Tool Talks
The Best ConTech Tools To Make Content Smarter, Better, Faster, and Wiser
CMC Academy
Fortify your smartitude by listening to 4-6 minute Tool Talks offering demos on how each tool makes content marketing smarter, faster, better, and wiser.
CMC 2020 Digital
Look for new Tool Talk demos rolling out in CMC Academy regularly, so you can stay updated with what’s new and what’s next in content marketing.
CMC 2021 Awards
Help us select the best content marketing tools on the planet and determine the CMC 2021 award winners, announced at CMC 2021 in Boston.
The Most Popular Content Strategy Tools
Here’s a list of the most popular ConTech Tools we’re reviewing for the CMC 2021 Award Show. Look for DEMOS from participating providers posted in CMC Academy regularly. And join CMC Academy to help us select the winners for 2020!
Calendars
CoScheduleMarketing managers need to keep work and people organized to deliver the right messaging at the right time. That’s why the CoSchedule suite of solutions is such a great way to keep projects on time and customers delighted. CoSchedule is an all-in-one marketing calendar for content that keeps your team organized and on the same page. With a straightforward interface and the ability to streamline your workflow and communication, CoSchedule is an instant hit for marketers.
DivvyHQDivvyHQ’s automated workflows and better data leads to content that sings, leading to more sales leads and consumer insights. DivvyHQ helps marketers develop the right content strategy, then simplifies business processes. Simplify your communication, build transparency, break down silos and focus on what’s most important. The solution lets you track team progress and content performance and gives you real-time insights into the status of projects. DivvyHQ includes unlimited content calendars including a master calendar, approval routing, asset storage, customizable workflows and direct publishing capabilities to popular social media platforms and content channels.
GatherContentThe faster you can get content routed, approved and online, the better chances your clients have of being noticed by potential customers. Speed matters. That’s where GatherContent comes in. The platform has more than 2,000 customers whose content teams rely on the platform to gather and organize content in one place and make sure content is structured correctly and follows style guidelines. Real-time collaboration tools mean content is better and built more efficiently. Workflows help keep content production on track with tools to track progress and identify bottlenecks. Automated migration tools get the content on the right platforms faster, too.
KapostKapost gives you far more than great content marketing automation and organizational tools. What sets this content marketing management company apart is its professional services that can assess, analyze and recommend improvements in your team’s operations. That’s not to sell short to Kapost platform, which offers content organization, including advanced search and filtering, unified messaging, and tracking tools to guide and manage the customer journey. The advisory services include content operations maturity assessments, workshops on discovery, roadmap alignment, and marketing technology optimization, content audits and analytics, sales and customized consulting solutions.
ContentoolsContentools exists to centralize all your content marketing operations in one solution. It gives your team the ability to plan, manage, collaborate and publish content from a single source. It also collects and lets you use data to drive better decisions. A marketing dashboard gives you a bird’s eye view of the team’s progress and identifies bottlenecks. A smart ideas pipeline lets you track concepts in one place, and approve, assign and schedule production. Workflows are in one location, giving everyone a sense of roles and status while the content editor allows you to check your SEO. We’re looking forward to an AI-powered insights tool that’s currently beta testing.
CantoLooking for a better way to track your digital assets? Canto automates the storage of digital media including documents, images and videos. Canto helps customers manage copyrights and permissions, manage brand assets and organize content via a media library. Canto customers no longer have to waste time hunting for content, saving money and boosting productivity. As content assets grow in number, customers can maintain brand standards and consistency while ensuring rights are properly tracked and cited.
Google Ads PlannerGoogle Ads is a reliable and effective way to invest in keywords and keyphrases that will drive traffic and provide insights on the impact of your next marketing campaign. At the heart of Google Ads is the keyword planner. It helps you find the most relevant keywords for your clients’ products or services and delivers research on how often words are searched and how those searches have evolved. Google Ads helps you target potential customers by location and multiple demographic and interest categories. You set your budget, can pause it at any time and pay only when people click on your ad, visit your site or call your business.
Research
Survey MonkeySurveyMonkey has long been a go-to solution for those wanting to collect data and share information with customers and others. Long known for its survey tool, SurveyMonkey has added an array of product options to deliver better and deeper insights. Its product line now includes Audience, which collects real-time feedback; TechValidate, an automated solution for turning customer stories into compelling content; CX, a turnkey Net Promoter Score tool; Apply, which streamlines collection and review of applications for awards, grants, scholarships and other programs; and Engage, which helps you measure employee engagement. SurveyMonkey also offers apps to integrate with other popular software titles.
QzzrSometimes it is all about fun and games. With Qzzr, you can engage with customers in a completely different way. Use customized quizzes to connect with customers and get important feedback and insights into products, services, attitudes and interests. You can customize the look and feel of your quizzes to fit multiple layouts and websites. Add text, images, videos and animated GIFs and create quizzes in multiple languages. In the Pro and Team versions, you gain a white label version of the app, the ability to collect leads and show offers, view aggregated data and export that data
SurveyGizmoSurveyGizmo offers industry-specific solutions for surveys and data insights that customers use for a range of feedback tasks. The platform collects product feedback, including constant feedback tools such as triggered emails and customized web hooks. Advanced market research tools include advanced panel integrations to target ideal respondents and sophisticated question types allow for conjoint, cross-tab and max-diff questions. Experience feedback solutions provide real-time analytics give you deeper insights into the customer journey. Customer research tools give you actionable insights into buying behaviors, motivations and preferences for better, data-driven decisions. Certain versions offer advanced features including geotargeting, data cleaning and custom branding.
QuoraQuora is a user community juggernaut that gets you answers to pressing questions quickly. The 10-year-old company boasts 300 million monthly users worldwide who post and respond to questions on 400,000 topics. Users can create profiles detailing their background and areas of expertise. When you post a question to Quora, any member can answer, and others can upvote or downvote, suggest changes or bookmark answers. It’s an ideal tool for those looking for fast answers and perspectives on an issue. It also includes Spaces, which lets users join groups around shared interests and tasks.
Google AlertsGoogle Alerts is a great way to gain current information on people, issues or topics that are important to you or your business. The process is simple too. Enter your preferred search item and set your options for how often you want to receive notifications, the kinds of sites you want searched, language, what parts of the world you want information from, the number of items you want included in each notification and what accounts should get the alerts. Editing and deleting alerts is easy, too. (Couldn’t find any reviews but added a link to a how-to guide)
Google Trends“Google Trends gives you insights into current search trends on the popular search engine. You can look at trends by timeframe, region or subregion or analytics on trends of a search term in a state, province or country. You can search the web, YouTube, Google Shopping, news or images and compare searches. The site shows you trends on popular current topics and trending searches, too. It also shows you Year in Search trends in topics ranging from news and people to question searches like “”where is …,”” “”what is …”” and “”how to.”””
BomboraWhat is Bombora? It’s an Australian Aboriginal word meaning a wave that forms over a submerged reef or rock, producing a dangerous stretch of water. The company took the name due to the sea of data it aggregates and the challenge of leveraging the information. It collects behavioral intent B2B data and helps marketers monetize their business and provide data for use cases, pitches and presentations. It collects data on what content BSB organizations are consuming and helps to target those organizations actively looking for products or services. Its Measurement tool also analyzes website traffic and marketing efforts to help customers learn what’s working and what’s not.
DiscoverOrgDiscoverOrg offers a fast track for sales, marketing and recruitment professionals at growth-focused companies looking for information. The company provides accurate contact information — direct-dial phone numbers, verified email addresses and organizational charts down to the departmental level. It promises insights and context on which prospects are most likely to buy. The tool fine-tunes your lists by searching on job function, industry, location, technology and keywords. OppAlerts and Scoops give you alerts about new projects, initiatives and pain points for your target accounts and signals leadership changes, new funding and product launches.
PromoterNet Promoter Score is a popular tool for marketers to gauge customer satisfaction and engagement. With Promoter.io, your company can do so much more than collect NPS information. Its solution gives you scheduling options for drip, recurring and lifecycle options, list management and segmentation tools, multilanguage options, and easy integration with other tools. In addition to NPS data, you can also ask qualitative questions and real-time review and follow-up capabilities. Analytics help you understand and use collected data to predict future behavior and, when combined with customer intelligence, generate better ROI. There’s also a Salesforce integration app available.
Reddit“Redditors are not a shy bunch. The 234 million unique monthly visitors to Reddit eagerly share links and opinions, making it the 6th most visited website in the United States and 21st worldwide. Users join subunits called subreddits (there are 138,000 active ones and 1.2 million in total) on a wide variety of topics. Subreddits are managed by moderators who are fellow Redditors. You can search for information within one subreddit or sitewide. Posts can be given “”karma,”” either good or bad using upvoting and downvoting. The site is free to use, although for-pay Reddit Premium gives users new features like comment highlighting and exclusive subreddits.”
TechTargetDon’t waste your time by targeting the wrong people — or worse, yet, the right people in the wrong way. It’s all about insight. TechTarget produces vast amounts of editorial content to attract technology buyers. The technology analyzes traffic and behavior to ensure you are competitive in the enterprise technology market. By aligning your marketing strategy and sales execution, the multiple services and products offered by TechTarget can help identify and influence the right people in the right way during the right phase of the buying cycle.
Priority EngineTime is money. Spend your time (as little as possible) and energy (again, as little as possible) on leads that will convert. Using technology powered by TechTarget, Priority Engine™ is a sales and marketing tool that prioritizes and analyzes over 18 million opt-in technology buyers by their search and research behaviors — and helps you identify those with intent to purchase. The platform can be integrated into many marketing systems, making filling your sales pipeline easier, faster, and more effective than ever.
AberdeenMore data with fewer software windows? Sign us up. Aberdeen offers customized Intent Qualified Demand programs that integrate with your marketing and sales programs to help you work better and smarter. The tools allow you to make accurate predictions (up to 91% accuracy) with targeted buyer intent data and improve your advertising click through rates and sales pipeline. You can then use this data to maximize your approach to content marketing and measure your ROI.
Curation
Scoop.it!Scoop.it lets you boost credibility, establish expertise and build brand awareness through a content engine designed to find and curate high-value content. By accessing a range of information from popular news sites to niche publications, Scoop.it lets you publish topic pages, feed social media channels, embed content into websites and reuse content to optimize its impact. Team members can automate content monitoring, create content for newsletters, and build internal, private content hubs. Build better relationships with influencers and deliver content for websites, blogs, knowledge sharing or personal branding for customers and prospects.
CurataYour content engine needs fuel to maximize its impact. That’s where Curata comes in. Content curation helps to stretch your marketing dollars and save time. Curata finds great content faster and establishes your brand as a thought leader, delivering content that can be used in social media, blogs, websites, email newsletters and microsites. Curata combs the web to find keywords, content authors and news sources that give you highly relevant information. It lets you add your brand’s own voice and royalty-free images. Curata also schedules and shares information and, over time, uses AI learning tools to improve results based on your ratings and usage.
Paper.liLooking to build an audience through social media, web news sites or email newsletters? Paper.li collects content that matters to your audience using machine learning, natural language processing and social signals. Aggregate content across Twitter, Facebook and YouTube and your website from up to 25 sources. You can also manually add content to your newsletters or emails and automate sharing on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. You can easily customize your content with widgets, images and videos, add subscription tools, and add your own messaging. Search your newspaper archive via keywords and add your own messaging to newsletter subscribers.
QuuuMost content curators use automation and machine learning to identify great content to deliver to your audiences. So does Quuu. But what sets this service apart is its commitment to hand-checking every piece of content to ensure that it’s relevant and compelling for your needs. Quuu searches for content and uses a team of industry experts called Quuurators to find you the very best content. You choose from more than 500 interest categories and determine how many suggestions you want to receive. Quuu integrates with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and can send content directly to scheduling tools Buffer or HubSpot.
BuzzSumoBuzzSumo is all about giving you valuable insights that you can use to drive better content decisions. It’s a multifaceted tool that lets you learn about what content is being shared across social networks by author, topic or domain. BuzzSumo lets you find influencers in multiple areas, review their content and amplify it, deepening your relationships with them. Content alerts let you see when your keywords are mentioned or an author or competitor publishes new content. The competitor analysis functions let you see what the most-shared content is on a competitor’s website and compare the performance of your content with that of competitors.
