30-Second Summary
Businesses today cannot expect to gain growth and a competitive edge online without using practical and professional marketing techniques.
Nowadays, due to the global reach of businesses, marketing teams need more time to focus on making Strategic marketing techniques and spend less time on doing manual marketing functions like running marketing campaigns, audits, and getting client feedback.
Marketing SaaS tools have made it possible for businesses today to achieve the best outcomes from their marketing strategies using the best SaaS marketing solutions and effective SaaS marketing strategies.
This blog post will provide you with an analysis of the features, pricing, pros, and cons of top marketing tools divided into eight key marketing categories.
By the end of the blog, you will have shortlisted the tools that fulfil your marketing requirements.
What is Marketing SaaS?
Marketing SaaS refers to the use of SaaS-based marketing tools by businesses online to market their products and services, utilizing various marketing-related SaaS tools for different marketing purposes.
Do you know Marketing SaaS is different from SaaS Marketing?
Let us find out how!
How is Marketing SaaS different from SaaS Marketing?
Marketing SaaS should not be confused with the term SaaS Marketing. There is a difference in the terms that must be understood before you move on with this blog.
As defined above, Marketing SaaS is all about the SaaS based marketing tools and how they help online businesses with different marketing types, but SaaS Marketing is a totally different concept or term, that is all about marketing the SaaS products and services produced by a Saas based company, to potential clients.
In this blog, we will be covering Marketing SaaS and guiding you about the top five tools along with their features, pricing, and pros and cons, to help you choose the one suitable for your business.
How Marketing SaaS Tools Help Businesses?
Marketing SaaS tools help businesses simplify their marketing processes so that they can focus on their strategic initiatives.
There are various ways in which Marketing SaaS aisa businesses, including the following:
Increase in Customer Satisfaction
With the help of these marketing tools, marketers can build campaigns based on customer behaviors and target the right potential audience, while also leveraging the advantages of SaaS communication channels, such as chatbots, emails, and social media platforms, for connecting with their customers to provide better customer experience and get higher customer engagement.
Competitive Edge
With the help of these marketing tools, marketers are enabled to gather data driven by customer behavior and market trends, allowing them to adapt to market changes and gain a competitive edge.
Affordability and Scalability
The pricing of SaaS marketing tools is predictable and lower than that of traditional SaaS marketing software. They are also easy to scale up and down based on business requirements, providing flexibility to businesses.
Automation and Boosted Efficiency
By providing automation, marketing SaaS tools help marketers save time and focus on developing business strategies, while also increasing efficiency through the use of project management and CRM tools for team integrations, making collaboration and task completion easier.
Improved ROI
By streamlining teamwork, enhancing customer engagement, and reducing marketing expenses, these SaaS marketing tools enable marketers to achieve a higher return on investment.
In How Many Categories Can Marketing SaaS be Divided?
There are numerous top-notch Marketing SaaS platforms that businesses can benefit from. Whether it is a B2B marketing SaaS tool or a B2C marketing tool, we have divided all the different tools into eight Marketing SaaS categories, with each category comprising the top 3 tools ideal for it.
- The first four categories include The Strategy & Outreach Tools that focus on building brand awareness and engaging audiences.
- The other four categories include The Execution & Optimization Tools that focus on ad delivery, optimization, marketing analytics tools, and feedback tools from customers.
Let us explore and introduce you to the best marketing SaaS platforms that can help with your business marketing operations.
The Strategy & Outreach Tools
Category 1: Top 3 Email Marketing SaaS Tools
- Mailchimp
Mailchimp is ideal for small businesses or e-commerce stores. It can be used for both B2B and B2C models, but it is most suitable for B2C business models, as big setups might find their features, like automation, not ideal for their complex business models.
Key Features
It provides a drag-and-drop styled email builder with pre-built templates and basic automation workflows.
Pros
It offers a free plan that allows 500 contacts and 1,000 emails per month to its clients, albeit with some limitations, such as a daily limit of 500 emails. The platform is easy to use and provides great integration options.
Cons
Limited automation and advanced scaling features.
