26 Essential Inbound Marketing Tools to Boost Your Conversions

Although outbound marketing is a more traditional approach to generating sales, inbound marketing has experienced a rise in popularity, as marketing professionals look for ways to streamline their marketing strategy and generate leads more organically.

In this article, we'll explain inbound marketing and discuss its benefit over more traditional marketing strategies. We'll cover some of the best inbound marketing tools for users to do everything from automating email campaigns to creating content. We'll also provide several tips for choosing the right marketing tools to fit your needs.

What is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing is a modern way of attracting and qualifying leads for your business. It involves using quality content to address customer needs and focuses on user-centered, meaningful interactions. This more personalized content marketing captures leads effortlessly.

Inbound marketing involves creating relationships with potential customers in order to meet their needs at specific times in their consumer journey. Rather than using traditional advertising that disrupts user experience, inbound marketing revolves around reaching customers organically with relevant content through email newsletters, SEO, social media, blogs, and more.

Inbound marketing efforts are all about creating a concise customer journey and guiding users from general awareness to purchase. It starts with creating recognition through valuable, relevant content that engages users, guiding them to purchases that meets their needs.

Why You Should Do Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing helps your audience find you organically. Traditional marketing can feel intrusive, and most of us have experienced the irritation of being interrupted by an ad on TV or online. With inbound marketing, customers search for products or businesses that can solve an issue, effectively finding you first.

Inbound marketing isn’t just about grabbing attention, but rather focuses on drawing in people who have genuine interest. Where traditional marketing like ads may reach potential customers at any time, inbound marketing allows for businesses to identify and meet customer needs at key times in their customer lifecycle.

An inbound marketing strategy can help you achieve your desired goals. When applied properly, inbound marketing tools allow businesses to focus on their clients as well as their products and services, and the pressure of finding a customer base is reduced.

26 Best Inbound Marketing Tools

Try SEMRush for keyword research and content strategy

SEMRush offers a lot of tools for businesses that want to make the most of organic search traffic. It's a content marketing and online visibility platform that includes keyword research, competitive and backlink analysis, and site audits. Their content marketing tools allow users to create and optimize content to increase SEO ranking and improve engagement.

With SEMRush, users can create a free account to try out their tools. SEMRush professional plans start at USD 129.95 per month, or users can choose their Guru plan for an additional $120, which covers more projects, keywords, and results.

SurferSEO for optimizing content for search engines

SurferSEO’s works by optimizing on-page content to improve a site's Google ranking.

This inbound marketing tool helps businesses optimize their content for search engines. Their content optimization tool recommends keywords, word counts, and content structure. Their page auditing allows users to evaluate headings and meta descriptions, as well as comparing their web pages to other top-ranking pages in their google search.

SurferSEO's Essential plan is USD 89 per month. There are several higher pricing tiers that include more articles, team members, and auto-optimize runs. Users can also create a custom pricing plan.

Do industry and market research with Quora

Although Quora is most known as a question and answer forum, it's a great tool for market research. Users can gain insights into customer opinions, preferences, and behaviour using Quora's platform. Businesses also use Quora by monitoring discussion boards in order to identify trends in specific markets, or analyze sentiment or competitor performance. Although not as obvious as other inbound marketing tools, Quora is nonetheless a valuable source of information on potential customers.

Quora is a free platform, but users must create an account to access all of its features.

Use Canva to produce creative content

Canva is a content creation tool that users can employ to make content for email, social media, or print. Canva has a library of customizable templates, fonts, and images, and their generative AI tool can create content from text prompts in addition to inserting captions and changing effects.

• The tool is free to use, and you can create a free account to try out its features. Plans start at USD 160 per month, and allows 500 generative AI images per month. Their Teams plan is $136 and includes extra storage and more AI features.

Try Jasper.ai for written content generation

Jasper.ai, formerly Jarvis, is an AI writing tool used to create original content for social media platforms, blogs, and even ad copies at scale. It provides suggestions based on user preferences and generates content ideas using text prompts. The benefit to this tool is that it streamlines the content creation process by generating relevant, valuable content in minutes.

Jasper.ai starts at USD 39 per month for a Creator plan, while their Pro plan costs $59 per month. Each plan offers a free trial.

WordTune and Grammarly can help with content editing and proofreading

WordTune and Grammarly are two tools designed for editing and proofreading content. They can be used to optimize content for social media, email marketing, and more.

Grammarly uses AI to helps users create more valuable content by checking spelling, grammar, and potential plagiarism issues. It offers real time suggestions and can enhance style and and clarity of written content.

WordTune can be used to improve the tone and effectiveness of written content, using AI to give suggestions for structure and vocabulary. It can used to enhance social media marketing by making sentence suggestions and refining language.

Grammarly offers a free version with limited features, while their paid plans start at 12 USD per month. WordTune also has a free version, and their advanced plan is $6.99 per month.

Use Intercom and Drift for communication and lead generation

Both Intercom and Drift are popular customer relationships platforms that improve inbound marketing efforts. They enable real time communication between customers and companies, helping both existing and potential customers to meet their needs.

