Marketing is one of the most essential areas of business yet it can also be one of the first areas to be sidelined when business gets busy. Here are 10 marketing tools and apps to help you streamline your marketing and make your life a little easier.

1. WhatsApp

Available on iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia, WhatsApp allows you to send text messages, photos and videos to clients, team members, collaborators and associates who are also using WhatsApp for free.

2. Evernote

Evernote is a handy app that helps you keep text notes, audio and web pages in the one place for easy access. It’s perfect for writing blogs on the go and recording your ideas with the added ability to categorise them across all of your devices.

3. HootSuite

HootSuite allows you to manage your social media accounts in one simple dashboard. Schedule messages and tweets, track brand mentions and analyse social media traffic at the office or on the run.

4. Buffer

Buffer makes it easy to share pictures, videos and links with your social media fans and followers. Simply put what you want to share into Buffer, and it will be posted at the best times throughout the day, so more of your fans and followers see your updates.

5. Fast analytics

Fast Analytics helps you monitor your website and blog statistics on the go by syncing with your Google Analytics account. The app shows you your daily, weekly, monthly or yearly statistics as well as, traffic sources, search engine keyword reports and visitor browser, country and engagement reports,.

6. Portent’s Content Idea Generator

Having a hard time coming up with content marketing ideas? Portent’s Content Idea Generator can help, simply enter your subject and get hundreds of interesting topics and headlines for your blog posts, reports, e-books and more.

7. Google Alerts

Set Google Alerts for your industry, your business name, your name and any topics that are relevant to your area of expertise so you can see who is talking about your business, respond to any criticisms or thank someone for a mention or endorsement.

8. Wordle

Wordle is a great tool if you’re a blogger, or you are serious about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

Wordle creates word pictures from your text and helps you see what words are the most prominent in your copy. The bigger the word, the more frequently it has been used in your copy. So your goal is to ensure your keywords are largest in the image.

9. MindNode

MindNode is one of the hundreds of mind mapping apps available today that are ideal for strategising and planning on the run. Some are paid, and some are free, though most of them are all similar in their function so test a few to see which one you like best.

10. Grammarly

Avoid the embarrassment of missing spelling and grammatical errors in your marketing material, blogs and client communication with Grammarly. Grammarly reviews your text and corrects your grammar, spelling, word choice and style mistakes with far more accuracy than your usual spell check.

What marketing tools do you use regularly in your business?

Amanda