26 Marketing Software Types and What they Do (Plus Examples)
Since the late 1980's, marketing software has changed the way businesses connect and market products or services to their customers.
A big part of this change has been the automation of repetitive tasks and providing marketing teams with data-driven insights.
However, understanding the different types of marketing software tools available is crucial for businesses looking to enhance their customer engagement and boost sales. Since I'm pretty sure that's exactly what we're all trying to do (and do so consistently), let's explore the different marketing software types you'll find handy for most or all of your marketing needs.
What is Marketing Software?
Marketing software (also known as MarTech) refers to a suite of digital tools designed to help you execute campaigns, target specific markets, and convert leads into sales.
Marketing automation software, for example, will automate repetitive tasks such as scheduling social media posts, sending out emails, and creating content, allowing marketing teams to focus on more strategic initiatives.
By using different types of marketing software—from marketing automation and customer relationship management to social media marketing and search engine optimization—you can manage your promotional activities more efficiently and effectively, ensuring they reach your target audience with the right message at the right time.
Here are a few things marketing software can help with:
- Guiding customers from awareness to interest, decision, and action
- Automating responses based on customer interactions
- Providing personalized experiences that aid in customer retention
- Measuring the effectiveness of campaigns
- Analyzing performance data
- Optimizing marketing strategies
- Allocating budgets more effectively
- Making data-driven decisions that drive better results
Read on for the 26 different types of marketing software I've chosen to include in this article, with each section broken down to explain what it is, what it does, and provide you with a few examples.
1. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software
What it is: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is designed to help you manage customer data, enhance outreach campaigns, and improve customer service.
What it does: By collecting, organizing, and housing all customer information—from transactions to demographics—CRM software ensures that you can target your marketing efforts more accurately and effectively. This comprehensive approach to managing customer relationships helps you build stronger connections with your audience and drive sales growth.
CRM software also plays a crucial role in customer service by tracking and managing support tickets, ensuring timely responses and efficient problem resolution. This capability allows you to maintain high levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty, which are essential for long-term success.
Examples: Popular marketing CRM tools include Salesforce, Zoho, and SugarCRM.
2. Marketing Automation Tools
What it is: Marketing automation software is designed to automate repetitive marketing tasks, such as email marketing, social media posting, and ad campaigns. Its one marketing software trend that has gone from strength to strength in recent years.
What it does: By using marketing automation tools and streamlining these processes, you can save time and resources while providing a more personalized experience for your customers.
Some of the key benefits of marketing automation is its ability to automate responses based on past customer interactions and purchases, enhance customer satisfaction and drive engagement through personalized communications, integrate with various marketing platforms, such as email, lead generation, and social media, and provide a centralized database for all your efforts.
Examples: Popular marketing automation tools include HubSpot, Adobe Marketo, and Salesforce Pardot.
3. Email Marketing Software
What it is: Email marketing software helps you engage customers through personalized emails, automation, and analytics. With the rise in mobile device usage (more on that to come), email marketing has become an even more effective channel for reaching customers, as 55% of all emails are now opened first on a mobile device (eMarketer, 2023)
What it does: Email marketing software allows you to maintain brand awareness, deliver company information, stay in touch with previous customers, and nurture contacts toward a purchasing decision. Personalization and automation are critical components of effective email marketing, and platforms like the ones I've outlined below can help you create and personalize emails, set up automated responses, and track email activity to ensure high engagement rates.
These tools also often include drag-and-drop email designs, making it easy for you and your team to create visually appealing campaigns without coding knowledge. Additionally, email marketing software includes features to avoid spam flags, ensuring that emails reach their intended recipients.
Examples: Notable email marketing tools include Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, and GetResponse.
4. Social Media Marketing Software
What it is: Social media marketing software helps you manage your social media presence across multiple platforms and facilitate the posting, scheduling, and sharing of content on social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter (X).
