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Whether you’re a marketer or an entrepreneur, you’re most likely using tools for marketing automation.
A marketing automation tool is a software platform or technology designed to help you automate repetitive tasks and improve the efficiency of your entire marketing process.
Recent statistics show that 63% of the very successful marketers use these tools on a regular basis.
Why do they use such tools? Because it helps them focus on tasks that require manual work and can’t really be automated.
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For marketing automation to be efficient, you need a constant stream of quality leads. Without this vital part, some end up being forced to buy lists of email addresses.
The infographic below is created by Straight North and illustrates the entire lead generation ecosystem and how it all comes together to bring maximum results.
This article will focus on 40 tools every busy marketer should start using. Some of them are free, others require a monthly fee. It’s up to you to decide what fits your needs the best.
Let’s get started.
1. HubSpot – A Complex Inbound Marketing Platform
HubSpot is one of the most well-known inbound marketing platforms. It includes a wide array of features that will help any marketer work efficiently. HubSpot is a tool for marketing automation that mainly enables:
Monitoring of:
- Landing pages
- Leads
- Performance
Building automated workflows for your objectives
There are three different pricing plans available, depending on your needs, the size of your team and, most importantly, budget.
[bctt tweet=”Integration, innovation and automation – HubSpot.” username=”SquirrlyHQ”]2. Squirrly Social – One Year of Social Media Posts in a Flash.
Squirrly Social – If you want to have time to interact with your audience but never miss a social post this is the tool you need. From simple kinds of calendars and scheduling to super advanced schedules, profile posting rules,
Squirrly Social has it all and it’s willing to grow as you grow. You’ll only ever get to the advanced stuff once you’re ready and it will be a breeze to set it all up.
Cool Feature: Squirrly Social doesn’t just help you schedule but also helps you find great resources to share and it enhances all your posts. What I mean is that with a click of a button you get automatic hashtags and emoji to any post you find or create. That’s amazing.
3. Sumo – 12 tools in 1
While it’s not a 100% an automation tool, Sumo features a 12 tools suite to help marketers be more efficient. The way it is able to automate marketing tasks is rather simple, and that is a great benefit. Sumo enables every user to automate the email marketing process.
Here is what Sumo allows you to do:
- Find out what your most valuable piece of content actually is
- Get email addresses
- Proper lead segmentation
- Integration with popular email marketing services
There is a free plan but it has limited functionality.
[bctt tweet=”Sumo’s List Builder helps you generate more and more leads every day.” username=”SquirrlyHQ”]4. Unbounce – Build, Publish & Test
Unbounce enables you to create complex and professional landing pages. There are no coding skills required and the results will look good on mobile as well. After you’ve published them, you can even A/B test to see what works best.
With Unbounce, you can:
- Create landing pages that convert
- Generate more leads
- Integrate with different types of tools for marketing automation (including email)
- A/B test your ideas
- Track and Measure Campaign goals
You get a 30-day free trial, but for further use you’ll have to opt for one of their paid plans.
5. OptimizePress – Sales Pages and Membership Portals Creation
OptimizePress is another useful tool for marketing. It enables you to create sales pages and track results. You can even deploy membership portals to secure your content.
Their LaunchSuite is a great added benefit. It enables you to create product launch funnels.
It’s also 100% compatible with WordPress. You can get it as a theme or as a plugin. Prices start at around $100.
[bctt tweet=”OptimizePress – Real-time building and editing of landing pages that convert.” username=”SquirrlyHQ”]6. CrazyEgg -X-Ray Glasses for Your Website
Every good marketer understands the need to know everything about what your visitors do on your website. Well, CrazyEgg does just that. Granted, it’s technically not a marketing automation tool, but it comes in handy.
By knowing the heat maps on your website, you gain valuable information. You’ll know where to place the CTAs, for example. These insights will help you make high-ROI changes. In the end, you’ll get more conversions and engagement.
You get a 30-day free trial, but to continue using it you’ll have to choose one of their paid plans.
7. ContentLook – Comprehensive Insights about Your Content
Creating great marketing campaigns rely heavily on tracking the results. You can’t measure success in a different way.
So, ContentLook is that type of tool marketers can’t live without – especially the ones in charge of social media marketing or blog content creation.
What ContentLook does in a very efficient way is tracking how your content performs on social media and SERP. If the results are dissatisfying, you can always assign tasks to your team members so they can accomplish the desired goals.
