What is Lead Generation Automation?
Automated lead generation is a combination of outbound and inbound marketing solutions that are powered by AI tools and machine learning.
Instead of sourcing leads manually over the phone or cold emails, you set up your automation to let the leads and the data come to you.
That way, rather than being reactive and doing your lead gen every day, you'll have another system where you can collect qualified leads to nurture, pitch, and close.
Why Use Automated Lead Generation System?
The whole point of building a marketing funnel is to make it as easy as possible for new prospects to find your business. 📈💰
So, the more you can automate your lead gen and facilitate lead nurturing processes, the better!
With the right software and tools, you can optimize your process and speed it up while reducing your team’s workload by offering automatic features in the following categories:
- List Building & Email Collection
- Email Marketing
- Help Desk & CRM Support
- Lead Analytics and Data Collection
- Content Marketing
Email Marketing & List Building Automation Tools 📧
Email marketing automation — also known as email drip marketing or workflows — is a great way to increase the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns.
It may seem like drip campaign tools are complicated, but believe me when I say with a little bit of practice, they can be used by anyone.
In addition to giving subscribers a customized experience, these email list-building and marketing tools also allow you to communicate with them in a more personalized way.
All you need to do is set it up and wait for it to do its magic 'automatically.' 🤹🏻♂️
1. Popupsmart
In order to build a strong email list of high-quality subscribers, you must attract website visitors and convince them to sign up.
Popupsmart is a no-code tool that makes it simple to display user-friendly email popups with lead capture forms and collect subscribers' data.
Another great feature of Popupsmart is the ability to send email notifications or email autoresponders to users who submit their emails via popups. It’s super easy to craft and set up autoresponder emails.
Its smart mode feature allows you to display popup campaigns to the intended audience at the right time based on the collected data by artificial intelligence, without any manual targeting.
Popupsmart also gives you access to a variety of ready-made templates, a ton of design options, and different types of popups, including:
- Lightbox popups
- Floating bars
- Full-screen popups
- Slide-ins
- Gamification popups
- Video popups
A user described her experience in Popupsmart G2 reviews this way:
“Saved a lot of time using pre templates. Easy to embed the code. Support was always friendly & helpful.”
Key Automation Features:
- Email signup forms
- Webinar signup popups
- Product demo requests
- Coupon popups
- Creative popup templates
Pricing: Popupsmart starts at $24/m for unlimited popups, unlimited domains, and 100,000 page views. Free plan is also available.
G2 Rating: ⭐ 4.5 out of 5 with 14 reviews
2. Sender
Sender is an affordable email and SMS marketing platform with powerful features that boost engagement and sales.
Sender's intuitive drag-and-drop email builder with responsive templates also makes creating compelling branded emails without any coding knowledge simple.
The platform helps you create automated workflows that streamline your marketing efforts, follow up on leads, and engage shoppers at crucial points in their customer journey.
You can learn more about Sender by reading reviews on g2.
Key Automation Features:
- Email and SMS automation workflows
- Advanced segmentation and personalization
- Detailed analytics and reports
- 24/7 friendly customer support
- Sign-up popups
Pricing:
- Free Forever: Up to 15,000 emails per month
- Standard: $15 per month for up to 30,000 monthly emails
- Professional: $29 per month for up to 60,000 monthly emails
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
G2 Rating: ⭐ 4.4 out of 5 with 51 reviews
3. MailChimp
With numerous features, MailChimp is one of the most popular email marketing automation services that allow you to create targeted and transactional emails that send when triggered by a specific event, date, or activity.
This service comes with an extensive set of design and segmentation tools, making it easy to inform, reward, engage your contacts even when you're offline through automated emails.
With MailChimp, you never miss an opportunity to connect with prospects, and you can gradually turn shoppers into loyal customers.
You can aslo learn more details about this software at Mailchimp reviews on g2.
Key Automation Features:
- Send time optimization
- Customer journeys automation
- Behavior-based automation
- Data-based automation
- Transactional emails
- RSS-to-email
Pricing:
- Free plan available 10,000 sends per month (daily limit of 2,000)
- Marketing Essentials starts at $11/month based on 500 contacts.
- Mailchimp’s pricing page allows you to calculate your customized monthly sending limit and cost.
G2 Rating: ⭐ 4.3 out of 5 with 11,627 reviews
4. Amazon SES
Amazon SES is a reliable email automation system that allows businesses of all sizes to personalize their content so as to engage their clients more effectively.