What it does: This software ensures consistent and timely updates that optimize reach and engagement. It also enables you to monitor accounts, boost posts, and analyze metrics such as likes, comments, and shares to inform marketing decisions.
Key features of social media marketing software include publishing, analytics, social listening, customer service, social selling, and the capability to run paid promotions. These features all work together to help you track the performance of social media marketing campaigns and uncover insights about social reach and customer interactions. Automation ensures that posts are made consistently, facilitating timely follow-ups and consistent social engagement.
Examples: Popular social media marketing software include Sprout Social, Hootsuite, and Buffer.
5. Social Listening Tools
What it is: Social listening software involves proactively monitoring social media channels for mentions of your brand, competitor brands, and related keywords. This practice helps you build a solid understanding of what customers and potential customers think about your brand by analyzing social media conversations.
What it does: By tracking every mention of your brand in real-time, you can gauge brand awareness and improve products and services based on valuable consumer data. Social listening tools can really help you to understand the conversation surrounding your brand and the products and services you offer, make informed decisions about marketing strategies, enhance customer satisfaction, stay ahead of the competition, and respond to customer needs more effectively.
Examples: Popular social listening tools include Hootsuite Insights, Sprout Social, and Brandwatch.
6. Content Marketing Software
What it is: Content marketing software helps with planning, creating, and distributing content across various channels. These tools simplify the content creation process by providing a centralized library for managing all marketing content.
What it does: Key features of content marketing platforms include tools for managing content creation processes, implementing approval stages, and keeping projects on schedule. This structured approach ensures that teams can produce high-quality content efficiently and consistently.
These tools also help break down silos in the content creation process, enabling teams to collaborate more effectively, speed up the content lifecycle, develop a dynamic content strategy, and scale content curation for omnichannel marketing.
Examples: Popular content marketing platforms include CoSchedule, ContentStudio, and Contently (something about the Cs here).
7. Design Software
What it is: Design software is essential for creating visually appealing marketing creatives that capture your audience’s attention.
What it does: These tools enable you to edit images and videos, share ideas with team members, and save time and money by eliminating the need for an in-house, agency, or freelance designer. A number of these tools have become quite intuitive, and by leveraging design software, marketing teams can produce high-quality visuals that enhance their marketing campaigns and drive engagement.
Examples: Popular design software options include Canva, Sketch, and Adobe's Creative Cloud.
8. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Software
What it is: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) software is designed to improve website visibility and search engine rankings.
What it does: SEO software helps to drive targeted traffic to your website by identifying the best keywords to target and optimizing website content accordingly. It features site crawl and audit capabilities, providing recommendations for improving page structures and keyword optimization.
By leveraging SEO software, you'll enhance your discoverability on search engines, leading to increased organic traffic and higher conversion rates.
SEO software often includes features such as keyword research and analysis, on-page optimization, site auditing, rank tracking, competitor analysis, and link analysis and acquisition. That said, there are some separate keyword research tools as well.
Examples: Popular SEO tools include Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz.
9. Keyword Research Software
What it is: Keyword research software is an essential tool for uncovering new keywords and analyzing competitor strategies as part of your overarching SEO goals.
What it does: These tools help you identify high-traffic keywords that are relevant to your industry, enabling you to optimize content and improve search engine rankings. By understanding the average monthly search volume and competition for specific keywords, you'll be able to make informed decisions about your SEO strategies and content creation efforts.
Examples: Popular keyword research tools include Google Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest, and Keywords Everywhere.
10. Website Optimization Software
What it is: Website optimization software is designed to enhance user experience and analyze visitor data to improve your website's performance.
What it does: These tools provide features such as heatmaps, visitor profiles, conversion funnels, and real-time data access. This can all help you understand how users interact with your website and identify areas for improvement.
Website optimization software ensures your website is user-friendly and optimized for conversions.
Examples: Popular website optimization tools include Crazy Egg, Hotjar, and Google Optimize.