Feedly“Feedly’s motto is “”where readers become leaders.”” The platform helps customers discover, organize, read, search on and share content. Feedly helps you track publications, blogs, YouTube channels, keyword alerts, tweets and RSS feeds. There are also collaboration tools that allow for sharing of feeds and let you see what teammates and thought leaders are reading. You can share, curate, comment and prioritize the most relevant articles. The platform integrates with other tools including Evernote Business, Microsoft OneNote 365, Trello and Slack. “
AhrefsAhrefs offers marketers solutions that give valuable insights on websites and content. The platform helps you find and curate content, get a deep dive into any website’s organic search traffic and backlink profile, monitor rankings over time, and audit your site for on-page SEO performance. These insights can help you understand what’s working and needs to be improved on your website. Ahrefs uses the power of Big Data to by constantly crawling websites and processing information. Each day, Ahrefs finds 1.8 million new web pages and updates metrics on 72 million pages. It tracks 7.8 billion keywords across 10 different search engines and 171 countries. The Search Traffic Index includes a database of 480 million keywords.
Visual Mapping
JumpchartJumpchart makes website planning much easier. You can write content, organize the structure, collect feedback and export the information to your content management system. It helps bring together your entire team of creative talent, including clients, designers, copywriters, developers and project managers. Jumpchart gives you a high-level view of your site architecture and information with site maps that update automatically as you add pages. Jumpchart’s website blueprints let you jump to any page, manage metadata and titles, and update your RSS feeds. New features include a full-screen writing mode, integration with Markdown or Textile, and a drag-and-drop site map interface.
LucidchartsLucidchart is an online diagramming tool that can be used by engineering, IT, operations, product development, sales and education teams. The versatile solution lets you create all kinds of diagrams, from simple flowcharts to complex technical displays. It also allows for collaboration among your teammates to get the best ideas and insights in real time. Lucidchart lets you connect to live data to build and update org charts and other diagrams. With more than 15 million users, Lucidchart is a secure solution that integrates seamlessly with G Suite, Microsoft Office, Atlassian and other popular productivity apps.
UXPinUser experience is so important to design today. With UXPin, marketers and developers can design websites using real interactive states, logic and code components. There’s no need to duplicate artboards when interactive elements are used, eliminating redundancy and chaotic design processes. Use a single source of truth for code components, allowing prototypes to be built using functional and interactive elements. Logic layers let you store and use other users’ input with conditional interactions, variables and expressions.
BalsamiqThere’s nothing vinegary about Balsamiq. This wireframe tool helps you design better websites, web apps, desktop software and user interfaces. Creating better user interfaces helps your company connect better with visitors and teaches business people and non-designers the basics of UI through online courses, articles and resources for better user experiences. It’s available in both desktop and cloud-based versions. Balsamiq lets your users share and sketch ideas and literally get everyone onto the same page by helping to focus the work on structure and content, and not colors and details that should be fleshed out later in the process.
PlanboxPlanbox uses the power of artificial intelligence to drive agile innovation in your business. It allows for collaboration and sharing that drives innovation and value-added projects that drive business results. Use the software to build spaces for crowdsourcing, open innovation, business competitions, design thinking and innovation jams. Planbox has 2 million participants from 12 countries. It lets you draw in, develop and manage ideas and opportunities from your employees, partners, customers and suppliers. Improve employee engagement, strategy and market research.
Productivity
BasecampSo much of your ability to collaborate depends on how you’re able to keep everyone on the same page at exactly the same time. It’s not enough for people to just know what they’re doing – they have to be able to see how that all fits into the larger whole. Basecamp is designed to help you do precisely that by offering features like to-do lists, the ability to assign tasks and set due dates for specific people, schedules, message boards for more organic communication and much, much more.
TrelloIn terms of the collaborative process, your success rests on your ability to make sure that essential information is in the hands of the people who need it at all times. Trello is a tool designed to help make this easier than ever. It offers not only unique message boards but also lists and cards, all of which can be used to organize and prioritize your projects in a way that isn’t just effective in terms of keeping everyone’s progress aligned – but that is also fun, flexible and (dare we say it) even rewarding at the exact same time.
AsanaAs a work management platform, Asana is a tool designed to not only teams function as productively as possible, but to make sure that everyone stays focused on all the right priorities as well – regardless of how often those priorities may happen to change. But the true asset here ultimately comes down to malleability – you can plan and structure all of your work in a way that makes sense for you and your people. Priorities and deadlines can be set at will and you can easily share details and assign tasks to those who need them, all from the same easy-to-use and straightforward screen.
MondayHuman beings are visual learners – there’s really no getting around that. So rather than try to plan, organize and even track your work in a text-based world, why not finally embrace one that is much more visually-oriented instead? That’s what Monday helps you do wonderfully, creating a single visual, collaborative space you can use to bring your teams together like never before. It’s already been used by more than 50,000 teams including those at Fiverr, the Discovery Channel, Philips and more thanks to its reputation for easy onboarding, easier adoption and getting everything started in a way that is literally as simple as sending an email.
Aha!If you want to launch the types of breakthrough marketing campaigns that your customers will absolutely resonate with, you need to have the type of organic, intimate process in place that can support that. This is precisely what Aha! is designed to do, and has already been trusted by more than 250,000 users around the world. Aha! makes it easy to coordinate all of your activities across product, digital and content teams – all so that you can see every last bit of activity in a single, sophisticated and highly visual view. Stay up-to-date and set performance targets and review reports of the real impact you’re generating in an instant.
Simple.“The modern-day competitive advantage has less to do with what you specifically offer and is more about HOW you offer it. Creating better customer experiences is the goal of business leaders everywhere and that is exactly what Simple has laser-focused its efforts on. Simple is a platform that lets you not only plan and review all of your customer experiences but also optimize them across all touch points – all by way of a single, centralized platform built with marketing in mind. Not only will you be dealing with far less complexity than ever, but you’ll have more effective marketing than ever before – truly the definition of a “”win-win”” scenario if there ever was one.”
SmartsheetsHaving ideas is one thing. Being able to bring that vision into reality is something else entirely. Smartsheet is a platform focused entirely on the latter, acting as a powerful platform to support both the way you need to work today AND how your customers need you to work tomorrow. You can finally move ideas into impact in the fastest way possible by way of a tool built to help you plan, capture, manage, automate and even report on all of the work you and your people are doing in a way that continues to grow and evolve as your business does the same.
Talent Pools
99designsYou no doubt understand how important the visual side of your business is to its success – but at the same time, you may not have the ability to hire your own in-house design department. That’s not a problem any longer, however, as 99designs is here to fill that gap in your own expertise in the most effective way possible. You can get the perfect logo design, website layout, book cover or something else entirely – all in more than 90 different categories with solutions that are built with your budget in mind.
Boost MediaCrafting the perfect marketing message is only part of the job you’re working on. Getting that message in front of the right people at precisely the right time is another major element of your success, and that is what Boost Media is all about. Powered by artificial intelligence, Boost Media handles all of your paid-search needs by making sure you always achieve maximum ROI on your advertising spend at all times. It’s been used by many leading brands like Google, eBay, Microsoft, Hilton and more and is the perfect opportunity to let you manage and optimize your ad creative at scale.
ScriptedAt its core, Scripted is a powerful network of thousands of professional copywriters – all armed and ready to leverage their talents for brands like yours. Not only can you get instant access to 100% original blog posts and other collateral to power your content marketing, but this is also an incredible opportunity to increase website traffic through superior newsletters, social posts, and even long-form documents like eBooks and white papers, too.
TextbrokerThese days, content marketing and marketing are one in the same – only through valuable, high-quality content will you be able to really strike a chord you need with your audience. Textbroker is a platform designed to make that easier than ever, bringing clients and authors together in a way that is fast, affordable and (most importantly) scalable as well. Whether you’re looking for blog posts, product descriptions or even entire outreach campaigns, Textbroker gives you access to thousands of freelance writers who are ready to deliver custom, high-quality content to fit your needs – regardless of what your needs or budget requirements happen to be.
UpworkUpwork is more than just another freelance writer network. It’s the perfect opportunity to grow your business through a worldwide pool of talent and has already been used by Dropbox, Airbnb, UCLA, and others. The major selling point here is that you can find someone for ANY scope of work you have in mind – from short-term tasks and one-off projects to recurring needs and even full-time contract work. Regardless of what you’re hoping to accomplish, you’ll be able to easily find someone with the highly specialized skills to deliver.
WriterAccessWriterAccess is a platform that not only gives you access to more than 15,000 highly qualified, specially vetted writers and content creators, but that has also been used by more than 25,000 different satisfied customers around the world. You can easily place an order for nearly any type of content you can think of, from articles to blog posts to social posts, tech papers, white papers and beyond. With the StyleMetrics Matcher, you can find the perfect writer in an instant – all by way of an innovative new tool that is powered by IBM Watson and the stunning minds at Cambridge University in England.
Wordy“There’s an old saying that tells us “”writing is rewriting”” – which is a phrase that people often forget about until they’re deep in the weeds of the editing process. With Wordy, however, that’s not something you have to worry about any longer – you can save up to 30% of the time you spend on writing by handing your content over to an army of experts for online proofreading and copy-editing services. Make sure that all of your content has come out exactly the way you needed it to in a way that will surely resonate with your audience and save both time and money while you do it.”
PowerPostIf you truly want to make sure that your content is as good as it can possibly be, PowerPost is certainly how you do it. Not only is niche content the specialty of the platform, but you get access to a newsroom of journalists who have all the search engine dominance you need with all of the industry authority that would add up to significant costs if you were trying to bring your own people in-house. You get a no-fail, proven process designed to help you become a power publisher AND access to unparalleled, real-time competitor, industry and performance intelligence at the exact same time.
FlexjobsFlexJobs is the perfect way to find talent for all those critical business tasks that may not require you to bring on a full-tie staff member to fill them. With FlexJobs, you get your pick from a small army of hand-screened remote, part-time, freelance and (most critically) flexible workers who are ready and willing to be whatever you need them to be in the moment. But more than that, it’s a way to create a better work situation – whatever that means to you specifically is what FlexJobs is here to provide.
Influitive AdvocateHubInfluitive AdvocateHub is engagement and advocacy software, yes – but it’s also so much more than that. Through an innovative blend of personalization and game design, Influitive AdvocateHub doesn’t just make it possible to better engage with your customers – it allows you to create a far more rewarding experience while you do it. You can give all of your brand advocates a more personalized experience by way of custom challenges, for example. You can also further increase the specificity of those efforts moving forward by way of access to an interactive activity feed that unlocks consumer preferences, demographics and even past behavioral information for you to take full advantage of.
MavrckMavrck is an influencer marketing platform that connects brands with relevant influencers and advocates who harness the power of social media. Brands use Mavrck’s powerful platform to build and strengthen relationships with influencers and advocates who align with their brand and drive results. With an emphasis on performance forecasting, real-time reporting, and optimization, Mavrck provides an excellent service for marketers. Need to amp up your loyalty or referral programs? Check out Mavrck.
VisuallyThe importance of visual content in the world of digital marketing cannot be overstated enough. Not only are visuals naturally more engaging, but they’re also shared more often than any other type of content – particularly on social media. With that in mind, Visually is here to help you meet all of these things and more. It’s more than just a source for top notch visual content for modern marketers – it’s a brand new way to think about content creation by way of specialized creative talent that is always online and always on-demand whenever the need arises.
UpfluenceInfluencer marketing is a massive boost to any brand these days. Why rely only on your audience when you can also leverage someone else’s, too? Upfluence is a platform designed to help you do precisely that, allowing you access to state-of-the-art influencer marketing tools to not only help you select your influencers, but also manage and analyze your relationships and influencer campaign performance in a way that effortlessly scales with your business, too. With influencer analytics, you don’t have to wonder about the power of your influencer campaigns. You’ll know, beyond the shadow of a doubt – and that is a very exciting position to be in.
Tribe GroupTribe Group is all about storytelling, yes – but at its core, it’s really so much more. You’re an expert in running your business and representing your brand. You might not be an expert in accounting and finance, digital and insights, marketing, office and admin, sales, supply chain and operations and other important topics. Through the art of storytelling, Tribe Group is a service that is all about people. By creating a model that is all about capturing the information that people know well and providing it to clients in an informative, interesting and useful way, it’s the perfect chance to leverage someone else’s experience for the benefit of your brand and what it represents.
