Best CRM Marketing Software Platforms (Top 10 Tools 2023)

Quick summary

Marketing CRM is a strategic software that centralizes and organizes customer data, and translates it into actionable insights. This leads to more personalized campaigns, improved customer engagement, and increased sales conversions.

In this article, we review the top 10 CRM marketing platforms of 2023, comparing their features, pros, cons, and pricing to guide you to the best choice for your needs. 

If spreading brand and product awareness is what your business needs, then you need the power of the best marketing CRM out there.

Marketing platforms need to connect with sales platforms (and sometimes even customer support too). Customer relationship management is the glue that holds it all together. Still, sometimes your marketing teams have specific needs. That’s why many platforms exist as CRMs for marketing.

There are loads of great choices, so we’ve narrowed it down to the top 10 CRM Software for marketing. We break down features, niches and prices.  

What is a marketing CRM tool?

So, what is a CRM for marketing, and how are they different from regular CRMs? CRM marketing tools can help with specific strategies for generating new leads. But first, let’s back up and talk about the basics.

Any good customer relationship management platform is built on the principle of better business through overlapping communication and centralization of tasks and data. In that spirit, a marketing CRM helps out by merging marketing functions with data from sales and other parts of your business.

It’s all about having all the information and tools you need to run marketing campaigns more effectively, obtain more leads, and close more deals.

This kind of CRM gives marketing teams the potential to individualize marketing, achieving the kind of ‘small-town familiarity’ with customers that will keep them coming back. Marketing efforts become more effective, with less work. 

Generally, the best marketing automation software usually comes in the form of SaaS cloud-based apps, although on-premise solutions are also available. That means you can access your information on multiple devices with just a quick log-in or a quick browser extension download.

Mobile apps come with the vast majority of marketing CRMs, letting you do your work in the field, too. 

This type of CRM solution provides an array of marketing tools like marketing campaign management and marketing automation across channels, statistics on opened/unopened mail status and click-through rate, and A/B testing to find the best strategy for your landing pages. 

What can a CRM & marketing system be used for?

Time to turn to an essential list of features for CRM in marketing.

Landing pages

Landing pages are arrival touchpoints after clicking an ad or a search result. They’re often different from homepages, as landing pages are more specifically related to what was searched for, or what ad attracted that click.

It might change based on the temporal or geographical coordinates. For example, if you own an online clothing store for women, your landing page may show swimwear to American customers in July and to Australian customers in January.

CRM for marketing tools help build and design landing pages using no-brainer visual editors and customizable templates. Otherwise, back-end coding and front-end design can be slow and costly when one needs to constantly whip up new pages on the fly.

Ads and SEO

Often, Marketing CRM also includes templates to create ads, mostly on social network sites like Facebook and Instagram where they’re non-obtrusively inserted into people’s timelines. Because no one likes pop-up ads, not even the person who created them.

Some of the best campaign management software and marketing CRM sometimes feature spontaneous SEO suggestions when composing texts, which is required for ads and landing pages that need to include hot SEO language to come up on top for related searches.

For example, maybe you’re writing a page to promote your line of plastic handbags. While you write “plastic,” your marketing CRM might suggest the word “PVC,” which was based on algorithmically accrued data from recent online fashion trends.

Segmenting and emails

People who land on a page or even fill out a form may not be strong enough leads to be passed down to sales just yet. However, light leads still need to be nurtured.

Marketing CRM segments these leads into different categories, for example, based on how much time they spent on the site, what links they clicked, or how much personal info they shared on a form.

Based on segments, CRM helps marketers prepare different campaigns so their brand stays “top-of-mind” until the lead is ready to become active. This usually takes the form of email reminders.

Like with pages and ads, composing and designing email campaigns is quick and easy with marketing CRM. “Drip” features allow a scheduled series of emails to arrive incrementally over a certain time period. Single-blast emails are useful for announcing big news like new products or promotions.

