It’s tough out there, things are evolving, changing, diversifying, intensifying, but it’s all so exciting at the same time.
Perhaps all these things overwhelm you. They sure overwhelm us! Between researching and understanding these trends and then figuring out how to implement them, it's a lot!
That’s why we thought we would put together a helpful list of marketing apps that you absolutely want to check out as 2019 has already hit the road running.
So let’s dive in:
Design Apps and Tools:
1. Venngage.
This is a web-based application that allows users to easily design and create infographics. It has a variety of templates to choose from as well as the option of creating your own graphic with easy drag and drop elements.
I know what you’re thinking...Venngage vs. Canva?
I asked Marc Steyn, digital strategist and communication specialist at OmniMACS why he’s decided to stick with Venngage.
He had this to say:
“My teams have actually used both Canva and Venngage. We stuck with Venngage because we felt their templates were closest to what we required and easier to customise than Canva. It is a bit more expensive though."
He proceeded to tell us that the criteria they use when researching new marketing apps are “(1) 'bang-for-your-buck', (2) was it the right tool for the right stage of the business's evolution, (3) how future-proof was the app, i.e. could it scale with the business? We also looked at ease of use and cost of implementation which is quite important in a startup environment.”
Selecting marketing apps can be difficult, but when you understand your business and its needs, you need to do what’s best for your biz.
Thanks for your insights Marc 🙌🏼
2. Pixaloop.
This application has the ability to bring static images to life through animation.
Jessica Barella, founder of Barrk Marketing said that she’s “enjoying Pixaloop. It's a fun, free app that lets me turn still images into short videos. It's a quick and easy way to make fun content 🙂”
The ability to create a diversity of content with relative ease and very little use of internal resources is always a marketing win.
Thanks for heads up Jessica 🙌🏼
3. Canva.
No list is complete without design tool Canva.
Natasa Christofidou, the Content and Marketing Executive for alldayPA had this to say: “When executing digital marketing campaigns, you need to find a good balance between well-written content and impressive visuals. As much as I love using Adobe illustrator for the array of tools that it offers and the creative flexibility that it gives me, tight deadlines call for efficient solutions.”
Canva has got to be one of my favourite marketing apps for creating aesthetically pleasing and professional looking content in a short space of time.
As someone who simultaneously works for different brands, Canva provides an effective solution by having set templates as guidelines for different campaigns and social media platforms.
Whether I’m designing a quick banner for social media or to place at the header of emails, a company branded poster, or an infographic for an article, Canva’s templates allow me to create professional content with ease. Even more so, by using the Pro version of the app, you can transform your content into animated GIFS, making it more interactive and engaging than ever before.
So there you have it, both Canva and Venngage offer quick, beautiful design solutions that compliment tight deadlines.
4. Bannersnack.
Bannersnack is another design tool that allows you to create great blog banners and social media images in a matter of minutes.
Katai Robert, the Content Marketing Manager at Bannersnack had this to say:
“I can easily create my visuals as well as animate them with the push of a button.
All the banners that I embed within my blog can be measured with their analytics tool so I can see all the hot spots for a specific visual. This gives me the opportunity to always optimise where needed.
I also love the library feature. This is every content marketer's dream. This feature allows its users to upload all brand assets to one central location to use whenever. Minimising back forth with designers.”
There’s a clear trend here…
Marketing professionals are always on tight deadlines and are on the lookout for tools and apps that can help them achieve great quality images at the fraction of the price and time.
SEO
5. Mangools.
Mangools - it’s cheap. So much cheaper than Ahrefs for all your SEO needs.
Michael Pozdnev, founder and CEO at IWANNABEABLOGGER said this about Mangools: This tool has “remarkable usability! And boasts a massive set of useful tools such as keyword research and difficulty, SERP analysis, rank tracking, backlink analysis and website analysis, all for a very low price.”
So how low is low? All of this for only $29.90!
6. Then there is Ahrefs.
This tool has the most detailed data on the number of backlinks and keywords (12 trillion known links, 7.4 billion keywords!) Pozdnev said that the main advantage of this tool is that you can determine the search traffic potential on any topic.
Ahrefs is a powerful tool that offers great insights for any brand. The only hitch? It costs a fair penny, the light account starts at $99 a month 🙀
Michael ultimately recommends the use of multiple tools for your SEO work to ensure all your results are as accurate as possible. And over here at Uku HQ, we couldn’t agree more.