NeoReachAt its core, NeoReach is an influencer marketing platform built for scale, designed entirely with brands like yours in mind. It’s a way to seamlessly search, manage and even track user-generated content campaigns – allowing you to always keep your finger on the pulse of what’s working and (more importantly) what isn’t. You get to create effective influencer campaigns with powerful insights by filtering through literally millions of influencers to find the one that captures your target audience’s attention in that special way. You can handle all communication, contracts and even deals right from the same platform – amplifying your brand in the process.
KlearThese days, people just don’t trust ads anymore. They trust influencers – and that’s exactly what Klear wants to help leverage to your advantage. It’s a way to find and strike deals with the people who your audience is already paying attention to, yes. But in reality, it’s a way to build trust with those people – the importance of which cannot be overstated. From a single screen you get to find influencers, analyze their content, manage your relationships and monitor the effectiveness of your campaigns – making sure that you always have the most complete and actionable information to work from at all times.
Topic Ideation
HubspotHubSpot’s Blog Ideas Generator is a free tool available to any blogger who’d like to use it. Simply type in up to five nouns and submit. The tool gives you a week’s worth of blog topics to write about. You also have the option of unlocking a year’s worth of blog topics by filling out a form with pertinent demographic information on your business. The Ideas Generator is great to spur your creativity and give you a jumping off point to plan your publishing schedule. You can use the topics as titles or tweak them.
BuzzsumoBuzzSumo is a content research tool and a lot of social media marketers will tell you that it’s indispensable. One great feature on BuzzSumo is that it lets you easily find the top influencers based on your search. Another great option when using BuzzSumo is in ideation. You can search to see what content ranks highest based on keywords and tailor your own content accordingly or use those high ranked pieces as a jumping off point to create original content more likely to grab views. BuzzSumo has pricing plans based on your business model and need.
SEMrush Topic ResearchSEMrush has a tool called Topic Research that can help you zero in on the best topics for your content strategy. What’s great about this tool is that it helps you come up with the most clickable headlines. Of course, it’s up to the creator to make sure the content is valuable enough to be worth the click because readers are getting adept at avoiding catchy headlines with no substance. This tool also gives you a great overview of the statistics involved in any query, so you can see how well competing content performs and can plan your own content accurately.
ahrefs Content ExplorerAhrefs Content Explorer is a tool for content creators and marketers to help create their own content strategy and choose the best ideas for their website content. You can use this tool to generate a list of popular or widely shared articles based on set metrics. Content Explorer allows you to see social shares, organic search results, and the number of websites with links to that article. You can also search based on filters, such as traffic, word count, and social shares. The article index is updated daily for more robust search and a great advantage when vetting possible topics.
Answer The PublicAnswer The Public is a fantastic free resource for anyone in marketing, PR, or anyone creating content for fun or for profit. That’s a pretty wide statement, but it is also free, so you have nothing to lose. Add your keyword to the search bar and Answer The Public generates a great list of questions based on Google and Bing search results. These questions represent the most searched for information on your topic, or what your audience really wants to know. There are also options to take their free course on using the search insights, as well.
Google Search ConsoleGoogle Search Console is a comprehensive and completely free set of tools available through Google. Because these tools are created by Google, you also know that they’re ideal to help you create content that ranks well on, you guessed it, Google Search. You may also remember Google Search Console referred to as Webmaster Tools. It still has some of the same features but many are improved and Google offers free tutorials and references to help you maximize these tools to build excellent content.
grepwordsGrepWords is still a newer resource but several SEO experts are touting its usability. To simplify, GrepWords is a keyword database, but it’s so much more than that. It helps you narrow down the best keywords for different content types, such as video, and your content intent. You can fine-tune your search for the best commercial keywords, keywords that work well to promote Amazon or eBay items, and more. You can search the database to find the best keyword phrase for local, national, or worldwide audiences and use those results to tailor your content strategy in the coming weeks or months.
KparserThis is another keyword research tool and Kparser is free to use. You don’t even need to fill out information for an upsell anywhere, the tool is available with no strings attached. This can work as a nice supplement for Google Keyword Planner and any other SEO tools you might be using. A great benefit of Kparser is that it not only focuses on Google. It also includes other search engines, such as Bing, and platforms, such as Amazon, YouTube, and eBay. Kparser works well to create content on your site but it also helps with PPC ads and other collateral around the web.
RedditUnless you live under a rock, you know what Reddit is, but you might not know how you can cultivate this site for content ideas. Reddit is highly populated — if you go by Alexa ranking, it’s in the top ten as far as popularity among all platforms. People find the site easily usable and that helps for your query. To give you better insights to build fresh content, look for issues that people are struggling with in your topic. You can search subreddits using search terms that indicate a question which will open up a variety of different posts by people struggling with some aspect of that category. Where there are common questions, there are great ideas for your next blog post or article.
Inspiration
Cool InfographicsNot everyone is inspired by words. But most people can catch some of the excitement from well-executed images. Cool Infographics aims to help you create the right images to further your brand, message, and goals. Randy Krum is the author of Design Infographics, published by Wiley. Through his site, webinars, and various appearances, Randy provides great resources for marketing professionals and do it yourself-ers to create the designs they dream of and to tell the story that resonates with their audience.
Infographic ShowcaseInterested in creating your own infographics? This site will give you some fantastic inspiration on your quest to create the most stunning and informational graphic design offerings for your own web properties. Infographic Showcase offers a compilation of infographics from across the web and those submitted by users. Use the site for inspiration, submit your own infographic designs to be published, or hire a graphic designer to create the perfect visual representation for your next project.
Submit InfographicsAre you trying to design your first infographic? Maybe you’re looking for some inspiration while you noodle the best visual way to translate dry data. Submit Infographics might be just the site you crave. At Submit Infographics, all the samplings are user generated. There’s a range from novice to very skilled graphic designers. The site offers the ability to submit your infographics and have them critiqued to better build your skill level and learn what design features work and don’t work so well. Use the site to provide more ideas for your own projects or to strengthen design skills if you’re interested in creating your own.
AdEspresso Ad ExamplesCreated by Hootsuite, AdEspresso removes the complications in the realm of Facebook Advertising. As the algorithms changed, using old methods of promoting on business pages and posting in groups or creating your own groups on platforms like Facebook stopped offering as much traction. Now, more than ever, knowing how to run a successful ad campaign is integral to getting the ROI from this platform. AdEspresso shows you what works and what doesn’t in real, live, Facebook ads. It offers an easy to use dashboard and is touted as much more user-friendly for beginners.
Campaign Monitor GalleryIf you’re looking for a few new ideas for your next email campaign, Campaign Monitor Gallery has a wealth of examples. The great thing about this gallery is that you get a wide variety of brands and offerings to study. Campaign Monitor has put together nearly 100 of the best email marketing campaigns from the top agencies in the industry. See what works for those in your industry and see if you can take some inspiration from a different field.
Really Good EmailsIf you thought Campaign Monitor’s Gallery offered a wealth of ideas with their curated email campaigns, you’ll definitely want to check out Really Good Emails. RGE features more than 4,000 email samples and accepts submissions to feature readers. This is a great website to learn what works and what doesn’t for the newer email marketers. It’s also fantastic for those who want to keep their fingers on the pulse of digital creativity.
Creation Tools
CanvaCanva is basically a graphic design tool for people who don’t know anything about graphic design. The great thing here is that it’s easy to use and you can create printable, quality graphics. On the downside, it has limited templates and if you’re using the free version, you’ll need to pay for any images or upload your own. It is very easy to use for anyone, probably too easy to use for those who have any background in professional design. For a small business owner, though, Canva can offer a quick to use and clean option to design everything from infographics to logos.
Adobe Creative CloudAdobe Creative Cloud delivers all the professional graphic software you’ve come to know from Adobe, though a monthly subscription and in the cloud. The student subscription is about 60% less expensive than the professional, though monthly fees are affordable. Professional grade software (and Adobe is the highest quality here) is necessary for anyone who offers their graphics as a service or product. If you’re not interested in creating your own graphics, this might be an expense you can skip using basic free software solutions or outsourcing your designs.
AudacityIf you’re looking for a way to create professional level audio recordings, Audacity is a free open source software solution that can help you make great quality audio. This software is perfect for podcasts or recording your own music/vocals. It boasts an easy to use interface for those who aren’t sound engineers by trade. There are also a lot of settings and special effects options to help you create the unique sounds you’re going for in your audio creation.
PiktochartPiktochart was one of the first solutions geared to help make your visual presentations top quality without needing to hire a graphic designer. For today’s small businesses and solopreneurs, Piktochart gives you the ability to create stunning infographs and other visual storytelling options to boost your marketing offerings to a level that competes with much larger companies. You can use Piktochart for internal needs, like reporting options, to external marketing endeavors, such as webinars and presentations. Piktochart is comparable to Canva for usability and cost.
Lumen5If you need a way to add eye popping video to your social media channels or to fill out your blog or website, Lumens5 can fit the order. This video creation platform boasts that you can easily make videos in minutes. And it really is pretty easy, even for someone with limited technical skills. Lumens5 has drag and drop features and straightforward tools. Videos offer much better conversion than other types of content. Lumens5 gives you all the tools you need to competently add eye-catching video to fill out your channels.
CoSchedule Headline Analyzer“There is no shortage of buzz about the importance of the right headline. Blog posts are written about them, marketing strategies are built around them, and a great headline promises the difference between “”meh”” content and going viral. CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer tool gives you the science to back up your headline creation. You can type in your headline and see what’s missing and how to improve it. Will the Headline Analyzer give you the magic bullet to write a headline that automatically goes viral? No. But it can help you strengthen your headlines to give you a better chance and catching attention. “
CerosCeros bills itself as a tool to help the world unlock creativity. That’s a powerful catchphrase and it’s pretty accurate. There’s sometimes a cut off between the creative ideas in the marketing department and the way programmers work. Ceros is a tool that lets the graphic designer or marketer put together their own interactive content, without the need for a programmer or IT technician. Ceros gives you some tools to bring the creativity back to your content offerings, making them more enticing for your audience. This tool is all about making interactive content accessible for small businesses and letting your creative team do what they do best.
PreziPrezi is a presentation software solution to help you create stunning, professional level presentation materials. You have access to a huge database of shared presentations and blank templates. This means that you never have to start from scratch. You can use one of the templates as a base, making the process easier. You can use Prezi to build a stunning presentation as a solo project or work with teams in a collaborative effort. The site is streamlined and easy to use.
PixlrPixlr is a photo editor that allows you to create stunning, professional looking photos without using cumbersome or hard to understand professional software. Pixlr offers free apps and is easy to use on your choice of devices. Create special effects, enhance photos, manipulate images to create artistic renderings, or just minimize the bags under your eyes and improve skin tone. Pixlr lets you add graphics, fonts, overlays, filters, and more. Giving you an app on any device or right on your desktop to create shareable images that rock.
PicMonkeyPicMonkey goes a few steps above and beyond, making even the least crafty digital dweller a veritable graphic rock star. This is a great photo editor for anyone who wants to play with artistic templates, create gorgeous collages, or really ramp up their visual appeal on business and personal social media pages. PicMonkey is known for the great collages that you can create and there are a tone of professionally set templates to make your efforts look like you majored in design. They also offer all the bangs and whistles in font choices, graphics, and filters.
SumoPaintIf you’re looking for a free alternative to the expensive photo editing software, like Photoshop, SumoPaint might be just what you need. It offers a lot of variety and a great community to answer questions about using the tools. It’s also far simpler than professional editing software to master. SumoPaint offers the ability to bring files from your computer, a URL, or upload directly from Facebook so that you can grab the image you want and work on it directly on the app, save, and share. Come for the great tools, and stay because the amazingly talented community gives you oodles of inspiration for projects to come.
ZmagsZmags promises something earth-shattering for marketers — high converting content with NO CODING. One thing ZMags gets absolutely right is Omnichannel efforts. It promises the same customer experience no matter where it’s delivered — on a phone app, through email, online, or on Facebook. This is a great option to create interactive catalog experiences for your audience wherever you find them. They even offer a shopping cart feature so your customers can purchase directly from your Facebook page.
