15 Best SaaS Automation Tools To Include in Your Stack

Are you wondering which SaaS automation tool to use for your business?

Though automation is essential for business growth, you should choose the right one that suits your budget and meets your requirements.

In this guide, you’ll learn about the best automation tools you should be using in your SaaS.

So let’s get started!

TL;DR

• SaaS automation is a way of making manual processes automated with the use of a SaaS service.
• Marketing automation can help you reduce time and effort on repetitive tasks, optimize workflow, and increase revenue.
• SaaS marketing automation tools can be used for lead generation, content distribution, new user onboarding, customer segmentation, etc.
• Userpilot helps product teams create effective onboarding and personalized in-app experiences to get their users to the “aha!” moment — without coding.
• Qualaroo is a customer feedback tool that allows you to collect customer sentiment.
• Zendesk is a customer service software and CRM designed to help businesses manage customer relationships across multiple channels.
• Salesforce is a cloud-based CRM system that helps businesses get an overview of their sales activities, track leads, etc.
• Hubspot is a cloud-based CRM platform that helps businesses attract leads, nurture leads, close deals, and analyze business metrics.
• Calendly is a popular appointment scheduling software for businesses.
• Aeroleads is a web-based lead generation software that finds B2B data.
• Hootsuite is an all-in-one social media automation tool.
• Mailchimp is an email marketing automation platform that allows you to create, send, track and analyze email campaigns.
• StoryChief is a content marketing solution that helps businesses streamline their content distribution.
• Asana is a cloud-based project management tool that provides a virtual workspace where teams can collaborate and work from any device.
• Slack is a communication tool that offers real-time messaging.
• Hotjar is a behavior analytics tool that helps you understand your users and see how they are interacting with your website.
• BambooHR is a human resource automation software that helps track applicants and make the hiring process more efficient.
• Zapier is a tool that helps you automate tasks between website applications.

What is SaaS automation?

In a SaaS application, automation involves automating multiple tasks that are usually carried out by humans. In addition to saving time, automating these tasks can also reduce the chances of human errors occurring.

What is the importance of SaaS automation?

When it comes to SaaS automation, there are a lot of benefits that you can get.

Let’s take a look at some of the importance of SaaS marketing automation:

Reduce the time and effort spent on repetitive tasks

Repetitive tasks are boring and time-consuming. A number of tasks can be automated using automation tools, including sending emails, producing audit reports, and posting social media updates. As a result, you have more time to focus on other things.

Optimize the workflow and boost productivity

With automation, your team can focus on thinking better and innovating more, instead of performing repetitive tasks. Additionally, automation can reduce human errors and increase revenue and growth.

Improve conversion rates and increase revenue

Automation can help you create tailored and unique experiences for each customer, alternatively reducing customer churn, increasing engagement, and boosting revenue.

What is a SaaS automation tool used for?

Essentially, SaaS automation tools help SaaS companies do more with less. It can be used for a variety of things, including email marketing, social media marketing, customer support, lead generation, web analytics, and so on.

Lead generation

Having your lead generation process automated (collecting customer data and prospecting) allows you to focus on strategy and lead nurturing to close leads quickly.

With tools like Hotjar, you can track prospects’ behaviors and interests and see where they are in the customer journey. In this way, lead generation will become faster, easier, and more effective.

By automating the process of gathering these types of information and customer data, you are able to qualify and prioritize leads more effectively.

Content distribution via different channels

With content automation, you can create, manage, and distribute content more efficiently and effectively.

Automation tools, like Hootsuite for social media and Mailchimp for email marketing, make content distribution easy and fast. Therefore, you can focus on other tasks such as research, sales, and promotion.

New user onboarding

74% of potential customers will switch to other solutions if the onboarding process is complicated — Userpilot.

You can use software like Userpilot to automate the onboarding process with welcome screens and interactive walkthroughs.

You can use onboarding checklists and in-app messages to serve as a guide to help your new customers understand your product and its features.