11. Mobile Marketing Software
What it is: Mobile marketing software utilizes mobile advertising and outreach by engaging with users through mobile-based apps and browsers.
What it does: This software tracks ad engagement data and launches various marketing campaigns, including push notifications, mobile advertisements, web-based ads, in-game ads, and in-app ads. By targeting mobile users, you can reach a wider audience and engage with customers on the devices they use most frequently.
Mobile marketing software includes SMS marketing tools that help engage with customers by answering questions, delivering promotions and coupons, managing drip campaigns, announcing events, and distributing multimedia ads. Just remember that before sending an SMS, you have to have a user’s express written consent, ensuring compliance with regulations and maintaining customer trust.
Examples: Popular mobile marketing software options include Airship, Braze, and Leanplum.
12. SMS Marketing Software
What it is: SMS marketing software, also known as business text messaging software, provides the opportunity to engage with customers through text messaging. With the amount of time people spend on their phones, SMS marketing is a powerful way to reach customers and build personal relationships.
What it does: This software allows you to plan and implement marketing campaigns that target mobile devices via SMS, delivering timely and relevant messages to your audience. The best SMS marketing software packages information neatly and delivers it to a designated audience upon request.
These tools are versatile and can be used to answer customer questions, deliver promotions and coupons, announce events, manage drip campaigns, ask for feedback, and distribute multimedia ads.
Examples: Popular text platforms include EZ Texting, TextMagic, and Twilio.
13. App Store Optimization Software
What it is: App Store Optimization (ASO) software is crucial for businesses with a mobile app looking to improve visibility and user engagement.
What it does: By optimizing various elements of your app, such as the name, store title, icon, description, updates, accompanying screenshots, user reviews, and ratings, you can ensure that your app ranks higher in app store search results.
This improved visibility leads to higher click-through and conversion rates, ultimately driving more downloads and user engagement. Neglecting app optimization can result in lost traction and missed opportunities in the competitive app market.
Examples: Popular ASO tools include App Annie, Sensor Tower, and TheTool.
14. Video Marketing Software
What it is: Video marketing software is designed to create, edit, and distribute engaging video content for marketing purposes.
What it does: This software helps you produce high-quality videos that capture your audience’s attention and drive engagement. It offers features such as video editing, hosting, and analytics, enabling you to track the performance of video content and optimize strategies accordingly.
Using video marketing software, you'll be able to enhance your marketing campaigns and engage with customers more effectively, saving time and money by eliminating the need for external video production services.
Examples: Popular video marketing tools include Adobe Premiere Pro, Wistia, and Vidyard.
15. Influencer Marketing Software
What it is: Influencer marketing software helps you find and manage influencer partnerships.
What it does: This software identifies influencers who align with your brand values and target audience, ensures effective and authentic marketing campaigns, and builds and maintains proper working relationships with influencers.
Additionally, it helps disseminate marketing content and boost brand awareness, supporting influencer discovery, campaign management, and performance tracking.
Examples: Popular influencer marketing tools include GRIN, Meltwater, and Upfluence.
16. Affiliate Marketing Software
What it is: Affiliate marketing software helps you track, manage, and scale your affiliate marketing programs.
What it does: This software provides tools for tracking affiliate sales, managing commission structures, and analyzing affiliate performance, ensuring that you can optimize your affiliate marketing strategies and drive higher conversions.
With affiliate marketing software, you can build and maintain strong relationships with affiliate partners and maximize the effectiveness of your affiliate programs.
Examples: Popular affiliate marketing tools include Impact, PartnerStack, and Post Affiliate Pro.
17. Public Relations Software
What it is: Public relations software works to effectively manage communication strategies, create and distribute content, monitor media coverage, and respond to crises.
What it does: This software contributes to increased visibility, solid product launches, improved customer engagement, and enhanced industry leadership.
These tools help track media coverage, measure the impact of your PR efforts, and make data-driven decisions that enhance your communication strategies. By using public relations software, you will be able to build and maintain a positive brand image and engage with your audience more effectively.