SnapAppThis content creation platform lets your business create the content and gather qualified leads in one, straightforward location. With reporting features and insights to help your business understand the customer journey, SnapApp’s main function is to help the marketers understand what the sales department needs in its leads so that it can improve the process and measure the results. One of the features that really works well here is the content creation tool that allows you to quickly create quizzes and interactive content.
Video
WideoWant to cash in on the massive conversion rate for video content but don’t have the equipment or knowledge to create a video? Wideo provides a great option for a business that wants to create animated video content for their web properties or social media accounts. The platform is easy to use and there are affordable payment options, with a free trial period to test the waters. Use the templates available through Wideo or upload your own content.
AnimatronAnimatron lets your company make animated videos at a professional level with a very easy to use interface. That’s the basic bottom line. There are a lot of animation video companies to choose from and Animatron rates pretty well here. It’s simple to use, offers a good variety of images and choices, and boosts a bit better for social media users — it resizes your videos to specifically fit the platform you’ll be uploading it to, making the process even easier to capture the attention of your tribe wherever they reside. If you want to cash in on video content but don’t have the budget to outsource professional videos, Animatron can get you started on your animated journey.
SnapseedThis is a fantastic photo editing app for professional or serious photographers. You’ll get a great amount of versatility, filters, effects, and tools. It’s not as simple to use as some of the photo editing apps that are aimed at a general market. This is why it’s better for professional photographers or those who understand more technical aspects of photo editing. This is ranked as one of the best mobile apps for professional photo editing because it does allow for more intricate and detailed editing options. You can create beautiful images with Snapseed and share right from your phone, wherever you are.
PowToonPowToon is an animation software that’s fairly straightforward and easy to use. It offers free, Pro, and Business level payment structures. Of course, higher levels unlock more templates, audio tracks and usage rights. For the highest membership, rights for created videos can be transferred to a third party, which might make PowToon an option for freelancers and writers who want to add video creation to their list of services for clients. Presentations might be used professionally, personally, or in educational environments — for classrooms or webinars.
Wordsmith
GrammarBaseGrammarBase can be installed on your web browser and is a free app. The nice thing with this app is that it allows you to quick check your spelling, grammar, punctuation, and even catches plagiarism right in your web browser. This application works any time you’re typing, so all of your written correspondence will look professional, even if you’re just rifling out a tweet or status update quickly. The application also works to check email correspondence and longer, more professional communications, giving you a safety net to make sure your presentation online is as professional as you’d like it to be.
GrammarlyPossibly one of the most well-known spell checkers, Grammarly is a program that costs money, though it does have a web browser app that is free. For the higher priced software, users can expect spelling, grammar, punctuation, and even more advanced tips on style and word usage. Grammarly promises to help non-writers compose succinct, clear prose to get their ideas across in the best, most professional manner. It’s also a great second set of eyes for professional writers — let’s face it, we’re all prone to mistakes, and they’re even more embarrassing when you make your living with words.
HemingwayThe Hemingway Editor is the application most highly touted by professional writers. You’ll hear more about other grammar editors from non-writers because they simply don’t use all the bangs and whistles available with Hemingway. Here’s why this one’s a good pick if you write a great deal, publish a successful blog, or write professionally. Hemingway not only checks grammar. It shows you the readability grade (which is important for published works). It also highlights passive voice, difficult to read sentence structure, and highlights those pesky adverbs that make your writing less powerful.
ReadableRhyme Zone is probably most aptly used by school children. Words can be keyed into the simple interface and the site will give the student back rhyming words of different syllable levels, synonyms, adjectives, and even examples of the word used in poetry. School kids aren’t the only ones who can find plenty to love about this platform. Any creative writer can jump in and play with words, find new words that meet their rhyme and meter needs, or just waste a little time while getting their writing juices flowing. You can also use this site specifically to find phrases in Shakespeare.
Rhyme ZoneRhyme Zone is probably most aptly used by school children. Words can be keyed into the simple interface and the site will give the student back rhyming words of different syllable levels, synonyms, adjectives, and even examples of the word used in poetry. School kids aren’t the only ones who can find plenty to love about this platform. Any creative writer can jump in and play with words, find new words that meet their rhyme and meter needs, or just waste a little time while getting their writing juices flowing. You can also use this site specifically to find phrases in Shakespeare.
Cliche FinderThe Cliche Finder tool can be a godsend to prolific writers. Just because you write for a living doesn’t mean you’ll ever hit perfection — as if there is such a thing. When you write a lot, you’re bound to use phrases repeatedly. Most writers go through bouts of overusing a word or phrase before culling it from their creative toolbox. Cliche phrases are the worst because they’re someone else’s words, and they take away from your own voice. They also come across as lazy writing to the astute reader. This tool lets you copy paste your text into the writing field and highlights anything it picks up as overused or cliche phrasing. Often all it takes is a quick highlight for you to see where to edit.
Atomic ReachAtomic Reach touts personalized content that gets the best results. This service analyzes content based on the exact audience base it’s written for. The analysis allows your business to tailor content to better reach your target market. This leads to an increase in page views, email open rates, and conversion. According to their site, their statistics showcase these results. It’s well documented that building your content for the target audience and personalizing your communication improves ROI. Atomic Reach is the only tool aimed solely at creating content for the target audience.
Search Engine Optimization
ahrefsAhrefs is an SaaS tool that provides support for your SEO strategy. You can use Ahrefs to map your strategy and launch a detailed plan that covers everything from simple keyword and longtail keyword research to on page optimization and backlinking. Google’s main focus has never changed — they rank sites that provide the best experience for the user. For site owners, though, that means a number of tools to make sure that your site meets all the criteria for your user and for Google. SEO strategy is made a lot easier with the use of Ahrefs to lead your way.
Keyword ToolKeyword Tool is a free online application to use as a way to supplement Google Keyword Planner or in place of your other Keyword tools. This tool uses Google auto complete to generate possible keyword phrases and then provides you with the tools to analyze their effectiveness to plan your content. This tool is easy to use, the interface is clean, and it is a free application. Small businesses and entrepreneurs might choose this as their main method for generating keywords or you might use this in conjunction with other keyword tools.
MAJESTICMajestic is something along the lines of Ahrefs features. It doesn’t offer keyword planners, though you can supplement that need with other free or for pay tools. Majestic is a professional level web crawler to help you analyze and improve your SEO through backlinks, search score, and more. Majestic is a tool used by professional marketers, SEO professionals, and developers. It is more advanced for a more technical level of knowledge but it provides excellent all in one tools for the best ROI on your SEO strategy.
MozIf you want the best level of SEO for your website properties, and you want to do it yourself, MOZ is your answer. SEOMOZ started back when no one really understood what SEO was and their blog catapulted website owners from newbies to professional SEO experts. If you want to learn and have the aptitude and interest in running your own show, MOZ can help you get there. They offer products, training, and a plethora of information on SEO from the beginning all the way up to today.
SEMrushMOZ offers great free tools and use for newer website owners and DIY owners. SEMrush offers a well rounded tool to catapult any size company to the stratosphere. SEMrush is highly recommended by most of the experts in SEO for a reason, it gets rapid results and keeps you well informed about the direction of your site and strategies on an updated basis. With robust reporting, options for competitor knowledge, and tools to build up backlinks, SEMrush is an excellent investment if you’re ready to spend on your website business.
SpyFuThe premise behind SpyFu is that you can mimic your competition’s success and even improvement upon it by understanding their marketing strategy. This tool lets you see what keywords your main competitors are using in PPC ads, allows you to analyze where their backlinks are, and you can even monitor your competitors over time to keep track of what they’re doing. This can give you some useful insights as to how they’re building traction in the same space. You can replicate their formula while avoiding mistakes or you can use this knowledge to build a better unique position in the market for your own brand.
WordtrackerWordTracker is more than just an SEO keyword tool. It allows you to search and find longtail keywords but it also helps you to understand how competitive the keyword is and combines the search results from multiple sources for a more comprehensive understanding. This tool gives you PPC insights, competitor insights, Google data and proprietary search data to give you the fullest picture of your SEO keyword options so that you’re tailoring your content for the most impact.
StatSTAT was recently acquired by MOZ. For MOZ customers and STAT customers alike, this could mean the beginning of a beautiful, full service SEO company to make sure their efforts succeed. STAT works with providing SERP (Search Engine Page Ranking) results to help build the best long tail keywords to infuse copy for better performing websites. According to the latest data, MOZ intends to release an integrated solution sometime this year, which promises to bring two of the most respected SEO companies together on one amazing solution for users.
Raven ToolsRaven Tools offers an excellent white label marketing solution for professional marketers, agencies, and freelancers who work with clients. Raven Tools allows you to run crisp, easily understandable reporting for your clients. It’s an all in one solution that lets you use MOZ and Majestic data on backlinks. You can run regular website audits to keep your clients updated on any possible issues. Raven Tools makes it their business to make your business look great. It’s an excellent solution for marketers who work independently and through larger agencies.
CuutioCuutio is another tool that offers a way to keep track of your SEO strategy and progress. You can monitor competitor’s keywords and you can use the features to see how well your target market is finding your site. Cuutio specializes in keyword analysis. You can easily see the reporting for how your paid and organic searches are performing and make adjustments as you go.
SEOBookLike MOZ, SEOBook started back in the early days of SEO. The founder is Aaron Wall. He still regularly updates this site. It’s a wealth of resources on every aspect of running a successful website, monitoring your success, and building your strategy. This is still one of the most widely respected authorities on SEO. You can find excellent training on all aspects of search engine optimization, business tips, and marketing.
SEO QuakeSEOQuake is a free tool. You download it to your web browser and it gives you insights on every single webpage you want to know about. It’s a fascinating research tool. This can inform how you plan content, where you place your design elements, even the color schemes and keywords you use on your website. With SEOQuake you can get a full view of any website you’re on, including page rankings, Alexa ranking, and more. You can compare your competitor’s results to understand how their content performs and you can see what the core audience you need responds more readily to.
HitTailHitTail is a long tail keyword tool to help you tweak the keywords on your website to generate more organic search traffic for your desktop searchers, as well as your mobile audience. Longtail keywords make up about 70% of all searches, and they’re getting more frequent with talk to text searchers. This tool can help you continue to improve your ranking with long tail keywords.
seoClaritySeoClarity uses artificial intelligence technology to handle some of the more mundane tasks of SEO so that marketers can concentrate on the thing that matters most — their users. SEO has a lot of moving parts. You have a million pieces of data to analyze in order to see if your on the right path. SeoClarity promises to use machine learning initiatives to give you better analytic insights that you can see at a glance and act on. This lets your team concentrate on the SEO strategy that will keep you growing and moving forward.
SERPs UberSuggestSERPs doesn’t give you a one size fits all, all encompassing SEO solution. SERPs focuses on keywords. That’s it and that’s important. The interface is easy to use and you have the ability to check daily tracking so that you can change or maneuver your content strategy as the need arises. They also offer free tools like the Keyword Rank Checker, Keyword Research Database, and the Google Location Changer.
TagCrowd“Visualizing word frequency in a piece of written content yields valuable insight into things like reader perception, SEO, and word frequency. TagCrowd offers a simple platform for creating word clouds, which are also sometimes referred to as text or tag clouds. Just pop in your content in one of three ways, (by copy/pasting, uploading a text file, or providing a URL), and hit the “”Visualize!”” button. Tag clouds are useful for everything from doing a basic website scan for SEO optimization to doing a quick visual analysis of the given data on a page of text like a job resume. “
Keywords EverywhereKeyword incorporation shouldn’t be difficult, and it definitely shouldn’t be expensive. Imagine a plug-in for your browser, either Chrome or Firefox, that immediately showed you things like Google keyword search volume and competition data from other keywords used on different websites. You don’t even have to imagine it, Keywords Everywhere is the real deal. This completely free extension pulls instant keyword metrics that you can actually download in a file and save for later recollection. Best of all, you can use the extension on some of the biggest websites like eBay, Amazon, and Moz.
