All the digital marketing tools marketers should use

Wondering which digital marketing tools live up to the hype? Here’s your definitive list of the best marketing tools to trial today. 

Planning your brand’s digital marketing? Want to optimise, well, everything? This is where you start, with Vamp’s ultimate list of digital marketing tools to help you find the perfect fit for your marketing, brand, and campaigns. 

What are digital marketing tools?

Digital marketing tools come in so many different flavours and functionalities that you can pick and choose tools to help you achieve your goals easily and effectively. These tools are designed to help you execute a solid strategy, build a strong technology stack, speed up your processes, and make admin a lot easier. 

What are the types of marketing tools?

There are several different types of digital marketing tools, but the most common help you with: 

• Analytics, 
• Communications
• SEO
• Paid search
• Social
• Automation 
• Artificial intelligence (AI) 
• Email
• Project management
• Campaigns 
• Audits
• Influencer marketing. 

It’s quite a list, but many of the leading tools include a lot of these features in one accessible package. 

Best digital marketing tools

Best digital marketing analytics tools:

• Buzzsumo – the smart and highly agile social media analytics tool
• Google Analytics – the clever and stable analytics tool that can be customised to suit your needs

Best digital marketing communication:

• Slack – the easy access, quick to customise platform. It has a free option and has won many admirers
•  Trello – this digital communication platform offers plenty of tools and services to make life easier for marketing teams

Best digital marketing SEO tools:

• SEMrush – capable, stable, and with an excellent reputation, this is the SEO digital marketing tool you need to get on top of your SEO
• Ahrefs – also coming in with a spectacular reputation, Ahrefs brings tonnes of functionality to your SEO management

Best paid search and social digital marketing tools:

• Google Ads Editor – this does what it says on the tin; it gets your paid search sorted for Google
• Bing Ads Editor – this is just as capable as the above and allows for rich customisation

Best automation tools that make digital marketing sing:

• Hubspot – still one of the most agile and feature-rich platforms around, HubSpot has almost everything in one place
• Moosend – a fresh and vibrant automation solution that offers segmentation, personalisation, automation, and ease of use all in one space

Best AI digital marketing tools:

• Jasper.ai – from the minds behind ChatGPT, there is Jasper, a smart digital marketing tool that comes with a lot of extra AI-powered functionality
• Smartwriter.ai – you can use this tool to manage a lot of your content generation, automation, and planning

Best influencer marketing tool:

• Vamp – there really is only one choice here. Vamp brings all your creator interactions together on one single (award-winning) platform. You can use it to find influencers, set goals, manage paid media, and a whole lot more

Analytics tools for digital marketing 

There are lots of different tools designed to help you with analytics for digital marketing, so we’ve just highlighted the top five as they’re proven to be reliable, have great features, and will absolutely save you time. 

1. Whatagraph – this tool helps you create really beautiful reports from all your different data sources so that anyone can read and understand your insights. It’s easy to use, accessible, and versatile
2. Kissmetrics – this digital marketing tool helps you to track visitors to your website so you can create more holistic views of your customer journeys
3. Google Analytics – everyone knows this platform. Google Analytics offers really rich insights into website traffic, trends, patterns, and reporting across your digital marketing efforts
4. Salesforce Marketing Cloud Intelligence – this used to be known as Datorama but is now under the Salesforce umbrella and providing really rich and capable business intelligence and analytics tools. It’s very comprehensive and includes a lot of impressive functionality
5. Buzzsumo – this tool is primarily for social media analytics, but it’s got such a solid foundation and great reputation that it deserves its spot in the top five analytics tools for digital marketing. Stable and packed with tasty functionality, it’s a solid bet for digital marketers that engage extensively with social media

Digital marketing communications tools 

These are the top five digital marketing communication tools that should be sitting on your digital radar right now: 

1. Slack – well known, trusted, capable, and very customisable with plenty of integrations with other tools, Slack makes communication across multiple platforms, teams, silos, and locations very easy indeed
2. Asana – this tool has its quirks and isn’t for everyone, but those who love it, really do love it. Designed to enhance teamwork and communication across silos, teams, and deadlines, Asana has everything a digital marketing team needs to stay in touch and stay ahead
3. Trello – the lists, the boards, the colour-schemes, these all combine to make Trello a very popular communication tool for digital marketing teams. It’s easy to use and customise, and has plenty of extra features to make it a worthwhile investment
4. Monday.com – not to be confused with the day that we dread, this platform is designed to redefine both communication and time management

Digital marketing SEO tools

If you want to optimise, track, manage, and control your SEO, then these are the five tools that you need to put on your radar right now:

1. Screaming Frog – chosen not just because it has the best name in the business, Screaming Frog brings advanced SEO audit and management tools designed to help you improve the ways in which you use and enhance your SEO
2. SEMrush – like Slack, SEMrush comes in both free and paid flavours, so you can try it out before you invest in the full package. The tool offers a lot of value in terms of keyword and competitor ranking as well as insight into keyword research and SEO strategy
3. Ahrefs – this tool is considered one of the most invaluable on the market when it comes to keyword ideas and ranking opportunities. The functionality is relatively easy to use and you can leverage it to build a really strong SEO strategy
4. All in One SEO (AIOSEO) – designed as a plug-in for WordPress sites, this tool comes with plenty of SEO optimisation tools and features that can be used to refine your SEO. Its biggest limitation is that it’s exclusively for WordPress
5. Clearscope – with Clearscope you can optimise your SEO within your existing content and improve how you take advantage of keywords to improve your visibility and traction

