Integrate, automate, delegate — these words could become a new motto of the modern tech world. The companies seek to establish an all-in-one system which can handle every business operation.

This wonder-system should consist of seamlessly integrated elements and free people from doing an iterative job. Marketing is among major business activities where automation is in full swing, so more and more marketing automation software solutions emerge in 2018.

Today we are going to talk about the most relevant marketing automation tools to help our readers reduce time and cash spent on repetitive actions and invest it into something that really makes the world go round. But before we dig deeper, let’s answer the most common questions which can cross your mind when you hear the term “marketing automation”.

Revealing the true nature of marketing automation

WHAT? In short terms, marketing automation software eases the marketer’s daily grind by streamlining, coordinating and measuring repetitive tasks and workflows. In the broader sense, marketing automation is a part of CRM aimed at assisting you in moving your leads down the funnel. This process includes lead nurturing and scoring, segmentation, target content generation, sales documents creation, etc.

WHO? Let’s imagine: you need to send a bunch of e-mails to the group of clients. A small company may have an e-mail list of 10 people, but some large businesses deal with groups of 10,000 or more. It’s almost impossible to manage that number of e-mails by hand.

This leads to the conclusion: marketing automation is a killer-app for large businesses. Yes, but how can small companies use a sink when we have a dishwasher? No matter how large is your pile of dirty dishes — the dishwasher will handle them anyway faster.

WHY? It’s a proven fact that marketing actions and workflows become hassle-free when you use MA software. According to Salesfusion, 63% of companies that are currently outrunning their competitors rely heavily on marketing automation.

Another research conducted by Techaisle showed that it’s not a coincidence. Businesses that use marketing automation software are 51% more successful in managing leads, 54% — in generating new revenue from existing customers, 20% — in monitoring social media, and they have 45% better marketing ROI than those companies that bypass marketing automation. So, draw your own conclusions why you still need it.

HOW? As we mentioned above, the main goal of marketing automation is to simplify the lead moving along the pipeline. Thus, MA software allows you to:

• create lead generation, nurturing, and e-mail drip campaigns at short notice;
• easily identify and qualify website visitors;
• score leads and determine if they’re ready for sales;
• quickly craft personalized e-mails and conduct A/B testing;
• leverage cookies and track prospect’s actions;
• build custom landing pages;
• calculate individual campaign costs, etc.

That’s how software helps you on your road to success. But each marketing automation tool works best for different types of automation, so the set of available features can vary.

Let’s dive into the multifaceted world of MA software and take a stock of 5 viable tools as of 2018.

5 marketing automation tools to grow revenue faster

PandaDoc

PandaDoc is your portal to the paperless universe, where every document is created in a few clicks, contracts are signed using iPhone, and the sales close rate is increasing at light speed.

This helps you build marketing proposals and quotes, create legally-binding signatures, manage workflows, and address almost any issue related to digital paperwork. The strongest suit of the app is 15+ CRM integrations — with PandaDoc you can handle documents without leaving a CRM.

Pros:

• Robust document creator with drag-and-drop functionality, dozens of pre-made templates, and content libraries
• Cloud-based
• CPQ functionality allows you to know your revenues before making a deal
• Bank-grade security
• Advanced document analytics and audit trail
• Vast opportunities for workflows automation
• Unlimited eSignatures compliant in 42 countries

• 15 CRM integrations (Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, ProsperWorks, and more)
• The possibility to start the in-app discussion on the proposal
• Free lightweight tools to create online signatures like CreateMySignature

Cons:

• No customer support via phone number
• No free subscription plan (only 14-day free trial)
• The functionality is limited only to document management. No e-mail campaigns management

SocialDrift

If you use Instagram as a primary platform for your business, SocialDrift is just what the doctor ordered. This is an artificial intelligence marketing tool which can automate the growth of your Instagram brand profile.

Use smart targeting filters to customize your strategy, schedule posts, receive detailed progress reports, and automate likes, follows, and comments. The software claims to be absolutely safe: you won’t exceed Instagram limits and, therefore, won’t be banned.

Pros:

• Lots of smart filters for precise targeting
• User-friendly and highly-customized interface
• Weekly/monthly detailed growth reports help to track your progress
• Out-of-the-box proxy support
• Unlimited autolikes, follows, and comments
• Advanced scheduled posting module
• Graphics and image generation support
• Full compliance with Instagram terms & conditions to keep your account safe

Cons:

• Focused only on Instagram, doesn’t support other social media platforms
• Pricing is higher than average
• Lacks long videos support

MailChimp

MailChimp is leading software to automate your marketing campaigns, e-mail newsletters, and social media advertisement. Design beautiful e-mails using a built-in drag-and-drop editor, code your own templates, and instantly follow-up with qualified leads.

