10 Digital Marketing Software for Growing Businesses in 2023

As a business grows, there’ll be a need for increased speed and accuracy in its processes. 

It requires the automation of certain activities such as data collection, management, lead nurturing, and competitor analysis using marketing software. 

Based on functions and the aspects of marketing, we’ll review ten software you can add to your marketing technology stack to improve your processes and deliver better marketing ROI in 2023. 

Best Digital Marketing Software: Our Top 10 Picks

1. Hubspot CRM – Best Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Tool

A CRM tool helps businesses manage customer relationship processes, the fine line between sales and marketing, on a single platform.

Hubspot CRM gives you access to all the best CRM features like lead management, email campaigns, customer service management, tracking, and lots more. 

The CRM package on Hubspot marketing is free, as you can manage up to a million contacts without any limit or expiry date. 

However, you can request customized features suitable for your business at their premium sales hub for a fee. 

What We Like About Hubspot CRM

• Email templates and scheduling 
• Meeting scheduling 
• Document sharing 
• Live chat 
• Email tracking 
• Contact deal and task management 

What We Don’t Like About Hubspot CRM

• Customization only available on request

Hubspot vs. Other CRM Tools: How They Compare 

Hubspot CRM offers some of the best functionalities and customer support for as low as $0. 

Compared to other CRM tools that cost as high as $99 for starter plans, small businesses can use the Hubspot marketing free plan to manage their marketing operations. 

Hubspot marketing also integrates with many other marketing tools, which you might not see on other CRM solutions. 

2. Buffer – Best Social Media Scheduling Tool

Buffer is not just a social media marketing scheduling software; it’s a tool that helps you get your brand values and culture to the right audience. 

It offers several features in social media content management, scheduling, publishing, and collaboration.

The software offers advanced analytics on your followers’ behavior and how they interact with your brand across several social media platforms.

This way, you can get detailed information about who your customers are and when they engage. Using these metrics can help increase brand awareness.

What We Like About Buffer

• Ease of use 
• Detailed analytics 
• Free trial/free immediate version 
• Manage multiple social media accounts
• Calendar scheduling 

What We Don’t Like About Buffer

• Basic Instagram and Pinterest functions
• No options for monitoring mentions, hashtags, or searches.

Buffer vs. Other Social Media Scheduling Tools: How They Compare

While other social media tools might work well for larger businesses, Buffer will fit a small business looking for means to schedule regular social media posts. 

The tool offers some of the best social media scheduling features with extra functionalities like custom downloadable reports, which is great if you’re starting to build an online presence.

3. Ahrefs – Best Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tool

When it comes to SEO, there’s an overwhelming amount of tools and plugins to enhance your search engine marketing.

However, Ahrefs appeals to both junior marketers and experts.

The all-in-one SEO tool offers features like site audit, competitor research, SERP rank tracking, content exploration, website analytics, and keyword analysis, amongst others. 

While it serves big brands and market leaders in names like Facebook, Adobe, Uber, Trip Advisor, and more, its pricing structure still makes them a premium choice for growing businesses. 

Although Ahrefs no longer offers a free trial, several free SEO tools are available for basic optimization, like a backlink checker, keyword generator, website authority checker, and more. 

What We Like About Ahrefs

• Easy to use 
• Offers basic and advanced SEO tools
• Track keywords at local and international levels
• Great value for less 
• Offers keyword research tools for various search engines, including YouTube.
• Tracks website traffic

What We Don’t Like About Ahrefs

• No free trial

Ahrefs vs. Other SEO Tools: How They Compare

Ahrefs provides a means for you to access basic to pro-SEO features as a small business by attaching a generous pricing system and loads of freemium tools. 

It also uses a traffic metric that allows you to find untapped keywords, a rare feature amongst several SEO tools in the market. 

4. Wistia – Best Video Marketing Tool

It’s often a headache to find Video Marketing tools that offer you value without paying hefty sums or being bombarded with tons of ads. 

