Marketing teams face the challenge of managing intricate customer journeys, coordinating multichannel campaigns, and delivering personalized experiences at scale. As businesses become more data-driven and customer-centric, the importance of having a robust Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system tailored for marketing cannot be overstated. In 2025, 91% of companies with 10 or more employees use a CRM, while among smaller businesses that shareability drops off significantly
While CRMs have traditionally been seen as sales tools, the modern CRM plays a central role in the marketing function. It helps teams centralize customer data, segment audiences, automate personalized communications, track campaign performance, and collaborate more effectively with sales and customer success.
In this guide, we review the best CRM systems for marketing teams in 2025, based on key capabilities such as marketing automation, analytics, segmentation, ease of use, and integration with the broader martech ecosystem.
Why Marketers Need a CRM
Unlike sales-driven CRMs focused on deal pipelines and quotas, marketing teams require platforms designed for customer insight, content delivery, and behavioral tracking. A marketing-centric CRM helps:
- Build segmented audiences based on real-time behavior and firmographics.
- Automate lead nurturing across email, SMS, social, and paid media.
- Measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and attribute revenue.
- Align with sales teams through shared data and lifecycle visibility.
- Drive personalization using data across the funnel.
Whether you’re running demand generation, brand awareness, or product marketing initiatives, a CRM can be the central hub that connects your tools, strategies, and data. Moreover, marketing automation within CRM delivers proven benefits: in CRM marketing use cases, leveraging automation and analytics can yield a 30% higher lead conversion rate, with marketing teams increasingly relying on CRM for insight-driven decision-making
Top CRM Platforms for Marketing Teams in 2025
Below are seven CRM platforms that excel in marketing use cases — from startups and SMBs to enterprise-level organizations.
1. HubSpot CRM
HubSpot is one of the most widely adopted CRM platforms for marketing, and for good reason. Unlike many systems that bolt marketing functionality onto a sales CRM, HubSpot was originally built around the needs of marketers. Its free CRM serves as a foundational layer, while its modular Marketing Hub offers tools for email automation, landing pages, forms, live chat, SEO, social media scheduling, and campaign attribution.
The platform’s intuitive interface, extensive documentation, and active community make it accessible even to non-technical users. Its visual automation builder allows marketers to create highly customized workflows based on user behavior, lead scoring, form submissions, or lifecycle stages.
HubSpot also stands out for its integration capabilities. With native support for over 1,000 tools including Salesforce, Slack, Google Ads, and Shopify, it functions well as the central system in a larger marketing tech stack.
Best for: Small to mid-sized marketing teams seeking an all-in-one growth platform.
Key Features
- Lead and contact management
- Visual workflow automation
- Email marketing and A/B testing
- Dynamic content and personalization tokens
- Multi-touch attribution reporting
- Ad management (Google, Facebook, LinkedIn)
- Native CMS and blog tools (optional)
Considerations
While HubSpot’s core CRM is free, the cost of premium marketing features increases with contact volume and usage. Advanced reporting and AI-powered tools are locked behind higher-tier plans.
2. Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (formerly Pardot)
Overview
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement is a sophisticated platform tailored for B2B marketers, especially those already using Salesforce’s Sales Cloud. Originally known as Pardot, the platform focuses on lead generation, nurturing, scoring, and conversion, and is highly effective in industries with longer decision-making processes.
It offers powerful capabilities for dynamic segmentation, multi-step email campaigns, lead grading, and sales-marketing alignment. Built-in AI tools like Einstein help predict engagement and recommend actions, while tight Salesforce integration ensures sales and marketing operate on a shared data model.
For organizations pursuing Account-Based Marketing (ABM), the platform supports account-centric workflows and campaign attribution across multiple contacts and touchpoints.
Best for: B2B marketing teams with long sales cycles and complex buyer journeys.
Key Features
- AI-powered lead scoring and behavior tracking
- Multi-channel campaign management
- Seamless Salesforce CRM integration
- Advanced segmentation and email automation
- ROI and funnel reports tied to revenue outcomes
- Customizable landing pages and forms
Considerations
Salesforce Marketing Cloud is powerful but complex. It requires significant onboarding and technical support, and it comes at a higher price point compared to SMB-focused solutions. It’s best suited for teams with dedicated operations resources.
3. ActiveCampaign
Overview
ActiveCampaign is a lean yet powerful CRM and marketing automation platform that excels in behavioral marketing. Designed primarily for small to mid-sized businesses, it combines CRM functionality with advanced email automation, making it a strong choice for e-commerce, education, and professional services.
Its visual automation builder is one of the best in the industry, enabling marketers to create complex workflows triggered by user behavior across email, website, and third-party tools. Conditional logic, tagging, dynamic content, and event-based tracking are baked into the core product.
Although its CRM features are relatively basic compared to platforms like Salesforce, ActiveCampaign delivers tremendous value for marketing teams that want flexibility and power without a heavy learning curve.
Best for: Small teams prioritizing automation, behavioral targeting, and email-centric strategies.
Key Features
- Visual marketing automation workflows
- Website and email behavior tracking
- Lead scoring and segmentation
- Dynamic content and personalization
- Native and Zapier-based integrations
- Automated SMS and sales follow-up sequences
Considerations
The platform is less suited for large enterprise teams or those with highly complex CRM needs. While it handles marketing tasks exceptionally well, its pipeline and reporting tools are more limited than traditional CRMs.