Pricing
You can use it free for up to 500 contacts, then the plan starts from $13/month, and goes up based on your contact list and feature requirements.
- ActiveCampaign
This is ideal for growing businesses and nurturing B2B leads, and is generally suitable for B2B and B2C business models.
Key Features
The key features of ActiveCampaign are powerful automation and a user-friendly interface with extensive integrations. It also provides behavioral targeting and segmentation.
Pros
It provides you with excellent deliverability and powerful automation, along with the advantage of personalization.
Cons
It is not beginner-friendly because it has a steeper learning curve, does not offer any free plans, and the prices for the SaaS tool have increased recently.
Pricing
They start from the starter package at $15 per month and then have plus, pro, and enterprise packages with $49, $79, and $145 per month.
- Klaviyo
This tool is primarily built for B2C models, which are ideal for e-commerce companies using platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce.
Key Features
As already mentioned, this tool provides seamless integration to ecommerce platforms for revenue generation and personalized customer experience, with powerful automation capabilities and strong segmentation.
Pros
As mentioned earlier, it provides seamless integration to ecommerce platforms. Other pros include detailed segmentation, SMS Marketing, Reporting, Analytics, Signup forms, and an email templates library, along with an email editor.
Cons
Increased prices, customer support is only available through chats or email, and it is sometimes considered slow by clients. The learning curve may be steeper for beginners.
Pricing
Free plan includes 250 active contacts, 500 monthly emails, and a SMS credit of 150. For paid plans, you pay $20/month for emails with 500 active profiles and 5000 emails per month. The SMS/MMS plan is expensive, with $35 for 1250 SMS/MMS, and they cost differently for different regions.
Category 2: Top 3 SEO & Content Marketing SaaS Tools
- Ahrefs
Ahrefs is ideal for Digital agencies, content marketers, and content creators who can use this content marketing SaaS tool. It is suitable for both B2B and B2C business models.
Key Features
It is an ideal tool that provides site audit, global keywords research, content explorer for topics, competitor analysis, and is also great for backlink analysis, which helps with the domain authority of websites.
Pros
It provides excellent competitor analysis, backlink analysis, and keyword-related data with an easy user experience.
Cons
The tool does not provide any free trial, lacks phone support, and lacks project management tools to build backlinks.Â
Pricing
No free trials. Paid packages include Lite, Standard, Advanced, and Enterprise, with pricing of $99, $199, $399, and $99 per month for each package.
- SEMrush
SEMrush is suitable for both B2B and B2C models. This Marketing SaaS tool is perfect for marketing agencies, Content strategists, and digital marketing teams.
Key Features
Its key features include competitor analysis, traffic analysis, SEO audits, writing assistance, rank tracking, social media management, and acts as a paid media marketing campaign SaaS.
Pros
It acts as an all-in-one marketing software, providing great content support to digital marketing teams and agencies. It is really great for SEO and PPC campaigns.
Cons
It has a complex user interface. It is not easy for beginners. Also, the costs of the tool to avail its advanced features can be expensive for individuals or small businesses, with their marketing requirements.
Pricing
SEO price plans for SEMrush have three plans, including Pro, Guru, and Business, with pricing of $139.95, $249.95, and $499.95 for each.
- Surfer SEO
This tool is really strong for teams with heavy content on their websites. It can be used by Bloggers, SEO writers, and content creators.
Key Features
Its key features include keyword generation, content editing, SERP analysis for top-ranking insights, and keyword clustering.
Pros
It provides easy setup for writers, helps with keyword optimization for on-page SEO, and is easily integrated into Google Docs.
Cons
It is not a complete SEO platform; it lacks Technical SEO and does not help with backlinks.
Pricing
Surfer SEO marketing SaaS tool provides plans for both individuals and large organizations with three pricing plans called Essential, Scale, and Enterprise. The Essentials costs $99 per month and is for individuals and small teams. The Scale costs $299 per month and is designed for growing agencies. The Enterprise plan is designed for large organizations and can be customized based on their requirements.