You can use different methods like the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) interface, AWS, or Amazon SES console to integrate and directly send emails from this service. You can also figure out more details about Amazon SES on g2 reviews.
Key Automation Features:
- Sender configuration options
- Flexible deployment options
- Spam checker
- Click through tracking
- Transactional Emails
- Sender Identity Management and Security
Pricing:
- $0.10 per 1000 emails sent
- $0.12 per GB attachment sent
G2 Rating: ⭐ 4.3 out of 5 with 142 reviews
5. Brevo
Brevo is a great all-in-one software that provides both email and SMS marketing services.
It allows you to build custom workflows with automated emails based on your customer's actions on your website or in your app.
You can also automate processes like welcome messages, lead nurturing, and customer reactivation.
Get more detailed information by reading Brevo reviews on g2.
Key Automation Features:
- Lead scoring
- Automation workflow designer
- Visitor tracking
- Lead management
- Reporting and analytics
- A/B testing
- Segmentation
Pricing:
- Free: Up to 300 emails per day
- Lite: $25 per month for 10,000 Email volume
- Premium: $65 per month for 20,000 Email volume
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
G2 Rating: ⭐ 4.5 out of 5 with 624 reviews
6. SalesHandy
SalesHandy automates and tracks email outreach from Gmail and Outlook for businesses and sales teams.
A single dashboard lets you manage email tracking, scheduling, and mail merge campaigns.
Some of its features, such as automated notifications and link tracking, will streamline your prospect email strategy, but it requires a more hands-on approach.
This is how one of the customers described their experience with SalesHandy on g2 reviews:
“Their tracking is flawless. Their notifications in Windows 10 come in a nanosecond. Their Document Cloud provides robust features that certainly can benefit anyone to a maximum degree.”
Key Automation Features:
- Email marketing link tracking
- Real-time double tick notifications
- Unlimited email open notifications
- Canned Gmail email templates
- Automated follow-up emails
Pricing:
- Free plan: With unlimited email tracking, up to 3 team members
- Regular plan: Starting from $9 per month
- Plus plan: Starting from $22 per month
- Enterprise plan: Starting from $49 per month
G2 Rating: ⭐ 4.5 out of 5 with 142 reviews
Find out more about email marketing automation software.
Help Desk & CRM Automation Tools 👩🏻💻👨🏻💻
Customer service automation is a type of customer support that uses tools to automate workflows and tasks, ultimately minimizing the human touch in solving client inquiries.
With the help of standard rules and artificial intelligence (AI), the software helps customers change orders, report bugs, find opening hours, and handle other concerns.
7. HubSpot CRM
HubSpot CRM is a part of HubSpot, which is a leading automation brand in the business industry.
The effectiveness of HubSpot CRM provides streamlined relationship management, tracking visitors for new activities, and data acquisition.
When it comes to enhancing the help desk and CRM, collecting leads and managing customer interactions will get easier than ever with HubSpot CRM.
For learning more about the HubSpot CRM and its free tools, check G2 reviews of HubSpot.
Key Automation Features:
- Visual dashboard
- Multi-channel tracking
- Appointment scheduling
- Sync with Gmail or Outlook
- Real-time sales funnel view
Pricing:
- Free: With unlimited users, data, and up to 1,000,000 contacts.
G2 Rating: ⭐ 4.4 out of 5 with 10,598 reviews based on HubSpot Sales Hub.
8. Zendesk
The most detail-oriented automated ticketing system, Zendesk, is one of the best help desk programs.
Using this customer automation tool, all your customer interactions appear in a single, dynamic interface that includes web widgets, templates for ticket responses, and customer history.
Zendesk's unified agent workspace improves your customer experience by providing faster and more personal service.
Find out more about Zendesk's amazing features on g2 reviews.
Key Automation Features:
- Automated chat support
- Activity dashboard & tracking
- Automatic ticket responses
- Knowledge base chatbots
- Self-service experience
Pricing:
- Support-only plan: $19 per agent/month
- Suite plan : $49 per agent/month
G2 Rating: ⭐ 4.3 out of 5 with 3,578 review
9. ProProfs Help Desk Software
ProProfs Help Desk is a cloud-based hosting platform- IBM that comes with great automation features such as ProProfs live chat, knowledge base, and survey maker built-in.
