According to a joint report by Act-On and Econsultancy, 98% of B2B marketers agree that marketing automation tools are a necessary prerequisite for business success.
Anyone with a background in B2B can see why this is the case. B2B marketers have to perform a whole range of demanding tasks on a regular basis. From executing deliverables, meeting deadlines, developing strategies, and measuring results, they have their work cut out for them.
Fortunately, these tasks become much more manageable with the help of B2B marketing tools. Not only that, but B2B marketing tools also enable you to implement more effective marketing strategies, and they can help you optimize the performance of existing ones as well.
To learn more about B2B marketing and the tools that make it happen, check out our carefully curated list in the remainder of this post.
1. SEO Tools
These tools enable B2B marketers to generate organic reach through search engines such as Google.
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Moz Link Explorer
Moz Link Explorer is a tool for evaluating link profiles and discovering new backlink opportunities. It enables B2B marketers to research a site’s backlink profile and explore competitive backlink data.
Link Explorer gives you access to a link index that rivals that of Ahrefs and Majestic. This also ensures that the domain authority figures you get are extremely precise. The index is updated on a regular basis as well.
Link Explorer has a clean user interface, making it a good choice for beginners in B2B SEO. You can try out Link Explorer for free for 30 days, or you can get it as a part of the Moz Pro tool-set starting at $99 per month.
SEMrush
SEMrush is a collection of tools for competitive online SEO analysis. It comes with features for evaluating keyword performance, domain vs. domain comparisons, backlink auditing, and more.
SEMrush enables you to see find related keywords to the one you specify, and get an estimate about its search volume, historical trends, and a difficulty score. You can also find out the keywords a website ranks for, as well as the ads it’s displaying.
SEMrush provides all of its features from a unified user dashboard, make it easy to run SEO campaigns and track progress. It comes with a free trial, and the Pro subscription costs $99 per month.
2. Social Media Tools
These tools enable B2B marketers to manage social media profiles and organize social media marketing campaigns.
Sprout Social
Sprout Social is an all-in-one social media management solution. In addition to post scheduling and publishing, it also enables you to gauge your social media content is performing. Sprout Social also allows you to track brand mentions so you can participate in conversations involving your brand on social media.
Sprout Social’s content scheduling and optimization features will enable you to boost engagement while saving time. The tracking feature allows you to track social media campaigns, referral traffic, and conversions in real time.
Sprout Social has an effective user interface, and if you ever run into issues you can contact customer support at any time via email, live chat, or phone. Sprout Social has a free trial, and the basic subscription costs $99 per month.
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Buffer
Buffer is a social media tool for automating social media posting. B2B marketers use it to post content on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
Buffer’s drag and drop calendar makes it easy to schedule all your social media posts with a few clicks. It also lets you see how your posts are doing at a glance, and it can create reports based on the data.
Buffer offers a free analytics tool as part of the platform, but it only offers basic features. Buffer comes with several subscription tiers, and the basic one starts at just $15 per month.
3. Customer Service AI Tools
These tools enable B2B marketers to equip a website with smart, real-time customer service.
Imperson
Imperson is an intelligent AI chatbot platform for enterprise-grade chatbots. Chatbots built using Imperson support text, video, audio, and VR.
Imperson’s conversation navigator feature utilizes relationship memory, user intent analysis, and deep dialogue context to create convincing conversation algorithms. Imperson supports websites, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Kik, and many other platforms out of the box.
Once you sign up for Imperson, a bot implementor will guide you through the process of setting up chatbot from start to finish. To get a price quotation, you need to reach out to the company directly.
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Botsify
Botsify is another platform for making intelligent chatbots. B2B companies use it to create chatbots for channels such as Facebook Messenger or Slack.
Botsify offers an easy to use, drag-and-drop bot creation interface, and it utilizes machine learning to create smart chatbots for a variety of purposes. Bots created using Botsify can also collect information via built-in forms.
Botsify can be further expanded with plugins for integration with RSS feeds, Google Search, and more. The basic self-service plan costs $50 per month, and you can get full support starting at $300 per month.
4. CRM Tools
These tools enable B2B marketers to accomplish a variety of marketing tasks such as lead segmentation, marketing automation, and project management.
Really Simple Systems CRM
Really Simple Systems CRM is a complete marketing solution aimed at small B2B companies. It comes with features for managing sales, marketing, and customer service.
Really Simple Systems CRM helps you keep track of leads, set up task automation, and acquire relevant customer data. You can use it to build marketing campaigns from scratch using a convenient drag-and-drop interface.
Really Simple Systems offer 24/7 customer support, and the software suit is fully compliant with the GDPR. There is a free trial available, and the starter pack subscription costs only €12 per month.
Source: https://www.discovercrm.com
5. Market Intelligence Tools
These tools enable B2B marketers to gather and organize marketing data from a variety of sources.
HotJar
HotJar is an intelligence tool for analyzing website visitor behavior. It enables you to optimize your website conversion rate with actionable insights.
HotJar uses features such as heatmaps to show you where visitors spend most of their time on your website. It also allows you to view recordings of on-site behavior, giving you a glimpse into the way visitors experience and use your website. HotJar can also be used to inform your decisions in terms of website design and aesthetics.
HotJar offers a version with limited features completely free of charge, and the basic business version costs $89 per month for sites with up to 20000 page views per day.
Source: https://www.clearboxseo.com
Clearbit
Clearbit is a top lead enrichment tool for B2B marketers. It allows you to turn anonymous website data into customer profiles.
Clearbit is an indispensable tool for traffic-heavy B2B websites. It works by scraping the web for information such as employee size, segment, industry, location, social media handles, and more.
Clearbit has a simple layout and integrates seamlessly into the rest of your marketing tech stack. The price is based on your CRM database size, monthly web traffic, and monthly contact creation.
6. Content Marketing Tools
These tools enable B2B marketers to create and publish content with high conversion potential.
BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is a web-based content planning and discovery tool. It enables B2B marketers to analyze top performing content around a particular topic.
BuzzSumo web scours the web for the latest online content, most-shared articles, and content creators based on keywords you specify. This enables you to find trending content ideas to use as inspiration or to keep an eye on your competitors. You can sort the content you discover according to date, which makes it easy to find evergreen content topics.
BuzzSumo offers a free 7-day trial, and the basic subscription costs $99.
Source: buzzsumo.com
Feedly
Feedly is a news aggregator that helps you stay on top of trending conversations online. Feedly utilizes RSS feeds to gather content from a variety of sources online.
Feedly enables B2B marketers to keep track of multiple social media accounts, blogs and news sources from a convenient user interface. This enables them to keep in touch with industry trends and develop their content strategy.
Feedly is built with integration in mind, WordPress and Google Docs included. You can start using Feedly for free by creating an account, and there are different pricing plans to unlock advanced features.
Wrapping Up
This concludes our list of top B2B marketing tools on the market. Add them to your tech stack today, and take your business to the next level in 2020.
