Businesses of all sizes embrace the power of inbound marketing, with 74% of marketers worldwide using inbound as their primary marketing approach. Below are some of the tools we use and recommend to our clients because of their value to our business.
Inbound Marketing Tools for 2021
HubSpot Marketing
HubSpot comes first on our list because it is the one-stop shop for inbound marketing. As a HubSpot partner, we use many of their user-friendly, efficient, and pragmatic tools daily. The service Hubs make it easy to choose the solutions you want, so you only pay for what you need. Better yet, HubSpot offers many essential inbound marketing business tools for free.
At no cost, HubSpot offers tools for email marketing, form creation, building landing pages, live chat hosting, social media advertising management, traffic and conversion analytics, and more. HubSpot has tools for small businesses and large enterprises alike with price ranges to fit any budget.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is as easy to use as it is to install. Collecting and working with the invaluable data gathered from your website visitors will be one of your most significant advantages in digital marketing.
This data will help you identify key demographics so you can better target your audience. Where your visitors came from can tell you what content caught their attention, and what pages they took action on can reveal which landing pages are most effective. If you know what pages are getting the most conversions on your site, you can better tailor your content to your target market.
The information you collect through Google Analytics is only effective when you put it to use! By collecting and analyzing this data, you can make informed decisions, so you know you’re always working towards your goals.
Buffer
Buffer is the best social media management tool for those on a budget. For free, you can manage up to three social media accounts and have access to many publishing tools, making it a great starting point for small business owners looking to expand their social media marketing efforts. Buffer makes it easy to schedule and post content and offers convenient tools like link shortening, multi-channel campaign management, and hashtag and mention managers. For Instagram, you can conveniently add location and user tags, schedule Stories, edit your bio link, and even schedule the first comment on your post.
Social media content is consistently growing in popularity and demand. No surprise, research shows that younger generations are most interested in seeing more social media content from brands. Social media content must be part of your inbound marketing plan if your target market is between 18 and 44 or younger.
Canva
Canva is great for small business marketers looking to create professional graphics with limited design abilities. You can create graphics for almost any purpose- social media images, thumbnails, infographics, gifs, flyers and brochures, web banners- at no cost!
With the paid subscription, you will get full access to their elements and templates, which can help you add unique and exciting elements to your designs with ease. This tool is ideal for marketers regardless of design skills; without breaking out Photoshop or another heavy-duty design app, Canva helps you quickly create stunning visual content and offers inspiration to take your design to the next level.
Imagery can be a compelling addition to your content. Research shows that people are likely to remember only 10% of the information they hear, but when it’s presented with an image, users retain 65% of the information. Canva makes it easy to pair your information with memorable imagery for a more lasting impression on your audience.
HubSpot CMS
Content management software is essential for businesses of all sizes. The HubSpot CMS Hub helps you build an effective website without needing a professional website developer. As a small business owner, a CMS can help you create branded and personalized website content that will leave a lasting impression on visitors.
A CMS Hub subscription will give you access to premium features to improve all aspects of your site. Use themes to create dynamic, attractive sites while maintaining a consistent and professional look on every page. Hubspot’s CMS Hub makes SEO recommendations to ensure you are doing everything you can to reach your audience online. Adaptive testing and analytics reporting helps you make informed decisions to make targeted improvements to your site.
Asana
Content creation is a crucial aspect of our inbound marketing strategy, so having a system to track who is doing what helps us keep everything on track.
Asana is a convenient and user-friendly tool that allows us to organize projects and deadlines for many employees and clients. Assign tasks, create to-do lists and workflows, and receive status updates, all from one project management tool.
MailChimp
Though the name may suggest otherwise, MailChimp offers a variety of content management tools beyond email marketing. MailChimp is known for its convenient email marketing management tools, making it easy to create beautiful, professional newsletters.
Now, MailChimp also offers tools to create landing pages, manage Facebook and Instagram ads, publish social media, and manage contact lists. MailChimp also provides many of these tools for free, making it a great marketing tool for small businesses looking to dive into inbound content marketing.
Slack
Communication is vital, especially within your organization. Keeping everyone in the loop increases efficiency and prevents deadlines and goals from falling through the cracks.
With more and more companies embracing the work-from-home lifestyle, alternative forms of communication are crucial. While email is handy, direct messaging on Slack is much more natural and convenient for chatting. And though office banter might not be by the water cooler anymore, Slack still allows for those fun work interactions with emoji and gif keyboards; there are many apps available to customize your experience.
In addition to direct messaging, Slack also offers voice and video calls and the ability to set up channels to keep teams organized. Slack can be integrated with Google products to sync up your email and calendar for increased productivity.
We use Slack throughout the day to discuss important deadlines, send out reminders, and check in on one another. This one little tool is a big part of how we stay on track.
Linktr.ee
Linktr.ee allows you to share links through Instagram. We have all experienced the pain of wanting to share content with a link, only to remember that you can’t share links in Instagram posts. Instead of the old “link in bio” solution, Linktr.ee allows you to offer unlimited links to your Instagram audience through one convenient app for free!
Instagram can be an incredible lead generation tool for businesses in various industries, but there are also many limitations to the platform. Linktr.ee removes one huge barrier by giving your Instagram audience direct access to an index of links that can help guide the lead through your sales funnel. Including essential links like your homepage, special offers, and newsletter sign-ups to help to keep these leads engaged.
Grammarly
Grammarly is s a basic necessity for anyone who writes and shares any form of written content. Whether drafting internal emails or writing a company newsletter, you cringe to imagine sharing a glaring typo with the world.
The basic Grammarly subscription will prevent you from committing any obvious grammar sins or misusing a word, as well as assess your writing to detect the overall tone of the piece. A paid subscription will also give you access to a plagiarism detector, which can be a lifesaver for those writing longer-form content like blogs or press releases and provide syntax, clarity, and tone suggestions.
It is easy for small businesses to become overwhelmed with the multi-faceted responsibilities of managing a dynamic and rich marketing program. Luckily, there are so many tools available to automate and streamline while fitting any budget. The tools mentioned above are just a few of the many means that make it possible to manage a complex inbound marketing program.
