Reading Time: 11 minutes The pace of the world is incredibly fast. It’s wild how everyone expects instant communication from the brands they regularly interact with. Modern businesses need email marketing automation software to help them handle tasks efficiently, as manual processes are no longer viable in today’s ever-shifting environment. Now’s as good a time as any to streamline your email workflows. The trick? Finding the right tool for your unique business case. In this post, we’ll help you find the perfect software for automating your brand’s email marketing campaigns. Here. We. Go.   What is Email Marketing Automation Software? Email marketing automation software is a smart tool that streamlines your email campaigns by automatically sending personalized, timely messages at scale to segmented audiences. It tracks email engagement and optimizes your outreach, so marketers like you can generate sales, nurture leads efficiently, and boost overall ROI. Basically, it’s like your own digital assistant that takes care of everything related to email marketing.   4 Benefits of Using Email Marketing Automation Tools Why should email marketing automation software tools be a part of your email marketing strategy today? Let’s dive into these four advantages to find out: Save time: Instead of manually drafting and sending each email, you set up a simple trigger, and your software tool does the rest. This means you can shift your focus to more high-impact projects, boosting productivity without burning out your team. Improve customer experience: You can automate and personalize your email campaigns at scale with software. This makes your customers feel valued, which not only boosts satisfaction but also builds deeper trust over time. Drive more sales: Email marketing automation tools let you use targeted segmentation so your emails can speak directly to each audience group’s needs or pain points. With detailed analytics, you can keep refining your strategy to drive higher conversion rates and more sales. Nurture leads more effectively: With software tools, you can set up a series of carefully timed, personalized follow-up emails that steadily guide leads through their customer journeys. This nurturing process keeps your brand on top of their minds while building trust, slow and steady. Let’s get to the good part already.   5 Best Email Marketing Automation Software and Tools Different brands have different needs. You need to decide what features and capabilities matter the most for your brand’s email campaigns. Our goal here is to help you find the best fit for email marketing automation. So here are our top picks: 1. Best for Omnichannel Engagement and Email Performance Tracking: MoEngage Well, we did say we’re going to help you pick the best email marketing software on the market. And our 1,350 customers, like SoundCloud and Poshmark, do say we’re one of the best, so… (ahem) MoEngage is hands down the best platform for robust email marketing analytics. You can easily track email marketing metrics, audience engagement, and overall growth with MoEngage Analytics. These insights can help you improve email clickthroughs and conversion rates. As for your customers’ omnichannel experience, MoEngage helps you keep it consistent. Some automated email campaigns might involve other channels like SMS, push notifications, in-app messaging, and so on. Using this platform can help you continue the conversation with customers across all touchpoints. What stands out about this solution: MoEngage comes with powerful predictive capabilities to boost email engagement rates. It can help you tailor your email campaigns to your customers’ next best action. 2. Best for Ecommerce Integrations: Drip Drip is one of the easiest-to-use email marketing automation tools for Ecommerce brands. Its simple dashboards and intuitive interface have already won hearts. You can go beyond basic personalization to segment your audience based on their behavior. It’s also easy to get crucial Ecommerce data by syncing Drip with over 50 integrated Ecommerce platforms like Shopify, LoyaltyLion, and WooCommerce. However, the tool doesn’t let you simultaneously have more than 50 active automated email workflows. What stands out about this solution: From welcome series and abandoned cart emails to post-purchase and win-back emails, you’ll find more than 20 pre-built email automation workflow templates on Drip. And on MoEngage? Over 30! 3. Best for Multi-Trigger Email Automation: MailerLite Much like Drip, MailerLite is known for its simple UI. Whether your customer adds a product to their cart or buys a product from a specific category, you can easily trigger an automated email workflow. Setting up several triggers (like filling out a form or clicking a link) allows you to add multiple entry points to a single email workflow. This helps you target your audience more precisely. The best part is, you can track and view past actions in your email automation workflow since its activation date. The tool also lets you A/B test up to 3 email workflow variations. What stands out about this solution: Each email automation can have up to 3 triggers. MailerLite also offers a library of email automated workflow templates, so you don’t have to create workflows from scratch. BTW, you’ll get multi-trigger email automation on MoEngage, too. 4. Best for Welcome Email Sequences: EmailOctopus Creating a great first impression should never take the back seat. That’s what EmailOctopus believes in, as an easy-to-use but powerful email marketing automation software platform. You can effortlessly create onboarding email sequences to welcome new subscribers automatically. Plus, it allows you to nurture your audience through complex automation with if/else conditions. The tool’s visual automation editor makes building automated emails easier, and you can also import HTML templates to create them your way. What stands out about this solution: The sheer simplicity of creating onboarding emails! The platform also provides customizable forms and landing pages to help you grow your email list and brand. With a horde of customizable templates and AI that generates readymade welcome email copy and images in seconds, MoEngage also has you in good shape to onboard new customers effectively. 