When talking about marketing, business owners usually have all sorts of ideas about it. Some of them use it to reach their target audience. Others, however, want to boost brand exposure and for everyone to be able to recognise their brand name. And, of course, there are the ones who are just looking to make sales. They are putting extra effort into marketing so as to generate an income that will be both regular and reliable.

All these reasons are entirely valid, and all these goals can be achieved with marketing. In fact, marketing can become the essence of a business’s success. All it takes is to use the right tools and incorporate some clever tracking and monitoring techniques. After all, the whole point is to convey a message that everyone will be able to appreciate.

However, just like with everything else in life, this sort of process isn’t easy. The success of it is not guaranteed either, which is why defining your marketing strategy is of the utmost importance. Your marketing efforts shouldn’t be in vain — it’s your money that’s on the line!

Therefore, in order to help you out a bit, we’ve searched high and low for tools that can help you bring your marketing campaign to a whole new level. What’s more, we split these tools into categories so that you can easily recognise the ones you should start using right now.

Email

Yes, email marketing is old-school marketing, but that doesn’t mean that it is not effective. By using it, you can easily remind your target audience that you’re there for them and waiting to give them everything you have in terms of products and services.

If you have an eCommerce website, then this sort of marketing is the right approach for you. Moreover, there is a great deal of insight you can gain by using just a few handy tools. Here are the ones you can start using right now.

1. Campaign Monitor

This tool allows you to design and deliver any kind of email marketing message you want. Furthermore, it provides you with a way to test its performance and analyse the figures. You can gain insight into how many times the campaign was shared, how high the engagement reach was and if the CTAs were successful or not. And all of that just by using your smartphone.

2. MailChimp

MailChimp is one of the most popular email marketing tools today — and you don’t have to be a genius to see why. It offers reports that give you detailed insights into all parts of your email campaign. You can get an overview and learn more about your subscribers and their behaviour. Furthermore, this tool also has a mobile app, which means you will have campaigns, notes and review reports within your reach at all times.

3. ReachMail

If you own a small business and don’t need a lot of features to make you happy, then ReachMail could be the best tool for you. It offers simple reports that detail the general performance of your email marketing campaigns. With it, you can analyse basic stats, facts and even download an Excel spreadsheet that you can use to further personalise and format your results.

4. AWeber

Exquisite reporting systems are the main feature of AWeber, which is why users are more than willing to jump on the bandwagon and use it. With this tool, you are constantly aware of what’s going on with your campaigns. Once you send your email, you will get notifications within an hour about how the campaign is performing. Therefore, if the results are not making you happy, you can easily tweak the campaign a bit. You can also use the app to monitor the campaign, no matter where you are in the world.

5. MyEmma

A mobile app, a detailed reporting dashboard, and different price plans — all this makes for a great opportunity to bring your email marketing to a whole new level. Depending on whether you’re running campaigns for yourself or a client, MyEmma will have different prices. However, you will get notifications on your phone, which means you won’t ever be out of the loop.

6. FreshMail

If you prefer an analytical way of thinking and reporting, then you will love FreshMail. This tool allows you to really get down to the nitty-gritty in terms of email campaign performance. You can customise the reports as well so that they include only the elements you deem important. What’s more, you can access these reports whenever you want.

7. Zoho Campaigns

We get it — you want to receive in-depth reports about your campaign’s performance. However, security isn’t something you should underestimate. Therefore, if you’re worried that someone will access your reports, then you should use Zoho Campaigns. Only confirmed members can access the detailed reports, and they have to access them via a secure URL. Thus, your personal data will not be exposed, leaving you satisfied and secure.

8. Mailigen

This tool is connected to Google Analytics and is in line with the data that it receives from it. Therefore, you can get real-time reports and focus only on those stats that are of the utmost importance to you. Mailigen also allows you to track conversion rates, which means that you can also calculate the ROI with it.

9. Dotmailer

Dotmailer is a tool that comes with a customisable reporting suite. With it, you can easily use the data you receive through it to tweak your campaigns and create powerful ones in the future. Furthermore, it also provides you with a glimpse into the consumer path, from the moment someone opens the email up until they become a customer. Lastly, Dotmailer lets you see where your customers are from, which will allow you to target the locations where you are the strongest.

 

PPC

PPC is a type of Internet advertising and an extremely effective marketing strategy. It can almost instantaneously generate you the results you’ve been after, and it can also boost your website traffic. However, the cost of it depends on your niche. Therefore, before putting your revenue at risk, you have to learn how to monitor its success and determine if PPC is actually working for you. Luckily, there are a few tools that will help you with that.