What’s more: MailChimp integrates with Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, and other major eCommerce platforms as well as other apps you may use such as Salesforce CRM, Google, Facebook, Eventbrite, etc.

Pros:

• Powerful analytics (A/B & multivariate testing and detailed reports)
• Full automation of e-mail campaigns
• Beautifully designed drag-and-drop template editor
• Free subscription plan with up to 12,000 e-mails per month
• User-friendly dashboard with a multitude of marketing automation features
• Salesforce CRM integration + integrations with other frequently used applications and eCommerce platforms
• Native mobile application
• Google, Facebook, and Instagram ad campaigns are available
• Simple in-built landing page constructor

Cons:

• MailChimp uses its own marketing automation terms instead of industry standards
• A difficult procedure of changing defaults
• Very frequent updates (every 4 weeks) may be annoying for non-frequent users
• Too simple basic subscription forms
• No 24/7 customer support

HubSpot

HubSpot is an all-in-one automation service for business which will assist you in walking your leads through the whole pipeline from start to finish and make them eventually buy. The primary HubSpot’s product is its free CRM, but they also have 3 so-called marketing, sales, and service hubs which allow you to cover the majority of tasks so hated by your employees.

The company offers various solutions starting at $0 per month, what’s especially appealing to small businesses. Yes, it is that wonder-system we were talking about at the very beginning of our review.

Pros:

• This is full-cycle marketing automation software with the ability to integrate with third-party tools
• Free of charge CRM + sales, marketing, and customer service software packages
• An abundance of tools combined with simple design and ease of use
• Hassle-free web design and landing pages creation. No coding experience is required
• Out-of-the-box extended customization
• SEO, social media, blogging, and other features for advanced content marketing
• All-in-one analytics system which measures the whole marketing funnel and provides you with detailed reports for each marketing channel
• Seamless integrations with CMS, e-mail, collaboration, customer success, advertising, and other tools
• An ability to design custom branded e-mail and CTA templates

Cons:

• It takes time to figure out every feature and learn how it works (there are too many features)
• Some third-party integrations can be used only tied to HubSpot marketing
• Lack of customer support, according to some reviews

Optimizely

Optimizely is probably the most extraordinary hero of the day. This software claims to be one of the finest online experimentation platforms — here you can test decisions you make and improve the customer experience of your website.

No more need to guess what will work and what will not. Make sure in the effectiveness of your actions by receiving statistics through Optimizely. You can easily create experiments using visual editor and sort them by various parameters including geography, ad campaign, cookies, and many more.

Pros:

• Quick test setup: only a single line of code is needed to start
• No programming skills required — you can create tests using a user-friendly visual editor
• Convenient out-of-the-box analytics display — all stats come in a form of the chart
• Creation of custom user segments which can be reused
• A variety of testing tools (A/B, multivariate, funnel,
• Audience targeting & segmentation based on URL, referral information, Javascript conditions, etc.
• Integrations with Google Analytics and other third-party analytics
• Mobile testing support
• Experiment scheduler

Cons:

• Analytic goals for testing are not available
• Pricing is slightly higher than average
• Slow Javascript frontend

In essence, our review is not the chart, where we define the best marketing automation service. Each software mentioned above can be a part of the whole. Together these MA services will bring much more benefit than separately.

Yes, you will finally get the complete automation system you could only dream of a couple years ago. But now in 2018, the technology became so sophisticated that you can make your dream come true just in a few clicks.

Create marketing campaigns with HubSpot, design e-mails with MailChimp, sign documents with PandaDoc, manage Instagram with SocialDrift, and test customer experience with Optimizely. Let your business go off without a hitch.

With travelling becoming more popular and affordable among many, travel concierge services (or sometimes trip concierge) are on their rise; they are gaining more popularity among world travelers and local businesses alike. Generation Y, the Millennials, Generation Next.

They are going to shape the travel industry in the upcoming years with their desire for instant and real-time access, comprehensive and flexible information, expert opinion and peer reviews, both online and offline socializing and communication, and authentic local experiences. This is when travel concierge comes in place.

International tourists and people going abroad on business start to look for extraordinary experiences, adventures and personal travel services. With a personal travel concierge you can have it all.

Who is a Personal Travel Concierge

At present there are many companies and individuals specialising in the delivery of luxury travel concierge services. They know all the ins and outs of all legal, social and cultural aspects of travelling in their countries and provide their clients with VIP 24/7 support. They are professionals with extensive knowledge of hospitality, foreign languages and tourist attractions in the country of visit.

