Let’s be honest. We all use tools to make our jobs easier, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Tools are handy and allow us to work more efficiently, gain deeper analytics, and makes reporting a whole heck of a lot easier. For agencies, tools can be a lifeline.
Agency life means managing a normal work load x 5, or however many clients you have at a time. You’re usually wearing multiple hats and have to have basic knowledge of multiple digital marketing tasks.
So, if you can find a tool to help make the workload a bit easier, and more efficient, then why not use tools?
Below I’ve compiled a list of a few of the most time saving, beneficial tools that are out right now. They’re the type of tools agencies will thrive on, and clients will love the outcomes of.
SEO
Yoast SEO
If your clients have a WordPress website, you need to have Yoast SEO installed. They’re the #1 WordPress SEO plugin, and for good reason. The plugin incorporates everything from a snippet editor and real time page analysis functionality that helps you optimize your pages content, images titles, meta descriptions and more to XML sitemaps, and loads of optimization options in between.
Google PageSpeed Insights
For free, you can see how fast your client’s website loads on both desktop and mobile. Google’s PageSpeed Insights will not only tell you how fast, or slow, your website is going, but it will give you tips on how to improve the site speed.
AuthorityLabs
Really, we’re the only SEO tool you need. Agencies can automate SEO monitoring for their clients, track local rankings, and recover (not provided) keywords with our industry leading SEO software. With AuthorityLabs, there’s no downloads, no contracts and you can easily share your reporting with your entire team and all of your clients.
SEM
Tenscores
Improve your client’s Adwords quality score and get cheaper cost per clicks using Tenscores. If your client has a bad account Quality Score, Tenscores will tell you exactly what to do to improve it. You can try it free for 14-days, and once you fall in love and see your Adwords QS improve, you can then sign up for the small ($25), medium ($50), large ($100), or Xlarge ($200) monthly package.
Wordstream
Get an in-depth analysis of your client’s PPC account quickly using Wordstream. This tools’ biggest feature is the 20-minute work week (hello, agencies!) which gives advertisers enough straight-forward data to check their accounts and make updates in as little as 20 minutes a week.
A million plus advertisers use Wordstream to improve their ad accounts with and convert 60% more leads while reducing their costs by 10%.
Optmyzr
This is a tool that helps you manage PPC campaigns more effectively. Get data insights, one-click optimizations, advanced reporting, Optmyzr was named best PPC management software at the 2015 US Search Awards and is currently shortlisted for the 2017 edition in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa., so clearly they’re worth looking into.
Get an in-depth analysis of your client’s PPC account quickly using Wordstream. This tools’ biggest feature is the 20-minute work week (hello, agencies!) which gives advertisers enough straight-forward data to check their accounts and make updates in as little as 20 minutes a week.
A million plus advertisers use Wordstream to improve their ad accounts with and convert 60% more leads while reducing their costs by 10%.
Social Media
PostPlanner
PostPlanner does more than just schedule social media posts for you. They actually give you content to share. This social media tool is ideal for agencies managing multiple types of industries and find themselves running out of unique content to share.
Filter through content by topics, mentions, hashtags, and what the most popular type of content being shared is by industry and add it to your post calendar.
Brand24
Measure your client’s brand conversation on social and receive brand alerts with Brand24’s easy to use software. This social monitoring tool has won several awards since 2012, like Best Mobile App, Best Startup, Best Web App, and Best Service. Pricing starts at $49 a month for individual use, $99 for professional, and goes all the way up to $399 for enterprise brand monitoring.
You can also sign up for a free 14-day trail and get the following features:
- Mentions Feed
- Discussion Volume Chart
- Brand Alerts
- Data Reports
- Dashboard Filtering Options
Edgar
Edgar is currently available by invitation-only, but by all means, you’re going to want to apply. When you build your posting schedule for your clients, you can tell Edgar what types of status updates to post and at which times. This tool will then publish new content from the right category at the right time, week after week and without any more work on your part. Talk about taking it easy, agencies!
Content Marketing
Simply Measured
Content marketing needs analtyics just as much as SEO and social does. This is where Simply Measured comes in. They’re a great option for agencies, especially since they offer tracking for social and content all in one place. Track which content is shared the most via digital word-of-mouth, including private messaging, and see what type of content is converting the most.
Copyscape
Worried about competitors stealing your content? Copyscape is a plagiarism tool that checks across the cyber space for duplicates of your content.
You also want to protect yourself from publishing content that has already been written. Articles that you purchase may have been copied or stolen from other sites. Publishing them on your site can damage your reputation and ruin your search engine rankings. Copyscape will help save you and your clients in the long run.
Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator
We all run out of blog topic ideas eventually. Hubspot’s blog topic tool will generate new blog topics based on keywords our clients are trying to rank for. YES! Simply fill in the fields with terms (preferably nouns), and Hubspot will come up with a week’s worth of relevant blog post titles in a matter of seconds.
iMovie
Content needs to be more than just written blog posts these days. Apple’s video software, iMovie, is simple to use and gives you plenty of built in features for your agency to create impressive video content.
The best part about iMovie is that you don’t have to be a professional video editor to use it. Quickly learn how to navigate through iMovie by going through their tutorial or spending an hour of trial and error, my personal favorite way to explore a new program.
Agency Growth
PandaDoc
Create proposals, contracts, and business docs in a beautiful template using PandaDoc. Plus, you’ll be able to electronically sign documents, know when clients have viewed documents, and message back and forth about the document all within the program. PandaDoc has the features to help any agency save time and close business faster, receive document analytics, and share with a team.
Fiverr
Need freelance work done quickly and inexpensively? Fiverr may be perfect for you! It’s a freelance service marketplace for agencies, companies, and entrepreneurs with services starting out at just $5. Whether you need a whole WordPress website done or a branded social media graphic, there’s plenty of great freelancers to chose from, and affordably, on Fiverr.
Unbounce
You don’t need to be a developer to A/B test these landing pages. Unbounce is a landing page solution for many agencies, and has the option to create pop-up boxes for landing pages and websites. Whether you pick from one of their many templates or create your own, you’ll be able to A/B test variables, collect leads, and integrate contact forms with several CRM programs.
OptinMonster
The name says it all: it’s an opt-in monster! This opt-in tool converts website visitors into subscribers and customers with their drag & drop form builder designed to increase opt-ins. One of the best aspects of this tool is it’s Exit Intent® Technology. They’re able to detect user behavior and prompt users with a targeted campaign at the precise moment they are about to leave. Bonkers, I know!
These are only a handful of the many great tools agencies can use. Comment below with a few of the ones I missed, and your personal favorites.
