11 Digital Marketing Tools Every Small Business Needs

Check out our compilation of 11 must-have digital marketing tools for small businesses in 2024. Improve your marketing strategy with these top tools.

It can be challenging for small businesses to hire marketing help to plan, build, and implement a campaign. Not only is it a hefty investment, but it may not be where you need to prioritize your hiring efforts or budget at the moment.

That's where digital marketing tools come in handy. This blog will take you through what digital marketing tools are and why they're important. We'll also list some tools that are essential to small businesses.

What are digital marketing tools?

Digital marketing tools are apps and software that help you plan, collaborate, and implement your digital marketing strategy.

Whether you're planning a campaign, creating digital assets for social media, or tracking your results, digital marketing tools will help make your efforts more efficient and convenient.

For example, you don't need to spend hours making a video with a tool like Animoto. Digital marketing tools set you up for success and teach you along the way.

Why digital marketing tools are important

Nowadays, consumers no longer want to be sold to, they want to be informed.

If you think that's only true for online shoppers, prepare to be surprised. Even when visiting a store in person, 83% of shoppers said they did some online research beforehand.

Digital marketing tools are essential to small businesses because they help build your online presence without hiring someone to do the work.

Even without a degree or any training, these tools fill in the gaps so you can plan, build, and implement your own campaigns.

Below we'll outline 11 tools to help you grow your online marketing strategy.

Essential marketing tools for a small business: SEO

1. Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a free tool that acts like a window into how Google sees your website. It reveals what keywords people are using to find your site, how your pages appear in search results, and even if there are technical glitches hurting your ranking. It’s an integral tool for SEO, which is an integral tool for businesses of all sizes.

This goldmine of data lets you create targeted content, fix website issues, and ultimately attract more organic traffic to your site.

3. Ahrefs - keyword research and competitor analysis

Ahrefs is a suite of SEO tools for beginners and pros alike. Not only does it help your website rank higher in search engines, but it also teaches you how it's done.

It offers tools to help you optimize your website and gain insight into your customers, competition, and industry. It will also track your ranking along the way.

While SEO may seem intimidating, Ahrefs is there to show you how you can master it too. In addition to its tools, you'll also gain access to its community and support.

4. Readymag - website development & maintenance

Strapped for time and budget? You can still make a beautiful and powerful website with Readymag. Readymag's drag-and-drop interface and pre-designed templates allow anyone to create a professional and stunning website without needing coding knowledge.

5. ReviewsOnMyWebsite - Online reputation management

ReviewsOnMyWebsite is a review management tool that can help you stay on top of your business’s online reviews. You can use it to read and respond to all the reviews your business gets across various platforms from one central location.

There’s also the option to generate more reviews using the software by setting up automated email and SMS reminders sent to customers.

And you can even use it to display top customer reviews on your website by using the review widget feature.

6. Google Ads - paid online advertising

Google Ads is the collective name for all the ads you see across the search engine.

These can be text-based ads in search results, images displayed on websites, video ads on YouTube, product listings within search results, and others that get a little more specific.

Here, you can manage everything to do with your ads. The Google Ads platform allows you to target by keyword, location, device, and so much more. That’s why they're an excellent way to get the right people on your website.

7. Mailchimp - email marketing

Email marketing is another way to stay in front of your customers. With Mailchimp, you can create and send branded emails, build landing pages, design digital ads, and more.

It's more than sending out a monthly newsletter. This email marketing tool also offers features that will help you build marketing assets in each step of your customer journey.

Content creation

8. Animoto - online video maker and editor

A recent survey found that 69% of people who want to learn more about a product or service prefer doing so by watching a short video. Animoto takes the guesswork out of creating videos by offering user-friendly templates, paired with a vast stock content library.

There's no need for a large budget or hours of time spent on video editing. All you need is a camera, a little bit of planning, and you can get started. This video marketing tool is free to use, with no limits on the number of videos you can make.

Additionally, it offers plenty of resources, like this tutorial, to help set you up for success.

9. AdCreative - AI-powered ad design

AdCreative is an AI-powered platform that creates high-performing ad content for you. It saves you significant time and resources, while also helping you test different ad variations to see what performs best. With Adcreative.ai, small businesses can create professional ad campaigns that get noticed and drive results.

10. Tailwind - social captions, scheduling, and more

Tailwind can supercharge their marketing and content creation on Pinterest, Instagram, and more. It has a built-in scheduling tool that allows you to plan and publish content in advance, freeing up your time to focus on other areas. It also helps with content discovery by suggesting trending topics and pins to share.

It also uses AI to help you create and refine captions, email copy, and more. All you need to do is specify what type of post it is, where you’re sharing it, and what mood it should have. Then, just generate, copy, paste, and share.

11. Air - asset distribution

With all this content creation, organizing, sharing, and approving content can get extremely messy. Air, a digital asset management system, excels at internal collaboration by allowing your team to upload, organize, and share creative assets like images and videos. Its version control feature ensures that everyone's working on the latest version, and Kanban boards visualize project progress. Plus, Air integrates with popular project management tools, making it easy to keep creative workflows on track within a small business.

Get the ultimate tech suite

Getting these tools and approval to purchase them can be a lot if you go one by one. Luckily, the Ultimate Stack makes it easy with its all-in-one tech suite! The Ultimate Stack contains some of the tools mentioned above like Air, Tailwind, Animoto, Readymag, and AdCreative, plus five other essentials!

Keep in mind, you don't need any special training in marketing or design to use this lineup of small business tools. Each one is tailored to the small business user that wears a lot of hats and needs to move quickly. Plus, when you use one software in the stack, you unlock exclusive offers for all the other partner brands.

So skip the decision fatigue and bring this fully-powered suite to your business.