Whether you work at a marketing firm or it’s part of your job to be involved in the marketing of your company, apps will help make the job of managing content and processes a whole lot easier.
From social scheduling tools, file storage for those hefty assets, research apps and content or project management services, we’ve rounded up the best applications for business, across smartphones, tablets and of course desktop.
Brandwatch
Analytics are central to every marketer’s job. Brandwatch is a versatile application that’s especially beneficial to international marketing teams. It’s capable of tracking real-time conversations about your brand, products, competitors and industry in 44 languages, across 80-plus million sources. At the time of writing, Brandwatch does not have a mobile specific-interface, though this could change in future.
Price: On application
URL: Brandwatch
Why download? A powerful way for marketers to track those engaging with your brand, company and sector.
Buffer
Buffer helps you manage all your brand social networks in one place, from your desktop, mobile or tablet. You can schedule content across Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn and see how it performs with Buffer’s in-depth analytics. If you’re short of something to post, Buffer will recommend relevant content to share, making sure you always have something to say to your audience to keep them engaged.
Price: Free (Subscription offered)
URL: Buffer
Why download? It’s an all-in-one social manager with excellent analytics and an easy-to-use UI, whatever platform you’re using it on.
Contently
Contently is part technology provider and part speciality recruitment agency. Licencing its technology suite of the same name, businesses are able to create, distribute and optimise all of their content marketing projects from a single service, which is also accessible via mobile devices. The approval process can be streamlined and Contently’s proprietary analytics offer advice on what to do next, and how to tie your efforts to your bottom line.
Alongside its tech, Contently has it own network of approximately 55,000 freelance journalists, producers, graphic designers, videographers and photographers, which clients can call on via the platform – for a 15 per cent fee – to bring their storytelling ideas to life. In the five years since its founding, Contently has established a strong track record with brands in industries such as retail, travel, B2B and more.
Price: On application
URL: Contently
Why use? Contently combines technology with access to thousands of media professionals to help businesses create engaging content marketing campaigns to enhance their brands.
Dropbox
Dropbox works seamlessly across all platforms. The desktop app integrates with your computer file system so you can easily drag and drop files in your Dropbox folder to share with colleagues. You can also edit files wherever you are by saving them offline and your full storage limits are supported across devices, with storage bonuses available for downloading on multiple devices.
Price: Free (Subscriptions offered)
URL: Dropbox
Why download? The fully-integrated apps make it simple to share and edit content with other users or even non-users if you wish
Eventbrite
Publisher: Eventbrite Inc
Format: Android, Browser, iOS
Price: Free (subscriptions apply)
Event organising is something every marketing team will have to manage at some point. Eventbrite is an event management service that that can help you and your team keep on top of event ticketing, entry and communications. Using the service – which is accessible from browsers, mobile devices and has a dedicated iOS app for event organisers, Eventbrite Neon – you can keep track of sales and attendance, check-in attendees via e-tickets or digital RSVPs, process payments, and deal with customer queries and issues. Fees are reasonable for small businesses or large organisations, and, in tandem with a productivity app, Eventbrite takes more of the strain out of organising events, and allows you to potentially collect a heap of customer data along the way.
Feedly
Feedly is perfect for tracking what’s going in your sector and what you should be talking about. You can create groups of websites you want to follow easily and the super-smooth mobile experience presents these in beautiful detail. If you see something you want to share on your social networks, you can share with a couple of clicks. If something catches your eye but you don’t have time to read it straight away, just save it for later or add it to your Onenote, Evernote, Pocket, Trello or Instapaper accounts.
Price: Free
URL: Feedly
Why download? Feedly makes it simple to discover the news stories that matter to your business and with integration with a huge number of other services, it makes sharing a breeze.
Iconosquare Analytics
Publisher: Tripnity Format: Browser
Price: Free (subscriptions apply; seven-day trial available)
Image sharing service Instagram has become hugely popular with millions of users, so it follows that marketing teams utilising this service will need analytics if they wish to understand whether their efforts are having any impact. Iconosquare (formerly known as Statigram), from French web agency Tripnity, was born to serve precisely this need.
It aims to provide you and your team with time-saving performance reports and key metrics to help grow your audience on Instagram. It can surface the most engaged followers, identifies new and lost followers, shows reciprocal relationships to other users, and allows you to track your competitors.
MailChimp
MailChimp is one of the top platforms for managing your subscribers, creating and sending out newsletters. The mobile apps support much the same as the website, including the ability to manage your lists, add new subscribers, send campaigns, and view your reports wherever you are. If you’re using it on tablet or desktop, you can create campaigns too, but that feature isn't available on smartphones due to the small screens.
Price: Free (Subscriptions offered)
URL: MailChimp
Why download? If you need to send out simple newsletters to your subscribers, the cross-platform support of MailChimp will do the job seamlessly.
Mention
Mention allows you to keep an eye on everything going on in your media sphere. If your brand is mentioned on social media, you can immediately respond on the move, whatever the time of day to make sure your customers are always your first priority. You can share alerts with others in the organisation, assign tasks and analyse your performance from wherever you are.
Price: Free (Subscriptions offered)
URL: Mention
Why download? Mention puts everything your marketing targets is talking about at your fingertips and the app is super-easy to use.
Nimble
Nimble offers a smart solution to manage your entire contact database. Importing contact information from Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo and other services is just where this contact management software begins. Entries are automatically updated with relevant client and customer information from dozens of data sources. A useful service for marketing team who find looking to save time while also access which contacts most deserve their attention.
Price: £15 a month, per user
URL: Nimble
Why download? An automated contacts database that removes the churn from contact management
Perka
Loyalty programmes ensure when you've captured those new customers, you can retain them and Perka takes all the hassle out of setting up a loyalty programme from scratch. Whenever a customer visits or uses your business, they can get a digital 'stamp' from within Perka, with a bonus when they rack up enough visits. It could be a discount, a free coffee, sandwich or anything else that relates to your business. Although not the most sophisticated marketing tool, it's one that's becoming increasingly important in small, medium and large businesses, especially when digital sales is having such a huge impact on physical store footfall.
Price: Free
URL: Perka
Why download? Perka keeps your customers loyal with little outlay on your part
Trello
Project management tool Trello’s drag and drop interface is one of its plus points, meaning you can move task cards around easily whether you’re using mobile, desktop or tablet. You can assign tasks to certain people and its integration with a wide selection of other services such as Google Drive makes it even more attractive for marketing teams.
Price: Free (Subscription required)
URL: Trello
Why download? The drag and drop interface simplifies managing projects and we love the ability to assign cards to people with notifications telling them exactly when it needs their attention.
