Running a business is a lot like cultivating a garden – it takes time for leads to blossom into customers. You must constantly nurture them with valuable content and compelling offers to push them toward conversions.
Lead nurturing software makes it easy by automating various steps of this journey. In this blog post, we’ll share more about lead nurturing software and the best lead nurturing tools to help you turn prospects into loyal brand advocates. Let’s hop in.
What are Lead Nurturing Tools?
A lead nurturing software is like a friend who never lets you miss an opportunity. Such a solution keeps your business in the hearts and minds of your potential customers. It’s a tool to automate follow-ups and keep the conversations flowing, ensuring your leads are always engaged and inching closer to choosing your product.
- 66% of people who use marketing automation do it to improve their lead-nurturing processes;
- 77% of companies register increased conversion rates when they use marketing automation for lead nurturing.
A lead nurturing software uses behavioral analytics to trigger tailored communications based on specific actions or milestones. Here’s how it helps:
- Personalizes communication. A lead nurturing solution customizes messages based on customer actions and preferences, making each interaction feel special;
- Tracks behaviors. Keeps tabs on potential customer behaviors and interests, making it easier to understand what they’re really looking for;
- Automates tasks. Frees you up from repetitive tasks to help you focus on the more creative aspects of your business.
Key Features of Lead Nurturing Software
Given how important lead nurturing is, no wonder you should demand so much from the software responsible for it. Here are the most important features you should look for:
- Email automation. When your lead nurturing tool has automation features, you can quickly and effortlessly assign and track leads, automate email campaigns, and more;
- Lead scoring and grading. Scoring tells which leads are more worthy of attention based on their online behavior. Lead scores help filter qualified leads and increase conversion rates;
- Segmentation and targeting. You should be able to segment your leads based on their behavior, interests, industry, etc. This helps you know your customer better, helping you personalize your messaging & positioning;
- Integrations. Seamless integrations with other marketing tools make the lead nurturing process smooth. You can do more when you don’t have to waste time juggling between different dashboards;
- Analytics. Monitoring the performance of your lead nurturing efforts is crucial. The software should help you draw valuable insight and optimize for better results;
- Customer relationship management (CRM). Having in-built customer relationship management tools simplifies the sales process. It helps with contact management and tracking a lead throughout the customer journey;
- Multichannel campaigns. Omnichannel lead nurturing campaigns help you reach leads through their preferred communication channels. So, your software should support different channels;
- Personalization. Customization is an inseparable part of the lead nurturing process. So, the tool should support creating personalized campaigns that trigger at the right moment;
- Form builder. Forms help you capture leads and collect valuable information about a prospect. So, your lead nurturing software should include a drag-and-drop form builder.
Best Lead Nurturing Software
Let’s look at the list of the best lead nurturing platforms for your business:
1. Sender — Easy-to-Use & Affordable Lead Nurturing Software
Sender is one of the best marketing automation platforms for simplifying the lead nurturing process. It’s a go-to choice for businesses wanting to engage their audience through omnichannel campaigns.
Sender’s Key Features
- Drip campaigns and sequences;
- Email and SMS marketing automation;
- Behavioral segmentation and personalization;
- Integrations with all major CRM & ecommerce platforms.
Drag-and-drop email builder, behavioral triggers, visual automation builder, and SMS campaigns make it a powerful automated lead nurturing solution. Use segmentation capabilities to categorize leads based on their online behavior. Then, personalize the follow-up or nurturing campaigns based on their actions.
Additionally, the SMS marketing feature provides a direct channel to your subscribers. The dual approach ensures that you’re reaching your audience through their preferred channels, increasing the effectiveness of your lead nurturing efforts.
So, if you’re looking for a way to engage and convert leads with personalized communication without getting tangled in overly complex features or steep pricing, you should try Sender.
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Visual automation builder | No landing page builder |
| Behavioral segmentation and targeting | Sender branding in the free plan |
| SMS marketing capabilities |
Pricing
- Forever free plan for up to 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails per month;
- Paid plans start at $15 per month for up to 30,000 emails and SMS marketing features.
