I’ll give you a clear UK‑focused route through the options so you can pick what fits your team and budget. I’ll map the main categories — orchestration, all‑in‑one and channel specialists — and show where each platform sits in practice.
Expect honest pricing signals and starter plans. Zapier offers a free tier, paid from $19.99/month. Brevo begins at about $8/month. HubSpot’s professional hub starts near $800/month. Omnisend, ActiveCampaign, Klaviyo, Customer.io, Ortto and Mailchimp each cover different needs and price points.
I’ll also cover ease of use, onboarding and key features like email, SMS, behavioural automations and data hygiene. You’ll see when AI speeds content and timing, and when human judgement should lead.
My aim is practical: more qualified leads, smoother sales handoffs and better campaign outcomes. I’ll weave in UK deliverability and compliance so your emails and SMS actually land. Let’s shortlist a few options you can test this month and roll into action fast.
Why marketing automation matters for UK small businesses right now
UK firms can gain real speed and precision by adding automation into everyday marketing work. I’ve seen teams free hours from routine marketing tasks and redirect that time into growth activities.
Research shows 78% of companies use marketing automation and the benefits are clear. You get faster lead follow‑up, consistent customer journeys and fewer manual errors across email, SMS and paid channels.
Personalisation scales too. Behaviour‑based triggers and segments let you send the right message at the right moment without extra staff. Tiered plans and free tiers lower the cost to start; upgrade when ROI is proven.
Data from multiple channels flows into a single platform, so reporting becomes reliable and decisions stay weekly and practical. Sales handovers improve because qualified leads arrive with context, lifting conversion rates.
UK compliance matters. Pick a solution that builds consent and deliverability into its features to protect reputation. Before you invest, make sure you have one working channel, a clear strategy and the capacity to implement—then automate what works.
How to choose: key criteria for small business marketing automation
Choosing the right platform starts with matching channels, integrations and support to your growth goals. I recommend a practical checklist so you judge platforms by what you need, not by glossy features.
Automation breadth across channels
Start with channel coverage. Favour solutions that handle email, SMS, social and ads so you can orchestrate journeys across multiple touchpoints.
Integrations and data sync
Look for native connectors or a robust API to keep CRM and commerce data in sync. Good integrations cut manual work and keep lead management accurate.
Price-to-value and ease of use
Compare pricing carefully — note per month and per user charges, contact tiers and add‑ons that push costs up. Prioritise visual builders and sensible defaults so your team gets productive fast.
Analytics and scaling
Insist on dashboards, attribution and cohort reports that link activity to revenue. Check deliverability records if email is core and validate scalability before you replatform.
I test workflows end‑to‑end during trials. That practical step tells you more about a platform’s real value than any brochure.
Best Marketing Automation Tools for Small Business
Choose quickly: a shortlist that pairs common use cases with starter pricing and free plans. I’ve tested these platforms and noted where they fit day‑to‑day workflows in UK teams.
I’ll keep this tight — one line per pick, price signals and the role each tool plays. Use this as a quick filter when you trial options this month.
Quick shortlist by use case
Orchestration: Zapier connects 8,000+ apps and adds AI steps — great as a central automation tool (free tier; paid from $19.99 per month).
All‑in‑one entry: Brevo bundles email, SMS and WhatsApp, offers a free plan and starts at about £8 per month.
Premium suite: HubSpot consolidates marketing, sales and service — powerful but expect Marketing Hub Pro pricing from around $800 per month.
Free plans and low-cost starters at a glance
Ecommerce-friendly: Omnisend has generous free plans and starter paid tiers from $16 per month.
User-friendly builders: Klaviyo and Mailchimp each offer free plan options and fast setup (Klaviyo paid tiers from $20, Mailchimp from $13 per month).
Advanced options: ActiveCampaign, Customer.io and Ortto scale into deeper features and higher pricing as needs grow.
All‑in‑one platforms worth your budget
If you want a single platform to run email, SMS and chat, these all‑in‑one options speed setup and reduce vendor headaches. I’ll summarise what each offers, the likely limits and when to plan an upgrade.
Brevo: affordable entry with email, SMS and WhatsApp automation
Brevo gives a generous free plan that automates email, SMS and WhatsApp so you can validate campaigns fast. The Starter tier begins from $8 per month and unlocks basic sending without heavy cost.
Expect workflow steps like delays, A/B splits, webhooks and simple CRM updates. Note limits on the free plan — branding remains, 300 emails per day and advanced reporting are gated to higher tiers. Use brevo free to test sequences and map an upgrade path.