4. Zoho CRM Plus
Overview
Zoho CRM Plus is a bundled platform that includes Zoho CRM, Campaigns, Social, SalesIQ (live chat), and analytics, providing a unified environment for customer engagement. It’s a cost-effective alternative to enterprise CRMs and supports both B2B and B2C models.
One of Zoho’s standout strengths is customization. Users can design custom modules, automation rules, and workflows without needing to write code. Its AI assistant, Zia, provides predictions and recommendations to optimize campaign performance and lead engagement.
With strong native tools for email marketing, social media tracking, and web engagement, Zoho CRM Plus is a solid choice for marketing teams who want control without the cost of high-end systems.
Best for: Teams seeking flexibility and affordability in one package.
Key Features
- Multichannel marketing tools
- Integrated email, chat, and social media
- Customizable lead scoring and workflows
- Built-in analytics and dashboard builder
- GDPR-compliant contact management
- AI-based recommendations (Zia)
Considerations
While affordable and flexible, Zoho’s UX can be less polished than premium solutions. It may require more time to configure and optimize, particularly for teams with complex use cases.
5. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)
Brevo is a streamlined CRM with a core focus on email and SMS marketing. It provides a generous free tier and offers value-driven pricing based on email volume rather than contact count — a major advantage for teams with large but low-engagement lists.
Its built-in CRM is relatively lightweight but integrated well with Brevo’s campaign engine. Users can create transactional and promotional emails, automate drip campaigns, build contact segments, and trigger communications based on customer behavior or purchase history.
Brevo also includes live chat, landing pages, and appointment scheduling tools, making it ideal for service businesses and e-commerce.
Best for: Startups and early-stage businesses prioritizing email and SMS.
Key Features
- Email and SMS marketing automation
- Transactional email support
- Basic CRM with tagging and task tracking
- Campaign performance analytics
- Drag-and-drop email builder
- Consent and compliance tools (GDPR)
Considerations
Brevo is not intended for complex sales workflows or enterprise-level segmentation. It’s best for lean teams who need essential marketing tools without the overhead of larger platforms.
6. Marketo Engage by Adobe
Marketo Engage, part of Adobe Experience Cloud, is a market leader in enterprise marketing automation. Known for its depth and scalability, it supports advanced lead nurturing, account-based marketing, revenue attribution, and cross-channel orchestration.
Marketo’s strength lies in its ability to manage thousands of segmented audiences, personalize content across channels, and attribute results to specific touchpoints. It integrates well with Salesforce and Adobe Analytics, making it ideal for companies that require sophisticated data governance and marketing operations.
Its automation engine supports conditional logic, progressive profiling, and program-level reporting, which are essential for large marketing teams working across departments or regions.
Best for: Enterprise marketing teams managing large-scale B2B campaigns.
Key Features
- Scalable lead management and scoring
- Multi-touch attribution and revenue modeling
- ABM capabilities with AI-driven personalization
- Landing page and form customization
- Integration with Salesforce, Adobe, and third-party tools
- Advanced reporting and analytics
Considerations
Marketo is expensive and complex. It requires dedicated technical and operations resources to implement and maintain. It’s most beneficial for large enterprises with high-volume pipelines and mature martech teams.
7. Copper CRM
Copper CRM is designed specifically for teams who live in Google Workspace (formerly G Suite). It integrates directly with Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Drive, making it virtually invisible yet highly effective.
This CRM automates data entry by scraping email content and calendar interactions, reducing manual work for marketing and sales professionals. While Copper doesn’t offer the same breadth of automation as HubSpot or ActiveCampaign, it provides clean pipelines, lead tracking, and lightweight workflows — enough for basic campaign oversight.
Copper is particularly attractive for startups, creative agencies, and consultancies that need a straightforward, low-maintenance CRM that doesn’t disrupt existing workflows.
Key Features
- Seamless Gmail and Calendar integration
- Automated data capture from emails
- Visual sales and lead pipelines
- Task management and activity tracking
- Zapier and API integrations for custom workflows
Best for: Teams using Google Workspace looking for a minimal-effort CRM.
Considerations
Copper’s focus on ease of use comes at the expense of deep marketing features. It’s best paired with a standalone email marketing tool if campaign automation is required.
8. Notion, Airtable & Zapier
If you are looking for alternatives that provide cross-functional collaboration explore such databases as Notion, Airtable and Zapier.
Conclusion: Choosing the Right CRM for Marketing
The best CRM for your marketing team will depend on your company’s size, goals, and existing technology stack. For some teams, an all-in-one platform like HubSpot or Zoho CRM Plus offers the right balance of features and usability. For others, especially in the enterprise space, tools like Marketo or Salesforce Marketing Cloud offer the depth and scalability needed for complex campaigns.
Before choosing, consider:
- How many contacts or leads you manage monthly
- Your main marketing channels and frequency
- Integration requirements with your current tools
- The need for AI, personalization, or ABM
- Available budget and internal tech expertise
Whatever your needs, the right CRM can become your most valuable marketing ally — helping your team move faster, personalize better, and convert smarter.