Customer segmentation & personalization

Customer segmentation in marketing automation is the process of grouping users, leads, and customers together based on common characteristics. These characteristics may include behaviors, demographics, stages in the customer journey, etc.

Customer segmentation tools like Userpilot, Google Analytics, and Hubspot allow you to segment your users and tailor your messaging and processes to each customer segment.

15 Best SaaS automation tools in 2022

We put together a list of the best marketing automation tools for your SaaS. Let’s walk through each tool together:

User onboarding and in-app communication automation tools

User onboarding is a crucial phase for your SaaS growth. Here are the best tools to help you automate user onboarding and keep customers engaged with in-app communication and customer support.

We have listed:

• Userpilot
• Qualaroo
• Zendesk

Userpilot

Userpilot — user onboarding automation tool.

If you’re looking for the best user onboarding and in-app communication software, then Userpilot is for you.

Userpilot is a product growth software that helps product teams create effective onboarding and personalized in-app experiences to get their users to the “aha!” moment — without coding. It also enables product teams to provide contextual support, track growth, and get customer feedback through NPS surveys.

Pros

• Code-free tool.
• Lots of UI patterns like checklists, modals, banners, tooltips, slideouts, banners, etc.
• Real-time customer insights.
• Excellent customer support.

Cons

• Doesn’t work on mobile yet.

Pricing

• Traction: $249/mo for all features up to 2,500 users.
• Growth: $499/mo for up to 10,000 users.
• Enterprise: Starting at $1,000/mo paid annually.

Qualaroo

Qualaroo — customer feedback automation tool.

Qualaroo is a customer feedback tool that allows you to create targeted surveys to collect real-time feedback from customers. You can also build different surveys with Qualaroo; NPS, CES, UES, CSAT, and so on.

With Qualaroo’s AI-based sentiment analysis engine, you can analyze the customer feedback data and use the information to improve your product.

Pros

• Integrates with tools like Google Analytics, Zendesk, Mailchimp, etc.
• Offers multiple survey types to gather customer feedback.
• Ability to test design prototypes and run usability tests.

Cons

• Reporting may be too comprehensive for everyday users.

Pricing

• Pricing starts at $80/month, billed annually.

Zendesk

Zendesk — customer support automation tool.

Zendesk is a customer service software that helps businesses manage customer relationships across multiple channels. It also offers a wide range of features, including live chat, email marketing, and a help desk.

Zendesk has multiple products, including:

• Sunshine Platform: To help you create and provide personalized customer experiences.
• Zendesk Sell: It is a sales CRM that provides everything your sales team needs in one simple platform to maximize productivity, maintain pipeline visibility, and grow revenue.
• Zendesk for Service: A customer service solution allows you to manage customer support and keep your business in sync.

Pros

• All-in-one sales CRM and customer service platform.
• Robust integration with third-party software and systems.
• Extensive reporting and analytics.
• Omni-channel support.

Cons

• Require a certain amount of experience and effort to understand the software.

Pricing

• Zendesk for Sales starts at $19/mo and Zendesk for Service starts at $49/mo.

Sales & CRM automation tools

Here are the best sales and CRM automation tools that will help you streamline your sales activities and get a better understanding of your leads.

We have listed:

• Salesforce
• Hubspot
• Calendly
• Aeroleads

Salesforce

Salesforce — sales automation tool.

Salesforce is a cloud-based CRM system that helps enterprise businesses to generate leads, manage marketing campaigns, close deals and connect with customers at different stages of the customer journey.

By using the sales cloud, you are able to automate tasks such as lead and contact management, sales information, mobile interactions, and more.

Pros

• Extremely powerful sales automation tool.
• Lots of integrations.

Cons

• Sales Cloud setup is quite complex.
• The interface is not the most user-friendly and needs improvements.

Pricing

The sales cloud begins at $25/mo for the Essential tier, $75 for Professional, $150 for Enterprise, and the Unlimited tier costs $300.