2. Salesforce — B2B Lead Nurturing Platform
Salesforce is a popular enterprise B2B lead nurturing and reporting platform. It helps enterprises analyze all customer interactions across departments and get data-driven insights about the performance of lead nurturing campaigns.
Salesforce Key Features
- Lead nurturing planner;
- Lead generation features;
- MQL tracking;
- Built-in dialer and call log.
The software provides a 360° view of all leads so you can create relevant nurturing campaigns to turn leads into customers. Salesforce also offers real-time updates, so you always know where your prospects are in the lead generation funnel. Other notable features include pipeline reporting, phone dialer, and call log to nurture client relationships.
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Lead pipeline visualization | Complex and overwhelming for beginners |
| Great integration ecosystem | Expensive |
| Strong customer support | Requires training for advanced configuration |
Pricing
- Free trial plan available on request;
- Paid plans for lead nurturing features start at $1,250 per month for up to 10,000 contacts.
3. Ortto — Lead Nurturing Campaign Management Solution for SaaS
Ortto is a lead nurturing platform for SaaS companies and enterprise businesses. You can create one-on-one connections with your customers and discover actionable insights that help you capture, nurture, and convert more leads into customers.
Ortto Key Features
- Customer journey mapping;
- Lead scoring features;
- Campaign analytics;
- Activity dashboard;
- Behavior tracking;
- Behavioral targeting.
It helps sales teams unify customer data with their customer data platform (CDP) and segment key audiences across the customer lifecycle. As a result, you can engage these audiences with personalized omnichannel experiences and analyze their growth with a robust suite of business intelligence (BI) tools.
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| AI marketing tools & predictions for optimizations | Costly and overwhelming for beginners |
| Advanced email personalization capabilities | Requires time to set up and train your team |
| Omnichannel inbox | Suitable for enterprise use cases |
Pricing
- Free 14-day trial;
- Paid plans start at $509 per month for up to 10,000 contacts.
4. HubSpot — Best Customer Relationship Management Software
HubSpot is a customer relationship management (CRM) tool that helps you view your entire sales pipeline on a visual dashboard. You can personalize marketing emails, offers, content, and outreach according to lead behavior.
HubSpot Key Features
- Business lead nurturing workflows;
- Email marketing campaigns;
- Inbound lead nurturing management;
- Content creation tool.
The software also helps you streamline the process of creating blog content, emails, and landing pages so you can optimize every step of a lead’s journey. HubSpot CRM also monitors your lead’s email activity so that you can track hot leads. For example, the system notifies your sales team when a prospect visits your website or opens an email to help you optimize your open and conversion rates.
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Free CRM solution | Limited features and customizations in free plans |
| Great email marketing capabilities | Steep learning curve |
| Easy-to-navigate UI | Costly for small businesses |
Pricing
- Limited-time free trial account available with feature restrictions;
- Paid plans start at $18 per month for up to 1,000 contacts.
5. Keap — Online Sales Lead Nurturing Tool
Keap is a lead nurturing tool with hundreds of integrations to help you manage your business processes in one place. The software lets you manage lead capturing and nurturing, invoicing, pipeline management, and payment processes from a single platform.
Keap Key Features
- Sales and marketing automation;
- Sales pipeline features;
- Reports and analytics;
- Native integrations;
- Create your own lead nurturing and sales funnel.
It also helps you automate your sales and marketing processes. For example, the platform divides leads into different groups when they fill out contact forms and sends them perfectly-timed messages based on their actions.
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Integrated sales and marketing tools | Can be limited to specific industry use cases |
| Sales pipeline management | Complicated dashboard |
| Dedicated phone lines (U.S. and Canada) | Costly compared to other alternatives |
Pricing
- Free 14-day trial with limited features;
- Premium plans start at $169 per month per 1,500 contacts.
6. Zoominfo — Sales Automation System
Zoominfo is the modern sales automation platform for B2B companies. It has a comprehensive, accurate, and updated intelligence database to track the buying intent data of contacts and companies.
Zoominfo Key Features
- Email and phone automation;
- Contact and company search;
- Buyer intent;
- Chatbot for sales;
- Conversation intelligence.
Zoominfo adds additional data on top of lead intelligence like sales engagement, conversation intelligence, and data orchestration. It also offers a detailed contact directory, supporting lead generation, sales management, revenue tracking, and enhancing productivity by systematizing work.