This tool is in Beta at the moment, meaning you can start using it right away for free!
8. TweetDeck – Manage Multiple Accounts
When managing multiple social media accounts, time is a resource you can’t waste. 60% of your followers expect an answer within the hour.
TweetDeck enables social media marketers to track more than one account from the same place. That is a great way to keep track of everything, reply as soon as possible, and schedule upcoming posts. The more you get done, the more efficient you are.
The best thing about it? It’s free.
[bctt tweet=”TweetDeck – A notification system that works great and saves you time.” username=”SquirrlyHQ”]9. Buffer – Social Media Posts Scheduling and More
If you’re managing multiple social media networks accounts, Buffer is the app that will automate everything and save you time.
They have built a cool platform to make your life easier. You can schedule Tweets, Facebook posts and more from just one place. If you’re really creative, you can schedule everything for up to a few days and focus on other tasks.
The difference between TweetDeck and Buffer is that the latter knows the best posting hours for you, and it will schedule them automatically based on this.
A limited functionality Buffer can be used for free. However, their full features plans start at just $10.
10. Pingdom – Monitoring and Real-Time Performance Management
Pingdom is another one of those tools for marketing automation people couldn’t live without. What it does – and very well indeed – is making it easy for you to monitor the uptime and performance for your website or app.
Another great feature is giving you useful insights about how your website performs for each user – based on country, browser or so.
You can use it for free for the first 14 days but you’ll have to pick a paid plan afterwards if you want to continue using it.
11. Kerboo – A Platform for Digital Marketing
Kerboo is another great suite that can help any marketer with a variety of tasks. At its core, the tool enables you to do backlink analysis. But the solutions don’t end here. Kerboo also offers:
- Prospect gathering – reveal the influencer behind highly successful content
- Outreach to influencers by email, contact form or social accounts.
You can pick either a monthly paid plan or an annual one.
[bctt tweet=”Kerboo’s like your personal detective investigating what should matter the most.” username=”SquirrlyHQ”]12. Noble Samurai – Cutting Useless Keywords out of the Way
The Noble Samurai wields two swords. The first one helps marketers find and target profitable niches with high accuracy. This keyword research tool helps you filter useless keywords that you’d be wasting money on.
This keyword research tool helps you filter useless keywords that you’d be wasting money on.
The second sword is a content creation tool. It helps you create professionally-looking videos for your business.
There is a free plan you can use but is somewhat limited in terms of features.
13. PowToon – Get Video Presentations Done in a Few Minutes
Getting video presentations for your products can often be time-consuming and expensive. PowToon gives you a viable alternative to a designer team.
It enables you to create stunningly good-looking video presentations in just a few minutes.
You can use their templates and their easy drag-and-drop system to meet the deadline. It saves you time and allows you to achieve more.
They also have a completely free plan.
14. Canva – Their Templates Save Your Time
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and even a WordPress blog require different things when it comes to the images you use. This is where Canva is a life-saver.
You get incredibly good-looking and useful templates to help you edit images. They’re created with the right size in mind – perfect for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and so forth. The faster you get it done, the more time you have for other tasks.
Don’t have the budget to hire a designer? Then Canva is the tool you need. Best of all: It’s free!
[bctt tweet=”Canva is a life-saver for short-on-time social media marketers.” username=”SquirrlyHQ”]15. Google Analytics
There is no tool that can provide so many insights about your audience like Google Analytics. This free tool gives you tons of information – as long as you know how to properly use it.
If you want to check traffic from different social media networks head to Acquisition – Social – Network Referrals. If you want to see how many users are on your website right now click on Real-Time – Overview.
It may take you a while to learn how to use Google Analytics but it’s definitely worth it. Especially since it’s free and anyone can try it.
16. SEO by Squirrly – Live Assistant
SEO by Squirrly is a plugin for WordPress. It helps you write content that ranks well, enabling you to optimize it while actually writing it.
That is possible thanks to the Live Assistant feature. It works together with you, so the end result will be as search engine-friendly as possible while being readable for humans as well.
You get a free version that is perfect for bloggers and small publishers, but there are Premium paid plans as well.
17. Visme – Create Professional Infographics and Presentations
Visme enables you to be a professional designer without requiring you to have coding skills or advanced image editing superpowers.
You get an intuitive and easy-to-use interface together with tons of templates you can use.
