Digital Marketing is undergoing several transformations at scale across the world as audiences adopt new engagement patterns. With 2022 in the picture, we are expecting several new trends to take the foreground. This invariably includes deeper penetration of mobile traffic and associated apps, to the rise of multi-channel marketing.
If you’re a marketer, the best way to form an impactful strategy is by analyzing your audience proficiently. Understanding what apps they interact with for discovering marketing opportunities and building campaigns that attract their attention. It all becomes more apparent with the right data sets in place.
Statistically, we know that about 91% of retail brands are currently employing two or more social media marketing channels. At the same time, a study found out that netizens on average have up to 5.54 social media accounts.
This clearly depicts that if marketers are eyeing success in 2022, they need to take a more diverse approach and develop a multi-channel marketing cycle. Right from Social Media to SMS marketing and re-targeting – the efforts need to take not one but several avenues into consideration.
In order to do just that, we have chalked out 7 top digital marketing tools, each of which helps you get better at a different aspect of marketing. Broadly, we have covered the following;
- Marketing Project Management
- Customer Relationship Management
- WhatsApp Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Snapchat Advertising
- PPC Advertising
- SMS Marketing
Let’s try to understand the benefits, features, and ways in which marketers can leverage these tools. We have pointed out the key details for each tool below.
7 Superb Digital Marketing Tools In 2022
1. ProofHub – Marketing Project Management
ProofHub is project management software that brings marketing teams together to boost their collective productivity. If you’re looking to streamline your marketing workflow, cut down collaboration challenges and execute campaigns faster, ProofHub is a highly recommended SaaS tool.
It offers an intuitive interface for tracking marketing tasks with Kanban boards. Campaign managers can chalk out their weekly strategy or 4-week plans with an integrated calendar system. It also resolves communication gaps using text chat, asynchronous discussion boards, and task comments.
More features include task time tracking and custom project reports. Marketing agencies, studios, and in-house teams – everyone can benefit from ProofHub’s powerful marketing management offerings.
Why ProofHub?
- Centralized Marketing Management – bring campaign management, file sharing, approvals, and client collaboration onto a single manageable platform.
- Powerful Collaboration – let your teams stay connected and in the loop of project progress from in-office or remote setups.
- Reduce Process Inefficiencies – fix broken communication, track tasks accurately, and speed up slow processes.
Pricing
ProofHub is offered at a flat monthly fee of $89 per month (billed annually) with unlimited marketing projects and clients.
2. HubSpot – Marketing CRM
HubSpot is essentially an inbound marketing software suite that features a smart Customer Relationship Management component. For B2B companies that need active lead tracking, nurturing and conversion can benefit from it’s automated features.
Right from lead qualification to scheduling meetings and closing deals, HubSpot is capable of handling the entire workflow. If you’re working on MQLs, the tool can help you build a smooth pipeline so that you can enhance the efficiency of the sales process.
Additionally, it also offers tools for customer service, content, and operations teams.
Why HubSpot?
- Effective CRM – Manage customer data, nurture leads and actively reach out to prospects using one tool.
- Smart Lead Management – schedule meetings, create deals, and onboard customers with an automated process.
- Integrated Marketing – HubSpot integrates sales, marketing, and customer service in one collaborative platform.
Pricing
HubSpot has different plans for each of its components. The marketing plan starts at $50 per month when billed monthly for 1000 contacts.
3. WhatsApp API – WhatsApp Marketing
WhatsApp is ranked among the most used messaging apps around the world with 78% of Americans accessing the app weekly. It currently serves 2 billion users worldwide, making it an unignorable marketing channel in 2022. Now with WhatsApp API, businesses can use it to market their services and automate messaging for better response rates.
The API is capable of several use-cases such as deploying a WhatsApp chatbot, sending custom notifications, broadcast marketing offers, accessing a shared inbox. These nifty features can help you build a close engagement with your customers for better retargeting and delivering offers directly into their WhatsApp inbox.
If you’re looking to evolve your customer engagement workflow, WhatsApp API is a must-try.
Why WhatsApp API?
- Large User Base – with an ever-expanding user base, WhatsApp offers ample opportunity for marketers.
- Improve Customer Engagement – with direct access to WhatsApp inbox, businesses can use it for customer service, notifications, and lead generation.
