6 tools you can use to improve your marketing strategy

Countless tools have helped us be successful inbound marketers – some we can share here, and others you'll just have to experience for yourself (such as INBOUND, HubSpot's amazing annual conference). Like many other professionals, we have big to-do lists and we’re always looking to be more efficient and productive. The tools we use help us do just that! Below we’re sharing six of our favorite tools that we use everyday that we think anyone who has at least one foot in the proverbial marketing door should be using, too. Did we mention most of these are free? Yes, you heard that right...

HubSpot – As a silver-tiered #HubPartner, you already know we love HubSpot. (We’re one of 3,100 agency partners worldwide!) HubSpot is an inbound marketing and sales software that helps companies attract visitors, convert leads and close customers. We use it everyday to manage many of our clients' blogs, landing pages, email marketing and social publishing. Without it, our 8-hour work days would be 13-hour work days!

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‍Canva – Sometimes we have to design a graphic for a client and we don’t have much time. Instead of opening up one of Adobe's Creative Cloud products, we just hop into Canva and get the job done. Canva is an efficient, web-based design tool that offers a wide variety of templates for social media posts, event invitations, infographics or eBooks. If you have to add a logo to a photo or create a CTA button in a hurry, Canva is the answer.

‍Google Analytics – We recommend Google Analytics for tracking your website analytics. Google Analytics is a free web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. It keeps track of your visitors and what they’re doing when on your website. Reporting is no longer a hassle when using this tool; you can easily export reports to share with your boss or team. (Want to find out which tools we use the most in Google Analytics? Click here!)

‍Dropbox – When you have multiple clients, staying organized is a necessity. We love Dropbox! Dropbox is a no-fuss place to store photos, videos and other files, and it automatically syncs to your computer, tablet or phone. The best part about Dropbox is how easy it is to share files with others. You can send photos or docs to anyone on your team – or even a client – and it keeps your stuff safe and secure. Say goodbye to digging through your briefcase for your flashdrive, worrying about your email storage or how you’re going to access all of your files if something happens to your computer.

‍Moz – Do you need help explaining to your client why they’re ranked where they are on a search engine? Moz is known for helping marketers improve rankings and your client's visibility. With their metrics – such as domain authority, which gives your clients a score based on a 100-point scale and reflects how well a domain is likely to rank in Google's search results – you can determine what keywords an organization is more apt to rank for given the competition. The Moz Pro software provides weekly updates for your campaigns so you can notice fluctuations in domain authority, rankings and see if any crawl issues arise. You can learn of SEO opportunities for you or your clients, see where their competitors are ranking and find out what might be hindering them from ranking all at the same spot.

‍Teamwork Projects – It’s not easy to memorize and keep track of every project your team is working on. In this industry, it’s even harder to keep track of everyone’s time, being as the hours are rarely consistent. Thankfully, we have Teamwork Projects. Teamwork Projects is a web-based project management software that manages all of your projects and tasks. It not only tracks time spent on each project so you can bill your clients accordingly, but it also allows for more than one team member to work on a task. You can also communicate through the software and organize tasks for months in advance.

We can't forget our office mom – she deserves the most credit (Nance, you’re the real MVP! We appreciate you.)! Our office is always stocked with snacks, candy, chocolate, soda and coffee, and on Fridays you might even find some wine in our fridge. She makes sure we have the latest holiday-scented hand soaps and pumpkin-spiced coffee, which is all a girl can really ask for, right? And she’s always willing to help whenever we need a hand. So, after you download some of the tools we’ve shared, we recommend searching for an office mom… But you can’t have ours!We’re always on the lookout for the latest tools to help with our strategy, so if you've discovered a tool worth sharing, comment below and let us know what we're missing! We hope these 6 tools help you to strengthen your marketing strategy!