Marketing can be a chaotic process because of the number of steps it takes to reach goals. This is why planning and managing marketing campaigns has become a necessity to all businesses, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To efficiently handle marketing tasks, you must have the proper tools that will help streamline your efforts. Below are some of the best marketing campaign management tools that you should try out in your next marketing campaign.
What Is Campaign Management?
Campaign management is a catch-all term for the work that goes into planning and executing a marketing campaign. This includes coordinating the following: inbound and outbound marketing, lead management, customer segmentation, relationship management, email marketing, campaign creation, campaign performance, campaign execution, content creation strategy, market analysis, and the project management required to organize all these efforts. Campaign management also includes analyzing and measuring the effectiveness of these activities once the campaign is over.
Image: AMC/ Eater.
Before you start picking a campaign management tool make sure to answer the following questions:
- who is your target audience? what is their customer journey look like?
- do you have a campaign manager dedicated solely to running successful marketing campaigns?
- do you have an existing marketing team already executing a marketing effort? how can this software help them be more efficient?
- what is your campaign budget?
- do you have a marketing calendar detailing specific campaigns you want to run ?
- do you have an existing marketing channel and marketing software you are using currently? How will it work with the new software you purchase?
- is your main marketing channel ad campaigns, bing ads, maybe a google ad with different ad groups? If this is your primary user acquisition channel make sure to find software which improves it and makes it better. Do not go after other acquisition channels just because the software allows you to do so
SECTION 3
What Are Campaign Management Tools?
Technically, anything can be a campaign management tool if it helps you manage a campaign. To avoid getting into an endless list, let’s focus on the tools a marketer will find most useful.
CRM platforms are the first place most people turn to for campaign management solutions. Other kinds of campaign management tools we’ll explore in this article are:
- social media management tools to run targeted marketing campaigns and segment subscribers
- project management tools to keep your team on the same page
- analytics tools to evaluate your campaign’s success
We’ll also look at how to choose your campaign management software and which features are must-haves.
SECTION 4
CRM Campaign Management Tools
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools offer a one-stop solution for most, if not all, of your marketing campaign management needs. Over the past few years, CRM software has become the nerve center of marketing in the digital age. Even though your toolkit will likely include other dedicated solutions for things like project management and search engine analytics, your CRM will be where you bring it all together and connect your behind-the-scenes work with client-facing marketing activities.
1. Hubspot
Hubspot is a at the top of our campaign management tools list because it is used by thousands of companies. Their offerings are broad, but we really love Hubspot for their straightforward email marketing capabilities. With Hubspot’s email feature, you’re able to design custom emails with a drag-and-drop feature (which you can also get help on from a company like Mail Bakery) and send to a designated list of contacts.
With Hubspot’s email marketing, you can A/B test, include personalization in your emails, see how much revenue from your business is directly attributed to each specific email, and monitor tons of other analytics.
Cost: Hubspot has a set of free marketing tools for small teams, and prices start at $800 for larger teams who need a premium version of the software, which includes SEO and blog creation tools.
2. MailChimp
Similar to Hubspot, MailChimp is a drag-and-drop email editor that has email personalization, A/B testing, and device optimization. MailChimp also has a wide variety of templates you can use to build and design the email of your dreams. The pricing of MailChimp is what really differentiates it from HubSpot — the tool starts at $30 per month for 2,500 contacts, and scales up from there.
Cost: Free plan available for sends to under 2,000 contacts. Paid starts at $30 per user per month, no set-up fee.
3. Drip
If you’re in the eCommerce or DTC business, Drip is a great tool to on top of the campaign marketing tools list. The tool allows you to track exactly how someone has interacted with your brand through direct integrations to popular stores like Shopify, and use that data to inform what type of emails you send them. Their enhanced marketing automation and workflow split testing are valuable tools for brands of all sizes.
Cost: Free trial, accounts start at $49 per month
4. Constant Contact
Constant Contact is a great campaign management tool to use if you’re new to sending emails. The drag and drop features are insanely easy to use, which is why this is on our list for best campaign management tools. With Constant Contact, you can segment emails, utilize powerful list building tools, set up welcome emails, and send triggered email series. You can also use this tool to schedule social media posts.
Cost: Constant Contact starts at $20 per month.
5. Snovio
Snov.io is an all-in-one cold outreach automation platform that lets you take full control over your lead generation and sales organization processes, helping you to contact prospect you are interested in with a highly personalized message at a right time A wide choice of its tools and features, from email finding and verification to building complex email sequences, will enable you to streamline your outreach efforts and scale your business.
With Snov.io you can easily:
- Find single and bulk email addresses
- Check email lists for validity
- Send highly personalized triggered email messages
- Automate follow-ups
- Track engagement
- Research competitors, and many more.
Use this marketing and sales automation tool to fill the sales funnel way faster and reduce the campaign’s cost-per-lead.
