Email Marketing Automation Software: The 12 Best Tools

In the ever-evolving landscape of marketing communications, one channel continues to shine: email marketing. With over 4 billion daily email users, it remains a highly relevant tool for businesses to engage with their audience, nurture leads, and drive conversions.

However with the complexity of customer journeys and the need for personalized communication, manually managing your email campaigns can be tricky. That's where email marketing automation software comes to the rescue.

Are you looking for the best email marketing automation software for your business? We're here to help! In this article, we'll tell you what to look for in an email marketing automation tool. We'll also review the 12 best tools for your business's online marketing needs.

What Is Email Marketing Automation Software?

Email marketing automation is a digital marketing strategy that involves using software to automate aspects of your email campaigns. It relies on pre-set triggers that send customers personalized marketing emails when they make a specific action.

Some examples of these triggers are:

• Interaction with your website
• Signing up for your newsletter
• Purchasing from your online store
• Sending a query about a product or service

Automated marketing emails are designed to move the customer along in the sales journey, and build engagement.

What Are the Benefits of Email Marketing Automation Software?

Email marketing automation software has revolutionized the way businesses connect with their audience. But what are the benefits that make it such a game-changer? Here are the top advantages that so many organizations enjoy:

Identifies Customers Through Segmentation and Targeting

When email marketing automation software incorporates segmentation and targeting, it allows you to identify potential customers, and choose which of those customers to single out for more targeted marketing. This is beneficial to both your company and your customers.

You'll be able to find new prospects who are interested in your products or services with minimum effort. Meanwhile, they find the company to sell it to them, without having to do any research themselves. It's a win-win situation.

Saves Time and Hassle

Automating your sending process takes the time and hassle out of the digital marketing equation. It frees your staff from laborious admin, allowing them to focus on more crucial tasks.

This not only speeds up marketing campaigns, and reduces your staffing needs, but also delivers results faster. Now you can know what's working for you, and what isn't, soon enough to make necessary improvements.

Builds Customer Loyalty Effortlessly

Marketing emails help to build customer loyalty by engaging customers, keeping them up to date with developments in the company, and alerting them to new products or special promotions. With direct marketing, you keep the attention focused on you and improve customer retention.

By automating the process, you build customer loyalty to your brand, with reduced stress. Everything - from welcome emails to newsletters and promotional emails - is automatically sent to your email contact list.

Email Personalization

Every customer is unique. They make different purchases and have different tastes and preferences. They fall into different demographic groups. A single email campaign won't work for every customer on your mailing list. But there's a way around this.

Automated email marketing tools use predefined rules to trigger the sending of emails to specific customers. This will be based on factors such as their interests, inquiries, or past purchases.

This personalized email marketing strategy makes the most of your customer data to achieve the best results.

What to Look For in Email Marketing Automation Software

Email marketing automation software can deliver a host of benefits, but these will only be realized when they have the right features. So, here are the main features to look out for when choosing your email marketing automation software:

Features

There are a few key features that are essential for your email marketing automation software. Firstly, look out for powerful automation capabilities. You should be able to set up triggered emails based on the actions your subscribers take, like sign ups or abandoned carts.

Your software should also offer advanced segmentation tools. It should be able to segment your audience based on categories like demographics, preferences, and behaviors. This allows you to send them content tailored specifically to them.

A user-friendly drag-and-drop editor is also a must for email marketing automation software. This feature will allow you to craft appealing campaigns quickly without previous coding or design experience. It will save your business hours of time, hassle, and training.

Finally, your email marketing automation software should have a library of templates for you to choose from and customize. Besides saving your company time, templates ensure brand consistency in all your campaigns. They also reduce the risk of human error.

Ease of Use

No one likes complicated software that takes ages to get familiar with. Ease of use is one of the biggest factors you should consider when choosing email automation software.

The more user-friendly your email marketing software is, the better. It means you'll be able to install and use it quickly, and not have to worry about training your staff. If there's a demo or free trial available, use it. This will give you an indication of how easy the software is to use.

