26 Best Marketing Tools for Small Business: Essentials + Add-ons (2025)

Synergy… it's the kind of corporate buzzword that makes most of us cringe. But when it comes to building a marketing tech stack, it's exactly what we're after: tools working together to create something more powerful than the sum of their parts.

We're focusing on solutions that offer the best value for small to medium-sized teams, with a few all-in-one enterprise options for when your business is ready to scale up. In total, we've identified the 26 most effective options across nine categories. For each category, you'll find:

• A core tool that handles the fundamentals
• One to two complementary tools that extend your capabilities
• Guidance on which combinations work best for different business types
• Real pricing information to help you budget effectively

Whether you're a growing startup looking to build your first marketing stack or a mid-sized business optimizing your existing tools, this guide will help you create smoother workflows, reduce redundancy, and build a marketing operation that grows with your business.

Best marketing analytics tools

Marketing analytics tools are essential for measuring the performance of your strategy, finding ways to adapt and adjust to improve success, and generate a higher ROI (return on investment) for your business.

While Loomly can help with analytics for your social media accounts, you’ll also want to keep track of analytics for your website and other marketing endeavors. These tools can help.

4. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is by far the most popular website analytics platform, and for good reason. One, it’s completely free. And two, it’s incredibly comprehensive with endless reports and data that give you the full story of how your business is performing.

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Core features:

• View data about website visitors
• Track sales and conversions
• Analyze growth

Best for: Every business with a website

Pricing: Completely free

5. Mixpanel

While Google Analytics excels at website traffic and marketing metrics, Mixpanel specializes in product analytics, helping teams understand exactly how users interact with their digital product or app. It's particularly valuable for SaaS companies, mobile apps, and digital platforms that need deep insights into user engagement and retention.

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Core features:

• Product usage tracking (which features your users are using)
• Custom event tracking
• User journey mapping and conversion funnel analysis

Best for: Product and marketing teams who need to understand how users engage with specific product features and workflows, especially for subscription-based services

Pricing: Free plan available for up to 100K monthly tracked users. Premium plans start at $25/month.

6. Looker Studio

Data visualization is key for putting together reports for monthly or quarterly meetings. Google's Looker Studio the perfect solution for grabbing the analytics you’ve discovered with Loomly or Google Analytics and building out data visualizations that help tell the story.

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Core features:

• Data visualization
• Interactive dashboards

Best for: Brands who need to visualize marketing performance for reports and presentations

Pricing: Completely free

Recommended tool combinations

• For solo marketers: Google Analytics (free essentials)
• For small businesses: Google Analytics + Mixpanel free (behavioral insights)
• For growing teams: Google Analytics + Mixpanel + Looker Studio (comprehensive analytics)

Best content marketing tools

Content marketing is an important facet of digital marketing that uses content, like landing pages and blog posts, to promote a business and sell a product or service. These tools are essential for implementing a full-scale content marketing strategy.

If your content strategy is heavy on SEO, you might want to add one of our SEO tool recommendations to your content development workflow.

7. Claude

While ChatGPT might be the household name in AI, Claude has emerged as the preferred choice for content marketing teams. Its larger context window (100K tokens vs ChatGPT's 4K) makes it  better at understanding and maintaining consistency across long-form content like blog posts, and repurposing that content into multiple other content types.

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Core features:

• Long context window for better content consistency
• Nuanced understanding of brand voice and style
• Excels at tasks related to content strategy

Best for: Small businesses with robust content needs, who want to create high-quality blog posts, newsletters, and marketing materials

Pricing: Free version available, $18/month for Claude Pro

8. SparkToro

SparkToro is an audience research platform that helps you discover what your target audience searches for (keywords), reads, watches, listens to, and follows. For example, a project management brand might request a report based on a competitor’s website audience to help them get a better understanding of who they should be targeting.

While you can apply this audience intel broadly across marketing, it's especially valuable for marketing messaging and content planning, helping you create content that resonates with your audience.

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Core features:

• Deep audience insights
• Create fine-tuned audience personas
• Media contact information for PR, partnerships, and ads

Best for: Small businesses that want to understand their target audience better and create content that actually interests them

Pricing: Free for basic searches, paid plans start at $38/month

9. Riverside

Riverside is a podcast and video editing platform that can help extend your content marketing strategy to more than just written content. Riverside can be used to create and edit a number of types of multimedia content, from podcasts and social media videos to webinars and interviews.