Its multi-functional options such as shared inbox, canned responses, automated ticketing, and integrations improve your customer service and experience at an excellent level.
This is how one ProProf user described his exprience on g2 :
“Our team doesn’t just see ProProfs Chat as a support tool. It is an amazing sales and lead generation tool as well. I mean, we can capture leads in real-time and then identify upsell opportunities with features like announcements.”
Key Automation Features:
- Real-time chat
- Automatic responses
- Reporting & Analytics
- Survey creator
- Knowledge base control
- Multi-channel communication
Pricing for Help Desk & Live Chat:
- Free plan: with one user access
- Essentials: $15 per month (Yearly plan)
- Premium: $20 per month (Yearly plan)
G2 Rating: ⭐ 4.5 out of 5 with 32 reviews
10. Zoho Desk
Zoho is another workflow automation platform that you can use for your business growth.
It automatically prioritizes the unprecedented volume of tickets you receive through different channels so that you receive the best customer support service possible.
Additionally, Zoho Desk can be customized for your business and ensure customer satisfaction.
Here is a comment from a Zoho Desk user on G2 stating the importance of using this software:
“Its contact and ticket organization helps stay on task with all that needs to be done. Automation of emails also helps keep end-users or clients informed every step of the way.”
Key Automation Features:
- Automated response
- Access controls
- Guided scripting
- Multiple channel integration
- Customized & automatic ticket management
Pricing:
- Standard plan: $14 per agent/month.
- Professional plan: $23 per agent/month.
- Enterprise plan: $40 per agent/month.
G2 Rating: ⭐ 4.4 out of 5 with 3,567 reviews
11. Azuredesk
Azuredesk delivers cloud-based automation, an AI-powered knowledge base, and full integration services that support consistent management across your different platforms.
The software has numerous "must-have" features for all types of enterprise-class organizations that want to automate their processes for little cost to users.
It provides a ticketing system to track support cases, a slick UI for admin requests, and 3rd-party integrations with JIRA, Olark, Slack, Charge Desk, and more.
Find out more about Azuredesk’s user experiences on g2 reviews.
Key Automation Features:
- Automated response
- Live Chat
- Customizable branding
- AI-powered Knowledge base
- Easy multiple ticket management
- Self Service portal
Pricing: One plus plan for all: $33/user/month (Yearly plan)
G2 Rating: ⭐ 4.6 out of 5 with 21 reviews
Lead Analytics and Data Gathering Tools 📈📊
Your lead generation efforts will be more effective if you know that they're working correctly and that they serve your intentions and targets.
With details such as reach, engagement, and load times as well as bounce rates, analytics and data gathering tools provide valuable information.
Consequently, you can track all these data and use them to improve your overall performance. Let’s take a quick look at some of the best software in this category:
12. SimilarWeb
SimilarWeb Pro is a widely known BI tool for competitive web measurement and online intelligence that helps businesses make better decisions when planning long-term or short-term strategies.
By analyzing website traffic, businesses can improve their own traffic and gain new ways to reach more audiences.
According to a SimilarWeb user review on G2:
“SimilarWeb has pulled out all the stops to ensure you can find any data you need as efficiently as possible.”
Key Automation Features:
- View traffic share by device
- Competitor display ads and networks
- Side-by-side website traffic comparison
- In-depth competitor keyword analysis
- Keyword research tool
- Google Analytics keywords
Pricing:
- Free plan with limited access to historical data
- Premium plan: Get detailed information about this plan from their agents.
G2 Rating: ⭐ 4.4 out of 5 with 214 reviews
13. Woopra
Woopra integrates marketing automation and customer analytics to create a better customer experience. Customers will find interactions more relevant and valuable since they are targeted and consistent.
The Woopra platform allows you to build a centralized, real-time repository of all your customer data, which enables highly relevant and targeted marketing.
One of the reviews on g2 mentions Woopra’s wide array of automation, including slack, data lakes, and marketing platforms.
Key Automation Features:
- Journey and Retention reports
- Behavioral segmentation
- Custom event tracking
- Standard event tracking
- User, Role, and Access management
Pricing:
- Free plan with limited features
- Startup plan: $349 per month
- Pro plan: $999 per month
G2 Rating: ⭐ 4.4 out of 5 with 174 reviews
14. Adobe Analytics
To improve your website, Adobe Analytics provides you with real-time reports.