Data

Just as people behave differently on a landing page, so too will they react differently to marketing emails. Marketing CRM tracks this behavior by noting opened mail and counting click-throughs, which in turn creates an even more detailed picture of each lead.

Regular testing of the efficacy of landing pages and emails is a sharp tool in the marketing CRM kit. Features like A/B testing reveal what gets higher engagement, and this data is regularly fed back into the planning and composing of the next round of marketing content.

Marketing craves data. All that testing and tracking means there are gushing wells of the stuff, which makes for invaluable analytics reports.

Workflows and automation

Finally, there are automated workflows. These are tasks that are triggered by events that marketing CRM lets you set up.

Say, you create a trigger when someone has visited your site without answering the CTA. A pre-composed email gets auto-sent to the visitor as a reminder, maybe even offering an added incentive, to come back. Or if someone drops out near the end of a purchase, a sad picture of their abandoned item can instantly pop up in a live chat, or appear in their inbox.

Best CRM for marketing comparison chart (top 10 highest rated tools)

Here’s the quick overview of our CRM tools for marketing. It has some simple software on there, though most of these are both CRM and marketing automation platforms.

What are the best marketing CRM systems? Here’s our top 10 list:

After researching and tinkering and reviewing the user feedback, we’ve compiled a list of the top customer relationship management in marketing. It shows you which marketing CRM software is best for your business, large or small, or if you have a specific niche, like e-commerce.

1. HubSpot (Best CRM marketing tool overall) 

Why we chose it:

Founded by MIT alumni, HubSpot has been a dominant player in inbound marketing since 2004. Today they have many modules, including a CRM system and Marketing Hub.

Pros:

Helps with social media marketing campaigns and does blogging too. You can set up landing pages and do A/B testing to see which works best. Marketing automation tools help streamline the process.

Track the efficacy of your marketing campaigns in real-time with “revenue attribution reporting.” Of course this works great atop your CRM data.

Cons:

HubSpot does not offer many customization options. Its focus on marketing automation and contact records might be limiting if you want better relationship-based marketing.

Pricing:

• There is a suite of Marketing tools for free

• Marketing Hub starts at $45 

• Marketing Hub Professional starts at $800 

• Marketing Hub Enterprise starts at $3,200 

Visit site
^{Go to HubSpot CRM’s official website}
 

2. Mailchimp (Best free CRM for marketing) 

Why we chose it:

Mailchimp started out as an email subscription app. It has since grown to cover things like contact management, marketing, and creative tools. 

Pros:

This CRM solution has sales force automation and marketing tools. Access customer conversation histories from phone calls to emails and chats. Lead form integration turns website visitors into contacts.

Segment leads and customers in many ways, like by including industry, lifetime value, and location. Marketing automation makes setting up workflows easy. Also works with other Mailchimp apps like email drip campaigns.

Cons:

Importing data can produce duplicate leads. Integrations are limited in number, and automation features are not super advanced.

Pricing:

• There is a free version of Mailchimp Marketing

• Essentials plan starts at $9.99 

• Standard from at $14.99 

• Premium from at $299.99 

Visit site
^{Go to Mailchimp’s official website}
 

3. Intercom (Top marketing CRM for chatbots and messaging) 

Why we chose it:

Intercom specializes in what they call a conversational relationship platform. It aims to boost customer satisfaction through more human engagement. They have a conversational marketing wing of this platform.

Pros:

With Intercom, chatbots are one of the main functionalities of conversational marketing. This makes lead generation a big part of this marketing platform.

The business messenger lets you greet website visitors with targeted messaging. There is smart lead routing to help reach the best sales reps based on relevant customer data.

Cons:

Pricing is not readily available on their site, but using their calculations, this is not in a super cheap pricing tier. There are also some limitations with data syncing to other apps.

