31+ Must-Have Tools to Automate Lead Generation

 

Lead generation is the lifeblood of any business.

As a business grows, so will its lead generation channels and strategies. Without automation, optimization and growth will suffer, ultimately resulting in poor ROAS. With this in mind, it’s important to identify the best tools to automate lead generation and why your team should invest in them.

Related: Top 50 Lead Generation Tools in 2023, Ranked & Rated

What is lead generation automation?

Lead generation falls into two key categories:

  • Outbound lead generation: direct mail, email marketing, and cold calls
  • Inbound lead generation: PPC, content marketing, and SEO

Automated lead generation is about using tools which are powered by AI and machine learning to create lead generation systems across all your inbound and outbound channels. This lets you automate leads across your customer journey and manage them for better conversion.

Why is automated lead generation important?

The more you automate your lead generation process, the more streamlined your sales funnel will be. This will feed a steady flow of possible leads into your marketing. The benefits of this approach include creating a steady stream of sales leads and increased sales productivity.

Both of these points lead to increased revenue for your brand, which is the ultimate goal for any business. So which lead generation strategies should you be automating?

In short, all of them. We’ve rounded up some must-have tools to automate lead generation across the following categories. Feel free to click a specific category and skip ahead.

Email marketing and list building/management tools

Here are a few email marketing and list building tools to consider.

1. AeroLeads

If you are looking for a tool that streamlines your business email lead search, it’s worth looking into AeroLeads’ Chrome extension. It lets you find verified email addresses online from various platforms in real time. It also provides you with valuable data such as job titles, company info and location, and LinkedIn profiles.

Price: From $49 per month with a free trial

Key features:

  • Bulk add 2,500 contacts with a single click
  • Import data from CSV
  • Export to CSV
  • Find emails and phone contact info from browser
  • Use prospect search filters

2. Flow by LeadGenius

LeadGenius is an all-in-one view with data acquisition automation. It combines B2B data, data outsourcing, and robotic process automation, to increase qualified leads exponentially. It does this by allowing users to use the web to source new contacts, update existing connections, and find account data and signals in real-time.

Price: From $50 per month with a free basic account option for testing

Key features:

  • Drag-and-drop interface
  • Pipeline flow automation eliminates manual work
  • Automatic churn signal triggers
  • Chrome extension

3. Mailshake

Mailshake is a lead generation tool that lets brands automate their prospecting outreach via email, social, and phone. Unlike traditional email marketing solutions, this automated solution enables you to send personalized cold emails at scale, then engage with these prospects via phone and social. This is all managed in one sequence from one dashboard and integrates with most top email providers.

Price: From $59 per month with a 30-day money back guarantee

Key features:

  1. Advanced scheduling and throttling
  2. Lead Catcher feature
  3. Advanced split testing
  4. Gmail, Outlook, and SMTP integration
  5. Browser extension (coming soon)

Related:How to Write a Cold Email That 33% of Prospects Will Reply To

4. Overloop

Prospoect.io is an outbound lead generation automation tool that helps you grow your email lists, track your marketing, create automated workflows, and more. It helps you gather good leads for your cold emails pitching campaigns, and ensures these contacts are verified.

Price: From $39 per month (for email finder feature)

Key features:

  • Email finder
  • Automated drip campaigns
  • Contact management
  • Drag-and-drop pipeline building
  • Opens, clicks, and replies tracking

5. SalesHandy

SalesHandy is software that lets businesses and sales teams automate and track their email outreach from Gmail and Outlook. You can handle email tracking, scheduling, or mail merge campaigns from one dashboard. Although it requires a more hands-on approach, some of its features, such as automated notifications and link tracking, will streamline your prospect email strategy.

Price: Free plan with paid plan upgrades starting from $9 per month

Key features:

  • Email marketing link tracking
  • Real-time double tick notifications
  • Unlimited email open notifications
  • Pre-loaded Gmail email templates
  • Automated follow-up emails

Tip: Automating, segmenting, and optimizing your email list building is vital. But so is ensuring that the emails you are sending are designed to actually generate replies. This means tweaking, testing, and optimizing your: subject lines, intro personalization so that aligns with prospects’ goals, and sales CTAs.

6. Datanyze

Datanyze is a Chrome extension that enables you to automatically collect contact information from LinkedIn profiles and business websites straight from your browser. This includes email addresses, direct dial numbers, and cellphone numbers, which you can export easily from Chrome.

