Wednesday, March 11, 2020

110 Best Marketing Tools To Consider When Building Your Toolstack

110  Best Marketing Tools To Consider When Building Your Toolstack Marketers are only as good as the tools they choose to work with. You may disagree, but consider the following: Your social media automation glitches and buries your audience with irrelevant messages. Your analytics provide inconsistentunreliable†¦ therefore, inactionable numbers. The customer support team at such-and-such company is delayed in resolving your issue, pushing the entire project back a few days. Your email marketing software goes down unexpectedly messing with your time frame and frequency. Any of the above can turn a good week sour in a matter of seconds. Which is why marketers should seek tools they 1) love to use and 2) find reliable. The problem is there are SO many tools out there. How do you choose? We’ve compiled a list of the top marketing tools, broken up by category. In addition, the team here at highlighted their favorites to help steer you in the right direction. Now you can find a reliable fit for your toolstack, cut out time-sucking tasks, and start getting more done, faster. 👊 The 110  Best Marketing Tools To Consider When Building Your Toolstack via @Marketing Tool Categories: Table of Contents: Email Marketing Tools Social Media Management Tools Influencer Marketing Tools Paid Advertising Tools Social Media Automation Tools Social Media Monitoring Tools Conversion Rate Optimization Tools Landing Page Builders CRM Tools Marketing Analytics Tools Content Marketing Tools Video Marketing Tools Marketing Design Tools Marketing Research Tools Marketing Automation Tools Marketing Workflow Tools Copywriting Tools SEO Tools Marketing Communication Tools Additional Notable Marketing Tools Check Out ’s Entire Marketing Toolstack Curious to know which #marketing tools @uses? Find out here: Email Marketing Tools Defined: Messages sent directly via email to prospects and/or customers to build + nurture a relationship between the recipient and the product/service. The beautiful part about email is that your recipients have already subscribed to be there... so why not take advantage of a receptive audience? However, it is more important that ever to focus on providing consistent value to your subscribers’ inbox in order to continue building your relationship. Which email marketing tools are best? Other Email Marketing Tools ActiveCampaign: Email marketing automation/CRM  known for top-notch customer support AWeber:  Drag + Drop email marketing service designed for marketers short on time Constant Contact: Email campaign software with easy-to-use editable templates ConvertKit: Email marketing for online creators with automated email sequences Drip:  Intelligent email marketing automation with a visual workflow builder Emma:  Automation, segmentation, A/B testing + more Email Subject Line Tester: For creating click-worthy email subject lines GetResponse:  This one does it all: email marketing, automation, landing pages + webinars iContact: Email marketing automation tool rated #1 by Capterra Reviews Madness 2018 MailChimp:  Fun-to-use email marketing platform ideal for brands of any sizeSocial Media Management Tools Defined: A tool used to engage with your audience + measure performance across all social networks. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram†¦.these are the social networks where your audience spends their days. This is where they keep up on news, engage with friends and family, shop, or find out about career opportunities. Unfortunately, these are also the places they seek out to complain about an experience, product, or person. Using a social media management tool simplifies the process and helps preserve your Social Media Manager’s sanity. Instead of separate tabs for every, single network†¦ you have a single place to log-in, plan, schedule, post, + measure ALL of your social media activities. Which social media management tools are best? Other Social Media Management Tools AgoraPulse:  Affordable social media management tool for all team levels Buffer:  A single dashboard for all of your team’s social media accounts eClincher:  A complete solution for publishing, engagement, monitoring, suggested content, influencers + analytics reporting Falcon.io:  Paid + organic posts within a single content calendar Followerwonk:  Twitter analytics by Moz Hootsuite:  Content curation, analytics, monitoring AND scheduling Social Message Optimizer: Optimize your posts according to industry best practices Sprinklr:An entire cloud of social and customer experience solutions Sprout Social:  Data-led social media planning and publishing tool Zoho Social: A single dashboard to manage social channels, schedule posts, monitor keywords + collaborate amongst teamsInfluencer Marketing Tools Defined: A tool designed to help you find potential influencers within key topic categories to expand + connect with new audiences. Influencers can be a powerful weapon to incorporate into your marketing strategy. These individuals have become trusted and admired amongst subsets of people (potentially future customers). The common problem with influencer marketing is knowing where to start. This is where influencer marketing tools can help you get the ball rolling. Which influencer marketing tools are best? Other Influencer Marketing Tools BuzzSumo:  Find key topics and influencers for performance Mention:  Identify + engage potential influencers Julius:  Influencer insights and hand-curated data Sparktoro:  In the early stages of building a tool that will help P.R. teams discover the audiences they hope to reach.Paid Advertising Tools Defined: The tools marketers use to plan, execute, and measure their paid advertising efforts in order to gain traffic they may not have acquired organically. It’s becoming increasingly more difficult to reach your audience and earn traffic organically. In addition, changes to social media channels are making it harder to reach potential customers through social media marketing. Because of this, many brands have turned to paid advertising to make up for lost volume. Similarly to social, this can lead to countless open tabs and hopping back and forth between networks. Paid advertising tools help advertisers simplify this process with all-in-one campaign management for