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Putting together the right digital marketing tools is essential for small businesses. Especially, the automation tools can be of great help for startups aiming to boost their marketing efforts.
It may seem possible to handle most tasks manually, but doing so likely compromises productivity, quality, and, most critically, time. With a small workforce and a limited budget, maximizing your efforts in a shorter period can significantly increase your chances of business growth.
This is exactly the purpose of prioritizing marketing tools for small businesses. Tools designed to manage daily business operations can enhance productivity by automating repetitive and mundane tasks.
They allow your team to dedicate more time to strategic, results-oriented activities.
Here are some essential marketing tools for startups that everyone must know.
Best Marketing Tools for Startups
Let’s create an effective marketing tech stack for businesses looking to achieve success in this competitive digital arena.
Marketing Analytics Tools
Marketing analytics tools provide valuable insights into your marketing activities. They enable you to identify successful strategies so you can enhance them and modify anything that isn’t performing well.
Pricing: Completely free
Among free tools, Google Analytics stands out as a strong and effective option. Numerous businesses utilize this tool as it offers a remarkable amount of depth and adaptability essential for refining marketing strategies.
The benefits include:
- Tracking website traffic, user behavior, and conversion rates.
- Establishing custom conversion events to evaluate specific user actions that are important for your business.
- Monitoring the impact of your marketing efforts on revenue.
- Examining traffic sources to determine where your visitors originate from.
- Generating tailored reports to concentrate on the metrics that matter most to you.
- Integrating seamlessly with other Google products like Google Ads and Search Console.
The most appreciated thing about Google Analytics is its ability to adapt to your unique business requirements. The custom conversion events enable you to track everything from newsletter registrations to product purchases, providing you with a clear understanding of user interactions on your site.
For businesses operating on a tight budget with no means to invest in a more extensive automated tool, Google Analytics will supply most of what you require.
[Also read: A Beginner’s Guide to Google Analytics 4 for SMBs]
Pricing: A free plan allows for up to 35 daily sessions, with paid options beginning at $32 per month.
Hotjar shows how visitors engage with your website, eliminating uncertainty about the user experience.
The benefits include:
- Generating heatmaps that display where users click, move, and scroll on your pages.
- Recording user sessions to observe exactly how they navigate your site.
- Gathering user input via surveys and polls to pinpoint pain points.
- Establishing funnels to detect where users abandon the conversion process.
The most exciting feature about Hotjar is its combination of quantitative data and qualitative insights. The heatmaps and recordings illustrate user actions, while the feedback tools clarify the reasons behind those actions.
It’s a valuable tool for businesses across various sectors.
SEO(Search Engine Optimization) Tools
SEO goes beyond just satisfying search engines; it’s about enhancing your visibility to connect with individuals searching for your business offerings.
However, search engine optimization can resemble a complicated puzzle, especially when managing other marketing channels. The appropriate SEO marketing tools can assist you in understanding search engines’ ranking algorithms and determining where to concentrate your efforts.
Pricing: Completely free
Google Search Console is designed to help you comprehend and enhance your site’s performance in Google search results. It is an ideal tool to assess how well your blog posts rank and which search terms direct traffic to your site.
The benefits include:
- Viewing which queries lead visitors to your site.
- Determining which pages are performing effectively (and which are not) in search results.
- Identifying and resolving technical problems that may be undermining your site’s performance.
- Submitting new content for indexing to accelerate its appearance in search results.
What else?
Google Search Console consistently sends emails to users to help them track their progress. Additionally, it is beneficial to see which pages are experiencing the fastest growth.
Pricing: Ubersuggest offers a free plan with limited daily searches and basic features. Paid plans start at $6/month.
Originally created by Neil Patel, Ubersuggest is a popular and user-friendly content and SEO marketing tool that helps you drive more traffic to your website. While it’s commonly known for keyword research and content planning, it also offers valuable features for competitor research and SEO insights, which are crucial for any marketing strategy.
The benefits include:
- Discovering content ideas based on trending keywords and topics from Google and social media platforms.
- Analyzing top-performing competitors’ content to replicate and improve on what works.
- Tracking social media shares of blog posts to identify what resonates with your audience.
- Creating better, SEO-friendly content that is also optimized for social engagement.
Ubersuggest is especially useful for small businesses looking to align their keyword and content strategies with SEO best practices. The free version covers a lot of ground, and its paid plans are extremely budget-friendly.
Pricing: There is a free plan available, with paid plans starting at $49 per month.
Moz continuously stands out as the top SEO marketing tool because of its user-friendly interface and remarkable features, some of which are even available (within a limited monthly usage) on the free plan.
The benefits include:
- Discovering keywords that can help you identify impactful search terms to focus on.
- Monitoring your website’s keyword rankings.
- Evaluating your site to identify and resolve technical SEO problems.
- Examining backlinks to see who is linking to your site.
- Receiving on-page optimization recommendations for your content.
While Moz provides functionality similar to its competitors, Ahrefs and Semrush, the starting price for Ahrefs’ and Semrush’s paid plans is higher ($129 per month and $139 per month, respectively), making Moz a more attainable choice for many small businesses.
Additionally, Moz excels in delivering educational content. Their webinars and SEO guides serve as fantastic resources for anyone looking to enhance their SEO understanding and explore the latest trends.
Pricing: The plan begins at $45 per month.
Frase is a tool for content optimization that assists you in crafting SEO-friendly long-form pillar content that performs well in search engine rankings. It distinguishes itself because of its cost-effectiveness and versatility.
