So many businesses, especially startups and small businesses, think that marketing is something that you do only when you’ve scaled the company to a certain level. This is a completely wrong notion and should be corrected as soon as possible if you want to grow your business. Believe me, this also applies to solo freelancers who are in the service industry, such as design, voice-over, website development, or music production.
Omnisend, Campaigner, ManyChat, ActiveCampaign, and Klaviyo are some of the best project automation tools for organizations. In this blog post, I’ll explain why they are also great for small businesses without a big marketing budget.
Omnisend
It is better to go with the free Omnisend plan if you:
- Don’t have any marketing budget and are bootstrapped.
- If you are a startup that is still figuring out the product-market fit.
- If you are new to marketing and trying to find out whether there is scope to gain leads through email marketing.
Before you get excited, I’d suggest you know the limitations of this plan. You can only send up to 500 emails a month, add 250 contacts in total, and send up to 500 push notifications. The Pro plan is an affordable option if you want to try SMS marketing. You can search the Omnisend store on CouponzGuru and get multiple ways to save on their paid plans.
Key Highlights:
- According to WiserReview, 74% of shoppers use social media to decide what they want to buy.
- New startups and small businesses have to position their businesses to capitalize on this traffic.
- How the above statistics apply to your business depends entirely on the type of industry you’re in.
- AI features are only available with the paid plans.
Pricing:
Note: The prices for the tool are given below assuming your employee strength is between 0-500, which is normal for a small business or a startup.
- Free plan: $0/month(No credit card is needed)
- Standard plan: $11.20/month
- Pro plan: $41.30/month
Campaigner
Unlike Omnisend, Campaigner doesn’t have free forever plans but instead offers free trials for their paid plans. This tool is great for startups and small businesses that are looking to automate email and SMS marketing.
What plan is the best for automation workflows?: Campaigner only provides automation workflows
Main Highlights:
- Are free trials available for paid plans?: Yes, they do offer free trials. You can check them out by clicking the link below.
- The UI elements featured are productivity-focused. For example, the drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to design and customize emails.
- The tier 2 Advanced plan is recommended for automation workflows.
Pricing:
- Essentials plan: $14/month
- Advanced plan: $35/month
- Custom plan: Flexible pricing that is decided after contacting the team.
Manychat
Suited for: Email marketing, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and other social platforms.
I have seen so many startup owners think that clients just roll in after you set up your website to buy your products and services. This is not incorrect, but it doesn’t happen overnight.
In the startup phase, it is you have to reach out to your customers, whether it’s through cold emails or DMs on social media apps. And your leads will actually convert if you have a decent enough product that works. This is where Manychat comes in and helps you do the job, especially if you’re just starting or have a small team.
Key Takeaways:
- How long is the free trial on paid plans: 14-days
- The Free and Essential Manychat plans should be good enough to get you started.
- The Free plan only covers 25 contacts but does offer basic automations. Make sure to get the trial below if you are not yet convinced.
Pricing:
- Free plan: $0/month
- Essential plan: $14/month
- Pro plan: $29/month
- Business plan: $69/month
- Advanced plan: $139/month
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is a great email marketing automation tool for business who have success with email marketing but now want to scale their operations. It comes with a built-in sales CRM and offers multi-channel automation for small businesses.
Note: The email send limit for entry-level plans(Starter & Plus) is 10x the contact limit and 12x and 15x for the Pro and Enterprise plans, respectively.
Please note that the pricing we’ll be discussing below is just for the email marketing features. You can also find out the pricing for the Email+WhatsApp combo or WhatsApp-only pricing once you decide to scale.
Main Highlights:
- It is great for growing businesses and e-commerce brands.
- ActiveCampaign AI features for all pricing plans(limits are applied depending on use)
- The CRM feature is available on all plans.
- You have to choose the Enterprise or Pro plan, as they support multiple users.
Pricing:
- Starter plan: $15/month
- Plus plan: $49/month
- Pro plan: $70/month
- Enterprise plan: $145/month
Klaviyo
Compared to the other tools we discussed, Klaviyo positions itself more as an AI-powered marketing automation tool. It is one of the most popular among Shopify store owners. Therefore, it is better to explore the above options if you are looking to grow your retail business or any type of agency.
What Do You Get With the Free Plan?:
- Up to 250 profiles per month.
- 500 emails per month.
- $5 worth of mobile messages per month.
- Email support features.
- Reporting.
- $5 worth of composer usage per month.
Key Points to Note:
- Best for: AI-powered automation
- You can try out popular Klaviyo marketing features using their free plan.
- It makes it easy to grow your subscriber list consistently
Pricing:
- Free plan: $0/month
- Email plan: $1/month
- Composer plan: $20/month
- For mobile messages: $40/month
Note: These are only base-level prices. They also allow you to build a plan estimate.
Concluding Thoughts
As Mark Cuban once said on Shark Tank(US), marketing is not the same as sales. This is what many young founders don’t know and think they’re day-to-day selling(online or offline) as marketing. Marketing is what you do to increase the demand for your product or the overall industry you’re in.