HubSpot: premium suite for scaling across marketing, sales and service
HubSpot bundles CRM, CMS and service into one marketing platform with deep context across teams. The workflow builder and dashboards are very capable and suit complex journeys and executive reporting.
Advanced automation sits at Marketing Hub Pro, with pricing around $800 per month. HubSpot offers rich integrations (about 1,600), but budget carefully: the value comes when you need unified contacts and cross‑team visibility.
Ortto: modular automations with generative AI
Ortto fits data‑driven teams that want modular automations and built‑in generative AI. Pricing begins from $509 per month and focuses on growth analytics and personalised journeys.
In short: choose an all‑in‑one when fewer vendors and unified reporting matter. Factor per month pricing, feature gates and custom pricing options before you commit.
Top pick for orchestration across your stack
When your stack already includes specialist apps, an orchestration layer keeps them working as one.
Zapier: connect 8,000+ apps, add AI, and automate the customer journey
I use Zapier when I need to join disparate platforms without replatforming. It links over 8,000 apps and wraps a visual builder around AI steps, Tables, Interfaces, chatbots and Agent decision steps.
Plugging AI into workflows helps draft copy, summarise performance, classify leads and clean data as events occur. Tables and Interfaces act as lightweight storage and form capture so you don’t need a separate database.
Start on the free plan to test flows. Paid tiers begin at $19.99 per month when you need higher volume and advanced features. That per month step often pays for itself in saved time.
When to choose an orchestrator over an all‑in‑one
Choose an orchestrator when your team already relies on apps like HubSpot, Mailchimp, Facebook Ads and Google Sheets. Orchestration keeps best‑in‑class services working together and reduces migration risk.
Orchestrators shine when agility and control matter more than a single suite. They let you automate handoffs across the customer journey and scale integrations without vendor lock‑in.
Best for small businesses on a budget
For tight budgets I recommend platforms that let you start free and scale when revenue shows. Choose services that offer clear per month pricing and a useful free plan so you can prove value quickly.
Omnisend: generous free plan and ecommerce‑friendly workflows
Omnisend offers a feature‑rich free plan that covers email, push and SMS. It has pre‑built journeys for abandoned carts and post‑purchase touches, plus strong templates and an AI assistant to speed content.
Paid plans start from £/€16 per month. Support is 24/7 and Omnisend Academy helps lean teams learn fast.
Mailchimp: email marketing automation with third‑party acquisition
Mailchimp remains a solid starter. It offers free tiers and paid plans from about £13 per month. The editor and reporting are easy to use, and wide integrations let you extend reach via third‑party acquisition channels.
Klaviyo: user‑friendly builder with strong templates
Klaviyo supplies a clean drag‑and‑drop builder, ecommerce data blocks and good templates. There’s a free plan to begin, and paid tiers start near £20 per month. It’s designed to scale email marketing and lifecycle campaigns as you grow.
Start on a free plan, prove the setup with real campaigns, then move to paid pricing when the revenue is clear. These options balance capability, speed to value and cost control for UK teams.
AI‑powered automation leaders
I pick platforms that bring practical AI into everyday workflows and keep control of your data and cadence.
ActiveCampaign: predictive sending, AI content and multilingual workflows
I use ActiveCampaign when teams need a broad library of templates and an AI assistant that writes and summarises copy.
The platform includes an AI automation builder at all plan levels and a large multilingual workflow library. Predictive send sits behind higher tiers — factor that into pricing if timing is critical. Plans start from $15 per month.
Customer.io: behaviour‑based journeys across multiple channels
Customer.io excels when you drive journeys from event data. It triggers across email, push and SMS and integrates widely.
This platform suits product‑led growth: embed events, segment by lifecycle stage and tailor messages across multiple channels. Pricing begins around $100 per month.
Both platforms offer strong analytics so you can link activity to outcomes and refine campaigns fast. Choose Customer.io if your data is event‑rich; pick ActiveCampaign if you need broad team use and multilingual templates.
CRM‑led automation tools for sales and marketing alignment
I prioritise platforms that let sales and marketing work from the same live data. That shared view keeps your sales pipeline honest and reduces missed follow-ups.
HubSpot CRM and Marketing Hub: unified data and robust workflows
HubSpot CRM gives a generous free plan with lots of contacts. Automations live mainly on paid tiers, and Marketing Hub Pro starts around $800 per month.
HubSpot offers deep workflow logic and built‑in customer service features, but test deliverability on real sends before you commit.
EngageBay: value-packed pipelines and campaigns
EngageBay includes a CRM & Sales Bay free up to 1,000 contacts. Paid tiers begin near £/$12.99 per user per month.