10. AdWords

At first, you can use AdWords for free. However, once it starts bringing back results, you’ll have to decide how much you want to invest in it. But don’t get discouraged right away. AdWords does allow you to set a reasonable budget for daily campaigns. Furthermore, it allows you to see how the campaign is performing. All you have to do is log in to your account, and all the data that you need will be there. Due to its user-friendliness and affordability, this tool is a must for most marketing experts.

11. Prosper202

Now, if you are a beginner, this tool will certainly please you. Not only does it come packed with features, but you’ll also get one-on-one support. If something is worrying you, you can ask the team behind this tool to help you out. What’s more, if you are looking to set up a PPC campaign fast, then you will love Prosper. It regularly updates its features and tools, which is why it’s great for those who are dealing with high website traffic.

12. Certified Knowledge

Like we said at the beginning, you’ll have to decide if PPC is the best marketing strategy for your niche. Thus, it would be good to consider Certified Knowledge, as this tool also offers guidance and training. It also provides users with news and updates that are important if they want to stay in the game. Furthermore, it comes with a report analyser that determines if the keywords you’re using are profitable. It also takes your ROI into account when creating reports.

13. AdGooroo

Just like the previous tool, AdGooroo also offers training to new users. Moreover, it provides its users with a strong reporting function that allows them to actually benchmark certain PPC campaigns. That way, they can easily compare their performances and determine if the campaigns were successful or not.

14. Market Defender

If detailed insights and daily automated reports are what you’re after, then look no further than Market Defender. Since the PPC market is packed with competition and includes a whole range of niches, you want to be able to see what your competitors are doing. Because of that, this tool allows you to review their campaigns. You can also be alerted when new competitors come into play, and the tool can even let you know of any ad copy changes.

15. WordStream

Now, not all business owners have the time to monitor their PPC campaigns. Frankly, some of them might not even have time to implement them. Because of that, it’s best to use a tool that takes the reins instead of you, like WordStream does. This little tool can take over campaigns, and since it is Google’s partner, it’s safe to say that it knows what makes a PPC campaign successful. It also generates reports within 60 seconds, so you won’t ever be left in the dark.

16. The Search Monitor

If you’re after an incredible amount of data, then this tool will probably be one of the most important ones in your arsenal. It will give information about how competitive the current market is, and it can even show how many ads there are right now. It tracks 100 languages, and in essence, it gives its users a way to be independent. Furthermore, it offers bespoke reports that you can receive every hour if you want.

17. ReportGarden

This tool is designed to generate reports about your PPC campaigns. Therefore, it collects data from other sources, like Google Analytics and AdWords. These custom reports are just what every business owner needs, as they will offer them a great deal of information and keep them up to date.

18. Raven

As another tool that wants to remove stress from the equation, Raven offers tailored reports and insights into your PPC campaigns. You can view these reports online or download them to your computer. It also comes with a customised dashboard and a benchmarking option. Therefore, you can easily benchmark a PPC campaign and check if it’s helping you meet your goals.

19. Swydo

Our final tool for PPC campaigns is Swydo. This tool offers scheduled reports, and it can even alert your if your PPC costs are going up. It also helps with keyword monitoring, as it allows you to receive personalised alerts that let you know if the performance of a certain keyword is going down.

Social Media Marketing

Nowadays, if you’re not using social media to your advantage, then what are you doing with your business? Everyone knows that social media allows us to give our business a voice. It also provides us with a way to directly interact with both future and current customers. In essence, using social media is a surefire way of determining the target audience and engaging with it. However, as with any marketing strategy, we need to stay on top of it at all times. We need to monitor it diligently and make sure we are not just spending money on something that’s just not working.

The best way to determine if social media is the right fit for us is to use some of these tools.

20. Simply Measured (Sprout Social)

Simply Measured is one of the most user-friendly tools out there that packs a lot of punch in terms of reporting. It offers you reports across a variety of social media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. With it, you can get enough data so that you can easily measure if your social campaign is giving the results you’re after.

21. Crowdbooster

It’s vital to measure if your audience database is growing, as well as to know the size of it at any given moment. Crowdbooster is just the tool that allows us to do that. It measures our efforts and offers both current and historical data in a customisable dashboard. There we will find reports and even recommendations about how we should post, what kind of content we should aim at and when we should post. In essence, it’s a tool that offers real-time reporting about social media analytics and campaign performance.