ScreamingFrogIf you want a multi-faceted search marketing agency, Screaming Frog is it. From pay-per-click marketing to search engine optimization, this UK-based company knows their stuff. But, if you want a free tool that will help you with technical SEO audits and analyzing, Screaming Frog also gives you that with no strings attached. The Screaming Frog SEO spider tool is one of the most trusted, most used SEO tools out there, and there is no question as to why. With this one tool, you can seek out duplicate copy across the internet, analyze metadata on your site pages, and use the integrated crawler to spot broken links.
Landing Page Optimization
BrightInfoIncreasing your conversion rate can be tough stuff. Even a ton of work may sometimes yield you a 5 or 6 percent boost in conversion rates, but the biggest challenge is understanding why conversions don’t happen and where visitors fall off the proverbial map in search of something else. BrightInfo is one of the latest and most effective landing page optimization tools out there. Integrating the self-learning algorithm known as JARGON™ allows for real-time tracking of visitors and automatic content customization depending on that visitor’s behavior. The impact of relevancy takes your website to an entirely new level where conversion happens naturally.
LeadpagesIt’s every website owner’s dream to turn clicks into customers, and that’s exactly what Leadpages is all about. The Leadpages conversion toolkit is a user-friendly way to nab the attention of your audience from the time they land on the first page of your site. A website must be both attractive and fully functional, but it must also be perfectly and purposefully optimized for proper conversion. Once you’ve signed up for a free trial, you get to use all the tools available, including impressive templates, to build professional-looking pages that are specifically designed with click conversion in mind.
OptimizelyExperimentation is the driving force behind innovation. It is through experiments that we determine what is going to work and what is going to fail. If you look at things from a content marketing standpoint, the same rule applies. Optimizely is all about allowing room for that experimentation to happen. Marketers get the opportunity to test digital ideas and develop successful strategies that are easy to implement. With Optimizely being trusted by BIG names in the world of the internet like eBay and IBM, these guys are surely onto something effective.
UnbounceUsed by some of the biggest brands like Hootsuite and Thomson Reuters, Unbounce gives users mobile-responsive templates for landing pages, sticky bars, and popups. A 14-day free trial allows you to browse the multitude of templates, try them out, and find out what works. Stretching a minimal ad budget further is simplified with Unbounce, which allows users to reduce the costs of per-click advertising. One of the biggest differences with Unbounce is you get total creative control over pages and an all-in-one platform.
Visual Website OptimizerA/B testing and conversion optimization are two processes that should go hand-in-hand. Visual Website Optimizer (VWO) gives you both in the form of an easy-to-use platform and free tools. For added tools, VWO offers different plans to allow users to pick the plan that works best for their business operation. Used by some of the top websites across the web, the tools offered by VWO are meant to help you conduct visitor research and build a roadmap to help you achieve your overall conversion goals.
ConcurraAnalytics used to optimize your website should not be hard to gather, and the tools you need to gather analytics should be in one place. Concurra is one of the leading web optimization tools because it gives users goal tracking, session recording, analytic data, and more all together. Instead of having one platform for one thing and another for something else, Consurra streamlines everything to make on-page optimization a simple feat. The platform was the first of its kind when it went live in 2017, and has quickly gained traction as one of the most noteworthy web optimization tools around.
BouncexWith the level of insight technology gives, there is no reason why a visitor should be turned off by something on your website that does not apply or pique their curiosity. BounceX is a platform that allows the recognition of traffic in real time so what the visitors see is what they would likely want to see. Programs like this allow marketing to people instead of cookies, which is an outdated practice anyway. Recognized by Forbes, BounceX is one of the fastest growing software companies of the current age and triggered marketing is on the rise, so more sites are bound to start using these programs.
HotJarTurning visitors into customers is sometimes more about understanding their behavior once they get on your web pages, and HotJar helps marketers and site owners do just that. With interactive heat maps to show where customers are clicking, scrolling, and otherwise interacting with the site, it’s easy to understand where improvements could be made or changes are necessary. Other tools like polls and surveys also grant insight. Hotjar offers a free 15-day trial, but many of the tools are free of charge.
Conversion Boosters
SniplyPart of the reason why conversion fails is visitors and viewers just don’t see a clear call to action. Sniply is an easy tool that allows users to create a customized call-to-action button that can be added to just about any link or page. Need a call-to on a social media link? You can do it. Need a call-to in a well-placed ad? It can be done. Getting started with Sniply is free, and just using this one tool can drastically spike conversion rates. Not only does Sniply give you call-to-action links needed, but they also provide real-time data regarding link clicks and audience engagement.
SUMOA total throng of solutions in one place makes it easy to convert visits to actual sales or revenue, and SUMO is kind of like that one-stop shop that makes it all happen. Create everything from nifty pop-ups and website displays that are optimized for mobile devices right on the platform. SUMP states that they don’t offer tools but solutions, and in all rights, that’s the truth. Tools like Welcome Mat, List Builder, and Smart Bar have been used to create stunning conversion solutions on big name websites owned by people like Tony Robbins and Pistol Canyon.
OptkitBeing able to optimize content through graded targeting is one of the often overlooked keys to making conversion work out for the better, but tools like those that are offered by Optkit make that whole ordeal easier to bear. You get the opportunity to use a program that will create campaigns as they are needed, so visitors tend to see more of what they want and are less likely to dash away before they become an actual customer. Optkit utilizes third-party integrations to evolve how customers experience your website.
Deadline FunnelsSometimes converting traffic into sales is all about the big stuff, but other times, it’s about the small details and tools that naturally generate more follow through with visitors. One of those little tools that can drastically up sales conversion is a basic timer. Say you have a new product release and want a special introductory price, you want a deadline timer on the site to let visitors know the special price is only good for so many hours. Deadline Funnel is the tool you can use to generate these countdown clocks and deadlines on your website. The platform is straightforward and simple to use, and you get a free trial.
UseProofYou can’t really go wrong with a tool that claims you can boost conversion rates by 10 percent in 10 minutes or less, and that’s precisely what Proof has to offer. Proof helps build conversion with tools that help you with things like leads, signups, opt-ins, and more. People say Proof is super-easy to use, with it taking only about 10 to 20 minutes to get everything set up just how you would like it to be. Campaigns can be created, such as a recent conversion/activity campaign, to yield valuable data about what could be lacking.
TechValidateHosted by SurveyMonkey, TechValidate is used by some pretty major players in the online world like IBM and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. TechValidate says that only about 5 to 10 percent of comments from satisfied customers ever get formally recorded. The platform helps by automating the sometimes tedious process of gathering those positive statements and getting them positioned in the right places. But, that’s not all the platform offers; they also provide numerous tools to help you through the various aspects of sales acceleration, from acquiring and nurturing leads to supporting the details of a sale.
Google ReviewsGoogle is the place you can ask anything, truly it is. And when it comes to getting the low-down on products, services, apps, tools, Google Reviews gives it to you. Want to garner trust with prospects? Get good reviews on Google and you’re pretty much all set. Companies who manage to keep their ratings high on Google see higher conversion rates over the long-term. Google is the internet giant people turn to for reliable info.
G2 CrowdImagine needing the right marketing software or content tools for your website or business. Now imagine you’ve gathered a stadium full of experienced people like you to give you their first-hand advice. G2 Crowd is a little like that; It’s your stadium full of information-holding people who are happy to share what they know. Digital advertising platforms, software services, content management tools—ask about the things you come across and services that make you wonder on G2 Crowd and people are there to answer in the form of unbiased reviews. How do you know they’re unbiased? Users are authenticated through LinkedIn profiles to make sure they are not affiliated with the service/products they review. With that being said, it’s also easy to understand how good reviews on a site like G2 would be worth their weight in gold.
Review PoppaGetting reviews on sites like G2 Crowd and Google Reviews is all well and good, but just how do you encourage natural, authentic reviews? Here comes Review Poppa to save the day. Review Poppa is a service of sorts that helps you reach and get those reviews you need and get them posted in the right places on the internet. Best of all. Review Poppa filters out the really bad stuff so what gets put out there is actually in your favor. The custom-review technology hosted by the service works for many types of websites, and Review Poppa helps get those reviews on the biggest names in online reviews.
Trust RadiusA full-blown community of trusted, vetted professionals, Trustradius is one of the most commonly referenced review sites on the internet, and it is not without reason. Software, services, and tech products are all things you find reviews about on Tech Radius, and you can rest assured that whatever reviews you do find are going to be both authentic and highly informative. When a vendor gets their name on Trustradius with high reviews from actual clients, they can automatically see an improvement in their conversion rates.
Account Based Marketing
DEMANDBASEB2B account-based marketing platforms are a little harder to find than B2C marketing platforms. But Demandbase is perhaps one of the leaders in the niche, and they offer marketers a unique set of tools to really target those online ads to the business owners who truly need their services. No matter the channel, campaign, or vendor, the tools available on Demandbase are flexible enough to be suitably used across just about every arena. According to their website, 96 percent of B2B marketers see a positive impact by using the account-based marketing tools offered by Demandbase.
JahiaHaving an account-based marketing platform that allows you to create completely customized ads and campaigns is ever-important. Otherwise, you end up with ads that look a lot like the same ads every company uses. Jahia is highly praised because of its customization capabilities. The platform makes it easy to inject your own business personality and establish brand identity. Best of all, Jahia supports both on-prem and cloud-based campaigns, so you can upload and manage content without taking up valuable in-house space.
AcxiomManaging audiences and creating more personalized customer experiences is what Acxiom is all about. Employing the right marketing tactics for the right customer is what account-based marketing is all about, whether you are optimizing your web page or integrating a unique AI plan. Acxiom is one of the world’s largest data collection agencies, so their InfoBase can be used to harness the power of knowing who your customers are, what they want to see, and how they should be marketed to by your business.
CaliberMindEnvision a B2B buyer intelligence software that provides an in-depth look at the psychographic profiles of buyers. This is exactly what CaliberMind is all about. Named appropriately, CaliberMind is the first solution of its kind in the world of marketing. They analyze things like human language and input from multiple sourced data points to create buyer personas so account-based marketers have a springboard to work off of with each type of buyer. The prime goal of CaliberMind is to help marketers build true revenue instead of helping them pursue leads, which is what the long-term goal should be in any prosperous online company.
AlterianWith a platform boasting a name like Chameleon, you can pretty much guarantee a company has something unique to offer in the world of ABM. Chameleon, created by the company Alterian, offers an adaptive customer experience by allowing things like immediately personalized messages in real time for site visitors. Those who use Alterian solutions claim that ease-of-use is one of the biggest perks, but the company also provides useful articles to help better understand the tools and navigating the platform as well.
Alternative
OutbrainPay-per-click models sometimes don’t get a lot of respect, but Outbrain is one of those humongous content discovery platforms that utilizes that particular model in an efficient way. The platform promotes content to viewers but strives to also help those publishing content better get who their audiences are by offering relevant data. When we say humongous, Outbrain is literally humongous. The platform serves up 190 billion personalized content recommendations monthly and has a reach to 561 visitors from around the planet.
TaboolaGoing big means finding the largest platforms for content recommendation, and Taboola is most definitely that. Taboola helps publishers monetize their content with an administration console app that is totally user-friendly. As many as 1.4 billion users visit Taboola on a regular basis to find interesting things, so placing content on the site is a surefire way to get a brand noticed. These kinds of platforms are known by the public to help them find relevant content, but for publishers, Taboola is a valuable marketing tool that could easily take a no-name company to a prime consumer target.
ZemantaEnterprise platforms for content marketing are out there, but finding the best is like plucking a needle from a haystack. Zemanta is hands-down one of the best in the bunch. They offer things like unified campaign tracking, integrations with data platforms, and helpful decision-making support for content campaigns. The Zemanta One platform helps agents nab the best of content from different places when they need to, but supports the creation of unique content just the same.
AdRollReported to have driven $7 billion in revenue for at least 37,000 customers, AdRoll is a growth platform that focuses on helping businesses beef up their revenue. Once users set up their account, they can generate campaigns that run across both mobile and desktop devices. One of the biggest reasons people use AdRoll is for their retargeting tool, which is an excellent way to retarget ad campaigns, so they generate more interest. However, the platform boasts a wealth of other tools for things like tracking site activity and conversions.
SlideShareA hosting service created by LinkedIn, SlideShare is a professional hosting service for different types of content and is used by numerous types of business owners. Infographics, videos, articles, and even presentations can be uploaded so it can be viewed on the site. Uploaders can enable viewers to download or clip their content to save to their own devices, which is a helpful feature for distributing free content meant to garner web traffic.