Price: Datanyze comes with a 90-day free trial with paid plans starting at $39 per month

Key features:

  • Data capturing and email list collection from social media
  • Contact list management and export
  • Ability to search and connect with prospects on scale
  • Credit allotment can be pooled between users and topped up at any time
  • Built-in featured icebreakers for cold emailing and/or calling (coming soon)

Tip: If you’re looking for an all-in-one lead generation solution that also includes list-building automation, you should also consider Wishpond and ActiveCampaign.

PPC marketing automation tools

Don’t overlook PPC marketing. Use these tools to help you use PPC more efficiently.

7. Google Ads Editor

Google Ads Editor is a free app that allows Google Ads advertisers to make bulk changes to PPC campaigns offline. Although it’s not fully automated, it does let you streamline and manage your PPC marketing. It helps you manage your Google PPC campaigns more efficiently, so you can manage, edit, and view different accounts at the same time.

Price: Free

Key features:

  • Move items between ad groups and campaigns
  • Work offline
  • Bulk editing
  • Search and change text across ad groups or campaigns
  • Undo and redo multiple changes while editing your campaigns

8. Optmyzr

Optmyzr is a PPC management system with a range of features to make PPC management easier. When it comes to automation, it offers marketers automated scripts and alerts so you get personalized notifications for performance across all your channels from one place.

Price: Subscriptions start at $208 per month, excluding any ad budget

Key features:

  • Custom MCC dashboard
  • Campaign optimization in Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, and Amazon Ads
  • Report scheduling, enhanced scripts, the Rule Engine, and Shopping Campaign Refresher automation
  • Alerts for KPIs and account policies
  • Custom filters, views, and metrics

9. WordStream

WordStream is designed to make DIY PPC management easier and more streamlined. It allows marketers and sales teams to create, manage, monitor, and optimize PPC campaigns from one dashboard. It offers time-saving alerts, workflow tools, and a cross-platform reporting dashboard.

Price: Priced from $49 per month

Key features:

  • Agency management options
  • Google, Facebook, Instagram, Microsoft, YouTube, and TikTok ad integrations
  • Automated alerts and workflow tools
  • Reports from multiple clients
  • Easy-to-use ad creative solutions

10. Traffic Booster

A good Optmyzer or WordStream alternative for more PPC automation is Traffic Booster. Traffic Booster is geared towards eCommerce retailers and takes care of every aspect of your PPC marketing, automating your whole PPC lead generation process. Combining the expertise of top PPC marketing experts and unique machine learning, it creates, manages, and optimizes campaigns for peak performance and optimal ROIs.

Price: Traffic Booster starts at $180 per month, which includes your actual advertising budget

Key features:

  • PPC channel and campaign integrations include Shopping, Smart Shopping, Dynamic remarketing and Search, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Bing, TikTok, and Pinterest ads
  • Dedicated account manager and marketing expert
  • Machine learning and automated bid optimizer
  • Real-time PPC optimization
  • Advanced features for enterprise growth and multiple account management

Customer analytics and data collection tools

Now, let’s explore customer data collections and analytics automation tools to help automate processes and acquire data more easily.

11. Lead Forensics One

Lead Forensics One takes traffic data and automatically extracts analytics data that marketers can then push through their sales funnel. Its most notable feature is its ability to automatically grab key critical demographic data, give each potential prospect or customer a score based on multiple criteria, and then auto-assign leads based on their likelihood to convert.

Price: Product and package is adapted to each brand based on their specific needs

Key features:

  • Instantly identify your anonymous website visitors
  • Auto-assign leads and triggers notifications in real-time
  • Customize your portal/dashboard
  • Flags ideal customers who are more likely to convert
  • Collects business name, contact information, demographics, search behavior, and financial data

12. Hotjar

Hotjar analyzes potential customers in real-time based on their site and/or promotional landing page behavior. It does this by creating heatmaps that visually represent where prospects click, move, and scroll on your site, giving a clear picture of your behavior analytics. It also includes customer surveys and real-time feedback gathering tools you can use to better optimize your website’s flow and branding to turn potential leads into customers.

Price: Includes a free basic account option with paid plans starting at $39 per month

Key features:

  • Automatic and continuous data tracking
  • Unlimited heatmaps
  • Over 2,000+ integrations and unlimited team members
  • Ability to target visitors by URL, device, custom JavaScript, and user attributes
  • Feedback tools collect feedback in over 40 languages

13. Leadfeeder

Leadfeeder is a data collection tool that automatically provides you with a continuous list of businesses visiting your website, how they found you, and what they’re interested in. Used by over 30,000 sales teams, marketers, and agencies, it’s a popular automated lead generation tool.

