17 Best Marketing Automation Tools for Agencies

Picture this–you’ve finally hit your growth goals. And it feels great.

Finally, your client roster is overflowing with projects, and the agency is buzzing with activity. It’s everything you hoped for… but there’s just one problem (a big one, in fact).

It’s taking much longer than usual to fulfill client deliverables and manage your internal operations. While your previous processes did the trick for a while–like that master spreadsheet for client project tracking–it’s not cutting it anymore. In fact, it’s leading to overdue deliverables, missed invoices, wishy-washy marketing results… and frustrated clients who want to know what went wrong.

It’s a horror story that no agency wants to hear. Luckily, there’s a solution to all these growing woes–investing in the right marketing automation tools.

While it may seem like another recurring cost, it’s a way to remove the hassle of repetitive tasks, cut down on manual work, and create scalable processes.

I understood the value of having sound systems to communicate and track work. Infrastructure building helped us grow because there wasn't wasted time searching for something stuck in one person's email inbox. It also allowed us to become more responsive to clients, which leads to better quality work.

Yanira M. Castro, CEO, Humanity Communications Collective

The result? Less billable time wasted, more business, and happier clients. In this article, we’ll explore the importance of automation tools and the top ones for agencies like yours. 

Does My Agency Need an Automation Tool?

You may be wondering: Does my agency really need automation tools? If you’re serious about growth and efficiency, the answer is yes.

Think about it–an increase in clients comes with an increase in deliverables. Plus, you may have more employees, overheads, or even freelancers to manage. Without proper automation tools in place, it becomes challenging to manage marketing tasks and exceed client expectations.

To break it down further, investing in the right tool:

• Automates repetitive tasks and streamlines workflows. This gives your agency more time to focus on high-level, strategic work.

• Leads to sustainable business growth. As more projects come through the pipeline, an automated tool increases your bandwidth and ensures operational efficiency.

• Increases your agency’s profitability. The right automation software means you won’t have to onboard additional staff or pay for extra overheads just to get the job done. It also provides a systematic way to track billable hours and your agency’s pricing.

Once we understand our processes, workflows, and staffing needs for every project and initiative, we price our services with profitability.

Rodrigo Campos, Founder & CEO, Splurge Media

What To Consider When Choosing a Marketing Automation Software

Before immediately signing up for automation software, it’s essential to do some groundwork. After all, you don’t want to end up with a tool that doesn’t meet your requirements. 

To avoid this from happening, here are some actionable steps to follow.

After this foundational work, narrow your options and consider a trial (if available). That way, you’ll get a feel of this marketing automation platform before taking the leap.

17 Marketing Automation Tools Every Agency Should Know About

Now that we’ve covered the basics, it’s time to delve into the good stuff. We’ve compiled a comprehensive list that includes the following:

• All-in-one sales and marketing automation tools

• Advertising automation tools

• Email marketing automation tools 

• A comprehensive client reporting tool

• Social media automation tools

• Productivity automation tools

Without further ado, here are the best marketing automation platforms for agencies!

1. HubSpot

HubSpot is a well-known, all-in-one sales and marketing automation software. This CRM platform consolidates contact information across various sources, like social media, email marketing, and website signup forms. It’s a powerful tool to manage your clients’ inbound marketing campaigns, especially if you’re an enterprise-level agency. 

Lead generation aside, HubSpot Marketing Hub is handy for internal use (e.g., to capture client information during onboarding). For greater efficiency, there are AI-powered features like a paragraph rewriter and a social media caption generator. 

This platform comes with an extensive range of in-platform data, which gets complex (even for advanced marketers). For a more simplified approach, use a visual HubSpot dashboard for easy reference.

2. Salesforce

Another powerhouse CRM tool is Salesforce, which is used to house extensive databases, create marketing campaigns (e.g., social media, email), nurture leads, and manage sales pipelines.

Salesforce does an excellent job of consolidating contact information, displaying an agency-client communication history, and storing project details in one place. Also, Salesforce has a built-in Einstein AI solution that helps create personalized copy, score the most viable leads, and more. 

Similarly, this platform is ideal for enterprise-level agencies that manage a large volume of clients and sales pipelines. It’s also beneficial if you’re serving a highly regulated niche (e.g., financial services), as Salesforce offers industry-specific solutions. Instead of getting lost in a flurry of data, use a real-time Salesforce dashboard and streamline pipeline management.

3. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is an omnichannel solution that offers a built-in CRM, marketing automation workflows, and audience segmentation. It’s a useful way to manage multiple campaigns, including email, SMS marketing, and ecommerce. 

This digital marketing automation tool also prides itself on being “anti-all-in-one” and “stackable” software. In other words, add-ons reduce the likelihood of unused features and extra costs. 