Paid search and social tools

The paid search and digital marketing tools that stand out today are:

1.   Google Ads Editor – again, Google steps up as a trusty ally in the digital marketing space with this handy (and free) tool for managing your Google Ads campaigns. It is platform specific, but it’s also very well designed and feature rich
2.   Bing Ads Editor – this ads editor is exclusively for paid search and digital marketing on Bing. It’s very capable, easy to use, and comes with solid functionality
3. AdEspresso – giving your paid search a shot of caffeine, this tool has strong functionality that you can use to manage split testing, gain audience insights, and more. It is, however, specifically for Facebook ads, so it’s fine tuned to meet very specific platform needs
4. Revealbot – both an automation and paid ad management tool, Revealbot operates across Facebook, Instagram, Google, and Snapchat. It has advanced features and customisation options and is well suited to drive big digital marketing campaigns
5. SEMrush – this tool slides into this category because the platform offers analysis tools for paid search as well as for SEO optimisation

Automation tools for digital marketing

Want to take advantage of automation and free up your digital marketing life? Then these five are for you:

1. MailChimp – MailChimp has been around for a while and as a result, it delivers exceptional email marketing automation capabilities
2. HubSpot – this platform has multiple tiers, layers, functions, and services, and it’s possibly one of the most ubiquitous on the market. You can use it to automate almost anything, which makes it a digital marketer’s dream
3. Campaign Monitor – this web-based application helps you to manage newsletters, emails, and automated communication journeys using some smart tools that are easy to understand and optimise
4. ConvertKit – if you want really in-depth and juicy automation that helps you to build challenging campaigns with ease, then ConvertKit is a solid and reliable choice. It comes with advanced tools and automation capabilities that are user-friendly and highly customisable
5. Moosend – winning the prize for the best named product in this category, Moosend also wins for its all-in-one functionality, solid pricing structure, smart customisation tools, and superb segmentation and personalisation options

AI tools for digital marketing

Want to find out more about how your digital marketing can benefit from the world of artificial intelligence? Look no further than these five solutions:

1. Smartwriter.ai – looking to automate your email, your personalisation, your content, and your outreach with intelligent content written by a machine? Then click on Smartwriter.ai. While this isn’t going to win awards for content, it will win you time as it handles everything for you
2. Optimove – you can use the AI in Optimove to map out your customer relationship management (CRM) journeys as it uses your data to create a cohesive picture of your customers and business
3. MarketMuse – this platform uses AI for everything, that’s its unique selling proposition. It uses AI to research, write, create content briefs, and edit. You just give it direction and it will do the rest
4. Jasper.ai – this platform used to be known as Conversion.ai and it creates copy for ads, emails, articles, social media, and more. It was developed by the same minds behind ChatGPT – OpenAI – and has some impressive capabilities for the digital marketer
5. Chatfuel – this AI-driven chatbot will help you to manage leads and customer interactions to reduce churn and sales agent loads. It can be easily integrated into some of the most well-known platforms on the market, including Google, Shopify, and Calendly

Digital marketing tools have evolved considerably over the past few years with many offering multiple capabilities. Every tool mentioned here has multiple functionalities that can be used by digital marketers to refine their processes and optimise their workloads. When you’re creating your omni-channel marketing campaigns or planning your social media strategy, you can use these tools to make your life easier and more efficient.

Assessing digital marketing tools’ prices & ROI

When evaluating digital marketing tools, it’s essential to consider both their cost and potential ROI. For instance, Google Analytics is free, offering a robust suite of tools without any cost, making it an excellent choice for budget-conscious businesses.

On the other hand, HubSpot’s pricing starts at $50 per month but can go up significantly depending on your needs. Despite the higher cost, HubSpot offers advanced features that could lead to a higher ROI if fully utilized. Similarly, SEMrush starts at $119.95 per month, offering deep insights into SEO and competitive analysis, which can drive significant ROI if used effectively.

Best Tools for Small Businesses or Startups

For small businesses or startups, tools that offer great value at a lower cost are ideal. Google Analytics and Google Search Console are must-haves as they are free and provide essential data on website performance and search visibility. Canva is also a fantastic option, with a free version that offers plenty of design capabilities suitable for social media and marketing materials.

Mailchimp provides a free tier for email marketing, allowing businesses to manage up to 2,000 contacts without any charges. As your business grows, consider upgrading to more advanced tools like Buffer for social media scheduling (starting at $6 per month) and Hootsuite, which starts at $19 per month, providing more comprehensive social media management features.

Integration and Compatibility of Digital Marketing Tools

While using multiple digital marketing tools, seamless integration is vital to ensure efficiency and data accuracy. Tools like Zapier can help automate and integrate different platforms, but be aware of potential challenges such as data silos or software incompatibility. Carefully review each tool’s integration capabilities to ensure they align with your existing systems.

Next up

Find out the best social media monitoring tools on the market today, check out the top social media management tools, and request a demo to kickstart your next influencer marketing campaign. Want more in depth guidance? Well…

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