The 65 Best Marketing Tools for Online Businesses

Marketing tools are the invisible foundation of a strong marketing strategy. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of marketing tools out there, and some are expensive and difficult to use and implement. If you’re a small business owner, the cost of these tools alone can feel unwieldy, and choosing the best fit for your business may be difficult. 

We put together a curated list of the types of marketing tools you’ll need by marketing category. While this isn’t a comprehensive list, it’s a thoughtful collection of tools that are at the top of their class, affordable, or free, and can grow with your business over time. 

65 Best marketing tools for online businesses

You might need tools from one or all of these categories—it really depends on what your goals are and what your overall strategy is. For tools that don’t have a free option, many offer seven- or 14-day free trials where you can test out the platform before you commit. 

Email marketing

Email marketing tools help you create email campaigns, send out email blasts or newsletters, organize different email lists, and track and analyze results. They support your overall email marketing strategy by acting as a hub for all types of email campaigns you send, automated sequences like abandoned cart emails, or one-off announcements to your customers. There are tons of email marketing services out there, but these are some of the best. 

1. Mailchimp

• Pricing: Free for up to 2,000 contacts, and includes up to 10,000 sends per month and a daily limit of 2,000. Paid plans start at $9.99 for 500 contacts. 
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface, Mailchimp Shopify app.

2. Klaviyo

• Pricing: Free for up to 250 contacts and 500 email sends total. Paid plans start at $20 per month for up to 500 contacts. 
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS, Klaviyo Shopify app .

3. Seguno

• Pricing: Free for up to 250 subscribers. Paid plans start at $10 per month for 251 to 1,000 subscribers. 
• Type of platform: Seguno Shopify app.

4. Omnisend

• Pricing: Free for up to 250 contacts with 500 sends per month. Paid plans start at $16 for up to 500 contacts with up to 6,000 sends per month. 
• Type of platform: Email marketing for ecommerce: Integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce.

5. Automizely

• Pricing: Free for up to 300 contacts with 3,000 sends total. Paid plans start at $11 per month for 600 contacts, with unlimited email sends.
• Type of platform: Automizely Shopify app. 

6. Shopify Email

• Pricing: Included free with any Shopify store. 
• Type of platform: When you sign up for a Shopify store, email comes with it. 

Social media marketing

Social media tools allow you to do things like create one post, then automatically send it to every platform—at the time and date you set. These tools eliminate manual processes like tracking the performance of each post in a spreadsheet, or going into each social media app every day to get content up. They also make it easier to create and launch paid social posts, and make it possible for customers to shop a social feed on your website.

7. Buffer

• Pricing: Free for up to three social channels and 10 posts queued up at a time. Paid plans start at $5 per month per social channel, with unlimited posts in the queue.
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface. 

8. Followerwonk

• Pricing: Free for up to one profile, with 50 Twitter searches per day. Paid plans start at $23 per month with up to three profiles and unlimited Twitter searches per day. 
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface.

9. Shopify Online video maker

• Pricing: Free, even if you don’t have a Shopify store. 
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface.

10. AdRoll

• Pricing: Free option with AdRoll branding and up to 5,000 email sends. Paid plans start at $19 per month. Total cost depends on your paid ad budget, even with the free plan. 
• Type of platform: Paid marketing for ecommerce businesses: Integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, Wix, and PrestaShop.

11. Instafeed

• Pricing: Free for one Instagram feed. Paid plans start at $4.99 per month for up to three feeds. 
• Type of platform: Instafeed Shopify app. 

12. Sause Social Commerce

Content marketing

Content marketing tools can support every leg of your content marketing strategy, whether that’s helping you create new videos, contribute to your blog, or run a podcast. They simplify tasks and support others, no matter how much experience you have. 

13. Hemingway editor

• Pricing: Free product.
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface.

14. Vimeo Create video maker

• Pricing: Basic membership is free, but get up to 5v GB per week (up to 250 GB per year) of storage with the Plus membership, which starts at $7 UD per month. 
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface, Vimeo Shopify app. 

15. Simplecast podcast management

• Pricing: There’s no free plan for Simplecast, but it does offer a 14 day free trial. A Basic plan starts at $13.50 USD per month for 2 team member seats. 
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface 

16. BuzzSumo

• Pricing: Free plan offers 10 searches per month. Paid plans start at $79 per month for unlimited monthly searches.
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface. 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO tools help you optimize and research ways to optimize your organic website traffic through online search engines. They allow you to do keyword research, track the performance of different web pages, and help you understand how to get your website to perform better in organic search. SEO helps you drive more free traffic to your website. 