Automations are visual and strong on paid plans, so it’s a good choice when you need clear lead management without heavy pricing.
Pipedrive: sales-first CRM with add-on campaigns
Pipedrive is focused on the sales pipeline. Essentials starts at $24 per month and automations come on higher tiers.
Use the campaigns add‑on when you want simple marketer‑driven sends alongside a useful contact map and two‑way email sync on Advanced+.
Freshsales Suite, Salesmate: email automation and mobile productivity
Freshsales Suite bundles email automation with core pipelines at the entry price and includes a mobile app for field teams.
Salesmate starts at £15 per user per month. It shines on mobile — card scanning, visual journeys and about 30 pre‑built reports help busy owners stay on top of deals.
Check which tier unlocks email sync, journey builders and advanced reports to avoid surprise per month costs. Pick the platform your sales team will live in daily — adoption beats feature sheets every time.
Email automation platforms to scale lifecycle campaigns
Start simple: welcome, educate, re‑engage — then measure what actually moves revenue. I’ll show practical ways to build lifecycle journeys and which platform strengths to match to your needs.
Welcome, nurture and re‑engagement sequences
Design flows that work day and night. Welcome messages set expectations and collect preferences. Nurture sequences teach value and guide product use. Re‑engagement seeks lapsed contacts with a clear offer or survey.
Omnisend supplies pre‑built workflows and an AI assistant that speeds setup across the customer journey. Mailchimp and Klaviyo offer drag‑and‑drop editors and wide template libraries to launch campaigns fast. Keep an eye on emails per contact and let engagement drive cadence.
Segmentation, tagging and personalisation
Use tags and segments to send relevant content. Interest, behaviour and lifecycle stage should guide email marketing messages. Feed store or app data into dynamic blocks — viewed products, renewals and purchase history raise relevance.
ActiveCampaign shines on triggers, actions and lead scoring, and tests show strong deliverability from inbox providers. Test subject lines, content blocks and timing. Track opens, clicks, conversions and revenue per segment so you can iterate with confidence.
Social media automation that complements your marketing stack
Good social scheduling saves time, but smart linking to the rest of your stack drives measurable results. I recommend treating social media as part of a workflow: plan, publish, monitor, then feed data back into CRM and ads.
Hootsuite: end-to-end management and monitoring
Hootsuite centralises accounts, curation and listening. It suits teams that need publishing, social listening and customer service in one place. Pricing ranges from $99 to $249 per user per month, with enterprise plans on request.
Buffer: simple scheduling with collaboration
Buffer keeps things light. There’s a free plan (1 user / 3 channels) and paid tiers from £/€5 per month for Essentials and £/€10 per month for Team. It’s a great way to start scheduling and adding team approvals without friction.
CoSchedule and Sprout Social: calendar-driven planning and insights
CoSchedule gives a clear editorial calendar that aligns campaigns, blogs and social posts. A free plan exists and paid pricing starts near £/€19 per month. Sprout Social targets larger teams with publishing, care and rich analytics — enterprise pricing is available.
- Use social automation to plan, schedule and monitor — free your team from ad‑hoc posting.
- Tie social to ads and CRM so audience data powers other campaigns and service handoffs.
- Budget per user seats per month and decide whether advanced analytics justify premium plans.
- Automation schedules posts; keep a human voice for replies and community building.
Pricing realities for small businesses: free plans, per month and custom pricing
Understanding what you pay for each month saves awkward surprises later. I’ll walk through common limits, how tiers hide key features and the parts that really move cost as you grow.
What “offers a free plan” usually includes
“Offers free” often means send limits, branding or reduced features. Brevo’s free plan caps at 300 emails a day and includes branding; Starter removes that for a fee. Zapier, Omnisend, Klaviyo and Mailchimp all offer free plans but reserve A/B testing, advanced reports and some triggers for paid tiers.
Use free plans to validate workflows. Don’t expect them to scale revenue‑generating campaigns. Track which features unlock at each paid step.
Per user vs contact‑based pricing and how it scales
Some vendors charge by contact counts; others add per user seats. Platforms like EngageBay and Salesmate add per user fees that stack as teams grow. SMS credits, campaign modules and extra seats can double a monthly bill.
Compare annual vs month billing for discounts. If you need bespoke SLAs, ask for custom pricing and negotiated onboarding. Finally, build a simple ROI model: time saved, extra revenue and reduced churn should justify each plan step.
Essential automation features to prioritise
Focus on features that directly save time and move revenue—those are the ones to prioritise. I recommend a short checklist you can use during trials.
Visual workflow builders and branching logic
Pick a visual builder you enjoy using. Drag, drop, branch and annotate your logic so teammates can read it at a glance.
