Marketing tools

What marketing tools do for a small business

Marketing tools are the software a business uses to find customers, reach them and measure what worked. That covers a wide range: email and marketing automation, SEO and keyword research, social media scheduling, design, advertising, referral programmes and reporting. Most small businesses end up with a handful of tools that each do one job well, connected through their CRM or a shared spreadsheet.

The aim is not to own every type of marketing software. It is to cover the channels that bring you customers today, with as little manual work as possible, and to see which campaign is paying for itself.

Types of marketing tools

Marketing software falls into a few clear groups. SaaSPic has a separate hub for several of them, so this page links out where a dedicated hub goes deeper.

Marketing automation platforms such as HubSpot and Mailchimp

Marketing automation sends the right message when a customer takes an action, such as signing up, buying or going quiet. Email is the usual route, and well-known platforms such as Mailchimp and HubSpot combine messages, forms, templates and automation in one place. For reviews of newsletter, campaign and cold outreach apps, see our email marketing software hub.

SEO, Google search and keyword research

SEO tools help you find what customers search for on Google, check how your pages rank and fix technical problems on your site. Keyword research is usually the first step for content marketing. Our SEO software hub covers rank tracking, site audits and content optimisation.

Social media management with Hootsuite, Buffer and newer apps

Social media tools schedule posts across networks, collect comments in one inbox and report on engagement, so you can manage several accounts from one place. Hootsuite and Buffer are the names most people know. If your team already works in Hootsuite or Buffer, check whether a newer app adds enough, such as AI content creation or social listening, to justify a switch. Our social media tools hub reviews scheduling, content creation and social analytics apps.

Canva and other apps for brand visuals and content creation

Every campaign needs visuals: social graphics, ad creatives, product images and short videos. Canva is the common starting point for non-designers, with templates that keep your brand consistent. For AI image generators, brand assets and ad creative apps, see our AI design tools hub, and for copy see the AI writing tools hub.

Referral, affiliate and customer advocacy tools

Referral and affiliate tools track who sent a customer, pay the reward and keep partners engaged. They suit businesses where word of mouth or partners already bring in sales. Two of our reviewed tools sit here: Referral Rock for service businesses and Affonso for SaaS affiliate programmes.

Lead generation and CRM

Lead tools find and qualify prospects, and a CRM keeps track of every customer conversation. If your marketing hands leads to a sales team, the two must share data. Our CRM tools hub covers outreach, lead generation and pipeline apps.

Advertising, influencer and reputation tools

Paid advertising tools help you plan, test and report on ads across Google and social networks, often with AI that writes variations of the copy and creative. Influencer tools find creators who reach your audience and track what each partnership produces. Reputation tools collect customer reviews and ask happy customers to leave one, which matters for local businesses and anyone selling on marketplaces. These apps change quickly, so look for clear pricing and a trial before you commit.

Analytics, reporting and campaign tracking

Reporting tools show which channel and campaign brought in leads and revenue. Google Analytics is the usual base, with dashboards and conversion tools on top. Our analytics tools hub covers web analytics and reporting dashboards.

How to choose a marketing platform for your team

Start with the channel that brings you the most customers today and the job that takes your team the most time. Then judge each marketing tool on these points, rather than on the longest feature list.

• Fit with your channels. A referral platform is wasted on a business with few repeat customers, and a social scheduler is wasted if your buyers come from search.
• Integrations. Check the tool connects to your CRM, mailing platform, payment provider and Google tools. Referral Rock, for example, syncs natively with HubSpot and Salesforce, and Affonso integrates with billing platforms such as Stripe and Paddle.
• Who will run it. Some platforms include setup help or an advisor, others assume a marketing manager who configures everything alone.
• Reporting. You should be able to see which campaign or partner produced each customer without exporting data by hand.
• Pricing that scales. Many marketing platforms charge by contacts, partner revenue, listings or seats, so the price rises as the tool works. Model next year's cost, not only this month's.

Pricing, free marketing tools and lifetime deals

Marketing software is mostly sold monthly, with tiers based on contacts, seats, usage or revenue. Many tools offer a free plan or a trial, and free marketing tools are a sensible way to test a channel before you commit. Specialist platforms can cost far more: Referral Rock, for example, starts at a managed monthly plan with no cheaper self-serve tier.

Lifetime deals are common in this category, often for smaller apps covering QR codes, funnels, lead lists, landing pages and outreach. They can be good value for a simple job you will keep doing, but less so for core tools your marketing depends on. Read how to evaluate a SaaS lifetime deal and lifetime deal vs subscription, and use price alerts to follow the live deals.

Marketing tools we have reviewed

• Referral Rock suits established service businesses, agencies, clinics and multi-location brands running referral programmes. Every plan includes a programme advisor, and a recruiter portal lets frontline staff enrol customers. Small stores that only need basic refer-a-friend links will find cheaper options.
• Affonso suits SaaS founders launching or moving an affiliate programme. It handles tracking, partner recruitment and batch payouts, with native billing integrations that keep commissions in line with renewals and refunds. Plans are capped by monthly partner revenue.
• Phot.AI suits D2C brands selling on Amazon and Shopify. It generates marketplace listing images and ad creatives from one product photo and publishes to marketplaces. Monthly listing limits on the lower plans are small.
• Musixmatch Pro suits independent artists who want synced lyrics on Spotify, Apple Music and Instagram from release day, with lyric videos and Spotify Canvas tools included.

To weigh options side by side, use compare tools or browse every review.

Start with a marketing strategy, then pick tools

Tools follow strategy, not the other way round. Write down who your audience is, where they look for products like yours and what a customer is worth to you. That tells you which routes to market deserve time and budget, and which tools you can skip for now.

A business selling to other businesses may need a CRM, LinkedIn outreach and email follow-up first. A local service business may get more from Google reviews and a referral programme. An online store may start with product images, email automation and social ads. Test one channel at a time, give it a few months and keep the tools that bring in customers.

Building an online marketing tool stack

A small business can cover most digital marketing with a short list: a website, a newsletter platform with basic automation, a social scheduler, a design app, Google Analytics and a CRM. Add a referral or affiliate platform once customers already recommend you, and SEO software once content becomes a real channel. Each new tool should replace manual work or open a channel, not duplicate features you already pay for.

Keep the stack connected. When your newsletter app, CRM and online store share customer data, you can segment your audience, measure each campaign and stop sending the same message to people who already bought.

How SaaSPic reviews marketing software

Our reviews are research based. We build each one from the product itself, its documentation, pricing pages and changelog, and what customers report in public. Every tool gets a score out of 10 with the same method, explained on how we score.