With so many marketing tools available, it’s easy to lose track of what is new and popular. But don’t worry, because in this article, I’m going to share three exciting tools that inbound marketers have been raving about in recent months.
If you’re like me, you’re going to want to check these out and give them a try. All three offer a free trial, so you have nothing to lose by kicking the tires.
1. start a FIRE
Get the full value from curated content you share on social media by automatically adding your presence and promoting your content with every external link.
start a FIRE is a pretty interesting little tool that basically adds a small call-to-action at the bottom of links you share via social media and elsewhere.
We’ve all shared curated content on our social channels before and probably wondered if that is actually helping us drive traffic to our own site, or just creating fans of other sites.
With start a FIRE, you can now capture some of that traffic, by enticing you audience to click back to your site.
Here’s a screenshot of what one such call-to-action looks like (see the lower right corner):
It even connects with popular tools such as Buffer, HubSpot, and Octopost.
At the time of this writing, you can request an invite to try it for free. So give it a shot, and let me know what you think!
2. Content Marketer
Increase your blog traffic by 3x by simply reaching out to people, tools, or companies you mentioned in your content/blog post.
Content Marketer is super easy to use. You begin by scanning a URL or uploading a CSV file of potential outreach opportunities. The tool with then try to hunt down as many email addresses, Twitter handles, and contact forms as possible.
After that, you can refine your list by eliminating the people you don’t want to reach out to, or anything that is duplicated or irrelevant.
Then, the real fun begins. You can start reaching out via email, tweets, and direct messages to the folks on your list.
The tool even integrates with Google Apps, Gmail, and Twitter, making the actual outreach a breeze. Oh, and they give you templates to use if you don’t know what to say.
Right now, they’re offering a free 14-day trial, and after that, they have plans starting at $49 per month.
3. Hotjar
See how visitors are really using your website, collect user feedback and turn more visitors into customers.
Hotjar is just out of this world. It’s the ultimate tool for marketing analytics geeks.
Imagine a single tool that allows you to use heatmaps, recordings, funnels, forms, polls, surveys, and more on your site, all with minimal setup.
My favorite feature is the ability to record web sessions and see how your users behave in real-time on your pages. You can learn a lot about your site usability from this process.
When coupled with Google Analytics, and traditional usability and A/B tests, you can be well on your way to having an extremely optimized site that converts like crazy.
Hotjar currently offers a free plan as well as paid options starting at $29 per month.
Which new tools are you using?
I’m always on the lookout for new inbound marketing tools, especially before they become mainstream. If you’re using anything and want to share it, please add a comment below or hit me up on Twitter.
Happy marketing!