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Core features:

• Separate audio and video recording tracks for easy editing
• Text-based editing (use the transcript to edit the video)
• Livestreaming

Best for: Brands that want to explore podcasting or add video-based thought leadership to their content marketing strategy

Pricing: Start with Riverside’s limited free plan to get a taste of the software. Upgrade to a premium plan for $15/month.

Recommended tool combinations

• For beginners: Claude free + SparkToro free (AI writing + audience research)
• For small businesses: Claude Pro + SparkToro Pro (strategic content)
• For content teams: Claude Pro + SparkToro Pro + Riverside (full content suite)

Best email marketing Tools

Email marketing is your business's most valuable owned channel. When you build an email list, you create a direct line to customers that you fully control. You can take this audience with you between different email platforms, customize how you communicate, and build lasting relationships with your subscribers. It's also one of the most cost-effective ways to grow your business. These tools can help you get started.

10. Beehiiv

Beehiiv has quickly become the go-to platform for content creators and newsletter publishers, offering a powerful combination of publishing, monetization, and analytics tools. Built by former Morning Brew team members, it's designed specifically for content-first businesses and creators who want to grow and monetize their audience.

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Core features:

• Advanced analytics and subscriber insights
• Monetization tools (sponsorships, paid subscriptions)
• Powerful segmentation and automation

Best for: Content creators, newsletter publishers, and businesses that use content marketing as a primary strategy

Pricing: Free for up to 2,500 subscribers, then starts at $34/month

11. Kit (formerly ConvertKit)

Kit specializes in ecommerce email marketing, offering deep integrations with platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and Gumroad. While Beehiiv excels at newsletter publishing, Kit shines at driving sales through sophisticated purchase-triggered automations and customer journey mapping.

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Core features:

• Advanced ecommerce integrations
• Visual automation builder
• Commerce integrations

Best for: Content creators and small businesses focused on audience building

Pricing: Free for one newsletter sequence up to 10,000 subscribers. Creator plans start at $9/month and increase on a sliding scale based on subscriber count.

12. Hunter

Ok, so this tool isn't technically for email marketing, but it is a powerful email finder for lead generation. Hunter is an email finding tool that’s useful for sales and marketing teams who are looking for direct contacts to reach out to with cold emails in order to sell or market a product or service. The app can either provide you with a verified email address or a likely email address based on the company’s typical email patterns (i.e., firstname@company.com vs. firstnamelastname@company.com).

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Core features:

• Email finding
• Lead generation

Best for: Brands that incorporate outreach into their marketing strategy

Pricing: Free for up to 25 searches/year. Premium plans for more searches start at $49/month.

Recommended tool combinations

• For content creators: Beehiiv (newsletter-first platform)

• For ecommerce: Kit + Shopify (sales-focused email automation)

• For startup B2Bs: Kit + Hunter (content + outreach)

Best search engine optimization (SEO) tools

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the practice of optimizing your website content so that it ranks well on search engines. There are tools that can help with various facets of this, and we’ll introduce you to three of the best below.

13. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is one of the top SEO tools, and for good reason. Not only does its paid version provide endless insights into optimization tips and techniques, it also has several free SEO tools hat users can take advantage of. 

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Core features:

• Find keywords to create content around
• Track ranked pages
• Audit for SEO issues
• Explore competitor rankings

Best for: Small to medium-sized businesses with robust websites and content programs, particularly those competing in crowded markets or looking to scale their organic traffic

Pricing: Starts at $129/month fir the Lite plan

14. Surfer SEO

Surfer SEO is a content optimization platform that helps you write content that ranks. It analyzes top-performing content in real-time and provides actionable recommendations for improving your content's on-page SEO and search visibility.

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Core features:

• Content editor with real-time SEO scoring
• SERP analyzer
• AI writing assistant

Best for: Marketing teams creating 4+ pieces of long-form content monthly

Pricing: Plans start at $59/month

15. Respona

Respona is an outreach tool that helps marketers build links back to their website. Link building is an important SEO strategy as it helps improve the authority of your website, proving both to search engines and website visitors that your business is a trusted source.

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Core features:

• Find email addresses
• Craft messages to contact other brands

Best for: Brands looking to build links as a part of their SEO strategy

Pricing: Starts at $198/month.