5. Best for CRM Email Marketing Automation: HubSpot Ah, HubSpot — the CRM software giant. A boon not only for marketing and sales teams, but also for customer service teams. The email automation tools in HubSpot’s Marketing Hub let you automate follow-up emails and trigger specific actions based on audience engagement. You can also use CRM data, including contact name, lifecycle stage, and more, to automatically personalize your emails with the most relevant subject lines, CTAs, and links. From email reply tracking and email health reporting to customer journey analytics and predictive lead scoring, HubSpot’s features make it one of the best email marketing automation tools out there. What stands out about this solution: It offers an AI writing assistant that generates email subject lines and copy based on your past email marketing performance. You’ll get data-based suggestions on how to make your automated emails more engaging. It’s a beta feature for now, though. In HubSpot. It’s already there in MoEngage. Honestly, why use 5 different automated email marketing software for different features and use cases, when you can have one tool that applies to all these use cases (hint: MoEngage)? Anyway, now that you’ve seen what the best tools are, let’s examine the most important features you should look out for.   5 Key Features of Email Marketing Automation Software to Evaluate Not all email marketing automation tools are created equal, despite their marketing promises. Your best bet is to find a software platform that offers the following crucial features: 1. Pre-built Email Templates Thoughts like “Should the text go here?” and “Does the image look good there?” shouldn’t flood your mind when setting up automated email marketing campaigns. To begin sending engaging emails immediately, you need pre-built automated email templates. Templates you can customize in keeping with your brand identity and your audience’s behavior and preferences. Why this is a key criterion: Email templates give you a head start. They allow you to quickly roll out campaigns without you clutching at your hair over design. These pre-designed layouts ensure that every message looks great and remains on-brand. 2. Email Personalization Imagine you own a pet food store and you’ve accidentally sent an email about dog food to a cat mom. That’s a facepalm moment for sure, but if you had used an email marketing automation software tool to personalize your emails, you might have avoided making that embarrassing mistake. It goes beyond just using the recipient’s first name, though. Personalization also involves tailoring your email subject lines, content, images, and URLs to the recipient’s behavior, needs, and preferences. More specifically, the tool should let you use personalization attributes like “{{firstname}}”, “{{location}}”, and “{{sender name}}”. And with image personalization, you can insert contextual images in your cart abandonment follow-ups. Why this is a key criterion: When your customer sees that you’ve taken pains to find out about their likes, dislikes, and pain points, they appreciate it. They take it as a sign that you care about them. This builds trust, which makes them more likely to engage with your emails, than if the emails sound too generic. Who doesn’t like feeling special? 3. “Best Time to Send” Email Scheduling What’s the appropriate time for sending emails when customers check their inboxes? 9AM? 3PM? 10PM? One option is to experiment — send emails at different times to see when they’re performing the best. A smarter alternative is to use an email marketing automation tool that simply tells you the best time to send emails. How does it do that? With AI, to analyze your customers’ past behavior and predict when they’re likely to interact with your emails. Why this is a key criterion: What’s the use of sending automated emails when the recipients aren’t likely to interact with them at all? Reaching them at the right moment means higher open rates and better email engagement. Both your resources and your time are saved in the process. 4. A/B Testing No matter which email marketing automation tool you choose, it should let you test and optimize content, email send times, and subject lines. If you can’t compare different versions of the same email, you won’t understand which version your audience resonates most with. In turn, you won’t understand what email elements are most effective in converting the recipients into your customers. Why this is a key criterion: A/B testing provides data-backed insights that allow you to refine every aspect of your email — from the copy to the CTA. By methodically testing differerent variations, you ensure your emails are always evolving to meet customer preferences and improving your overall ROI. 5. Email Marketing Analytics Launching an email campaign is just the first step. To truly succeed, you need to understand how your campaigns perform. “Easier said than done.” No, it isn’t, with the best email marketing automation tools — no kidding! The tool you pick should help you track the open rate, Click-to-open rate (CTOR), unsubscribe rate, and other crucial email marketing metrics. These insights can help you fine-tune your automated marketing emails so they perform better in the future. Why this is a key criterion: Email analytics turn numbers into actionable strategies. When you see, for example, that your open rate is lower than expected, you know it’s time to craft more compelling subject lines. If your unsubscribe rate is creeping upwards of 1%, it’s a clear signal that your email content isn’t meeting customer needs. In short, analytics let you make smarter, data-driven decisions that help you make your emails more and more effective. Now, let’s look at how you can make the most of your email marketing automation tools.   