Cost: Forever free plan. Paid plans start at $33/month.
6 . EmailOctopus
EmailOctopus is a really great choice if you want to focus purely on email campaign management. It comes with all the tools you need to create beautiful campaigns, including an easy-to-use email editor and a library of templates. Plus, there’s an automation feature for setting up time-based autoresponders like welcome emails and onboarding sequences. You can also segment your mailing list into groups using custom fields and recent campaign activity to send more targeted campaigns to the right people.
Cost: EmailOctopus offers a generous free plan for up to 2,500 subscribers with prices starting from just $24/month for larger lists.
Project Management Tools
Project management tools are absolutely crucial throughout the campaign planning process, and an addition to our campaign planning tools list. They provide a central hub for all assets, communication, approvals and documents to live in, and act like an archive for all completed tasks related to the project. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by your to-do list and want improved organization, we’d highly recommend looking into a project management tool for your team.
7. Hive
Hive is a comprehensive all-in-one project and campaign management tool — the only tool you need to open in the morning to get your work done. Hive takes project management to the next level with native chat, native email, over 1,000 integrations and flexible project views, which include Gantt, Kanban, calendar, portfolio and table view.
The building blocks of Hive are action cards, which exist inside of larger projects. Inside these action cards, teams can upload files, provide feedback with proofing and approvals, tag each other, or provide general commentary.
Teams at all-star companies like Starbucks, Uber, and Google work in Hive. Here you can learn more about the app’s full list of features.
Cost: Free 14-day trial, starts at $12 per user per month.
8. Trello
Trello is a great option for small teams or individuals looking to utilize a simple project management tool. The tool is Kanban board-based, which is a project management methodology started by an industrial engineer in the 40s. Cards are the basics of Trello, which you can organize into different phases on the board.
You can also color-code and attach images or files to the cards, and invite team members to collaborate on a board with you for a more interactive experience. One major negative with Trello is that each board only corresponds to one project, so if you want to create two bigger projects, you need to make two boards.
Cost: Free for basic, or $9.99 per user for Business Class monthly
9. Todoist
Todoist is one of the simplest productivity apps that allows you to group tasks together based on projects, and you can filter by tags, which you can color code.
A favorite Todoist feature is its “Karma.” Karma is basically its way of game-ifying productivity so you keep using the app. It assigns points to tasks you complete and other things you do in the app. View your Karma in the top, right-hand corner of your app.
Cost: Todoist is free for basic, personal accounts and supports up to 80 active projects and five people per project. The premium version, which offers extra features and more projects/people, is $28.99 per year.
10. Asana
Asana is a visually appealing project management tool created by one of Facebook’s founders, and easily ranks among the best project management tools. Used by creatives and teams all over the world, Asana’s dynamic format and design keeps users engaged and active in the platform. Asana helps people and teams increase overall accountability and improve communication.
Cost: Pricing starts at $10.99 per month when billed annually.
ZOHO
Zoho’s omnichannel support is a major selling point.
Price: $12-45 per user/month.
Pros:
- Well-thought-out mobile integrations.
- Good analytics.
- PC Mag’s top pick for CRM platforms.
- You have to pay a premium to access workflows.
Salesforce
Salesforce is the expensive, tons-of-features option which may be a bit much for those who are just getting started. That said, when a cloud-based CRM has its name on a skyscraper, you can’t exactly leave them off the list.
Price: Plans start at $25/mo with most popular being $75/mo and more premium being $300/mo-$1500/mo. Best to ask a sales rep.
Pros:
- Salesforce built a name for itself with outstanding workflows and best-in-class integrations.
- Expensive
- More features than the average small business would ever need.
Image: salesforcetower.com
ZenDesk Sell
A CRM in the ZenDesk family of products with an emphasis on the sales funnel.
Price: Free trial. $19-199 per seat/month
Pros:
- Plenty of integrations.
- A good choice for ZenDesk users.
- The mobile app gets good reviews.
- Feature-heavy for most SME users.
Agile CRM
A cloud-based CRM platform that competes on value and offers discounts to users coming over from the competition.
Price: $14.99 – 79.99 per user/ Month
Pros:
- Affordable compared to leading competitors.
- A good fit for very small businesses, freelancers, and solopreneurs.
- Lacks some of the customer support and tutorial features other CRMs have.
Less Annoying CRM
A clear winner in the naming department, this CRM was built in response to some of the hype surrounding its competitors. A good option for small businesses looking for a few key features without a lot of fuss.
Price: Starts at $10 per user/ month
Pros:
- Affordable.
- Mobile-friendly
Cons:
- Reporting features are nothing special.
Conclusion
A successful marketing campaign requires planning, execution, and tracking your results. The best marketing campaign management tools ensure you get more done in less time by simplifying the entire process of organizing, creating, distributing, analyzing, and reporting on your campaigns.