7. SEMRush.
We also have our own in house SEO wizard, we call him, Claudio Pereira, he’s our Marketing Director and he strongly recommends the use of SEMRush.
He had this to say…
“SEMrush is our SEO, James Bond. There are a few tools out there to help ‘spy’ on competitors websites, but SEMrush is easily the most detailed and simple to use. Understanding how well your competitor's websites perform against your own is a key strategy driver and something we find a lot of value when planning everything from site builds, SEO strategies and content plans”.
Content Research and Promotion
8. AnswerThePublic.
Personally, I love the user interface of AnswerThePublic, but I also find that this tool provides such great depth to my topic research.
So I thought I’d ask around to see if others enjoy it as much as I do. The consensus? They do.
Kasia , the Content Marketer for Survicate had this to say: “I am a huge fan of AnswerThePublic. Every marketer knows that producing good quality content is about addressing your readers’ problems and uncertainties. And that’s exactly what AnswerThePublic helps me with. It saves me lots of time on keyword research and comes handy when creating article outlines.”
To be honest, I couldn’t agree more.
9. Quuu Promote.
This is truly where my personal interest was piqued. Michael Pozdnev mentioned that this was a tool that he used and found value in, which sent me down my own rabbit hole.
I read Quuu’s website from top to bottom. I read all the reviews. I subscribed to their blog. I followed them on Twitter and Instagram which then turned into me requesting this very contribution from Quuu’s Marketing Director, Lucia Fontaina-Powell who had this to say about the platform:
“Content curation is a hugely effective way to build an engaged following on social media. The problem is that it takes time to find this content - time that you might not have as a busy entrepreneur or one-person marketing team, or time that could be spent on higher level tasks, like strategy.
Quuu puts your content curation on autopilot, sending you daily suggestions that can be posted to your social profiles by your scheduler of choice. And don't worry, we don't just send you random posts we've found from who-knows-where on the Internet!
All of the content in Quuu is hand-curated by our in-house team to make sure it's top quality stuff that you'll be happy to share on your social profiles.
So where do you find this content?
That's where Quuu Promote comes in! If you've got an online publication, blog, vlog or podcast, you can submit it to Quuu Promote for review. If it meets our quality criteria, we'll send it to our Quuu users (real people and businesses in your niche), who will share it with their social followers.
That means a big boost in your social media engagement and website traffic, with minimal effort on your part.”
But what do Quuu’s actual users say?
We spoke to Sam Hurley, founder of OPTIM-EYEZ, who said this:
“Quuu puts your content scheduling process on auto-pilot by feeding your Buffer account with awesome content relevant to your audience. (A powerful, time-saving combo!)
As a bonus: Quuu Promote also allows you to feed the Quuu machine with your awesome content, which then gets sent out to the Buffer accounts of others (including influencers).
It's a genius twin-turbo concept that massively aids both productivity + content visibility; a must for any marketer's arsenal of tools."
10. The HubSpot Service Hub: Funnel to Flywheel.
This list would be amiss without mentioning the tools that can be used to embrace the new flywheel approach to your Inbound Marketing activities.
When Brian Halligan introduced the flywheel and its methodology, HubSpot also released a whole host of new products and tools to support this.
Enter HubSpot’s Service Hub…adding customer delight into the mix.
The service hub features include things like:
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Conversations
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Tickets
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Feedback
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Automation and routing
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Live Chat
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Conversation bots
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Reporting
This shift enables us, marketers, to move from traditional growth tactics to the flywheel approach where we’re able to put our customers at the very centre of our businesses.
“Happy customers are the new secret of growth”
Key Takeaways
It’s difficult to keep up with the host of marketing apps that are constantly launched to make running campaigns easier for you. Selecting the right ones can (and should) take time.
Here at Uku Inbound, we’re always making use of free trials to work out what’s best for our marketing needs at any given time.
That being said, we’ve also had to navigate some rough waters when signing up for those free trials. Our top tip is to make sure you read all the reviews thoroughly before signing up for any trial.
Our creative, fast-paced environment allows us to push the boundaries and set trends. I count us lucky to be at the fore of all the digital marketing happenings and the ability to test them out to see what works, but also what doesn’t.
Perhaps you need some more marketing hacks to add your arsenal, what about 121 of them? Download our Digital Marketing Hacks Guide? It’s free👇🏼