17. Moz

• Pricing: Free SEO tools like Keyword Explorer, MozBar, Domain Analysis, and Link Explorer. Moz Local starts at $14 per month for businesses with a physical location. Moz Pro starts at $99 per month for teams that need to track weekly keyword rankings, custom reports, competitive research, and more.
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface.

18. Semrush

• Pricing: There’s no free option. Paid pricing costs $119.95 per month. With this plan, teams can have up to five projects and track up to 500 keywords daily. The second tier plan costs $229.95 per month and includes up to 15 projects and 1,500 keywords tracked daily.
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface.

19. Ahrefs

• Pricing: There’s no free option; you can start with a seven-day trial for $7. The Lite plan starts at $99 per month and includes up to 500 keywords, with rankings tracked weekly. The Standard plan costs $179 per month and tracks up to 1,500 keywords every five days.
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface.

20. Ubersuggest

• Pricing: Free keyword research tool. 
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface. 

21. SEO Booster

• Pricing: Use the free plan to automatically add alt text to up to 50 products. Upgrade to the Pro plan at $39 per month and automatically add alt text to up to 500 products.
• Type of platform: SEO Booster Shopify app. 

22. Avada SEO: Image Optimizer

• Pricing: Optimize up to 50 images with the free plan, and upgrade to the Pro plan at $29 per month for unlimited image optimization.
• Type of platform: Avada Shopify app. 

23. Shopify SEO tools

• Pricing: Comes free with any Shopify store. 
• Type of platform: Part of the back end of your Shopify store. 

Direct mail

Catalogs, coupons, and event flyers are all methods of direct mail marketing that you might send to a customer. Direct mail marketing tools make it possible to design, ship, and track the performance of your direct mail initiatives at scale.

24. Sendoso

• Pricing: There’s no free plan and no pricing listed on the Sendoso website, but the Essential plan allows up to 1,500 sends per year. The Plus plan allows up to 4,000 sends per year.
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface.

25. Postie

• Pricing: Postie does not list any prices on its website; you’ll need to contact the sales team for a demo.
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface.

26. PebblePost

• Pricing: PebblePost does not list any prices on its website; you’ll need to contact the sales team for a demo. 
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface.

Lead generation

Lead generation tools automate the lead sourcing process and help nurture new prospective buyers into customers. Without these tools, attracting new customers to your business would be a manual time-consuming process, requiring that many moving parts work in harmony. Lead gen tools take the guesswork out of these processes by doing them for you. 

27. HubSpot

• Pricing: HubSpot offers free CRM, marketing, sales, and customer service tools. The actual Marketing Hub plans start at $45 per month for 1,000 marketing contacts. The next tier plan starts at $800 per month for up to 2,000 marketing contacts and significantly more features.
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface, HubSpot Shopify app. 

28. ONE marketing suite

Lead capture and conversion

You might offer a 15% discount to first-time email subscribers, or let people sign up on a landing page for updates on a new product launch. Lead capture tools prompt leads for their emails so you can send them marketing emails in order to convert them into customers. Without lead capture tools, you’ll miss out on the ability to nurture the people who come to your site and don’t convert. 

29. Unbounce

• Pricing: There’s no free option, but you can start with a 14day free trial. The basic Launch plan costs $90 per month and includes up to 500 conversions, up to 20,000 visitors, and one domain. The Optimize plan costs $135 per month and includes up to 1,000 conversions, 30,000 visitors, and up to five domains.
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface. 

30. Octane AI: Quiz Growth Tools

• Pricing: There’s no free option, but you can start with a 14-day free trial. The Starter plan costs $29 per month after that; the next tier costs $199 per month and includes dynamic quiz functionality.
• Type of platform: Octane Shopify app.