Price: Includes a free basic account option with paid plans costing $63 per month

Key features:

  • Analysis of the exact behaviors of businesses visiting your website
  • Behavioral and demographic custom segmentation and visitor scoring
  • Prospect lists are automatically scrubbed of bots, ISPs, and other valueless traffic
  • Leadfeeder Contacts finds the right person to contact
  • Integrates with all major CRM and marketing automation tools

14. NextOS

NextOS is a powerful customer analytics and CRM tool by Nextiva that tracks every interaction prospects or customers have on your website. In short, it provides a comprehensive picture of your business’s customer journey across all your channels. It’s a robust software solution that integrates marketing, CRM, and analytics collection (e.g. surveys) automation to provide a complete picture of who your customers are and what products or services they are likely to engage with.

Price: Basic small business plans start from $18.95 per month.

Key Features:

  1. Unlimited voice and video calling
  2. Customer experience scoring and automatic conversion analysis
  3. Custom dashboards and analytics reports are accessible company-wide
  4. Sales productivity and pipeline management
  5. Sentiment Analysis feature scans all communications and automatically flags and escalates relevant customers

15. Qualaroo

Qualaroo is a customer and user feedback software designed to gather real-time website and product feedback. This tool uses onsite mini customer surveys and nudges to collect important customer data from potential leads. This data is then correlated to give you actionable insights such as user experience or pricing sticking points feedback.

Price: Plans start from $80 per month.

Key Features:

  1. Exit intent surveys
  2. Built-in feedback survey templates
  3. Automated feedback mining
  4. Ability to create unique CTAs based on an emotional score
  5. Net Promoter Score® measures how likely customers are to recommend your product or service to their network

Onsite Personalization and Landing Page Automation Tools

16. Leadpages

Leadpages helps smaller businesses quickly build landing pages, pop-ups, and alert bars. It simultaneously collects leads and automatically funnels them through CRM and other tools. Leadpages enables you to grow your email subscriber list using built-in opt-in offers, instant digital file delivery, and conversion-optimized content with real-time tracking.

Price: Plans start from $27 per month and include a 14-day free trial

Key features:

  • Landing pages have built-in conversion guidance and offer unlimited lead collection
  • Code-free drag-and-drop customizations
  • Pop-ups that trigger on-click, time delays, or exit intent
  • Non-intrusive mobile-friendly alert bars
  • Unlimited landing pages and lead notifications creation

17. OptinMonster

OptinMonster is a powerful lead generation package software that includes many features, including drag-and-drop landing page builders and lead capture forms. It streamlines landing page and promotion lead generation with built-in real-time “test and adjust” features. With hundreds of templates, A/B split testing, unique Exit Intent Technology and more, OptinMonster is an all-in-one landing page, customer analytics, and website personalization lead generation tool.

Price: Plans start from $27 per month and include a 14-day free trial

Key features:

  • Smart Campaign Triggers based on behavior
  • Page-level and onsite targeting
  • Lead list segmentation and smart targeting
  • Real-time behavior automation
  • Leads captured and verified through OptinMonster’s TruLead feature

18. RightMessage

RightMessage automatically triggers onsite CTAs based on specific user behavior on your site. By analyzing site visitors to determine who they are, what they do, and what they are looking for, RightMessage ensures that users’ experiences on business websites and landing pages are as personalized as possible.

Price: Plans start from $79 per month and include a 14-day free trial

Key features:

  • Built-in onsite surveys and quizzes
  • Automatic email list segmentation
  • 100s of landing pages created automatically based on campaign or targeting data
  • User data used to personalize product descriptions, landing pages, and site elements
  • Two-way synchronization with email marketing software

19. Namogoo

Combining psychographic segmentation, buying intent KPIs, and a host of demographic and behavioral data, Namogoo’s intent-based automated onsite promotions enable individualized incentives in real-time, personalized for every site visitor. Their unique machine learning uncovers customer intent to give each and every shopper the smallest push needed to convert without sacrificing on margins.

