If you want to grow your small business without getting stuck in the weeds, you should be using marketing automation tools – it’s that simple. Just like other conveniences (think food delivery services and skincare subscriptions), automation tools are designed to streamline your workflows, improve productivity, and free up your time for other, more important things.
However, in 2024, picking the right marketing automation software is like trying to name your favorite TikTok creator – we’re spoiled for choice! To take all the guesswork out of finding the right tool and put the power back in your marketing team’s hands, we’ve rounded up five of our go-tos.
What are marketing automation tools?
Marketing automation tools are platforms and software that automate repetitive tasks across areas like email marketing, customer relationship management, social media, and even content creation. They take care of manual processes like sending eDMs and posting to social media, and make it easier to holistically manage your marketing campaigns.
Why should you use marketing automation tools as a small business?
Many platforms, especially email marketing automation tools, have gotten a bad rap for being expensive – which renders them inaccessible for most small business owners. But, as time has gone on, more marketing automation tools have emerged, and now, there are plenty of low-cost options available.
Manageable costs are just one benefit of using a marketing automation tool. Here are a few more to consider when weighing this up as an option for your small business:
- Fewer manual tasks: Gone are the days of asking your intern or marketing assistant to post to social media – instead, let an automation tool do it for you! Perhaps the biggest benefit of onboarding a marketing automation software is a decrease in manual tasks performed by your team members, such as social media posting, sending out marketing emails, building customer lists, and even writing captions or selecting hashtags.
- Increased productivity: With this in mind, marketing automation tools could be a game-changer for your team’s productivity. By alleviating the boring, rote tasks from your days, you’ll free up more time to get important things done, such as strategizing, relationship-building, and executing bigger campaigns.
- Good return on investment (ROI): Now there are many tools on the market that cost less than $20 USD per month, the potential ROI for your small business has grown exponentially. Automation tools can help you get lots done, leaving you more time to level up your business and focus on your broader marketing strategy.
- Streamlined operations: By using a marketing automation platform, you can keep everything in one handy place, such as your assets, lists, and content (depending on the tool you choose). This means less room for human error and a streamlined process if you need to onboard someone new.
The best marketing automation tools for small businesses
Mailchimp
- Best for: Small teams who need intuitive, easy-to-use email marketing automation tools.
- Key features: Pre-built customer journeys, a simple email builder, and functionality for forms and landing pages
- Pricing: Plan options include Free, Essentials (starts at $13 USD/month) and Standard (starts at $20 USD/month).
Email marketing automation tools like Mailchimp make building customized flows to nurture customers easy.
It’s the OG of email marketing automation tools – and for very good reason. Mailchimp has been around since 2001, when email marketing was nothing more than plain text with a couple of links, and, if you were lucky, an embedded image. Since then, Mailchimp has remained at the forefront of email marketing automation, innovating to keep up with market demands.
Millions of customers worldwide use Mailchimp to build customer journeys and automated flows, communicate with their audiences, and improve conversion rates through analytics, segmentation, and enhanced content. Its standout features include the easy-to-use interface, its customizable templates for practically every occasion, and its data management functions like tagging. It also integrates with a bunch of different platforms, including Shopify, Squarespace, Salesforce, and Zapier.
If you’re looking to cover the A to Z of your email marketing in one app, Mailchimp is the perfect platform. As your business grows, you can also use Mailchimp as a customer relationship manager (CRM) to look after your data (the platform is super secure, which is a win). Mailchimp’s free plan, while limited, is a great place to start if you’re not sure of the benefit of automating your email campaigns. We hazard a guess you’ll love it… which could then warrant an upgrade to the next tier for better functionality.
Blaze AI
- Best for: Solopreneurs or small businesses who want to double down on content creation in half the time.
- Key features: Content writing support in over 40 languages, the ability to create different brand voices, and over 60 types of content on offer – all harnessing the power of AI.
- Pricing: Plan options include the Creator Plan (starts at $22 USD/month) and the Team Plan (starts at $47 USD/month).
Use marketing automation tool Blaze AI to generate content ideas across 60 different mediums.
As marketers, we all understand how critical creating good content is to business success – but the issue lies in finding the time, energy, and resources to bring great content to life every week. Enter Blaze AI, the AI-based content marketing automations tool that, with a couple of clicks, can do it all for you.
It’s one of many AI-driven content marketing platforms out there, but what sets Blaze apart is its fantastic line-up of features. Within Blaze, you can write content for 60 different mediums, from press releases to blog posts to social media captions – in 40 different languages. You can train Blaze on your brand voice, then use this to generate bulk content for your biz.