Analytics and Reporting

You need to know how your marketing campaigns are performing and whether your strategy needs revision. In addition, you have to track and understand consumer behavior patterns to better meet their needs.

This is where analytics and insights come in handy. Automated email marketing software with these features gives you the power to access crucial performance data in real time. This ensures the success of your marketing campaigns.

Pricing

There's no avoiding the issue - pricing matters. If you're a smaller or startup business, you'll have a smaller budget for marketing. However, you need marketing more than large corporations, who already have a loyal, established customer base.

Choosing software that fits your budget best means you'll be able to allocate more funds to other business needs. Many email marketing automation software platforms offer free basic plans, which is a good choice if you're on a tighter budget.

Integrations

Look out for a tool that can seamlessly integrate with the apps and systems your business already uses. These could include CRM systems like Helpmonks and Zoho, CMS systems like WordPress or Drupal, and social media platforms.

For example, integration with CRM software allows your email marketing automation software to access and use customer data effectively. This allows for more personalized campaigns based on customer interactions and journeys.

12 Best Email Marketing Automation Software Solutions

Choosing the right email marketing automation software can be overwhelming. But it doesn't have to be - we're here to help! We've curated a list of our top 12 recommendations to help you pick the best platform for your business's needs.

1. Helpmonks

Helpmonks understands that your email inbox contains the lifeblood of your business. It is here that you connect with your subscribers, build your leads list, and offer personalized customer support.

The power of email marketing automation cannot be overlooked. But it ties in with everything else you do. This is why Helpmonks is the only customer engagement platform to combine email marketing, email management, sales tools, and support.

With Helpmonks' email CRM, you can manage your company's contacts and profiles and send personalized messages to customers who engage with your website. Its marketing automation tool makes it easy to send targeted emails to customers.

You'll also enjoy additional features like file sharing and management, real-time live chat for your website, smart push notifications, and a knowledge base. View all your team's activities on a user-friendly dashboard, and stay in control of all your email marketing automation and customer engagement.

A variety of pricing plans are available, depending on the number of tools you add to the starter email management plan. Helpmonks also offers enterprise pricing plans and a 30-day free trial.

Features

• Automated campaigns: Pre-set automated email sequences to be sent to new subscribers or loyal customers.
• Drag-and-drop editor: Build email templates from scratch or customize from a range of pre-made templates.
• Analytics: See how your campaigns are performing through insights such as open rates and click-through rates.
• Real-time customer support: Deliver prompt customer service with live chat and push notifications
• Segmentation and targeting: Group your subscribers for more personalized content based on demographics, preferences, behaviors, and more.
• Automated proofreading: Helpmonks will check for any typos or errors in your emails before sending them

Best For

Helpmonks is best for small to medium-sized businesses looking for an all-in-one platform for email management, marketing automation, and customer support. It's a stress-free, intuitive solution even suitable for users with little tech experience.

2. HubSpot

HubSpot is a popular email marketing automation software solution that helps businesses of all sizes streamline their email marketing processes. It offers a full suite of services including a powerful CRM tool with marketing and sales software and support.

The marketing functionality includes a visual board, email list auto-response, and email personalization.

Its various features are all collated in its hubs, and the Marketing Hub is where you'll find most of the email marketing automation features. However, basic emailing scheduling features can be found in HubSpot's free sales tool, too.

HubSpot offers different pricing plans, and while the entry-level plans are perfect for smaller budgets, the Professional and Enterprise plans are expensive. Lead and contact scoring, omnichannel marketing automation, and personalization of automated emails are included in the higher-tier plans.

Features

• CRM integration: Track and monitor customer interactions and manage your campaigns with HubSpot's CRM integration.
• Drag-and-drop editor: Craft appealing, personalized email campaigns in just a few clicks.
• Automation: Automate tasks like email scheduling, personalizing emails, and segmenting your subscriber list.
• A/B testing: Create multiple versions of an email campaign before sending it to see which version will perform better
• Simple visual board: Create and streamline workflows with HubSpot's user-friendly visual board.

