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- A well-structured and well-targeted marketing campaign can mean the difference between success and failure.
- Taking into account the fierce competition among brands, your company’s marketing game can make or break the business.
- Putting together a good campaign is no easy task, but it can be manageable with the right tools.
- The guide below presents you with the best tools for creating powerful visuals, organizing your tasks, SEO research, and more.
We live in a time where your product is not as important as the next consideration, that being how you market it. That is why advertisements and marketing campaigns can sometimes require more funds than creating the actual product or service.
The same principle applies in the digital world, where it is hard to stand out on a myriad of websites. That is why having some extra help from some marketing services can give you the edge.
While marketing is a critical component of any successful business, we can all agree that a huge slice of its magic happens online and that none of it could be possible without specialized tools.
What are the most essential marketing tools to grow your startup?
- Planning: help you set goals, understand the market and customers, create and delegate tasks, follow and assess your progress, and more
- Social media advertising: help you schedule your posts, get insights on reach, create engaging written and visual content
- Display advertising tools: create banners and other brand-related visual elements
- Content Marketing: to help you create original and qualitative content that is SEO optimized, well-structured, engaging, and accessible
- Email Marketing: to help you create email lists, build engaging newsletters with pre-made templates, get information about customer experience
Promoting your startup business is never an easy task, as it requires you to implement and follow well-thought strategies.
To successfully put your business on the map, you should use a toolset that is proven to be highly effective in capturing and keeping your potential client’s attention.
To position yourself as a powerful brand you will have to create a good planning strategy and visual identity with the help of fitting designs and task management software.
You also need tools that help you assess the market and the profile of your potential customers/audience, and figure out what are the most effective ways to communicate your unique selling points.
1. Best Social Media & Marketing Tools
How your services or products are presented to your potential customers can make or break a startup. For this reason, choosing the right tools that enable you to create outstanding visual content can be an enormous asset.
1. Adobe Photoshop
Photoshop is an excellent tool to create digital images to promote your products and services. You know what they say: a picture speaks a thousand words.
If the images associated with the product or service that you’re promoting draw people’s attention, then you already won half of the marketing game.
Photoshop is the best tool to optimize your images for social media: edit and resize your images for different types of screens, profile picture formats, and banner photo parameters.
Creating mobile-friendly images is a must in today’s world, and this tool offers full support for that.
You can use the ready-made image templates and save marketing ideas on Photoshop. This can help you boost your email marketing campaign and keep you organized.
You can also use Photoshop to design promotional t-shirts and other such items (t-shirts, mugs, pens, you name it).
The thing this tool does best offers a plethora of handy features to create amazing images that will increase brand awareness.
You have everything you need, from resizing and cropping solutions to masking, layering, color correcting tools, not to mention the huge amount of inspiring filters.
Other key features of Photoshop include:
- Light on system resources
- User friendly interface
- Compatible with mobile devices
- Tone adjustement features
- Object seection tool
- Batch processing
Adobe Photoshop is subscription-based. You can integrate it within the Adobe Creative Cloud if you use other Adobe tools. You can try it for free for 7 days.
Adobe Photoshop
Build your brand’s visuals from start to finish with this full-featured photo manipulation tool.
Canva is one of the best marketing tools for startups when it comes to visual design. It has quickly grown to become a user favorite due to its accessibility and resourceful template library.
The tool is very versatile. You can use it directly from your browser, or download it as a desktop application. It also has a dedicated mobile app that lets you quickly make and adjust designs on the go.
This graphic design applications lets offers pre-made layouts for various types of designs including presentations, logos, Facebook posts, Instagram stories, business cards, flyers, YouTube thumbnails, and many more.
Users of this application are very happy with these layouts, as there are available in plenty of styles and they represent a quick and easy solution to create engaging content in a short period of time.
The editing tool is based on drag and drop. You can add various types of objects and text, resize them, adjust the colors, add background images, and more.
Not only can it help you with your visual identity, but it can also be a good planning solution. Canva can help you create business plans and presentations.
