20 Marketing Tools You Need When Starting a Business

If you are a nascent business, looking to improve your marketing strategies and grow from a handful of customers to a few thousand paying customers and more, you must use the best marketing tools.

When you decide to go for the best, you will quickly realize that finding the top 20 marketing tools is easier said than done. The landscape of marketing tools is bursting with new players, making their presence felt. Are you aware that there were some 7000 odd marketing tools just a year back? Surely you cannot sift through them all and choose the best ones.

This article aims to make your job easier. We have compiled a list of the top 20 marketing tools for various business management and operation tasks. Take your pick now and see your business surge to the next level.

1. HubSpot

If you are looking for a growth software that has everything you need to boost conversions and drive business, go for HubSpot. You can improve key areas of the business as HubSpot offers sales, marketing, and customer service tools as well.

Features

• Set up lead capture forms
• Send and track emails
• Generate basic analytics reports
• Schedule meetings
• Chat live with visitors

Pricing

• $3,200 per month for enterprise plan
• Free version available 

2. BuzzSumo

Not sure how to reach out to your targeted audience? BuzzSumo will help you find the right path by connecting you to the top influencers in your niche. You can access the best one for your business from the expansive database of leading influencers.

Features

• Find out about past mentions and trending topics for your business.
• Use the powerful analytics tool to monitor what matters the most to your business
• Enhance operations in areas where they need more attention.
• Analyze most shared and referenced content

With its advanced tools and features, you can get answers to many of your marketing challenges.

Pricing

• $79 per month for the Pro plan
• $499 per month for Enterprise Plan
• 30-day no commitment-free trial available

3. Sniply

Want to get a reliable and accurate way of tracking and analyzing your traffic sources. Sniply can get it done like a pro by generating unique links to your content. You can also include a CTA on the page of your choice.

Features

• Offers a custom URL shortener
• Get unique shortened links using the CTA URL shortener
• Track link analytics metrics using advanced link management tools
• Make the right content curation decisions using link analytics tools

This popular marketing tool is highly recommended by industry leaders and has found mention on over 300 marketing blogs.

Pricing

• Plans range from $29/month for basic to $299/month for agency
• Any plan is available for free for 14 days

4. MailChimp

MailChimp ranks among the top email marketing providers with more than 12 million customers. It has many peers but MailChimp scores above them all because of its powerful tools and guidance.

Features

• Makes website traffic tracking easy
• Offers a number of email templates
• Offers software integrations
• Comes with a drip campaign design
• MailChimp is popular because, despite its range of features, it is easy to use.
• MailChimp is the best buy for startups.

Pricing

• The pricing system is tiered. Essentials plan starts at $10.32 per month.
• You can get started for free

5. Trello

Facing a collaboration issue with your remote teams? Trello can help you collaborate more effectively and efficiently. Teams can use the software to meet, organize, and prioritize projects in a fun way.

Features

• Best all-inclusive tool for content strategists
• Makes it easy for teams to take notes and record instructions.
• Project status updates can be posted for individual or common viewing

Pricing

• Has a tiered pricing system. The business Class plan starts at $9.99/month/user.
• The free option also available

6. Proof

Want to display your social presence on your website but can’t do it in an effective manner? Proof it! This unique marketing tool is gaining popularity because of its ability to boost conversions. Display your social proof on your website and add to its uniqueness to drive more traffic.

Features

• Customers can see all your social media posts in one place
• They can also view reviews and testimonials
• You can track visitors accurately with the Live Visitors count
• The Visitor ID data provides you with a view of the demographics of customers

Pricing

• Offers tiered pricing based on your website traffic volume
• The basic plan starts at $29 per month
• Free 14-day trial available

7. Pepipost

Your search for the best cloud-based email delivery solution ends with Pepipost. Send notifications and newsletters within seconds to your customers and maximize your reach. This is made possible by the AI optimized inboxing.

Features

• Faster email delivery with an inboxing system that can be integrated with any custom application effortlessly
• Offers multi-user rights management for secure data sharing
• Has a subaccount facility for managing the billing. Multiple sending domains can be controlled from one place.
• The AI-optimized backend helps identify users with high engagement potential, the best time to send, and other key tips to optimize throughput.

Pricing

• Tiered pricing with billing on email volumes
• Basic $25/month for 150,000 emails
• Free trial available

8. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a highly valuable service for businesses for tracking and analyzing customer data.  It is a business tool that’s used by nearly all online enterprises to manage their marketing area of business better and for vital market-specific data. The tool can be implemented through Google Tag Manager by using a JavaScript snippet.

Features

• Measure traffic from your campaigns accurately
• Track conversions with the Goals feature
• Get to know users with the Audience Reports
• Track website visitors activity
• Get customized analytics

Pricing

• The standard version is free
• Google Analytics 360 is priced at $150,000

9. Canva

Want to create a powerful website but do not have the budget to give shape to your plan? Canva can be your ally to realize your dream. It is a subscription service and designed to help create powerful and compelling websites. Canva can be used for creating logos, charts, graphs, and custom presentations and fonts.

Features

• Canva is your professional money-saving graphic designer
• The software is optimized for mobile and has attractive drag-and-drop features
• Employers can use the system to check status reports of deadline-driven projects
• You can access the million-plus images library and choose the ones you want to use

Pricing

• $12.95/month for team
• Custom pricing plans for organizations
• Free plans available

10. Hootsuite

Better management of social media posts is what every enterprise desires. If you are facing a problem in this area, Hootsuite can help. It is a social media tool for planning and pre-scheduling your social media posts. You can post anytime 24/7 to reach even your international audience.