Pricing:

• Intercom Starter plan starts at $79 

• Product tour add-ons are $199 

• For Conversational Marketing prices contact the vendor

Visit site
^{Go to Intercom’s official website}
 

4. GoSquared (Good CRM marketing software for small business) 

Why we chose it:

GoSquared got off the ground back in 2006. It’s a platform to help software businesses grow. They have a new customer engagement module for marketers. 

Pros:

You can get the right message to the right audience through smart segmentation using customer information and other metrics. It gathers lead data on potential customers and uses it to automate fine-tuned marketing strategies.

There are advanced features to keep your more important customers well engaged, like follow-ups. 

Cons:

The analytics dashboard is more cluttered than it perhaps needs to be. Also, this one isn’t on the more affordable end of the spectrum.

Pricing:

• Starter plan starts at $79 

• Standard from at $129 

• Pro from at $170 

• For the Scale plan contact the vendor

Visit site
^{Go to GoSquared official website}
 

5. Creatio (Top CRM email marketing platform) 

Why we chose it:

Creatio is a huge platform that makes it easy to automate business processes. It can be used by no-code-knowing marketers and sales teams. They have a CRM solution with a marketing bundle.

Pros:

Creatio helps plan the customer experience to move them from marketing through the sales pipeline. You can manage customer interactions across nearly all channels for top marketing efforts.

It collects great contact data and does segmentation. There are great tools for marketing teams who specialize in email campaigns. 

Cons:

The UI is cluttered. Customization of the platform can be very time-consuming, and there is a moderate learning curve. The pricing favors enterprise-level clients.

Pricing:

Creatio provides with a 14-day free trial for you to test all the features available. Creatio offers a number of various editions and composable pricing, which allows users to select the edition that best fits their business model:

• Growth + Marketing CRM (which provides automation to SMB clients) starts from $40/user/month

• Enterprise + Marketing CRM (enables full-scale automation for corporate and enterprise needs) starts from $70/user/month

• Unlimited + Marketing CRM (delivers limitless automation for advanced enterprise scenarios) starts from $100/user/month 

Visit site
^{Go to Creatio’s official website}
 

6. Nutshell (Good CRM email marketing system) 

Why we chose it:

Nutshell is a relatively small company out of Ann Arbor, Michigan. They have separate modules for sales and marketing crm but with many interoperable functionalities. 

Pros:

It starts with great email templates and designs. You can segment down your audience by demographics or other contact data.

Nutshell has a great email drip feature which can be triggered by custom events. There is good tracking of how effective your email marketing is going.

Cons:

Importing data can produce duplicate leads, so data can become messy. Integrations are limited in number, and automation features are not super advanced.

Pricing:

• Nutshell Sales Starter plan is $19 

• Nutshell Sales Pro plan is $35 

• Nutshell Marketing plan is based on contacts, contact vendor for exact prices

Visit site
^{Go to Nutshell’s official website}
 

7. Insightly (Great CRM for marketing campaigns) 

Why we chose it:

Insightly was founded in San Francisco in 2009. It came into the game with serious VC money. Their platform aims to unify project, sales and marketing teams in one CRM.  

Pros:

Insightly marketing set of tools focuses heavily on planning the whole customer journey. It allows for a lot of testing and feedback reports to constantly fine tune your lead management.

There’s a good email builder and forms builder. The streamlining of data from marketing to sales is smooth.  

Cons:

Two-way sync for Google Calendar could use improvement. Custom fields for contacts are limited to 25. The CRM's UI looks a bit on the old school side. 

Pricing:

• Plus plan starts at $299 

• Professional from at $599 

• Enterprise from at $1,299 

Visit site
^{Go to Insightly’s official website}
 

8. Drip ECRM (Top marketing CRM tool for ecommerce) 

Why we chose it:

Drip is a CRM with a primary focus on helping out e-commerce businesses. It’s an easy, light-feeling user experience for those with simple business needs. 

Pros:

It's fun and easy to make great-looking forms. After that, their email marketing automations can be set up with a great visual builder. This helps with customer retention because times follow-ups well.

