Guiding you through some of the most useful and popular marketing tools in 2020
“Work smart, not hard”, a quote we’ve read or heard a thousand times. But how can we do this without the necessary tools? Working smarter can be a challenge at first, but once you make use of all the technology available on the market, the daunting, repetitive tasks can easily become a pleasure to work with.
Therefore, we’ve put together a list of our favorite tools that help you add hours to your day.
Are you looking to automate your work? Do you think tracking tasks using Excel sheets is not productive? We’ve got solutions for these questions and more in the list below
Who is this guide for?
- In-house Marketers
- SEO Specialists
- Solo Entrepreneurs or anyone looking to increase the productivity of their marketing work
What will we cover in this guide?
- Research Data like Sherlock Holmes
- Social Media Management made easy
- Create content like a pro
- Keep your projects and team aligned
- Email Marketing on autopilot
Research Data like Sherlock Holmes
Imagine research software as your toolbox. Every worker needs a toolbox, right?
Today, there are so many tools to choose from, picking the perfect one for your business can cost a lot of time. Should I try a free one? Should I invest in a premium option? Let’s dive into them and see which one you prefer.
Google Analytics – Free
You probably expected this one to pop up in the list. Let’s put this straight, there’s absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t use Google Analytics.
Top free tool from Google, it should be part of your strategy from the very beginning. Honestly, nowadays it’s hard to perform at the top level if you don’t have Analytics knowledge.
Basically, this tool tracks who is coming to your website and from where.
However, it can show you what campaigns drive the most traffic, or find the set of keywords attracting most of your organic visitors. These are vital information early on.
Setup is easy. Just add the Analytics code to your website and you’re good to go.
Google Trends – Free
Another one of Google’s finest. Find search behavior in an instant using this free tool. That’s about it. However, it’s one of the most valuable tools you can start with.
- Are you researching to see people interested in a niche? Use Google Trends
- Do you want to see whether a keyword is gaining popularity or not? Use Google Trends
Moreover, you can check how a keyword is performing over time or search volume by regions. It also helps you with related searches or rising topics. Another great tool to start with.
BuzzSumo – Paid (starts at 79$/ month)
Do you need to learn more about your own market? Getting BuzzSumo is an investment worth making.
BuzzSumo unique and exciting features allows you to research and find the most content shared on social media based on a keyword. So, if you want to hop on trendy and shareable content fast and easy, this tool is a must for you!
Google Keyword Planner – Free (integrated in Google Ads pay-per-click model)
Rounding up this section with another free gem from Google. This research tool allows you to play around with different keywords ideas and see how they perform.
Looking for SEO Optimization or inspiration for your Google Ads Campaigns? This is the tool for you.
It is hosted by Google Ads, so you will need an active account to access this tool.
Social Media Management made easy
Social media management can be a lot more time consuming than we expect. Content creation, publishing, reporting, analyzing, all of these can get overwhelming and manual.
These tools can come in handy to save you time and energy.
AgoraPulse – Paid starting from 99$/ month (14-day free trial)
This jack-of-all-trades social media platform has everything you need. Scheduling, responding and reporting are all features of this tool.
It supports social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube or LinkedIn.
One thing that sets AgoraPulse apart is the unique feature to analyze competition on Facebook. If you’re looking to get ahead on social media, this might be the tool for you .
Buffer – Paid (50$ – 225$/ month)
This all-in-one platform for publishing, analytics, engagement and team collaboration has a solution for all your problems. It integrates very well with platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn.
What is unique about Buffer is its user experience and user interface. Buffer is a clean, intuitive tool which makes social media management a pleasure.
Hootsuite – Free plan (29$, 129$, 599$ / month premium plans)
Probably the biggest and most popular social media management tool there is and for good reason. Hootsuite is the trusted choice of most Fortune 1000 companies, trusting this popular software as their social media management tool.
Moreover, its free plan includes managing 3 social profiles in one place, scheduling posts and generating leads. Great if you’re just starting out. Similarly, you can opt for premium versions, which greatly increase the volume of work you can manage.
Create content like a pro
You’ve done your research, you’ve got your social media strategy in place for the next few months. It’s time to create some valuable content, right?
We want content that’s relevant, attractive, creative and that actually keeps the user engaged. You might have some really good content ideas, but designing them can be hard.
Canva – Free (with Premium options)
This free to use, online tool is a gem for anyone that’s looking to create amazing graphical content, without boosting drawing skills or graphic design knowledge.
For example, Canva simple, drag-and-drop features and professional layouts will give you the opportunity to design stunning graphics.
Need a fast presentation? Maybe a social media post graphic? What about ad creatives or website covers? You can choose from hundreds of images, filters, shapes and fonts, or you can even upload your own.
The Premium options give you the possibility to use even more stunning graphical content.
Grammarly – Free (with Premium versions)
You wrote a piece of content that needs to be published fast? Grammarly is the tool that will make sure everything is easy to read, effective and without mistakes.
Not only it detects grammar or spelling errors, but it can also help you with punctuation, choice of words and even style mistakes. It really takes your content writing to another level!
Keep your projects and team aligned
Are you looking to boost your team management skills or improve collaboration?
While small, connected teams can work well, when teams get bigger and tasks get diverse, you might need to look into some tools.
Asana – 25$/ month for Business Plan
Asana is a software designed to improve work management. This tool makes project management and assigning tasks an easy and hassle-free process.
In other words, teams can create projects, assign work, set deadlines and even communicate about tasks directly in the software. It can be a simple to-do-list, or a tool to manage even the smallest parts of a big project. That’s up to you!
While there are other more visually appealing choices (looking at you Trello), Asana is more powerful. If your team has to manage multiple projects, this is the choice for you.
Harvest – 12$/ month
Simple yet very effective time-tracking tool. Where’s my time going? How much do my projects really cost? These are questions Harvest can answer for you.
Just start and stop timers as you work through your to-do list. This tool works best when you are part of a team. For instance, you can quickly see how everyone is doing, who’s overworked or who’s free to take some more on their plate.
Email Marketing on Autopilot
There really is no question that email marketing must be automated. Imagine you have 10 clients you want to send weekly emails to. 10 emails a week seems easy, right? But you’ve scaled up your business and you now have 1000 clients. Can you send 1000 emails and still get any more work done? I don’t think so…
ActiveCampaign – Paid 9$, 49$, 129$, 229$ / month options
For email marketing automation, we cannot stress enough how useful ActiveCampaign is! It’s a cloud-based marketing and sales tool with extensive features for email marketing, marketing automation and CRM tools. ActiveCampaign is a great tool to convert website visitors to paying customers.
If you also need a live chat messaging platform, they’ve got it too!
Set up your account, import your contacts list, create the email templates and you’re ready to go.
Hubspot – Paid starting from 50$/ month
Hubstop is an extremely popular marketing & sales tool aimed primarily at small businesses but not only.
When it comes to email specifically, Hubspot offers a variety of services, conveniently offered through its email dashboard.
Moreover, there’s no coding experience required. You just need to be creative, import your contacts and start designing the best email experience with the drag and drop features.
