What is the best tool for inbound marketing?

Most inbound marketing and marketing automation software is designed to manage leads and campaigns. But choosing the right platform, system or tool is not easy. There's a plethora out there, all with their pros and cons. In this blog post, we try to figure out what questions you should ask to find the best inbound marketing tool. We have our favorite but we'll save that for the end of the post :).

New systems emerge

The need to manage and segment leads and convert them into customers has always been the challenge for marketing and sales, and in particular to make it scalable and automated. The door has opened for new software and today a marketing automation system is one of the most important tools for creating personalized and relevant communication flows.

Big in the US, growing in Sweden

In the United States, more than 65% of businesses use some form of automation system. The more the market expands, the lower the cost of using them becomes. Interest is growing in the Swedish market as well, and we see that many of our customers are looking for the system that can best meet their needs.

What are the characteristics of an inbound marketing system?

Most inbound marketing and marketing automation software is designed to manage leads and campaigns. Usually, we think of 'campaigns' as a one-time event, such as an offer, that is communicated in a linear form to customers and prospects. In marketing automation, it should instead be seen as a communication flow that is triggered by the recipient acting on something online. Email is at the center of this communication flow, but a marketing automation system is more than just an email management system. It includes more features and can be linked to more channels, such as social media and SMS. Most systems offer the possibility to create landing pages. In addition, communication flows can be made very complex through segmentation, personalization, triggers, etc. The systems are cloud-based and most include the following features:

• Email marketing
• Creating and customizing landing pages
• Lead management
• Lead scoring
• Measurement and analysis

What should you consider when choosing?

There is a plethora of marketing automation software available and it can be difficult to know how to evaluate which system best suits your needs. Some parameters to consider:

Integration with CRM system

The system should be able to integrate the MA system with your existing systems, the CRM system. Many of the systems have built-in CRM systems and it is easy to manage contacts. Systems without their own CRM can usually be integrated with their own via a third party.

Ease of use

Marketing automation is a complex process where content strategy must be combined with segmentation, measurement, lead generation and CRM management. The fact that the tool feels user-friendly and intuitive is a prerequisite for continuing to use the tool. Most software offers various forms of trial periods or demos that can provide an insight into the tool before the decision is made.

Cost and scope

Many systems on the market have relatively low costs for their basic offers. These are often severely limited, for example in the number of contacts or the number of emails you can send per month. More complex communication flows, aimed at larger audiences, have a higher price tag and require greater capacity and more accurate calculations to know that the investment can be recouped.

Resources and competences

Inbound marketing requires collaboration between several internal functions. Marketing, sales and customer service should all be involved for the best possible results. The more people involved, the better the chances of successfully creating relevant, engaging and attractive content for the user, regardless of where they are on the customer journey.

Internal roles

What should the internal division of labor look like? In the early stages of a campaign, it's usually a good idea to involve marketing, sales and customer service to brainstorm ideas and assess how much data you have. Then the marketing department can take over to produce the content and eventually share it on your chosen channels. In the next stage, it is important to distribute the work efficiently between the departments, for example by setting clear guidelines for when the marketing department should hand over leads to sales.

How can an agency be used at work?

Inbound marketing requires its fair share of preparation and production. It takes a little time to get started and get everything in place and then the production itself requires both creativity and resources. So it can be nice to get relief from a communications agency that assists with its strategic and creative expertise. For many, it is a security to have their agency with them already in the onboarding process and then see the agency as their extended marketing department. The agency can be integrated into all or part of the inbound marketing work, depending on the size of your own capacity. But for the joint work to be successful, it is usually good to have close cooperation with frequent contact and follow-up of the work, not least if the agency primarily assists in content creation.

Systems on the market

Of course, as an agency, we can also help identify which platform is best for you and your business. That's why we have carefully evaluated 7 different marketing automation systems. The systems we have looked at are:

1. Hubspot
2. Marketo
3. ActOn
4. Salesforce/Pardot
5. ActiveCampaign
6. Apse lead/pro
7. Mailchimp

In this blog post "Which is the best inbound marketing system?" you can read our full evaluation. And finally, we can reveal that HubSpot was the system that we think best meets the needs when a company is looking for an effective tool for inbound marketing and marketing automation. And why is that? You can also read that in the blog post above.