The 13 Best Startup Marketing Tools to Use in 2024

There are more than 150 million startups in the world. Running a startup is quite a challenge. Marketing efforts are just as important as the idea and strategy of your business. That’s why marketing tools will help you scale your startup!

You probably got here because you had been looking for an answer to “What are the best marketing tools for startups?”.

I’m not surprised at all that this is what you asked. There are a ton of different software offered these days. 

So which one should you choose?

I created a list with selected digital marketing software from different categories. Each is briefly described, including its price, key features, and aspects that may be a limitation for you.

Indeed, these marketing tools will make your life easier regardless of the type of business you run or work in.

Read on to learn more about the most powerful marketing tools for startups!

Best Startup Marketing Tools:

1. Brand24 – social listening tool
2. Google Analytics – data & analytics tool
3. Hotjar – data & analytics tool
4. Intercom – customer relationship management tool
5. GetRespone – email marketing tool
6. Ahrefs – search engine optimization tool
7. Buffer – social media management tool
8. Canva – design tool
9. Grammarly – writing tool
10. Slack – team collaboration and communication tool
11. Asana – project management tool
12. Timeular – time tracking and leave management tool
13. ChatGPT – AI chatbot

01 Brand24

Free 14-day trial.

Brand24 is an AI-powered social listening tool. It tracks mentions of everything: hashtags, keywords, brands, and product names across all online sources in real-time.

It’s one of the most helpful marketing tools for startups. Why?

Most importantly, you can monitor mentions of your startup and their reach on social media and other sources on the Internet. You can discover what people say about your business even if they don’t tag you.

You can jump into the conversation about your startup (click the “visit” button) and take appropriate action anytime.

It is very crucial in the case of negative mentions. Don’t let your marketing efforts go to waste; preserve your good image!

As it was said, thanks to sentiment analysis, mentions are identified. So you can quickly see if they are bad or good, or maybe just informative.

Brands24 shows how effective your startup marketing strategies are.

Have you started any marketing campaigns? Create a new project using the name of your campaign and measure its results!

You can also follow various topics in the industry to stay up to date. Or select new influencers to collaborate with!

The prepared list includes information such as from what site the influencer comes, how many times this influencer mentioned your startup at a given time, and the influencer score.

But more importantly, monitor your startup competitors! Observe what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. Check out which marketing campaigns were a total disaster and which were a worldwide success. Compare your results with theirs – Brand24 provides a comparison feature!

Let’s talk about AI features in Brand24!

AI in Brand24 does not only support reports and insights. The most exciting feature is the Anomaly Detector!

Put your startup in this scenario: Suddenly, your business is being talked about; the number of mentions recorded a peak. You wonder what happened. You didn’t take any intentional actions to generate buzz on the Internet.

Anomaly Detector will give you a concise explanation of this increase in mentions. You just need to click on the exclamation point located above the peak.

When you start the free trial of Brand24, you don’t give out your card information. It gives peace of mind. There is no way that suddenly, without you realizing it, money will be taken from your account to continue your subscription after the trial period.

But I’m more than sure that Brand24 will meet your expectations, and you will join the group of paying customers very quickly.

Key features:

• Mentions and their reach across online sources
• Sentiment analysis
• Influencer score and analysis
• Hashtags tracking
• Customizable reports
• AI-powered features: anomaly detection, topic analysis, emotion analysis, insights

02 Google Analytics

Google Analytics is an analytics tool offered by Google. It measures and reports website traffic, its sources, user behaviors, and conversions.

Reports from this tool will help you identify which marketing strategy is the best for your startup and what your team should focus on to increase conversions.

Google Analytics is a free tool! I mean, who doesn’t like free stuff?

So, maybe your startup marketing team is already using it! If not, run and set up your Google Analytics!

I’m crying deep down because GA4 (the newest version of Google Analytics) is not enjoyable to use at all. It’s much more complicated to set up than its previous version and less intuitive.

Key features:

• Tracking user engagement, customer acquisition, time on page
• Real-time reporting
• AI predictions
• Integration with other Google solutions and partner products

03 Hotjar

Data is fuel nowadays, so that I will tell you about another analytics tool – Hotjar.

Hotjar is the perfect complement to Google Analytics.

It visualizes the behavior of users on your website in the form of heat maps of their clicks and actions. A record of user sessions is also possible.

This tool primarily lets you identify pain points in your site’s interface.

Hotjar has less power than other analytical tools, but it is precious as a complement.

The question is, do you really need such a startup marketing tool? You have to answer this question yourself.

Key features:

• Heat maps
• Visitor recordings
• User feedback collection

04 Intercom

Intercom is a CRM platform and one of the marketing automation tools that arranges startup marketing, support, and sales processes in one place.

Thanks to the shared inbox, you have everything in one place! Conversations from email, WhatsApp, live chat, phone, and social media channels. 

It saves time and helps to build relationships with clients!

Many users are satisfied with this software. It’s a perfect solution for small businesses and startups!

