Today’s digital marketers have to wear many hats: web developer, systems integrator, publicist, social media manager, email expert and so forth and so on.
The good news is that the marketing tech industry has seen an overwhelming number of new vendors and tools to help marketers handle all of these roles efficiently and successfully.
The even better news is that many of these new tools are helping to empower marketers to become even more self-service, limiting the number of additional resources like development or designers they need to rely on.
Here’s a sample of some of the best tools and vendors to help you be a faster marketer.
CRM Tools
Salesforce, HubSpot CRM, Zoho CRM – When it comes to digital marketing, how you connect to and interact with your customers is everything. Digital marketing tools like the three listed here can take a lot of the guesswork out of the process.
All three help brands like yours manage and track customer interactions, sales data, and other key tidbits of information. All also offer users access to a larger suite of robust tools to help with tasks like content marketing, workflow management, and conversions. Which is right for you depends on your unique needs as a brand.
HubSpot CRM offers handy tools like lead-capturing forms, landing pages, and ad management options to help you maximize conversion rates. Zoho CRM is a fantastic choice if you’re looking for a tool that can help you optimize workflow. Meanwhile, Salesforce is fantastic when it comes to customizability and integration with a wide range of other tools.
Social Media Tools
Hootsuite, Buffer, Sprout Social – Social media is more to modern consumers than just a handy way to keep up with friends or kill a few spare minutes while they’re waiting in line at the bank. These days, it’s also an important part of how people make important decisions, including where to spend their money.
So, what tools do marketers use? The right social media tools can help brands like yours build and maintain engaging, effective social media presences that drive conversions.
Hootsuite is perhaps the quintessential social media tool and with good reason. It makes it easy to achieve the results you’re after with a seamless dashboard capable of accommodating multiple social pages, foolproof post scheduling, and more.
Buffer is an incredible choice for marketers who want assistance transforming their ideas into amazing posts that drive results. Then Sprout Social is a powerful all-in-one platform that helps you analyze and maximize your social strategies.
SEO Tools
SEMRush, Ahrefs, Moz – A thorough approach to search engine optimization (SEO) is a must if you’re serious about boosting brand awareness. Audiences rely on search engines to point them toward top-shelf marketing content that can address their pain points and solve their problems.
But SEO is a complicated business that requires finesse and know-how, especially with algorithms and consumer tastes constantly shifting. The right marketing automation tools can help you make sense of things and zero in on strategies that work perfectly for your brand identity.
SEMRush, Ahrefs, and Moz are top-tier, all-in-one tool suites that help marketers with a variety of key tasks, including search engine optimization, keyword research, competitor research, rank tracking, and content marketing. All three tools also offer detailed analytics and data options that help you ensure each marketing campaign is even stronger than the one before.
Content Creation Tools
WriterAccess, AI Copilot, ION – All three of these stellar content creation tools are Rock Content products, each designed to serve a different need when it comes to crafting amazing content. Together, they add up to beautiful music for your ongoing digital content marketing needs.
ION helps marketers engage with audiences and leads throughout every stage of the buyer’s journey by taking the hassle out of creating dynamic, eye-catching interactive content experiences. (Don’t worry. You don’t need to be a coder to make the most of ION.)
AI Copilot helps you fill in the gaps in your content calendar with high-quality, diverse, AI-generated content options.
And for those times when nothing but the finest content expertise and skill will do, there’s WriterAccess. WriterAccess is a premium content creation marketplace where brands can connect with top writers, designers, and more for incredible content that hits the mark every time.
WriterAccess also comes with a variety of additional AI content marketing tools to help you make the most of your experience.
Design and Video Tools
Canva, Adobe Creative Cloud Express, Animoto – Relevant, keyword-rich written content will always be the heartbeat of any well-rounded digital marketing campaign. But the secret sauce to helping content succeed is to add well-crafted, high-quality visuals to maximize value and help it stand out. This trio of must-have tools works wonderfully together to help bring your content to life.
Need a quick, user-friendly way to create sleek, custom graphics of all types? Canva is one of the more popular options on the market right now for some very good reasons. It’s user-friendly, easy to use, and versatile, making it a snap to create anything from social media posts to presentations.