Hubspot

Hubspot — CRM automation tool.

Hubspot is an all-in-one platform as it offers marketing, sales, customer service, CMS, and operations solutions.

The CRM platform allows users to connect with over 800 apps, APIs, and solutions partners to create a personalized user experience.

Pros

• CRM Software is mostly free.
• Easy-to-use platform.
• Excellent customer support.

Cons

• Basic templates.
• Only one email per account.

Pricing

Hubspot offers lots of free features and tools but they also have paid products. Their sales Starter plan is $45/mo, Professional: $450, and Enterprise: $1200/mo.

Calendly

Calendly — appointment scheduling automation tool.

Calendly is a popular appointment scheduling software for businesses and individuals looking to eliminate email hassle and automate their appointment system. It also integrates with many tools (Zoom, Slack, Salesforce, Zapier, etc.) to make your appointment booking seamless and hassle-free.

Pros

• Calendly is mobile-friendly.
• The free version is great for handling basic appointments.
• You can set up different event types for booking.
• The Calendly software is easy-to-use; no technical knowledge is required.
• You can share your booking link anywhere as it’s easy to integrate Calendly with your website, landing pages, social media, etc.

Cons

• Live chat support is not available for everyone, only for larger teams.
• The software is quite expensive for larger teams.

Pricing

• Calendly comes with a free-forever plan for individuals. The Essential plan starts at $8/seat/mo, the Professional plan starts at $12/seat/mo, and the Teams plan starts at $16/seat/mo.

Aeroleads

Aeroleads — leads generation automation tool

Aeroleads is a web-based lead generation software that finds email addresses, contact addresses, and other B2B data. The tool generates prospects’ lists based on your search criteria from LinkedIn, AngelList, or Crunchbase. It is possible to export generated data as CSV files or transfer it to sales automation software such as Salesforce, FreshSales, HubSpot CRM, etc.

Pros

• It has a simple, easy-to-use, and user-friendly interface.
• It offers affordable pricing for the quality of results you get.
• Excellent customer service with helpful and responsive customer support.

Cons

• It sometimes generates wrong or inactive emails.

Pricing

• The pricing starts at $49/mo.

Marketing automation tools

Now it’s time to list some of the best marketing automation tools. Ready to explore?

We have listed:

• Hootsuite
• Mailchimp
• Storychief

Hootsuite

Hootsuite — social media automation tool.

Hootsuite is an all-in-one social media automation tool that integrates with many social media platforms. With Hootsuite, you can easily schedule posts across multiple social networks and manage organic and paid social content. You can also easily keep track of customer conversations and gain actionable real-time insights from social media to make critical business decisions — all from one dashboard.

Pros

• User-friendly interface.
• Lots of integrations with various social media platforms.

Cons

• Analytics and report may lack depth for some users.

Pricing

• Hootsuite’s pricing starts at $49/mo.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp — email automation tool.

Mailchimp is an email marketing automation platform that allows you to create, send, track and analyze email campaigns. As the backbone of your email marketing campaigns, they provide analytical features and tools that enable you to use emails to communicate with your leads and clients effectively.

Pros

• Free plan for up to 9000 emails per month.
• All-in-one email marketing tool.
• Detailed statistics and analytics.
• Fully GDPR compliant.

Cons

• Very basic email templates.
• The interface is not user-friendly.

Pricing

They offer a free plan limited to 2000 subscribers and 10,000 emails/mo with a daily sending limit of 2000. Mailchimp Pro plan starts at $11/mo for the Essential tier, $17/mo for the Standard tier, and $299 for the Pro tier.

Storychief

Storychief — content distribution automation tool.

StoryChief is a content marketing solution that helps businesses streamline their content publishing and distribution. This means you can distribute content via different channels and promote them across online platforms within StoryChief.

Pros

• Publishes and distributes content effortlessly across different platforms.
• Affordable pricing plans.
• Lots of SEO tools.
• Convenient post scheduling.