Wistia offers an ad-free video marketing solution for creating brand videos, hosting webinars, generating leads, and more. 

The multi-award-winning G2 leader services big and small brands in all industries and can handle your business’s video marketing needs. 

Wistia also integrates seamlessly with several CRM tools like Hubspot and Salesforce.

You can directly transfer viewing data to your CRM software and measure video performance without much hassle. 

What We Like About Wistia 

• Onsite video hosting 
• Flexible video dimensions 
• Fits your SEO strategy
• Quality analytics
• In-video forms
• Secured video formats
• Top-notch customer service.

What We Don’t Like About Wistia 

• No direct video promotions from the platform 

Wistia vs. Other Video Marketing Tools: How They Compare

Compared to popular video marketing options like YouTube and Vimeo, Wistia offers better features in creating brand videos and clips from live webinar recordings. 

You can also worry less about integrating with your other marketing tools while staying in touch with your customers on live video sessions.

5. Dropbox – Best Asset Management Tool

Marketing requires easy collaboration among all team members, which demands sharing and accessibility of files and materials.

With Dropbox, you can manage all your marketing resources, from video content to documents on the cloud, while sharing them with other team members. 

This Asset Management Tool offers up to 2 GB of free storage space and up to 5 TB on its paid plans, with options for a 30-day free trial. 

It can also integrate with most marketing tools, like Slack, Zoom, Trello, Google workspace, Asana, and more. 

What We Like About Dropbox

• Electronic signing 
• Multiple users
• Best price for more value
• Large file transfers up to 100 GB 
• Generous storage spaces

What We Don’t Like About Dropbox 

• Poor search function 
• Low standard encryption using SSL/TLS

Dropbox vs. Other Asset Management Tools: How They Compare

Most Asset Management Tools only offer storage and file-sharing capabilities.

However, Dropbox enables you to do more than that.

With Dropbox, you can track, analyze, and optimize your content, sign documents electronically, and work on the go while accessing your office files. 

6. Unbounce – Best Lead Generation Tool

What’s a marketing funnel without a landing page?

Landing pages are vital in a marketing campaign for gathering lead information for nurturing and conversions (inbound marketing).

While a well-designed landing page can give you the best results, Unbounce makes the design process easy with its AI-powered landing page generator. 

It uses a drag-and-drop editor that helps you customize your landing pages to fit your needs. 

It also includes an AI-powered writing assistant to help give you a headstart on creating conversion copies and CTAs. 

What We Like About Unbounce 

• Professional lead generation tool
• A/B testing 
• Drag and drop design editor 
• Sticky bars 
• Easy to use 

What We Don’t Like About Unbounce 

• Fewer design templates are available

Unbounce vs. Other Lead Generation Tools: How They Compare

Unbounce offers a lot more than a landing page builder – it offers integrations that help generate leads from your Google ads, social media, and email campaigns. 

And it’s suitable for businesses of any size.

7. ConvertFlow – Best Conversion Tool

Turn leads into buying customers using the best conversion tool, ConvertFlow. 

ConvertFlow enables you to build a streamlined conversion funnel managed from a single dashboard.

With its available integrations, you can grow your revenue by doing less and saving more.

The software offers advanced reporting, product quiz funnels, subscriber list templates, cart abandonment funnels, and more. 

What We Like About Convertflow

• Free trial
• CTA targeting and retargeting
• A/B Testing 
• Done-for-you templates 
• Responsive customer service 

What We Don’t Like About Convertflow

• Poor UX

Convertflow vs. Other Conversion Tools: How They Compare

ConvertFlow helps you put in the best efforts towards conversion by launching several funnels, depending on your marketing strategy. 

You can also integrate it with your CRM tool and deliver more personalized marketing. 

8. Mailchimp – Best Email Marketing Software

Step up your lead nurturing activities with the Mailchimp email marketing software. 

