Digital marketing has so many facets these days – web design companies focus on graphic design, SEO, social media management, ad management, email marketing, blogging, website performance management – and the best ways to stay on track are ever-changing. To keep up, digital marketers need to use efficiency tools.
However, there are so many tools out there in the world that it can be hard to know which ones are worth spending the time on! Check out this list of mobile and desktop tools for digital marketers to get the most out of your precious time.
Contents
Social Media
Hootsuite
Perhaps one of the best-known social media management tools, Hootsuite is a professional desktop and mobile social media scheduling tool. It even provides analytics to help you understand how to maximize your account and reach a wider audience.
In addition to their scheduling platform, the company offers educational courses to users hoping to learn more about social media marketing and how to use Hootsuite. The company also offers highly-sought professional certifications that demonstrate users’ understanding of Hootsuite and social media management.
Is it free?
Yes and no. Since Hootsuite has a variety of pricing plans, it’s a great tool for business owners, professionals, and marketing teams. The Professional and Team plan comes with 30-day trial periods so users can test Hootsuite out before committing. Hootsuite does provide a free version of the service available to anyone who doesn’t quite need what advanced plans offer.
As for Hootsuite’s education and certification programs, pricing depends on the program. Some courses are free while others cost nearly $1,000.
Buffer
Another mobile and desktop social media scheduling platform, Buffer’s easy-to-navigate UI makes it a popular choice among marketers. The company is always growing and adding new things to their available services, such as the Analyze feature, which makes Buffer a good choice for those who need more than just the standard social media scheduling system.
Is it free?
Yes and no. Buffer can be a powerful, affordable option – its least expensive plan allows for 8 social accounts and 100 scheduled posts. All plans come with a 14-day trial period. There is also a free version of Buffer available that allows users to have 3 social accounts and 10 scheduled posts at a time.
MeetEdgar
Another social media scheduler, MeetEdgar automates social media so users don’t have to worry about real-time posting. Their quirky mascot, an octopus named Edgar, also provides a little extra life to the platform.
In addition to being a mascot, Edgar can perform some very useful tasks. Edgar can search articles or blogs and find quote-worthy snippets, then write variations of potential posts for you based on that content. When the queue is empty, Edgar continues to reshare content, guaranteeing that your accounts don’t experience any lulls inactivity.
Users can also color-code their posts to better organize them into buckets. Users can even tag content as one-time-use-only or evergreen, organizing it for later use.
In addition to its organization features, MeetEdgar also allows users to A/B test social media posts, so social media managers no longer have to guess about the best post format for website conversions.
MeetEdgar’s unique features can save social media marketers a lot of time and ease the panic that inevitably occurs when in a pinch to find something to post.
Is it free?
No. However, MeetEdgar does offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Repost
Sometimes a social media manager wants to perform the equivalent of a Retweet on Instagram; however, that feature is not available on the native platform. One solution is the Repost mobile app. The app is so easy to use that the app’s website only provides a 15-second video explaining how to use it.
The result is a reposted Instagram photo along with a prominently-featured, self-populating credit tag. A repost is an easy tool that allows app-users to share content while giving the proper credit.
Is it free?
Yes!
Facebook Pages Manager
While it’s nice to schedule posts directly through the Facebook website on a desktop, sometimes you need to swap out an image or check up on Insights on-the-go. The Facebook Pages Manager app lets users do this. The simple UI is a bonus.
Facebook also offers Facebook certification courses, called Facebook Blueprint, easily accessible via mobile or desktop. This program helps users understand social media marketing (Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram) in addition to all of Facebook’s tools.
Is it free?
The Facebook Pages Manager app and Facebook Blueprint program are both free. However, if you’d like to get Facebook Blueprint certified, there is a fee.
Visual Content & Other Media
Canva
With its simple interface and powerful platform, Canva has taken the digital marketing world by storm over the last several years. Canva boasts customizable design templates for just about every need, including social media, book covers, bookmarks, posters, graphic organizers, and much more.
Is it free?
Yes and no. Canva offers a paid Pro version with additional features like automatic resizing, transparent background image exports, animations, and more. Some templates also require payment. Depending on how you plan to use Canva, the free version may fill your needs.
PicMonkey
PicMonkey is a graphic design platform with an emphasis on photo-editing; however, graphic designers may still find PicMonkey handy.
Is it free?
Yes and no. While there is a free version available, its features are somewhat limited. PicMonkey’s paid subscriptions allow for more design and editing flexibility, but you might not need a subscription to get what you’re looking for out of the app; it just depends on your needs.
Crello
Marketing goods, advertising events or promoting services will definitely benefit from using the online design tools – Crello. Crello is a graphic design creator that does not require you to have some sophisticated design skills. Easy to use due to its user-friendly UI, Crello is capable to assist you in creating any visual design for all sorts of needs and purposes: web pages, social media, print media. Its impressive collection of photos, templates, animation, video clips allow you to sustain your content with graphic elements that will never leave your client indifferent. No matter whether you are a freelancer or a huge corporation, thanks to its easy features you get to create various types of graphics on a highly professional level.
Is it free?
It does have a free trial and the subscription will cost $7.99 per month.
Royalty-Free Images & Videos
Check out these websites to discover royalty-free images and videos. In many cases, you can find attribute-free images at no cost.
- Pexels
- Unsplash
- Shutterstock
- Envato
- Pixabay
- Burst
- Kaboompics
- Canva
- Flickr
- Getty Images
You can also search for royalty-free images directly on Google.