Intercom offer features like live chat and customer support ticketing, and integrates with a variety of tools. Drift helps businesses connect with leads using chatbots and sales automation tools. Both platforms support businesses to generate leads and maintain customer relationships.

Intercom starts at USD 39 per month, with higher tiered plans offering more features. Drift offers a premium plan for small businesses at $2500 per month, although they offer custom plans with different pricing and features.

Capture leads with Hellobar

Hellobar is an inbound marketing tool that helps businesses create notification bars and pop-up messages for websites. These notifications display customized messages like promotions and newsletter sign-ups, and helps engage visitors or capture their details.

This software improves inbound marketing campaigns by providing valuable insights on the performance of pop-ups, as their analytics can evaluate conversion rates.

Hellobar starts at USD 29 per month and includes up to 50,000 pop up views. For more views and features, their premium plan is $49 per month.

Plan and schedule calls with Zoom and Calendly

Zoom is a video conferencing tool that enables users to make demo calls and pitch meetings online from any location. It supports communication through video and audio, and has additional features like screen sharing, presenting, and collaboration.

Calendly is a scheduling tool that helps users manage their schedule based on their preferences, such as availability. The platform then schedules users automatically, by showing others their open time and allowing them to schedule meetings. It integrates with other digital calendars, like Google or Outlook.

By using Zoom and Calendly together, users can automate the scheduling process and streamline meetings by hosting them online.

Zoom offers a free version, but calls are time limited. Their pricing starts at USD 14.99 per month for a Pro plan, and $21.99 for a Business plan. Calendly also offers a free version with some features, and their paid plans start at $10 per month.

Automate email marketing and nurture leads with Encharge

Encharge is a marketing automation platform that allows users to automate workflows by setting up trigger-based emails to contacts. Users can create other action sequences such as responses to form submissions and link clicks.

This inbound marketing tool helps users segment contacts and create tailored email workflows. Their email marketing tools help users with customizable email templates, scheduling, and testing.

Encharge starts at USD 70 per month and include unlimited team members and live chat support.

Use HubSpot for marketing automation and optimization

HubSpot is an inbound marketing tool that gives sales and marketing teams an overview of how leads are moving along the sales pipeline. On the marketing side, users can create email marketing campaigns and manage social media accounts and landing pages, while sales teams can automate tasks and track interactions.

This inbound marketing software provides tools to help marketing teams create campaigns to generate leads for the sales team to qualify. Their analytics allow businesses to analyze sales performance and optimize their marketing campaigns.

HubSpot has a number of free tools, and their paid plans starts at USD 20 per month for individuals.

Identify and optimize conversion patterns with Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a web analytics tools for users to track and analyze their sites performance. Users have access to a wealth of data on traffic, conversions, website visitor demographics, and more.

One key function of Google analytics is that it can improve inbound marketing efforts by helping users identify and optimize conversion patterns. By seeing how visitors interact with their sites, such as sign-ups and purchases, users can optimize their site to improve conversion. Google Analytics also provides data on funnels, which helps users understand the entire customer journey.

Users can access Google Analytics for free, and use some of their more basic features. For businesses, Google Analytics starts at USD 50,000 per year.

Master ad tracking and automation through Redtrack

Redtrack is inbound marketing software that tracks impressions, clicks, and conversions to ensure they are properly attributed to the right channel. It helps users track and analyze the performance of their marketing ad campaign across different channels, enabling them to optimize ads.

The this inbound marketing tool helps you track ads and get proper attribution. It delivers ROI data so users can monitor ad spends and returns. Their insights also extend to understanding the customer journey, and they integrate with dozens of other platforms.

Redtrack costs USD 1250 per year for accounts with one user, while team plans cost $3350 per year.

Use Zapier and Make for automation and integrations

Both Zapier and Make are marketing automation platforms used to help integrate different apps used by sales and marketing teams. Both tools can streamline inbound marketing efforts by connecting different apps and automating workflows. Zapier is great for beginners in automation, while Make is more complex.

These inbound marketing software tools help you automate repetitive tasks and create workflows, by identifying events that trigger an automatic action, such as marketing emails for website visitors who fill out their contact information.

Zapier is available for free with some limited functions, while their Professional plan is great for individuals at USD 20 per month. Larger organization can use their Teams plan at 70 USD per month.

Make also has a free version, and users can access more features for only USD 9 per month. Higher tiered plans offer more functions for users with more complex needs.

Use Google Analytics for website analysis

Google Analytics allows users to track their site's performance by analyzing traffic and website visitor demographics. Users can track what visitors do on their sites, providing data on most visited pages and length of time website visitors stay. It also measures conversion data, and can tell users when visitors make purchases or downloads, including real-time data. This information can help users identify areas to optimize and improve their conversion rates.

Users can access Google Analytics for free, and use some of their more basic features. For businesses, Google Analytics starts at USD 50,000 per year.

