Keep reading and you’ll find four recommended products that will help your business to automate repetitive marketing tasks and execute more effective campaigns. You won’t find comprehensive reviews or features lists. You’ll just get four great product recommendations that will help improve you digital marketing.#

Please note, this list does not feature enterprise platforms such as Marketo or Pardot. If that’s the market you are looking in, this article isn’t for you.

MailerLite

When it comes to offering good value for money, you cannot beat Mailerlite. It is feature-rich and has a very generous free plan. 

How generous, you ask?

Mailerlite provides email marketing software that features landing pages, marketing automation and surveys for all users. ALL users! That means even those who don’t feel like paying the minimal, tiny, crazily cheap $10/£8 per month can still access features that cost literally hundreds of pounds per month on other platforms.

Read Mailerlite user reviews G2 Crowd

Zapier

While it isn’t strictly speaking a marketing automation platform, Zapier enables you to automate where other platforms can’t. 

Zapier enables you to connect different pieces of software together in such a way that you can automate routine tasks. For example, you might want to connect your CRM with your finance software and your email marketing platform. Using Zapier, you can do just that!

There are thousands of applications that you can connect using Zapier and limitless combinations of “zaps” to automate the routine marketing tasks, such as automating your online advertising target lists, to streamlining your social media campaign management.

Read Zapier user reviews on G2 Crowd

HubSpot Marketing Free

***Disclaimer: I am a HubSpot partner.***

As a long time reseller of HubSpot, shareholder since their IPO and five time attendee of HubSpot’s awesome INBOUND conference in Boston, it’s no exaggeration to say that I am drinking their kool-aid (as the Americans might say).

Here I want to talk specifically about HubSpot’s free marketing software because it’s pretty neat. As an all-in-one package for managing email, CRM, website forms, live chat, social media advertising, and prospecting website visitors, I honestly don’t think it has any rivals.

Whether you’re just starting out in business and need some free tools to get started, or your business is booming and you require a comprehensive marketing platform, HubSpot has a plan for you.

The automation features here are lacking a little compared to Mailerlite but you can send automated responses to form submissions, capture email addresses with a automated live chat function, as well as featuring some smart sales lead enrichment tools for the free CRM. Not to mention the fact that HubSpot integrates with Zapier so you have unlimited potential to push data in and out of your shiny new CRM.

Read HubSpot user reviews on G2 Crowd.

MailChimp

There’s a strong possibility that the first time you thought about doing email marketing, you found yourself signing up for a MailChimp. That’s because it’s affordable, easy-to-use, and very powerful.

In recent years MailChimp has expanded its offering far beyond basic email marketing and into new products such as single-step marketing automation, CRM and landing pages. MailChimp now a comprehensive offer that certainly gives HubSpot a run for its money.

If you’re after a platform that is easy to use and the costs to operate it will scale as your business grows, MailChimp is an excellent option.

Read MailChimp user reviews on G2 Crowd