Nowadays, it is no secret that the Internet is an excellent source of clientele for most companies. Many sales processes take place —totally or partially— on the Internet. To harness this potential, you need to use the right tools. Sales and marketing software automates these processes and, in this way, helps to gain efficiency in companies’ internal operations.
Agile information processing is the cornerstone of these programs. A large part of the success of digital marketing and online sales campaigns is based on personalized messages based on the preferences or previous interactions of the recipients.
It would help if you had an effective database with the correct information about prospects and customers to manage this. The software we will present in this article integrates this into the day-to-day of the company.
Why a sales and marketing software is useful
A sales and marketing software platform allows companies to centralize and manage the information they have about their customers and prospects. The data collected by these programs cover the entire sales funnel: from when a user establishes contact with the company and becomes a prospect (for example, when they sign up for the newsletter ) to the moments in which they become a customer and become loyal.
The sale is the final stage of the process and cannot be dissociated from marketing. Most of these programs are based on automated lead nurturing strategies. As a prospect gets closer to becoming a customer, actions are triggered to guide them on their journey. For example, offer you discounts, send informative emails, call you on the phone…
Managing the above tasks with the company’s sales team is not always easy. For this reason, this software also facilitates project management: you have to call a contact because you have questions about a product, you have to send an invoice to a client… To save time, it is necessary for each person on the team to know what to do each time and have the required information at their fingertips.
The specific functionalities that are included depend on each particular software. The most common are email marketing, customer relationship management (CRM), automation of sales processes and customer service.
Therefore, if used well, software for sales and marketing will save time and money and improve return on investment (ROI).
12 effective sales and marketing software for your company
Next, we will see a selection of 12 sales and marketing software that are some of the best on the market. They include different levels of features and prices so you can choose the ones that best suit your company’s needs.
Sendinblue
Sendinblue is a digital marketing software whose primary service is email marketing, as it is the channel that offers the highest ROI. It was founded in 2012 and had more than 300,000 active users in 160 countries. It is a platform optimized for companies of all sizes. It’s easy to start from scratch by sending email marketing campaigns to prospects from email templates.
The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool is one of Sendinblue’s primary services. Centralize all the information you collect about your contacts —such as their interaction with your emails and your website—, and generate accurate data to send them personalized marketing campaigns and favour their conversion into customers.
Sendinblue’s CRM also collects sales information for use in future campaigns. Also, it is possible to configure specific tasks and assign them to the sales team members with due dates. Sendinblue’s statistics dashboard provides accurate information about your campaigns.
Hub Spot
HubSpot is a comprehensive CRM and sales platform from which you can manage marketing, transactions, and customer service. It is one of the complete tools on the market. It includes different software that can purchase together or separately: central marketing, customer service, web content manager (CMS), sales software, etc. It has more than 143,000 customers in 120 countries.
HubSpot was founded in 2012 in the United States and is a platform well suited to medium-sized businesses, with between 10 and 1,000 employees. Among other features, it allows you to automate email sending, includes integrations with Outlook and Gmail and generates automated reports. It also tracks prospect actions like link clicks or email opens.
Pipe drive
Pipedrive is a sales software that has reached 100,000 customers. This platform, founded in 2010 in Estonia, focuses on managing the actions that define the conversion funnel of each prospect, that is, interviews, emails, and exchanges… before reaching the purchase.
Pipedrive’s interface classifies contacts with labels (cold, warm, hot) and allows you to record pending actions with each of them. You can also generate reports, analyze sales data, etc. It is suitable software for small teams selling to other companies (B2B). Their case studies can help you assess the potential of the tool.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a comprehensive marketing automation platform founded in 2001. With 13 million users and 800,000 paying customers ( as of 2021 ), it is one of the giants in the industry. Like Sendinblue, its core service is email marketing: it makes it easy to send automated emails with a drag-and-drop editor.
In addition, it is possible to create segmented campaigns, digital ads, social media campaigns, and landing pages and access detailed performance reports, among other features.
It comes with a built-in CRM tool with advanced lead tracking features. The Mailchimp interface is only available in English, although help is available in Spanish.
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is an automation software created in 2003 that includes email marketing, sales management and CRM services. In 2021 it reached 150,000 customers. It offers SMS marketing, A/B testing, custom landing pages, and email delivery automation.
It also offers automation tools for sales, facilitating contact management and prioritization. For example, ActiveCampaign allows you to set up automation to call a contact by phone when they are interested in a product that exceeds a specific value or an item that frequently raises customer questions.