TerminusTargeting the right accounts with your content is critical in marketing, especially with B2B because interested parties can be so selective. Terminus is an account-based marketing platform that makes it easy to create and oversee account lineups. One unique aspect of Terminus is they offer individualized services to the platform is perfectly aligned with your end goals as a marketer. You get help with things like designing effective ad campaigns, utilizing ABM reporting templates, and more.
Email
Constant ContactAn attractive user interface, a wealth of email templates available, and a highly intuitive editing setup, Constant Contact is one of the most well-known email marketing solutions out there. For about $20 a month, users get access to a range of different features to build up their email marketing efforts. For those who are iffy about paying for the service, Constant Contact provides a generous 60-day free trial that allows curious users to have access to the majority of the platform’s features. The regular email plan supports up to 500 contacts, which works out well for a lot of small businesses.
MyEmmaEven email marketing should be a personalized thing if you want the best response rates. Relevance and timeliness are key factors as well. MyEmma is a new breed of email marketing software because it implements the modern idea of marketing in a personalized way. In addition, MyEmma provides customizable package solutions, so marketers can build a service plan that fits their needs. MyEmma doesn’t just offer email marketing solutions, they can also help with things like email analytics and landing page creations as well.
InstantDataPowered by TowerData, InstantData is a platform that is designed to help you clean up your email list so you know what you are sending out is getting to the right people and not just lost by the wayside. Email Validation helps remove 95 percent of bad emails, Email Intelligence is used to match demographic data for improved targeting, and Contact Append allows you to add email addresses to postal addresses or vice versa. The end goal is always to achieve more conversions with email efforts, and InstaData is one platform that can help make that happen.
Campaign MonitorSupposedly trusted by more than 250,000 business across the globe, Campaign Monitor is an email marketing platform that allows you to build eye-catching emails from the ground up, track conversions from those sent emails and more. The platform boasts a wealth of tools, such as hyper-targeted segments to truly personalize the messages that are being sent to customer inboxes. Campaign Monitor pretty much provides everything necessary to run a successful email marketing campaign that looks nothing short of professional even if you have little-to-no email marketing experience. You can try the services for free, go with a basic plan with all the core features for just $9 a month, or go with unlimited or premium platform use for a little more.
OpenSenseOpenSense is an email signature marketing platform that encourages brand consistency across all email marketing efforts. The more consistent your brand appears in marketing emails, the more you can maximize response and conversion rates. OpenSense is a logical solution because it allows you to pull in activity from other systems in use, such as Marketo and HubSpot. It’s also easy to create tailored signatures for emails coming from different departments within one company. Plus, OpenSense makes trackability a seamless effort.
TowerDataTowerData is an email intelligence software that marketers can use to get to know their customers and power better email personalization. The platform allows users to integrate more than 100 different fields into an email list, such as purchase intent data or lifestyle, so when creating and sending emails, they can get to the people who would be most interested in seeing them. TowerData also claims they can help grow an email list by 20 to 45 percent. Take the free email append test before signing up for services to see where your email list could grow.
GlockAppsThere are a lot of things within an email that can cause it to be rerouted to the trash or spam folder instead of going to the inbox. GlockApps is like a spam testing tool that will scan your email messages for issues that could be preventing them from making it where they should be. A quick scan of a typical email will yield you a spam score and point you to things that could be causing problems, whether it is a funky headline, a poorly placed graphic, or something else. The platform is designed to be super user-friendly and straightforward, and the pricing is fair for the service.
Zero BounceYou can’t really go wrong with a 98 percent accuracy guarantee, which is what Zero Bounce offers users who use their tools to scan for email issues. You go through a lot to draft and target emails, so when they get filtered out, it is a waste of time and valuable resources. Zero Bounce uses AI technology and scoring to scan emails and figure out why they are falling short. Plus, the platform offers other valuable email marketing tools, such as an email delivery guide and email list verification.
Conversational
DriftConnecting sales teams to prospective customers is a sly way to build brand awareness, foster trust, and garner sales. Companies like Drift, a conversational marketing platform, help this magic happen. At least 150,000 businesses have used Drift to get conversations rolling that turn into conversions. Add Drift to your website and even basic interactions via chatbots and leadbots helps get visitors where they need to be, feel appreciated, and view the website in a positive light.
MobileMonkeyMessenger bots are the marketing and optimization wave of the future. If you don’t yet have one on your website or connected to Facebook Messenger, you’re falling way behind, but Mobile Monkey is here to help. The Mobile Monkey Facebook Messenger marketing automation bot is easy to integrate and customize to fit the theme of the business. It acts as a virtual assistant to visitors but also encourages conversations that can lead to drastic upticks in conversion rates. Mobile Monkey claims they have helped generate billions of leads, which is pretty darn impressive from any standpoint. Plus, the prices are fairly straightforward and inexpensive considering the advantages.
CustomerSpecAn incredibly easy-to-use texting kit is going to revolutionize how you communicate with customers on their mobile devices. Even though the majority of conversation for marketing purposes now happens via email and messaging apps, texting still stands as a highly effective marketing tool. Customer Spec gives you a full repertoire of texting tools to use to build an effective text marketing campaign that can generate a lot more leads and conversions for your business. Create custom surveys, review invitations, and two-way texts to stay connected, or use the platform’s ability to support MMS images to send quick visual reminders about your business.
Leonard for LinkedInLinkedIn is a unique social platform, so an integrated messaging bot should be just as unique. Leonard for LinkedIn is an autopilot AI tool that can be used for marketing your business on the LinkedIn platform. You can download and install Leonard for free to give him a try, but if you want the premium features, which are pretty impressive, you will have to pay to have Leonard on your business’s LinkedIn profile. Leonard can be personalized with your own messages and responses, so customers really feel they are connecting to the brand.
Video
VidyardCustomized video is the real deal in modern marketing, but video creation, development, and advertising are not as easy as some make it out to be. You need a good support platform to help with things like recording screencasts, customizing a video player, and even recording yourself to make things look legitimate and authentic. Vidyard is the place to make all that happen. Flexible pricing, numerous tools available, and a full list of possible integrations for your videos—Vidyard really can offer a lot.
BrightcoveThese days, everything is in the cloud, and video hosting platforms have managed to make their way too. BrightCove is one of the leading cloud-based video hosting platforms out there with a lot of perks to mention. The platform is set up as an all-in-one video hosting solution, which means you get the ability to do things like server-side ad insertion and analytics all in one place. BrightCove also offers live streaming support, which is excellent for certain business models and a little harder to find hosted in the cloud.
WistiaSometimes, all you need is a straightforward video hosting platform, and Wistia fits the bill. Create a free account to get started, and take a look around at all of the features available to help you craft a full customer experience around your videos. Not only does Wistia help with actual video creation, but it is also set up to help with things like providing detailed analytics on video performances and creating customizable web players. Plus, Wistia has simple pricing terms to cater to multiple usage levels, so you don’t end up paying for features you don’t need. The company has been nominated for a Webby Award, which says a lot about just how many people love the platform.
TubeBuddySites like YouTube make it easy to build success on your website or just build a successful career out of videos, but just slapping up vids and hoping they get somewhere is not how success is found. The millions of videos on YouTube means it’s easy for you to get lost in a sea of chatter. TubeBuddy is a video optimization toolkit that operates as a browser extension to add new functions right to the YouTube website. Do bulk updates on posted videos, create custom thumbnails, and get details on competitors all from one extension. Of the many tools to help YouTubers, TubeBuddy is in a class all its own.
GoToStageGoToStage allows users to nab free on-demand webinars that are hosted on the website. The webinars available on the site cover a wealth of pertinent business, technology, education, and software topics, so finding something that could apply to your industry is fairly simple. On the flipside, if you can get your webinar published on GoToStage, you have the potential to attract A LOT of interest to your business, especially if you manage to cover a topic that is high interest and will rank at the top of the lists.
Webinars
GoToWebinarSaid to power millions of webinars annually, GoToWebinar is one of the most trusted names in hosted webinar platforms on the internet. With more than 600 mostly-positive reviews on Capterra, GoToWebinar has made quite the name for itself because it offers reliable technology that is completely user-friendly in its design. Whether you are drafting a basic marketing webinar to incorporate into your website or something else, GoToWebinar has the tools it takes to create engaging footage.
ReadyTalkDelivering live video events is one way that some companies generate a buzz around their product or service, but to pull this off, you have to have a good webinar hosting platform. ReadyTalk is trusted by the likes of HomeAdvisor and Square, which says a lot about their reliability. Their GlobalMeet Webinar platform allows live streaming to maximize communications and engagements with an audience, but other tools are available for hosting webcasts and meetings as well.
WebinarJamSpecifically created to support live webinars, EverWebinar is your all-in-one platform for creating and casting live events. Not only is the platform itself simple to use, it also allows you to streamline the registration process, set up reminder emails, and monetize the event. Building evergreen promotions around the event allows for rallying efforts to stay pertinent over a longer period so garnering interest is easy.
BrightTalkProviding webinar and video solutions to different business industries, BrightTalk is a key player to get to know in the world of webinars. The platform hosts various channels for hosting webinars, but they are also a major help with things like webinar and video marketing. Their webinars are some of the most referenced on the internet, and more than 30,000 professionals attend BrightTalk summits to learn more about webinar marketing.
Social Channels
FacebookOne of the true OGs in social media, Facebook has been around since way back in 2004, and marketers have much to say about the platform and how to work it to the advantage of any particular business model. Facebook can be used for everything from local marketing to gathering rich data about prospective customers. Boasting more than two-billion active users, everyone has a plan for Facebook in their marketing plan. Plus, Facebook Business grants a true platform to build a social reputation. Create something shareworthy and one link could go viral, yielding thousands of views and garnering a ton of interest in your product or service.
InstagramInstagram is a younger social platform, but that doesn’t make it any less relevant or effective as far as marketing goes. Referred to as the home for visual storytelling, the platform has quickly gained notoriety and saw 800 million users by the year 2017. Instagram was so popular from the get-go that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg took interest and bought it in 2012. As much as 80 percent of Insta users follow a business on the network, so engagement is high, making it ideal for brand establishment and recognition.
LinkedInAll social networks are not the same. LinkedIn is arguably the most comprehensive professional network available. There are ample opportunities to connect with other professionals in your industry. LinkedIn features job boards, offers plenty of tools for small business owners and entrepreneurs to promote their products and services, and gives leading experts a platform to publish informative pieces. Whether you’re keeping your pulse on the job market in your industry or using the platform as a way to connect with thought leaders, you should take the time to cultivate your profile on this platform.
PinterestPinterest offers a great platform for those who market products that photograph well. The audience here is well-known for things like pinning their favorite crafts or sharing recipes and photos. What you might not know is that 50% of users indicate that they’ve made a purchase after seeing a promoted pin. Like any other platform, Pinterest has evolved and changed over the years. It’s important to update yourself on using this platform if you plan to add it to your marketing mix. Tagging your photos correctly and including your other urls make this a worthwhile use of your social media time if your target audience is here and you pin on a regular basis.
SnapchatSnapchat is quickly becoming one of the more popular mobile apps and social media platforms and older adults are starting to take note. What was once the secret of teens and their slightly older counterparts — Snapchat stories are temporary. These are basically photos that the user can add text to and the snap disappears. This might sound counterproductive to marketers because the stories won’t be shareable or stick around forever. But you can reach a lot of people in your target audience with this app and if offers a lot of fun filters and tools to make your stories more fun.
TumblrAt its beginning, back around 2007, Tumblr was called a micro-blogging site. Today, it’s a bit of everything. There is no right or wrong way to use Tumblr and the user base keeps growing by the year. You’ll find people who share audio files, videos, long blog posts, short blog posts, mixed media, and more. For marketers, there are a number of different ways to promote businesses on Tumblr. Reminiscent of MySpace and other blogging communities, Tumblr lets users customize their own site with themes, and even their own html. You can use your own site and posts as a promotional tool. You can also advertise on Tumblr and follow the trending topics to help get inspiration for your own content.