Recommended tool combinations

• For beginners and side hustle businesses: Surfer Essential + Ahrefs free tools (content optimization)
• For growing websites: Surfer Essential + Ahrefs Lite (content + technical SEO)
• For content-heavy teams: Surfer Scale + Ahrefs Lite + Respona (full SEO toolkit)

Best search engine marketing (SEM) tools

Search engine marketing (SEM) is the paid form of SEO. With SEM, you’re running ads on search engines and other websites that help you reach a larger audience. Also known as PPC (pay-per-click) advertising, there are a few tools you can use to simplify this process.

16. Google Ads

Google Ads is the main SEM/PPC platform that brands want to use as Google has 90% of search engine market share worldwide, meaning there’s a much larger audience to be reached with this platform.

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While the use of the platform itself is free (i.e., there’s no additional subscription fee on top of your ad fees), you’ll of course have to set aside a monthly budget to put towards your ads. These ads put your website at the very top of search results, building brand awareness and generating conversions.

Core features:

• Keyword planner
• PPC ads

Best for: Small and medium-sized businesses looking to drive targeted local or niche traffic

Pricing: No platform subscription fee, but requires ad spend

17. Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner is a part of the Google Ads dashboard that helps marketers find keywords they should plan website content and ads around. It can also help provide secondary keywords that can be used on the website as well as within the ad to reach an even wider audience.

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Core features:

• Keyword finder
• Ad optimization

Best for: Brands just starting their SEM strategy and working with limited budgets

Pricing: Completely free

18. Unbounce

For small businesses investing in paid advertising, having great ads isn't enough — you also need high-converting landing pages to turn that traffic into leads and sales. Unbounce stands out by combining AI-powered design with small business-friendly features that help maximize your ad spend ROI.

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Core features:

• AI page builder
• A/B testing
• Mobile optimization

Best for: Small and medium businesses running paid campaigns who want professional landing pages without hiring a designer or developer

Pricing: Starts at $74/month

Recommended tool combinations

• For beginners: Google Ads + Google Keyword Planner (campaign foundations)
• For growing teams: Google Ads + Unbounce + Google Analytics (conversion-focused campaigns)

Best local marketing tools

Local brick-and-mortar businesses have additional work to do to reach people in their areas. Having the right tool set for local marketing is key — local marketing software comprises tools for local SEO, local listing management, and online reputation management. We’ve got three go-to's below.

19. BrightLocal

BrightLocal is a local marketing platform that offers nearly anything that local businesses could need. Use this tool to improve your local search rankings, manage business listings across platforms, and maintain a good brand reputation.

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Core features:

• Local SEO
• Review site management
• Reputation management

Best for: Local brick-and-mortar businesses that service a specific geographic area

Pricing: Starts at $39/month.

20. Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile is one of the most important online listing sites for your business as it creates a blurb within search results and Google Maps with tons of key information about your local business, like location, hours of operation, and reviews.

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Core features:

• Google business listing
• Reviews

Best for: Every business should create and flesh out their Google Business Profile to ensure the information is accurate and anyone searching for their brand can easily find it!

Pricing: It's completely free to create and manage a business profile. Additional services like Google Ads are optional and charged separately.

Recommended tool combinations

• For new businesses: Google Business Profile (free local presence)
• For established locations: Google Business Profile + BrightLocal (reputation management)
• For multi-location: Google Business Profile + BrightLocal (multi-location management)

Best project management tools

For small businesses and startups, project management often falls to whoever's running marketing, which means you need simple, intuitive tools that don't require project management expertise to use. The right tools can help you keep track of campaigns and deadlines, organize your content calendar, and collaborate with team members. Here are three user-friendly options that won't overwhelm you with complexity:

21. Notion

Notion is a sandbox project management software of sorts, in that it allows its users to create personalized project management dashboards that fit their exact needs. Whether that’s a Kanban board, a calendar, a to do list, or what have you.

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With Notion, you can start with a blank page or find a template as a starting point for your project management board. Then you can add widgets like tables, lists, calendars, and a number of others to flesh out the project management dashboard of your dreams.

Core features:

• Project management
• Dashboard creation

Best for: Solopreneurs, along with small and medium businesses that want a flexible, all-in-one workspace for managing marketing projects, content calendars, and documentation

Pricing: Completely free plan for a single user. Paid plans for teams start at $10/seat/month.