How to Automate Your Emails with Software Here’s a step-by-step guide to automate your emails using any platform: 1. Select an Email Marketing Automation Software Tool Alright, back to square one, folks! Before you can start firing off automated emails, you need to pick the right tool that suits your needs. Does it match your budget and your overall marketing goals? Maybe you’re drawn to tools with robust segmentation, detailed analytics, and seamless integrations. For instance, some platforms (like MoEngage, for example) come with built-in automation features that let you select targeted audience groups and even integrate your emails effortlessly with other channels, like push notifications and SMS. 2. Set Email Automation Triggers Automation triggers are the specific actions or conditions (like a new sign-up, an abandoned cart, or an anniversary) that prompt your system to send an email. By setting these up, you ensure that every customer receives timely and relevant content without you having to lift a finger. Let’s say a customer signs up to your online store, browses your product range, and then pops back in later. With the right trigger setup, your email marketing automation software can send a tailored reminder email at just the right moment. 3. Create and Segment Your Email List Not speaking to the right audience? How would you know what’s the right message to send then? This is where managing your email list comes in handy. Start by gathering subscribers through signup forms. Then, categorize your audience into specific groups based on their behavior, location, purchase history, and even more factors. Some software platforms let you segment your audience with a few clicks. MoEngage, for instance, offers deep segmentation features that help you target your subscribers based on everything, from past purchases to browsing habits. You can also create customer segments (like ‘Promising’, ‘Price-sensitive’, ‘Hibernating’, and so on) using an RFM analysis on MoEngage. Basically, it lets you categorize customers based on their recency (when they last interacted with your website), frequency (how often they interacted with your website), and monetary value (what their last purchase was worth). The result? Higher open rates, better engagement, and emails that truly resonate because they’re speaking directly to the person reading them. 4. Built-In AI to Design and Personalize Your Emails Your emails should look as good as they sound. Period. Start with a compelling subject line that encourages your audience to open your emails. Use templates to maintain consistency in your branding, and include dynamic content fields for personalized touches. MoEngage offers a library of email templates with responsive design elements that look great on any device. Drag and drop images, text blocks, and CTAs to customize email templates and design amazing emails. You can also use MoEngage’s Sherpa AI to personalize your emails based on customers’ browsing history, interests, and behavior. And with Merlin AI from MoEngage, just use a pre-built prompt from a dropdown list or enter your own prompts to get high-quality images and email copy in seconds. 5. Build an Email Workflow (Optional) Crafting a workflow can transform a one-off email into a natural conversation with your customer. It’s basically an email marketing journey, aligning with the customer journey — from a welcome email, through a series of educational messages, to a follow-up after a purchase. Some email marketing automation platforms allow you to set branch points where recipients can receive different content based on actions taken or not taken. For example, when using MoEngage, you can build a personalized series that feels more like a conversation than a cold, automated sequence. This builds a stronger relationship with your audience over time. 6. Schedule Your Emails Scheduling ensures that your emails hit inboxes when your audiences are most likely to engage. MoEngage’s Sherpa AI lets you consider time zones and peak open times for each customer, so your emails are always as impactful as possible. 7. Monitor Your Performance Last but not least, you need to monitor and tweak your campaigns based on performance metrics. Keep an eye on open rates, click-through rates, conversions, and overall email engagement. Some tools offer built-in analytics dashboards that give you detailed insights into how your emails are performing. MoEngage comes with robust reporting features that not only track key metrics, but also help you optimize your future campaigns with A/B testing and detailed engagement reports. What’s more, MoEngage’s Merlin AI generates email performance reports as PDFs, charts, CSVs, and any other format you need. Need a report on quarterly email conversion rates over the last year? All you need to do is ask.   Choose the Best Email Marketing Automation Software Today Still not sure? Think — what if your email marketing automation software could help you: Build custom emails with zero code Automate emails based on your customer journey, from welcome emails to win-back follow-ups Personalize content or product recommendations at scale with AI Automatically update your customers about their bank balance, passwords, and delivery status on time Land your emails in customers’ inboxes, not their spam folders Predict what would work best for higher email engagement You’re in luck. Because you’ll find all these features and more on MoEngage. Take a 1-1 demo and see what wonders MoEngage can work for your automated email campaigns. The post Best Email Marketing Automation Software for Any Industry appeared first on MoEngage.