TwitterTwitter is still one of the highest ranking social networks online, but it’s taken a bit of a beating lately. New users were down and there’s been a crackdown on bot accounts. There’s been a lot of news over the spread of misinformation on Twitter (though it’s also been spread pretty widely on other sites). Does all that mean that you should forego Twitter completely? Not necessarily. There are still a lot of users who are on Twitter regularly. For businesses, it helps to keep a presence on Twitter because customers like to be able to tweet and get answers from brands they trust. Personal engagement on this platform is a great tool.
YouTubeAs the rise of video content grows, YouTube has only gained in popularity. According to some sources, nearly 80% of web traffic will be claimed by video this year and YouTube’s search engine is second only to Google. For your business, YouTube makes a lot of sense in terms of reach and conversion. Whether you’re using YouTube as a platform to network with your audience, to add to your online authority, or as a place to provide quality content to your audience, YouTube is a site that is worth the time it takes to build and maintain a following.
Press
Cision PR NewswirePR Newswire is one of the oldest public relations companies, founded in 1954. Currently owned by Cision and using Cision Cloud Technology, members can have their news releases distributed on multiple channels with targeted and measurable results. The editorial team targets keywords to make the news releases easily findable by the right audience and clients can further influence their reach by providing industry-specific and geographic information pertinent to the event.
PRWebPRWeb is another Cision division. This area specializes in applying a digital megaphone to your latest news story, making sure that the Press Release for your latest offering hits all the major channels where your audience and shareholders reside. PRWeb helps you to develop the story in an engaging way, shares the story on the channels that matter most for your reach, and measures the results so that you can see the ROI in the process.
CisionCision Cloud Communications encompasses all the tools you need to make a resounding impact on your target audience. This full-service approach helps you craft your message, understand the reporting, and gain valuable insights about your prospects, customers, and all aspects of your brand. You’ll be able to amplify your message, connect with the right influencers, and rocket your brand recognition with each new accomplishment for your business.
Email Plus
ConvertKitConvertKit offers software to get your email marketing campaigns off the ground. This is a great software solution for bloggers or small business owners who have small lists and are concentrating on growth. If you don’t want to get bogged down in all the different facets and features of the more complex CRM solutions, ConvertKit offers one thing really well — a simplified software solution that lets you master the art of great email marketing campaigns.
MailChimpMailChimp is one of the most well-known email marketing campaign software solutions. While MailChimp is ideal for a small business or website just starting to build their list, it’s got all of the tools to help you once you’ve outgrown that stage. That’s what MailChimp strives for — to help companies grow their lists and profits. MailChimp makes it easy for users to stay connected with a mobile app, so they can check their analytics on the go.
Sharing
ShareaholicShareaholic is a plugin for your website that gives you a lot of tools to help grow your audience and amplify your content. Some features include share buttons so that your well-received content can be shared across social media channels, tools to market your content, and analytics to see if your efforts are paying off. Pricing on this plugin varies, but their beginner package starts at the ideal price of free. This plugin was created for WordPress websites and it will get you started until you need something a little more advanced.
SharethisThis plugin has been around for quite a while and one thing that’s very attractive is the fact that it’s free. ShareThis offers the basic share button feature to let your audience share your content on their favorite social media profiles, which of course helps your content get more views. It’s also very easy to install. It’s customizable and doesn’t impede your site loading speed. It’s also optimized to fit any screen.
AddThisAddThis has all the same share button love as ShareThis and Shareaholic but with the added oomph that it’s the first sharing plugin on AMP. That’s a pretty big deal if you’re interested in optimizing your website for mobile, which everyone should be on top of by now if they want to rank well on Google or please their plethora of visitors who page in via their phones and devices. AddThis is also free and it’s compatible with most CMS apps.
Social
SprinklrThis platform offers larger companies and enterprise level businesses the capacity to handle the many moving parts of their social media strategy. Sprinklr isn’t for small businesses, it’s created with large enterprises in mind. Though a growing company can certainly grow into that role. They offer a social media management system, connecting all of the players in their marketing and social media outreach team and piecing together all of the campaigns in one handy to access platform. The continuity of this system lets large businesses stay on the right page, with the ability to focus on individual campaigns and networks or the whole picture of their entire engagement strategy.
HootsuiteWhere Sprinklr is the social media management system for larger enterprises, Hootsuite is the OG of social media management and their market is largely small to medium-sized businesses. This platform has been around since social media started making positive traction in the marketing space and it’s evolved with the times. There are a few other solutions in this space but Hootsuite still offers great integrations, analytics to keep you on top of your channels, and the ability to quickly identify influencers in your space. The interface is also clean and easy to use.
TweetDeckTweetDeck is another social media management system and the interface is similar to Hootsuite. However, you can’t integrate other social media platforms to your TweetDeck — it only works for Twitter. This can be an option if you need to update multiple Twitter profiles and keep track of their individual analytics. If, for instance, one of the services you offered clients was guest posting on Twitter, you could easily cut time to manage multiple accounts with TweetDeck.
BufferBuffer is a newer social media management tool that allows you to easily view all of your social media campaigns in one, handy location. Team members can be given access to different areas of the management tool. For instance, some members may be granted access to post while others may need approval before posts go live. You can schedule your future posts so that you’re always timely and don’t wind up with a cluster of activity at once. Buffer has a clean desktop and offers easy to understand reporting and analytics features to keep all of your social media outreach campaigns organized and transparent.
BambuBambu is the first of its kind employee advocacy social media platform. This application allows companies to utilize their best marketing tool — their employees. When employees are your advocate, they amplify your brand and message with a higher degree of loyalty and trust than the company profile could ever achieve. Bambu allows you to curate and share content with employees that they can then pass on to their own social networks. Marketers can ensure employees are armed with the right messages about your brand to share with their networks.
Sprout SocialSprout Social is an expensive social media management solution but it’s well worth the investment. This solution brings social media professionals the best analytics and tools to find influencers fast. The interface is easy to navigate and all of the tools available through this management solution help to wrangle the ever-growing list of social media tasks and analytics. You can plan clear social media strategies and benchmark progress across multiple channels.
Content Marketing Platforms
ScribbleLiveScribbleLive brings you content that does exactly what you want it to do — engage. This cloud-based provider handles the whole range of content management responsibilities so that your company can reap the rewards of excellent execution. Services include ideation, content creation, publication, and measurement. The customer’s entire journey through your content marketing funnel can be streamlined. They specialize in content strategy, management, and creation, as well as the IT services to give you the full value of your analytics. This software solution is ideal for medium to large businesses.
SkywordSkyword offers an interesting content creation solution for large brands and creatives alike. This content marketing solution lets enterprise-level companies with heavy content needs schedule their content, find talent to work on their projects, and works with them to create the best SEO and content strategies to capture their brand and engage their audience. For freelance talent, the platform offers the ability to work with some of the biggest and most well-known brands, as well as collaborating with amazing talent.
NewsCredNewsCred is a content marketing platform. They offer access to a large marketplace of licensed content from some of the world’s leading publishers. They boast a deep team of content creators with a wide range of experience and accolades. Organizations using NewsCred have the unique advantage of being able to work with leading experts to round out their team, from ideation through publication.
ContentlyContently is a content management tool that acts as your personal content manager. They offer a streamlined interface and all of the tools you need to take your content marketing strategy from ideation through ROI. Contently’s method of content creation combines art and science. Clients have access to all of the analytics and tools to help create their creation schedule, find their team of talent, collaborate effectively, and optimize the process. Services include account management, strategy, content creation, and editorial. For businesses and content creation professionals, contently provides an excellent way to build a team that brings amazing projects to fruition.
ClearVoiceClearVoice is a content marketing platform built as a software solution. For clients, that means that they have access to tools that let them manage their content creation from strategy through production and reporting. ClearVoice focuses on great customer service, transparency, and the ability to help clients build a team of great freelance talent to create their content. For writers and content creators, ClearVoice offers the ability to work with a wide range of companies for a good, professional rate.
StoryChiefStoryChief is billed as an all in one content collaboration and distribution tool, and that’s what they do really well. Businesses and bloggers can build their team, use the platform to co-create content, plan their strategy, schedule their publishing calendar, and publish on multiple platforms right from the site. They also have access to all of the analytics on each of their publishing channels, so they have a clear overview of how well content is performing in all of the places they’ve published. StoryChief also offers a matching service to find the best freelance talent to work on their upcoming projects.
One SpotOne Spot, as the name suggests, is an all in one marketing solution. One Spot has the goal of individualization — making sure that your content and message is personalized for your audience. They take all of the data from your current content and your past visitors and analyze it. Then they offer a range of services to help you customize your message on your website, through email campaigns, and in every interaction with your ideal customer.
PercolatePercolate is a content marketing platform where companies can organize and launch their marketing processes. It’s geared for medium-sized and large businesses, and they work as a software solution that offers a streamlined interface and a way to easily communicate with all team members from inception to delivery to analytics. They offer other services, such as project management, brand management, and business intelligence to help teams develop the best strategy to move their marketing initiatives forward and hit benchmarks. They also offer great integration to commonly used software solutions, such as Microsoft Office 365 and Salesforce.
PathFactoryPathFactory isn’t your run-of-the-mill content marketing platform. Its ideal clients are marketing organizations, not businesses. Of course, the end goal is to create great content and ROI for the end marketing organization’s client. PathFactory’s goal is to help marketing organizations hit all the right notes to bring their clients the ROI they need, with transparent reporting that allows them to understand their progress. With content insights that allow marketers to understand the full picture and the ability to offer clients a clear view of their end-user engagement.
ContentMXContentMX is a platform that acts as a marketing agency, taking your content from creation through conversion. Content creation includes blog posts, email blasts, and other marketing collateral to increase engagement and improve your reach. The platform helps clients find the right original content, curate content, and publish to multiple channels with ease. All of these efforts are backed up with robust reporting to allow you to see the progress your initiatives are making in the market.
KredKlout was a platform along the same lines as Kred but Klout has since ceased to exist. Making Kred the only platform out there that shows you what your online reputation is, how different actions or engagements impact you, and how to leverage yourself as an expert. In short, Kred helps you build your online reputation to gain a higher influencer rating. You can also use Kred to connect with other influencers. This tool offers you a wealth of information to help build your brand and improve your business standing and professional reputation.
SmartlingSmartling is a cloud-based translation software, allowing businesses better access to compete on a world stage without the obstacle of language. Their translation services are automated, making the process quick and easy to keep companies on schedule. They offer translations in over 150 languages across many industries. Assets that they translate include website content, video subtitles, product documentation, email content, and mobile apps.
Attribution
TealiumTealium IQ and other products are made for developers but easy enough for non-technical people to understand and utilize. Their system offers great flexibility in creating and using tags and using extensions. The software allows users to connect all of their data across any of the individual silos so that their teams can function together with access to information in real time. Telium offers a tag management system that’s well rated and simple to use.
EnsightenEnsighten Manage uses a tag management solution to help create a better omnichannel experience for clients and their customers. Their technology is easy enough to use to be managed by non-technical users but the system allows for enough flexibility to include options to use custom coding for programmers and more IT advanced clients. Their tag management solutions allow larger companies the ability to break through the silos dividing their data.
Google Tag ManagerGoogle’s Tag Manager is the most popular tag management system. It’s free to use for anyone with a Google Account, which of course, is also free. Using the tag management system allows you to easily set up tags and track usage on your website based on the variables and triggers you arrange. Your tag manager can replace the manually coded tags, making setup and use far easier for marketers.
UTMUTM offers a great way to organize, build, and track links. There is a free version available that gives you a 30-day history on your dashboard, 3 UTM templates and allows for 1 project. The free version is the better idea for beginners and those who want to test out the process. UTM also offers a free Google Chrome Extension for all of its users. The price ranges from $0 to $149 per month, with different plans available for team sizes. The highest plan works well for agencies with a large selection of templates and space for up to 50 separate projects.
JumpshotJumpshot offers a global panel of 100 million devices. This analytics company offers more than your average data – they provide a snapshot view of data collected over a 12-month period, including user actions everywhere online, even behind the walled areas that are more difficult to track. They specialize in providing insights for brands and eCommerce sites and campaign optimization. It’s not just about the data they’ve collected, it’s about how they help you use it to improve your marketing strategy.
