The Huge List of 127 Marketing Tools
A few weekends ago, I finally hung my TV up on the wall. It wasn’t just sitting there for a couple of weeks, it’s been laying flat on my TV stand for almost a year. After learning about studs in my wall, and a few (or…dozen) holes later, my TV is up. (Let’s hope as I’m writing this in the office it hasn’t come crashing down).
My handiness has improved, albeit more so with the help of friends, and throughout my time at TrackMaven, my marketing toolkit has grown as well. It has been several months since my last post on the content tools I use, and I’ve discovered that there is a huge pool of tools out there for marketers. We all have our favorites and unspoken list of industry standards, but frankly, there isn’t a list that contains all of these tools.
After I wrote about the Biggest List of Content Marketing Tools, I received emails and tweets from many of you with more marketing tool suggestions. So without further ado, here’s an added and edited huge list of marketing tools (in no particular order).
The Huge List of 127 Marketing Tools
Marketing Automation
What links all the tools in your marketing tool belt together? Marketing Automation. Marketing efforts can be successful to a certain, short extent without a cohesive marketing automation tool, but you will ultimately reach a tipping point in scale and complexity where marketing automation will become a necessity. Here are a few marketing automation platforms to consider.
1. Hubspot- Hubspot essentially owns the term “inbound marketing” and it shines through their automation software.
2. Pardot- “B2B Marketing Automation.” Aims to help align sales and marketing.
3. ExactTarget- Providing “powerful digital marketing software for the Fortune 500″ to small businesses
4. Eloqua- “Marketing Automation and Revenue Performance Management” and wants you to become a “modern marketer.”
5. Marketo- “Marketing Software. Easy. Powerful. Complete.”
6. Silverpop- Provides Marketing Automation, Email Marketing, and Digital Marketing Products & Apps.
7. Infusionsoft- “Sales and marketing software built for small business.”
8. Act-on- “Fresh approach to marketing automation that gives you full functionality without the complexity other systems impose on you.”
SEO
9. SEMRush- Advanced SEO Keyword search.
10. Yoast- WordPress plugins to ramp up your SEO game. I’m a fan of the button that changes colors showing if your SEO has been optimized in a blog post.
11. Open Site Explorer- The Search Engine for Links.
12. NerdyData- An awesome search engine where you can search HTML, find backlinks, track competitors, and generate leads.
13. Authority Labs- Helps a user gain a clearer picture on how search engines are displaying their brands.
Social
There are an endless amount of social tools out there, but here are the obvious standout ones to improve engagement and narrow your target audience. These tools range from scheduling to impression targeting to help all of your social outlets.
14. Socedo- Helps you discover new social prospects that match your custom criteria and qualify them via automated engagement.
15. Topsy- Analyzes content on Twitter in real-time and sort by relevance or date.
16. Storify- Making the social web into stories.
17. TagBoard- Tracks hashtags on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, Vine, or App.net
18. Followerwonk- Twitter Analytics.
19. SocialBro- A nice real-time dashboard telling you which followers are tweeting at the given time along with some other nifty tools. It syncs up with Buffer too.
20. Followgen- Targeting tweets for more impressions. Currently undergoing a pivot, but stay-tuned for its revamped product.
21. Tweriod- Want to know the best time to tweet? Download a quick and free report.
22. Tweetdeck- Counting favorites, you can see how many favorites Twitter users have with this app. Tweetdeck also makes it easy to view all of your twitter feeds.
23. Buffer- Schedule your Tweets and Facebook posts easily and efficiently.
24. Slideshare- An underrated social media outlet that can also generate some qualified leads as well.
25. JustUnfollow- Grow your follower count quickly.
26. Hootsuite- Another tool to schedule social media posts and customizable data too.
Curation
Curating content is just as important as creating it. All of these tools help collect the content you’re looking for — and some help you share it with your team as well.
27. Inc- Share news, ideas, and knowledge in one place.
28. Icebergs- Collect ideas, articles, content, inspiration, research, etc. in one place to share with your team.
29. Little Bird- Influencer discovery and engagement.
30. Digg Reader- A simple but powerful RSS and feed reader for keeping up with sites and blogs.
31. Feedly- RIP Google Reader and welcome the reader that has a beautiful interface and easily organizes everything for you to read for the day.