If you are a solo entrepreneur with an e-commerce or a small team, this is a great choice to get started for marketing CM.

Cons:

The pricing system can get higher as your contact list grows. Otherwise, this platform might feel lightweight for bigger businesses.

Pricing:

• Drip starts at $19 

Visit site
^{Go to Drip ECRM’s official website}
 

9. Act! (Good marketing CRM for ease of use) 

Why we chose it:

Act! is the kind of customer relationship management tool for marketing and salespeople who are not that into software. That’s saying simplicity is a strong point.

Pros:

The CRM data works together with marketing automation tools to craft targeted campaigns. You can craft pro-looking emails and plan an email customer journey.

It helps you see your biggest opportunities or most valued customers. The mobile apps from the Apple Store and Google Play are very intuitive. 

Cons:

While there is an affordable basic CRM and emarketing package, most of the better features require you to get the more premium version, though it’s also not too pricey.

Pricing:

• Essentials plan is $15 

• Standard plan is $30 

• Expert plan is $45 

Visit site
^{Go to Act! official website}
 

10. OnePageCRM

Why we chose it:

OnePageCRM advertises itself as a sales CRM for startups and small businesses. But aside from just guiding the customer journey through the sales process, it offers many marketing features.

Pros:

You can use a slew of email CRM features including a nice list of templates. There are marketing automation software tools that auto generate leads from clicks to hand them over to salespeople.

They also have mobile apps for iOS and Google.

Cons:

While this is great for small businesses and startups, it may seem limited if you are on a fast growth track. 

Pricing:

• Professional plan is $9.95 

• Business plan is $19.95 

Visit site
^{Go to OnePage CRM’s official website}

What is the best marketing CRM platform for me? 

The best marketing CRM will be the one that squares best with your business needs. We’ve awarded HubSpot overall, Mailchimp as the best free version, and OnePageCRM as the top choice for businesses. No matter, all our marketing CRM systems are great picks.

S here's some universal advice for SMBs looking for a marketing CRM. Before you settle on a vendor, consider these three factors. The first is pricing, in particular, the price jumps between different plans as you scale up.

The second is ease of use; that is (a bigger learning curve will translate to more time and money spent on training instead of marketing. Finally, there are integrations, making sure it works with tools you already use.

That wraps it up. Hope you found the right info you’ve been looking for regarding customer relationship management and marketing. Remember, there are always many free trials and demos out there if you want a closer look at a specific marketing CRM software.

Marketing CRM FAQs

What is a CRM in Marketing?

In marketing, CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It refers to the strategic approach and technology used by businesses to manage and analyze interactions with current and potential customers. A CRM system in marketing helps organizations build and maintain customer relationships, streamline communication, track customer interactions, and optimize marketing strategies.

It often involves the use of software tools to organize and centralize customer data, enabling more personalized and targeted marketing efforts.

What Are the 3 Types of CRM?

The 3 types of CRM include operational, analytical, and collaborative. Operational CRM is all about refining customer-facing processes, from sales to marketing, while analytical CRM delves into customer data, extracting insights to inform strategic decisions. Finally, collaborative CRM fosters better communication between different departments, ensuring a seamless and unified experience for the customer.

What is the CRM Approach to Marketing?

It’s all using CRM strategies and tools to enhance marketing efforts. It revolves around leveraging data and insights about customers to create more personalized and targeted marketing campaigns. By understanding customer needs, behaviors, and interactions, businesses can tailor their marketing messages, segment their audience effectively, and deliver more relevant content.

The CRM approach also emphasizes building and nurturing long-term relationships with customers, focusing not just on acquiring new customers but also on retaining existing ones through personalized communication and engagement strategies.

What is CMR in Marketing?

A customer-managed relationship (CMR) is when businesses empower customers to control information access and order using technology. It comprises three functions: customers owning their data, cross-departmental access, and prioritizing customer needs. The goal is to enhance customer satisfaction by allowing them to dictate communication, purchase preferences, and payment methods.