Unbounce can optimize landing pages

Unbounce is a landing page builder designed for creating and optimizing landing pages, in order to capture leads and improve the inbound marketing process. Users can design and publish landing pages and use their A/B testing tools to improve conversion rates and increase sales from online traffic

This inbound marketing tool enables even those with minimal design experience to create professional, high-converting landing pages. This platform is great for users with little design experience, as it enables that to create optimized landing pages without any coding, through drag and drop functions and customizable templates.

Users can try Unbounce for free with a trial. Their plans start at USD 74 per month, with higher tiered plans offering more features.

Use HelpCrunch for customer service

HelpCrunch is a customer communication platform with a variety of customer support functions. Their tools include live chat, chatbots, and email marketing automation. Their AI functions help representatives with message suggestions, allowing them to focus on customer support. AI editors can also make suggestions for email content, and their analytics tools can provide reports on engagement.

HelpCrunch Basic plan starts at USD 12 per month with limited features. For an additional $8 per month, users can access more functions like chatbots and automation with the Pro plan.

Use Talkroute for virtual phone needs

Talkroute is a virtual phone management system that supports businesses with a variety of communication tools. Talkroute offers virtual phone numbers to users, as well as voicemail and call forwarding. Some of their call management tools including screening and recording, as well as customizable menus and greetings.

This inbound marketing tool provides businesses with different phone numbers to meet their needs, including local, toll-free, and vanity numbers. This helps users establish a nationwide presence or a local identity, making it a great option for online businesses.

Talkroute starts at USD 19 per month for one user. Their Plus plan covers 3 users for $39 per month and includes additional features like live call transfers and additional numbers and mailboxes. The Pro plan covers 10 users and even more features for $59. each plan is available for a free trial.

Try lead generation software LeadFeeder

Leadfeeder is lead generation tool that allows users to track website visitors to their site and identify sales leads. Their tools include lead scoring, which ranks website visitors by engagement, as well as visitor insights such as company name and pages viewed. Their analytics can evaluate marketing campaign performance and identify trends.

This inbound marketing tool can track how website visitors came to the page, and even forecasts their purchase intent, enabling users to make data-driven decisions.

LeadFeeder offers a free version with limited data. For full access, their plan starts at (99) per month and includes unlimited data storage.

Automate marketing with FluentCRM

FluentCRM is one of several popular CRM platforms and includes marketing automation to help manage leads and clients. It's a Wordpress plugin meant for managing email campaigns. Users can make and manage email marketing campaign elements like newsletters or promotional emails. Users can also use FluentCRM to manage subscription lists and automated emails based on subscriber needs and actions.

FluentCRM provides tools to help marketing teams create campaigns to generate leads for the sales team to qualify. Their analytics can generate leads for sales teams and monitor email campaign performance.

FluentCRM costs USD 90 for a one year access for one domain. Higher tiered pricing plans offer more domains for small and large businesses.

Enhance social reach with Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a social media management tool that helps you consistently build & grow a social media following. Hootsuite can schedule and automate social media posts. Their Streams tool allows users to monitor different social media channels at the same time, and their analytics covers engagement, traffic, and follows.

One benefit to this inbound marketing tool is that users can manage multiple profiles on different social media platforms from a single dashboard, making social media management more concise and organized.

Hootsuite starts at USD 97 per month and covers 10 social accounts. Larger businesses can use their Team plan at $260 per month.

Try Buffer for social media management

Buffer is a social media management tool that helps you schedule your content in advance. Buffer is a social medica management tool for scheduling and tracking social media posts. Users can access their social media calendar to schedule posts in advance, and their analytics tool offers data on performance metrics such as likes, comments, and mentions.

Buffer has a free version with some basic planning tools. Their paid plans start at USD 5 per month and includes analytic reports and engagement tools.

How to Choose the Right Marketing Automation Tool for Your Inbound Marketing Strategy

Choosing the right tool for an inbound marketing strategies can feel daunting, with so many available options to choose from. Start by considering your needs, and make a list of the features you're looking for, such as email marketing, lead scoring, and CRM integration. Getting clear on your needs and goals will help you find the right inbound marketing tools.

It's also important to look for an inbound marketing tool that integrates with your existing marketing systems, as this will allow data synchronization and create a more cohesive marketing strategy. Lack of integration may cause poor communication and duplication of efforts.

Evaluate the tool’s scalability and flexibility to meet your growing needs. As your organization grows, your digital marketing efforts will evolve. Consider choosing inbound marketing tools that you won't quickly outgrow. Any inbound marketing tool should also be flexible to allow customization for different marketing campaigns and changing market conditions.

Read reviews and ask for referrals to confirm the tool is reliable and effective. One benefit to having so many inbound marketing tools to choose from is the wealth of reviews and information online. Other inbound marketers can also provide valuable insights on the top inbound marketing software, and word of mouth can increase your confidence that you've chosen the right tool.

Conclusion

Inbound marketing is a great way to connect with customers and generate leads organically, helping businesses to achieve their marketing strategy goals. As inbound marketing continues to grow, it's increasingly important to choose the right inbound marketing tools for your needs. The best inbound marketing tools are available for every concern, whether you're looking for content editing, customer relationship management, or automating workflows.

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