The Productivity Tools That Lead the Marketing Industry
Last update: 12 January 2024 at 12:28 pm
-Somewhere in Benjamin Franklin’s immensely quotable wisdom lies a scarcely cited phrase: “The best investment is in the tools of one’s own trade.”
Even if we tried, we could not have said it clearer.
In today’s day and age, productivity tools for every craft imaginable live all around us, from automating tasks, scheduling meetings on a whim, and planning our social media feeds.
That’s why we decided to ask the top marketing experts and entrepreneurs to reveal the productivity tools they could not live without. They include industry leaders like Barry Schwartz, Amanda Natividad, Corey Haines, Ethan Brooks, and many more!
Let’s dive in.
Digital Productivity Tools
Time Management Tools
Adding everything I do to my calendar helps me have a more realistic approach to planning my workflow and helps me keep track of important tasks, so things don’t fall through the cracks.
Andra Zaharia – Cybersecurity Content Marketer
When it comes to time management, there is no contest: Google Calendar takes the top spot as experts’ preferred tool.
Some experts point out the features that other productivity tools for time management bring to their daily lives.
I’ve used Simpleology to plan my day every day for the past 8 years. It basically automates the process outlined in David Allen’s book “Getting Things Done” and I love it because it gives me an easy place to drop ideas throughout the day without ever worrying about forgetting them.
Ethan Brooks – The Hustle
Communication Tools
I use Slack to communicate with my team and have a separate workspace for my community. In both workspaces, we work to keep signal high and noise low. It’s a great way to feel connected even though remote.
Teresa Torres – Author, Speaker, & Product Discovery Coach at Product Talk
Communication is probably the biggest area that has been impacted by the growth in number of digital tools. Industry leaders seem to think so, since there is no one tool that stands out among the rest, although Google makes an appearance once again.
ZipMessage allows me to host async conversations for quickly hashing out details, recording tutorials, and chatting with folks who I don’t have a lot of time zone overlap with.
Corey Haines – Creator of Swipe Files
Project/Task Management Tools
In projects at Eleven where many people are involved we use Trello, which gives us a lot of versatility when assigning tasks and organizing information. The tool is simple but powerful. By being aligned in the dynamic, everything flows and we are spared the ‘let’s make a call, I don’t understand what you put in Trello’ moment.
Andres Kloster – CEO of Agencia Eleven
Trello takes the #1 spot as experts’ top project management tool (30.8%), beating out newcomers like Notion (15.4%) and giants like Google (15.4%) and Monday (7.7%).
Expert leaders also had enthusiastic thoughts about other task management software.
Monday provides a great place to manage complicated projects and it helps us reduce redundancy by allocating tasks across multiple teams in one single place, reducing the amount of email exchanges and keeping track of internal/external resources.
Eder Holguin – Author, Digital Sales & Marketing Expert
SEO Tools
While we make use of a lot of third party tools to keep on top of our clients rankings and performance, there is no substitute for the data and insight you can acquire from GSC in both the performance and coverage reports.
Callum Scott – Senior SEO Analyst at Marie Haynes Consulting
In terms of SEO, only three tools rose to prominence: SEMRush, Screaming Frog, and Google Search Console. SEO experts could not decide for a single tool, which makes us think about their complementary nature when working on SEO.
My favorite tool on the market is SEMRush. Absolutely love this one! They brand it as an all-in-one marketing toolkit, and it truly is. Content, SEO, social media, the list goes on. You can gain so many valuable insights with SEMRush, and it’s really been indispensable for me in building my own brands as well as helping Gaenzle Marketing’s clients grow.
Anthony Gaenzle – CEO at Gaenzle Marketing
Social Media Management Tools
Twitter and LinkedIn. There is simply no match for connecting with customers.
Andrew Gazdecki – CEO at MicroAcquire
Half of the industry we surveyed decided they preferred social media platforms themselves, such as Twitter and Linkedin (20% each), to manage their social accounts.
Others, on the contrary, opted for dedicated management tools, which made for a varied selection.
TweetHunter makes me a better maker by growing my audience and staying in touch with people.
Thibault Louis-Lucas – Founder of TweetHunter
Note-taking Tools
Readwise.io turns quotes from books I’ve read in the Kindle format into a convenient daily email and into gorgeous “Quote of the day” style visuals. The quote images are perfect for sharing on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. I even use this to promote my own book.
Clo Willaerts – Freelance Digital Marketing Expert
Note-taking is a field of special importance to marketing and leadership experts, but whereas we expected a clear winner to be visible, only four were worthy of mention.
Evernote is absolutely brilliant. It’s great for note taking and task management. I have personally used it for note-taking during meetings in the past which I date so I remember what the note is in relation to. It’s pretty easy to keep track of it all and works well for those like me whenever you feel overwhelmed with remembering things.
Rejoice Ojiaku (She/Her) – SEO & Content Expert
Automation Tools
Zapier is the god of automations, through which I can link any application with another, even if it does not have native integration. I create workflows, processes, and repetitive tasks. The only limit is my imagination.
Joan Boluda – Online Marketing Consultant
To automate or not to automate… hardly seems like a question. Modern work environments thrive on processes that can be sped up; in marketing, it is no different.
In this field, Zapier was chosen as the preferred automation tool for industry experts (50%), ahead of consumer-oriented IFTTT (25%) and time-saving Text Expander (25%).
Zapier is a no-brainer. Definitely the tool for quick automations.
Amanda Natividad – VP Marketing at SparkToro
A Tool is What You Make of It
As technology evolves, so does the number of tools available to help marketers and entrepreneurs get things done.
That is the essence of what a tool is, and it has been exemplified by the various selections that these experts have highlighted.
If you wish to emulate these leaders’ success, their tools of choice might be a good place to start.
Remember, though, that the important thing is not the tool. As our agencies will tell you, your users and potential clients will value you not only for handling the tools, but also for knowing what to do with them, regardless of whether the task is done with a DIY platform, your email client, or pen and paper.