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Lead intent forecasting intelligence | Long customer support response time |
| Automated outreach and contact discovery | Higher pricing compared to other platforms |
| Direct dialer for contacts | Complex setup |
Pricing
Customized pricing plans based on features and functionalities required. Basic plans start at $15,000 per year.
7. Nutshell – Simple Contact and Pipeline Management Solution
Nutshell is a user-friendly CRM designed to help you nurture leads through visual pipeline management. It simplifies lead tracking and automates the sales process based on the lead stage.
Nutshell Key Features
- Sales process automation builder;
- Visual lead pipeline management with multiple views;
- Email and form builder;
- Lead attribution and analytics;
- Paid add-ons for scheduling meetings and website analytics.
Nutshell provides comprehensive CRM functionalities, robust reporting tools, and useful contact management/updating features. It can automate reminders for calls, emails, meetings, and other activities, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks. A mobile app ensures team members can access lead information anytime, even on the field.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Customizable and visual sales pipeline | Multiple email attachments not available |
| Unlimited contacts and record storage on all paid plans | Paid add-ons for campaign and landing page builder; |
| Mobile app for accessing lead data in the field | Limited integrations |
Pricing
- 14-day free trial account is available;
- Paid plans start at $16 per user monthly for unlimited contacts and one sales pipeline.
8. EngageBay – Refined Marketing Automation Software
EngageBay offers a comprehensive suite of tools to streamline marketing efforts, enhance customer engagement, and automate repetitive tasks.
EngageBay Key Features
- Landing page builder;
- Email marketing automation;
- CRM integration;
- Social media management.
The platform is user-friendly, making it useful for businesses without extensive technical expertise. It empowers businesses to nurture leads effectively through personalized communication, automated workflows, and insightful lead scoring.
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Extensive CRM capabilities | Fewer integrations |
| Strong customer support and responsiveness | Limited templates |
| Cost-effective | Buggy email builder |
Pricing
- Free plan with limited features for up to 250 contacts;
- Paid plans with all-in-one access start at $13/user/month with 500 marketing contacts.
9. LeadSquared – Great Platform for Lead Scoring
LeadSquared specializes in sales, marketing, and onboarding automation. It offers robust lead-scoring tools to help you prioritize leads and is particularly effective for high lead-volume businesses.
LeadSquared Key Features
- Lead scoring;
- Automated workflows;
- Multi-channel engagement;
- Form builder;
- Lead analytics.
LeadSquared supports lead scoring and offers automated sales alerts based on their stage. Its reporting and analytics features are good, too – it comes with customizable dashboards and standard reports, and you can even set up custom reports.
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Seamless integration with a lot of marketing/sales tools | Slow when it comes to advanced lead segmentation and filters |
| API support for customization | Occasional technical glitches |
| Automated sales alerts | Costly for many businesses |
Pricing
- Free trial available on request;
- Paid plans start at $400 per month.
10. Pipeline – Good Overall CRM Platform
Pipeline CRM is for small to midsize businesses that want to focus on sales. It helps sales teams automate the lead nurturing process through visual pipeline management.
Pipeline Key Features
- Social data integration;
- Role-based user permissions;
- Mobile accessibility;
- Marketing automation;
- Customizable dashboards and reports.
Pipeline CRM balances ease of use with essential sales and marketing features. It offers a range of features, such as an email and sales automation builder, social CRM, daily agenda reports, etc.
It’s tailored to simplify lead pipeline management and enhance customer engagement through social media and other channels. However, it may not offer the advanced functionalities found in more expensive, larger-scale CRM platforms.
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Easy-to-navigate interface | Non-responsive contact form layouts |
| Transparent sales tracking | Occasional technical glitches |
| Customizable dashboards and reports | Too much focus on sales funnels |
Pricing
- 14-day free trial plan available;
- Paid plans start at $25 per user monthly for up to 250 deals and one sales pipeline.
11. Pipedrive – Best for Sales Process Automation
Pipedrive offers an uncluttered interface to streamline the sales process. Its kanban-style sales pipelines are highly visual and easy to follow for teams to track deals effectively from start to finish.