Royalty-Free Audio
More and more websites offer royalty-free audio. Some options are free while others are not. If monetizing content, make sure your royalty-free material is allowed for commercial use.
- Audioblocks
- Pond5
- Premium Beat
- Artlist
YouTube also has its own audio library for content creators, albeit for limited use.
Email Marketing
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is one of the most powerful email marketing platforms out there. Customers can use it for audience segmentation, email automation, A/B testing, ads and social posting, social reporting, content creation, and more.
Is it free?
Yes and no. While there is a free version available, its features are limited. However, it may still be worth exploring depending on what you need. Mailchimp offers several different plans to digital marketers.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact, while not as broad in service offerings as MailChimp, still packs a punch in terms of its capabilities and has been serving small businesses for over 20 years. While it’s primarily known as an email automation platform, it can provide specialized e-commerce and social marketing email services, as well.
Is it free?
No. However, you can sign up for a 60-day trial, and plans are largely affordable compared to competitors.
Marketo
Although email marketing and automation are huge parts of Marketo’s business, they’re not the only tools they offer. Marketo, an Adobe company, provides tools for ads, social media, lead management, and website performance. It’s a powerful option for digital marketers who would prefer to use a stacked platform rather than multiple platforms for varying services.
Is it free?
No. However, customers can request a demo.
Blogging & Writing
Grammarly
Writing your blog posts in a word processor like Microsoft Word doesn’t guarantee that your posts are free of mistakes. While Grammarly can’t quite promise a perfect blog post either, it can catch a lot of embarrassing mistakes in grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
Grammarly also has a plagiarism-checker, which marketers might find useful if they’re not quite confident that their work is original enough.
Is it free?
Grammarly does have a free option available, and it’s incredibly useful. A paid version promises improved vocabulary suggestions, more grammar checks, and an advanced plagiarism-detector.
Alexa
You might know Alexa as the name of Amazon’s smart-home assistant, but it’s also a brilliant tool for bloggers concerned with SEO.
Bloggers can use the Alexa website to determine the quality of their links and to capitalize on keyword opportunities. Since linking to high-ranking websites currently improves SEO and low-ranking websites can hurt SEO, it’s important to know a website’s Alexa ranking.
Is it free?
The free version offers enough information to be useful, but professionals might want to take a look at Alexa’s paid plans for additional information.
Feedly
If you’ve ever struggled to keep up with interesting content on the Web, Feedly is a smart pick. With Feedly, you choose all the blogs, topics, and publications you want to see content from, and the platform aggregates recent content into an organized feed.
Not only is using Feedly a great way to keep current on digital marketing news and specific industries, but it’s also a great tool for social media marketers and bloggers looking for content.
Is it free?
Yes.
Website Tools
Website Grader
Website Grader is a free tool provided by HubSpot to help marketers discover where they can improve their websites. It gives users a grade and breaks it down into different categories such as performance, SEO, mobile, and security. Website Grader then provides a further breakdown to include precise areas of improvement.
Is it free?
Yes.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is an absolute necessity for website owners who want to monitor their website traffic. Is traffic organic? If so, where does it come from? What are your visitors’ demographics? Information like this is difficult, if not impossible, to discover without using Google Analytics.
Is it free?
Yes. If you’d like to get Google Analytics certified, though, you may have to pay for this.
SEMRush
SEMRush packs an incredible number of SEO tools into one application, and they can help in numerous ways:
- Analytics reporting
- Advertising research
- Display advertising
- Backlinks
- Keyword research
- Product listing ads
- Traffic analysis
The app and website are dedicated to improving SEO without giving users a headache and is a popular option among SEO experts.
Is it free?
No. SEMRush’s least expensive plan at this time falls just short of $100 per month.
Yoast
Another SEO tool, Yoast is a WordPress plugin that visualizes areas of improvement on blog posts. Its educational tools are also useful for anyone looking to learn more about SEO – whether they use WordPress or not.
Is it free?
Although there is a free plugin available to use on WordPress, it lacks some features of paid plans. Also, users must pay for many of Yoast’s SEO training, but not all.
Hotjar
Hotjar’s platform offers real-time feedback about your website’s performance. It can show you where you’re losing customers in the conversion funnel and can even record where users drag their mouse while interacting with your website.
One of Hotjar’s most popular features is its heat map feature, which shows website managers where on the webpage people most visit – allowing for clearer website design optimization.
Is it free?
Yes and no. Although there are options for paid plans, users can opt into a free plan.
Miscellaneous
HubSpot
HubSpot is known as a sales and marketing titan among professionals, so it’s likely you’ve heard of it. Just in terms of marketing, it provides the tools to improve SEO, social media marketing, email templates, blog posts, website landing pages, analytics reports, ads, and more.
Is it free?
HubSpot does have a free version available, but the tools you can use at no cost are extremely limited.
Which Digital Marketing Tools Do You Love Most?
With so many digital marketing tools out there available to use on your phone or computer, it’s tempting to try them all. Many offer free trials or demos, so you don’t necessarily need to spend a lot of money to test them out. Try a few, take a look at their pricing plans if needed, and decide if the time you’d save by using the app is worth the money you would pay. You might be surprised. Reliable digital marketing companies like Maxburst utilize these tools and have always given perfect solutions to the clients.
Remember, these are just some digital marketing tools – there are hundreds of them and you can visit hobpost.com to check some additional ones that were not on this list! What are your favorite tools?