ppc, display, and retargeting across multiple networks. Which paid advertising tools are best? Other Paid Advertising Tools Adroll:  Display ads, social ads +   triggered emails in one tool Perfect Audience:  Retargeting solution Spyfu: For spying on your competitors’ keywords Wordstream:  Simplified online advertising Social Media Automation Tools Defined: A tool that’s set to automatically post to your social network(s) on your behalf. Social media is a 24-hours/day, 7-days/week world that doesn’t stop or slow down. Because your Social Media Manager is human, it simply isn’t realistic for them to be present every, single second. Intro: social media automation. These magical tools automate your social media and fill in gaps in your schedule so your brand can be consistently active in the networks that matter to your audience. Which social media automation tools are best? Other Social Media Automation Tools AgoraPulse:  Engage, publish, monitor + report Buffer:  Schedule posts and analyze performance Crowdfire:  Discover + schedule social media in one place Hootsuite:  Schedule, manage + report on social MeetEdgar:  Streamline your social posting Sprout Social:  Plan, create, manage, and deliver to socialSocial Media Monitoring Tools Defined: Tools that consistently crawl sites to track pre-determined mentions across the internet. This enables social media marketers to engage with mentions in a timely manner. You have three options when it comes to social media monitoring: Continuously check in across every social network, multiple times a day. Allow mentions to go unnoticed and leave your audience neglected. Use a social media monitoring tool to mine it all for you + simplify the engagement process. The choice here is a no-brainer. Fave: "From a PR and social perspective, Brandwatch  is pretty awesome. In my experience, it has the most powerful boolean logic queries, mixed with a comprehensive and customizable dashboard that provides great context. I use it to monitor what is being said about and by whom, as well as keeping on eye on what's being said about competitors. We can also track the performance of feature launches, campaigns, and product areas. If you're not experienced with writing a boolean query, it can take some time to get your data pulling correctly, but it's worth the troubleshooting." Which social media monitoring tools are best? Other Social Media Monitoring Tools Brand24:  Influence + sentiment analysis as well as social monitoring. Meltwater: Social media monitoring + sentiment analysis Mention: Social media monitoring + competitor analysisConversion Rate Optimization Tools Defined: A Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) tool offers web page testing and insights in order to increase conversion rates. In order to achieve growth, digital marketers can either increase traffic volume to their site, or increase on-page conversion rates. Better yet†¦ both. Tools like these help marketers by providing actionable insights and a/b testing. An added bonus: it will be easy to show your boss the ROI this tool provides. 😠 Which conversion rate optimization tools are best? Other CRO Tools GTMetrix: Site speed insights + actionable recommendations Hotjar:  Site visit heatmaps Ion Interactive:  Code-free interactive content for your landing pages Optimizely:  Digital experimentation and optimizationLanding Page Builders Defined: A tool designed to simplify your landing page creation process in order to convert visitors into leads. For marketers that don’t have the technical expertise to code their own page, landing page builders can be a great alternative. Many have templates and drag and drop design features to help you create quality pages quickly. This can be game-changing for collecting new leads or bottom of the funnel sales. Landing Page Tools Instapage:  Landing page platform for maximizing conversions Landingi: Landing page builder for non-developers Leadpages:  Landing page builder + lead generation Unbounce:  Custom landing page builderCRM Tools Defined: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools are designed to manage customer information and aid in sales enablement. Depending on the product or service, your customer journey can be fairly lengthy and complex. CRM tools are crucial in order to keep leads organized at every stage of their journey. The ideal software helps to align your marketing and sales goals while collecting customer data and providing actionable insights. Which CRM platforms are best? Other CRM Tools: Agile:  Sales enablement, marketing automation and customer service Hubspot CRM: Free CRM to organize and nurture leads Nimble: Contact management for sales + marketing SugarCRM:  Simple to use, easy CRM tool Zoho CRM:  An all-in-one customer engagement suiteMarketing Analytics Tools Defined: Tools to manage + measure your marketing activity in order to determine success of each campaign. What is the ROI of your marketing efforts? When your boss asks, having the data to backup your hard work can prove invaluable. With marketing analytics tools, everything you do can be measured and reported on so you can show off your brag-worthy results. 😉 Which marketing analytics tools are best? Other Marketing Analytics Tools: :  Marketing software with team performance insights  + social media analytics Datorama:  Intelligent marketing data reports Funnel.io:  Automated data collection + reporting Google Analytics:  All your website data in one place TapClicks:  Marketing report dashboard TrackMaven:  Marketing analytics + insightsContent Marketing Management Tools Defined: Tools designed to manage your entire content planning, creation, + distribution process. Providing value through content marketing is one of the best ways to turn your audience into fans (and ideally customers). However, providing quality content, consistently  would be near impossible without a content marketing management tool to 1) keep you on track and 2) ensure consistent publishing. Which content marketing tools are best? Other Content Marketing Management Tools: Airtable:  Spreadsheet-esque collaboration + more Contently:  Enterprise content management software Content DJ:  Content curation + editorial calendar : Drag + drop marketing and editorial content calendar DivvyHQ:  Content strategy + workflow GatherContent:  Content platform for team