Intercom’s biggest drawback is its support. Sometimes, you may wait too long for the response if you encounter any problem with the tool.

Key features:

• AI-enhanced workspace
• Real-time conversations
• Chatbot and automations
• Real-time reporting

05 GetResponse

GetResponse is an email marketing platform. It’s considered to be the best email marketing tool for small businesses.

All the features in startup marketing tools like GetResponse make the customer base bigger and cause lead generation. One of the possibilities this tool gives you is conducting outreach campaigns through email.

Launching email marketing campaigns has never been so easy. All you do is drag and drop suitable elements in the creator and send them to contacts!

It provides everything needed to create a campaign that attracts your target audience, i.e., search engine optimization features or call to actions buttons.

I can bet that your business’s contact base will grow. Therefore, you must expect to pay for a higher subscription plan as it grows.

Key features:

• Newsletter editor
• Autoresponder
• Integration with other services
• AI-powered emails & landing pages
• A/B testing newsletters and landing pages
• Webinars and live chats

06 Ahrefs

Ahrefs is an all-in-one SEO toolset, the most trusted in the industry. It’s not surprising; I recommend only the best startup marketing tools!

Ahrefs helps with various aspects of search engine optimization, including identifying technical SEO issues, getting keyword ideas that connect with the right audience, analyzing competitors’ websites to see which keywords they are ranking for, traffic monitoring, and link building.

Why do you need this tool in your startup? The goal of SEO operations is to generate traffic, generate leads, and revenue as a result! I don’t need to explain it more.

The only limitation of this keyword research tool is its price. Be aware that Ahrefs is relatively expensive compared to its alternatives.

Key features:

• Keywords explorer
• Content explorer
• Backlink analysis
• Competitors rank and analysis
• Rank tracker

07 Buffer

Buffer is a very simple social media management tool. Simple and cheap, I would say – it’s for free up to 3 social media channels and 10 scheduled posts per channel.

Honestly, Buffer is my favorite social media tool. You can schedule posts, upload videos, plan content marketing calendar, publish, and reply to comments – everything in one tool!

Automated posting is a game changer. For example, on Saturday, you don’t have to sit on your phone and publish a post on your startup’s social media.

Buffer is for scheduling, but not only this!

You can effortlessly create landing pages and share them on your startup social profiles.

The only problem with this application is the number of managed accounts within the free version. But depending on the characteristics of your startup, this may be more than enough.

Key features:

• Planning and publishing content
• Analysis of performance on social media channels
• Comments navigation
• Landing pages builder

08 Canva

Canva is a free online graphic design tool. You can create pictures, videos, presentations, documents, and other things like landing page for your website.

This marketing tool offers its users countless number of ready-to-use free templates. Good for you; you don’t have to start from scratch!

It can be noted that since Canva became popular, even the smallest businesses started to publish interesting graphics on their social media accounts.

You don’t need graphic design skills. Canva is extremely intuitive, so surely everyone in your marketing team will be able to use it. Even a person with zero graphic skills!

Remember that Canva is a fundamental tool, so it may turn out to be not enough for your business.

Key features:

• Photo and video editor
• Docs, presentations, and graphs preparation
• PDF editor and converter
• AI image generator
• Brand kits
• Content calendar for social media accounts

09 Grammarly

Grammarly makes working with text very easy and speeds up the writing process! It edits and corrects your grammar, spelling, and punctuation. It also suggests changes based on the goals you set out so that the text is clear to the target audience.

What’s important is that this tool only supports the English language.

Many people do not work in their native language; they use English. That’s why tools like Grammarly prevent mistakes in all kinds of texts. It’s always a good idea to check what you’ve written before publishing!

However, you can’t entirely rely on Grammarly’s suggestions. Some of them don’t seem to fit!

Key features:

• Grammar and spelling checker
• Text revision
• Plagiarism detection
• AI assistance with writing

10 Slack

Slack is a replacement for email. This chat app is not just a tool for sending messages. It’s a place for workflow within one team, across teams, tools, and other stakeholders.

Slack favors building effective communication. You have everything in one place. You don’t have to scroll through your inbox to find information on a given topic. This is especially important when working remotely. You just switch between channels where a given topic is covered and all the involved people are located.

Of course, you can also send a direct message. This way, you don’t waste time writing long emails and then waiting endlessly for a response. You can get an answer from your coworker in a second. This form of communication has an excellent impact on relations between employees!

In a nutshell, Slack is faster, better organized, and even more secure than traditional email!

Then, what could be a disadvantage of Slack?

The fact that Slack is a very user-friendly tool and quite similar to the chat we use to communicate with our friends or family in everyday life can be a bane of your existence. 

You may uncontrollably check Slack and/or respond to messages outside of your working hours, which is not necessarily good for work-life balance. Unless you choose not to download the app on your phone or turn off notifications.

