Every marketer’s job is becoming more and more diverse. Content, digital media and social networking are all presenting new challenges, and Google’s algorithm updates mean that marketers need to understand the latest in SEO. How do you keep on top of all of the challenges in a modern marketing job?

By automating some of your tasks and using third party services, inbound marketing becomes more manageable and requires less admin. Here are five clever tools you can use to make your inbound marketing easier and more effective.

1. Buffer

Use Buffer to schedule your social media updates and deliver content at the best times for your audience. The service can post to LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, ADN and more, and it’s recently added Google+ to the mix. Users can set up different schedules for different services too.
Buffer’s free on a limited basis, but the Awesome plan removes all account limits and is well worth paying for. There are a range of apps that integrate with the service, plus a Chrome bookmarklet that makes it really easy to add a post to your Buffer with a click.

2. Disqus

WordPress’ commenting system is woefully inadequate for modern content marketing. It’s cumbersome, unattractive and unappealing, and webmasters generally have to switch on registration to prevent comment spam, deterring all but the most determined users from commenting on a post.
Disqus quickly and easily replaces the entire WordPress commenting system, giving your blog a range of extra tools to supercharge the comments. What’s more, Disqus is a commenting network in its own right, so your blog could receive extra visitors from cross-promotion.

3. MailChimp

The days of setting up your own mailing list are thankfully long gone. MailChimp has done away with the technical complexity of mailing list providers and turned email marketing into an enjoyable and highly creative task. MailChimp handles everything from list management to design, with a range of templates and a user-friendly interface.
MailChimp’s basic service is ‘forever free’, and if you need more capacity, upgrading is very affordable: MailChimp’s priced based on subscriber numbers. The huge amount of available integrations make MailChimp a great bet when setting up a new marketing campaign.

4. Open Site Explorer

While Moz’s link analysis tool is only free on a very limited basis, it’s still worth using now and again. You can instantly see the top five linking domains, the most commonly used anchor text and the top pages on your domain. It’s also very easy to compare your site with a competitor’s site to see how well they’re performing side by side.
The full version of Open Site Explorer is only available with a Moz subscription, which isn’t cheap, but professional marketers will stump up the cash because the information is so valuable. But even on a basic level, the free package is well worth a try.

Streamlining Your Marketing

Analysis is a key part of inbound marketing and conversion optimisation, but that doesn’t mean you have to bury your head in reports to get a feel for the way your campaigns are going. Using a combination of free solutions and paid tools, you can be more efficient in your marketing efforts and spend more time on being creative.

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About the Author

Sam Wright is a writer working for the Brand Republic website.