- Increase Marketing Penetration – as it’s a personal messaging app, users are more likely to engage with business offers in their contact list.
Pricing
The API is part of the WhatsApp Business Platform which comes with its own pricing plans.
4. MailerLite – Email Marketing
Email marketing is by no means going out of trend but is growing smarter with tools like MailerLite. It’s an integrated email marketing suite that enables marketers not only to send promotional emails but build a streamlined post-click experience also. It engages users with the help of custom web pages, sign-up forms, and subscriber opt-ins for improved marketing ROI.
Marketers can fully design and iterate their email campaigns with its rich-text editing features. The tool also offers smart subscriber segmentation, analytics, and campaign automation. Its developer API allows businesses to run marketing campaigns in conjunction with MailerLite.
Why MailerLite?
- Integrated Marketing – not just emails but a horde of engagement options such as landing pages and custom forms.
- Campaign Automation – send campaigns using automated functions and API integrations.
- Detailed Tracking – a rich analytics suite helps marketers clearly gauge the performance of their campaigns.
Pricing
MailerLite charges users as per the size of the contact list. It begins at $10 for 1000 subscribers and grows incrementally.
5. Snapchat Ads – Snapchat Advertising
If you haven’t explored Snapchat’s advertising platform, now may be a great time. Be mindful that the USA is Snapchat’s biggest market with close to 100 million users. On average, Snapchat users interact with the app about 30 times a day.
The Snapchat advertisement platform comes loaded with ad optimization, detailed targeting, and tools for creators. The Snap Pixel manages ad data for marketers to boost ad performance. Snapchat ads support various CTAs including call-backs, link redirects, and or app installs. There are two modes available for advertisers – Instant and Advanced, both with several capabilities for running engaging Snapchat Ads.
Why Snapchat Ads?
- Cost-effective Solution – Snapchat ads are quite cost-effective in nature with plans starting at just $5.
- Engaged Users – the app has a high user engagement rate which is a solid opportunity ground for advertisers.
- Short-form Content – short-form content in the form of 15 to 60-second clips has a higher engagement rate.
Pricing
The pricing depends upon ad campaign metrics such as campaign goals, CPM, and audience size.
6. SpyFu – PPC Advertising
If you already run Google PPC campaigns or are planning to do so in 2022, you can use SpyFu for ROI optimization. It offers several tools for accessing data intelligence regarding Adword campaigns that marketers can leverage for boosting campaign performance.
It comes with pre-built ad templates, generates suggestions for ads, finds competitor keywords, and does a lot more for your ads. Running all these operations manually can be a gigantic task and SpyFu easily saves a lot of time with its automated offerings. Its PPC campaign monitor makes it easy to make pivots in strategy with ad intelligence.
Why SpyFu?
- Reduce Ad Errors – you can significantly bring down campaign errors that usually reduce the overall ROI.
- Optimize With Data – SpyFu opens up data streams for optimizing ads by taking strategic decisions.
- Quicker Campaigns – bring down the time and effort required to run successful PPC campaigns.
Pricing
SpyFu’s pricing is dependent upon the data volume consumed by the user. It ranges between $9 to $49 per month billed monthly.
7. Attentive – SMS Marketing
Attentive offers tools for configuring SMS and email marketing campaigns. Typically, it has quite useful features for SMS marketing that marketers would be interested in. You can create SMS broadcasts, build conversational SMS flows, and use the tool for sending transactional messages.
The online suite lets you fully design rich text campaigns using templates and custom editors. Include media attachments in text messages, add contact card information and automate responses with built-in triggers. It’s a wholesome tool for managing your entire SMS marketing arm as it offers campaign analytics also.
Why Attentive?
- Online SMS Suite – you can fully configure the SMS suite to send texts, manage campaigns and check results.
- Engagement Features – it offers 2-way interaction with users with the help of automated replies for SMS campaigns.
- Transactional SMS – use Attentive for sending transactional SMS which boosts customer confidence.
Pricing
Attentive’s pricing is available through a demo only.
Conclusion
Marketing campaigns become even more powerful when the brains of the marketer meet smart tools. As we see new creative trends emerge and new forms of marketing become mainstream, marketers need to increase their hold on the tools. This article offers seven such tools that are helping marketers meet their campaign needs fruitfully and achieve desirable ROIs.