31. Sales Pop up—Conversion Pro

• Pricing: The free version includes up to $100 in boosted revenue. The second tier plan costs $3.99 per month and includes up to $1,000 in boosted revenue.
• Type of platform: Sales Pop up Shopify app

32. Justuno

• Pricing: Start with a 14-day free trial. The entry level plan costs $41 per month and includes up to 10,000 website visitors. The second tier plan starts at $399 per month and includes unlimited website visitors. 
• Type of platform: Justuno Shopify app

Live chat 

Live chat isn’t just for customer support. We found that 70% of customers conversing with businesses through Shopify Inbox had questions around a purchasing decision. Live chat tools facilitate real-time conversations, can automate responses, and can help you track and analyze what types of messages work better for conversion. They play a major role in answering the questions that hold customers back from making a purchase. 

33. Intercom

• Pricing: Start with a 14-day free trial. For small businesses, plans start at $67 per month. For larger businesses, pricing is calculated by the number of seats you need and number of unique people you reach every month with outbound messaging.
• Type of platform: SaaS plug-in. 

34. Gorgias

• Pricing: No free option but you can sign up for a seven-day free trial. Priced plans start at $60 per month for 350 tickets and an extra $25 for each 100 tickets. The next tier costs $300 a month for 2,000 tickets and an extra $23 per 100 additional tickets.
• Type of platform: Integrates with Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento.

35. Tidio

• Pricing: Free option includes 100 unique visitors reached and unlimited messages. Paid plans start at $39 per month, with unlimited unique visitors reached, and unlimited chats and chatbots.
• Type of platform: Tidio Shopify app, SaaS plug-in. 

36. Shopify Inbox

• Pricing: Free with any Shopify store.
• Type of platform: Add Shopify Inbox to any Shopify store.

Design and visuals

From your packaging to your business cards to product photos and videos, the design and visuals of your website are unique to your brand. These design tools make it easy for anyone, design chops or not, to create a bright, compelling, visual language for your business. 

37. Canva

• Pricing: Free option includes a large set of features. Pro option costs $12.99 per month and comes with premium photos and templates, collaboration features, and brand kits. 
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface.

38. Shopify business card maker

• Pricing: Free Shopify business tool—no Shopify store required.
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface.

39. Promo video maker

• Pricing: Make videos for free, but if you’d like to download them, you’ll have to pay for a plan. The entry level tier costs $29 per month.
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface, Promo Shopify app. 

40. Arka packaging and supplies

• Pricing: There is no free option and pricing depends on how large your packaging is and how much volume you do. 
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface, Arka Shopify app.  

Project management tools

Project management tools are the key to an organized marketing campaign calendar and smooth communication between you and the other members of your team. 

41. Google Workspace

• Pricing: Try out Google Workspace free for 14 days. Plans start at $6 per user per month for 100 participant video meetings and 30 GB of cloud storage per user. The second tier plan costs $12 per user per month for 150 participant video meetings and recordings, plus 2 TB of storage per user.
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS.

42. Slack

• Pricing: Robust free product. Access up to 10,000 messages, 10 app integrations, and 1:1 voice and video calls. Upgrade to a paid plan at $6.67 per month for full message history, guest accounts, unlimited integrations, and group video calls with up to 15 people. 
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS software download.

43. Asana

• Pricing: Free product that works for up to 15 team members. Paid plans start at $10.99 per month if you have more than 15 team members or want additional features for more complicated workflows.
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface.

44. Airtable

• Pricing: Airtable’s free product includes unlimited bases, 1,200 records per base, and 2 GB of attachments per base. Upgrade to a paid plan at $10 per seat per month for 5,000 records per base, 5 GB of attachments per base, and six months of revision history. 
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface.

45. Basecamp

• Pricing: Basecamp Personal is free and includes three projects, 20 users, and 1 GB of storage space. Try out Basecamp business free for 30 days, and upgrade to a paid plan for $99 per month with unlimited projects and users and 500 GB of storage space.
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS software download.

SMS Marketing

According to a study, SMS marketing is extremely effective—many SMS campaigns have an average open rate of 98%. Compared to email marketing, which often hovers around 20%, it’s becoming a more effective way to reach customers. SMS marketing tools make it possible to send those bulk messages and measure their impact. Without these tools, it would be impossible to text customers at scale.

46. Postscript

47. SMSBump

• Pricing: Free to install, and $0.0149 per SMS message. A $19 per month upgrade gets you 1:1 SMS conversations, but you’ll still have to pay $0.0149 per SMS message.
• Type of platform: SMSBump Shopify app.

48. Lazer Technologies SMS marketing

49. Attentive

• Pricing: There’s no free option, and Attentive does not list pricing information on its website.
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface.

