as email, social media, and SMS marketing, helping you provide a unified customer experience.
- Social Media Management: A crucial aspect of many marketing strategies is social media marketing, which means many B2B marketing automation solution vendors offer capabilities to effectively manage, schedule, and track social media content.
- Landing Pages and Forms: B2B marketing automation tools can offer simple drag-and-drop tools that empower your team to create professional landing pages and forms that significantly help your lead generation efforts.
- Personalized Campaigns: Personalization can significantly increase customer engagement through audience segmentation and delivering personalized messages based on preferences and behavior.
- Workflow Automation: Using B2B marketing automation platforms can help your business automate repetitive tasks and processes, allowing you to free your team’s time for other essential marketing aspects.
Usability
Using a B2B marketing automation tool with a user-friendly interface and simple functionality is essential. So, I ensured to add solutions with a favorable reputation of saving time and effort for anyone using it. These tools should have a minimal learning curve and allow quick navigation without requiring additional team training. Lastly, automation can be technical and challenging to implement, so I also added solutions that offer robust knowledge bases, tutorials, and other customer support options.
Software Integrations
When creating this article, one of the most essential factors I considered is integration capabilities with your existing systems, such as CRM and analytics tools. Many leading B2B marketing automation platforms offer native integrations with various sales and CRM applications. I also look for solutions that integrate with multiple marketing tools and channels that many B2B organizations use, such as A/B testing solutions, data warehouses, ecommerce platforms, live chat platforms, sentiment analytics applications, and more.
Customizable Workflows
Every business is different from the other, so having a tool that can handle scenarios that are specific to your business is crucial. I look for B2B marketing automation platforms to react to particular audience actions in your workflows. You’ll likely want to create multiple complex triggers based on different customer actions and journeys. Many B2B marketing automation solutions I added to this article allow you to customize complex workflows when operating a small-to-medium business. Enterprise-sized businesses can benefit from the flexibility of comprehensive marketing automation software that enables you to fine-tune your marketing operations.
People Also Ask
When searching for new B2B marketing automation platforms to implement or looking for a system to replace the one you’re already using, you might have some questions that need answering to help you make the best decision for your business. There are many people in this exact scenario, so I added this section to answer the most frequently asked questions marketers have when looking for B2B marketing automation solutions.
How much do B2B marketing automation platforms cost?
When it comes to the cost of your B2B marketing automation tool, there are a few things that will impact the final price. The amount of features a platform offers can significantly change the cost of the application; the more features it provides, the more you can expect to pay. The number of people on your team can also determine how much you will pay because some systems charge on a per-user basis—so small-to-medium businesses won’t pay as much as an enterprise-sized organization. Also, the amount of data the platform holds or the number of actions the system performs can determine your cost. For example, an email marketing platform will charge more if you send tens of thousands of emails or more a month.
What’s the easiest B2B marketing platform to use?
After my research of the best B2B marketing automation platforms, ActiveCampaign makes it to the top of the list for its ease of use. Since it’s an all-in-one tool, you can automate many of your marketing processes in a straightforward system. Suppose you need to extend its capabilities, or you already have a toolset working well for your team. In that case, there’s a good chance you can integrate ActiveCampaign since it has over 930 native integrations, and you can use its API or tools, such as Zapier, if you need a custom connection.
What are the benefits of B2B marketing automation platforms?
B2B marketing automation platforms are indispensable tools for modern businesses seeking to streamline their marketing efforts and drive growth. The following benefits illustrate how B2B marketing automation platforms drive efficiency, boost revenue, and enhance customer engagement for businesses operating in the digital age.
- Lead Nurturing: B2B marketing automation can increase sales-ready leads while reducing lead generation costs.
- Personalization at Scale: Achieve an increase in sales opportunities by delivering personalized content to prospects throughout the buyer’s journey.
- Efficient Resource Utilization: Marketing automation can reduce marketing overhead and increase sales productivity.
- Lead Scoring: Implementing lead scoring can result in an increase in revenue within a few months.
- Automated Email Campaigns: Email marketing automation can generate a significant ROI for every dollar spent.
- Multichannel Engagement: B2B marketers using marketing automation experience an increase in qualified leads.
- Data-Driven Insights: Companies using marketing automation are more effective at closing deals when marketing and sales teams align.
- A/B Testing and Optimization: A/B testing through automation can increase customer conversion rates.
- Customer Retention: Marketing automation can boost customer retention rates, increasing overall customer lifetime value.
- Scalability: As companies grow, marketing automation can reduce the time spent on repetitive tasks, improving productivity by approximately 20%.
Other Marketing Platform Reviews
There are other tools you can use to handle different aspects of your marketing strategies worth considering. The following are some marketing platform reviews that can help you find tools to manage and optimize your marketing campaigns.
The Takeaway
When you automate repetitive marketing tasks, your team can focus on creating great content that connects with your audience and simplifying customer experiences on their way to sales. Automating your tasks is necessary to thrive in a fast-paced business environment. Weighing a marketing B2B marketing automation platform’s functionality, usability, and affordability will help you identify the best option for your needs. Before choosing a specific solution, evaluating your business’s requirements and researching each option is essential to ensure it meets your requirements—both now and as you grow.
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