By Megan Totka
If sales are the food that businesses thrive off of, marketing is the hand that leads them to the mouth.
In today’s world of cutthroat competition and global commerce, businesses are under more pressure than ever to spend extra time marketing their products. And when you’re running a company, sometimes you simply don’t have the extra time to spare.
But never fear – there are plenty of marketing automation platforms available today, each with their own unique benefits and functionalities, to help make your marketing efforts a breeze. We’ve put together a quick list of the top seven along with what makes them different and a few of their most notable satisfied customers.
Sniply
The ultimate goal of any marketing effort is to direct prospects further down your sales funnel. One of the best ways of guiding them is, of course, by including a call-to-action with your content.
But when you’re sharing someone else’s content, you don’t have the opportunity to insert your own CTA. That’s where Sniply comes in. This unique tool lets you add a custom CTA to any link you share.
This simple yet effective tool has helped thousands of happy customers boost their conversions including brands like Autodesk, IBM, Experian, and Dropbox.
Hootsuite
One of the most robust social media marketing automation platforms by far, Hootsuite lets you schedule social media posts, find and curate compelling content, perform detailed analytics, and monitor and track topic discussions so you can respond accordingly.
Satisfied customers for this marketing magnate include HBO, Visa, Paypal, and Expedia.
GetResponse
Marketing automation can be an intimidating prospect for a lot of businesses these days. Complicated terms and concepts, frustratingly confusing workflows, and busy design schemes often make it simply not worth the hassle.
With the GetResponse marketing automation software though, you don’t have to waste valuable time adjusting to a platform that’s difficult to understand. GetResponse is a one stop marketing automation platform where marketers can build landing pages, create mobile ready email from pre-built templates and create automated marketing workflows. The platform’s marketing automation workflows is where they separate themselves from their competition.
Businesses can create automated email workflows to send customers personalized emails based on events like purchase history or behaviors in a previous email. For example, a business may want to send all customers who haven’t purchased in the last 60 days an email offer. GetResponse can automate these emails to entice customers to purchase again.
A few major brands that have taken advantage of GetResponse include Hilton, Avon, Tiger Woods, and Citroën.
Tailwind
With an eye on the social media giants Pinterest and Instagram especially, Tailwind is a powerful social media marketing platform that’s been helping brands expand and improve their social media presence since 2011.
They’re trusted by over 100,000 different brands and agencies, some of which include Frigidaire, General Mills, Walmart, and Viacom.
Searchmetrics
One of the premier marketing automation platforms that focuses on both SEO and content marketing, Searchmetrics is a solid choice for gleaning valuable marketing insights that you’ll have a hard time finding elsewhere.
You’ve probably heard of some of the brands they’ve helped increase their SEO stats. Do Lufthansa, eBay, Elsevier, and Aristotle ring a bell?
Buffer
Social media scheduling made simple is at the heart of the Buffer platform. With a streamlined interface including browser extensions and the ability to manage multiple accounts all from one easy-to-use dashboard, few other marketing automation systems value a navigable interface quite like Buffer.
Big-name brands like Business Insider, Shopify, About.com, and Intercom have all used Buffer to boost their marketing reach.
CoSchedule
With an emphasis on clear organization, robust scheduling software, and a comprehensive marketing calendar, CoSchedule is one of the best marketing automation tools around.
A few notable and satisfied customers include: Microsoft, The Home Depot, Campaign Monitor, and Rosetta Stone.
Marketing Made Easy
Marketing is an essential part of any business, no matter what industry you may be in. But building an effective marketing strategy can end up taking a lot of time and may eat into your business’s valuable resources.
But with the handy marketing automation tools above, you can bring in more leads while barely lifting a finger. So get marketing!
Megan Totka is the Chief Editor for ChamberofCommerce.com. ChamberofCommerce.com helps small businesses grow their business on the web and facilitates connectivity between local businesses and more than 7,000 Chambers of Commerce worldwide. She specializes on the topic of small business tips and resources and business news. Megan has several years of experience on the topics of small business marketing, copywriting, SEO, online conversions and social media. Megan spends much of her time establishing new relationships for ChamberofCommerce.com, publishing weekly newsletters educating small business on the importance of web presence, and contributing to a number of publications on the web. Megan can be reached at megan@chamberofcommerce.com. Website: www.chamberofcommerce.com