Best For

HubSpot is a good option for businesses of all sizes looking for a platform with a variety of sales and marketing functionalities. Although its dashboard is user-friendly, it may not be suitable for beginners, as some of its advanced features require users to be tech-savvy.

3. Brevo

Brevo, previously known as Sendinblue, is an email marketing automation software with a host of useful tools. It includes transactional emails, marketing emails, sign-up forms, and SMS marketing messages.

Where Brevo differs from other email marketing automation platforms is its parallel workflow possibilities. You can trigger two or more workflows by the same contacts list so that contacts are nudged onto the next workflow right after the last one.

You decide what the trigger will be, for example, by clicking on a welcome email you've sent. While you can design your workflow for your email marketing from scratch, Brevo also offers pre-made workflow templates for your shorter automated campaigns.

Brevo's pricing plans depend on the number of emails you send, and there's a limited free plan.

Features

• Contact management: Import contacts, segment lists and collect forms with Brevo's contact management tool.
• Pre-made templates: Start from scratch or customize a template with the easy drag-and-drop editor.
• Mobile-responsive emails: Use Brevo's design tools to create emails optimized for mobile.
• Email scheduling: Automate campaigns to be sent at specific times.
• Integration: Brevo seamlessly integrates with third-party tools you may already use, such as email management tools and e-commerce systems.

Best For

Brevo is best suited for small to medium-sized businesses looking to grow their email marketing. It is an easy-to-use platform, making it a great option for beginners looking for a hassle-free automation tool.

With a range of affordable plans to choose from, Brevo is suitable for any budget.

4. Moosend

Moosend is a simple, user-friendly email marketing automation software. It caters to SaaS companies, e-commerce businesses, and a variety of other industries. Advanced website tracking triggers email personalization for a more targeted email marketing approach. The drag-and-drop email editor makes creating email campaigns quick and easy.

Want to know which of your marketing campaigns has fared the best? Moosend includes a split-testing tool, so you can compare how your various email versions will perform before sending. It also includes data analysis to monitor how your campaigns are performing in real time.

You can grow your mailing contact list with the form-builder, allowing you to generate opt-in forms for newsletters and marketing.

Moosend is an affordable option, with a 30-day free trial also available.

Features

• Drag-and-drop newsletter editor: Create beautiful and effective newsletters, even with no design experience.
• AI subject line optimizer: Moosend uses AI to help you craft the catchiest subject lines.
• Website tracking: Email personalization and segmentation are made easy by Moosend's interest-tracking feature.
• Data analytics: Track the number of pages opened, links clicked on, and shares on social media.
• A/B testing: Gauge your customer engagement success.
• Templates: Choose from 40 attractive templates for your email marketing campaigns.

Best For

Moosend is ideal for e-commerce companies and SaaS services. It is a good option for organizations looking for an easy-to-use, affordable email automation tool.

5. ActiveCampaign

If you're looking for an all-in-one email automation platform to manage your campaigns, ActiveCampaign may be the one for you. ActiveCampaign includes an automation workflow builder, a drag-and-drop email builder, as well as over 250 automation and email templates.

Site and event tracking paired with segmentation and personalization offers the very best in targeted email marketing with powerful reporting.

To further streamline your automated marketing, ActiveCampaign integrates with hundreds of third-party apps, including Eventbrite, Facebook, Shopify, and WordPress.

ActiveCampaign allows you to compare the performance of your alternative marketing email versions with A/B split testing.

Features

• Email templates: Pick from hundreds of email templates to suit every communication and marketing need.
• Automation recipes: ActiveCampaign boasts over 800 pre-built automation recipes, simplifying the process of advanced automation.
• Send unlimited emails: Grow your subscriber list at no extra cost.
• AI-powered tools: ActiveCampaign uses artificial intelligence to give you deeper insights into your customers' behavior and preferences.
• Multichannel analytics: Track your progress with performance analytics and reporting on all your channels, including social media.

Best For

ActiveCampaign is designed for small businesses, start-ups, and entrepreneurs looking to scale their organizations through email marketing.