Examples: Popular public relations tools include CoverageBook and PRweb.
18. Event Marketing Software
What it is: Event marketing software helps you to plan events, improve engagement, and provide a central tool for communication and automation.
What it does: This software can send timely updates, relevant emails, and reach attendees with the information they need when they need it. With event marketing software, you'll ensure that events are well-organized, engaging, and successful.
Popular event marketing tools also offer a range of features that support event planning, ticketing, and promotion. This helps to streamline your event management process by creating customized event landing pages, easily handle ticketing and payment, and efficiently manage event logistics using the same platform.
Examples: Popular event marketing tools include Bizzabo, Cvent, and Eventbrite.
19. Lead Generation Software
What it is: Lead generation software is a collection of tools designed to help you generate leads through various marketing channels.
What it does: This software captures information at points of contact, such as landing page visits or email opens, and scores leads based on their actions. With lead generation software, you can create personalized customer journeys and focus on well-qualified leads.
This supports lead capture, scoring, and nurturing, ensuring you effectively generate and manage leads, ultimately driving higher conversions and improving sales processes.
Examples: Popular lead generation tools include HubSpot, Leadpages, and Marketo.
20. Lead Capture Software
What it is: Lead capture software is a tool designed to collect and aggregate data about potential clients.
What it does: It enables you to analyze and report on the data, providing actionable insights to your marketing and sales teams. This software helps build a database of customers and site visitors, ensuring effective targeting and driving higher conversions.
Examples: Popular lead capture tools include Hello Bar, OptinMonster, and Sumo.
21. Digital Marketing Software
What it is: Digital marketing software is a versatile and comprehensive solution that encompasses all types of digital marketing, acting as an umbrella that covers other forms of online marketing.
What it does: This software provides the tools and integrations you need to manage your marketing across various channels, ensuring a cohesive and effective marketing strategy. By leveraging digital marketing software, you'll enhance your marketing strategies and drive better results.
Examples: Popular digital marketing tools include HubSpot, Adobe Marketo, and the Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
22. Marketing Analytics Software
What it is: Marketing analytics software encompasses tools and processes that enable you to manage, evaluate, and control your marketing by measuring performance.
What it does: Marketing analytics software provides robust analytics and reporting tools that help you understand the effectiveness of your campaigns and make data-driven decisions. You can also improve your return on investment (ROI) and optimize your marketing strategies, ensuring you reach your target audience with the right message at the right time.
Examples: Popular marketing analytics tools include Adjust, Brand24, and Google Analytics.
23. Data Visualization Software
What it is: Data visualization software renders information in a visual format, such as graphs, charts, or heat maps so that it's easier to interpret.
What it does: This software can be a game-changer in understanding and working with massive amounts of data, helping to identify trends, patterns, and insights for marketing strategies. By presenting complex data in a more accessible and understandable format, you can make better-informed decisions based on data.
Examples: Popular data visualization tools include Google Data Studio, Microsoft-owned Power BI, and Tableau.
24. Marketing Management Software
What it is: Marketing management software is a platform built to help marketing teams plan and execute campaigns.
What it does: This software comes pre-built with all the tools and integrations needed to manage workflows, collaborate, and organize creative assets.
Some of the more popular marketing management tools offer a range of features that support project management, team collaboration, and workflow automation, ensuring that teams can efficiently manage their campaigns from start to finish.
Examples: Popular marketing management tools include Asana, Monday.com, and Wrike.
25. Marketing Attribution Software
What it is: Marketing attribution software helps you track the entire customer journey, from the first engagement with an advertisement to the final purchase.
What it does: This software provides insights into what influenced the customer’s decision to buy, how they interacted with your company, and what hurdles they faced along the way. These insights help you identify areas for improvement or tactics that need changing or optimizing.
Examples: Popular marketing attribution tools include Adobe Analytics, Ruler Analytics, and LeadsRX.
