13 Best Engagement Marketing Tools to Build Loyal, Active Customers

Getting customers is fun. Keeping them is where the grown-up money lives.
Engagement marketing is basically the art of showing up with the right message, in the right place, at the right timewithout acting like that friend who texts “??” after 45 seconds.
Do it well and you build loyal, active customers who buy again, adopt more features, refer friends, and actually open your emails on purpose.

The problem: engagement is messy. Customers bounce between email, SMS, social, your app, your website, support chat, review sites, and that one coworker who “just has a question” (it’s never just one).
The solution: tools that connect data, automate conversations, personalize journeys, and measure what’s workingso you can spend less time guessing and more time building relationships that last.

What Engagement Marketing Really Means (And Why It’s Not Just “Posting More”)

Engagement marketing focuses on meaningful interactions across the customer lifecycle: onboarding, activation, repeat purchase, renewal, re-engagement, and advocacy.
It’s a cross-channel strategy that uses behavioral data and customer context to make every touchpoint feel more relevantless “batch-and-blast,” more “wow, they get me.”

In practice, engagement marketing is a series of small, well-timed moments:
a welcome flow that actually helps, a cart reminder that includes the right product, an in-app nudge that appears when someone is stuck, a customer success check-in before churn happens, a survey that closes the loop, and a social response that feels human.

What to Look for in Engagement Marketing Tools

Before we jump into the best tools, here’s a quick “don’t accidentally buy a rocket ship when you needed a bicycle” checklist. Great engagement tools typically offer:

• Unified customer data: profiles that combine actions, traits, and purchase/support history.
• Segmentation: audiences based on behavior (not just demographics).
• Automation and journeys: triggers, branching logic, and lifecycle workflows.
• Omnichannel messaging: email, SMS, push, in-app, web, chatwhere your customers actually are.
• Personalization: dynamic content, recommendations, send-time optimization, and contextual prompts.
• Experimentation: A/B testing, holdouts, and incremental lift measurement.
• Analytics that matter: retention, cohorts, funnels, LTV signals, and churn indicators.
• Integrations: clean connections to your CRM, ecommerce platform, CDP, data warehouse, and support tools.
• Governance and compliance: consent, preference centers, frequency controls, roles/permissions.

Quick Map: Which Tool Fits Which Engagement Job?

The 13 Best Engagement Marketing Tools

1) HubSpot Marketing Hub

HubSpot is the “one login to rule them all” option for teams that want lifecycle marketing tied directly to CRM context.
It’s especially strong when you need email marketing, lead capture, segmentation, and automation to work seamlessly with contact records and lifecycle stages.

• Best for: B2B and B2C teams that want an integrated CRM + marketing automation stack.
• Standout engagement play: personalize and automate follow-ups based on CRM data and engagement signals.
• Example: When a lead visits your pricing page twice, trigger a helpful comparison email, then route high-intent contacts to saleswithout manual babysitting.

2) Salesforce Marketing Cloud Engagement

If your engagement strategy looks like a subway map (with 14 lines, 6 transfers, and one station that’s “under construction”), this is built for you.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Engagement is known for journey design and enterprise-grade orchestration across channels.

• Best for: enterprise teams with complex customer journeys and multiple business units.
• Standout engagement play: multi-step lifecycle journeys that combine email and mobile messaging with automated decisioning.
• Example: Create a post-purchase journey: receipt email → delivery SMS updates → product tips → replenishment reminder → loyalty offereach step adapting to behavior.

3) Braze

Braze is a customer engagement platform designed for real-time, cross-channel messaging. It’s the tool you reach for when timing matters:
send a message because someone did something, not because it’s Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. and your calendar said “blast.”

• Best for: product-led growth, mobile apps, and brands that want truly behavior-driven engagement.
• Standout engagement play: orchestrate messages across email, push, SMS, and in-app with testing and optimization.
• Example: If a user abandons onboarding at step 3, show an in-app tip when they return, then follow up with a short email guide only if they still don’t complete it.

4) Iterable

Iterable focuses on cross-channel communication that’s easier for marketers to operate day-to-day.
It’s a strong pick for teams that want to move from campaign-based thinking to lifecycle “moments” without requiring a PhD in Workflow Archaeology.

• Best for: growth and lifecycle teams running email, SMS, push, and in-app in coordinated journeys.
• Standout engagement play: unify channels so your messaging doesn’t feel like five different departments arguing in public.
• Example: Run a win-back journey that adapts by channel preference: push for mobile-first users, email for desktop buyers, SMS only when consented and high-intent.

