13 Best Marketing Automation Platforms for Small Business

Marketing automation software is like a virtual assistant for your business. It’s a digital apprentice that schedules your social media posts, replies to your emails, and helps you create new content to constantly engage customers. 

These platforms provide more than just the tools needed for a strong campaign; they help you manage your marketing strategy and consistently improve it over time. 

There are dozens of options for marketing automation software, and this post will break down the best solutions for small business owners. We’ll review what these platforms do, their key features, and the pros and cons of each. We’ll also share a few free marketing automation tools that you might want to consider as well. 

1. Thryv – Marketing Center

Best for: Small Business Marketing 

Thryv’s Marketing Center is designed specifically for small business owners – and it feels like new features are added daily. The Enhanced Local Listings tool manages and automatically updates your business listings with new information and posts. The Leads tool attracts more customers with AI-powered ad campaigns on sites like Google, Yahoo, and Yelp. There’s also a website builder with drag-and-drop features so you can quickly build a site if your business doesn’t already have one. 

One of Thryv’s best automation tools is its email and SMS response templates. It connects to your CRM, so when customers fill out a form or have a birthday, it sends them a personalized email. This strengthens your relationships and saves you time during the workday.

Key Features

• Local Listings Management
• AI-Powered Lead Campaigns
• Email, SMS, and Social Media Automation

Pros

• Thryv is built specifically for small business owners. It’s ideal for brands that provide in-home services like HVAC, plumbing, and landscaping. It’s also great for health and wellness brands and professional services like insurance and law firms. 
• Thryv provides a free communication tool called Command Center. It includes a shared inbox that forwards all your messages to one place. 

Cons

• While Thryv is tailored to meet the needs of small businesses, larger companies may find that some features don’t fully align with their broader requirements/needs.

Pricing: $228/month for Plus plan; $358/month for Professional plan 

2. Keap

Best for: Marketing Automation for Small Business

Keap automates marketing communications, like following up with leads and booking consultations through your website. In Keap, you can design custom automations that perform specific actions whenever different events occur. For example, if a customer fills out a form, you can program Keap to schedule an appointment, update your CRM, and email the customer confirming their meeting. You can control when the automation starts and stops, creating a seamless experience for you and your clients.

Keap’s marketing platform also improves your sales pipeline. Since it integrates with over 4K other tools, you can connect your CRM and create automations that nurture potential customers. Keap even provides free email templates to help you do it. Just download, copy, and paste them into your marketing automation platform, and Keap will personalize them for each customer.  

Key Features

• Customizable Automations
• CRM Integrations
• Sales Automation Software

Pros

• Keap’s customizable automations are easy to design with drag-and-drop features. 
• Keap can automate your e-commerce site with forms, subscription services, and recurring payments.

Cons

• Keap offers a set number of users and contacts with each plan.

Pricing: $249/month for two users + 1500 contacts

3. Mailchimp

Best for: Email Marketing

Mailchimp is known for email automation. It helps you message customers at the right time with exactly the right message. It can also connect to your CRM and e-commerce site and send one-of-a-kind emails to customers containing special offers, product links, discount codes, and more. Not only do your messages reach inboxes at the right time, but they’re engaging and personalized for each recipient. That increases open rates and drives more traffic to your website.

Designing an email on Mailchimp is incredibly intuitive. There are over 200 templates to choose from, and the builder makes it easy to add new elements to your message. It’s great for those who aren’t graphic designers and want a simple but eye-catching layout to start from. Mailchimp is ideal for small business owners because there’s no coding required, and you can easily see what your emails look like before sending them. 

Key Features

• Content Creation Tools
• Email Template Builder
• Reporting & Analytics

Pros

• Mailchimp makes it easy to schedule SMS, email, and social media campaigns simultaneously. 
• There’s a free version that you can use to create simple email marketing campaigns. 

Cons

• Free accounts have limited features.
• Each account type supports a limited number of contacts. 

Pricing: Free to start; $13/month for Essentials plan; $20/month for Standard plan; $298/month for Premium plan

4. Simplified

Best for: AI Content Creation

Simplified is a marketing automation platform with several AI-powered tools. For example, an AI ad generator creates visually appealing ads for Google, Facebook, and Instagram. It will create your images and copy, and you can even generate video ads, too. Each ad is flexible, so you can use it across multiple platforms and run multi-channel marketing campaigns. Your branding will stay consistent, and customers will discover you on more channels. 

Simplified also has an AI image generator, which is great for creating video thumbnails and graphics for social media. Start by typing in your text, and Simplified’s AI assistant will create the image for you. You can try it for free on their website and personalize images with a paid account. 

Key Features

• AI Image and Video Generation
• Free AI Tools
• AI Project Management Tools

Pros

• The AI image tools are really accurate and produce eye-catching results. 
• The AI social media management tools can help you create and schedule marketing campaigns. 