Other key features of Canva include:
- Background remover tool
- Includes animated objects
- Supports multiple image formats
- Teamwork support
Canva has a free, limited version. It is highly functional and good to get started, but some of the features are not available and many of the images are watermarked.
The paid version is available under several subscription plans. You can change or cancel them whenever you want.
Canva
Use drag-and-drop-based editing tools to create jaw-dropping content in just a few clicks.
3. Adobe Illustrator CC
Adobe Illustrator CC is a versatile tool that you can use to create logos, illustrations, and other vector images.
If you need a reliable tool to increase brand image and brand awareness, Illustrator should definitely be on your list.
You can be sure your images always remain nice and crips. Once you’ve created an image, you can quickly scale it up for billboards or scale it down for smartphone screens.
You can use the built-in typography features to create impressive typographic designs to convey your brand’s message. Use unique characters and styles to create mesmerizing logos and flyers.
Adobe can also help companies streamline their workflows through the Experience Manager.
You can use this tool to allow all the team members of your creative team to access Illustrator and Photoshop projects in a distraction-free environment for enhanced productivity.
Other useful features for your marketing campaign include:
- Best vector image creator and editor
- Big online community that spread around useful guides and tricks
- Integrates well with other Adobe products
- Plug in support
You can download Adobe Illustrator CC for free and try it out for 7 days. If you want to continue using the tool, you will have to get a subscription plan. The free trial lets you test out all the features included.
Adobe Illustrator CC
Design your logo and make engaging graphics that tell your brand’s story.
2 Best Planning and Organizing Apps for Startup
As your company’s presence on social media can have such a huge impact on how your company is perceived, having all the right tools for creating engaging and interactive content is absolutely essential.
Below you can find some great tools that will streamline the entire process of posting regularly, managing your company’s content, and provide you with some useful feedback about engagement.
1. Monday.com
Monday.com is a great business management tool that offers top-level collaboration, marketing, and project management tools.
Even though it integrates a lot of tools in just one dashboard, Monday.com is built to be intuitive and friendly.
It lets you create your own customized workflow or choose from over 200 pre-made templates.
You can easily create and manage your projects by adding columns, groups, items, sub-items, and more. It includes 30+ customizable column types, drag-and-drop columns and rows, and real-time updates for each item.
You get a real-time overview of the project’s progress and see how your team is doing.
Monday offers multiple types of visual reports on your project’s status. You can use a Kanban view, a calendar, a timeline, and more.
Other key features of Monday.com include:
- Dedicated applications for Android and iOS
- Contact management tools
- Customer onboarding solutions
- Centralize client comunication with email integrations
Monday.com has a free, limited plan that lets you create workflows for individual projects. For a team-focused project, you will have to get a subscription. Each subscription plan has a free trial.
Monday.com
Establish your plan and check your progress in real-time with this intuitive management tool.
2. Microsoft OneNote
Microsoft OneNote is a versatile note-taking application that lets you create highly customizable notes.
You can create your own workspace with the help of powerful sorting tools for making notebooks, categories, tags, all with easy search and navigation functions.
The tool lets you create text-based notes, but also offers free handwriting and doodling support. You can highlight, change text color and size, add annotation, images.
It is the perfect space to gather all your resources and keep track of them across all devices. The app is compatible with mobile devices and you get real-time synchronization so you can start right where you left off and make quick adjustments on the go.
OneNote also lets you create audio notes, insert videos and integrate multiple types of files within your notes.
The application offers quick share options so you can collaborate with your coworkers.
Other key features of Microsoft OneNote include:
- Sync to the cloud
- Support for mixed media
- Compatible with Andorid and macOS devices
Microsoft OneNote is a free application for Windows computers and mobile devices. You can download it directly from the Microsoft Store.
Microsoft OneNote
Gather all your resources, including videos, audio files, and images, and access them on all your devices.
Buffer is a great social media marketing tool that gives you a combination of features that let you know how, when, and how frequently to post in order to grow your audience and engagement rates.