And, when all that’s done, you can schedule content for some (although not all!) social media channels without leaving Blaze. Pretty cool, huh!? Put simply, Blaze AI gives you one of the best things you can have as a business owner – the freedom to think big.
Brevo
- Best for: Small-to-medium-sized businesses with a growth focus looking to combine email marketing with a sales CRM.
- Key features: SMS and WhatsApp campaign functionality, in-app notifications, and customizable plans based on your contact list and key features.
- Pricing: Plan options include Free, Starter (starts at $8.08 USD/month for the Marketing Platform only) and Business (starts at $16.17 USD/month for the Marketing Platform only).
Brevo is a versatile marketing automation tool spanning email, SMS, WhatsApp and in-app communication.
Brevo, formerly Sendinblue, is another well-loved email marketing automation tool that can help streamline your operations and amplify engagement by taking mundane marketing tasks off your hands. It covers all the basics of email marketing with a simple drag-and-drop email builder, detailed analytics (including click heatmaps!), and smart email nurture flows.
However, where Brevo gets really juicy is its other communications tools, which include SMS, WhatsApp, web and app push notifications, and even mobile wallet automations. With just the Marketing Platform, you can communicate across all these mediums to build intuitive, comprehensive marketing campaigns that encourage users to convert based on their behavior.
Pair Brevo’s Marketing Platform with one of its other features, such as the Sales Platform (pipeline management) or the Conversations Platform (customer service) to accelerate your business efforts.
AdRoll
- Best for: Small-to-medium-sized businesses who want to 10x their paid ads growth without putting in hours of extra work.
- Key features: Automated creative optimization, advanced audience targeting, and bid support to ensure you don’t overspend.
- Pricing: Pay as you go for your ads, or $36 USD/month for the Marketing & Ads + package.
Marketing automation tools aren’t just for emails – AdRoll supports paid ad campaigns through smart AI-informed automations.
Even huge businesses and agencies manage their ads directly in-platform – but what if we told you there was a better way? Well, AdRoll is the solution to the problem you didn’t know you had, summarizing your paid ads into one platform for easier workflows and better oversight on your activity and your spend.
AdRoll’s self-service option is great for those who don’t want to hand over their ads (or their spend!) to an agency just yet, but need some extra support getting bang for their buck. Within AdRoll, you’ll find tools to supercharge your ROI, including BidIQ, their AI-powered bidding engine, which uses real-time and historical data to help you place effective bids without overspending. AdRoll also uses predictive modelling to optimize your ad creative and show the most relevant products or content to your audience, so you don’t have to A/B test.
Plann
- Best for: Small businesses and solopreneurs looking for a streamlined, supportive social media management solution.
- Key features: All-in-one social media scheduling, AI-generated captions and content ideas, built-in hashtag suggestions, a Canva integration, and more!
- Pricing: Plan options include Power User (starts at $12.50 USD/month), Build (starts at $25 USD/month) and Grow (starts at $62.50 USD/month).
Let a social media marketing automation tool like Plann take all the tedium and time-wasting out of showing up on socials!
We’ve saved the best ‘til last – say hello to Plann! If you haven’t met us already, we’re a wildly easy, intuitive, AI-driven social media scheduling tool that can help you automate showing up online for your small business. Using a social media scheduler like Plann is a must-have, as posting directly to socials is not just time-consuming, but can blur the lines between personal and business in a way we’re not exactly fans of!
Within Plann, you’ll find lots of different features to help you take charge of your day-to-day and perfect your content calendar. Schedule social media posts across all major channels, and use our Instagram first comment and direct posting functions to keep you off the app (and focused on better things). If you’re stuck for social ideas, try our AI-powered Caption and Content Generators to spark inspiration without using valuable brainpower. Other done-for-you elements that make Plann a lifesaver for small businesses include our Hashtag Manager, suggested content themes, and built-in free stock library.
With a marketing automation tool like Plann on your side, social media scheduling is fuss-free, giving your marketing team back the time and energy to work on what matters, while everything chugs along seamlessly in the background.
Level up your social media marketing game with Plann
Whether you’re struggling to keep up with the fast-paced nature of social media or simply want to devote more time to growing your business and focusing on those tasks that take place offline, Plann’s range of features is sure to help save you time with an automated social media strategy.
From AI-generated captions to cross-posting, analytics, hashtags and more, Plann can help you maintain a consistent posting schedule while you remain focused on business growth. We even auto-post your Instagram Reels to take the hassle out of growing organically on the platform!
Go on, and redeem your 7-day free trial of Plann Plus. If you don’t like it, keep using Plann for free!