Lead scoring, qualification and sales pipeline updates
Lead scoring must reflect real behaviour—site visits, email engagement and events. Automate pipeline updates: change stages, assign owners and create follow‑up tasks to keep momentum.
Multi‑channel triggers and transactional messaging
Ensure triggers span email, SMS, push and ads. Add transactional messages for confirmations and critical alerts so customers stay informed.
Dashboards, attribution and revenue reporting
Dashboards must tie activity to revenue. Look for cohort, campaign and attribution views you can trust. Zapier-style orchestration helps consolidate analytics if you use multiple platforms.
I also check for reusable templates, versioning and easy data export. ActiveCampaign, HubSpot and Customer.io each excel in different areas—choose what matches your data and campaign needs.
Integration strategy: connect across multiple tools without chaos
Connect the systems you rely on so customer events trigger timely actions. Start by naming the sources of truth — CRM, commerce, ads and forms — and map how data should flow between them. Clear ownership prevents surprises.
CRM, commerce, ads and forms working as one
Plan your stack around core systems so data moves in both directions. Centralise events so behavioural triggers power timely messages and ad audiences. Customer.io and Omnisend handle event‑driven journeys well; HubSpot offers roughly 1,600 native integrations to reduce custom work.
When to use native integrations vs an automation platform
Use native integrations when depth matters — field mappings, objects and support. Choose an automation platform like Zapier when you need to link tools across multiple vendors fast; Zapier connects 8,000+ apps and adds AI steps to workflows.
I recommend these quick rules:
- Align naming conventions and IDs — clean data is the foundation.
- Document workflows and monitor sync health with alerts and logs.
- Review integration footprints quarterly and retire unused connections.
Industry and channel fit: pick tools like a pro
Match your platform choice to how customers actually buy from you, not to the feature list. I’ll help you spot which setups suit store‑led sellers and which suit account‑led teams.
Ecommerce needs: carts, catalogues and order data
Omnisend and Klaviyo handle catalogue and order data well. Use builders that insert product blocks into emails and recover abandoned baskets automatically. Pre‑built flows — browse, basket recovery, post‑purchase and review requests — deliver quick ROI and improve email marketing performance.
B2B needs: account journeys, meetings and long cycles
ActiveCampaign and HubSpot suit B2B: account workflows, lead scoring and meeting scheduling are core features. Brevo adds a simple meeting scheduler, while Pipedrive and Salesmate lean into pipeline management and sales processes.
Align attribution windows to your sales funnel and extend lookbacks for longer cycles. Build segments from real business data — AOV, category and lifecycle stage — and plan templates that respect VAT, currency and regional UK nuances at scale.
Compliance, deliverability and data quality in the UK context
Deliverability and data quality are the silent drivers of campaign performance in the UK. I’ll set out the practical steps that keep your domain healthy and your messages landing.
Consent, GDPR and list hygiene
Capture explicit consent and log it. Use double opt‑in for higher‑risk lists to protect your domain and IP reputation.
Remove hard bounces, suppress unengaged contacts and respect unsubscribes immediately. Keep data clean by deduplicating contacts and standardising fields so segments work as you expect.
Deliverability differences across platforms
Deliverability varies by platform. EmailTooltester found HubSpot CRM lagging in tests, while ActiveCampaign ranked among the top three. Factor sender reputation into your choice.
Free plans can include branding and limits — Brevo caps at 300 emails per day — and that branding can lower trust and engagement. Watch emails per contact and cadence; quality beats quantity for inbox placement.
I recommend you partner with customer service teams at vendors. They can guide warm‑up, authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and remediation if deliverability slips.
- Log proof of consent and keep records in your CRM with automated stamps.
- Suppress bounce and complaint addresses fast.
- Consult support early on warm‑up and auth setup.
Make your shortlist: a simple framework for deciding this month
Work through these steps to turn research into action and deliver measurable results.
Step 1 — confirm readiness: one working channel, clear goals and capacity to implement this month.
Step 2 — list must‑have features: channels, CRM sync, analytics and the integrations you will actually use.
Step 3 — pick three candidates: an all‑in‑one, an orchestrator and a channel specialist if needed.
Step 4 — run a live trial: build one end‑to‑end journey, import contacts and send a real campaign.
Step 5 — measure uplift: time saved, leads generated and sales influenced per month.
Step 6 — model pricing and paid plans: factor seats, contacts, SMS credits and foreseeable add‑ons.
Step 7 — check support and onboarding: UK‑friendly hours, docs and migration help. Decide with confidence — choose the tool that delivers outcomes fast and scales without drama.