Cons

• This tool might have a steeper learning curve if you’re new to AI. 
• Each account plan has a limited number of seats. 

Pricing: $20/month for One plan; $83/month for Growth plan

5. Less Annoying CRM

Best for: Customer Support

Less Annoying CRM is a small business automation platform built by a small business. Its team understands the challenges and roadblocks you’re dealing with because they’ve gone through them, too. They can provide expert advice and help you set up your CRM to be clean, efficient, and productive for your business. 

This platform’s key features include integrated calendars and daily agenda summaries that outline your workday. When you log in, you know exactly what you need to work on because Less Annoying CRM summarizes it for you. The team management features are great for collaboration, and the mobile app makes the software accessible anywhere you go. That’s great for service-based brands like plumbers, with teams visiting multiple locations on the same day. You’re always connected to your database, making responding to customers and handling requests easier in the field. 

Key Features

• CRM Software
• Team Management Features
• Advanced Security

Pros

• The pricing plan is simple and straightforward. 
• You can create unlimited contacts, companies, and pipelines.

Cons

• While you can integrate software, there are no built-in social media or content tools. 

Pricing: $15/month 

6. Constant Contact

Best for: Small Business Marketing 

Constant Contact is a popular marketing automation platform that businesses of all sizes use. It offers digital marketing tools for email, social media, e-commerce, and offline tools like event tracking and SMS. The platform also includes reporting tools that track campaigns and several integrations that connect external software. 

The best automation features are found in its email marketing tools. These automations are customizable and easy to use if you’re new to this technology. There are even plug-and-play templates that are usable right out of the box. With this software, your business can get up and running quickly, so you can get back to working on other issues that require immediate attention.

Key Features

• Pre-Built Automations
• Audience Growth Tools
• Real-Time Reporting

Pros

• The software is very user-friendly. Onboarding is simple, and the tools are easy to learn. 
• The AI assistant can design multi-channel marketing campaigns for your business. 

Cons

• Sometimes, the interface feels crowded and busy. 
• There’s limited storage with each account type.

Pricing: $12/month for Lite plan; $35/month for Standard plan; $80/month for Premium plan

7. Ahrefs

Best for: SEO Automation

Ahrefs is one of the leading automation platforms for SEO. SEO stands for search engine optimization, which is how search engines like Google discover your brand online. Ahrefs helps you monitor your online presence and identify topics, keywords, and content your customers are searching for. This information helps you create effective campaigns that increase your website’s traffic.

Ahrefs can track your website as well as competitors in your industry. You can continuously track your pages over time and monitor keyword rankings. You can also review competitors to see how their content is performing. That helps you identify trending topics in your industry and marketing strategies that resonate with your audience. These reports are automatically loaded in your dashboard once you save them in Ahrefs’ system.

Key Features

• Keyword Tracking & Research
• Website Audits
• AI Content Optimizer

Pros

• Ahrefs is a feature-rich platform with plenty of tools to leverage for SEO. 
• The site audit can track and evaluate key performance metrics for your business, like keyword rankings, backlinks, and more.

Cons

• This tool might be difficult to use if you don’t have a basic understanding of SEO. 
• Ahrefs does not provide content creation or management tools. 

Pricing: $129/month for Lite plan; $249/month for Standard plan; $449/month for Advanced plan

8. Brevo

Best for: Small Business Marketing 

Brevo is a marketing, sales, and customer data platform built for small businesses. It’s ideal for service-based brands and companies that manage e-commerce websites. Brevo is great at centralizing data from multiple sources and deriving valuable insights to help you attract more customers, improve retention, and grow your business. For example, the scoring library attaches customer lifetime value to contacts to see which customers shop with you the most and which are the most valuable to your business. This lets you prioritize experiences with these customers and retain their value over time. 

Additional features include email marketing, SMS, and WhatsApp communication. The mobile wallet sends discounts, promo codes, and offers directly to your customers, which is handy for flash sales and seasonal marketing campaigns. An unpaid freemium plan allows you to test most of these features for free and see if you like them before buying. 

Key Features

• Customer Data Platform
• Free Accounts
• Customizable Automations

Pros

• The drag-and-drop tools make it easy to customize automations for your business. 
• The performance logs show you every time an automation has run. This makes it easier to troubleshoot errors.

Cons

• There are limited social media tools for small businesses. You’ll likely need an integration to create social campaigns. 
• Marketing, sales, conversations, and data plans are sold separately.

Pricing: Free to start; $8/month for Starter plan; $16/month for Business Plan

9. Zapier

Best for: Software Integrations

Zapier is different than most tools on this list. Rather than selling a suite of marketing products, Zapier connects marketing platforms together. If you use one software for email, a different one for social media, and another for sales automations, you can connect them all with Zapier. So, when one action happens in one account, it triggers (or “Zaps”) an event in another.