Adobe Creative Cloud Express (formerly Adobe Spark) offers a variety of useful design solutions, including an all-in-one editor and access to handy generative AI tools. Meanwhile, Animoto lets you quickly create professional, engaging videos of any kind.
Lead Generation / Landing Pages
Unbounce, Leadpages, ION – Before you can start the process of nurturing qualified leads through your sales funnel, you need to connect with them in the first place. Solid, well-orchestrated lead-generation resources like landing pages help ensure you’re attracting the right leads in the first place. They also make the idea of connecting with you further sound irresistible, and marketing tools for small businesses like the above can help.
Unbounce is a user-friendly, AI-powered landing page creation interface that helps even beginners put together effective pages that convert. It includes features like a drag-and-drop builder, A/B testing, and full-service AI optimization for truly dazzling pages your audience will love.
Leadpages is a full-service tool resource for marketers looking to connect with experts, find leads, and more.
And Rock Content’s ION is, of course, an excellent resource for crafting interactive landing pages that truly stand out in all the right ways.
Website Optimization
Adobe Target, Crazy Egg, Stage – Although all of a brand’s marketing channels are important parts of its overall strategy, there’s no substitute for an organized, dedicated website. Your website is your business’s calling card, the ultimate place your audience will end up if they’re interested in what you do.
Properly optimizing your website is a must, and the right content marketing tools and optimization suites can be a huge help. Since Google Optimize left the scene in late 2023, Adobe Target has proven to be a very good alternative thanks to features like multivariate tests, automation solutions, and personalization tools.
Crazy Egg is a terrific tool to keep in your back pocket for finding problems and sticking points on your website. And if you use WordPress for your site, you’ll definitely want to take a closer look at Stage by Rock Content. It’s an all-in-one optimization solution capable of handling every aspect of the process, even offering you access to expert assistance if needed or desired.
Email Marketing
Mailchimp, Brevo, Constant Contact – Email may be one of the longest-standing ways for people to communicate and stay in touch online, but it also remains one of the most effective.
According to research conducted in 2022, around 92 percent of the online population reported regularly communicating via email. Most people also check their email multiple times per day, as well as use theirs to stay in touch with brands they’re interested in. This makes email marketing essential for all brands.
If you’re looking to try one of the most trusted email marketing tools in the industry, it’s hard to go wrong with Mailchimp. It can even help you with SMS marketing, content creation, and segmentation, in addition to email.
Try Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) for an all-in-one platform you can try for free. Meanwhile, Constant Contact offers options that are easy to customize and scale according to your needs.
Analytics Tools
Google Analytics, Kissmetrics, HubSpot – You can’t maintain a successful marketing campaign without some reliable analytics tools in your corner, and these three are some terrific essentials to start with.
Google Analytics is an excellent place for any digital marketer to start, as it offers valuable insights straight from Google itself. It’s effective at providing a better understanding of your visitors and audience. It’s also free.
Looking for simple analytics instead? Take a look at Kissmetrics. It’s everything you need to stay ahead of the game with analytics and nothing you don’t. And if you’re on the opposite end of the spectrum and looking for marketing apps and tools that do it all? Go with HubSpot. It’s got you covered for everything from customer service, to marketing, to conversions.
Project Management Tools
Trello, Asana, CoSchedule – These days, you no longer need to be in the same room (or even the same country) to bring your team together in collaboration. Productivity and project management tools like the three mentioned here make it possible to keep your entire workforce in the loop from anywhere in the world and ensure your projects stay perfectly on track.
Trello is a wildly popular tool for some excellent reasons. It’s simple and user-friendly, but it’s also powerful and versatile, so it’s easy to leverage it to manage a wide variety of different projects. Asana harnesses the power and efficiency of AI to connect your workforce and streamline all of your campaigns.
CoSchedule is an amazing tool for those in need of some good calendars. Easily manage your social strategies, organize agency appointments, plan market research, maintain your content calendar, and more.
Conclusion
So what are marketing automation tools, and why should you use them? The best marketing tools for you are the tools that can best help you meet your long-term goals for your brand. Experiment with some of the above options, but don’t be afraid to explore more on your own.
And definitely check out our comprehensive interactive content experience resources and schedule a consultation today! We’ll help you get your content strategy where it needs to be and keep it on track!