5) Customer.io

Customer.io is built for triggered messaging and flexible automationespecially when you want to combine product events with lifecycle campaigns.
It’s popular with teams that like control: “If they do X, wait Y, then do Z, unless they do Q, in which case…”

• Best for: event-driven automation across email, SMS, push, and in-app messaging.
• Standout engagement play: build journeys that react to real user behavior, not just list membership.
• Example: If a trial user creates their first project but doesn’t invite teammates within 48 hours, trigger a short “how teams get value faster” sequence.

6) Klaviyo

Klaviyo is a powerhouse for ecommerce engagement, combining email and SMS with rich customer profiles and predictive insights.
If you sell products online, Klaviyo’s strengths map nicely to retention: welcome, browse abandon, cart abandon, post-purchase, replenishment, and VIP flows.

• Best for: ecommerce brands focused on retention and repeat purchases.
• Standout engagement play: segmentation and automation that leverage purchase behavior and predicted signals.
• Example: Create a replenishment program that times reminders to estimated reorder windows and adjusts if a customer buys early.

7) Mailchimp

Mailchimp remains a classic for a reason: it helps teams launch campaigns and automation quickly without turning setup into a multi-week quest.
It’s a solid choice for small and mid-sized businesses that need customer journeys, segmentation, and reporting without heavy implementation.

• Best for: SMBs and creators who want approachable automation and email-first engagement.
• Standout engagement play: customer journeys with triggers, branching, and personalized actions.
• Example: A newsletter subscriber clicks “pricing” twiceautomatically send a short education series and a limited-time offer (with frequency controls so you don’t become That Brand).

8) Intercom

Intercom is where engagement meets conversation. It’s known for in-app messaging and customer support workflows, plus onboarding experiences like product tours.
If your product has a learning curve, Intercom can help turn “confused user” into “confident customer.”

• Best for: SaaS onboarding, in-app engagement, and support-led retention.
• Standout engagement play: contextual in-app messages and guided experiences to drive adoption.
• Example: When a user hits an error state, show an in-app message with a short fix, then offer a live chat option if they’re still stuck.

9) Zendesk

Support is an engagement channelsometimes the most important onebecause nothing kills loyalty faster than “Please allow 7–10 business days for a reply.”
Zendesk is built to unify customer conversations across channels so teams can respond with context and consistency.

• Best for: omnichannel customer service and support-driven engagement.
• Standout engagement play: manage email, messaging, voice, and social conversations in one place.
• Example: A customer starts a chat, follows up by email, then DM’s you on social. Zendesk helps keep the thread connected so the customer doesn’t have to repeat themselves (again).

10) Gainsight

Gainsight lives in the customer success worldwhere “engagement” means adoption, renewals, expansions, and preventing churn before it happens.
It’s designed to coordinate human touch (CSMs) with digital touchpoints so the right customers get the right level of support.

• Best for: B2B SaaS and subscription businesses managing renewals and long-term adoption.
• Standout engagement play: orchestrate journeys across human and digital motions based on health signals.
• Example: If a high-value account’s key users stop logging in, trigger an in-app prompt, send enablement content, and alert the CSM to schedule a check-in.

11) Mixpanel

You can’t improve engagement if you can’t see it. Mixpanel is a product analytics tool that helps teams understand what users do, where they drop off, and what behaviors correlate with retention.
It’s especially useful when you want cohorts, funnels, and retention analysis without weeks of spreadsheet grief.

• Best for: product-led teams measuring activation, retention, and feature adoption.
• Standout engagement play: retention cohorts that reveal who sticksand what they did early on.
• Example: Identify the actions taken by “power users” in their first week, then build onboarding nudges to guide new users toward those behaviors.

12) Optimizely

Engagement improves when experiences improve. Optimizely is a leader in experimentation and helps teams run A/B tests, roll out features safely, and measure what actually moves the needle.
The secret sauce isn’t “testing everything.” It’s testing the right things: onboarding steps, messaging, pricing pages, feature discoverability, and personalization rules.

• Best for: teams that want reliable A/B testing and controlled feature delivery.
• Standout engagement play: experimentation that validates improvements before you scale them.
• Example: Test two onboarding flows: one with a checklist, one with a guided tour. Measure activation and retention, not just clicks.

13) Sprout Social

Social media engagement isn’t just “likes.” It’s customer care, brand perception, community building, and real-time feedback.
Sprout Social helps you publish content, manage engagement, analyze performance, and keep your brand from accidentally responding “Thanks!” to a complaint about a broken shipment.

• Best for: social engagement, publishing workflows, and reporting across major networks.
• Standout engagement play: a centralized workflow for engagement plus analytics and listening.
• Example: Track recurring customer questions in your inbox and turn them into a weekly “answer this once” content seriesreducing support load and increasing trust.

Bonus Tool That Makes the Whole Stack Smarter: SurveyMonkey

If you’re thinking, “Wait, you promised 13 tools and now you’re adding another,” fair.
But SurveyMonkey earns its spot because engagement isn’t just what customers doit’s what they feel.
Surveys give you the missing context behind behavior: why someone churned, what confused them, and what would make them recommend you.