Key features:

• Real-time messaging, file sharing, voice and video calls
• Collaboration within your company and with teams outside the company
• Seamless integration with over 2,600 apps
• High level of data security
• Instant notifications and reminders
• Robot assistants

11 Asana

Asana is a tool to keep your team on track with how the work is going and stay in collaboration with others. You can create a simple to do list, but also a complex project!

Projects in Asana can be organized as either lists or kanban boars. Each task within a project has an assigned person who is responsible for it and a deadline. Tasks can also be divided into subtasks.

In addition, communication between team members is possible. You can add comments to tasks or interact within a project.

It’s worth mentioning that Asana is great for managing marketing campaigns, especially those on social media accounts or email campaigns. It offers free templates that help your team run the marketing campaign.

This powerful marketing tool will prevent chaos in your business!

Asana is quite complex. It provides many advanced features, so getting on board and understanding everything takes some time.

Key features:

• Management of work, projects, and tasks
• Templates to run different projects
• Task comments and project messages
• Integration with different tools such as Slack, Dropbox

12 Timeular

Timeular is an automatic time-tracking and leave management tool powered by AI. It will help you identify high-impact tasks, stay on top of budgets, and optimize the limited resources you’re operating with. 

Obviously, startup marketers wear many hats; the business’s growth usually lies in your efforts! But how to measure time input against results to decide what initiatives are worth investing in?

That’s exactly what Timeular helps with!

It lets you track time spent on projects, clients, and tasks to get real-time productivity and project efficiency insights. 

In addition, this tool ensures that campaigns are delivered on time and within budget (based on historical data). Timeular alerts you when you’re approaching a time budget.

Moreover, digital marketing tool has a leave management feature. So you can manage all types of leaves with a click!

Key features:

• Automatic time capture on tasks, tools, and calendar events
• AI-driven productivity dashboard 
• Detailed reports with time spent on tasks, projects, or clients
• 100% data privacy (all data is stored locally)
• Anti-employee surveillance feature
• Integration with over 3000 apps such as Asana, Monday, Google Suite

13 ChatGPT

ChatGPT is the most known online chatbot driven by AI technology. It responds to every text request that you type.

It’s a very universal and powerful tool. You can use CharGPT in various ways in your startup marketing. For example, to:

• Generate ideas for marketing activities, such as marketing campaigns, posts for social media platforms, etc.
• Create materials for content marketing, such as copy for landing pages, email campaigns, blog posts, social media posts, etc.
• Analyze your current content and conducted surveys so you can gain valuable insights
• Repurpose the content effectively
• Conduct market research so you can gather and present customer data, develop profiles of your ideal customers, or identify your competitors

Moreover, with DALL·E in ChatGPT, you can also create images. Unfortunately, this feature is only available in paid plans. The good information is that the images created from your prompts belong to you. You can use them without any restrictions! So maybe it’s worth spending some money on it?

ChatGPT’s biggest drawback is that it bases its knowledge on data before September 2021. However, it was announced that ChatGPT will soon run on data up to April 2023.

Key features:

• Ideas and valuable content generation
• Translation
• General research
• Advanced data analysis
• External plug-in support

How to choose a marketing tool for a startup?

Choosing the right startup marketing tools is more challenging than it may seem. 

Below, I’ll give you some general considerations to take into account when choosing a marketing tool for your business, regardless of its type.

• Usefulness: Before implementing a particular tool, answer the questions “Does my business really need this tool?” and “Is this tool a solution to any problem in my company?”. Marketing tools should make day-to-day work easier, develop various processes, and/or get answers to your questions.
• Price: Be realistic and assess whether you can afford the tool. Your budget is not tap water that can continuously run. If the tool is too expensive, try to find a cheaper alternative.
• Reviews: Don’t buy a pig in a poke! Always check the reviews and ratings of tools. User reviews are very valuable. They describe what features worked for them and what did not. This will make it easier for you to determine if a tool is suitable for your startup. I recommend checking them on G2 or Capterra. Of course, you can also decide to be one of the early adopters and use a new product. But it’s pretty risky and not always profitable.

As your business grows, the needs will also change, so it’s worth keeping this in mind.

Conclusion

For startups, digital marketing strategies are not the only relevant. Digital marketing tools also play a valuable role!

Hopefully, the tools mentioned above have sparked your interest, and you will try them! They will help in your business growth!

Final thoughts about startup marketing tools:

• Try to limit yourself to as few tools from one category as possible. At the end of the day, you don’t need 3 tools to manage projects or create images. Too many tools can mess up workflow!
• If you have a limited budget, use free tools and those that don’t cost a fortune. Just because something is free or low-cost doesn’t mean it’s bad.
• Most importantly, don’t be afraid to test out the tools. There is often an option to sign up for a free trial. If the tool doesn’t meet your needs, you can always resign. But for sure, you will find something perfect for your startup and your marketing strategy.

Are you hungry for more startup marketing tools?

Firstly, check out one of the best startup marketing tools – Brand24. Manage your startup’s reputation effectively and gain your marketing goals. Click here to try!