Marketing has completely changed over the last few years. Today, it is almost entirely digital. That means advertising on online media and the internet itself—through laptops, mobile phones, tablets, and even Internet of Things-connected devices. There are countless tools available now that help marketers and brands communicate online and expand their digital presence.

According to Statista, global spending on digital advertising is projected to hit $695.66 billion in 2024 before jumping to more than $835 billion by 2026. Brands have no choice but to follow suit as people spend more time on the internet—leaving traditional media behind in many cases.

Digital marketing aims to reach customers with conversion-oriented messages across various channels as they progress through the sales funnel, ultimately aiming to drive sales.

Digital marketing tools and platforms help brands navigate the digital landscape. Technically, tools address specific marketing problems, and platforms offer solutions for multiple issues. We will cover a range of tools that assist businesses across the key areas of digital marketing.

Social Media Marketing Tools

This category involves using social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) to connect with your audience or customers, build your brand, drive traffic back to your website or location(s), and increase sales conversions. Many apps exist that can help automate these processes, thus saving time.

1. Upfluence

Best for eCommerce and SaaS businesses

Upfluence is an influencer marketing platform tailored for eCommerce and social commerce. It helps brands and agencies enhance online sales through collaborations with creators, affiliates, and ambassadors. Built on a vast database of nearly 3 million influencers, Upfluence’s algorithm indexes and updates real-time profiles, analyzing content for reach and engagement. The Live Capture tool collects social information from existing customers to identify potential brand ambassadors.

• Key Features: Influencer database and search engine, segmentation and recruitment, influencer scoring, campaign analytics, audience analysis, reporting, and dashboards

• Channels/Integrations: Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento Commerce, Zapier, Klaviyo, PayPal

• Pricing: Upon request

2. Brandwatch Social Media Management

Best for Mid to large-sized businesses

Brandwatch is a multi-functional platform that offers social media listening (SML), publishing (SMP), advertising (ADS), measurement (SAM), and customer data management (CDM). It’s got a unified calendar for scheduled content, a Campaign Planner to create and manage campaigns, and a unified inbox for social media interactions with customers. It's also great in terms of analytics—it tracks over 600 metrics with customizable dashboards.

• Key Features: Bulk processing and automation, search operators, shareable dashboards, integrations, unlimited users, multilingual coverage

• Channels/Integrations: Hootsuite, Percolate, Khoros Marketing

• Pricing: Upon request

3. Creator.co

Best for Small to mid-sized businesses

Creator.co connects brands and creators for collaboration, growth, and increased earnings. It offers two pricing plans: Self-Serve and Community-Driven. The Self-Serve plan provides standard features, while the Community-Driven plan automates campaign management after initial setup.

• Key Features: Automated campaigns, giveaway tools, campaign specialist assistance, audience analysis, influencer segmentation, and recruitment

• Channels/Integrations: Unspecified

• Pricing: Self-Serve ($460/mo.), Start-Up ($1,795/mo.), Trailblazer ($2,695/mo.), Bespoke ($3,495+/mo.)

4. Sendible

Best for Social media managers, marketing teams, and digital agencies

Sendible is a social media marketing platform designed to help businesses, agencies, and brands scale. It uses Services to create channels or profiles within your account, allowing tailored feature selection. Sendible supports content planning, scheduling, and sharing with Smart Queues for evergreen content.

• Key Features: Boolean keyword search, sentiment analysis, content optimization, bulk actions, lead generation, campaign analytics, real-time tracking, competitor analysis, mobile access

• Channels/Integrations: Google Drive, Dropbox, Canva, WordPress, Blogger, Facebook, Instagram, Google Business Profile, Tumblr, Google Analytics, Slack

• Pricing: Creator ($29/mo.), Traction ($89/mo.), White Label ($399/mo.)

Email Marketing Tools

Email marketing tools help businesses connect with their audience through streamlined email campaigns, calendar scheduling, real-time tracking, and more.

5. Loomly

Best for Freelancers, startups, NPOs, and influencers

Loomly is a social media calendar tool that works with various platforms. It organizes social post creation and sharing using workflows, allowing teams or individuals to follow set stages.

