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When you are an SMB just starting on with your business, you certainly don't need the expensive options. 

Though there are multiple options for Marketing Automation available, we work with the following stack keeping the budgets of SMB in consideration - 

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• Active Campaign

• SendInBlue

• Zapier

• Integromat

• Google Analytics

• Google Tag Manager

• Sendible

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Marketing Automation Features

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Below are the features that perform the basic job of moving customers and prospects through the customer journey.

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They include:

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• Lead generation and tracking

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

• Contact forms

• Landing pages

• Email campaigns

• Lead management

• Segmentation

• Website analytics

• Campaign analytics

• SEO analytics & auditing

• Social media marketing

• Social media monitoring

• Content marketing

• Dynamic content

 

It’s possible to build a custom marketing automation stack for less than $300, and if you decide you don’t need some of the features, the cost can be lower.

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Here are the point solutions we found that offer similar features to those that are provided by full-stack automation platforms.

 

Lead Generation and Tracking

 

One of the primary reasons companies buy marketing automation systems is to learn more about who is visiting their website. Third-party integrations enable marketers to proactively create leads based on key prospect visits. They can also send and update visitor information in MailChimp and CRM software.

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CRM

 

Hubspot Free CRM (or Insightly, Zoho CRM)

Price: Free

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Hubspot Free CRM is a very easy to use and implement CRM that contains most of the features you would find in a paid version, but all of the features needed for a core lead management platform.

Sales managers can utilize the pipeline and lead management features, while marketing managers can make use of the free Hubspot Marketing platform. Hubspot Free CRM also offers API key access, meaning integrations with third-parties are an API-key generation away, or its features can be extended by integrating with workflow automation tools like Zapier.

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Contact Forms and Landing Pages

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Landing pages tools real value is in their simple A/B testing setup and webhook integrations. A workflow tool like Zapier can be easily integrated and form data can be integrated into a CRM, email marketing platform, or other campaign action tool.

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Email Campaigns

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MailChimp provides marketers with a comprehensive email marketing platform for little to no cost. It has many native integrations, and its integrations can be extended by connecting MailChimp to Zapier.

Features include email template creation, dynamic content insertion, list segmentation and A/B testing—which is more than enough for any B2B marketer to get started with. Use Zapier integrations to trigger emails based on actions in certain applications, such as a change in CRM detail.

 

Automated Lead Management

 

Zapier is a powerful tool that provides workflow automation between individual apps and platforms. With over 1,000 app integrations, Zapier can trigger actions in one application from an event in another.

eg., zaps are - When a new subscriber is added to MailChimp, use Zapier to add the contact information into your CRM. When a certain keyword is mentioned in a Slack channel, use Zapier to trigger the creation of a task in a project management tool like Asana or Trello.

It’s probably worth paying $20 per month, which enables you to refine and create more complex automation processes and filters.

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Website Analytics

 

Google Analytics is the market standard for website analytics. It provides a large number of reports that give insight into your visitor demographics, behaviors, acquisition and conversion analytics, all for free.

Spend time learning about the full extent of Google Analytics’ capabilities. Once you get into customized funnel analytics and reporting, it gives you a wide view of your customers and prospects.

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HotJar fills the gaps that Google Analytics misses—in particular, by providing click, scroll and movement heatmaps and visitor recording functionality. It also features surveys, conversion funnels, and feedback polls, all tools used to increase conversion rates.

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Social Media Marketing

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Sendible offers a social media marketing platform with enterprise features at small business prices. Standard features such as post scheduling, collaboration, analytics, and bit.ly or custom URL integration are all features.

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Dynamic Content

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Google Tag Manager helps B2B marketers manage and deploy tracking codes and other JavaScript (JS) tags on their website. It’s an entirely free tool that optimizes site performance through faster load times, while allowing marketers to make use of JQuery and JS code that can inject dynamic content into pages depending on certain conditions.

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