Greetings Marketers!
This post aims to differentiate between Zoho Marketing Automation and Zoho Campaigns. By the time you get to the end of the post, you will be able to choose a product that objectively suits you.
Zoho Marketing Automation, mainly addresses the following needs of a business:
Top of the funnel:
Lead generation: Landing pages, sign-up forms, pop-up forms, and offline marketing tracking capabilities.
Web behaviour: Analyze website pages, track traffic sources, set action-based goals, and create custom links.
Middle of the funnel:
Campaigns: Email, SMS, social media, and pop-up campaigns.
Nurturing: Automate workflows, score leads, and personalized content.
Lead Life Cycle Management: Personalized stages, lead scoring, lead segmentation.
Bottom of the funnel:
Lead attribution and reporting: Key performance indicators like number of verified leads, conversion rate, click-through-rate, time spent on page,
Marketing Planner: Set goals, create & coordinate tasks, and track activities for campaign transparency.
Budgeting and RoI: Get campaign level and holistic view of the outcomes of your marketing activities to track ROI.
What is Zoho Campaigns?
A powerful email and SMS marketing platform to create and send targeted campaigns to your audience. The software allows you to automate your campaigns based on triggers and execute multi-step campaigns flawlessly. It also offers vast campaign analytics and measurement capabilities.
| Zoho Marketing Automation | Zoho Campaigns |
Description | Helps you create & run full-funnel marketing, beyond email and sms marketing. For instance, landing pages, social media, and lead lifecycle management, amongst others. | Used for creating, sending, and tracking email & sms campaigns. Primary focus is on delivering targeted and engaging email messages. |
Marketing Campaigns | Email, SMS, social media, webinars | Email and SMS campaigns.
|
Lead Qualification | Lead segments, lead scoring (advanced- web behaviour based, field based, email activity based scoring), custom lead stages, assign tags. | Lead segments, lead scoring (email activity & workflow). |
Automation | Automate communication, segment audiences, nurture leads, and qualify with Journeys. Leverage templates, triggers, and generate detailed reports. | Crafts workflows for campaigns based on user behaviours and email responses with pre-built templates. |
Analytics | Track pages, identify sources, set goals with reports. Generate custom links for source tracking and insights into impactful channels. | Generates reports for email campaigns but website analytics are not available. |
Marketing Planner | Set goals, plan campaigns, track progress, and collaborate seamlessly with detailed insights using the online planner, ensuring optimal budget control and successful marketing operations. | Doesn't offer distinct marketing planner. you can schedule campaigns. seek team approvals, and specify access for each team member |
Lead Generation | Signup forms, Pop-up forms, and Landing pages | Does not offer landing pages and pop-up forms, but it does allow for the deployment of signup forms. |
Zoho Marketing Automation stands out for its comprehensive capabilities in product promotion. From robust contact management and marketing planning to precise ROI calculation and powerful web analytics with custom goal-setting, it offers a holistic suite. Unlike Zoho Campaigns, it extends its reach to include Lead Attribution, Website Tracking, Marketing Planner, Landing Pages, Workspace, Journey with path tracing capabilities, and 360 degree lead view. This expansive feature set positions Zoho Marketing Automation as the go-to solution for businesses seeking an all-encompassing approach to marketing strategy.
If a business primarily wants to focus on just email and SMS marketing, then Zoho Campaigns can be a great option. However, if a business wants a more comprehensive marketing automation solution that covers multiple channels along with lead life cycle management, then they may need to check out Zoho Marketing Automation.