32. Readability- A web and mobile app that zaps online clutter and saves web articles in a comfortable reading view.
33. Flipboard- Makes your own personalized magazine in a gorgeous, simple format.
34. Pocket- Want to read it later? Pocket-it and you can read it on the go too.
35. Evernote- A huge step-up from your average note-taking and gathering.
Research
Need some inspiration? Suffering from writer’s block? These tools and sites will help you research engaging topics to keep your audience hungry for more.
36. Google Trends- Explore trending topics.
37. Bottle Nose Sonar Solo- Allows you to search for any topic to find the hottest trends and what influencers are saying about the subject in real-time.
38. Twitter Advanced Search- Often forgotten about, the advanced search in Twitter can yield searches in Twitter about topics you are looking for or influencers tweeting about that subject.
39. Linkedin Groups- Linkedin Groups can be a great source for curation of articles and also for content research. What questions are most frequently asked in the groups you belong to, and how can you answer those questions?
40. LinkedIn Pulse- Displays news from your favorite sites and your Influencer posts to research topics based on what’s going on in your networks’ world. There’s a separate mobile app as well.
41. Quibb- A professional network to share industry news and analysis. Read, curate, and research what your peers are sharing.
42. Marketing Charts- Fantastic source for marketers looking for charts and data.
43. Medium- “A better place to read and write.” Recently opened to everyone, Medium has become a fast-growing publisher of content across all industries. Medium could be under curation as well, but this is a good place to research topics that people are already engaging with.
44. Svbtle- A “new kind of magazine” making it easier for people to discover and research for new ideas.
Content
We’ve suggested many tools to collect, consume, and share others’ content, but here are some tools to help you manage and distribute your own.
45. NewsCred- Helps brands power content marketing helping to drive revenue and engagement.
46. Skyword- Streamlines and automates the content creation and publishing process.
47. Kapost- Content Marketing Software and Content Marketing Platform. Helps marketers use their content to drive more web visitors, nurture leads, and new sales.
48. Parse.ly- Content management tool providing insights in the content you are publishing.
49. Contently- A Story-Telling Platform working with journalists, media companies, publishers etc. They have a pretty awesome blog too.
50. Portent’s Content Idea Generator- Simple to use and a little silly, but it helps get your ideas churning when you’re drawing a blank.
51. Quora- Check out the questions people are asking and answer them in your content.
52. Branch- All about conversations. Talk about your content here and get some discussion out of the conversationalists in this outlet.
53. Google Drive- You can create and keep all your your docs, forms, spreadsheets etc. in one place.
54. Thesaurus- Stop using the same words over and over again. Synonyms, anyone?
55. MW Dictionary- Didn’t know what that word meant? That’s what a dictionary is for.
Organization
Organizing everything you need to do, remember and keep track is almost a full-time job on its own. Here are some tools to keep you out of hairy, disorganized situations.
56. MindNode- Easy mind mapping.
57. CARROT to Do- This to-do list is hilarious. Gamifying getting your tasks done and calling you out for when you don’t.
58. Google Calendar- This is one everyone should be using. Simple calendar that organizes all of your events for the day. My motto is that if it’s not in my Google Calendar, then it doesn’t exist.
59. Box- Online file sharing and cloud content management system.
60. Dropbox- Everything in one place (photos, docs, videos) making it easily shareable for yourself and/or others.
61. Remember The Milk- Multiple lists, tags and it can connect with Trello!
62. Wunderlist- The mobile app is very easy to use and syncs with all of your other devices, so you can keep all of your lists up to date.
63. Trello- I’ve often wondered if I can Trello everything in my life because they make it so easy to maintain goals, create checklists and outline different processes. Share and store all of your files easily.
64. IFTTT- Create different recipes that allow for all of your apps to work the way you want them to. One great recipe is for Instagram photos to be instantly created into Twitter pics, so your followers can see that image in a twitter card.
