Simply put, digital marketing tools make everything better. The right apps will increase your efficiency, decrease errors, and make just about all of your interactions and work activities easier. So, are online marketing tools important? Yeah, we’d say so.
And today, there's a wide variety of marketing tools for small businesses to help give you an edge on the competition, communicate better with your audience, and convert leads faster and more efficiently. Finding the right one to fit your business needs, now that's a little tricky.
Fortunately, there are some proven apps that have risen to the top of the charts, time and time again. If you are looking for a way to make your business run smoother, employees work more efficiently, and marketing campaigns more effective, check out the industry-recognized best marketing tools online today.
| The Best Marketing Tools Compared | 1  | 2  | 3  | 4  | 5  | 6  | 7  | 8  | 9  |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Best for | Freelancers, email marketers | A transactional email marketing solution with SMS capabilities | Everyone | SMBs, businesses that want hosting included | Self-employed, small businesses | email marketing | Companies that want to use email automation | Local businesses, SMBs | Businesses on a budget, outsourcing work |
Key uses | Email marketing | Email marketing | Email marketing, lead generation, SEO | Email marketing, SEO, social media, analytics | Business management, automation, email | online marketers | Email automation and segmentation | Email marketing, lead generation, hosting | SEO, email marketing, copywriting, SEM |
Price | From $20 per month | Start for free and get 300 emails per day | From
$0 | From $10 per month | From $19 per month | Starting at $10.50 | From $249/month (Business Tier) | A la carte pricing | From $5 per project |
Free Trial | 30-days | Forever free plan | 1-month | 14-days | 30 days | 14 days | 60-days | Varies based on provider | |
Customer Support | Phone, live chat, email, experts on call | Phone, email, contact form | Live chat, phone, email support | Extensive global network, 24/7 phone support | Demos, email, phone, setup assistance | 24/7 live chat | Phone and email support, webinars | 24/7 ticket and phone support |
Top10's Top Picks for Marketing Tools
- Best forFreelancers, email marketers
- Key usesEmail marketing
- PriceFrom $20
Constant Contact is a niche marketing solution. It offers email marketing. That’s it. But what you can do with this email marketing tool is enough to make any business consider this stand-alone option. CC does have other marketing tools as well, including contact management, analytics, and calendar management tools. But email is where it’s really at. With mobile-optimized templates, drag-and-drop editor, and Ecommerce solutions, Constant Contact has everything you could possibly want for your email marketing campaigns.
Constant Contact has excellent automation, as well. You can send out welcome emails for new customers, set up a trigger for email series according to customer behavior, and automatically send reminders for abandoned carts. Constant Contact also lets you build lists and segment contacts for tailored ad campaigns.
Pros- Segmented lists
- Triggered email series
- Full contact management
Cons- No SEO
- Gets pricey when your lists get longer
- Best forA transactional email marketing solution with SMS capabilities
- Key usesEmail marketing
- PriceStart for free and get 300 emails per day
Sendinblue is an affordable email marketing tool, especially considering the number of features you get. With the free plan you can send 300 emails a day, and 4,000 emails a day when you upgrade to paid plans starting at $25 per month. Sendinblue makes it easy to create, optimize and send email campaigns, and combines SMS reminders with follow-up reminders for transactions.
Pros- Free plan includes 300 daily emails
- Comes with SMS capabilities
- Easy email campaign creation and analysis
Cons- May experience delays in sending and receiving emails
- User experience needs improvement for beginners
- Best forEveryone
- Key usesEmail marketing, lead generation, SEO
- PriceFrom $0
Hubspot is possibly the most popular marketing platform around today. Aside from its whimsical help videos and easy to follow site format, Hubspot earned its place at the top by delivering extremely professional, extensive, and powerful tools for businesses. And the offering covers the spectrum from sales to marketing, customer service, CRM, and more. So, it’s not hard to understand why so many companies choose Hubspot as one of the best marketing tools in the industry.
Hubspot goes deep when it comes to its marketing solutions. You’ll find everything, including SEO, email, and social media marketing. But Hubspot takes everything to another level. For example, you’ll get an SEO wizard to walk you through the entire SEO process, data-driven email marketing campaign tools, and social media monitoring tools that are built into your platform.