6. Salesforce Marketing Cloud Engagement

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Engagement, previously known as Pardot, is an AI-powered cloud automation service. This platform offers various features from CRM integration to lead nurturing, email marketing, and ROI reporting.

Salesforce allows you to grow your email marketing campaigns through the use of AI. Besides marketing email automation, you'll also have access to content management for your marketing materials, and supplementary mobile messaging campaigns, too.

However, the pricing is far higher than most email marketing automation software, and there is no free trial available.

Features

• Integrations: Salesforce integrates seamlessly with almost all third-party applications your organization already uses.
• Email studio content builder: This intuitive feature has a wide range of tools that make it easy to craft effective email campaigns.
• CRM integration: Salesforce is known for its powerful CRM integration.
• Sales and service integrations: The Marketing Cloud integrates with sales and service, helping you to know your customer base better
• ROI reporting: Discover the profitability of your campaigns with detailed analytics

Best For

Salesforce is ideal for large or growing organizations looking for a customizable platform that can adapt with them. It is better suited for businesses with a large marketing budget, as it costs more than competing platforms.

7. Drip

Drip is an email marketing automation software that includes a CRM, with e-commerce store functionalities. It offers excellent segmentation and email personalization to help you target the right customer with the right products.

The email builder is quick and easy to use, and pre-built templates like sale announcements are handy for e-commerce store marketing. The range of automated welcome, abandoned-cart, and post-purchase email workflows makes e-commerce email marketing a breeze.

Drip is a user-friendly platform, making it perfect for users who aren't tech-savvy. You can send unlimited emails, but you'll pay according to the number of contacts you have.

Drip also responds to certain built-in triggers, such as specific customer actions. These do not have to take place on your e-commerce site, though, and can include any of your social media or other channels. Analytics and insights are included.

Features

• Point-and-click visual workflow builder: Create unique workflows that suit your needs.
• Pre-set workflows: Choose from a wide range of pre-built automated workflows.
• A/B testing: Drip lets you test up to four email versions simultaneously.
• Multichannel triggers: Triggers on your website or any of your social media channels will initiate automated responses.
• Integrations: Drip integrates with over 100 apps, including e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce

Best For

Drip is suitable for users with large e-commerce stores, as most of its features are geared towards e-commerce. It can be expensive, so it's best for businesses with bigger budgets.

Users with multiple marketing channels including websites and social media will benefit from using Drip, as it responds to triggers across channels.

8. SendPulse

SendPulse understands email marketing, as it was originally an email marketing service. Now a more comprehensive automated marketing platform, it uses several channels to reach out to customers.

With SendPulse, you can make the most of email marketing as well as chatbots for your social media and communications platforms. Chatbots make use of ChatGPT to achieve more human-like responses. SMS notifications are also available.

Both free monthly plans and affordable paid monthly plans are available.

Features

• Chatbots: Chatbots for Viber, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram are available
• SMS: Supplement your email marketing with bulk SMS campaigns
• Email verification: SendPulse ensures that emails are only sent to valid addresses, keeping your inbox clean.
• Transactional emails: Send up to 12,000 emails for free via SMTP or API.
• Sales pipeline automation: Manage your email campaigns, chatbots, and website notifications from a single CRM platform.

Best For

SendPulse is best for businesses with multiple digital marketing channels, or organizations looking for an all-in-one automation solution at a reasonable price.

9. Adobe Marketo Engage

Adobe Marketo Engage offers B2C and B2B account-based marketing, lead management, and email marketing automation. It uses AI to build predictive audiences and segments.

This platform offers detailed performance insights and analytics to help you improve your current and future email campaigns.

Established in 2006 as a marketing automation company, Marketo was later acquired by Adobe. It has since been incorporated into Adobe's enterprise marketing cloud. The Adobe integration offers a more powerful package, but one that is more suitable for enterprises.

There is no free trial or free plan, and prices are determined by database size.

