After 15 years of experience, here are my favorite marketing tools

For marketers at all levels, finding the right tools can make all the difference. However, with an abundance of software available, it can be overwhelming to choose the best fit for your specific needs. That's why I created this list of my favorites that hit on many different aspects of your marketing strategy.

Do you have a favorite that I missed?

My favorite tools

- HubSpot: You can't beat the best. Hands down the best marketing automation platform and overall "source of information" for any marketing team. I've used Pardot, Adobe Marketo, and Act-On and Hubspot is by far the best. It's a big expense, so I recommend teams that just need email marketing to go to the next tool on my list.

- Apollo.io: Combine ZoomInfo with Salesloft and you have Apollo. I think it's still $99/month for unlimited email credits from the contact database. It's a great email marketing tool. Has all the functionality of other sales engagement tools at a fraction of the price. Just watch the volume of your email sends.

- Gong: I know Gong is mostly a sales tool but I've used it for voice of customer research. As good as I think I am writing copy, nothing is better than taking the words right out of the customer's mouth. Much of my best content and highest-performing landing pages started with a Gong recording.

- Winware: I've used modals, newsletter signups, and demo forms to generate leads from my content and never got above a 1% conversion rate. Winware offers visitors an incentive for providing feedback on a blog post but requires them to provide their business email address first. It's the best lead hook on a website.

- Session Rewind: Think Hotjar but better. I use Session Rewind to watch videos of people on my landing pages. You can tell I like to have a solid mix of quant and qual data. Google Analytics can't show me exactly what people do on my site.

- BigMarker: I just started using this one for webinars and I've been really impressed. It's expensive, but I like that it's a dedicated tool and not part of a suite of products. It has all the features you could ever use and more.

- Unsplash: Best and cheapest stock image library I've found. I signed up for a premium account for $50/year I think and use it every time I need stock images for ads and landing pages.

- ChatGPT: Obvious one, but seriously, if you aren't using ChatGPT 4 - NOT GPT 3 - you're behind the curve. Half of the marketers I know are using this to help write their content, whether it be preparing an outline, SEO optimizing a blog, or brainstorming new ideas. It's not perfect by any stretch but it's a must use in any marketer's toolkit. It's a perfect example of how marketers can use AI to enhance their output.

- ClickUp: My favorite project management tool. I run my entire company through ClickUp and I'm still on the free plan. I was a monday.com user for a long time but the switch was worth it.

- Ahrefs: I know there's a Semrush v Ahrefs debate but I'm firmly on the side of Ahrefs. It's the best tool I've used for SEO. Gives me all the information I need on my site and my competitors. I have an entire SEO toolkit that I'll save for another post.

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Honorable mentions:

- Google Analytics/Tag Manager/Search Console: I consider these to be table stakes in any marketing tech stack. Every company should already be using them.

- Canva: I'm not a designer but Canva makes it easy enough for me to get basic stuff done without professional help.

- Calendly: Simple calendar scheduling tool. It won't get you leads, but it will make it much easier to schedule meetings.

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Jeff Stillman is the Founder, CEO of OneUp Growth. He previously worked in-house at successful companies like LeagueApps, GLG, and Validately.