Salesforce
Salesforce is one of the most prominent CRM tools on the market. Founded in 1999, it is one of the companies that has popularized the concept of SaaS ( software as a service ) in the cloud. It currently has more than 150,000 clients and more than 1 million users. It offers pretty advanced task automation functionalities and allows each client to choose the ones that suit him best.
Salesforce services include, for example, marketing automation (especially for the B2B sector), customer service, prospect interaction tracking, real-time customer data generation, sales forecasting…
In short, everything in Salesforce is aimed at maximizing the productivity of sales teams: the interface is customized so that sales teams can access the information they need about prospects at all times.
Keep
Keep is a CRM software that allows you to centralize all the information about prospects and clients and integrate it with an email marketing platform. It was founded in 2001 and currently has more than 200,000 customers. It allows you to automate various marketing processes and coordinate them with the generation of invoices and inventory management.
It can be used as SaaS on computer equipment, in a web or mobile version. According to its users, Keap’s main strength is its rich functionality. However, as it has so many resources, it is sometimes difficult for them to become familiar with the platform. Their customer stories give us an idea of what can be achieved with Keep.
Marketo Engage
Marketo Engage is a sales and marketing software developed by the Adobe platform that stands out for the sophisticated level of automation it offers. This platform integrates various functionalities such as email marketing, lead nurturing campaigns, budget management, sales tools and website customization.
Marketo offers a complete interface that allows you to calculate the impact of marketing strategies on revenue. It also stands out for its possibilities to create content such as emails and landing pages, and optimize personalized user experiences, defined by many variables. Additionally, Marketo offers integrations with other tools like Salesforce. Marketo’s case studies page can help you assess the platform’s potential.
Zoho-CRM
Zoho is a customer relationship management (CRM) software-managed directly from the web. With more than 13 million users (including the free version), it is one of the most famous enterprises SaaS in the world.
It offers an interconnected interface to centralize sales and marketing tasks, including internal processes. For example, it is possible to assign tasks to the team, manage projects, send invoices, track sales and productivity, etc.
Its CRM tool allows you to integrate email marketing and other typical automation processes. In addition, Zoho is complete business software, including extensions for human resources, finance, customer service, etc. In their success stories, you can discover more about the tool.
monday.com
Monday.com is a work operating system ( Work OS ) whose primary service is project management. This software, with more than 127,000 customers worldwide, allows you to set goals for your sales team visually. The strong point of this tool is agile communication: projects are structured flexibly and with their respective workflows.
Marketing and sales are part of the projects that Monday.com is optimized for. It is possible to configure segmentation projects, lead scoring, sales reports… Integrations with other tools with HubSpot can make the job much easier. Other marketing projects easily managed from Monday.com are editorial calendars, keyword research, A/B testing, etc.
Less Annoying CRM
Less Annoying CRM is a contact management system for small and medium businesses. Founded in 2009 with over 23,000 users, this program allows you to track prospects and customers, organize email marketing, customize conversion funnels, manage calendars and tasks… To manage email marketing, they recommend using the integration with Mailchimp.
Can do all this from a web interface that stands out for its simplicity and ease of use. Some of the main strengths of Less Annoying CRM are the ease of learning how to use the tool and the accessibility of its customer service.
Freshsales
Freshsales is a cloud sales and marketing software developed by Freshworks, which is particularly well suited to the needs of small and medium-sized businesses. It is used by more than 40,000 companies and offers powerful functionalities to manage contacts. For example, it can segment prospects based on dynamic categories, such as page views or email behaviour.
This software includes artificial intelligence with customizable forecasts for each prospect and the future income it can generate. Freshsales also offers the possibility to communicate with prospects by phone or email from the software interface itself.
Conclusion
Selecting the best sales and marketing software for you depends on your company’s resources and priorities. Some tools focus more on email marketing campaigns and offer an intuitive email editor and professional templates.
Other platforms focus more on optimizing internal processes: assigning the corresponding task to the right person at all times, streamlining communication, etc. There is also software that prioritizes customer service and direct contact with prospects.
The most important thing about these tools is that they allow companies of all sizes to harness the potential of automation. By familiarizing yourself with them, you will avoid wasting time due to ineffective communication, lost sales due to forgetting to call a client, and work processes that are unclear to the sales team… Take your time to experiment, and you will soon enjoy its advantages.