If you’re a small- or medium-sized business (SMB), money and time are often rationed like water during a drought. But you still need ways to find and maintain customers.
The good news: some marketing platforms that target this market offer freemium levels without a time limit and/or inexpensive plans. Here is a sampling of ones that have at least three different, integrated marketing or customer relationship management functions for free or under $100/month:
Includes: Email marketing, a customer relationship management system, behavioral targeting and automated sales tools.
Differentiator: Targeting based on behavioral data; integration of sales and marketing management.
Pricing: A Basic plan for up to 500 contacts starts at $9/month. The Plus level, up to a thousand contacts, is $49/monthly.
Includes: Marketing messages via email, SMS, postcards and in-app; lead captures from sites, blogs or apps; integration with Salesforce and other business platforms; and pre-built guides for marketing taskflows.
Differentiator: Focused on customer journey-based marketing.
Pricing: Plans start at $4/month for up to 500 contacts in the marketing database, to $80/month if you have fewer than 5,000 contacts.
Includes: Email marketing campaigns, drip campaigns, landing pages/microsites and personalized URLs for tracking direct mail and email marketing.
Differentiator: A bridge between direct mail and email marketing; has white-label version for agencies.
Pricing: A $25/month plan for an unlimited feature with 250 contacts. Top two tiers are $49 and $79/month, and there’s also a pay-as-you-go option.
Includes: Social media marketing, reputation management tools, customer profile management, text messaging, content planner, brand monitoring, Groupon-like coupons/promotions and integration with free mobile marketing app. Email capabilities expected within 30 days.
Differentiator: Interwoven social selling and promotions, plus marketing guidance.
Pricing: There’s a freemium level, with two initial subscription levels of $29 and $89 per month.
Includes: Email marketing and triggered campaigns, contact/lead management, task reminders and automated tasks, text messaging, survey tools, social media management of social accounts, web forms and lead management.
Differentiator: The company points to its “award-winning support.”
Pricing: A free level offers “simple contact management” with the above tools, but without lead management, team calendar or team management. The top sales and marketing automation level is $47 monthly for one user.
Includes: Lead generation and tracking, lead/contact management, alerts, live chat, landing page and form creation, email marketing and triggered marketing communications.
Differentiator: Focused on inbound marketing to convert visitors to leads, via website chat and messaging.
Pricing: A freemium level for up to 200 visitors, 200 contacts, 100 emails, and other limits. Higher levels are $49/month for Solo and $99/month for Starter.
Includes: Contact management, email marketing, web forms, landing page creation, contact database, visitor tracking/trigger-based engagement on websites and a WordPress plugin.
Differentiator: Visitor tracking and related trigger-based marketing.
Pricing: A free level for up to 2,500 contacts and one user. Premium levels start at $295/monthly.
Includes: Website tracking and rule-based visitor messaging, lead scoring, tag-based segmentation, A/B testing, triggered email marketing, RSS-to-email campaigns, real time alerts for sales teams, landing page creation and user profile management.
Differentiator: The company touts its simplicity.
Pricing: A starter level at $95/month for up to 1,000 contacts and one user.
Includes: Email marketing, text messages, generation of direct mail letters, contact and customer tracking, landing pages, surveys, management of web forms, order tracking, newsletter management, integration into business systems, checkout page creator, CRM and affiliate marketing.
Differentiator: Available as a white-labeled product for agencies.
Pricing: A “free” level allows up to 400 emails. The Starter level includes up to 400 free emails, with an option to add additional levels of 1,000 emails each at $12, plus additional users at $9. The Pro level is $19/month.
Includes: A customer relationship manager, web tracking software, email and SMS marketing, fax marketing, live chat software, automated voice messaging to phones, Facebook and Twitter automation, landing pages, forms and surveys.
Differentiator: Has a white-labeled version for agencies; provides free training.
Pricing: Free version aimed at email marketing, with up to 30,000 emails monthly. Startup level, good for two users, up to 360 projects and 5,000 contacts, is $99/month.
Includes: Integration with WordPress, automated social sharing, search engine optimization help, visitor tracking, lead scoring, email marketing and segmentation and sentiment analysis of competitors’ tweets.
Differentiator: Emphasis on content marketing.
Pricing: A Starter level of $49/month for a single user and an Essentials level of $99/month for three users.
Includes: Contact management, landing page creation, contests, online forms, retargeting ads, integration with Salesforce and other CRMs, and email marketing with trigger-based emails and drip campaigns.
Differentiator: Flexible triggers and a drag-and-drop landing page builder.
Pricing: A freemium level for up to 200 leads and one user. Lower levels include Basic at $44/month and Pro for $77/month.
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