Features

• Create and schedule posts as and when needed
• Manage all channels smoothly
• Get a grip on future campaigns
• Interact with users from different networks on the same stream
• Measure performance across all social networks

Pricing

• Starts at $29/month
• Costs $599 and upwards per month for enterprises
• Free plan with basic features available

11. Followerwonk

Are you having problems managing your Twitter social channels? Is your Twitter marketing strategy lacking the desired punch? You need Followerwonk. This social media marketing tool can boost your marketing efforts by accessing and analyzing your social channel analytics data.

Features

• Helps search Twitter bios and analyzes and compares accounts
• Your strategy can be tweaked to match loss or gain of followers and understand the best content that works for your business
• Offers a simple and effective way of understanding your Twitter audience

Pricing

• $29/month for targeting three profiles and $79/month for over 20 profiles
• Free and limited access to one profile is available

12. Unbounce

If your business needs the best landing page optimization startup tool, Unbounce is the right choice. Build high conversion, optimized, and dedicated landing pages for your campaigns with Unbounce. The products offered also include landing page templates and integrations.

Features

• Use this tool to drag and drop almost everything
• There are over 100 landing page building templates to choose from
• You can add custom scripts and pixels and clone and edit pages
• It is 100 percent mobile responsive with customization options

Pricing

• The basic plan starts at $80/month
• The top plan comes at $300/month
• 14-day free trial available

13. Buffer

Managing your social media cannot get easier than this. Buffer optimizes your posts on all the top social media channels by scheduling their posting in advance. You can automate the posting time based on the time zone to achieve the best viewing and results.

Features

• Offers detailed analytics
• Can handle multiple social networks
• The same message can be posted to all platforms or messages customized for individual platforms

Pricing

• Plans for individuals start at $10/month. For teams and agencies, plans start at $99/month.
• The highest plan offered for enterprises is $399/month
• The free basic plan is available

14. Kissmetrics

Kissmetrics is a web-based tool for understanding and improving those key metrics that help drive online business. A key benefit of this powerful marketing software is that it makes user behavior more accessible.

Features

• Offers real-time tracking
• You can access funnel and other relevant marketing reports
• Software integration is possible with existing systems

Pricing

• Starter pricing is $299/month
• Gold Plan is priced at $499/month

15. Evernote

Evernote has become one of the most popular and in-demand digital marketing tools within a short time. It is regarded as the best marketing tool for organizing various notes and archiving them. Sharing images and other things relevant to marketing efforts with your team becomes easy with Evernote.

Features

• Can be used on all devices
• Editing can be done for text and sketches
• Notes can be shared and collaborated on files
• Audio recording also available

Pricing

• The basic plan is free and allows 60 MB uploads/month
• Plus Plan is $34.99/year for 1 GB uploads/month
• Premium Plan priced at $69.99/year and allows 10 GB uploads/month

16. SEMrush

If you are looking to achieve better results in areas such as SEO, PPC, social media, content, and PR, go for SEMrush. It offers information on crucial marketing aspects such as your best-performing posts, how it stands vis-à-vis your close competitors and strategy analysis. The tool also provides updates on the top trending topics.

Features

• The analytics offered covers everything from organic traffic, advertising benefits, keyword research, and more
• Get your competitive analysis right with accurate data visualizations
• Other benefits are brand monitoring and position tracking

Pricing

• The Pro Plan is available for $99.95/month and the Business Plan for $399.95/month
• Free trial available on all plans for 7 days

17. Kapost

Create content guaranteed to deliver great results with Kapost. This powerful and popular marketing tool works by combining the best software and superior service. You can use Kapost to manage the entire content marketing process smoothly, seamlessly, and efficiently.

Features

• Offers 60 plus out-of-the-box integrations
• Comes with customizable content dashboard and workflow and automated email notifications
• Helps you manage every element of digital marketing including videos, blogs, landing pages, webinars, e-books, white papers, and more.

Pricing

Subscription starts at $3,500/month

18. Pardot

This marketing software is highly recommended for making your lead management efforts more impactful and for creating and tracking your online campaigns effectively.  There are modules available for building and managing various marketing elements.

Features

• Lots of customizable templates to choose from
• Helps in accurate tracking and analytics
• You can get real-time sales alerts
• Customer support is outstanding

Pricing

• The standard plan starts at $1250/month
• The higher Ultimate Plan is $4000/month
• A live demo can be requested

19. Visual Website Optimizer

Want to check out which of the many versions of your website and landing pages can generate the best sales? Do it accurately with Visual Website Optimizer. You can use this software to create various versions of your website and landing pages and test for optimal marketing results.

Features

• Run a number of tests such as A/B, Split URL, and Usability
• You can also do revenue tracking and behavioral and geographical tracking
• Plug-ins and integration options are also available
• Generate real-time reports

Pricing

• The startup plan begins at $49/month
• Enterprise is billed $999/month
• A 30-day free trial offer is available

20. Sprout Social

If you want more grip on your social media management efforts, try Social Sprout. Designed specifically for better SMM solutions, this one also excels in analytics and customer service. This is one software integrated with all the top social media channels, making it easy for you to generate accurate statistics across all your linked sites.

Features

• Comes with a superior social media dashboard
• Offers link performance analysis
• Customers can be located by interest or location
• Also allows you to keep a close watch on competitors

Pricing

• The lowest-priced plan is at $149/month
• The Enterprise is available at $249/ month
• A 30-day free trial is available

Conclusion

When you add more powerful marketing tools to your arsenal, you are sure to enjoy great results. By incorporating the right tools and software in your marketing strategy, you can gain valuable information about the metrics that matter the most for your digital marketing goals. Try to use as many marketing tools mentioned in this blog to find out which ones you can commit to for long-term use. Most of them offer free trials so trying them out will not entail any investment.