Travel concierges usually have agreements with different accommodation and transport providers, restaurants and museums, which allows them to offer timely services to international tourists at a reasonable price. However, such concierge travel services tend to be sometimes overpriced and thus suitable for business travellers and VIP clients only.

With the rise of the shared economy such companies as Uber, AirBnB and others started to make different services shift from B2C to CC or peer-to-peer model. And travelling industry is no exception.

MeetnGreetMe Personal Concierge Services Platform was created to connect world travellers and local people for getting travel concierge services and personal assistance. This is a much more local and affordable way of travelling as MeetnGreetMe aims to make luxury concierge service accessible by many.

In this case, travel concierges are local people who are willing to dedicate their spare time to serving foreign guests’ (travelers) needs and help them reach their goals. However, in this case, most of the travel concierges registered will not be certified tour guides, but friendly and open-minded local people with various occupations, from students and businessmen, to shopping assistants and personal city guides.

What Problems Travel Concierges Solve

Travel concierges help to solve all that. With their local experience and contacts they are capable of taking these problems off your shoulders and allowing you to travel carefree, waste no more time, money and energy. Having a helping hand when you are abroad always gives you the peace of mind and the feeling of safety.

What are Travel Concierge Services

There is no stated classification of travel concierge services as the range of the concierge travel services offered is usually designed individually and at the client’s request.

Broadly speaking, anything starting from the moment you leave the plane or train at the place of your destination and till you board the plane upon the end of your trip. Travel concierges can take care of everything in between these two points.

As a rule personal travel services include such ones as meeting upon arrival and driving you to your hotel, booking accommodation, restaurant reservations, buying tickets and escorting to events, translating and interpreting at meetings, buying flowers, accompanying you to a doctor, helping with day-to-day issues, and many more.

Travel concierges are quite flexible specialists, therefore they inquire about the clients’ plans, dates, desires and needs, and develop personal travel services to cater for all the demands and requirements.

Who Usually Orders Travel Concierges

As it was mentioned above, travel concierge service used to be prerogative of VIP clients and business travelers only — those who had enough funds to pay for such a luxury. It has also been always connected with the time to spare. As a rule, people going to another country on business or having some fixed plans are lacking in time and energy. Therefore, travel concierges could always make sure world travelers feel comfortable and spend their free time with pleasure and carefree.

With the introduction of shared economy and rise of MeetnGreetMe personal concierge services, this scheme changed. With personal travel services that were made more affordable and accessible, ordinary world travelers also joined the list of those interested in ordering travel concierge services.

All world travelers explore other countries in search of authentic experiences and adventure. Local travel concierges are well capable of delivering personal approach and designing travel concierge services to cater for their needs, budget and time to spare.

MeetnGreetMe Travel Concierge Services

MeetnGreetMe offers a new kind of travel concierge service — travel concierge delivered by local people. We are convinced that the local people are a major source of absolutely new experiences and unforgettable emotions.

They are open to share secrets of their cities, show the most loved places, open their house’s doors and reveal their authenticity. From a gastronomic tour, a party with locals, personalized shopping to sick care and interpreting, our MeetnGreeters are happy to deliver any service and welcome you in their homeland.

Who are MeetnGreeters?

Our MeetnGreeters are local people from all over the world with different specializations, interests and hobbies. They are professional concierges with years of experience in the field, photographers, bloggers, language teachers, business owners, artists…

They are all in love with their cities, are keen to meet new people and make the luxury of travel concierge services affordable and authentic.

Benefits of MeetnGreetMe Travel Concierge Services

World travelers choose MeetnGreetMe personal travel concierges over and over again for many reasons. First of all, it saves your precious time. While local personal assistants take care of finding the best price options, the most convenient locations, the most suitable ways to solve any problem you can enjoy your trip, do business, learn country’s history, visit museums, try their cuisine and have fun.

Moreover, booking a service through our online platform takes only a few minutes, which again, saves your time and efforts.

Secondly, locals are able to offer the most competitive pricing in travel concierge. These include complimentary room upgrades, airport transfers, special dining experiences, exclusive shore itineraries, custom itineraries, and more.

You always keep track of the price for concierge services and never overpay. Local concierges set the prices themselves and you can always estimate whether you can afford their services or not. MeetnGreetMe guarantees that your money will come to your travel concierge only after the services are delivered.

We pay special attention to MeetnGreeters’ trustworthiness. That’s why you can always rely on our local concierges and what is more, you can choose any MeetnGreeter you like more and have much in common with.

Stay positive and discover new routes and destination with MeetnGreetMe!

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