collaboration Kapost:  B2B content operation platform Mintent:  Content management + workflow tool Monday:  Team task management + content planning Newscred:  Content marketing platform built for enterprises Percolate:  Built for enterprises, software for content planning, strategy + operationsVideo Marketing Tools Defined: Tools that simplify video creation and/or hosting in order to visually promote your brand. Video has become an important piece of content marketing in the last few years. It has the ability capture your audience’s interest early, then show + tell your brand’s value within minutes. With the emergence of video marketing, a variety of tools have emerged to assist marketers with editing, adding effects or cta’s, animation, and hosting. Which video marketing tools are best? Other Video Marketing Tools Animoto:  Easily stylized marketing video platform for businesses. Brightcove: Integrated video marketing solution for marketers Slidely:  Easily editable video and photo collections Vidyard:  Online video platform for businesses Vimeo:  Hosting/sharing/streaming/watching Vyond:  Dynamic media software for marketers Wideo:  Animated video + presentations creator Youtube:  THE video platform + second largest search engineDesign Tools Defined: Software used to simplify the design process and add visual branding to your marketing strategy. Design is what brings the rest of your marketing to life. It has the power to grab attention, tie in themes, and communicate beyond simply text. Great design tools are an extension of a great designer. Your needs will vary (like everything else) depending on budget, team resources, and time. Some tools are built for advanced designers, while others are geared towards the artistically adverse. Which graphic design tools are best? Other Design Tools Infogram:  For engaging infographics and reports Piktochart:  Easy to use design tool Venngage:  Beautifully designed templates + infographic creation toolMarketing Research Tools Defined: Tools used to aid in the process of collecting information in order to accurately define opportunities and develop a marketing strategy. Sure, you can walk around a new city and discover some neat places†¦ BUT if you do your research and build a plan, you’re more likely to get the most out of your experience. Similarly, you might occasionally strike gold without preparation. However, marketers tends to produce the best results when paired with adequate research + planning. When you have a thorough understanding of your target demographic, you can strategically create a marketing roadmap geared towards success. Which marketing research and survey tools are best? Other Marketing Research Tools Google Trends:  Insight to current search trends SurveyMonkey:  Professional survey softwareMarketing Automation Tools Defined: a tool with the goal of automating repetitive tasks in order to streamline and simplify a marketing team’s workflow. Sure, we all have the same 24 hours in a day, but what if we could take better advantage of our already limited time? Marketing automation tools can help ease some of the time-suck activities that take up too much of your valuable time. The best tools allow you to set it and forget it so you can focus on the rest of your ever-growing task list. Which marketing automation tools are best? Other Marketing Automation Tools GetResponse: Email marketing automation + more Hubspot:  Automated, integrated workflows Marketo:  multi-solution marketing automation Oracle: Cloud marketing solutions. Pardot:  Automation by Salesforce SharpSpring: Campaign automation and trackingMarketing Workflow Tools Defined: Tools that offer planning features necessary to move a marketing project from idea to execution. Every marketer has a process in place for bringing an idea to fruition. However, if your process involves sticky notes, calendar reminders, check-in meetings, and spreadsheets†¦ there are likely tools out there that could simplify this process for you. Marketing workflow tools feature built-in task management, collaboration features, and progress updates to help keep the entire team on track. Which marketing workflow tools are best? Other Marketing Workflow Tools Asana: Team task + project workflow software Basecamp: A central source of truth for team workflows Trello: Prioritization + status updates at a glance Wrike: Cloud-based collaboration and project management softwareCopywriting Tools Defined: Tools used to assist copywriters in crafting compelling language for various forms of marketing. Copywriting isn’t as simple as slapping a sentence down and calling it good. The best Copywriters approach their work thoughtfully and with intent- often going through multiple drafts before landing on the perfect message. Although Copywriters seem to have magic ink, even they need a little help sometimes to ensure they are crafting the best message possible. Which copywriting tools are best? Other Copywriting Tools Airstory: The Copywriter’s writing software Grammarly: Free writing assistant Hemingway: Writing app full of recommendations Thesaurus: A tool that lists synonyms/related termsSEO Tools Defined: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tools assist marketers with insights and opportunities for improvements that will increase their performance within search engine result pages. In the battle for page one rankings, marketers need to do everything they can to improve their page performance. SEO tools help simplify this process by giving you the information you need to make incremental improvements that can lead to big results. Which search engine optimization tools are best? Other SEO Tools LSIGraph:  Your latent semantic indexing best friend Majestic: Marketing search engine and backlink checker Moz: Keyword research, SEO, link building and more Screaming Frog: For crawling websites SEMrush: SEO  and PPC analysis toolMarketing Communication Tools Defined: The in-office (often chat-based) tool used for communication + collaboration. Nobody likes unwanted desk drop-bys. They put a wrench in your day and throw off your focus. Communication tools allow collaboration between team members without being intrusive. Chats are great for quick questions, reminders, office announcements, or an occasional gif. In addition, chatting is a great alternative to sending out yet another  email.