In order to survive and thrive as a business in today’s economy, you have to stay on top of marketing your business. It’s not enough to rely on traditional marketing strategies like television or radio commercials, print ads, and tradeshows; these strategies are still somewhat effective but largely unchanged. Digital marketing is vitally important as so many consumers today are plugged into social media, email, and more. 

The world of digital marketing is continually changing and evolving, so much so that it might seem impossible to master. Implementing the right digital marketing tools will not only help increase brand awareness and generate leads but also set your sales team up for success in the long term. Read on to see what marketing tools you should integrate into your business.

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What Are Digital Marketing Tools & How Can They Help Sales?

Marketing tools are intended to make time-consuming, repetitive tasks either easier or automated so you can focus on the important details like content creation, converting leads to sales, building relationships with your customers, and so on. Digital marketing tools can boost the efficiency and effectiveness of your marketing and sales teams, thus exponentially growing your business.

There are many marketing strategies out there, each with its own library of tools and resources to choose from. We chose several powerful digital marketing strategies and compiled the top tools for each. Keep in mind that some of these tools provide more services than just what they’re featured for, so if something catches your eye, keep doing research to see what else that tool can offer you.

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Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software

Customer relationship management tools, also known as CRMs, help you track and convert leads, stay connected with customers, and streamline communication. CRMs track each connection with a potential customer who contacts your company, whether by phone, email, or live chat, virtually eliminating the need for endless spreadsheets and data entry (I’m sure your sales team will like the sound of that). 

CRM software has become wildly popular over the last decade, so there are many options out there to choose from. The best thing about each tool listed below is that they either offer free trials or basic plans for free. That way, your team can test each out and find which software works for their specific needs.

1. HubSpot CRM

HubSpot creates powerful software for businesses, with their CRM being the top-of-the-line. The HubSpot CRM is easy to learn and quick to integrate, with multiple plan options to suit any business size. The CRM includes email and phone call tracking, automated follow-up tasks, email templates, and more.

2. Salesforce CRM

Salesforce is one of the most widely used CRMS out there and is most lauded as a sales automation software. The Salesforce CRM captures every customer touchpoint at every stage of their life cycle so your team is always connected. Salesforce also has robust sales reports and forecasting, which means your sales team always knows how well they’re performing.

3. Zoho CRM

Best for small to midsized businesses, the Zoho CRM is still powerful and highly praised as one of the best CRMs out there. Their CRM is also easily customizable with a drag-and-drop editor, which means you don’t need an in-house developer to take full advantage of this CRM.

4. Pipedrive CRM

The Pipedrive CRM is a super affordable sales software that’s great for small businesses. Pipedrive is easy to use with an intuitive, deal-driven workflow. You can try this highly-rated CRM free for fourteen days before committing to implementing it, though you might find it’s perfect for your business.

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Pay Per Click (PPC) Management

Managing Google ads is a beast on its own, but when you’re managing PPC campaigns across multiple platforms, things can quickly get overwhelming. Instead of giving up, try implementing a helpful PPC tool that will help you more easily manage your ad campaigns and generate more qualified leads.

5. AdEspresso

For an (almost) all-in-one tool, AdEspresso has got you covered. Create, manage, and analyze ad campaigns for Facebook, Instagram, and Google all through this software. This tool is fantastic for folks who need fewer things to juggle.

6. Opteo

The Opteo software is great for businesses that want to make the most of their Google ads campaigns. Opteo provides many more metrics that Google Ads simply does not offer, allowing you to drill down into the performance of each keyword. 

7. Adzooma

Adzooma's main goal is to simplify the marketing process for your business. Create and manage campaigns with their software and they’ll provide live reporting on your performance. With Adzooma, you can manage paid ads on Google, Microsoft (Bing), and Facebook.

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Social Media Management Tools

Marketing on social media can yield a high return on investment if done correctly, but with constantly changing algorithms and an audience with short attention spans, how do you unlock that potential? The answer is to invest in a social media management tool.

8. Buffer

Create, schedule, and manage social media posts through a variety of channels with Buffer. Buffer also provides analytics on the best times to post, what your audience is engaging with most, and also provides a place to engage with your audience across all your platforms.

9. Hootsuite

You can create, manage, and reply to social media posts with Hootsuite. Hootsuite provides a slightly more powerful tool compared to Buffer and is more well-suited to larger teams. You can also create and manage ads on various social media platforms with Hootsuite.

10. Loomly

Loomly is a fantastic social media management tool for large team collaboration. Manage your social media accounts, post unlimited content, target specific audiences, and more with this powerful tool.

