10 Best B2B Marketing Automation Platform Shortlist
Here's my pick of the 10 best software from the 20 tools reviewed.
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.
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
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
SuperBuzz uses ChatGPT AI to help marketing teams generate content, drive website traffic, and enhance retention efforts.
Why I picked SuperBuzz: I decided to add SuperBuzz to this article because AI is a hot topic these days, and the platform uses ChatGPT to help your business create traffic-generating campaigns. It uses ChatGPT AI to automate marketing processes, such as content creation, to help an organization grow its audience with a simple click. SuperBuzz will implement AI to optimize your campaigns and offer the data to prove its performance to all decision-makers.
SuperBuzz Standout Features
Standout features include the ability to send push notifications to leads and keep customers engaged with your organization. The platform uses advanced machine learning algorithms to help your teams easily create automated campaigns, reducing the time required for mundane marketing tasks.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Customization options
- Simple interface navigation
- Easy and straightforward
Cons:
- No email campaign feature
- No integration information
Salesforce Pardot helps B2B marketing teams enhance their campaigns through high-level marketing analytics to help turn relationships into revenue.
Why I picked Salesforce Pardot: The platform uses marketing analytics to help your marketing team track all website interactions and build a predictive lead score based on your pre-set parameters. Salesforce Pardot’s marketing analytics can help you improve marketing efficiency and eliminate wasted time and effort from your sales department. All of this information from Salesforce Pardot will help your marketing and sales team collaborate, engage leads, and build lasting relationships.
Salesforce Pardot Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include segmentation tools that help you plan future email marketing campaigns so the right audience receives the right content. Salesforce Pardot also offers a Social Studio tool that enables you to post and interact with customers through social media channels.
Integrations include connections with over 200 tools, such as Attentive, Brevo, Driftrock, Google Analytics 360, Hubspot Marketing Hub, LeadsBridge, Pipeliner CRM, Tableau, Workato, Yotpo, and other software options. You can also use a paid Zapier account or the platform’s API if you need to create custom connections with your toolset.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Enables strategic customer engagement
- Advanced artificial intelligence
- Effective A/B testing tools
Cons:
- Dashboards aren’t customizable
- Not suitable for small businesses
Oracle Eloqua is a popular B2B marketing automation platform for its cross-channel features that enable your teams to create and deliver personalized campaigns.
Why I picked Oracle Eloqua: The platform is a versatile B2B marketing automation platform that enables your team to efficiently manage cross-channel campaigns. With Oracle Eloqua’s cross-channel capabilities, your business can engage with buyers when they want to be engaged on their channel of choice. These tools and features empower you to intrigue and win over your target audiences with personalized campaigns across multiple channels and maintain complete data.
Oracle Eloqua Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include AI-powered capabilities that simplify customer data collection and interpretation, providing a holistic customer journey understanding. You’ll also have access to comprehensive educational resources to help you and your team learn the system and personalize it to your unique needs.
Integrations include connections with many business tools and systems, such as BigMarker, ClickSend, Domo, Driftrock, Dropbox, Kixie PowerCall & SMS, LeadsBridge, Opensense, OptinMonster, Zendesk, and other software options. You can also create custom integrations between Oracle Eloqua and your current systems through the platform’s API or with a paid Zapier account.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Better targeting and segmentation
- Offers high-level statistics
- Flexibility to design complex campaigns
Cons:
- Not suitable for small businesses
- Steep learning curve
ActiveCampaign offers a range of tools that help B2B marketing teams automate a number of tasks that don’t need the human touch.
Why I picked ActiveCampaign: I added ActiveCampaign as an option for your B2B marketing team because it’s built around the fact that marketing automation tools can’t handle everything, but it does an excellent job of working automation into processes that your team doesn’t need to focus too much time on. ActiveCampaign’s marketing automation features empower your team to automate multiple tasks, such as sending email campaigns and tracking engagement using tags, custom fields, and more. The platform collects information about your audience from every channel they have access to, such as social media, web pages, live chat, and SMS, and automatically identifies the most engaged audience members.
ActiveCampaign Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include automated workflows, which you can use and turn into email drip campaigns where you can tag and label customers in your CRM. ActiveCampaign also provides lead scoring tools that help you see who’s responding to your marketing efforts, enabling your sales team to focus on the best leads and on converting them to customers.
Integrations include native connections with over 930 applications to help you enhance efficiency, such as AgencyAnalytics, ClickFunnels, Google Analytics, Hootsuite, Klipfolio, Salesforce, Slack, Trello, Unbounce, WordPress, and other software options. You can also use ActiveCampaign’s API or a paid Zapier account to create custom integrations with your current systems.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Excellent reporting capabilities
- Powerful third-party connections
- Manages many aspects of customers’ journeys
Cons:
- Steep learning curve
- Downgrading or upgrading accounts is challenging
Leadfeeder offers a lead generation tool that helps B2B marketing teams identify which companies are visiting their websites and reach out to decision-makers who are engaging with content and campaigns.
Why I picked Leadfeeder: You can use Leadfeeder to generate more leads by identifying exactly who is visiting your website. To start, you have to install a simple Leadfeeder Tracker script on your website, and the platform will tell you which companies are visiting your site. The platform will then send qualified leads to your CRM, where your sales team can follow up with visitors who don’t inquire about your products or services, and your marketing team can time your outreach to these leads.
Leadfeeder Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include account-based marketing tools that help you discover new accounts and when to target them after visiting your site. Leadfeeder also offers tools that send alerts to your sales teams when qualified leads visit your website so they can react in real-time.
Integrations include connections with your favorite marketing tools to help you simplify B2B campaigns, such as ActiveCampaign, Google Chat, Google Looker Studio, Hubspot, Mailchimp, Microsoft Dynamics, Pipedrive, Salesforce, Slack, and Zoho. You can also use a paid Zapier account or the platform’s API to create custom integrations.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Helpful documentation filtering capabilities
- Excellent for small and medium-sized businesses
- Tracks and organizes website visitors
Cons:
- Customer support needs improvement
- Some integration challenges
The 12 Best B2B Marketing Automation Platform Summary
| Tools | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Attentive | $300/month + 0.02/SMS | Website |
| Drip | From $39/month | Website |
| MailChimp | From $13/month | Website |
| GetResponse | From $19/month | Website |
| Marketo | From $895/month | Website |
| SuperBuzz | From $24/month | Website |
| Salesforce Pardot | From $1,250/month, billed annually | Website |
| Oracle Eloqua | No price details | Website |
| ActiveCampaign | From $29/month | Website |
| Leadfeeder | From $139/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.
- HubSpot CRM
Best for automating inbound marketing
- Zoho CRM
Best for customer relationship management (CRM)
- StackAdapt
Best self-serve advertising platform.
- Customer.io
Best for creating data-driven campaigns.
- Dialpad
Best for AI-based automation tools.
- monday sales CRM
Best for customer data management.
- Wrike
Best work management platform.
- Braze
Best for automating customer engagement.
- Twilio Segment
Best for making customer-based decisions.
- Klaviyo
Best for optimizing multichannel experiences.
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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