Is your agency actively evaluating new digital marketing tools to improve performance, systems, and processes?
Well, there are more than 8,000 marketing tools to consider.
At least, that’s the number of tools listed on Scott Brinker’s 2020 Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic. That’s up from 7,000 in 2019, 6,800 in 2018, 2,000 in 2015, and 150 in 2011.
In other words, there are more software tools than there is time to evaluate them.
I mean, just look at Brinker’s graphic––you can’t even make out the categories of software let alone the individual vendors.
So, how are you supposed to find the marketing software that works best for you?
Well, there are two solutions. You could ask for recommendations from other marketing experts, or you could narrow the field by looking only for tools that will help you achieve specific goals.
The good news: if getting recommendations for best marketing software from other marketing experts sounds like the approach you want to take, we’ve already done the legwork for you.
In this post, you will learn:What is Digital Marketing Software?What Are the Different Types of Marketing Software?How Do I Choose a Marketing Software?39 Best Digital Marketing Software ToolsWhat is Digital Marketing Software?
Put simply, digital marketing software helps to improve the performance and efficiency of repetitive and/or manual tasks. Everything from bookkeeping to email marketing is managed through software these days.
Digital marketing software includes social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram, but also analytics tools like Google Analytics.
Digital marketing tools allow marketing experts to create, test, and measure the performance of their campaigns, as well as to ensure their marketing campaigns are launched and tested quickly and efficiently.
The most common digital marketing tools can be divided into 5 groups:Social media platformsDesign toolsAnalytics toolsContent marketing toolsEmail marketing toolsThe Different Types of Digital Marketing Software
Marketing teams typically use tools across the following 15 categories.
Now, there are obviously tools that span several different categories, i.e. software for updating content for SEO purposes. And, there are also niche software products that go deep into some of these categories.
This is simply a general overview of the different types of marketing software teams typically employ. Customer relationship management software (CRM)Video conferencing solutionEmail marketing softwareMarketing automation softwareAnalytics and data visualization toolsContent management softwareWebsite optimization toolsContent marketing platformVisual editing and design toolsSEO softwareSocial listening softwareEvent marketing solutionBusiness intelligence softwareProject management softwareRetargeting ad toolHow Do I Choose A Marketing Software?
If you’re trying to find the right marketing software to accomplish your business’ goals, but aren’t sure which vendor to go with, here are some recommendations for choosing the right software. Level-set: If you’re generating 20k monthly sessions, you might not need to go with the enterprise-level SEO software. Start small. Choose software that supports your size and aspirations.Identify your goals: Why are you looking for a software solution in the first place? What numbers should this investment help improve? It’s a simple step, but by identifying this and tying numbers to software, you’ll have a better feel for which vendors can support those goals. Identify who will use it: Which teams need access? How many total members of your team will need seats? How do their challenges differ? Considering the impact that any vendor will have on your team is a critical step toward making the right decision. Identify who will own it: Who will own implementation? Management? Involve this person early on in the evaluation process in order to ensure onboarding and implementation go smoothly.Read reviews: Use sites like G2 in order to research reviews for the software you’re evaluating and even see who the market leaders are for the categories you’re looking at investing in.Read case studies: Visit any vendor’s website and review any case studies they’ve published. If you can’t find them, ask vendors to share some with you. Demo the product: It’s always a good idea to get a demonstration of the software before investing money into it. Ideally, this won’t just be screenshare. You’ll want your team to get into the software and confirm it can do what’s needed.
We spoke with 60 marketing experts to find out what digital marketing tools they use to generate more revenue and make their operations more efficient. Here are the 38 digital marketing software tools they recommended, listed in alphabetical order:Ahrefs for deep diving into all of your SEO metricsAiva for conversion optimizationBasecamp for all-in-one project management and collaborationBeacon for rapid ebook creationBrowserStack for cross-browser and cross-device testingBuzzStream for keeping track of influencer outreachCalendly for making it easy for prospects to book meetingsCeros for interactive landing pages, ebooks, and infographicsClickUp for free and powerful project managementContent Snare for building content in collaboration with clientsContentools forcontent marketing planning and collaboration Drift for adding chatbots to your websiteDrip for a complete marketing automation and CRM toolFotor for free online photo editingG Suite for all-in-one communication and collaborationGoogle Analytics for all of your website analytics needsGrammarly for avoiding grammar and spelling mistakesHubSpot CRM + Sales Pro for a real-time view of your sales pipelineHubSpot Marketing for tracking the top of your funnelHubSpot Meetings for quickly scheduling meetingsIntentData.io for gathering actionable data for outbound salesJira for agile project managementKeywords Everywhere for PPC keyword researchKWFinder for organic keyword researchLeadfeeder for gathering lead intelligenceLoom for quickly creating and sending screen recordingsMoz Pro for easy SEO analysisPandaDoc for rapid proposal creation and trackingRight Inbox for turning your Gmail account into a personal CRMSamepage for easily tracking projects for the whole teamSE Ranking for keyword rank trackingSEMrush for optimizing content for searchSeobility for TF-IDF optimizationSeventh Sense for customizing email send timesSitebulb for conducting SEO auditsSkype for running professional, high-quality video callsSlack for simplifying communicationsTeamwork for handling complex project management scenariosIcons8 Lunacy for graphic designPRO TIP: How Are Users Engaging on My Site? Which Content Drives the Most Online Activity?
If you want to discover how visitors engage with your website, and which content drives the most engagement and conversions, there are several on-page events and metrics you can track from Google Analytics that will get you started:Sessions and % new sessions. How much traffic does your website receive on a daily or monthly basis? Sessions by channel. Which channels are driving the most traffic to your website? Average session duration. How long do visitors spend on your website on average? Pageviews and pageviews by page. Which pages on your website are viewed the most? Average time on page. What is the average time users spend on a specific webpage?
Now you can benefit from the experience of our Google Analytics experts, who have put together a plug-and-play Databox template showing the most important KPIs for monitoring visitor engagement on your website. It’s simple to implement and start using as a standalone dashboard or in marketing reports, and best of all, it’s free!
You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required.
To set up the dashboard, follow these 3 simple steps:
Step 2: Connect your Google Analytics account with Databox.
Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds.1. Ahrefs
According to the marketing experts we surveyed, the best digital marketing tool for deep diving into your SEO metrics is Ahrefs.