Analytics and tracking

In order to better understand how the different elements of your website are performing, you’ll need analytics and tracking tools. These tools clue you in to what levers you can pull to increase customer conversions on different webpages. 

50. Google Analytics

• Pricing: The standard version of Google Analytics is free.
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface 

51. Hotjar

• Pricing: The free version of Hotjar’s heat mapping tool includes up to 35 daily sessions, unlimited heat maps, and up to 1,050 recordings per month. Pay $39 USD per month for up to 100 daily sessions and 3,000 recordings per month. 
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS 

52. Lucky Orange

• Pricing: The free version of the Lucky Orange heat mapping tool includes 500 pageviews per month and unlimited heat map data and recordings for 30 days. Upgrade to the $10 USD per month package for 25,000 pageviews per month. 
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS, Lucky Orange Shopify app

53. Heap

• Pricing: Free option includes one project and up to 10,000 sessions per month. Paid plans start at $3,600 per year and include up to 40,000 sessions per month. 
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface, Shopify integration.

54. Salesforce—tableau analytics

• Pricing: There’s no free version of the base product, Einstein Predictions, which starts at $75 per user per month for “predictive insights.” To get access to the Tableau CRM analytics tool, it’s $125 per user per month. 
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface. 

55. Mixpanel

• Pricing: Free for 100,000 monthly tracked users. Paid plans start at $25 per month—you build your own plan by picking the number of monthly tracked users you need. 
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface.

Brand marketing 

Brand marketing tools tell the story of your brand, from the name of your business to your logo. If you’re a small business in particular, these tools make it quick and easy to get up and running without spending a ton of money hiring a branding specialist or designer. 

56. Hatchful logo generator 

• Pricing: Free Shopify logo generator.
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface.

57. Shopify business name generator

• Pricing: Free Shopify business name generator.
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface.

Influencer and affiliate marketing

Influencer marketing tools help you find and reach out to qualified influencers who will market your products to their audiences. Rather than sourcing candidates yourself by manually combing through social media networks, these tools provide an easy platform and process where influencers reach out to you. Affiliate marketing tools can help you start and manage your own affiliate marketing programs, an otherwise bulky process that would be challenging to operate manually.

58. Dovetale

• Pricing: Free plan includes three seats and unlimited applications. Upgrade to the $19 per month plan to accept unlimited members. 
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface for enterprise customers, Dovetale Shopify app. 

59. Refersion

• Pricing: Free for 14 days. Plans start at $89 per month for 130 tracked affiliate conversions per month. Upgrade to Enterprise (price upon request) for unlimited tracked conversions. 
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface, Refersion Shopify app.

60. Carro

• Pricing: The free version allows you to work with influencers and to list and browse products. Paid plans are free for 60 days. Then, pay a 5% fee on sales through Carro and $50 per month for cross-store selling. 
• Type of platform: Carro Shopify app.

61. Impact

• Pricing: It’s free to install Impact, but it costs $500 per month and up for its affiliate and influencer marketing services. 
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface, Impact Shopify app.

Loyalty and rewards

Incentivize customers to make repeat purchases with loyalty and reward programs. Loyalty and reward program tools track purchases and automatically generate rewards when they’re due. Many of these tools also provide referral programs that incentivize existing customers to get new customers to make purchases. 

62. Yotpo Loyalty & Rewards

• Pricing: Yotpo’s free loyalty and rewards plan includes up to 100 monthly orders, customizable rewards, and a referral program. Upgrade to a paid plan for $29 per month for additional features like customized rewards pop-ups and points for product review.
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface, Yotpo Shopify app.

63. Smile Rewards & Loyalty

• Pricing: Smile’s free version comes with a points and referral program. Paid plans start at $49 per month and include program branding, reward emails, and one integration. 
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface, Smile Shopify app.

64. LoyaltyLion

• Pricing: The free LoyaltyLion program includes 800 monthly orders and basic loyalty features. Paid programs start at $159 per month and also include 800 monthly orders and “core features.” Pay $399 per month for up to 2,000 orders. 
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface, LoyaltyLion Shopify app.

65. Growave

• Pricing: While there’s no free version of Growave, you can try it free for 14 days. Paid plans start at $19 per month for 100 orders, reviews, and rewards. Pay $29 per month for up to 250 orders. 
• Type of platform: Standalone SaaS web interface, Growave Shopify app

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