Mailchimp offers affordable plans with quality features based on the number of contacts and several other features. 

For starters, this email service provider offers a free limited plan that allows you up to 500 contacts with pre-built email templates. 

However, there are more advanced functions on the paid plans, like automated customer journey, campaign manager, predictive segmentation, and more to fit different email marketing campaigns.

What We Like About MailChimp 

• Seamless integration
• Comparative key metrics 
• Import templates 
• Easy to use 
• Free plan 
• Email tracking

What We Don’t Like About MailChimp 

• Basic custom templates 
• Slightly poor UX

MailChimp vs. Other Email Marketing Tools: How They Compare

Most email marketing software offers steep prices for similar functions Mailchimp offers in its basic plan. 

Mailchimp’s pricing plans consider small businesses striving to grow their reach, clientele, and returns. 

9. Slack – Best Collaboration Tool

As more companies take the remote route, Slack is becoming increasingly popular. 

Slack offer features that make it more than any other collaboration tool – it’s a virtual workspace. 

With Slack, you can integrate most of your marketing software like Trello, Google Drive, Gmail, and more. 

You can also create and organize spaces based on topics and send direct messages to other marketing teammates. 

While most of its features are on the free plan, you can enjoy more functionalities with a little more cash. 

Some pro features include unlimited history, audio and video conversations with up to 50 participants, and secure collaborations with external teams. 

What We Like About Slack

• Collaborate in real-time 
• Organize workplace setting
• Share files easily 
• Integrates with other marketing tools 
• Access your workspace on the go from any device. 
• Free plan

What We Don’t Like About Slack

• Your files and history can get lost on a free plan (after 90 days).

Slack vs. Other Collaboration Tools: How They Compare

Slack offers a means to collaborate and share files amongst marketing team members in real-time without the interruption of a time limit, like with Zoom. 

Integration with other tools also makes collaboration easy. 

For instance, integrating an asset management tool will make it easy to share file access with other team members. 

10. Digital Marketing Tuner – Best Analytics Tool

Analytics tools are a vital addition to your digital marketing software stack. 

It is because they help you note your progress and setbacks. You can make meaningful changes and strengthen areas where you’re getting it right. 

Considering the importance of quality analytical reporting, an advanced analytics tool like Digital Marketing Tuner is necessary for your marketing stack. 

The software audits your marketing processes using your data and provides a detailed report showing your team’s strengths and weaknesses. 

The software also offers suggestions on areas in your marketing strategy you can improve for better results.

What We Like About Digital Marketing Tuner 

• Free services 
• Detailed analytical reporting
• Offers suggestions for improvements
• Easy to use

What We Don’t Like About Digital Marketing Tuner 

• No integrating feature 
• Limited functions

Digital Marketing Tuner vs. Other Analytic Tools: How They Compare

Digital Marketing Tuner is a free analytic tool you can use as a growing business. 

It doesn’t offer integration possibilities as some other analytics tools do. 

However, it’s a great resource to learn about your progress and efforts and how you can improve. 

Digital Marketing Tuner can offer you the best value at no extra cost. 

FAQs

Here are some frequently asked questions regarding digital marketing software:

What Is Digital Marketing Software?

Digital marketing software is a tool that helps automate marketing efforts like customer management, lead generation, nurturing, conversion, website analytics, and more. 

They help in the smooth operation of marketing workflows by saving you time spent on mundane activities. 

For instance, you can use marketing automation software instead of manually calculating and creating a marketing report on how many leads you got from a campaign.

Why Is Digital Marketing Software Important? 

Every marketer aims to improve sales and increase ROI by collecting, nurturing, and converting qualified leads. 

Here’s how marketing automation software helps you achieve that with ease:

Seamless Execution 

Launching successful marketing campaigns requires communication with channels like content management, emailing, and team collaboration.

And as the business gets bigger, the marketing tasks become more complex. 