26. Multi-Level Marketing Software
What it is: Multi-level marketing (MLM) software addresses the specific needs of MLM entrepreneurs by streamlining various aspects of their operations.
What it does: This software helps you manage sales, remuneration, distribution, downlines, uplines, training programs, and internal communication. With MLM software, you'll be able to navigate simultaneous communication streams and ensure your MLM strategies are efficient and well-coordinated.
Examples: Popular MLM tools include NetSuite, Scentsy, and MarketPowerPRO.
- NetSuite
- Scentsy
- MarketPowerPRO
Benefits Of Marketing Software
Implementing marketing software within your marketing department offers several key benefits that can really enhance your business strategies. Here are the top few, in my opinion:
Enhances Efficiency
This one is largely in relation to marketing automation, but really any of the tools I talked about in this article can help your team work more efficiently.
By automating routine tasks such as email campaigns, social media scheduling, and customer segmentation, you'll save significant time for teams to focus on more strategic initiatives, such as planning and executing creative work and comprehensive marketing campaigns that align with overall business goals.
Improves Data Accuracy
Thanks to the robust analytics and reporting tools of many a marketing software, use of these tools can also help you to improve the accuracy of data included in your detailed reports.
By analyzing clean, complete, and well organized data from various campaigns, you'll be able to more effectively measure the success of your marketing campaigns, make data-driven decisions, and allocate your budgets more effectively to achieve better results.
Boosts Customer Engagement
Personalized communication is essential for establishing strong relationships with customers; this we know. Marketing software plays a crucial role in this.
By taking advantage of behavioral targeting and customer data, you can:
- Tailor messages based on individual customer behaviors,
- Send personalized recommendations and offers
- Segment your audience for more targeted campaigns, automate personalized email marketing
- And use dynamic content to deliver personalized website experiences
These strategies all lead to higher engagement and satisfaction among customers.
How to Choose the Right Marketing Software
Understanding how to choose marketing automation software for your business starts with understanding your unique needs and setting clear objectives.
Here are a few of my best tips:
- Identify the specific marketing tasks you want to automate and the goals you aim to achieve. Consider the attributes that are most important to you, such as ease of implementation, customizability, flexible pricing, and robust analytics.
- Ensure that the marketing software integrates seamlessly with your existing tech stack, including CRM systems, data warehouses, and email platforms. This integration will provide a unified view of your marketing efforts and streamline your operations.
- Evaluate your company’s budget allocation for marketing tech to ensure the software fits within financial constraints. Compare different software options, read reviews, and consider free trials or demos to find the best fit for your business.
Ultimately, the right marketing software will enhance your marketing strategy and drive better results.
Join For More Marketing Software Insights
After reviewing these 26 marketing tools and the benefits they offer, I'm sure you've come to realize that marketing software and marketing automation can significantly enhance your business strategies. From automating routine tasks and improving data accuracy to boosting customer engagement, these tools are essential for any modern marketing team.
By understanding the different types of marketing software available and how to choose the right one for your needs, you can optimize your marketing efforts and achieve better results. Embrace the power of marketing software and take your business to new heights!
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is marketing software?
Marketing software is a set of digital tools designed to streamline marketing campaigns, target specific markets, and convert leads into sales through automation and data analysis.
How does CRM software benefit businesses?
CRM software benefits businesses by helping manage customer data, enhance outreach campaigns, and improve customer service through ticket tracking and social media integration.
What are the benefits of using marketing automation software?
Using a marketing automation tool streamlines repetitive tasks, such as email marketing and social media posting, to create a more personalized customer experience and shift team focus towards strategic initiatives.
Why is SEO software important?
SEO software is an important marketing tool because it helps improve website visibility, search engine rankings, and drives targeted traffic through keyword research and performance tracking.
How can businesses choose the right marketing software?
When choosing the right marketing software, businesses should consider their unique needs, ease of implementation, customizability, integration with existing tech stacks, and affordability to make an informed decision.
