17 Daily Growth Tools for Marketers to Better Track and Grow Their Brand

In our recent podcast with One Click Ventures’ director of growth Jon Corwin, we discussed the rise in businesses’ needs for a dedicated growth resource and/or team, the composition and drivers behind forming a growth team, and why every business should look to build one. Understanding that budget and resources can be tight, we dove into resources and strategies any business can leverage and implement:

How to decide on what you’re trying to optimize for (i.e., acquisition, conversion, retention);
The best way to generate new experiment ideas;
(Mostly) free tools to use.

Take a look at a list of some of the resources available to marketers — of all business sizes — to measure conversions, retention, and to help set growth goals. Props to Jon Corwin for helping to craft this list!

1. Google Analytics

This one is obvious, but completely necessary. Far too often do marketers overlook the data behind the somewhat overwhelming plethora of reports that live in their Google Analytics. Take a look at some of the ways I’ve leveraged Google Analytics in the past with marketing experiments for an idea of where to start when it comes to your social media campaigns.

2. VWO/Optimizely

Optimizely and VWO (Visual Website Optimizer) are some of the leading A/B testing platforms to measure the best variations for website leads and conversions. They also offer additional features like heatmaps and even online communities and an academy for extra support and ideas. Take a look at this recent breakdown of the two tools to decide which is best for you and your business.

3. CrazyEgg

This tool is praised for helping marketers dissect how website visitors are scrolling through your site — and arguably most importantly — why they leave. With several different pricing options, CrazyEgg helps:

“Distinguish all of the clicks you get on your site segmented by referral sources;
Show how far down the page people are scrolling and helps determine where visitors abandon the page;
See the number of clicks on each element of your page;”
and more. (via CrazyEgg)

4. HotJar

HotJar is another heatmapping tool with conversion funnel tracking and polling and survey features to understand your website users’ mobile and web behavior.

5. Clicktale

A customer experience analytics tool, this resource prides itself on using “cognitive computing, machine learning and psychological research” to measure your users’ behavior and conversion metrics.

6. SimilarWeb

This tool offers digital marketing intelligence on your competitors, plus offers a free Chrome browser extension.

7. Buffer

While reports are offered, many find Buffer most helpful for scheduling and managing posts on their several social media channels. Personally, I prefer this over Hootsuite in terms of its ease-of-use. Its blog is also full of helpful tips for your social media marketing.

8. Moat

Moat is a display ads search engine that allows you to view what type of creative your competitors are running. If you’re measuring a ton of video content, this tool is one to look into.

9. Live Chat Platforms

There are tons of these available, some of the most popular being Drift, Intercom, Olark, ZenDesk, and SnapEngage. Drift offers a leadbot and scheduling feature, which personally I’ve found as a massive differentiator.

10. Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo helps marketers “analyze what content performs best for any topic or competitor,” and “helps find the key influencers to promote your content.”

11. Sumo

Sumo offers free tools to automate your site growth, as well as premium features. For a discount code for their Pro tool —plus tips on boosting your lead capture forms — check out our latest podcast.

12. BloomBerry

This tools helps marketers “find the most popular questions asked by your target buyer”, identifying their needs and concerns. Head’s up: It’s still in beta.

13. Hello Bar

This is a simple tool that adds a preheader email capture bar on your website.

14. Picreel

Picreel primarily focuses on curbing site abandonment and email capture, “[optimizing] offers on your website by tracking visitors’ mouse and scroll movements in real time and then serving up the best offer when they navigate away from valuable content.”

15. SEO Competitor Analysis

SEMrush and Ahrefs are two SEO competitor analysis (plus backlink and ratings checker) tools worth checking out.

16. JustReachOut

JustReachOut is an online network to find and pitch PR firms. The platform focuses on relevancy, allowing users to search by topic and niche, competitors, and more.

17. IFTTT

This tool is extremely helpful for tracking. To quote Buffer’s recent write-up on the tool, “IFTTT (an acronym for If This, Then That) connects two services together so that an action from one service triggers an action at another.” It connects with several social media platforms and channels. Check out Buffer’s post for a detailed analysis of how it works best with each.

Are there tools you swear by not included on the list? Tweet them to us @tnntnews!

Featured image: Cave Social