This tool analyses data according to Adobe clouds and lets you mix, match, and analyze data from anywhere in the customer journey. It also offers predictive analytics and versatile reporting.
Adobe analytics user review on G2 indicates the following:
“The best thing about Adobe analytics is that I could manage to track multiple points sources at a time, unlike GA or Qlik.”
Key Automation Features:
- Real-time reporting
- Trending
- Retroactive reporting
- Marketing segmentation
- Standard event tracking
Pricing: You can get detailed information about pricing from their agents.
G2 Rating: ⭐ 4.1 out of 5 with 825 reviews
Best Website Analytics Tools to Use in 2024
Content Marketing Automation Tools ✍🏻💻
Content creating is a great way for lead generation and driving organic traffic to your website.
However, creating engaging material can become time-consuming and challenging in the long run.
This is why you should know/use the right tools to simplify this process as much as possible for your team.
Here are a few tools that can automatically improve your work and help you create interesting content:
15. Grammarly
Grammarly is one of the best tools for writing content that checks for grammatical errors, misspellings, plagiarism, as well as tone.
Your content should be error-free in order to to rank on search engines and provide a better user experience for your readers; Grammarly can help you achieve that!
Here is one user's review on Grammarly:
“Grammarly is the solution that supports every browser, central operating system, and document editor. It has the advanced AI that corrects spelling, grammar and rephrases sentences according to the tone of voice you wish it be.”
Key Automation Features:
- Plagiarism check
- Style editor
- Citation finder
- Idea recommendation
- Content generation
- Form creation
Pricing:
- Free plan with limited features
- Monthly Subscription: $30 USD/month
- Quarterly Subscription: $60 USD/three months (billed as one payment)
- Annual Subscription: $144 USD/one year (billed as one payment)
G2 Rating: ⭐ 4.6 out of 5 with 1,103 reviews
16. Wordtune
Wordtune was created with advanced AI tools and language models that understand the context and semantics of written text.
These models are what set Wordtune apart as the first AI-based writing companion, moving far beyond grammar and spelling fixes to help you put your own thoughts into written words. Here is a Wordtune user's review on g2 about his experience with this tool:
"Wordtune paraphrases content in a specific style without changing the overall tone. The tool is useful for correcting a variety of mistakes and improving the quality of my writing. Whenever I publish an article, I always use this tool to improve its quality."
Key Automation Features:
- Grammar check
- Tone checker
- Sentence formatting
- Style Editor
- Sentence Rephrase.
- Autocorrect
- Plagiarism check
- Engagement metrics
Pricing:
- Free plan: Start with limited basics
- Premium plan: $9.99/ month billed annually
G2 Rating: ⭐ 4.7 out of 5 with 15 reviews
17. Copy.ai
Copy.ai leverages artificial intelligence to reduce the time and effort of copywriting. Essentially, this tool automatically writes your copy for you.
It makes sure the copy it generates sounds as authentic as possible. You can tweak the content you like among the choices provided by the software and then adapt it to your needs.
As one of Copy.ai user mentioned in his g2 review:
“Copy AI outputs natural-sounding text so much so that a naive reader would not know a computer wrote it. It's my go-to tool to help break through an episode of writer's block.”
Key Automation Features:
- Product descriptions
- Blog posts
- Social ads
- Startup copies
- brand voice
- Value proposition
- Email copy
- Sales Copy
- Social media captions
Pricing:
- Free trial available with limited features
- Premium plans: start at $35 per month
G2 Rating: ⭐ 4.9 out of 5 with 16 reviews
The Best Content Creation Tools Marketers Will Love
To Cut a Long Story Short
The key to success in your business is to have good marketing and lead generation strategies, but it's almost impossible to keep up with everything at once. That’s why you need automation!
I've listed the 15 best lead generation automation tools and softwarein different categories that will help your teams’ productivity and your business growth.
But you must keep in mind that a single tool won't help you increase your leads overnight.
Consider optimizing the highlighted categories of your website, and wait to see results gradually.
FAQs
What is the Lead Lifecycle?
The lead lifecycle is the journey that a person takes from the moment they contact your business to the moment they part with their payment. Everyone who interacts with your brand represents a potential lead. However, only a small percentage of those leads will become customers.
What are Lead Generation Automation Examples?
- Email Marketing & List Building Automation
- Help Desk & CRM Automation
- Automated Lead Analytics and Data Gathering
- Content Marketing Automation