22. Curalate

If your preferable social networks are Instagram and Pinterest, then Curalate can help you a lot. This tool is integrated with Google Analytics, and it can provide you with many features. For example, you can easily find the most popular images and add them to your website so as to encourage traffic retainment. It also comes with a dashboard that allows you to have all the data, facts and stats in just one place. That way, you won’t have to search endlessly for crucial information in your time of need.

23. Socialbakers

There are a few tools that use competitor data to help you out on your way to marketing glory, and that’s the essence of Socialbakers as well. Once you get this tool, you will be offered an executive dashboard. Through it, you can monitor all your campaigns and gain insight into web analytics, sales data, and CRM.

24. Tweriod

Even though this tool is a bit restrictive, as it only analyses data from Twitter, if that’s what you’re going for, you’re going to love it. It’s also a great tool for beginners as it won’t cost them anything and it’s not that difficult to use. You can get notifications on your email or in your DM whenever your report is ready. You also get notified of any changes to your campaign.

25. Hootsuite

If you have some money to spare, then it would be wise to consider Hootsuite. This tool comes at different price points, depending on the results and features you’re looking for. It has its own analytics and reports, not to mention that it is a lot more informative than some other tools. By using Hootsuite, you can easily see where your strengths lie and which aspects of your campaign are just not working out. Furthermore, you can view reports with any device (mobile or desktop).

Affiliate Marketing

Boosting brand awareness is not that difficult if you use affiliate marketing to your advantage. In fact, this sort of marketing is one of the most effective ways of encouraging others to sell your services and products. It can also help you grow your customer base and boost your sales rate. However, it can be quite costly, which is why you need to consider whether using it is worth the money.

26. ClickMeter

Small businesses or limited budgets — no matter which category you fall into, ClickMeter can help you achieve your goals. With this tool, you can get daily reports that consist of crucial data and are branded with your logo. Furthermore, these email reports incorporate a specific time zone, language, and currency. They also show you how each aspect of your campaign is performing.

27. LinkTrust

With LinkTrust, you can easily customise your reports and monitoring. This tool lets you set the figures and the data you want to see, and it also offers real-time reports. Furthermore, for extra safety, it has employee log-ins, and it also comes with a customer portal. What’s more, Link Trust provides you with an incredible amount of data, which means that you won’t have any trouble at all keeping up with your campaigns.

28. Impact Radius

No matter where you are or what you are doing, Impact Radius is there for you. Since it is a mobile app, you can easily access all the data you want in terms of campaign performance. After all, if you’re not keeping track of your online advertising, you could be wasting money without even knowing it.

29. HitPath

Accurate data is of vital importance if you want your affiliate marketing efforts to produce the right results. Luckily, that sort of data is what HitPath specialises in, apart from real-time reports. This multi-channel tracker also comes with a mobile app, so there’s no way you will miss out on something great while multitasking.

30. Improvely

If conversion rates are always on your mind, then Improvely should allow you to get a good night’s sleep. Its features are incredible. Not only can this tool send you email notifications, but it can also provide you with audio ones as well. Moreover, it allows you to thoroughly review organic analytics so that you know which parts of your campaign need to be changed and how you should increase traffic.

Content Marketing

If you want to appeal to your current and potential customers, there’s no better way to do it than with content. However, the content has to be informative and encouraging. It has to bring some value to your potential customers, and it should inspire more traffic to your website. But how do you know if it’s effective?

Well, we’ve prepared a list of tools that will help you determine if your content is doing what it’s supposed to do. If you’re not happy with the results, then it’s better to change them right away so that they don’t damage your brand. Luckily, these tools can help you shape average content into excellent content.

31. Google Analytics

Now, we’ve mentioned Google Analytics earlier as a tool that can help you see how your website is performing. Nevertheless, this tool can also help you analyse content engagement, traffic boosts, landing page success and social performance. All that data is available to you if you just interpret the increases in social offerings. Furthermore, you can easily customise the Google Analytics dashboard so as to compare data and previous performances of other campaigns.

32. Hubspot

Managing your marketing campaigns is not an easy task, yet Hubspot makes it seem like a piece of cake. This tool gives you monitoring and tracking rights to all your campaigns. You can easily check your results via the personalised dashboard, pull reports and even get updates on your phone. Moreover, Hubspot also lets you manage your ROI without bombarding you with a ton of information at the same time.

33. TrackMaven

Of course, you shouldn’t copy your competitors. But, there’s nothing wrong in comparing your content engagement results with theirs. TrackMaven is exactly the tool that allows you to do that. It will generate reports and send it to users that ought to take a look through them, analyse the newly changed data and adjust the content accordingly.