The application offers simple to use scheduling tools so you can take care of each little post ahead of time so you can have a better structure and thus less stress.
Buffer also helps you engage with your audience in a productive way. You can use labels and hotkeys to prioritize the comments you respond to based on relevancy.
The application offers pre-made plans for scheduling and managing posts for popular platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Tiktok.
It takes care of the whole process, from planning, scheduling, the actual post, and more. You can even set up an automated first comment for your Instagram posts.
Buffer’s dashboard is designed to integrate all valuable information so it is easy to access.
You can get insights about boosted posts and compare paid and organic results, see key engagement metrics for each social account you manage, measure stories, individual posts and hashtags.
On top of that, the tool also gives you information about your audience’s demographics. Knowing who you speak to is a key factor in winning in this game.
Other key features of Buffer include:
- White label reporst
- Daily updates of all activity
- Download reports as PDFs
- Browser extension
Buffer has a free basic plan that is suitable especially when you start out. If you need more advanced tools and integrated collaboration solutions, you can get one of the two paid plans. Each plan has a 14-day free trial.
4. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a powerful social media management platform that comes with solutions for planning, engagement, analytics, and more.
With over 18 million users worldwide, Hootsuite offers efficient social media post scheduling options.
If you plan to promote your business on social media, you probably know that using more than just one platform is recommended in most cases.
Hootsuite can help you plenty in this case, because it lest you manage all your social media accounts from one unified dashboard.
You get quick information about how each of your accounts is doing directly from the home page. Then you can start scheduling your posts and see more in-depth reports about engagement rates.
The tool also facilitates the interaction between you and your audience. The Hootsuite dashboard displays all your comments and you can respond right away, without having to browse around your accounts.
The analytics feature gives you insightful reports on how your social media posts are doing, the amount of reach and visibility you gain from each of them.
Other key features of Hootsuite include:
- Support for teamwork
- Two-step authentication
- Unlimited scheduling
- Custom analytics
- Exportable reports
Hootsuite has 3 major subscription plans. They differ when it comes to the number of accounts you can manage, ad spend limit and the type of analytics you get.
3. Best Digital Marketing & SEO Tools for Startups
1. SEMrush
SEMrush is one of the most (if not the most) popular SEO tools currently on the market, and for good reason, too.
Its suite encompasses a wide variety of tools that can help even small business owners grow their online presence. it does this by providing them with useful insight on how to manage the contents of their website so that they become more relevant to search engines.
The SEMrush marketing workflow holds utilities for virtually any need regarding investing in one’s online presence, ranging from SEO and advertising to social media, content management, strategy building, reporting, and management, as well as competitive research.
Some of the power features of the SEMrush suite are its organic research, keyword research, site audit, rank tracking, ad builder, advertising research, social media poster, and tracker, content audit, topic research, post tracking, brand monitoring, traffic analytics, ranks, charts, marketing calendars, and reports.
SEMrush is able to handle everything from search engine optimization to social media advertising.
Other key features include:
- Trendind topic recommendations
- Insights about competition
- PPC advertising support
This tool comes with a 7-day free trial so you can try it out and see how you like it.
SEMrush
Increase your online visibility by implementing powerful SEO strategies with SEMrush.
2. Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a full-featured SEO platform that gives users all tools they need to reach a large number of customers with the help of audits, keywords research, and competition research.
This SEO management tool has an easy-to-use dashboard that gives you quick access to everything you need, including an overview of all your webpages, access to the keywords explorer, the rank tracker, and many more.
It lets you integrate and track an unlimited number of pages. You can easily manage them all from one unified homepage.
The tool is compatible with Google Search Console and lets you connect your accounts and access GSC data directly from the Ahref menu.
Arefs’ keywords explorer gives users thousands of keyword suggestions. It gathers proven keyword information from an extensive database of over 7 billion keywords.
The database is updated every month with new and relevant keywords to help your webpage stay relevant.
