Choosing the right eCommerce marketing automation software can be very intimidating. Before investing in an eCommerce automation tool for your business, you should know what automation you need to accomplish your business? Do you want to track the number of visitors on your website? Send sales alerts in real-time? Market upgrades to existing customers? Collect email addresses? Or collect, segment, and select data to identify the right messaging for the right customer?
Knowing what you need before investing in an eCommerce marketing automation platform helps you save money, reduce confusion and frustration, and maximize marketing benefits. When purchasing marketing automation software, you should first decide:
- Your goals in getting new marketing automation software
- What are you ready to compromise on?
- And, the highly-demanded features of your tool
Once you’re prepared with the specifications, you may start searching the marketplace. There are a few good ways to see what tool will meet your requirements.
- Using a tag-monitoring plugin like BuiltWith can help you visit websites similar to yours to see which automation software they are using.
- Consult with professional providers of other software in your stack and ask which platforms they integrate with, this can make adoption much easier.
- Visit software review sites like G2Crowd and Capterra to check which software has the best reviews
When you’ve finalized the software provider, you may ask several questions such as
- Is the software supported by any community?
- How will I benefit from the platform?
- How does the functionality match your goals?
As there are several eCommerce automation platforms in the marketplace, it may be quite difficult to find the right platform that will match your goals. To make things a little easier for you, here’s a list is some of the best eCommerce marketing automation software that you can leverage to increase productivity.
Best Ecommerce Marketing Automation Software
- Dotdigital
Since its inception in 1999, Dotdigital (formerly Dotmailer) has built its services around the email which is an important part of a digital marketing strategy.
- Pricing– Packages start from $150 per month to $600 per month, offering a 20% discount for non-profits and charities.
- Ease of Use– Dotdigital is one of the simplest and powerful platforms in the marketplace. It is useful for businesses that are familiar with Email Service Providers like MailChimp and who now want to take their marketing efforts to the next level.
- Features – Training, Creative Studio, Campaign Management, Strategic Services, and Custom Integrations
- Recommended for– Email marketing professionals who require an all-inclusive package having a powerful capacity in a drag-and-drop template.
- MailChimp
MailChimp is not only used as an email marketing tool, but also as a full-scale marketing platform that offers a CRM, design, website, and campaign services.
- Pricing– MailChimp is a freemium platform with the paid version starting at $9.99/month, and scaling to $299.99/month for all the premium features.
- Ease of use– It is popular among digital marketers and comes with plenty of DIY guides and 24/7 support available from the cheapest.
- Features– Email Marketing, Site Tracking, CRM, Audience Insights, Behavioural Targeting, Social and Search Marketing, Website Integration, Drip Campaigns, Website Visitor Tracking, Landing Pages, Forms.
- Recommended for –All small-medium businesses aspiring to grow and individuals who are looking for an all-in-one marketing platform.
- ActiveCampaign
The best part about ActiveCampaign is its pricing. It offers features worth your investment. Its feature set focuses on acquisition more than conversion, so digital marketers looking for landing pages will be disappointed.
- Pricing –Starts from $17/month and may increase depending on the feature set and the number of contacts.
- Ease of use –It is one of the simplest platforms with a wide range of DIY guides and courses that make it an ideal option for those who love working their own way through it.
- Features –Email Marketing, Site and Event Tracking, Contact and Lead Scoring, SMS Messaging.
- Recommended for –Smaller businesses and entrepreneurs looking for a good entry-level solution.
- HubSpot
HubSpot is one of the prominent marketing automation software that offers a full stack of sales, marketing, and CRM solutions designed to grow businesses. Its products seamlessly integrate online and social media marketing activities such as email, contacts, SEO, and analytics.
- Pricing –It is available for free, however, for premium features the pricing is $2,400 a month.
- Ease of use –Overall the platform is good and constantly improves with new features such as drag-and-drop email builders.
- Features –Calls-to-Action, Progressive Profiling, A/B Testing Landing Pages, Segmentation, SEO Recommendations, Blog Analytics, Integrated Social Publishing.
- Recommended for –Digital marketers in pursuit of powerful, all-in-one marketing automation software for segmentation, contact management, push-button social media control, and report creation. Hubspot is not really built for eCommerce, but this is evolving with new features such as a native Shopify integration and the ability to connect a custom store.