Price: They offer flexible plans for small to enterprise businesses that are personalized to each brand

Key features:

  • Personalized promotions for anonymous and first-time site visitors
  • AI journey adaption adapts each journey to individual customers
  • Completely automated onsite promotions
  • Quick implementation (no designers, developers, or maintenance needed)
  • Native mobile SDK or eCommerce integrations

Related: 3 Ways to Bolster Your Buyer Intent Data for Stronger Sales

Customer communication automation tools

Even if you had no other tools, having customer communication tools handy is key. Here are a few tools to automate customer communication so your business can stay on at all hours.

20. Intercom

Intercom is an impressive prospect and customer communication tool that offers onsite live chat, bots, and built-in product/service tools. Designed to build relationships with customers, it enables teams to manage all customer interactions from one dashboard and use customer data to personalize communications.

Price: Packages start from $59 per month

Key features:

  • Automated chatbots
  • Personalized customer experience and targeted chat based on segments
  • Cross-channel customer service communication
  • Rules and automated workflows
  • Company, behavior, conversation, and customer data tracking

Tip: For businesses selling physical products, don’t forget about automating your order management as well as your customer service. This will ensure your CRM communication and fulfillment strategies are aligned, and tools work together. You also want to make sure that messaging across your prospect journey stays true to the brand and flows well. This includes automating order fulfillment, inventory management, and order tracking.

21. Drift

Drift’s custom chatbots are designed to tailor your prospect and customer conversations to offer more personalized interactions with each site visitor. These custom chatbots automatically engage with site visitors with the right messaging and content to turn them from browsers to qualified leads.

Price: Price is based on specific business needs and is on request

Key features:

  • Target account engagement
  • Visitor intelligence
  • Real-time personalization
  • Custom and AI chatbots
  • Communication analytics and insights

Tip: Before choosing a live chat software, you need to make sure they are automated and fit your specific marketing team, brand, products, and market. Here’s a list of Top 20 Live Chat Software Platforms in 2021, highlighting the different use case arguments for each.

22. Zendesk Sell

If you are looking for more robust customer service options, Zendesk is a popular CRM choice. Their sales CRM is designed to enhance productivity, processes, and pipeline visibility for sales teams to win over more customers and close deals.

Price: Packages start at $19 per month

Key features:

  • Email tracking and notifications, and cold and warm email automation
  • Out-of-the-box reporting solutions
  • Click to call and call analytics
  • Targeted prospect list creation
  • Access to Zendesk’s dedicated team of experts

SEO automation tools

Modern businesses can’t be successful without optimizing their web content. Here are a few tried-and-true SEO automation tools to help get your site seen.

23. Semrush

Semrush is an all-in-one tool that enables marketers to manage SEO, content marketing, competitor research, PPC, and social media marketing from one platform. In terms of SEO automation, they offer a variety of tools (such as rank tracking, on-page SEO, and competitor SEO analysis) to streamline searches and drive more qualified prospects to your website.

Price: Packages start from $119.95 per month with a seven-day free trial

Key features:

  • Backlink analysis tools
  • SEO competitor analysis tools for instant reports on their organic reach, keyword gaps, and backlink status.
  • SERP tracking tools for automated rank and opportunity tracking
  • Keyword research
  • Technical SEO tools for site health and Google interaction analysis

24. Ahrefs

When it comes to SEO, Ahrefs is a household name. This all-in-one SEO toolset continuously audits your site and SEO performance and tracks your ranking progress, in addition to everything else you expect from a robust SEO optimization tool.

Price: Plans start from $99 per month with an option to try before committing for just $7

Key features:

  • Automated monthly site audits
  • Continuous rank tracking
  • Comprehensive backlink reporting and tracking
  • Content and keyword explorer
  • Customized automatic reports

Tip: Looking for SEO automation tools that help optimize backlinking? When you compare Ahrefs to Semrush, you’ll see that they’re similar, so choosing one comes down to personal preference. However, when it comes to backlink tracking and strategies to boost SEO lead generation, Ahrefs may be the better choice.

25. Ubersuggest

Designed by Neil Patel, Ubersuggest allows users to reverse engineer their competitors’ SEO and content marketing strategies. Designed to streamline SEO and create a content blueprint, Ubersuggest includes a host of SEO tools, including keyword research, top SEO page reports, backlink data, generated content ideas, and more.