The benefits include:
- Examining the SERP to understand the characteristics of articles currently ranking for your desired keywords.
- Creating content briefs that outline your blogs.
- Enhancing content with pertinent keywords.
- An optional AI writing feature for additional support in content creation.
Frase offers very simple, easy-to-use features, making it effortless to analyze top-ranking content and verify that the blog covers all essential elements.
[Also read: Why SEO Automation is a Must for Small Businesses?]
Email Marketing Tools
After identifying new potential customers through various marketing channels, you’ll need a method to maintain direct communication with your audience, enabling you to develop deeper relationships and gather first-party data for personalization.
Email marketing can assist you in nurturing leads, upholding existing customer relationships, and driving conversions through personalized, direct communication.
These tools can help you a lot:
Pricing: There is a free plan available. Paid plans for the Marketing Hub begin at $15 per user per month but can become expensive as you include more contacts and features.
HubSpot stands out as an effective marketing tool for B2B SaaS companies that aim to manage their client relationships alongside email marketing.
The benefits include:
- Merging customer relationship management (CRM) and email marketing functionalities for thorough lead management.
- Designing and deploying email marketing campaigns for a streamlined process.
- Monitoring interactions, from website visits to email engagement, for a comprehensive understanding of lead behavior.
- Automating email series based on lead actions and attributes.
- Linking marketing efforts to sales results via comprehensive reporting features.
Hubspot helps in segmenting your list based on any data point found in your CRM. However, if you’re new to marketing automation platforms, the learning curve can be significant due to HubSpot’s extensive capabilities.
Pricing: Klaviyo offers a free plan for up to 250 contacts and 500 monthly email sends. Paid plans start at $45 per month for email-only services or $60 per month for both email and SMS.
This email marketing tool is designed specifically for online shops and integrates with major e-commerce platforms. If you operate an e-commerce business, you’re likely familiar with Klaviyo. It has been a preferred email marketing solution for online retail stores for years.
The benefits include:
- Creating segments, setting up automated flows, and tracking revenue effects with a highly simplified and efficient process.
- Sending personalized emails and SMS based on customer interaction history.
- Analyzing the impact of email and SMS marketing campaigns with the help of its super comprehensive analytics.
Klaviyo focuses on online retail, which makes it unique from other email marketing tools.
Pricing: Mailchimp offers a free email-only plan for up to 500 contacts. Paid subscriptions start at $13 per month.
Mailchimp is often the go-to choice when discussing email marketing tools due to its flexibility and accessibility for emerging businesses.
The benefits include:
- Customizing signup forms and landing pages to assist list-building.
- Automating emails and segmenting your audience for personalized communication.
- Easy-to-use interface and a wide range of features to boost email marketing campaigns.
With Mailchimp, businesses can even design multiple email sequences on the free plan. No doubt, it offers all the essential features that any business may require in their email marketing campaigns. Also, its subscription is very cost-effective, ideal for small to mid-sized businesses.
Social Media Management Tools
Social media management is essential for small businesses aiming to compete well in their industry. By any chance, if you’re overlooking social media, it might negatively impact your business growth and even revenues.
These social media tools help you maintain a consistent social media presence and evaluate your content performance.
Pricing: A free plan is offered, with paid options beginning at $5 per month for each channel.
Buffer is a go-to social media management tool for businesses aiming to refine their social media strategy. It enables them to handle online presence, allowing them to publish consistently based on a schedule they set, which can enhance engagement.
The benefits include:
- Collecting and arranging all your social media concepts in the Create space.
- Planning and scheduling completed posts in your social queue.
- Generating ideas, content repurposing, and refining posts to perfection with the help of an AI assistant.
Buffer’s Start Page enables you to craft professional link-in-bio landing pages quickly.
Monitor and respond to comments on Facebook and Instagram through a streamlined dashboard that automatically highlights urgent comments.
Buffer truly excels for small businesses, independent entrepreneurs, and creators who want to simplify their social media efforts without being overwhelmed by intricate features. It strikes the ideal balance between functionality and ease of use — just what you need to enhance your social media presence without the stress.
Pricing: Hootsuite offers a free 30-day trial. After that, paid plans start at $99/month for one user and 10 social accounts.
Hootsuite is one of the most comprehensive and established social media management tools out there. It allows small businesses to schedule posts, monitor social conversations, manage multiple platforms, and analyze performance — all in one dashboard.
The benefits include:
- Scheduling and publishing content across major platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
- Tracking brand mentions, messages, and comments in one place to never miss a customer interaction.
- Accessing in-depth analytics to measure engagement, follower growth, and content performance.
Hootsuite stands out for businesses that want an all-in-one solution with powerful monitoring and reporting features. While its pricing may seem expensive, the value it offers in terms of organization, automation, and analytics makes it a strong investment, especially for small teams juggling multiple platforms.
The Bottom Line
You’re now familiar with the key aspects of some top digital marketing tools for small businesses, each designed to improve a specific aspect of your marketing initiatives.
However, there’s no need to implement everything right away. Begin by pinpointing your most urgent marketing obstacles.
Is it keeping a consistent presence on social media? Gaining insights into your website visitors’ behaviors? Or you’re interested in launching an email marketing campaign for the first time?
Select one or two areas to focus on at first and incorporate the tools that address those requirements. When you feel prepared to explore a new tool or enhance an existing one, you can return to check on your choices and slowly broaden your digital marketing toolkit.
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