The creation process is as simple as it can be – it’s basically a drag-and-drop tool. The result can either be embedded, downloaded or shared on social media.
You get 3 projects for free each month and to go further you’ll only have to pay $7/month.
[bctt tweet=”Visme is considered by @eamillikin to be ‘the New Swiss Army Knife of Graphic Design.'” username=”SquirrlyHQ”]18. Thinglink – Interactive Extra-Dimension Images
What you can do with Thinglink is add extra dimensions to an image or video. By doing this, they become interactive and provide a rich experience to the user. Each dimension can be customized to lead to a link or show a text.
You don’t need coding skills or a tutorial. Users can also interact with the results. The best aspect about this tool is how easy it is to use and how much time it saves you.
They also provide a free, limited-functionality version that anyone can use.
19. IFTTT – If This Then That
IFTTT is one of those tools for busy marketers that really enables you to automate your work for free.
What this tool for busy marketers does is connect two services together. You then write different “recipes” so that if the first service does one thing, the second should do another.
Simple and pretty straightforward, yet a real time-saver.
For example, you can choose to send an automated message that will say “thank you” to every new follower you get on Twitter.
20. Quuu.co
How does the idea of putting your social media strategy on autopilot sound to you? That’s what Quuu.co was designed to do.
You’ll need a Buffer account, though. What this tool does is it curates content based on your choices of topics and sends it to Buffer for posting on social media. Yes, it’s a great way to get a constant stream of Tweets, for example. For free!
21. UberSuggest – Keyword Research Made Easy
Finding new keywords to write content for is a time-consuming task. Your average go-to tool for this job is Google’s Keyword Planner. Sadly, the results aren’t always what you need. Google helps you generate keywords for advertising.
UberSuggest, on the other hand, is a great tool to complete this task easier. It is ludicrously easy to use and you can even grab the keywords as a .csv list. Plus, the tool is free.
[bctt tweet=”UberSuggest is ludicrously easy to use and extremely efficient.” username=”SquirrlyHQ”]22. MailChimp -Email Marketing Campaigns and Automated Responses
Email marketing is still one of the best ways to get offers to your clients. MailChimp excels at making that an easy task. The way it saves time for marketers is by allowing them to set up automated emails.
You can send an email to users as soon as they subscribe – another one follows after a few hours or days and so forth. It’s a great way to automate, create funnels and send your customers/users educational materials.
You get access to a free plan, but as you grow you’ll most likely have to pay for one of their subscription plans.
23. Tweakyourbiz.com – Title Generator
Sometimes you simply can’t come up with a great title for your next post. You know what you’ll be writing about but can’t seem to be satisfied with the headline.
Tweakyourbiz.com is a great tool to help you avoid wasting time with the title. Just type in your keyword and let it run. The results won’t make sense sometimes, but it will definitely give you some ideas. It is also free.
24. Outbrain – Getting Your Content Out There
Big media websites usually have a section where they recommend content from around the web. Some of this content is totally unrelated and might even seem spammy. But if it’s done the right way, it can bring you quality traffic.
This is what Outbrain enables you to do. It works a bit like Google’s Display Network PPC campaigns. You pay a small sum per click and your content gets promoted on some of the biggest websites out there.
25. KissMetrics -Track Customer’s Journey
Google Analytics gives you details about page views, the number of visitors and so on. But KissMetrics gives you the chance to see your customers’ journey. That enables you to see how your visitors behave on your website.
It’s a great way to track real humans from where they come from until they purchase. Doing this gives you valuable insights on whether your website is aligned with your audiences’ behavior or not.
They have multiple paid plans to choose from.
[bctt tweet=”KissMetrics tells you which roads on your website people actually follow.” username=”SquirrlyHQ”]26. Google Content Experiments – A/B Testing for Free
You’ve created more than just one landing page for a new product. Which of them converts better? Use Google Content Experiments to test them.
You’ll need each page on a different URL, but the rest of the setup is easy and generates useful results.
27. BuzzStream – Link Building Automated Research
If you’re short on time for research and you need link building insights, BuzzStream is a web-based tool that can help you.
BuzzStream helps you save time on working with spreadsheets filled with outreach prospects. Using this tool will let you focus your valuable time on other important tasks.
If you like the tool, you can choose from four different paid plans and a custom one.
28. Tagboard – Hashtags Analytics
Granted, Tagboard is more than just a simple hashtag analytics tool. You can learn where your hashtags are used and the sentiment surrounding them.