ActiveCampaign offers AI-driven features for the creation of automated workflows and predictive email sending. This makes it particularly useful when managing ecommerce clients (e.g., re-engaging customers who abandoned their shopping carts). 

To keep on top of email performance, stream ActiveCampaign metrics into an interactive dashboard. That way, you’ll see the big picture without having to log into the platform each time.

4. Brevo

Another useful all-in-one marketing automation tool is Brevo (formerly SendInBlue). It offers a range of features, including email, WhatsApp, and SMS marketing. Plus, it functions as a CRM for efficient management of contacts and sales pipelines. Use their AI-powered features to create email copy, choose an optimal send time, and experiment with different tones. 

Users are billed based on the number of emails sent rather than their subscriber count. Therefore, it’s a great solution for agencies or clients who don’t want to upgrade their packages due to mailing list growth.

For more scalable data tracking, use the Brevo integration in AgencyAnalytics. That way, you’ll have oversight of your clients’ email campaigns alongside insights from other marketing platforms.

5. SharpSpring

SharpSpring (recently rebranded to Lead Gen & CRM) is another all-in-one tool that streamlines communication, lead management, and landing page creation. 

A few of SharpSpring’s top features include ad retargeting, behavior-based email automation, and a landing page builder. It also includes pre-built email templates focused on driving conversions (particularly for small businesses). 

SharpSpring is useful for any client with a revenue growth marketing strategy (e.g., retail and ecommerce). To get the most from these insights, use the SharpSpring integration in AgencyAnalytics to monitor campaigns and how they contribute to the bottom line. 

6. AgencyAnalytics

Regardless of which platforms your clients use, you’ll need a way to monitor marketing results. 

That’s where an all-in-one reporting tool like AgencyAnalytics comes in. This platform seamlessly integrates with over 80 marketing platforms, making it easy to automate data retrieval in one place.

Plus, AgencyAnalytics offers professional pre-built dashboards and reporting templates. This significantly reduces report preparation time, removing the need for excessive manual work. There’s also the option to schedule reports in advance, which leads to enhanced efficiency.

If we had not committed to software investment at the start-up of our agency, I'm not sure how we would be able to service all our clients. AgencyAnalytics is definitely one of the most important tools we have. It's how we prove our worth to our clients.

Linda Rooney, Founder and CEO, DandeLions Digital

As an added time-saver, create Smart Reports based on a client’s specific integrations. This marketing process takes just 11 seconds and saves time from creating new reports each month. For a more professional finish, take advantage of the white-label feature to add your agency’s logo and brand colors. 

AgencyAnalytics works best for growing agencies that want to demonstrate results and take their reporting up a notch, as well as enterprise-level agencies managing hundreds–or thousands– of clients. This package includes 24/5 customer support, team onboarding sessions, and a dedicated Account Manager.

7. AdRoll

Looking for a tool to streamline your clients’ paid advertising efforts? 

Use a digital marketing platform like AdRoll to manage social media ads, CTV ads, PPC campaigns, and more. This saves time from creating multi-platform campaigns while giving a bird’s eye view of overall performance. There’s also the ability to integrate AdRoll with ecommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce for a holistic marketing approach. 

AdRoll is ideal if advertising is your agency’s specialization (or a main service). It’s a way to manage multiple campaigns and advertising platforms, which saves time in the long run. 

An automated AdRoll dashboard is a scalable way to manage client ad campaigns and track goal progress with ease. 

8. Constant Contact

Constant Contact is a popular email marketing platform known for its simplicity and ease of use. This platform integrates with various CRM systems, social media platforms, and other third-party tools. That means it’s easier for agencies to create integrated campaigns and streamline workflows across multiple platforms. 

Leverage Constant Contact's automation features to send targeted messages, segment audiences, and create re-engagement campaigns. This ensures that email content is delivered at the right time, leading to better results. 

If your agency specializes in event marketing, Constant Contact is an excellent option for managing guest lists, registration, and promotions. Got multiple clients that use this platform? Use the Constant Contact integration to create automatically populated, visual dashboards.

9. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a versatile email marketing platform that offers a range of features like landing page creation, an AI-driven Content Generator, and workflow automation. 

Designed for scalability, Mailchimp supports business growth with tiered pricing, which means there won’t necessarily be a need to switch platforms later on. While this platform caters to businesses of all sizes, it doubles as a great starter CRM for smaller clients. 

Mailchimp is also known for its user-friendly drag-and-drop editor, which helps if your marketing team doesn’t have a design expert. For a time-efficient approach, use an automated Mailchimp dashboard to monitor email marketing metrics and make informed recommendations. 

10. Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor is another email marketing tool designed for ease of use, workflow automation, and customer segmentation. This platform includes useful features such as white-label campaigns, automatic transactional emails, an AI writer, and email personalization. 

There’s also a centralized dashboard for a summarized overview of client campaigns, which makes it a great option for managing multiple email clients. Campaign Monitor also has in-platform team collaboration for greater efficiency (e.g., your Copywriter and Graphic Designer may work simultaneously on email marketing efforts). To view these insights alongside other campaigns, use the Campaign Monitor integration in AgencyAnalytics and create a custom dashboard. 

11. Drip

Drip is a powerful email marketing platform built with ecommerce in mind. This tool seamlessly integrates with Shopify, Stripe, and PayPal (to name a few), making it an ideal option for your clients who are primarily focused on online sales.

Another plus is that Drip doesn’t require any previous coding experience. This makes it easy to create a complex automation workflow (e.g., a Shopify-oriented drip campaign), capture valuable customer data, and drive more conversions. 

To monitor email campaigns and understand the entire customer journey, use an automated Drip dashboard. 

12. Klaviyo

Another top-notch email marketing tool is Klaviyo, which seamlessly integrates with ecommerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce. It also offers advanced A/B testing, which is ideal for large-scale ecommerce clients that want to experiment with different elements (e.g., subject lines, copy). 

This marketing automation tool also offers custom solutions for the retail, wellness, and restaurant industries. Therefore, it may be a great option if your agency specializes in any of these niches. 

With Klaviyo AI, it’s also possible to create customer journey segments and optimize signup forms, which leads to better customer engagement. View these insights alongside other marketing data by using the Klaviyo integration in AgencyAnalytics. 

13. Hootsuite

When it comes to a social media automation tool, Hootsuite is one of the industry leaders. It’s got everything your agency needs to coordinate social media campaigns, schedule posts, and monitor engagement.

Hootsuite also offers the ability to see brand mentions and a social media AI writer. This platform is ideal if your agency manages a significant number of social media clients across various platforms. 

You’ll also have the ability to get in-platform client approval, which is another bonus. Particularly, Hootsuite allows social media ad scheduling (e.g., Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads), which is ideal if clients typically request various social media services.  

14. Buffer

Similarly, Buffer is a social media management tool that supports scheduling, analytics, and engagement across various platforms. In addition, this tool has a mobile app and a handy AI assistant for content creation.

Buffer was made with small businesses in mind, offering a generous range of features for a free account (like scheduling ten social media posts for up to three channels). 

Therefore, this may be a good choice for growing agencies with a handful of social clients (before eventually paying for premium features). 

15. Trello

Trello is a productivity automation tool used to manage tasks and client projects more efficiently. For agencies, it’s a way to streamline internal operations, create to-do lists, set deadlines, and assign tasks to team members. 

There’s also an editorial calendar feature, which provides an overview of client deliverables and their progress. Additionally, Trello is a Kanban board tool that helps your agency manage and track projects to completion.

16. ClickUp

ClickUp is another automation software that keeps your team in sync and streamlines task management. There’s also a built-in time tracking feature, which is handy for collating billable hours and assessing staff productivity. 

If your agency manages a variety of deliverables, ClickUp is helpful for setting deadlines and moving projects through phases (e.g., “Drafting,” “Awaiting Client Feedback”). 

This platform also has the ability to host documents and integrate with other tools (like Slack), making it an ideal solution for streamlining agency operations. 

17. Zapier

Zapier is a task automation tool that creates workflows and connects various platforms through “Zaps.” Essentially, it’s a bridge between separate tools, adding another layer of efficiency. Use Zapier if you’re looking to create custom workflows and automations between platforms. 

For example, your agency may create a “Zap” to automatically add new leads from a client’s Google Ads to their CRM (e.g., Salesforce). On the other hand, it may be used internally to send your team members a Slack message when a client provides feedback on a Google Doc. 

Use Marketing Automation Tools to Enhance Agency Operations

As we’ve covered, automated marketing platforms aren’t just nice to have–they’re necessary for all growth-oriented agencies. From streamlining email marketing campaigns to creating in-platform ads, it’s a way to free up your precious billable time.

To choose the best marketing automation software, consider your agency’s needs from the get-go. Then, look for a tool with these desired features and the capacity to grow with your agency. 

Whether you decide on one marketing automation platform (or a few), it’s important to monitor results across all these tools. No need for excessive manual work–simply use AgencyAnalytics to consolidate that data in one place.

This marketing software makes it easy to:

• Automate data retrieval across multiple marketing tools.

• Access pre-built dashboards and reports.

• Grant clients login access to live dashboards. 

• Create 11-second Smart Reports.

• Deliver automated reports like clockwork!