Apps All Marketers Need
As a marketer, you have an arsenal of tools at your disposal, from Mailchimp to Canva to Buffer. But what about the logistics involved in creating and managing content? That’s a big part of marketing, and it can be hard to manage all the moving parts and ensure that you’ve got a sound strategy.
Plus, many of these tools are expensive. If you’re just starting out, you need more affordable marketing apps. Without further ado, here are the best marketing apps that will help you get organized — even on a budget.
Airtable
Airtable initially appears to be a pretty, cloud-based spreadsheet program, but it’s so much more than that. It provides a robust, flexible organization system in which you create “records” in a “base.” You can configure separate tables and views for each base, then link records to each other. This means that Airtable can serve as a powerful database, as well as a planning tool.
Airtable has many pre-built templates for marketing plans, CRMs, and other common uses, but if you just play with it, you’ll quickly discover a lot of potential for organizing and planning all aspects of your work. For example, it works very well as a content planner, because you can plan out blogs, social media posts, and email campaigns and show how they link together.
Cost: Airtable is free, although there are paid plans available to gain access to more features and storage space.
Trello
If spreadsheets aren’t your thing, how about Kanban boards? Trello was inspired by the Kanban method, in which sticky notes are moved across a board to show project progress. When Trello created digital boards with virtual “cards,” it set up an ultra-flexible system in which you can lay out anything visually.
That makes Trello a powerful content calendar, task manager, or campaign pitch template — or whatever else you need. If there’s something that you can lay out visually, Trello will let you do it.
One of Trello’s chief features is its ability to store tons of content in each card. You can write out checklists, add copy, attach files and images, label it, add a due date… The possibilities are endless.
Cost: Trello is free, but you can upgrade to gain access to more “Power-Ups,” which help you extend and customize your cards.
MindMeister
MindMeister allows you to create attractive, customized mind maps. Much more than just a brainstorming tool (although that’s important too), MindMeister is a fantastic tool for showing how content, campaigns, or channels intersect.
Often, it’s difficult to explain marketing strategy in verbal terms, which is where MindMeister comes in. You can add links, text, images, and even emoji to each “node” on the mind map to provide an in-depth map of your marketing plan. MindMeister even allows you to create a presentation to show your marketing director, client, or stakeholder.
Cost: MindMeister is free for up to 3 maps.
Repost
As every marketer knows, one of Instagram’s chief drawbacks is its inability to share other people’s content. Because curated content should compose up to 50 percent of your social media stream, it’s challenging to build your Instagram feed without being self-indulgent.
Enter Repost, which allows you to capture content from another Instagram user. This easy-to-use app quickly downloads the photo or video and attaches an attribution to it. Then, you can reupload the post to your own Instagram feed or story.
Repost is a great way to show that you’re part of a community by allowing you to share and thank content creators. It’s quick, painless, and best of all, free!
Cost: Free.
TweetDeck
While there are plenty of social media managers on the market, TweetDeck does a little something different. It permits you to manage multiple Twitter accounts from a primary account, then schedule content. This is totally free, which already puts TweetDeck above HootSuite and similar apps.
However, TweetDeck’s real benefit is its ability for you to configure multiple Twitter streams. You can create streams based on a hashtag, search, curated list, or specific user, then navigate them and interact from each of your accounts. Essentially, TweetDeck is a central interface for multiple accounts. If you see a tweet in one stream that you’d like to retweet from a different account, you can easily do that.
Cost: Free.
Adobe Photoshop Express
Most of our smartphones offer the option to add filters to or otherwise edit our photos, and each social media has options as well. Why not use a professional tool? Adobe Photoshop Express has dozens of filters and editing tools to ensure that your photos look their absolute best.
For example, beyond applying pre-made filters as you can do in Instagram or Facebook, Adobe Photoshop Express permits you to add special lighting effects, correct red-eye, and fine-tune things such as saturation, hue, and white balance — all from your phone.
This nifty app also allows you to crop images or build an image collage. In short, this should be your go-to tool for editing photos before you upload them to your social media.
Cost: Free, with a premium option.
What marketing apps do you love? Let us know in the responses.