It also enables you to create tagboards featuring posts including your hashtags that update periodically.
It’s definitely a must-use kind of tool, especially for Twitter and Instagram. However, you’ll have to opt for one of their paid plans.
29. Notifier – Reach Out to Influencers
Notifier is a simple yet useful tool. Whenever you’re writing content in which you mention other thought leaders, you’ll have to spend time reaching out to them. But Notifier does that for you.
Connect it to your Buffer and the tool will pull out all of the people you mentioned in your article. Then, you can reach out to them with a simple click.
Their cheapest plan starts at $9.
30. Social Oomph – Social Media Automation for Evergreen Content
Evergreen content will never go out of date. So you can share it constantly, especially since you keep on increasing your fan and followers base.
Social Oomph allows you to save time on this task. It lets you automate the process by submitting it to a queue. Next, you select how often you want your content shared, save, and focus on other important tasks.
You get a limited-functionality free plan but taking it one step further will require a paid one.
[bctt tweet=”Automate your evergreen content’s promotion with Social Oomph!” username=”SquirrlyHQ”]31. PostPlanner – Automate the Sharing of Content for Your Facebook Page
PostPlanner is basically a content discovery engine that enables you to queue up viral content for later delivery.
Based on your pre-configured times, PostPlanner will manage the actual posts. You get a constant stream of high-engaging posts for your Facebook page with no fuss – and that’s great! Prices start at just $7.
32. Dlvr.it – Automate Social Sharing
When you’re done writing a great post, you want to share it on all your social media networks. Dlvr.it helps you save time on this task.
You select the source of the content – your feed, for example – and the destination. It supports Twitter, Facebook, Google , LinkedIn, App.net, and Delicious. You also get useful analytics.
To share to three different social networks from up to five sources is free.
33. Momentum – Beautiful Productivity
If you’re having a hard time remembering all your daily tasks, a productivity tool might come in handy. Momentum is a Chrome extension that lets you set up your to-do’s.
They will appear every time you open a new tab and feature a beautiful and inspiring background.
34. Trendspottr – Follow Social Media Emerging Trends
Social media success usually revolves around trendy topics. Trendspottr enables you to detect emerging social media trends, hot topics, hashtags, and important influencers.
You also get useful insights about audience sentiment surrounding those topics. You’ll learn what conversation you can join in no time. You can test the tool for free for a limited period of time.
35. Apester – Generate Dynamic Content in No Time
Having dynamic content is a great way to engage with your audience. This is what Apester enables you to do.
Using this tool will allow you to create quizzes, polls, and personality tests in no time. The tool is super easy to use and free.
36. Feedly – All That’s New in One Place
Feedly lets you gather all your favorite websites, blogs, and news publications under one roof. Instead of visiting all of their websites and wasting time, you simply get what’s new.
It’s a great way to keep yourself informed throughout the day with ease without paying a dime.
37. Openr – Add Calls to Action to Your Shares
Wouldn’t it be great to get traffic to your website when sharing others’ content? This is what Openr allows you to do.
This tool displays a CTA on the website the link you shared takes the user to. The platform offers you useful analytics as well, so you are able to keep track of everything. You can try it out for free.
38. UberFlip – Tailor Content Experiences
UberFlip is one of the coolest tools out there. It lets you add powerful CTAs that show up throughout your articles, taking the reader towards the next stage of the funnel.
It provides a great way of linking your blogs, eBooks, or white papers into one lead generation process. You can request a demo before you opt for one of their paid plans.
39. FullContact – Know More about Your Leads
If marketing is about creating relationships, not knowing something about one of your leads may damage that potential. FullContact is a nifty tool that displays details about your users.
Find out about their social media profiles, and you’ll be able to engage on a more meaningful level. It also saves you time, by not having to research these aspects by yourself. You also get a free plan.
40. ReferralRock – Referral Marketing Software
What this tool does in a highly efficient way is enable you to create your own referral program. You don’t even need a website for this – you can run such a program on their servers.
RefferalRock‘s setup is even easier than you can imagine – because time is of the essence. You can test it for free but then you’ll have to pick one of their paid plans.
What Tools for Marketing Automation Do You Use?
These aren’t the only tools out there, but rather the most well-known ones. Granted, using all of them won’t help you save time. This is where your personal marketer filter needs to step in.
I’d love to learn more from you guys. What tools for marketing automation are you using? Do you have any recommendations?
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