to Take Your Business to the Next Level

What a year 2020 has been. Only a year ago, no one in their right mind would have guessed 2020 would change our lives in such a drastic way. Lockdowns, restrictions on air travel, social distancing, and our least favorite one having to wear masks all the time. 

Most businesses have had to reinvent themselves and find new ways to stay open. Taking your business and marketing activities online has become more critical than ever. With most people staying home and social distancing, online sales have grown exponentially. If you don’t have an online presence or a digital marketing strategy, you may fall behind and lose business opportunities. 

So how can you tackle the marketing challenges coming 2021? Marketing Automation tools, that’s how. Today there are so many free marketing automation tools available that you shouldn’t have any excuse not to implement one. But what are marketing automation tools, and how can they help your business grow? Keep reading to see our list of the top 5 free marketing automation tools available in 2021.

What are Marketing Automation Tools?

Before we get into which free marketing automation tools you should be looking at in 2021, let’s try and break it down. Marketing automation tools or systems can help you automate your various marketing activities, campaigns and needs. Names like MailChimp and HubSpot are leading the way with marketing automation solutions. Rather than do everything manually or require an entire marketing department to handle things, these tools can help you save loads of time and simplify the whole marketing process. 

Below is a list of the free marketing automation tools we recommend looking at in 2021 if you’re thinking of implementing it within your own company.

🔎 What is Mailchimp?

MailChimp was founded back in 2001 and has been growing ever since. When they first launched, they began by offering small businesses a simple solution to email their users. Today MailChimp has grown to provide a full set of features and services to help small to medium-sized businesses implement marketing automation and other digital marketing solutions. 

💻 MailChimp System Features

• Create and host your website
• Purchase a custom domain
• Send marketing or transactional emails
• Create funnels using behavioral targeting and audience segmentation
• Build landing pages and pop-ups
• Create ads on Facebook and Instagram
• Prepare social media posts
• Sync your online store or other tools for full integration

💰 MailChimp Pricing Plan

MailChimp has a few different options to choose from. For small businesses looking to get started, MailChimp has a truly free plan. Send to a maximum of 2,000 unique contacts up to 10,000 emails a month for free. Create beautifully designed emails and landing pages, Facebook ads, Instagram ads, and social media posts. You can also create popups to place on your site to capture new leads that you can later market to or enter into their customer journey. 

👍 MailChimp Pros

Mailchimp has a completely free plan, which is excellent for small and new businesses looking to get started with marketing automation. Most features are open to the free account, including basic funnels and basic segmentation features. They offer free MailChimp branded domains and hosting for your site, including access to their easy-to-use website builder.

👎 MailChimp Cons

MailChimp’s free account has a limit of how many contacts you can have in your database. Prices significantly increase as you scale up and send more emails to more users. The free account has a MailChimp logo and badges, which you can’t remove from your emails and popups. If you already have a few thousand users in your database, then some other options below may be a better fit.

🔎 What is HubSpot?

HubSpot is an industry leader in the world of CRM software and marketing automation solutions. HubSpot is a one-stop shop for all your marketing needs and marketing channels. The option to connect all your different channels and activities in one place makes HubSpot an extremely powerful and versatile tool for anyone looking to implement marketing automation. Although anyone can sign up and use HubSpot’s free marketing automation tools, some of the juicier features will cost money. HubSpot may be better suited for medium to large size businesses.

💻 HubSpot System Features

• Create custom landing pages
• Manage your ads
• Integrate live chat into your website
• Add forms to your website
• Get detailed insights and analytics on your website and other marketing channels
• Create detailed customer journeys
• Host and manage your website
• Advanced features; adaptive testing, behavioural event triggers and more

💰 HubSpot Pricing Plan

HubSpot has many free tools you can use, including tracking your campaigns and capturing new leads, detailed reports and dashboards, and the ability to share data between various departments. If you are looking to create and send emails or use some other more advanced features, you’ll need to purchase one of the packages shown above.

👍 HubSpot Pros

Hubspot is a full-featured CRM and marketing automation platform. Integrate all your marketing channels and various online activities in one place. Get detailed reports and important insights into which of your marketing channels are performing best and need improvement or can be canceled all together.

👎 HubSpot Cons

Hubspot offers limited access to features when using a free account. Can opt-in for a 2-week free trial, which requires the use of a credit card. Once the trial ends, you’ll automatically get billed every month. Enterprise edition starts at $3,200 a month, which can be more than some company’s entire monthly marketing budget.

🔎 What is Klaviyo?