Ahref is suitable for web pages all around the world, as it provides keyword solutions for 171 countries outside the US.
Other key features of Ahrefs include:
- Uses 10 different search engines for the research
- Reports on return rates
- SERP overview and position history
Ahrefs is a paid tool, with 4 different plans available. If you are just starting out, the Lite or Standard plan should suffice, as they let you manage an unlimited number of projects and give you insightful audits.
Free digital marketing tools:
- Google Analytics (GA): keep track of website traffic, conversion rates, and audience behavior
- Google Search Console: see the queries that bring you viewers, submit sitemaps and URLs for webcrawling, and use the free guide to learn how to optimize your search appearance on Google
- Google Trends: see reports on high-ranking topics and search queries across multiple regions
4. Best Email Marketing Software for Small Business
1. Mailbird
Mailbird is one of the best email client providers on the market. Not only does it provide industry-leading solutions for email management, but it also includes task management tools and powerful collaboration solutions.
Users of this email client can connect an unlimited number of accounts and easily access them from one unified inbox.
Mailbird also lets you check on your social media pages. It has integrations for all major platforms so you can have a quick glance at how your customers interact with your posts.
Not only that, but the tool is also compatible with productivity and collaboration applications such as Google Calendar, Slack, Google Note, and Microsoft To-Do.
You can easily create your own workspace, add team members and facilitate collaboration and thus help your business grow.
Users of Mailbird are very fond of its advanced search options. You can easily find emails, attachments, and contacts by providing a few keywords. It offers advanced search options with filtering.
Other key features of Mailbird include:
- Multiple layouts
- Available in several international languages
- Intuitive keyboard shortcuts
- 24/7 support
- Compatible with multiple platforms
If you want to integrate Mailbird into your toolset you will have to get a subscription. There are several plans available, each with a 14-day free trial.
Mailbird
Stay in touch with your audience and collaborate with your team to offer a premium-level customer experience.
2. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a powerful customer relationship management tool that offers automatic solutions for email marketing.
The tool integrates audience measurement and management features. You get valuable information about your customers so you can build personalized marketing messages that fit their profiles.
Not only does this tool help you build and manage emails, but it also gives you the possibility to create and host your own website.
It offers intuitive tools to help you create engaging content. These include the content studio feature, templates for promotional campaigns, subject line helper, and a creative assistant.
The tool lets you create and automate customized marketing strategies for each of your customers. The tool creates a profile on how the customer interacts with your business and decides which is the best way to maintain contact to keep them engaged.
Mailchimp offers several email scheduling options. You can set a specific time, send according to the customer’s time zone, or let the application decide the best send time for maximum engagement.
Other key features of Mailchimp include:
- Integrates popular eCommerce platforms like WooCommerce and Shopify
- Create targeted emails based on client behavior
- Transactional email support with API or SMTP
- RSS-to-email
Mailchimp has a free plan and three paid subscription-based plans. Each of them includes marketing CRM tools.
How to promote my online business for free?
- Use social media platforms: create engaging posts, join groups that are related to your niche and post about your business and what you offer for free
- Use email marketing strategies: you can gather inspiration from the above-mentioned products and use their free versions to address potential customers
- Create a blog: there are plenty of platforms that offer free blog hosting where you can use creative ways to market your business, including niche-related informative articles, product listings, and more. Some free blog platforms do offer some minimal eCommerce tools, so you can sell your product for free
- Implement SEO strategies: SEO is essential for growth regardless of the platforms you use. Using relevant keywords is crucial if you want to rank high and be found by as many potential customers as possible
Closing thoughts on best marketing software deals
The bottom line, regardless of their domain of activity, almost every business needs a solid marketing campaign at one point or another.
Carrying this type of activity online proved to be not only sevenfold as effective as offline campaigns, but also more accessible to a higher number and a broader variety of users.
However, no marketing technique could be even half as effective as those that are backed by specialized tools such as Promo Republic, SEMrush, Fotor, and Horizon.
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