5 Must-Have Digital Marketing Tools for Startups

It is difficult to boil down the useful digital marketing tools for startups down to dozens, much less a handful, especially since every business has its own needs. However, there are some tools that have a broad appeal to almost any business, providing value to the digital marketing efforts of all companies, big and small. 

“An ideal tool should be suitable for all businesses, regardless of size. When it comes to scaling a business, finding the right tool that is easy to learn and to use efficiently is crucial, because it can save you both time and money,” according to Mawer Capital CEO, Rudy Mawer. 

The following must-have digital marketing tools for startups focus on different aspects of the process. They range from analytics tools that provide valuable insights to email marketing tools that allow companies to reach a large audience with both automated and customized messages, and each of them is a great place to begin for any startup looking to up its digital marketing game.

Google Analytics

It is nearly impossible to find success in the world of digital marketing without analytics. The right data helps companies narrow down their target audience, understand traffic funnels, and realize what works and doesn’t work.

Google Analytics stands out among the rest of the analytics products out there, and the same is true when you look at all of the digital marketing tools for startups out there. The powerful freemium tool is easy to use and provides the powerful insights needed to track and analyze multiple aspects of site traffic and user behavior, including:

• Pageviews
• Bounce rates
• Conversion rates
• Demographics
• Devices

Those are only a few of the many metrics the platform can help users track, making it easy for businesses to identify areas for improvement on their websites. In turn, all of that can be used to inform marketing decisions, such as which campaigns are driving the most traffic and conversions.

It is only made better due to the ability to create custom reports and track specific events on a website. Says Mawer:

“Data driven business is smart business. If you aren’t using analytics your business is driving blind, and you’re more likely to crash. Analytics allow you to run a business efficiently, understand your customers, and operations.”

Hootsuite

Social media is a vital part of any digital marketing effort, though its importance expands beyond marketing. Companies rely on social media, especially startups, and finding the right tool is important. Enter Hootsuite, a social media management platform that makes it easy to schedule and manage social content across various platforms.

The platform provides a hub for businesses to monitor their social media accounts and engage with their audience, which is an irreplaceable part of digital marketing. And since content can be scheduled, businesses get to plan out content in advance, saving time and making consistency easier to achieve.

Hootsuite also provides tools for social media monitoring, listening, and analytics, which are great for understanding each social platform’s audience and tracking the success of campaigns.

MailerLite

Email marketing and newsletters are something companies should be doing from day one, easily making it one of the most important digital marketing tools for startups. The best way to do that? Using a platform like MailerLite, which takes care of subscription forms and campaign creation and sending.

Why MailerLite? It offers an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor that allows users to create custom email designs without any design experience. Moreover, there are a variety of email templates, as well as automation features like welcome emails and abandoned cart emails to improve engagement and drive conversions.

On top of everything else, MailerLite provides advanced reporting and analytics, offering insight into the success of their email campaigns, such as open rates and click-through rates.

The best part is the price, with MailerLite being one of the most affordable options that still offers the features companies need. There are alternatives, including the popular platform Mailchimp, but one way or another, an email marketing platform is one of the must-have digital marketing tools for startups.

SEMrush

Once again, data and intelligence take priority when it comes to digital marketing tools for startups. When it comes to SEO analysis and optimizing a company’s online presence, SEMrush is one of the top tools around. It includes tools for things like:

• SEO analysis
• Competitor research
• Social media tracking
• PPC advertising analysis
• Keyword research

SEMrush is useful for everything from improving page load speed to tracking toxic backlinks, and it can give insights into why certain things are not working and how to fix them. Moreover, its site audit tool will reveal any errors going on that a company might miss, especially as it scales its efforts.

Canva

People are visual, so it makes sense that a list of must-have digital marketing tools for startups includes at least one graphic design tool. It doesn’t get much better than Canva, which can be used to create high-quality, professional graphics and designs for marketing. The graphics can then be used for:

• Social media posts
• Infographics
• Ads

Finding free images online or using AI to generate something entirely new is fine, but carefully crafted graphics are worth the effort when it matters. Besides, with Canva’s easy-to-use interface and vast library of design templates and assets, it does not require a background in design to use.

Much like MailerLite and many other tools these days, there is a drag-and-drop editor for ease of use. Canva also offers features for team collaboration and brand consistency, so let the good times roll and create some marketing material.

“It pays to invest in high quality imagery for your marketing campaigns and branding. Tools like Canva™ make producing premium content easy and accessible to most businesses. There is no excuse for producing mediocre content with so many tools now available on the market.” Mawer added.