Category 3: Top 3 Social Media Marketing SaaS Tools
- Buffer
Buffer is a great social media Marketing SaaS for new startups and small agencies and plays a key role in content scheduling. It is suitable for both B2B and B2C business models.
Key Features
Social media scheduling and automation are the most important features provided by Buffer. Other than this, it also provides team collaborations, analytics, and tracking features. Businesses can use these features to post, increase engagement, and analyze the results as well.
Pros
It has a very clean interface, which is very easy to use, and not just that, it is also an affordable option for small businesses.
Cons
Its analytics are basic as compared to the other tools, and features are limited with the low-priced plans.
Pricing
It does provide a free plan with 10 posts allowed per month for three social media channels. Then comes The Essential plan and Team Plan that cost $6 and &12 per month.
The Essential plan provides analytics and engagement tools, and the Team plan provides all the essential features along with team collaboration tools.
They also provide an Agency Plan at $120 per month for 10 channels + $6 per month per additional channel. This package includes all the essential features with large social media capacity, from which large businesses with many social media accounts can benefit.
- Hootsuite
Hootsuite is ideal for agencies, enterprise teams, and multi-platform management. This Marketing SaaS tool is suitable for both B2B and B2C business models.
Key Features
It helps you to post and schedule your social media content, provides ad management and engagement, also makes it an all-in-one social dashboard with various features helping you to manage your social media.
Pros
This tool is built for teams; it provides strong analytics and reports related to your post’s engagement and supports different platforms. It also provides you with AI-generated captions and can integrate with Canva to create appealing content for your social media posts.
Cons
The software has a steeper learning curve and can be expensive as well.
Pricing
Hootsuite provides three plans. Their Professional plan costs $99/month and is billed annually, designed for individuals with 10 social accounts permitted.
Their Team Plan costs $249 per month and is built annually, supporting three users and 20 social accounts.
There is an Enterprise Plan as well for larger teams, and its pricing can be customized based on the users and social accounts.
- Sprout Social
Sprout Social works strongly for the B2B service teams, but generally, the SaaS tool is suitable for both B2B and B2C business models.
Sprout Social is a social media management SaaS tool that offers marketing features like user engagement, social listings, publishing of posts, and performance analytics.
Key Features
Its key features include scheduling and publishing of social media posts, inbox management, Smart analytical reporting, social listings, and CRM integration.
It also provides team collaboration, AI, and automation services.
Pros
It provides effective scheduling with an easy-to-use user interface. It also provides great reporting, customer support tools, and is scalable for larger teams.
Cons
The cons include its high price, especially for individual users, and it can seem a bit too advanced for single users as well. Their automation services are basic, and the SaaS is also reported to be glitchy sometimes.
Pricing
This Marketing SaaS tool provides four plans. The Standard Plan starts at $199/month per user, which is billed annually. But it is $249 per user if billed on a monthly basis.
Their professional Plan starts from $299/month, which is billed annually, and it can be $399 if billed monthly.
They provide a third plan named Advanced Plan, which is $399/month per user billed annually, or it can be $499 per user per month billed monthly.
They do provide a fourth plan for large enterprises, which contains customized packages based on enterprise requirements.
Category 4: Top 3 Marketing Automation SaaS Tools
- HubSpot
A growing business can use HubSpot for nurturing its leads and marketing purposes, and it is suitable for both B2B and B2C businesses. Key features are given below.
Key Features
Its key features include providing social media management, marketing automation, Free CRM, content management, and AI tools for lead generation that also make it a lead generation SaaS tool.
Pros
An all-in-one CRM plus marketing platform with excellent customer support and scalability for teams.
Cons
The software’s learning curves can be steeper for advanced features, and its prices increase when you scale up.
Pricing
It provides basic marketing, analytics, forms, and landing pages for startups.
The paid plans include Starter, Professional, and Enterprise plans. Starter plan starts at $15 per month per user, which is billed annually, or $20 per user per month, billed monthly.
The professional plan offers $800/month billed annually or $890/month billed monthly for 3 users. They can cost an extra $50 for an additional user.
The Enterprise plan is $3600 per month for 5 seats and an additional $110/month for each additional seat.
