10 Can't-Miss Online Marketing Tools to Help Boost Your Business

Running a small business can be challenging, but it doesn’t have to be impossible. With the right tools in your toolbox, you can make running your business easier and more effective than ever before. In fact, the right online marketing tools can help you to better engage with customers, increase conversion rates and even grow your audience. When it comes to online marketing tools, these 10 can’t-miss options will help you get started on the right foot – and keep your business running smoothly from there on out.

1) Optimizely

A/B testing is becoming a more crucial part of digital marketing strategies, as it’s an excellent way to find out which version of a web page converts better. Optimizely allows you to set up and manage your A/B tests and analyze what performs best in your business. This can have a huge impact on your bottom line. With Optimizely, you can also do multivariate testing — where different combinations of elements on a web page are tested — and conversion funnels, allowing you to measure everything that happens on your site from clicking on a link in an email through becoming a regular customer.

2) Moz Pro

As a long-time marketer and internet enthusiast, I'd like to start off by saying that there are no magic marketing bullets or single ways of achieving success. Even so, there are an enormous number of different tools available today for digital marketers, social media mavens, and SEO professionals. To help you wade through all these options and make sense of it all -- particularly when it comes to online marketing tools -- I wanted to outline some of my favorites in a recent post on Moz: 10 Can’t-Miss Online Marketing Tools That Will Save You Time and Help You Get Ahead. Check it out!

3) HubSpot

HubSpot is a powerful tool that’s not just for startups. When used correctly, it can be an essential part of your company’s marketing strategy. The best part about HubSpot is that it offers you an easy way to measure and monitor your marketing efforts, helping you optimize and improve each campaign. There are three components of HubSpot: HubSpot CRM, which allows you to manage your contacts; a sales tracker called SmartSite; and social media management called SocialInbox. A plan with HubSpot starts at $200 per month.

4) Hootsuite

From scheduling posts across multiple social media channels and analyzing your brand’s mentions to creating shareable, interactive content, Hootsuite is one of our favorite tools for simplifying social media marketing. We also love how you can assign tasks and track success with ease. Let’s talk about building an effective schedule for maximum engagement. Start by considering your goals—what do you want people to do when they engage with your social media? What do you want them to learn? Post a good mix of long- and short-form content, target hashtags for greater reach, and connect with influencers in your industry. Once you’ve got these essentials down, it's time to think about how you might integrate other tools into your strategy. Want more visual content?

5) Google Analytics

This free analytics program gives you valuable information about how visitors are interacting with your website. Not only can you see how many visitors come to your site, and what pages they look at, but you also get valuable information on where they’re coming from (e.g., are they finding your business via Google?) and what devices they’re using (e.g., desktop or mobile?). What’s more, Analytics lets you set up conversion goals that let you track each step of a customer journey—from visiting your site, signing up for an email newsletter or requesting a quote—so that you can easily see which marketing campaigns are working and which aren’t. Cost: Free! More info here.

6) MailChimp

Email marketing is one of the best ways to reach your customers. With MailChimp, you can build a list of contacts, send them updates and sales pitches, track their click rates and other data, and integrate with social media platforms. This app also has a mobile version for when you're on-the-go. [mailchimp]

7) Buffer

Social media scheduling tool Buffer allows you to post your content at optimum times in order to get more traffic and engagement. It's completely free, easy to use, has mobile apps for convenience and comes with a variety of pre-formatted images and tweets. We also love its simple features, such as a Buffer Bar that lets you know how far ahead of time you should schedule your posts if you want them seen by certain followers at a specific time. The free version lets you schedule 10 posts in advance; upgrade for $10 per month or $50 per year for unlimited usage.

8) SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is one of those online marketing tools that you might not realize you need until you have it. And if your business doesn’t currently have it, go ahead and add it to your list of must-haves. It’s a comprehensive tool for creating surveys, quickly gathering responses and analyzing data. There’s nothing like a good old survey to start learning more about your customer base, what they want and how best to deliver on those needs. We can tell you from experience that SurveyMonkey makes all of that easy – very easy in fact!

9) LinkedIn Publisher Plugin

LinkedIn’s Publisher plugin, a free tool for LinkedIn members, is all about social media marketing. Using it allows you to post articles right on your personal profile or Company Page and then share those updates across various social networks with a click of a button. You can also integrate your posts into other web content and mobile apps, which makes it a helpful tool if you want to reach more people and attract new clients or customers. This tool is particularly useful for companies that want an easy way to post professional articles on their websites without having to worry about tech issues like hosting and setup.

10) Facebook Pixel

This tool allows you to track users across your site, or within a specific area of your site. What’s more, Facebook Pixel lets you send users directly to conversion funnels (think lead generation) where they can convert into buyers and repeat customers. The pixel uses JavaScript code embedded in a webpage to track user behavior on your site—things like how far down a page they scroll and what links they click on. It also allows you to create custom audiences that only see ads for your company; these are super helpful for retargeting prospects who have visited certain pages or showed interest in certain products. For example, if someone visits your ecommerce product page but doesn’t buy anything, Facebook Pixel can help keep those people engaged with special offers related just to them.