For example, let’s say you have Thryv’s CRM but use Mailchimp for email marketing. You can use Zapier to connect these tools and run Mailchimp campaigns using Thryv’s contact data. Instead of abandoning your current tools, you can connect them for a smoother workflow. Zaps are easy to create; you can test them with real data before using them. That way, you can see exactly how your zap will work before connecting it to the rest of your software. 

Key Features

• Custom Software Integrations
• Website Chatbots
• No-Code Database Tools

Pros

• Zapier connects to more than 7K different apps and software.
• Zapier provides a library of pre-designed zaps that you can quickly customize for your business.

Cons

• Sometimes, there’s a delay when executing your zap. 
• It can be tricky to troubleshoot errors.

Pricing: Free to start; $20/month for Professional plan; $69/month for Team plan

10. Klaviyo

Best for: B2C Companies

Klaviyo is a B2C CRM platform for businesses that sell directly to consumers, such as retail or e-commerce brands. It has marketing, service, and analytics tools measure your business’s digital performance. For example, the reporting tools identify your most valuable customers and those at risk of churn. You can design automated pitches and engage contacts with product recommendations and timely offers from your business. This will keep your brand more relevant and generate more traffic to your website. 

Klaviyo’s marketing tools are great for interacting with customers on the go. Email and SMS communication reach people on their mobile devices, and push notifications alert them to updates in your mobile app. You can even request feedback from recent purchases and leverage those reviews in future marketing campaigns. Overall, Klaviyo is an excellent tool to boost performance in your online store and generate more sales through your website. 

Key Features

• Mobile App Automations
• E-commerce Tools
• Customer Service Software

Pros

• The customer segmentation tools can help you organize and optimize company data. 
• There are over 70 form templates that you can customize for your website. 

Cons

• Free accounts have a limited number of email and SMS credits.
• Email and SMS features are sold separately.

Pricing: Free to start; $45/month for Email plan; $60/month for Email+SMS plan

Free Marketing Automation Software for Small Business

Before we wrap up, let’s review three free tools that can automate marketing operations at your business. 

1. Thryv – Command Center

Best for: Small Business Communication

Thryv’s Command Center is completely free and connects all your customer communication to one place. Its shared inbox houses your email, phone, and social media conversations, and team members can collaborate and reply from the same channel. There’s no switching between apps and logging in and out; instead, all your customer communication is handled in one app connected to the rest of your business tools. 

Command Center also has a webchat tool and a dedicated business line that tracks customer phone calls. Rather than using your personal phone number, Thryv’s Command Center forwards messages to your CRM through your dedicated business line. It’s more professional than using your private number and makes your business more organized. 

Key Features

• Shared Inbox
• Dedicated Business Phone Number
• Webchat

Pros

• You can connect three channels and view chat history for up to 30 days. 
• Command Center provides 60 minutes of phone and video calls for free.

Cons

• Free accounts are limited to email & online community support.

2. Google Ads

Best for: Online Advertising

If you want to get started with pay-per-click (PPC) marketing, Google Ads is the place to do it. It’s user-friendly and has many AI tools that create effective advertising campaigns. You can control where your ads are shown, what they look like, and who should see them. AI automates tasks like setting a budget and bidding on ad space for your business. Once you set up your campaign, Google Ads does the rest, freeing you to focus on other tasks while Google attracts customers to your business. 

Key Features

• AI-Powered Ad Campaigns
• Multi-Channel Advertising
• Real-Time Performance Reports

Pros

• The AI tools are incredibly helpful for setting budgets, conducting keyword research, and bidding on ad campaigns.
• You can advertise across multiple channels simultaneously, such as search, YouTube, Gmail, and more.

Cons

• Google Ads can sometimes feel overwhelming to new users. 
• Google Ads takes time to set up and use. 

3. Semrush

Best for: Search Engine Marketing

Semrush is like Ahrefs, but it’s a bit more marketing-friendly. It has free tools that monitor your SEO and help you create content based on those insights. Semrush is also great for online advertising because it has various features that help you monetize your website. For example, the PPC keyword research tool can identify phrases and topics that you should advertise on, and the competitor tracking tools show you which keywords your competition is targeting. Semrush is great for business owners who want to streamline the SEO process and use it to create content for their ads and websites. 

Key Features

• Website Authority Audit
• Keyword Research Tool
• SERP Checker

Pros

• You don’t have to create an account to use Semrush’s free tools. 
• Semrush is beginner-friendly for those new to SEO.

Cons

• Not all of Semrush’s tools are free. You have to create an account for the advertising features. 

Finding the Right Marketing Automation Platform for Your Business

It’s not always easy to find the right tools for your business, so hopefully, this list provides an overview of the best solutions available. Use this information to find your company’s best marketing automation platform, and take advantage of free trials and demos that will show you what these tools are like. If you want additional help, check out the buying software checklist below for a list of things to look for when purchasing marketing software for your business.