- Active Campaign
Small to medium-sized businesses that are focused on personalization and marketing automation can utilise Active Campaign, which is generally suitable for both B2B and B2C business models.
Key Features
Its key features include comprehensive marketing and sales automation. Features for these include email marketing, SMS marketing, CRM, and sales automation, along with site tracking and lead scoring.
They help businesses to grow by automating their workflows and by personalizing customer experience.
Pros
It provides strong tools for customer experiences and also has powerful automation flexibility with great deliverability rates.
Cons
There is no free plan, and integration at the low-tier plans can be limited. Some users also reported a slow user experience and support response.
Pricing
It provides four plans, including Lite, Plus, Professional, and Enterprise. The prices increase with the number of contacts.
The Lite plan of this tool starts at $15 per month for 500 contacts, and the Plus plan costs $70 per month for 1000 contacts, which provides robust automation and customer insights.
The Professional plan costs $159 per month for 2500 contacts, and the Enterprise plan starts at $279 per month for 2,500 contacts, targeting enterprises that want to scale their business with enterprise-level features.
- Marketo
Marketo is primarily built for B2B business models. So, Enterprise-level B2B companies that have complex lead workflows can really benefit from Marketo. It is a digital marketing SaaS tool that provides marketing automation, lead generation, and advanced analytics.
Key Features
You can upscale your marketing with Marketo by using its key features like advanced marketing automation, lead nurturing, lead scoring, multi-channel campaign management, and deep Salesforce integration.
Pros
The tool is customizable and is very robust. It provides enterprise-level analytics and also helps you with strong B2B campaign management.
Cons
Its learning curve can be steeper, and it is not built for small teams.
Pricing:
Marketo does not provide any public pricing as it offers customized packages and pricing as per the features, but the pricing can start from $40,000 annually, and for larger organizations, pricing can easily exceed $1,000,000 annually.
The Execution & Optimization Tools
Category 5: Top 3 Ad & PPC Management SaaS Tools
| Tools Specifications | Google Ads | Facebook Ads Manager | AdsEseresso |
| About Tool | Designed for businesses’ search campaigns | Intended for social media campaigns on Meta platforms. | Designed for Small companies & agencies to manage Facebook/Instagram/Google Ads |
| Features | Keyword targeting, remarketing, YouTube ads, display network, conversion tracking | Custom audiences, retargeting, A/B testing, and dynamic creatives | Easy ad creation, A/B testing, performance insights, and a unified dashboard for multiple platforms |
| Pros | Massive reach, flexible budget, detailed targeting | Visual ad formats, detailed audience targeting | Simplified interface, great for beginners |
| Cons | It can be complex for beginners | Provides limited organic reach | It offers limited advanced options compared to its competitors. |
| Pricing | Bidding-based, charged per click | Pay-per-click or per-impression-based costing | Starts at $49 per month |
| B2B or B2C | Both | Both | Both |
Category 6: Top 3 Analytics & Reporting SaaS Tools
| Tools Specifications | Google Analytics | MixPanel | Hotjar |
| About Tool | Helps to track website performance metrics | Provides analysis about products and user behavior | User experience and behavior analysis |
| Features | Real-time analytics, audience insights, behavior tracking, goal conversions | Funnel analysis, cohort tracking, retention reports, event-based tracking | Heatmaps, session recordings, feedback polls, and on-site surveys |
| Pros | IT is free of cost and provides industry-standard analytics | Clean user interface, ideal for teams that are product-led | Easy-to-use interface with visual insights |
| Cons | Setup complexity with limited-user-data | Costly paid plans | IT provides very limited insights, hence it is not a full analytics solution |
| Pricing | Free | Includes a free plan, the paid plan starts from $20 per month | Paid plan starts from $39 per month, and it also offers a basic free plan |
| B2B or B2C | Both | Both | Both |
Category 7: Top 3 Landing Page & Funnel Builders SaaS Tools
| Tools Specifications | Unbounce | ClikFunnels | InstaPage |
| About Tool | The tool is built for marketers focused on conversions | Toll is an ideal sales funnel builder | The tool is ideal for medium to large-sized firms looking for personalization |
