According to a recent study, just over half of B2B companies are considering investing in new marketing automation systems this year. What about you? Would upgrading your current system bring you the results you want? Or are you just beginning to incorporate the potential of marketing automation into your future plans?
Marketing Automation has been around for more than 10 years, and the contenders for your hard-earned cash are many. With that in mind, we are presenting this roundup of our three favorite automated marketing systems.
Best For: Established small- and mid-sized companies
Ease of Use: Good
Functionality: Very Good
Budget: Midrange ($1,195-$3,195 per month)
Marketing automation is one of several services offered by Marketo. At the basic $1,195 level, Marketo gives you a spacious starting point: lead nurturing and scoring, landing pages, social media, webinars, email marketing, and real time performance reporting. Other levels expand the number of users and amount of content management and hosting.
What’s we love about Marketo: Marketo has a friendly, highly customizable user interface. Those who want to stay in the Marketo system can easily expand into other products and services, and this platform integrates very well with Salesforce. Marketo is especially popular with small- and mid-size companies in the tech, healthcare, and financial industries.
What we don’t love: Outside of its universe and Salesforce.com, Marketo can be reluctant to blend with other systems. (That’s the reason its ease of use slipped from an otherwise Very Good rating). Support for global and large-scale companies is currently limited.
Best For: Small and mid-sized businesses with tight budgets
Ease of Use: Very Good
Functionality: Average
Budget: Economy (free for solo operations; $400-$1,200 per month)
At the starting level, Genius provides a basic but fairly useful set of tools, including email marketing, analytics, landing page design, and optional search engine optimization. Its user interface is intuitive and has a minimal learning curve.
What we love about Genius: Its value for money spent. Some aspects of advanced marketing automation are missing, such as marketing event management or budget management, but many companies won’t even notice the lack. Genius’s target audience – small- and mid-size companies and those in software and IT – will also appreciate its web-centric approach.
What we don’t love: For some customers, the missing analytics and management tools can be a deal breaker.
Best For: Enterprise and large-scale companies, well-funded mid-sized businesses
Ease of Use: Very Good
Functionality: Very Good
Budget: High ($2,000-$4,000 per month)
Acquired by Oracle and active since 2000, Eloqua is at the top of the marketing automation game. According to its website, it is the industry leader in email deliverability and the most popular marketing automation service. Eloqua’s service package bundles templates, support, education, and coaching with the usual offerings of email marketing, lead nurturing, contact management, lead management, analytics, and land page design. Recent improvements to the user interface have upgraded its ease of use from below average to very good. And Eloqua also combines digital communication with traditional methods of print communication for the widest possible reach.
What we love about Eloqua: Talk about a one-stop shop! Eloqua offers a full range of services, from education to analysis, and comes with serious industry credentials.
What we don’t love: Eloqua’s comprehensive service package comes with a fat price tag that can put it out of reach of startups and cash-strapped companies.
We hope this roundup of our three marketing automation picks helps you find the solution that works for you!
Which MAS are you using? Tell us in the comments.
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