Insights
Adobe AnalyticsAdobe Analytics is customizable so that nearly any size company can use the analytics to their benefit – small, medium, and enterprise level. It’s available in the Adobe Marketing Cloud. This solution provides real-time data, letting you see a fuller picture of your customer’s actions. You can organize all of the data in easy to read reporting options to analyze metrics and give you better predictive insights. You can clearly see the customer journey through your sales funnel and pick out areas to be improved and those which work well.
CrazyeggCrazyegg gives you an alternative way to view your analytics with their heatmap tool. Basically, a heatmap tool measures the clicks or areas where users interact with your website and it highlights those areas based on the amount of interaction. Red areas would be the parts with your reader clicks with greater frequency. Crazyegg also lets you view video of people using your site, so you get a better idea of engagement. The reporting features here are interesting, as well, with confetti reporting and reports showing which elements on your page received more clicks.
Google AnalyticsGoogle Analytics is well-known and possibly the most used type of business intelligence application. It is easier to understand for those who work with data or have a marketing background. Novices or beginners may need to take some tutorials in order to learn how to create and set up their Google Analytics to capture the data they need. It is a robust tool once you’re educated on how to use it. It’s also free to use for anyone with a Google Account.
Google Webmaster ToolsGoogle Webmaster Tools is a free resource and one you should definitely take advantage of. You do have to verify your site with Google first and it unlocks all of the data you need to get a great overview of performance and analytics. The downside here is that it does not provide you any information on competitors, though you can use other options for that. Webmaster Tools also gives you access to resources that help make your site better.
KissmetricsKissmetrics is a tool built for marketers and to help marketers understand their visitor response to improve conversion. They make it easy to onboard onto their platform, offering integration with many of the eCommerce solutions companies typically use. The system allows you to track visitors individually and as a group through the entire sales funnel. This gives you an instant view of visitor reactions to different marketing campaigns and offerings so you can quickly change direction or increase effort, depending on the data.
MixpanelMixpanel is an analytics company that helps businesses gather and understand their data. They offer a plethora of tools to help target communication with customers and track website and mobile app use. They also offer A/B testing features and their reporting features help companies better measure the customer journey, from anonymous traffic through conversion.
QualarooIf you want to understand your customer’s wants and pain points, there’s no better way than to ask them. Qualaroo software lets companies design and launch their own surveys to gain better insights into their market. The interface is user-friendly and surveys are easy to set up and launch. Once surveys are completed, you can create a full report to give better data on your customer and your company as a whole.
Google Mobile Site AnalysisThis tool gives website owners the chance to see how their site performs on mobile. Running the test is simple – type in the URL and you’ll get a full report which includes a screenshot of your site, your test score, and a list of errors. This tool is completely free and is a Google product so it’s already geared for their ranking and search. If you haven’t been testing your site on multiple devices, this is a good way to verify that all of your coding works well and is responsive across mobile devices.
SimpleReachSimpleReach is a platform that lets companies measure and improve their content ROI. It’s not enough to produce great content. Great is subjective. This company seeks to help clients produce content that meets their goals. SimpleReach meets these challenges by offering tools that measure the actual impact of content, providing clear proof of the engagement, and giving companies real ROI on their effort so that they can confidently repeat successes and eradicate the types of content that don’t perform.
Tracking/Reporting
AdStageAdStage gives you a platform to easily compile all of your analytics across every channel in one handy location. This solution eliminates the amount of time it takes most marketers to compile data across multiple platforms. It gives you the ability to integrate your data with PPC advertising, paid social, and other web analytics and is compatible with SalesForce and Google Analytics. For marketers and the business owners who need to see the real ROI from all of their marketing efforts, AdStage removes the barriers.
ReportzIf you’re having a problem compiling your data into reports that are actually useful, Reportz was made for your business. Reports can take hours of time to compile when your data is located in different platforms and on various spreadsheets. Manually manipulating data leads to errors and even when the reports are dead accurate, they can often go unused or underutilized. Reportz offers a white label reporting tool that agencies can use to gather data from multiple places. This allows you to automate the reporting process and organize it in a way that’s actionable for you and your clients.
SqueezeCMMAimed at B2B marketers, SqueezeCMM specializes in helping you track information across multiple channels throughout the buyer journey. Today’s digital landscape offers a lot of different channels and actions. Traditional analytics can miss the mark by not capturing all of the pertinent data to help build accurate buyer personas and content marketing strategies that meet your benchmark needs. SqueezeCMM promises to grab that data so that you have access to insights you might traditionally miss.
TrackMavenTrackMaven is a marketing analytics company that helps its clients understand the customer base and their competition to improve their placement in the market. Recently, they’ve announced a partnership with Skyword which may mean some interesting new rollouts in the content marketing space. The idea behind TrackMaven’s software is to tie all of the channels together — social listening, website analytics, influencer marketing, SEO and organic traffic, etc. This allows their users to build a full picture of their customer and the current trends in the industry to stay in front of the competition.
WebtrendsIf you want the most ROI from your Sharepoint investment, WebTrends promises the analytics muscle and ease in reporting you need to connect all of the dots. The platform boasts many features that help you get a better idea of your customer base, letting you segment them by demographic and purchasing patterns. Overall, WebTrends can help you put together all of the analytics from each channel to guarantee that you don’t miss useful insights when guiding your strategy. WebTrends also focuses on improving the implementation of SharePoint and using it to its full potential.
WoopraWoopra is an analytics software solution and it makes a pretty good argument as to why it surpasses Google Analytics. While Woopra is not free, it does have some great features which are missing from other analytics programs. You can use Woopra to see an individual picture of users, track those user activities, and follow them through your sales funnel. Woopra also allows for a real-time view of your analytics and it’s easy to use. Woopra also integrates with many of the commonly used marketing systems, making consolidating and using your data much easier.
Google Page Speed InsightIf you have properties online, you understand exactly how important your website response time is for your visitors. This is true across any device and Google has followed suit by including speed in ranking sites on their search. This free tool offers you the ability to check your speed on multiple devices. It’s recommended that you stay on top of your site’s loading speed for Google ranking but it also makes good sense to keep your site accessible for your own customer base.
Google Mobile Site AnalysisThis tool gives website owners the chance to see how their site performs on mobile. Running the test is simple – type in the URL and you’ll get a full report which includes a screenshot of your site, your test score, and a list of errors. This tool is completely free and is a Google product so it’s already geared for their ranking and search. If you haven’t been testing your site on multiple devices, this is a good way to verify that all of your coding works well and is responsive across mobile devices.
SeoRadarSEO Radar does exactly what the name sounds like – it monitors your SEO and sends out an alarm when something is off. You can’t just set your SEO and leave it alone. Changes occur to your site and in the digital landscape all the time. This program sends you alerts so that you can see changes your competitors have made, new reviews about your products, and errors surrounding the tags and SEO on your site. If you want to stay current on everything that impacts your site and how your site performs, SEO Radar can help.
WoorankWoorank is an SEO website analysis tool that lets you in-depth reviews on your website. Run reports that give you key and specific insights as to what is working and where you need to make changes. You can view your online visibility, understand changes, and even run a competitive analysis to see where you stack up against others in your market position. You can also judge how well your site ranks and how user-friendly your site is by looking at key details in your reporting. It provides excellent insights to improve your SEO strategy.
Marketing Automation
EloquaEloqua is the cloud-based marketing automation solution created by Oracle. Its key customer base is B2B marketers, giving them excellent tools to track their customer journey throughout the cycle. Because it’s cloud-based, all team members who have access can see real-time data to drive their current and future strategies and make changes as new information becomes available. The system allows marketers to track campaigns and view individual pictures of set channels or a whole picture of the entire marketing strategy.
HubSpotEveryone in any aspect of marketing has either heard of or tried out HubSpot. It’s the most used software by marketers and it offers a full range of software for sales, marketing, and customer service. The free CRM tools allow marketers and small businesses to better track their customer journey and fine-tune communications to build better customer loyalty and engagement. Their solutions integrate with blogging and social media campaigns making them all in one place analytic capabilities advantageous. HubSpot is also easy to learn and use, providing great features with a lower than average training time.
Act-OnAct-On makes a marketing automation software that’s excellent for companies looking to maximize their lead generation efforts with less time and effort. Their marketing automation suite allows users to integrate their CRM, social media, search marketing, and email marketing campaigns in a seamless way that cuts a lot of time out of trying to analyze data from separate channels. As the name suggests, building in these easy connections lets your sales and marketing teams act on new developments quickly, because opportunity is really just the meeting of timing and preparation.
InfusionsoftInfusionsoft offers a suite solution for small businesses to grow their customer base and profits. The software includes customer relationship management, eCommerce tools, and marketing automation. This solution is aimed at helping small businesses bridge the gaps to compete on a larger scale, allowing them to save time in compiling data and the ability to use that data advantageously to engage current and future customers. This tool puts the pieces together, from email marketing campaigns that offer personalized communication to eCommerce solutions that range from inventory to invoice. Infusionsoft is a great option for small businesses with big goals for growth.
Active CampaignFewer emails and better results – who could argue with that? ActiveCampaign is a Chicago based company that’s bringing together marketing, sales, CRM, messaging, and email marketing so that their clients can get a full spectrum of where their contacts are and how best to engage them. Their dashboard is easy to use and their tools offer a lot of value. The automation features here are stellar, allowing companies to automatically follow up with personalized email and messaging in response to individual customer actions. Their reporting features are also spot on, making data more understandable and, more importantly, actionable.
MarketoMarketo boasts that it an all in one solution – one platform, all channels, and every engagement. It’s a great system designed for companies that are midside up to large. This marketing automation tool lets you create seamless workflows and monitor your engagement every step of the way. All team members with access can see directly where each channel and contact stands. The interface is clean and easy to use with clearly discernable labeling, making this system easier to train on and master than other marketing automation solutions. Marketo integrates well with other CRM and marketing software, such as Salesforce, allowing companies to use both powerhouse solutions together.
PardotPardot is one of the pricier B2B marketing automation solutions, but there’s a good reason for that. It’s rated as one of the best in the industry and the tools and applications are well-thought-out. Pardot offers social media management tools, CRM tools, and search management. The automation is robust, allowing marketers to use their time in propelling new campaigns rather than gathering data and other manual responsibilities that this system easily accomplishes. Pardot makes it simple for users to compile accurate history on users, from general to individual, making retargeting and future communications far more effective. The engagement studio lets users automate the process further with easy to use tools and a great ability to drive conversion.
ThriveHiveThriveHive is made for the small to medium-sized businesses. Their customer base is largely those business owners who are thriving but can’t afford a full service marketing department in house. ThriveHive specializes in helping these clients climb the marketing mountain by giving them easy to use software that breaks down the mystery of their marketing strategy. ThriveHive provides marketing automation that helps businesses secure more leads, build better email and social media campaigns, and improve their customer retention. They also help small businesses run analytics and understand their robust reporting features to improve processes on a regular basis. ThriveHive delivers excellent tools to help smaller companies grow.
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Who’s Attending CMC and What Are They Saying
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CMC is worth every minute and investment of time and attention. Start planning for next year's early; you'll be submerged into a pool of networking, priceless business growth ideas and exceptional mentoring.
Deborah-Lynn Senger
Senger Financial Recovery Service
Deborah-Lynn Senger
Senger Financial Recovery Service
Truly enlightening. Tons of great, insightful speakers giving actionable tips and highlighting great content marketing hacks.
Jackie Jaquez
Marketing Manager, Pioneer Infotech
Jackie Jaquez
Marketing Manager, Pioneer Infotech
An excellent conference all-around that provided both novices and, for those already engaged in content marketing, deep insights and actionable strategies to achieve success.
Amit Vyas
CEO, Company Nexa, Dubai
Amit Vyas
CEO, Company Nexa, Dubai
Good insight and valuable tips that are not necessarily available in the public domain yet.
Stehen Turcotte
Stehen Turcotte
Year after year, CMC has proven to be an eye-opening, and hilarious, event, for speakers, attendees, and sponsors. Byron and the team understand the importance of selecting the best speakers and keynotes, and creating an environment for them to perform at the top of their game. From production to promotion to entertainment, CMC is tops on the list of marketing conferences, and one of my favorites.
Andrew Tarvin
CMC Keynote and Author of Humor That Works
Andrew Tarvin
CMC Keynote and Author of Humor That Works