Wearing multiple hats in the online marketing world has become a necessity. With the Internet and leading social networks constantly developing new protocols and guidelines for online business success, it’s essential to have multiple skillsets and to adapt quickly.

Very rarely will a social media specialist only focus on writing Facebook posts and an SEO specialist only work on optimization. Many online marketing roles tend to blend together, for the better. A social marketer who has a basic knowledge of SEO and keyword terms is more likely to produce better clicked-on posts. Same goes for the blog writer who has a decent understanding of keyword research.

Running around in circles trying to crack Google’s new algorithm, while watching Zuckerberg’s latest statement can be stressful. These five tools will help you not only succeed in the online marketing world, but survive.

​Project Management – Basecamp

When managing a team or working directly with clients, it’s important to have a central database to stay organized with. Basecamp is the perfect product to combine client and employee interaction as well as daily to-dos, file management, and approvals. Imagine logging onto your computer each day and having your to-do list already sorted for you, by priority, and an overview of what your week is going to look like. Welcome to the world of Basecamp.

Image Source: Basecamp

Pros

• You can access Basecamp from anywhere! It’s mobile-, tablet-, computer-friendly so you never have an excuse to miss your next deadline. Check your daily to-dos over morning coffee, communicate with clients, and open project files from your phone or tablet.

Image Source: Basecamp

• Basecamp is very user-friendly. It’s dashboard is extremely self explanatory making it easy to communicate with clients and delegate new projects with coworkers. Adding new tasks, projects, or members, as well as removing them, is simple with Basecamp.
• You can duplicate already created templates saving time on creating new project folders with deadlines and tasks.
• Basecamp offers the first two months for free. Unlike most 30 day trials, Basecamp gives you two months to really implement it’s product with your day-to-day systems.

Cons 

• Repeat reminders or a deadline with a clicking clock would be helpful for us marketers who suffer from Sticky Note Syndrome. If we don’t have something staring at us in the face or popping up to remind us, we forget everything. Similar to notes on your phone, a project management tool needs to have pop-up alerts reminding you of deadlines and countdowns. Basecamp has similar features with their milestone email reminders that go out when it is assigned and 48 hours later, but misses the overall point of reminders. Checking your calendar and to-do list on Basecamp regularly is your only hope of reminders, so you may want to keep that stack of sticky notes on your desk.
• You can create duplicate templates, but not recurring to-dos in Basecamp, which can be a huge face palm when your daily to-dos consist of 15+ of the same tasks. Repetition at it’s finest.

SEO Management – AuthorityLabs

Well, duh. We couldn’t talk about managing your SEO and keyword research without at least mentioning our homemade SEO software. We’ll keep the breakdown quick and to the point, to avoid any biases.

Image Source: Honesty For Breakfast

Pros

• Avoids having to login to multiple tools. AL is a one-stop SEO shop that provides accurate and reliable SEO tracking, competitor tracking, and keyword insights all in one place.
• Tracks local rankings and recover the really annoying not provided keywords
• You don’t have to download any additional software onto your computer. Just login and use.
• Can share reporting internally, as well as with clients, to help keep everyone informed of SEO efforts.
• There are no contracts, so you can cancel anytime. Not that you’d want to.
  

Cons

• Being too awesome.

Social Media Management – Sprout Social

The debate between if Hootsuite or Sprout Social is better can go on forever, but as a social media specialist who has to use one of these tools, I prefer Sprout Social. Sprout’s dashboard alone makes me more inclined to use it over Hootsuite. With it’s clean and easy to use interface and client reporting features, it helps managing several different social media profiles easy as pie.

Image Source: Tumblr

Pros

• View all of your profiles and messages at once and organize how your feed looks. If you want to focus on a specific client and the messages they’ve received on all of their social networks, just check the box. Same goes for viewing different profiles. If you have similar clients or a client who has multiple profiles, you can filter them all at once or one at a time just by checking the box.

Image Source: Zack Sylvan

• If you have a social media team, Sprout Social makes it easy to manage who is in charge of what with their “Tasks” option. Internally message your team or direct a person to be in charge of scheduling Facebook posts for your new client. Follow-up and create dialogue all within Sprout Social.
• Make the social media reports (CSV or PDF) from Sprout Social your own with their free branding option. It allows you to embed your logo and business information onto the report so it feels as if it is coming directly from you.
• Everything you need to perfect your social media marketing comes with Sprout social, including their ViralPost feature that determines the best time to schedule posts based on your audience, ability to monitor your brand keywords, and shorten website links all in one program.

Cons

• Sprout Social currently doesn’t offer it’s services for every social network out there, specifically Pinterest. It connects with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. Pinterest has it’s own analytics and is a network you don’t really schedule things for anyway, so it may not make a huge difference for your marketing.
• The cost for Sprout (starting at $59) is higher than Hootsuite (free to $9.95), but some argue it’s features, reporting, and tracking are well worth the increased cost.

Online Marketing Education – Lynda

In any industry it’s important to never stop learning. Want to learn how to produce stunning visuals in Photoshop? Need specific info on how to create a WordPress plug-in? Lynda is a great tool for online marketers who wear several different hats and want to polish up their skillset. Lynda offers a variety of online video tutorials and training, especially for graphic design, SEO and social media marketing.

Image Source: Lynda.com

Pros

• When you’re a member you can take as many courses as you want 24/7, with as broad of topics as you’d like. If you have a week off and want to learn how to master Google Analytics, Lynda can help.
• You receive a certificate for each course you complete. This is great to share with colleagues and add to your resume.
• The teachers aren’t just classroom instructors. They’re people who do what they’re teaching for a living, and are experts at the subject, giving you the most up-to-date information.
• Catch up on courses on using your tablet or mobile phone. You can access Lynda from any device.

Cons

• Lynda doesn’t always have the exact course you want. For very specific topics you want to learn, you may have better luck on YouTube or following industry blogs. For overall ideas and a better understanding of online marketing topics, Lynda has just what you need.

Content Marketing – Buzzsumo

Even the best writers eventually run out of ideas. Buzzsumo is a great idea generator, as well as research tool for content marketers. Discover what kinds of content people in specific industries are reading, linking to, and responding best to. Buzzsumo helps content marketers generate new ideas for topics that are already succeeding and being shared online.

Image Source: buzzsumo.com

Pros

• Identify key influencers and their topics
• See who is linking to and sharing specific kinds of articles. You can recreate similar articles to reach a similar demographic.
• The analysis report Buzzsumo provides goes back 6 months and provides you with tons of information like how many articles were published with that topic, the average shares per social network, most shared domains for a keyword, and more.
• Link builders, also known as “Guest Posters” can use Buzzsumo to scrape new potential blogger relationships, as well.

Cons

• Buzzsumo isn’t the most cost effective tool for small businesses. Starting at $99 a month, Buzzsumo can take up a pretty large amount of the marketing budget for small and local businesses.

There are hundreds of other equally helpful tools to streamline your day-to-day tasks, but the above tools are a great starting point for any online marketer. Did I miss one of your favorite tools? Comment below with the tools you use most to help succeed with your online marketing.