Klaviyo is another great marketing automation and CRM option on our list. Founded in 2012, Klaviyo has been steadily growing and improving the services and features they offer. From sending emails and building custom funnels to analysis and integration with your other marketing channels Klaviyo does it all. There’s even a free version available.

💻 Klaviyo System Features

• Create detailed funnels and customer journeys using an easy drag and drop funnel builder
• Create transactional and promotional emails using their easy-to-use template builder
• Setup databases and create detailed user segments
• Get full analysis and reporting
• Manage your social media campaigns
• Setup custom integrations with your different marketing channels and tools
• Create custom user profiles and personas

Able to send SMS to your users

💰 Klaviyo Pricing Plan

Depending on the services and features you’re interested in using, the price will vary. Klaviyo allows you to send up to 250 emails a month and up to 500 emails a month. That works out to 2 emails per contact in your database. This option is great for any business looking to test out a small email campaign or set up a basic funnel to run on up to 250 contacts. Anything bigger will require a paid plan.

👍 Klaviyo Pros

Klaviyo has a free option to send up to 500 emails a month. Very intuitive and easy to use funnel builder. Add decision points with ease and configure which action to take next depending on your user’s previous action. Get access to both email and SMS channels, increasing your chances to reach and convert your users better. Allows for full integration with many of today’s leading marketing tools and software.

👎 Klaviyo Cons

Klaviyo free option is limited to a small number of emails a month. Most features are available only after you purchase a paid package. SMS feature has no free trial option available. You will need to pay for each text message you send.

🔎 What is SendinBlue?

Send in Blue is an all-in-one marketing automation platform and CRM solution. The company states the offer solutions for both small and medium-sized businesses as well as enterprise-level companies. Send in Blue has full email capabilities, including creating beautiful emails and detailed customer journeys. Build landing pages and manage your social media campaigns all in one place. For companies looking for additional ways to engage the users, Sendinblue also offers SMS solutions.

💻 SendinBlue System Features

• Build professional- looking email templates
• Build detailed customer journeys and funnels
• Add chatbots to your website
• Send text messages
• Create landing pages and contact forms
• Manage your social media campaigns
• Setup retargeting campaigns
• Send transactional emails

💰 SendinBlue Pricing Plan

Sendinblue has an excellent free plan which allows you to send up to 300 emails a day to an unlimited number of contacts. To use additional features, you’ll need to purchase a paid plan. Depending on the monthly volumes you’re looking to send and the number of features you may want to use, the price will increase accordingly. 

👍 SendinBlue Pros

Sendinblue allows you to send up to 300 emails a day to an unlimited number of contacts. Great way to test out email marketing and newsletters. Fully featured solution allowing to create campaigns and all the way to execution and detailed analysis. Send in Blue offers email and SMS channels to better engage and convert your users.

👎 SendinBlue Cons

Sendinblue only offers the option to send emails for free. SMS service costs money to use with no free option. The user interface can get a little confusing, and the platform isn’t suited for large size businesses that may need more features.

🔎 What is Zoho Campaigns?

Zoho Campaigns has been around for almost 10 years when it originally started as Zoho Sites, a tool which was designed to simplify building websites. Since that time, the company has grown to become a fully functioning email marketing software that helps drive leads and sales. Zoho has a full suite of features that make building emails and setting up custom funnels a breeze.

💻 Zoho Campaigns System Features

• Create beautifully designed email templates
• Subscription management
• Build sign up and contact forms
• Setup detailed funnels and automation to help nurture and convert your users
• A/B testing
• Full reporting and analytics
• Use dynamic content
• Manage

💰 Zoho Campaigns Pricing Plan

Zoho Campaigns has cheaper packages available which include some of the more common basic features. Zoho Campaigns also offers a free package that allows you to send 12,000 emails per month to up to 2,000 unique contacts for life. Emails sent using the free version will have a badge and logo, which can be removed once a paid package is purchased.

👍 Zoho Campaigns Pros

Zoho Campaigns has an entirely free plan for life, allowing you to send up to 12,000 emails a month. It has a good selection of free templates to choose from. Get detailed stats and info on your email campaigns, including open and click rates. Fully integrates with many leading online tools and solutions like Shopify, G Suite, Survey Monkey and Evenbrite.

👎 Zoho Campaigns Cons

Once you exceed 12,000 emails a month, you will need to pay for a package. Cheaper packages use a pay as you go model which uses credits. Once you run out of credits, you will need to purchase more to keep sending emails. The free version has limited access to other features.

If you’re looking to implement marketing automation tools in 2021, we can help you get connected. For more information or to schedule your free consultation send us an email to marketing@threeedots.com or visit our website www.threeedots.com.