Cons

• Lack of live collaboration.
• Can’t have more than one person editing a doc at one time.

Pricing

• Pricing starts at $100/mo, billed annually.

Project management & collaboration tools

Now let’s see what tools you can use to manage your projects and communicate or collaborate with your team members.

We have listed:

• Asana
• Slack

Asana

Asana — project management automation tool.

Asana is a cloud-based project management tool that provides a virtual workspace where teams can collaborate and work from any device. Project managers can create tasks, assign them to team members, and set deadlines. It also has a built-in communication feature to allow team members to communicate and collaborate on a project.

Asana also lets you organize daily tasks, and automate your projects.

Pros

• Nice interface.
• In-app guidance.
• Effective project management.

Cons

• Not ideal for small teams or single projects.
• No time tracking feature.

Pricing

• Asana offers a basic limited plan for free. The Pro plan starts at $13.49/mo for the Premium tier and $30.49/mo for the Business tier.

Slack

Slack — collaboration & communication tool.

Slack is a communication tool that offers real-time messaging. Most companies use Slack for collaboration and communication.

Pros

• It’s easy to share and collaborate with someone in real-time.
• It has a mobile application that makes collaboration easy even after work hours.
• Searchable history.

Cons

• Messages get deleted after 14 days in the free version.
• Can’t be customized to your needs.

Pricing

• Slack offers a basic limited version for free. The Pro plan starts at $6.67/mo, and the Business plan starts at $12.50/mo.

Hotjar — for user behavior and website optimization automation

Hotjar — user behavior automation tool.

Hotjar is a behavior analytics tool that helps you understand your users and see how they are interacting with your website. It is mostly known for its Heatmaps feature, which shows how visitors engage with your website.

However, Hotjar also allows you to record users’ sessions on your website so you can identify friction points on your website that harm user experience.

Pros

• Shareable heatmaps.
• Great customer support.

Cons

• No customer segmentation.
• Limited integration.
• No predictive analytics.

Pricing

The tool starts with a free basic plan (35 daily sessions limit). The Pro pricing starts at $31/mo for the Plus tier and $79/mo for the Business tier.

BambooHR — for HR automation

BambooHR — HR automation tool.

BambooHR is a human resource automation software created for small to medium-sized businesses. Its platform allows growing companies to track and manage essential employee information in a more advanced Human Resource Information System (HRIS).

The software also provides an Application Tracking System (ATS) to reach more qualified candidates and track, analyze, and share applicants’ information. The ATS feature works hand-in-hand with the HR software, so you don’t have to use two different software.

Pros

• BambooHR is a very user-friendly HRIS with a broad range of modules.
• BambooHR offers pre-built integrations with many leading 3rd party applications.

Cons

• Doesn’t offer report customizations.
• Lack of essential tools such as attaching documents for employee benefits, and restrictions on editing employee forms once saved.

Pricing

• Contact BambooHR for a free price quote.

Zapier — for 3rd party integration automation

Zapier — integration automation tool

Zapier is an online tool that helps you automate tasks between website applications, such as Slack, Mailchimp, and over 1000 other apps. With Zapier, you can send information from one app to another (Zap) without relying on developers to build integrations.

For example, you can integrate with Hubspot (CRM automation tool), so anytime a new contact gets created, they automatically get added to your Mailchimp (email automation tool) list. Essentially, Zapier saves time on repetitive tasks.

Pros

• Easy to set up each Zap without technical experience.
• Multi-step automation for even complicated workflows.
• Robust integration with lots of web apps.

Cons

• Limited control of how data transfer is.
• Lots of time on troubleshooting.

Pricing

It starts with a free plan for limited tasks, but pricing starts at $29.99/mo for 750 tasks.

Conclusion

And there you have it!

These were our top 15 SaaS automation tools that you should include in your stack.

Check all of them out, sign up for their free trials, and see if they are a good fit for your SaaS business.

Want to automate your user onboarding and build product experiences code-free? Book a demo call with our team and get started!