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tools

Keyword research can be a tedious process. SEO tools automate the process of finding keywords and monitor your rankings all in one place. These tools can also easily identify problems or gaps in your site content so you can make necessary edits to boost your traffic.

11. SEMRush

SEMRush is a fantastic SEO tool that allows you to monitor your organic rankings and keep a close eye on target keywords. Some of their many features include researching new keywords and auditing pages to improve SEO performance. You can even compare your site performance with that of your competitors and see what strategies to implement in order to get ahead.

12. Ahrefs

For a powerful SEO marketing tool, look no further than Ahrefs. Don’t be daunted by its might–the Ahrefs team has tons of resources on how to master their program. Keyword research, domain analysis, content discovery, and rank tracking are just a few of the tools Ahrefs has in its arsenal.

13. Moz Pro

The folks at Moz are experts at SEO. Though they have a library of free SEO tools, you’ll want Moz Pro if you want to take your marketing strategy to the next level. Create custom reports, research keywords, audit your sites easily, and more with this great tool.

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Content Marketing Tools

If you create great content, then your audience will appear. Great content showcases your expertise to your audience and helps build your audience by virtue of its quality; likes, shares, and comments mean more people will see it and interact with your brand. These featured content marketing tools not only help you find great topics to write about, but also assist you in producing that content. 

14. Grammarly

How can a virtual typing assistant help with content marketing? If you’ve ever found typos and grammar mistakes in an email or blog after it’s been posted and shared… you know just how important a tool like Grammarly can be. And it does more than just spot typos. Grammarly can help your content sound better, whether that’s more professional, friendly, or informative. 

15. BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is a fantastic tool because it helps you discover content ideas relevant to your industry. BuzzSumo also shows you what topics are performing well, aggregates research per topic, highlights key influencers, and more. 

16. Exploding Topics

Exploding Topics is another great tool that helps you find popular topics that will bring tons of traffic to your site. Their software identifies trends before they take off, which means your marketing team can get ahead of the competition with high-interest, relevant content that draws in leads and builds trust in your brand.

17. Medium

How can a blogging site like Medium help your sales? By publishing old content or even writing up new content, you’ll reach audiences you might not have reached otherwise. Followers can like, comment, and share your content on Medium and subscribe to get notified when you publish more. Medium is a great place to showcase your industry expertise and experiment with pieces you wouldn’t normally feature on your main blog.

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Store and Product Locators

Adding a store locator to your website is genius because it allows current and potential customers to find your products locally. If you have brick-and-mortar locations or if your products can be found sold in stores, you don’t want to miss out on this underrated tool.

18. Grappos

We might be biased, but Grappos has the best locator app available. Our product and store locator are highly customizable and integrate seamlessly with Shopify, Squarespace, Webflow, Wix, Wordpress, and more. We also handle all of the customization and ongoing data management/updates for you, making it the easiest locator to implement and maintain. Plus, the Grappos locator has been certified accessible - it complies with WCAG 2.1 AA standards, making it a real stand-out in the market.

‍Request a store locator demo from Grappos → 

19. Closeby

Closeby is a free Shopify store locator that is best for smaller businesses. Though not as powerful as Grappos, this basic app can still integrate with Google Analytics and Google sheets so you can export and review data. Closeby is free for the first five locations you have, so it’s a good app for businesses that are just starting out, or for brands that have a handful of high-profile stores.

‍Check out our guide to Shopify store locator apps →

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Email Marketing Tools

Email marketing is still alive and well, generating a massive return on investment when done well. Email marketing tools can help automate the whole process so you can get really specific with your lists, increase your audience, and figure out which emails have the highest click-through rates.

20. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is praised by many as one of the best email marketing tools out there. Mailchimp is free for up to 2,000 contacts, which makes it perfect for small-to-medium-sized businesses. It’s really easy to customize campaigns with this program and provides insightful analytics so you know what’s working and what isn’t. 

21. Klaviyo

An up-and-coming app in the email marketing sphere is Klaviyo. Klaviyo is all about helping your business grow through email marketing. This sophisticated program compiles serious data about your customers so you can reach them right where they are in the buying process with cart reminders, sale notices, and more.

22. Constant Contact

With Constant Contact, you can draft compelling emails that stand out and get more clicks. Their drag-and-drop email editor and ready-made templates make creating email campaigns a breeze. Track email results in real-time so you know who’s opening your emails and how they’re engaging with them.

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All-Star Marketing Tools for All-Star Teams

Digital marketing is vitally important to the success of your business and there are so many tools out there to help you succeed. Even if you adopt just one of the tools featured above, you’ll be doing such a great service to your sales and marketing teams–and, in the long term, your business.  

‍Request a store locator demo from Grappos to see how it can amplify your marketing efforts and improve your sales.

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