Is anyone using their marketing automation system, such as HubSpot, Pardot, Marketo, etc. simply as an email marketing tool??

I would think the pure email marketing features, the actual automation part of automation would still be worth the cost. (drip and triggered campaigns, list management, etc. ) Not sure which tool you are using, but you might want to consider a more affordable automation tool such as Act-On.

Following on from Maria P's analysis, at 70 Fathoms we often see companies that don't use the functionality which they said that they would need. It is often due to cutbacks in Marketing which result in marketing operations not having the time and resource to manage sufficient analysis to identify what works best and design the automated response flows which marketing and sales operations need. Planning to use marketing automation is not the only reason for benefiting from MA systems, as tracking is invaluable when trying to improve website activity. We also install a lot of CRM and marketing database systems in conjunction with marketing automation and some of our CRM consultants and marketing operations experts would bite their own arm off rather than limit our clients future functionality for the sake of minor cost savings. We want them to succeed and regularly have client reviews where our objective is to focus minds on using existing functionality to easily and quickly to solve tactical and strategic goals. Investment in the right people is often the only limitation. Einstein said "Imagination is more important than knowledge..." and 70Fathoms believes that, BUT it is easier to focus on the tech than the planning.

Although we use it for more, we switched from Marketo to for the price. I could imagine that even if we only used it for email, this would be a good option, because I'm sure you still want to know how your emails perform and track any click through rates. I do a lot with the email end of Act-On Software, and it's particularly useful for our internal communications and measuring engagement there where we don't typically send our own employees to landing pages, we do sometimes use forms and surveys to plan annual activities and such. This could be a good option for you as well.

Well, I think your best option would be to switch your marketing software. Right now, its like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Try using. http://bit.ly/1noVIAM. It offers exemplary email and sms marketing options at competitive pricing. It also addresses a wide range of CRM concerns and has been ranked among the top players in the industry. Check out this article : https://www.g2crowd.com/categories/marketing-automation. This will give you a very objective view of the entire picture.

Well, yes - a lot of companies end up using one of those vendors as basically just an email tool. Of the three you mention, HubSpot makes the most sense in that regard. Oddly, we actually haven't found the just-use-it-for-email scenario to be the case with http://agilecrm.com. Even though people initially focus on email campaigns after signing up, the vast majority start trying out MA features and have so much success that they keep piling them on.

I have been in your exact same position - and the reason was just the lack of time and resources to dedicate to it, at least that's what I told myself. It's really easy to get swept away by the promises and best practice examples that you come across when choosing and implementing your solution.  (I just got back from Dreamforce and am still swooning.) I'd like to urge you to not give up.  It may feel better because you are reducing expenses and guilt, but it's taking a step backwards in this very competitive marketing world.  Consider instead an investment in more training and off-loading some of your current workload onto interns or other departments.  Marketing Automation is the way to go and once it is set up it's surprisingly easy to keep going.  Not only that, it's addictive as you start to reap the benefits. If you still think you need to seriously consider switching, please avail yourself of the user-generated reviews that we have on our site.  We have a great way to compare products and quickly see the pros and cons of each.  For instance, when I compare Marketo to MailChimp, one of our reviews points out that "Unlike other vendors, they don't "do it all." They do not offer a  full-suite of marketing tools. Therefore, if you need more functionality  (landing pages, lead nurturing, etc) you will have to piece it  together."  He's right, and it takes a lot more of your time.  You can read the full review here:  https://www.trustradius.com/reviews/mailchimp-2014-07-08-22-30-13 and see how often the products are being compared against each other in our comparison ring: https://www.trustradius.com/categories/marketing-automation/comparison-ring

The reason those marketing systems are so expensive is because of all the features you aren't using. If the only thing you are going to implement is email, you should just switch to MailChimp. It's a lot more affordable, and you can still do A/B testing and segmentation.

Hi, you a right that most part of the marketing automation systems are focused on multifunctional features.But can you clarify “to put content behind forms” in the area of the marketing automation systems?On our platform http://userengage.io/we concentrated a lot on the messages. Of course, we have a very wide variety of methods and tools, but communication is the main idea. We have a live chat. It helps to communicate with clients in a very fast and useful way on any question. Besides, in the menu you have an option, what to write: a messages in chat or an email. By the way, all the data is collected on the clients in their profiles.2. The very convenient way of answering. We have such a great thing as default replies, that helps you to answer in a very fast way. If you want to know more, just click: https://userengage.io/en-us/tutorial-default-replies/3. We offer a special set of tools - actions.This trigger refers to your users writing you a message on Live Chat. If that happens, you can define how much time passes from the last message of the user in order to trigger the next action. Simply decide on a value in the “Chat message” window. For example, if somebody sends you a message and your Customer Support is not working on this day (it’s a holiday), text your user back after 1 minute that “Hi! Thanks for writing to us. Unfortunately, nobody can chat with you right now. Let our team member contact you when we’re back in the office on Monday. We’ll be happy to help. Have a great day”. Let’s go further - you can create a personalized message to only those whose email address are not in the database (choose “Filters” → unknown): “Hi! Thanks for writing to us. Unfortunately, nobody can chat with you right now. If you give us your email address, we’ll be able to help you first time on Monday morning. Have a great day!” Your first 14 days are always FREE at http://userengage.io/It’d be fantastic, if you try our platform out and let me know how you feel about it! JYou can find more here: https://userengage.io/

Depending on the system, it may be a waste of money. For example, Hubspot's core strength is inbound marketing, all their culture and technology are based on an "attract" philosophy, and their email marketing piece is a bolt-on. I heard Marketo uses third-party email engines built into their platform, as opposed to their own proprietary system. I work for Act-On, and the core of our system is a best-in-breed email marketing system built from the ground up by the engineers that built Responsys. It is very possible to see ROI using just the email system, coupled with dynamic segmentation and automated programs with behavior splits to work leads through your marketing funnel to revenue. http://bit.ly/1IqRQFQ