Visuals
The bulk of your content is text, but that’s not to say that visuals should take a backseat. Make sure your images are just as advanced as the words you are writing. Here are some tools that can step up your visual game.
65. VSCOCam- A simple and visually stunning mobile app to use to boost your pictures.
66. Awesome Screenshot- Need to take a screenshot of the whole page instead of what’s above the fold? Awesome Screenshot is..awesome for that.
67. Snappy- An app that was recently shared with the team, but allows for you to take screenshots of what you are working on and allows you to pin them to the top of your screen so you can see what you wanted to keep tabs on in the first place.
68. Skitch- Working alongside of Evernote, you can doodle, highlight and type over all of those notes you collected. You also can add arrows to things you want to point out in visuals for your content.
69. Resize.it- A site to easily resize all of your images quickly.
70. Visual.ly- Beautiful infographics. They even have a corgi one!
71. Piktochart- A way for you to create your own infographics. Time to put down that stock photo.
72. Easel.ly- Not just a way for you to create infographics, but a way to share too. Sharing is caring, right?
73. Tableau- Numbers look at tad boring all alone, time to visualize some of that data.
74. Wordle- Tool to generate sweet word clouds.
75. Issuu- Create online magazines.
76. FotoFlexer- In a bind and can’t use Photoshop? FotoFlexer has some basic and advanced editing features that can be matched up to Photoshop.
Collaboration
There isn’t an “I” in team, so make sure as a marketer you are in fact working with your team to produce the best possible content. Some of these tools we use as a team here at TrackMaven. The others are for collaboration outside of your team to interact with other marketers.
77. Join.me- Online meetings and screen sharing.
78. Clearslide- Helps to improve customer-facing interactions. Also another great online meeting and screen sharing product.
79. Doodle- Simplifies team scheduling.
80. Skype- Free internet calls and video calls. Also, did you see their recent ad?
81. HipChat- We use HipChat at TrackMaven. An easy way to communicate with everyone on the team. Also, here’s a little secret…
82. Yammer- Another communication platform for the office.
83. GoToMeeting- Good for meetings or webinars. Allows you to interact more with your customers.
84. Google+ Hangouts- Sometimes I forget about Hangouts, but this is a good way to host events or webinars in a more collaborative way, especially since you can organize them by community in Google+.
85. Twiddhla- Have a white board in your office taking up too much room or is it a little crusty from all of the marks? Here’s a web-based one, so you can collaborate without the clean-up.
86. ScreenHero- Sharing your screen, but you want the person to interact with the project too? ScreenHero allows for collaborative screen sharing.
Technical
For marketers in the technology sphere, it’s essential to understand at least the basics of coding. Take a look at some of theses resources to expand on your technological knowledge.
87. General Assembly- In-depth education courses on business foundations, data analysis, digital marketing, mobile development, product design, user experience design, and web development. There are local workshops, online classes, and full-time courses to learn a new set of skills that can help you forage your way into a new career path.
88. Skillcrush- Awesome 10 day email bootcamp for foundational basics and a class you can sign up for to learn more skills.
89. Skillshare- A variety of classes to take on anything from Ruby on Rails to Hand-Lettering that you take on your own and at your own pace.
90. Treehouse- Step-by-Step courses on how to build websites, apps, coding, and other valuable lessons.
91. Codecademy- I’ve done several lessons on Codecademy, all of which were great. They are easy to follow and satisfy my competitive urge by giving me a slight “gamified” experience.
92. CodeSchool- I like how there are set paths and video lessons. An easier way for you to begin coding.
93. Rickshaw- Want to create your own interactive graphs? It’s a little more technical, but it’s a free source for you to display your data.
Data and Interaction
A/B tests, heat maps, personalized messages, clicks, traffic, links etc. can all be seen and tracked with these tools. No more fluffy marketing, please. Get the data behind it, too.
94. Optimize.ly- Helps improve conversions through simple A/B testing, split testing, and multivariate testing.
95. Unbounce- Landing page builder
96. Gravity Forms- Complete contact solution builder for WordPress.
97. Mixpanel- Analytics platform showing you how your customers are interacting and engaging based on actions in your product.