However, marketing automation platforms can help you manage all of these marketing channels and processes on a single platform, making it possible to execute commands seamlessly. 

Eliminates the Hard and Boring Stuff

Several marketing activities can be tiring and repetitive enough to become boring. 

Some include gathering customer data, sorting, grouping emails, and posting content according to a schedule. 

While these activities make a vital part of the marketing process, doing them manually can slow things down. 

But this is where marketing software can bridge the gap. 

You can easily manage several or all of these activities by setting up marketing automation in a few clicks. 

This way, you remove the boring stuff from your table and have enough time to do the other parts that require a human touch, like preparing marketing content or team management. 

Improve Customer Management

Customers are vital in every business, so managing your client base can take more steps in your marketing campaigns. 

It’ll require understanding what they engage with, their buying habits, responding swiftly to their needs, and engaging with them based on their interests relative to your brand voice. 

By setting up and utilizing marketing automation like Customer Relationship Management (CRM), you can maintain better relationships with your customers and engage with them across multiple channels seamlessly. 

Do You Need Digital Marketing Software? 

Marketing software can be a vital addition to marketing agencies, freelancers, and in-house marketers. 

Here are some reasons why you need marketing software:

• Have a competitive edge 
• Enjoy automated workflows
• Improve marketing processes 
• Acquire strong data points 
• Successfully manage your team, regardless of distance
• Create more time for planning, strategy, and management
• Get advanced tracking and reporting on the customer journey and marketing campaign progress. 

What to Consider When Buying Digital Marketing Software 

When buying marketing automation software, there’s no hard fast rule as to what an ideal solution should be for your business.

It is because marketers consider several factors, like the cost of the solution, features, business demands, and more. 

While you can add to the list, we’ll outline some factors you can consider when buying digital marketing software.

Integration Possibilities 

While some tools might appear to integrate with several others, they might need third-party software to complete the process.

If you already have an existing set of tools, choosing marketing software that integrates seamlessly with it is a core factor. 

The last thing you’ll want to do is change your existing stack or pay for extra marketing programs because you made the wrong choice. 

Complexity/User Onboarding 

When utilizing software for marketing automation, having some skill and expertise can be a plus in delivering the required results. 

While some software might require technical know-how to operate, others can offer a user-friendly interface with a proper onboarding guide that turns you from novice to pro in no time. 

It is also why free trials are also vital. 

You can use the free trials available to check out the tool’s complexity and how well it leads you to achieve your marketing goals. 

Features

What’s your business’ biggest marketing challenge? 

That’s one question you should answer before looking for marketing software. 

And like Adam Fout of Blue Steel will advise, “Think in terms of features tied to revenue”. 

It is because the endpoint for every marketing is to increase ROI. 

Consider tools with features that connect with your sales pipeline and drive returns rather than perform generic purposes. 

For instance, when choosing a social media marketing tool, you can select one with features that alert you to brand mentions rather than just scheduling posts. 

And even if you’re not looking to increase ROI, you can choose marketing software tools with features that align with your needs. 

Long-term Value  

While a marketing tool might be best for solving your immediate needs, that might not be the case in the nearest future. 

One thing you can consider when buying marketing software is how much stable value it can offer over a long period. 

You can identify your current business needs and possible future challenges. 

Then, consider how the tool solves those challenges now and in the future. 

Cost

Valuable items often don’t come cheap, so cost is usually a secondary factor when deciding to buy.

However, it’s still necessary to compare the costs of various marketing tools before purchase. 

While some tools might come with a steep price, there might be alternatives that offer the same features but sit right with your budget. 

You can compare various options to see what works best with your marketing system but place more value on quality than cost. 

Wrapping Up

Having the right blend of marketing software in your alley can help you measure up some business successes. 

They’ll be your companion in building desirable customer relationships, online brand presence, lead generation, email marketing, and conversion. 

Lastly, while you might have to pay a premium for some of these tools, you can test them using the free trials to see if they fit your marketing goals.