10 Marketing Tools To Make Your Life Easier

Not too long ago, the term marketing stack could mean an imposing pile of physical job folders on a desk waiting to be completed by an advertising agency. Today, marketing stack is used a lot to describe the varying combinations of technology products that in 2016 represent the changing dynamic and skill set required to be a marketer. There are even the Stackie Awards given for explaining and visualizing a marketing stack. 

While technology has positively impacted the role of a marketer, sometimes, it can be too much. Every now and then, you need a real pencil or whiteboard to conceptualize a landing page before using a wireframing tool or a direct mail campaign may be a better delivery model than email based on the target market. Technology has greatly impacted my life, and while I currently use and have used a wide range of tools, apps and resources to varying degrees of success, there are a few staples that have helped tremendously. 

This list is not a full picture of my marketing stack, but 10 marketing tools that make life much easier for me, in no particular order:

1. Scripted - While Account Based Marketing (ABM) has been the big buzzword of 2016, content marketing is still a more realistic focus for most marketers. While we are bombarded with content and lists (just like this one) from almost everyone these days, good content can still stick out. Finding time and the expertise to write good content is another story. Scripted has a cadre of writing experts in various industries that you can source articles, lists, social media posts and more from. They provide a great communication platform and dashboard so nothing is lost in translation with the authors.

2. Zapier - Ever say "I wish I could" followed by: pull an adoption report, automate a drip campaign or a million other things? More than likely, Zapier helps you do it. With over 750 technology integrations, they make it easy for tools to play nice with each other which makes your life easier. When we installed a marketing project request system, Zapier allowed Google, our intranet and Basecamp all work together saving our small marketing team a boatload of work. Zapier is the swiss army knife of marketing technology. Speaking of Basecamp...

3. Basecamp - While there are other tools like Slack and Trello, I've used Basecamp for years because it "just works" as a project management system. Jason Fried continues to iterate this simple-to-use cloud-based project management system that keeps projects and contributors on task. A secondary benefit is that it can act as a repository for creative files when using freelancers, outside vendors and remote-based teams.

4. Clearview Social - You've more than likely never heard of this Buffalo, NY-based startup, but if you are in the professional services space and understand how hard it is to build approved content then distribute it to prospects, you may want to give them a call. Clearview provides a platform to have associates (they started with lawyers) connect their LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter accounts to receive content queues via email when new social media content is produced and approved. With one click, it can be shared on all of those associates social media accounts, trackable with click metrics and estimated media values for each share. This allows me to easily make true my thinking that "everyone is on the marketing team" by using the power of my coworkers curated networks to expand our content marketing reach.

5. Delighted - Raise your hand if you have heard of Net Promoter Score but wonder how to start using it? Delighted is laser-focused on one thing: making the NPS process easy. Within minutes, you can survey your customers to assess satisfaction, indifference and problems and react to them directly or through integrations with CRMs like Salesforce. The dashboard is simple and clean, check out a more in-depth review here.

6. Buffer - While there are many social media scheduling and monitoring tools on the market, I use Buffer for several reasons. First, its simple and clean to use. Their support is responsive and it connects with Quuu, which I describe below. Between the analytics and ability to schedule and share across multiple social channels in one place, Buffer is my go-to for now. 

7. Quuu - Back to content marketing, everyone wants to do it but no one has the time. I'll let you in on a little secret: Quuu. This tool has relevant and helpful (see a theme in being helpful both to your team and customers?) content specific to a wide range of categories. Choose your categories, connect Quuu to your Buffer account, schedule post times then watch social media connections grow as you and your brand become known as thought leaders and your posts become shared with those who you want to connect with in those areas of focus. Quuu also lets you submit your organic content to become included in those hand-curated queues. 

8. Wistia - You probably do video marketing to some degree but probably don’t think about video hosting? While YouTube is free to use, some negatives include preroll ads sometimes from your competitors and the potential to be blocked from some IP addresses, especially schools. Wistia focuses on hosting videos that can be seen almost anywhere, reduces the clutter and adds lead generation tools like email form signups required for playing, video analytics and integrations to CRMs and email marketing tools for drip campaigns. Their support and staff are fun, helpful and very responsive. Rumor has it, they send out pretty sweet t-shirts to customers as well. 

9. Mailchimp - Looking for another company that mails you a t-shirt after your first campaign? These guys will, which is part of the playful brand they’ve built being extremely helpful teaching people how to do email marketing better. While I don't currently use this for email marketing, I have in the past and I'm a huge fan. Just like Delighted and Basecamp focus on doing one thing extremely well, Mailchimp kills it at email marketing and t-shirts.

10. Appsumo - Last but not least, Noah Kagan and his team seem to have a ton of fun creating a go-to shopping destination for marketers, business development professionals and web developers. A lot of the resources I've mentioned above have come from being exposed to them through Appsumo. They negotiate insane deals that allow you to take advantage of resources that can improve your website, close more leads and a lot more. Believe me, its worth checking out and signing up for their email newsletter.

These are just a handful of tools that serve a purpose, make my life easier and all lend to being a better marketer. You will see a common theme of great leadership, helpfulness to everyone involved and being exemplary at one thing.

What are some tools that help you at marketing?

Charlie Riley is a marketing, business development and communications professional with experience across multiple industries. Follow Charlie on Twitter at @charlieriley.