Price: From $12 per month and includes a 7-day free trial

Key features:

  • Keyword discovery
  • Automated daily ranking tracking
  • Competitor analysis
  • Backlink data
  • Ability to create and track one-dashboard web projects

Related: How to Generate Online Authority for Your Sales Process

Content marketing automation tools

With content marketing, you can’t just “set it and forget it”. To make sure you don’t, use content marketing automation tools that can help you keep the content value going on social and more.

26. Hootsuite

When it comes to content marketing automation, Hootsuite is one of the most popular tools. It not only allows you to automatically schedule content and review posts in a simple calendar view, but tracks your latest social engagements, trends, and brand mentions.

Price: From $49 per month and includes a 30-day free trial

Key features:

  • Schedule and share content to all platforms from one dashboard
  • Reply and address cross-channel messages
  • Manage social media ads and get results reports across all social channels
  • Create a unified message for all departments and teams to share
  • Get actionable insights based on data

27. Vimeo Business

When it comes to combining video content management and lead capturing, Vimeo Business is a top choice. It includes email capturing and enables you to upload videos to a variety of channels from one central dashboard and integrate product or service explainer videos into your website.

Price: Plans start from $80 per month and include a risk-free 30 days

Key features:

  • Set permissions for up to 10 team members
  • Get 360 video support
  • Compile advanced statistics
  • Publish natively to social channels
  • Share high-quality videos on desktop, mobile, tablet, and TV

Related:10 Sales Video Examples to Crush Quota from Call to Close

29. Turnstile

Another automated lead generation tool worth considering for video engagement is Turnstile. Created by Wistia, this tool is specifically designed to capture email addresses and other content info after a potential prospect has viewed your video content. In short, it streamlines and automates the process of turning video views into qualified leads.

Price: Turnstile offers a free basic plan with paid plans starting at $99 per month

Key features:

  • Branded video and podcast hosting
  • Advanced video analytics and interactive video tools
  • Fully customizable player
  • Up to 250 channel subscribers with email notifications
  • A/B testing

29. EverWebinar

EverWebinar understands the sales-driving power of webinars to sales teams and marketers, and has turned it into a tool that streamlines backend admin, thus improving ROIs. This includes automating webinar footage, lead capturing, and webinar scheduling while still maintaining the live webinar feel.

Price: Plans start at $34 per month and include a 30-day risk-free money-back guarantee

Key features:

  • Automated webinars
  • Built-in landing pages
  • Advanced simulation tool
  • Automated webinar email marketing
  • Flexible scheduling

Tip: Hosting your first webinar? Make sure that you don’t just promote your scheduled webinar, but promote engagement on the event. Also, where and how you place your CTA is vital in securing a qualified prospect.

30. Sendoso

If you are looking for ways to automate your offsite content marketing and incentive marketing strategies, then Sendoso may be the right tool for your sales team. It enhances pipeline building and increases sales velocity through personalized gifts, branded swag, eGifts, and virtual experiences.

Price: As packages are tailored for each specific business, prices are given based on request.

Key features:

  • Sendoso Experiences
  • Meeting scheduler
  • Sendoso Choice Gift bundles for personalization
  • Custom boxes, branded swag, and eGift options
  • Option to partner with locally-owned Sendoso direct vendors

LinkedIn outreach automation tools

If you want to generate leads based on high-value prospect potential, you need to use the right LinkedIn outreach automation tools.

31. Leadboost

Leadboost uses unique machine learning to find the right prospects and is designed explicitly for LinkedIn users. Automating the whole LinkedIn process enables users to send out personalized outreach messages in bulk.

  • Automatically follow your LinkedIn contacts’ profiles
  • Send automated (personalized) connection requests to second- and third-level connections
  • Message hundreds of first-level connections
  • Choose from more than20 outreach templates
  • Track all campaigns from one dashboard

Related:The 3-Step Mantra to Modernize Your LinkedIn Lead Generation

What makes a good automated lead generation tool?

Ultimately, for you and your teams to stay competitive, you need to automate as much as you can without losing the power of personalization. This is why machine learning is so important. But how do you know which tool is right for your sales team or business?

Choosing the right one will depend on the following factors:

  • Automation: Does it offer the right machine learning and AI to automate as much of the process as possible?
  • Functionality: Which tools offer the best features for your specific marketing or business needs?
  • Usability: Is it easy to use and implement, ensuring minimal work disruption?
  • Integration: Will it work seamlessly with other current sales automation tools?
  • Cost: Does the tool fit into our overall budget while offering ROAS within our goals?

May the (sales) force be with you!

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