| Features | Drag-and-drop builder, A/B testing, AI copy, dynamic text replacement | Funnel templates, upsell/downsell flows, email integration | Landing page personalization, collaboration tools, and heatmaps |
| Pros | Customizable and great for CRO | It provides easy-to-launch full funnels and is ideally built for sales | Better for PPC campaigns and provides good collaborative tools |
| Cons | Expensive for small business setups | Less flexible for pages that are non-sales | Higher pricing tiers |
| Pricing | Starts at $99/month | Starts at $97/month | Starts at $299/month |
| B2B or B2C | Both | B2C focused | B2B focused |
Category 8: Top 3 Survey & Feedback SaaS Tools
| Tools Specifications | Typeform | SurveyMonkey | Hotjar |
| About Tool | It provides interactive surveys and also facilitates feedback collection | Designed for advanced and simple surveys | Provides in-page surveys and behavior analytics |
| Features | Conversational forms, logic jumps, integrations, and custom branding | Survey templates, logic, data export, and reporting | Feedback polls, NPS, survey targeting, and user session recordings |
| Pros | Provides a modern user interface with an engaging experience | Widely used tools due to their easy user interface | It helps to combine analytics + surveys, and provides visual insights |
| Cons | Higher costs if you want to scale, and limited analytics | Limited design customization | Not a full-featured survey builder |
| Pricing | Offers both free and paid plans, with paid plans starting at $25 per month | Offers both free and paid plans, with paid plans starting at $25 per month | Offers both free and paid plans, with paid plans starting at $39 per month |
| B2B or B2C | Both | Both | Both |
Final Remarks
When going to opt for the marketing of your business, you find the feasibility of choosing Marketing SaaS tools over traditional marketing softwares that needs proper installation and may cost more.
Marketing SaaS softwares is less expensive than traditional marketing softwares, and it offers automation as well, helping you to focus on your business strategies while leaving most of your marketing in the hands of the SaaS marketing tools.
This blog post is enriched with a detailed review of the top 3 Marketing SaaS tools divided into 8 major marketing categories that are necessary for different marketing needs of online businesses.
We are sure that we have helped you in choosing your Marketing SaaS tools based on your business requirements and budget. Keep visiting Latest SaaS Updates website for more SaaS related informational content.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is Marketing SaaS?
Marketing SaaS includes all the SaaS based marketing tools that are used for the business to grow online with their marketing efficiencies.
- How is Marketing SaaS different from SaaS marketing?
SaaS marketing is all about marketing the SaaS tools to the clients who want to buy and use them for their businesses, whereas Marketing SaaS includes all the marketing tools that are SaaS based and used for the online marketing purposes of businesses.
- How do Marketing SaaS tools help businesses?
Marketing SaaS tools offer different features like running ad campaigns, social media management, business optimization for search results, etc., which help businesses to become visible to their customers online and turn potential leads into conversions.
- What are the main categories of Marketing SaaS tools?
Latest SaaS Updates has organized marketing SaaS tools into eight specific categories based on their specific marketing features. Each category has been covered in our blog with a detailed breakdown of the top tools within the category.
- Which is the best email marketing SaaS tool for beginners?
MailChimp, Klaviyo, and ActiveCampaign are the top three recommended Email Marketing SaaS tools.
- What are the top SEO and content marketing SaaS tools?
The top three recommendations for SEO and Content Marketing SaaS tools will include Ahrefs, SEMrush, and SurferSEO.
- Which marketing automation SaaS tool is best for all-in-one use?
If we have to name one, then HubSpot will be the best all-in-one marketing automation SaaS tool.
- Are landing page builders considered part of Marketing SaaS?
Yes, since landing pages help with sales funnels and lead generation, they can be considered a part of Marketing SaaS.
- What is the most affordable survey and feedback SaaS tool?
Survey Monkey and Typeform offer reasonable starter plans if you want to go for more features; otherwise, if you wish to rely on a free survey tool, Google Forms will serve the purpose.
