In about four years, marketing automation industry growth has been unprecedented. Reports predict the valuation to touch $5.5 billion in 2019. This number stands true, looking at the adoption rate among marketers.

According to Salesforce's State of Marketing Report, 61% of marketers are already using at least one marketing automation tool, while 21% of the rest is on the verge of adopting one in this year.

It is not just the adoption rate that is growing. With this growth, simultaneously, marketing automation tools are filling up the market. New tools are hitting the market every year, making it harder than ever to pick an ideal tool for your B2B business.

Top 6 Killer Marketing Automation Tools B2B Marketers Can't Stop Raving About

Despite a plethora of tools at your disposal to pick from, we will focus on the top 6 killer marketing automation tools that B2B marketers love thoroughly. These are some of the high rated tools with genuine and rave reviews.

(1) Aritic PinPoint

Aritic PinPoint is a comprehensive and fully integrated marketing automation tool. It is an AI-driven platform, ideal for B2B businesses with larger teams.

Aritic PinPoint comprises of inbound marketing features to acquire leads, anonymous visitor nurturing to convert them into leads, advanced lead nurturing and profiling features, inventory management, multichannel marketing, and a host of integrations. Features users love:

• Landing pages with dynamic content
• Ready-to-use automation workflows
• Progressive profiling for lead capturing
• Detailed lead profiling
• Anonymous lead nurturing
• Retargeting campaigns
• Social media marketing
• Account-based marketing

Pricing: Free trial is available. Paid plans start at $19/month for 1,000 contacts

Recommended: 4 Signs Your Business is Ready For Marketing Automation

(2) Autopilot

A visual marketing tool, Autopilot, is designed to create and manage efficient marketing automation campaigns. It is literally visually enriched and offers a unique customer experience. Autopilot, however, is often placed as an alternative to a fully-functioning marketing automation tool. Some of the features users love:

• In-app messaging
• Visually enriched campaign builder
• Multichannel marketing
• Snail mail communication
• Drag and drop interface

Pricing: Free plan for 1,000 contacts.

A free trial is available for paid plans. Paid plans start at $99/month for 1,000 contacts [Integration prices are separate].

(3) ActiveCampaign

Unlike Autopilot, ActiveCampaign is a pretty compact marketing automation tool. It is user-friendly and is quite popular among B2B marketers. The sole reason for its popularity is the bundle of features it has. From identifying engaged leads to schedule campaigns, ActiveCampaign is a popular choice. The customer team is one of the best. Features users love:

• Automated email follow-ups
• Drag and drop interface in the campaign builder
• A/B testing
• Site messaging tool
• Chrome plugin

Pricing: Free trial is available. Paid plans start at $17/month for 1,000 contacts.

(4) Hubspot

Hubspot is a very popular choice, but as compared to ActiveCampaign or Aritic PinPoint, Hubspot is much costly and more of a hype. No doubt, it is an amazing inbound marketing tool and has marketing automation features in place.

However, scaling up with Hubspot is a challenge due to its excessive cost for every other feature that they have as an add-on. This tool has made it to the list simply because of its immense popularity.

All the features available inside Hubspot are available elsewhere at a much lower price. Additionally, Hubspot Academy is a great resource for any B2B marketer. Features users love:

• Content marketing and SEO tools
• Analytics
• Lead management features

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start between $800 - $2,500 per month.

Onboarding fees - $3,000-6000 range.

(5) Pardot

Pardot by Salesforce is very popular for its customer support and the $1,000/month base cost factor. However, the problem with this tool is that anything beyond email and basic CRM integration is to be paid additionally.

The marketing automation features inside Pardot are quite good but cost-wise, it is on the higher end. Also, in terms of complexity, users state that the learning curve on Pardot is steep. Features users love:

• Unparalleled customer support
• Multi-touch attribution dashboard
• Mobile app analytics
• Third party integrations

Pricing: No free trial is available. Paid plan start at $1,250/month for 10,000 contacts. [All the pricing plans of Pardot offer features for up to 10,000 contacts only].

(6) Ontraport

This tool is more of an underdog in marketing automation. Ontraport is a popular pick among a wide range of users. One amazing thing about Ontraport is that everything is testable. The reporting dashboard is kind of meek with only a KPI metrics panel.

Users love the sequence builder inside Ontraport. However, again, Ontraport is not one tool that falls in the 'affordable' category. It is scalable, otherwise. Features users love:

• Sequence builder
• Split testing
• Automated SMS messages and Postcards
• No training costs
• Easy to use UI

Pricing: Free trial is available. Paid plans start at $79/month for 1,000 contacts.

In Conclusion:

Choosing your ideal marketing automation tool for your B2B business depends largely on what you want to achieve with the tool. You might first want to go over some basic questions to find out if you are ready to adopt a marketing automation tool.

Post that, we suggest you list down the most important features you want in your marketing automation tool and also your budget. Surely, these pointers and this list will help you in zeroing on your ideal marketing automation tool.