34. Rival IQ

SEO analytics and social media are what Rival IQ focuses on. It uses the data from your competitors to give you more information about content performance, your current target audience and the audience you should target instead. Furthermore, it also provides you with automated and customised reports, and you can even schedule when you want the reports to be downloaded and sent.

35. SimpleReach

By using competitor data, SimpleReach gives you a chance to shape and use content that will actually bring you the ROI you deserve. However, it does come at a cost. In fact, it’s one of the most expensive tools for content marketing. Nevertheless, it just might be worth the money, especially if you don’t really have the time or the funds to shape the content and make it the best there is yourself.

36. SEMrush

SEMrush is actually a tool that analyses keyword performance. However, it analyses your keywords as well as the keywords of your competitors. You can use it to evaluate your keywords indefinitely, even when the content is already live and impacting key term positions.

37. Hitwise

When it comes to content marketing, nothing is more important than having content that brings some value to the readers. However, if that same content isn’t visible, then your traffic will certainly suffer. Nevertheless, Hitwise is here to rescue you. This tool allows you to review weekly traffic figures, which are important when deciding where to place your content. It can also serve as a fantastic key performance indicator, as it will show you how your site is performing in general. You can then use that data to make sure that you’re on your way to reach your goals.

SEO

No matter what the old-school marketers say, SEO is absolutely indispensable nowadays, and we should all use it to our advantage.

Proper SEO can help you reach your audience and boost website traffic. Furthermore, it allows that same audience to discover your website in the first place, not to mention stay on it for longer and return to it. Most importantly, great SEO gives you an edge over your competitors, and it allows your website, as well as your campaigns, to perform successfully.

38. Google Analytics

As you might have already realised, GA is a must-have if you want to determine the success or failure rate of your marketing campaigns. Furthermore, it is one of the best tools for content performance and traffic measuring. However, it doesn’t come with automated reports. But we can disregard that, as the reports are full of data and all the details that we need to bring our marketing efforts to a whole new level.

39. Moz

Whichever method you pick, it’s crucial to review your website’s analytics as often as possible. For that, you can use Moz, a tool that gives you weekly reports and marks the issues that might need your attention. It can also show keyword rankings and performance, as well as your site’s overall SERP position. Afterwards, you can use that data to tweak your SEO a little bit and continue your path to success.

40. SEO Monitor

Now, SEO Monitor is a bit different. It is sort of a performance predictor, as it allows you to form general predictions about your site’s performance. Furthermore, it helps you determine the right time for your future campaigns, and it also monitors traffic, tracks keywords, and identifies site issues.

Retargeting Campaigns

Finally, there’s just one more thing we need to talk about — retargeting. This form of marketing is quite effective if you want to increase online sales and keep your brand awareness steady. Your business will gain more traffic and exposure whenever a retargeting ad appears. However, it’s crucial to monitor the success of this sort of marketing.

41. Google AdWords (GA)

Creating retargeting campaigns will be a breeze if you use the Google AdWords and Google Analytics combo. The former will allow you to set up a great campaign while the latter will let you see if it’s performing as it should be. With this seemingly indestructible pair of tools, you will easily identify the number of users who revisited your website.

42. Rocket Fuel

With Rocket Fuel, you can delve into data management, but without the additional stress. This tool, which is programmatic by nature, allows you to use just one platform to analyse data from your current marketing campaigns.

The Dos and Don’ts of Marketing Tools and Methods

Don’t just use modern marketing forms just because they are popular right now. Some seemingly out-of-date marketing approaches are still as effective today as they were years ago. Remember — it all depends on your target demographic.

Do pay attention to customisation options for dashboards and reports, as they allow you to use your time effectively and not waste it on formatting.

Don’t go over your budget, as you never know if it will pay off. Instead, pick a cost-effective tool and distribute the budget evenly in order to cover all the important aspects of your marketing strategy.

Do put your smartphone to good use and keep track of everything with updates and notifications.

Don’t stick to a marketing campaign when it’s not generating any results. It’s better to just start again and use something more suitable than to lose money just because you don’t want to give up.

Do be diligent while researching different tools. Before you choose one, you ought to know what kinds of insights and data you need and if a certain tool can give you that.

 

Bio:

 Richard Larson is the Marketing Manager at GoPromotional, the leading UK promotional keyrings company. He enjoys sharing his experience on a range of subjects to enable customers to increase their brand awareness through the use of promotional products.