98. Hellobar- Notification bar, acquired by CrazyEgg.
99. BounceExchange- Helps to convert your bounce traffic.
100. Ducksboard- Real-time web dashboard for your metrics.
101. Zapier- Kind of like IFTTT, but powerful connector for apps. Automates all of your tasks.
102. Ghostery- Find out who’s tracking you or what tools a website is using.
103. Woopra- Real-time Customer Analytics.
104. KISSMetrics- Customer Intelligence and web analytics.
105. GeckoBoard-Real-time business dashboard.
106. Moz- Mainly centered on SEO at first, but now has an analytics component to “manage all your inbound efforts.”
107. Intercom- From tracking who is logging on to targeting users with specific messaging, Intercom makes interaction analytics simple.
108. Google Analytics- Provides insights, analytics and data to your site.
109. SessionCam- What are your users doing? This takes a look at your user’s session inside your product.
110. CrazyEgg- Heatmaps, scrollmaps, a confetti and an overlay tool all show what content the user is interacting with most on your site.
111. Bit.ly- Super useful link-shortener that can also be connected with your Buffer account. I set up two accounts to look at the clicks for Twitter and Facebook too.
It’s not time to mourn the passing of email because it’s far from being dead. Did you know that people who buy products marketed through email spend 138% more than people that do not receive email offers? So spruce up those email campaigns with some of these tools.
112. Aweber- Simple and easy-to-use email marketing and auto-responder software. And hey, it’s only $1 to try!
113. Toutapp- Track which email templates are working for you.
114. Signals- Real-time notfiications that tell you when someone has the potential intent of wanting to talk to you, shows you a notification when they open your email.
115. Movable Ink- Agile email marketing that allows for the content of the emails to adapt to the recipients and how they react to the emails.
116. MailChimp- Create email newsletters and campaigns easily.
117. Campaign Monitor- Another email campaign tool.
118. Rapportive- Who is this person emailing you? Or, trying to figure out an email of someone important? Rapportive makes it instantly easier, showing a contact’s picture, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or other information. It’s a Gmail plug-in.
119. SendGrid- Useful email deliverability tool while also monitoring open-rates and click-throughs.
120. Contactually- Have so many contacts that you can’t keep up with them? Or forget to follow-up with them? Contactually makes it so much easier (and fun too with their bucket game).
Productivity
With marketing tasks piling up every day, productivity must always be maintained at optimal levels. Here are some tools that help you make the most of your marketing mix.
121. Coffitivity- Not in a coffee shop, but want the surpisingly productive background noise? Here you go.
122. Caffeine- I know you’ll probably want to take a nap, but you don’t want your computer to go to sleep. Download Caffeine, so it stays awake. Really useful for presentations.
123. StayFocused- Limits the time that you can spend on certain sites, so that you can maintain your focus.
124. SelfControl- Avoid distracting sites…like CorgiAddict.com
126.WrittenKitten- Helps set a writing goal by rewarding you with a picture of a kitten when you reach that goal. (Now if they only had one with corgi pictures…)
127. Twords- Nudges you to keep writing and helps track your writing progress.
Refreshers
It’s never a bad idea to go back to basics! Here are resources to refresh your marketing foundation, or share with co-workers for a marketing tune-up.
-Hubspot’s Inbound Academy and Certification
-KISSmetrics Marketing Guides
-QuickSprout University
-SEOmoz’s Beginner’s Guide To SEO
-CopyBlogger’s Content Marketing 101
-Contently’s Beginnger’s Guide to Content Strategy
-Unbounce Google Adwords Webinar
-All The Resources You Need To Answer Your Facebook Marketing Questions
-Hubspot’s Marketing Grader Tool
-MailChimp’s Voice & Tone
-Epic List of Content Strategy Resources (Collected by Jonathon Colman)
If you liked this post, you might like our MARKETING MAVEN’S GUIDE TO FACEBOOK or COLOSSAL CONTENT MARKETING REPORT for insights into the best times to post and best practices for content creation.