Pros- Impressive, professional marketing tools
- Direct response widget for social media mentions
- SEO wizard
Cons- Plans have a big gap in pricing
- Not enough SEO-self features
- Best forSMBs, businesses that want hosting included
- Key usesEmail marketing, SEO, social media, analytics
- PriceFrom $10
While it started out as the premier domain registrar in the industry, GoDaddy has since become the go-to (see what we did there?) site for all things business-related. It's a sort of one-stop-shopping experience with GoDaddy because of all it has to offer. Features include:
- Website builder
- SEO
- Email marketing
- WordPress sites (hosting, management, support)
- Domain names
- Hosting packages
- Web security
GoDaddy has responsive designs, customizable themes, a central management console, rapid page-load, and analytics so that you can see what’s working. So really, you name it, GoDaddy has got it. And what’s more, it’s all available for free for the first month with a 30-day free trial.
Pros- Huge range of marketing tools
- Website builder, designer features, and hosting included
- Analytics and SEO wizard
Cons- SEO doesn’t come included with basic plan
- Not as many customization options
- Best forSelf-employed, small businesses
- Key usesBusiness management, automation, email
- PriceFrom $19
vCita touches more on the business management aspect of the marketing tools spectrum, so you won’t get much in the way of SEO from this company. But in the area of business management, vCita has some of the best marketing tools around. With everything from lead generation and conversion tools to project management, CRM, and email marketing, vCita is really an impressive option.
One of the most important features you'll really appreciate is email automation. You can customize your campaigns down to the last design detail and then set up automation so that your email campaigns run on their own. Set up journeys or action-based email series to send out the appropriate email messages automatically to a group of leads or customers. Create reminders, thank you emails, discounts, and more. vCita also has social media marketing, website design, and an impressive online scheduler.
Pros- Extensive email marketing tools
- Inclusive project management software
- Contact management and online scheduler included
Cons- No SEO
- No PPC campaigns
- Best foremail marketing
- Key usesonline marketers
- PriceStarting at $10.50
GetResponse is a lot more than your average email marketing service. In fact, it offers a tremendous variety of features and services that will only bolster your team's productivity and profit. GetResponse takes things to the next level with features like webinar hosting, full customer retention management software, and dedicated IP addresses. As you climb the ladder of pricing tiers, GetResponse offers more and more impressive services. Get deliverability consulting, transactional emails, and a dedicated account manager to help with troubleshooting and campaign consulting.
Of course, GetResponse has the usual features you'd like to see with an email marketing platform, as well. Features like autoresponders, landing page designer, automation templates, Facebook Ads, and contact scoring and tagging will help your company maximize those leads and convert them into paying customers. Find out more about what GetResponse has in store for your business today.
Pros- Premium features and services outside the standard suite
- Autoresponders, RSS to email, and other campaign tools
- Web forms, list builders, surveys
Cons- Gets expensive quickly if you want more advanced features
- A/B testing could be stronger
- Best forCompanies that want to use email automation
- Key usesEmail automation and segmentation
- PriceFrom $249/month (Business Tier)
If your company wnats to scale up and send personalized emails to a large database, User.com is a great choice. With User.com you just need to drag-and-drop elements to create your email, which means HTML or coding knowledge is not needed to get started right away. Automatice campaign scheduling with User.com also means you can create certain conditions, that when met, will result in your email campaign being sent when you want it to.
Pros- Real-time campaign tracking
- Scalable marketiing solution
- 14 day free trial
Cons- Mobile app and web app are slow
- Need to plan entire campaign flow before setting automations
- Best forLocal businesses, SMBs
- Key usesEmail marketing, lead generation, hosting
- PriceA la carte pricing
Like Wix for website design, Network Solutions is the underdog business’ best friend when it comes to marketing and business management overall. In addition to being the first domain provider, providing hosting services, website design, and SSL certificates, Network Solutions has plans that are jam-packed with useful online marketing tools like email marketing, PPC, and social media marketing management. The SEO optimizer is particularly in-depth, including optimized page tests, tags, and a monthly consultation with an SEO expert.