22. Slack

Slack is like a digital headquarters where marketing teams can collaborate in real time. With dedicated channels for projects, departments, and clients, plus instant file sharing and integrations with other marketing tools, Slack helps remote and hybrid teams maintain the quick back-and-forth needed for digital marketing.

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Core features:

• Team communication via channels and direct messages
• File sharing and document collaboration
• Video and voice calls

Best for: SMBs looking to improve team communication, whether working in-office or remotely

Pricing: Slack has a completely free plan that holds up to 90 days of messages. To increase memory, paid plans start at $8.75/month.

23. Zapier

Zapier connects your marketing tools together, automating repetitive tasks and creating efficient workflows. For example, it can automatically add new Shopify customers to your email list, or send Slack notifications when you get a bad review. Whether you're syncing project data between tools, automating notifications, or creating custom workflows, Zapier helps streamline your marketing operations.

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Core features:

• Create "if this, then that" workflows (like "when someone fills out my contact form, add them to my CRM")
• Pre-built templates for common small business needs
• No coding required - just point and click

Best for: Small businesses looking to automate routine tasks without hiring a developer

Pricing: Free for up to 100 tasks/month. Premium plans start at $19.99/month.

Recommended tool combinations

• For solo marketers: Notion free + Slack free (basic organization)
• For small teams: Notion Plus + Slack (task management + collaboration)
• For small agencies: Notion Plus + Slack Pro + Zapier Pro (advanced automation)

Best creative tools

One big part of marketing is asset creation—photos, videos, graphics, and other creative visuals. Finding the right tools can be a big help in enabling your team to build out stunning and engaging content.

24. Canva

Canva has revolutionized how small businesses approach design, making it possible to create professional-looking marketing materials without a design background or expensive software. From social media graphics and presentations to business cards and video ads, Canva's drag-and-drop interface and extensive template library let you create polished content in minutes rather than hours.

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Core features:

• Brand Kit to maintain consistent colors, fonts, and logos
• Intuitive graphic design tools 
• Team collaboration tools for sharing and feedback

Best for: Small and medium businesses looking to create professional marketing materials quickly, and empower multiple team members to produce on-brand content

Pricing: Canva has a completely free limited plan. Premium plans start at $15/month per user.

25. Descript

Descript is an all-in-one audio and video editing platform that makes content creation as simple as editing a document. Its innovative AI features, including voice cloning and automatic transcription, make it particularly valuable for marketing teams producing various types of content.

If you're primarily focused on video for social media, check out our guide to the best Reels editing apps, which covers mobile-friendly video editors for your Reels, TikToks, Shorts, and LinkedIn video.

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Core features:

• Text-based video and audio editing
• AI voice generation and cloning
• Screen recording
• Templates for common video formats

Best for: Marketing teams creating podcasts, video content, and social media assets who want a more efficient editing workflow

Pricing: Free plan available; Hobbyist plan starts at $12/month

26. Figma

Figma has become the industry standard for collaborative design work, offering powerful tools for creating everything from social media graphics to complete website mockups. While primarily known for UI/UX design, its collaborative features and extensive plugin ecosystem make it valuable for marketing teams creating consistent brand assets.

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Core features:

• Real-time collaborative design
• Comprehensive design system management
• Interactive prototyping
• Version history and design handoff

Best for: Marketing teams working closely with designers or needing to maintain brand consistency across channels

Pricing: Free for individuals and small teams. Professional plans start at $15/user/month.

Recommended tool combinations

• For beginners: Canva free (essential design needs)
• For small businesses: Canva Pro (design + some audio/video)
• For creative teams: Canva Pro + Descript Creator + Figma (full creative suite)

Building a small business marketing tech stack: Start small, but think ahead

Remember: The best marketing stack isn't the biggest or most expensive — it's the one that helps you reach your business goals efficiently and affordably. Here's how to get started:

• • Google Analytics for understanding your website traffic
  • Google Business Profile for local visibility
  • Canva for basic design needs

1. • When social media becomes crucial: Try Loomly's free trial
   • When you're ready to advertise: Start with Google's free ad platform, and add optimization tools as you gain expertise
   • When you launch a content program: Explore generative AI, SEO tools, and video recoding / editing suites.

3. Tips for success:

• Take advantage of free plans and trials before committing
• Only add tools that solve specific business problems
• Look for platforms with good training resources and support
• Choose tools that integrate well with your existing stack