Features

• A/B testing: Test the performance of multiple versions of an email campaign
• Mobile optimized: Manage your email marketing campaigns from any device
• Lead management: Manage your leads with online behavior tracking, lead scoring and grading, and segmentation.
• Reporting & Analytics: Monitor and improve your campaigns in real time.
• Predictive segmentation: Harness the power of AI to divide your subscriber list effectively

Best For

Adobe Marketo Engage is better suited to users who are more experienced in digital marketing. The array of Adobe integrations and top features make it a winning combination if you fall into that category.

10. Mailchimp

If you're looking for a simple automated marketing platform that's easy to use and affordable, Mailchimp is a good option for you. It offers a limited free plan, which is useful for smaller businesses with tighter budgets. However, Mailchimp lacks the advanced features that other platforms offer.

Mailchimp offers a wide range of pre-built templates for your automated emails. These include abandoned cart reminders, re-engagement emails, and more. The platform also offers predictive list segmentation, to better target customers with marketing that's right for their needs.

A content studio with campaign templates and drag-and-drop email design tools allows you to create the ideal marketing emails for your business.

Features

• Subject line helper: Engage your audience from the very first line they see.
• Pre-built templates: Speed up the process of crafting your email campaigns.
• Drag-and-drop email design tool: Create beautiful campaigns in a few clicks.
• Analytics and insights: Improve your email marketing campaigns on the go.
• Over 20 AI and data tools: Generate marketing emails and draft auto-responses with ease.

Best For

Mailchimp is a simple automated platform best for smaller businesses, especially those in the e-commerce industry. It's great for beginners, as it has the tools to simplify every step of marketing email creation and automation.

11. Omnisend

Omnisend is a marketing platform with prebuilt automation features designed especially for e-commerce stores. It integrates with other e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce.

Omnisend has a wide range of email marketing automation features, like an email builder, product recommendation engine, segmentation, and form-building tools. It also lets you manage and automate your online customer interactions in one place with emails, SMS notifications, and web push messages.

This platform offers great value along with ease of use. Paid plan prices depend on the number of contacts on your marketing list, but there is a free plan available.

Features

• Automation: Speed up your processes by using Omnisend's pre-built automations that work autonomously.
• All-in-one e-commerce marketing: Your one-stop shop for all your sales and marketing needs.
• Product recommendation engine: Engage your customers according to their purchase history and preferences.
• Notifications: Omnisend offers SMS notifications and web push messages
• Customization: Customize email templates to include new products, discount codes, or anything else you need.

Best For

Omnisend is best for small to medium-sized organizations in the e-commerce industry looking to boost their sales.

12. SureTriggers

SureTriggers is an email marketing automation software for optimizing your business processes, from content on your WordPress site to your lead management and marketing emails. It's user-friendly and offers a free version, with upgrades available.

SureTriggers integrates with hundreds of SaaS applications and connects your various websites and social channels.

This platform is known for its advanced trigger automation features. Simply select the apps and services that you want to include, choose a type of activity on these channels to serve as a trigger, and add the actions you want to have automatically follow that trigger.

Features

• Multi-step automations: Create a series of automations triggered by a customer's action
• No-code canvas builder: Build automations visually by dragging and dropping triggers onto a user-friendly canvas.
• Schedule automation: Set up once-off or recurring automations.
• Conditions feature: Customize your automations by setting certain parameters for each action.
• Advanced filtering: SureTriggers will allow automations to proceed or terminate based on the conditions you've set

Best For

SureTriggers is best for businesses looking for email marketing automation software that can integrate with WordPress. It is also great for organizations looking for a highly customizable automation tool.

Conclusion

With email marketing automation software, you streamline your digital marketing processes, reduce admin, and target your customers with marketing that is always relevant to them. It allows you to send out the right message, at the right time, to the right people. And you can do so with minimal effort.

If you're looking for an all-in-one customer engagement platform that excels in email marketing automation, try Helpmonks! Our platform offers all the features a growing business needs to succeed. Helpmonks will streamline your email marketing processes, helping you get the most out of every campaign.

Our range of advanced email automation features makes it easy to stay ahead of the competition and create effective campaigns that drive results.

Need to test it out first? Register an account today and enjoy a 30-day free trial!