Network Solutions also has some key features that most local businesses wouldn’t even know to think about. Things like reputation management and on-page SEO can mean the difference between a roaring success and the business that just never goes anywhere. And Network Solutions really specializes in helping local businesses get found and grow their audiences.
Pros- Excellent PPC campaigns
- Monthly SEO consultation with a pro
- Extensive email marketing
Cons- Not easy to understand pricing plans
- Interface isn't as neat as it could be
- Best forBusinesses on a budget, outsourcing work
- Key usesSEO, email marketing, copywriting, SEM
- PriceFrom $5
Fiverr has a very simple business proposition: need a task, they’ll get it done. And all for $5. That’s right, the designers, marketers, content writers, programmers, and any other professional you hire from Fiverr all start their pricing at just $5. Now, let’s explain.
Fiverr is a crowdsourced network of professionals that allows companies to outsource all of their business needs to experts in the desired field. Brands will choose a Fiverr expert, give them the project details, and receive the results in an agreed-upon timeframe. The beauty of crowdsourcing is that you get excellent marketing solutions for a fraction of the price.
Fiverr projects start at $5, but they can go up considerably based on what marketing tools you're looking for, how extensive the project is, and which contributor you choose. Browse through profiles and portfolios to find a good fit to get all of your online marketing tool requirements fulfilled.
Pros- Competition-based low pricing structure
- Thousands of professionals to choose from
- Any type of digital marketing you could think of
Cons- Hit or miss with some designers
- No guarantee on work quality
Wix.com is one of the leading online marketing tools, offering everything from web design to SEO tools and email marketing services. Other popular providers include SquareSpace and Network Solutions.
Wix and Network Solutions are two popular tools for small businesses due to their competitive pricing and flexibility. Small businesses typically choose marketing tools that are flexible, easy to use, and scalable.
Marketing managers use a variety of tools to improve their marketing efforts, from SEO tools to analytics that track traffic and ad campaign success. Other tools may include email marketing, CRM, and project management software.
What Are Marketing Tools?
Digital marketing tools is a broad category that covers a spectrum of useful apps. Generally, the term refers to any software that is used to help your business run more efficiently and enhance your marketing efforts. This can include things like ad campaigns, analytics, project management, and a whole lot more we'll look at in more detail in just a minute. As you can see, it's a pretty wide range of tasks that online marketing tools cover. Luckily, a lot of the tools are free, and many of the paid-for apps bundle several of these management functionalities into a single service. So, you're really getting your money's worth.
Who Can Benefit From Marketing Tools
Everyone. It’s really that simple. Just a quick look at the list below will show you how many different aspects of your business management digital marketing tools can control. So, whether you are a content writer, a project manager, a marketer, or any other of the tens of job titles out there, you can gain tremendously from these apps.
In terms of businesses and niches, there’s no brand out there today that won’t benefit from some type of marketing software. There are currently more specific marketing tools for small businesses that narrow down the functionality so that you aren’t overwhelmed with options, and also cuts back on the price for limited budgets. So, the question isn’t so much who can benefit from online marketing tools, but rather which are the right tools to help you maximize your business efficiency.
Types of Marketing Tools
As we mentioned already, there are a lot of different types of digital marketing tools available today. The most commonly-used ones include software that will help you manage the most important aspects of your business and marketing efforts, including:
- Social media marketing
- SEO
- Website
- Design
- CRM
Here are a few examples of the best marketing tools online today:
- Ad campaign apps like Facebook ads, Google Adwords, Bing Ads
- Analytics tools like Google Analytics and Yandex Metrica
- Project management tools like Monday or Trello
- Social media marketing campaign management like Hootsuite or Buffer
- Email marketing like MailChimp and Constant Contact
- Sales and CRM software like HubSpot
The Importance of Holistic Marketing
The main takeaway here is that digital marketing tools are not a single app performing a single task for a single set of use cases. On the contrary, it's a category of tools that covers a tremendous spectrum of functionality. A forward-thinking company will find and incorporate the right blend of online marketing tools for their situation, maximizing efficiency, and really making their business management and marketing efforts pop. From task and project management software to help setting up your email marketing campaigns, the best marketing tools are the wave of the business future. So grab a board, and hang ten!