Pipedrive Key Features
- Customizable sales pipeline;
- Readymade analytics templates for different goals;
- Email inbox integrations;
- Document management;
- Mobile app.
The user-friendly platform has many features that make lead nurturing easier, even for beginners. It has tools for lead qualification and an AI sales assistant that analyzes past sales activity. There’s even a basic sales automation builder for automating deal progress and outreach tasks.
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Visual sales pipeline | Complicated set up |
| Customizable workflows and automation | Slow customer service |
| AI sales assistant for forecasting | Limited number of reports on lower plans |
Pricing
- A 14-day free trial is available;
- Paid plans start at $10 per month for unlimited sales pipelines.
12. Marketo – Best for B2B Sales and Marketing
Marketo offers advanced automation and personalization features, making it useful for enterprise clients looking to enhance their lead nurturing strategy.
Marketo Key Features
- Advanced lead management;
- Email campaign management;
- Customer engagement tracking;
- Marketing resource management;
- Analytics and reporting.
Marketo supports customization and promotes marketing scalability for businesses with complex sales funnels. It comes with lead management, email, customer base, and mobile marketing features.
Its powerful analytics and lead management tools make it a preferred choice for enterprises involved in B2B marketing. However, smaller businesses or those new to marketing automation might find Marketo’s comprehensive features and pricing more challenging to navigate.
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Integrations with major marketing & CRM solutions | Poor landing page builder experience |
| Responsive customer support | Steep pricing model |
| Easy to setup | Limited reporting without additional extensions (paid separately) |
Pricing
- Custom pricing plan available on request based on requirements;
- Standard plans start from $895/month.
13. AWeber – Best for Targeted Email Communication
AWeber is known for user-friendliness and is suitable for businesses looking to engage their audience through targeted email campaigns.
AWeber Key Features
- Lead forms and landing page builder;
- Behavioral segmentation;
- Dynamic email content for personalization;
- Auto newsletter and autoresponders.
AWeber offers a variety of features for lead nurturing and effective email communication. These include a drag-and-drop email and landing page builder, a signup form builder, and an email automation builder. It also comes with an AI writing assistant to generate email content quickly. It also supports email autoresponders to create timed conversations and target prospects based on their behavior.
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Intuitive drag-and-drop builder | Limited customization in signup forms |
| AI writing assistant for content creation | Basic email automation compared to competitors |
| Auto newsletter feature for consistent outreach | Charges for unsubscribed contacts |
Pricing
- Free plan for up to 500 subscribers and 3,000 emails per month;
- Paid plans start at $12.50 monthly for unlimited subscribers.
Also read: 11 Best Email Capture Software for Generating More Leads
How do Lead Nurturing Tools Help Businesses?
Businesses thrive on relationships, and lead nurturing software helps you improve them. It not only syncs your marketing with sales processes but also enhances the quality of your customer interactions, ensuring that your business stays ahead in the competitive marketplace. Here are the areas where a lead nurturing tool is most useful:
- Lead scoring. Streamlines your focus by ranking prospects based on their online activity to highlight who’s ready to engage or buy;
- Lead segmentation. Categorizes leads for personalization to ensure the right message reaches the right audience at the right time;
- Customer relationships. Engages customers with valuable content and offers to build trust and strengthen your bond for lasting relationships;
- Detailed analytics. Delivers crucial data insights for strategic and informed decisions regarding the next steps for engaging and converting prospects;
- Activity tracking. Keeps an eye on customer interactions for optimizing future campaigns and engagement strategies.
Choose the Best Lead Nurturing Software Today
Now that we’ve covered the best lead management and nurturing tools, you can choose the best one for your business needs. Remember the following while picking one:
- Try all the features using a free trial or plan before finalizing a solution;
- Look for tools that support/integrate your existing marketing and sales stack;
- Select a solution that helps you personalize interactions based on behavioral triggers;
- Choose a solution that grows with you and has an affordable tiered pricing model.
Sender’s Free Forever plan, with up to 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails monthly, is all a small business needs to run an effective lead nurturing campaign.
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- 8 Best Email List Management Software & Practices for Business
- Comparing 8 All-in-One Marketing Platforms: Find the Best
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