• Key Features: Content planning and scheduling, automated publishing, advanced analytics, post mockups, post optimization tips, content library, real-time tracking

• Channels/Integrations: Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, Meta for Business, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Google Business Profile, Zapier, Giphy

• Pricing: Base ($26/mo.), Standard ($59/mo.), Advanced ($129/mo.), Premium ($269/mo.), Enterprise (upon request)

6. PromoRepublic

Best for Franchise and multi-location businesses

PromoRepublic is a social media marketing solution for small businesses, agencies, franchise owners, and multi-location brands. It includes a built-in graphics editor, post ideas and an AI-suggested posting schedule.

• Key Features: AI-driven scheduling, graphics editor, post boosting, ad campaigns, post ideas and templates library, content approval flow, social analytics, social ads, shared inbox

• Channels/Integrations: Hootsuite, Desktop.com, Rambox, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Buffer, Facebook, Weebly, Shift

• Pricing: Small Business ($49/mo.), Agency ($79/mo.), Multi-Location (upon request)

7. Omnisend

Best for eCommerce businesses

Omnisend is an all-in-one email marketing automation platform for high-growth eCommerce businesses. It offers customizable templates, dynamic content blocks, and product integration from your store.

• Key Features: Email building and personalization, deliverability management, outbound email distribution, automated responses, marketing lead database, online behavior tracking, data quality management, revenue analytics, web analytics

• Channels/Integrations: Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento Commerce, Zapier, Yotpo, Volusion, Gleam, Privy, ShipStation, Klaviyo, MailChimp

• Pricing: Free ($0), Standard ($16/mo.), Pro ($59/mo.)

8. Agorapulse

Best for Mid-sized agencies and businesses

Agorapulse is a social media management tool for mid-sized businesses and agencies. It handles operations across multiple platforms and features a unified inbox, calendar scheduling, and bulk publishing.

• Key Features: Audience categorization, Boolean keyword searches, workflow management, audience targeting, automated routing, competitor analysis, real-time tracking

• Channels/Integrations: Google Analytics, Bitly, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Google Business Profile, Twitter, Social Media Hammer

• Pricing: Standard ($49/mo.), Professional ($79/mo.), Advanced ($119/mo.), Custom (upon request)

Content Marketing Tools

Content marketing is a strategic approach to creating and distributing valuable content to attract and engage a clearly defined audience – with the ultimate objective of driving profitable customer action. These are some of the different types of content marketing tools available:

9. BuzzSumo

Best For Businesses of any scale

Buzzsumo helps you discover popular content on any topic or website. You can analyze what content performs best for any topic or competitor by searching with relevant keywords or domain names.

• Key Features: Content discovery, content analysis, influencer identification, trend analysis, competitor analysis, real-time tracking

• Channels/Integrations: WordPress, Hootsuite, Buffer

• Pricing: Pro ($99/mo.), Plus ($179/mo.), Large ($299/mo.), Enterprise (upon request)

10. CoSchedule

Best For Businesses of any scale

CoSchedule is a marketing calendar and project management tool for content creators and marketers. It offers content planning, scheduling, and collaboration features.

• Key Features: Marketing calendar, project management, task management, content optimization, social media scheduling, real-time tracking

• Channels/Integrations: WordPress, Google Analytics, Google Drive, Zapier, MailChimp

• Pricing: Marketing Calendar ($29/mo.), Marketing Suite (upon request)

11. Contently

Best for Mid to large-sized businesses

Contently is a content marketing platform that helps brands create and distribute quality content at scale. It also has built-in analytics to measure the impact of your content.

• Key Features: Content creation, content management, content distribution, freelance network, project management, real-time tracking

• Channels/Integrations: WordPress, Google Analytics, Google Drive, Zapier

• Pricing: Upon request

Conclusion

If you want to maximize your ROI, you need to use digital marketing tools. These tools cover different areas of digital marketing but share common goals: increasing audience engagement, driving conversions, and maximizing marketing efforts.