• Best for: Voice of Customer programs (NPS, CSAT, post-purchase feedback) and closing the loop.
• Standout engagement play: build a feedback cadence you can actually act on.
• Example: After onboarding, run a 2-question survey: “What were you trying to do?” and “Did you do it?” Then use the answers to improve your onboarding messages and help content.

How to Build a Simple Engagement Stack (Without Buying Everything at Once)

You don’t need 27 tools. You need the right combo. Here are three common stacks that work in the real world:

• Starter stack (quick wins):
  Mailchimp (or HubSpot Starter) + SurveyMonkey + Sprout Social.
  Great for getting consistent campaigns, feedback loops, and social engagement running fast.
• Growth stack (behavior-driven):
  Customer.io or Iterable + Mixpanel + Intercom.
  Great when product usage and lifecycle triggers drive engagement.
• Enterprise stack (orchestration at scale):
  Salesforce Marketing Cloud Engagement + Braze (or Iterable) + Gainsight + Zendesk.
  Best when you have multiple segments, teams, regions, and a strong need for governance.

Common Engagement Mistakes (So You Can Avoid Them on Purpose)

• Messaging without a “why”:
  If every message is “Buy now,” customers will “unsubscribe now.” Mix value, education, and helpful nudges.
• Ignoring preferences:
  Some customers love push. Others treat push notifications like a horror movie jump-scare. Let them choose.
• Measuring the wrong metrics:
  Opens and clicks are fine, but retention, repeat purchase, activation, and expansion are the real scoreboard.
• Siloed teams:
  Marketing says one thing, support says another, product says nothing. A unified customer view fixes half the chaos.
• No experimentation:
  If you never test, you’re basically guessing with confidence. (That’s still guessing.) Use A/B testing and holdouts.

Conclusion

Engagement marketing isn’t a single toolit’s a system. The best tools help you connect customer data, orchestrate conversations across channels,
personalize experiences, and measure what’s actually building loyalty.
Choose the tools that match your business model and maturity, start with one or two high-impact journeys, and improve relentlessly.
Your customers don’t need more noise. They need more relevance.

Field Notes: of Real-World “Engagement Marketing” Experience (What It Looks Like in Practice)

Let’s make this concrete. Imagine you run a subscription businesscould be a SaaS tool, a meal kit, a fitness app, or even a niche ecommerce brand that ships on a schedule.
Your acquisition is decent, but churn is creeping up. Support tickets are spiky. And the marketing team is sending “We miss you!” emails that are about as effective as waving at a passing airplane.

The first “aha” moment usually comes when you stop treating engagement like a campaign calendar and start treating it like a customer conversation.
Instead of asking, “What do we send this week?” you ask, “What is the customer trying to do right nowand what would help them succeed?”
That mindset shift is where engagement tools stop being shiny software and become a loyalty engine.

Here’s a common pattern teams use:
they instrument key product events (sign-up, onboarding completion, first value moment, key feature used, purchase, support contact, cancellation attempt).
Mixpanel (or another analytics layer) shows the biggest drop-off pointmaybe users stall after creating an account but before completing setup.
Now you’ve got a measurable problem, not a vague “engagement feels low” feeling.

Next, you build a simple, respectful journey. If someone stalls, you don’t punish them with five emails in two days.
You start with an in-app nudge (Intercom-style) that appears when they return: a short tip, a link to a 60-second setup guide, and a “Need help?” option.
If they still don’t activate after a day or two, your automation platform (Customer.io or Iterable-style) sends one email that’s genuinely useful:
three bullets, one screenshot, one clear call to action. Not a novel. Not a poem. Definitely not “Dear {FirstName}, we value you as a customer” (everyone knows that’s a lie when it’s automated).

For ecommerce, the same approach applies. Klaviyo-style segmentation helps you treat first-time buyers differently from loyal repeat customers.
New buyers get post-purchase education and setup tips. Repeat buyers get early access, replenishment reminders, and VIP perks.
The difference is subtlebut customers feel it. Relevance is the quiet superpower of retention.

The teams that really level up add two loops: experimentation and feedback.
Experimentation (Optimizely-style) tests onboarding flows, offer structures, and message timing to find what truly improves activation and repeat behavior.
Feedback (SurveyMonkey-style) reveals the “why” behind numbers: maybe customers love the product but hate shipping speed, or maybe setup is confusing for one segment.
When those insights feed back into journeys and content, engagement stops being reactive and becomes proactive.

The most satisfying moment is when support volume drops for the right reasonnot because customers gave up, but because customers got what they needed earlier.
That’s the hidden ROI of engagement tools: fewer fires, more trust, and a customer base that sticks around because your brand feels helpful, consistent, and human.