Monthly Archives: April 2023

These days, businesses across every industry are investing in social media marketing. But no matter how great your social media content is or how many people follow your accounts, you won’t be able to grow your audience, reach, and presence if you don’t understand the data behind it all.

In-depth knowledge about the status and success of your social media marketing will offer actionable insight into things like which strategies should remain in place and what you should change or experiment with in order to grow. Social media analytics tools are able to help you with just that.

In this post, we cover the following:

What is social media analytics?
Why use social media analytics?
How to track social media analytics
Best social media analytics tools

Social Media Analytics

In this blog post, we’ll review the importance of social media analytics and some great options to help you measure your social media marketing success.

Get certified in social media strategy with this free course.

What is social media analytics?

Social media analytics is the process of gathering, analyzing, and applying data, information, and reports related to the content shared on your social profiles and the social profiles themselves.

Why use social media analytics?

With social media analytics, you can:

Understand the metrics that matter most to your team and business such as engagement, reposts, shares, clicks, impressions, and sessions.
Identify effective ways to boost brand awareness and reach.
Resonate with your audience.
Boost traffic to your other content and website.
Increase conversions.
Improve customer loyalty.

How to Track Social Media Analytics

Here are the steps involved in tracking social media analytics

Identify which social media platforms you’ll be measuring impact on (e.g. LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram).
Determine which metrics you’re doing to track (e.g. clicks, impressions, likes, shares).
Choose a time period to analyze (e.g. last quarter, last month, last week, duration of your campaign).
Determine which tools you’ll use to track and measure success (we’ll cover your options in the next section).
Review and analyze your data (depending on your tool of choice, there may be internal features to help you understand and analyze your data — such as this one with HubSpot).
Apply your findings and conclusions to improve growth in the future.

1. HubSpot Social Media Software

Get started with HubSpot Social Media Analytics 

HubSpot provides a deep look into the way social media impacts your bottom line and gives you the ability to report on social media ROI. View and compare performance across different platforms, campaigns, and publishing times — all from a single tool.

Monitor your brand on social to understand how your target audience perceives your business and content. Additionally, YouTube Reports provide insight into how your audience and buyer personas engage with your videos. Lastly, effectively reach certain audiences by using data and context from the Contacts in your CRM (which this social tool integrates seamlessly with).

Feature highlights: Social campaign publisher, social mentions monitoring, social reports

Get certified in social media strategy with this free course.

2. Sprout Social

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Sprout Social is a social media planning service with expansive analytics and reports that help you understand the performance of all of your social accounts.

Configure and customize reports and metrics to help you scale your business’s presence on social. And if you’re a HubSpot customer, integrate your CRM with Sprout Social to collect and view accurate reports all in one place.

Feature highlights: Competitor comparison tool, integrated publishing and engagement tools, social listening

3. Brandwatch

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Brandwatch is a consumer intelligence tool and social media management solution with analytics capabilities.

Social insights like social listening and competitor benchmarking can inform your content creation. You can gain a better understanding of the audiences engaging with your social content with audience profile cards. View key data in one place with customizable dashboards.

Feature highlights: Audience profile cards, customizable dashboards

4. Mailchimp

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Mailchimp is a full-service marketing platform that offers analytics for social media ads. It’s easy to use for small marketing teams and requires little time to pour over the accompanying analytics.

With Mailchimp, you’ll have an audience dashboard, which is a page dedicated to understanding audience behavior. Additionally, the software offers tools to look into smart targeting and mobile integrations. These tools can diversify a social strategy and deliver higher engagement numbers by helping you create content that specific audiences will respond to.

Feature highlights: Content optimizer with AI-assisted suggestions, content studio for managing digital assets

5. Social Status

Social Status is a dedicated social media analytics tool with robust reporting features. The platform comprehensively covers Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Social Status reports can be completely customized and white-labeled making them perfect for agencies and brands with complex requirements. Reports can be exported to PDF, PowerPoint, and Google Slides. The tool also covers paid and organic performance, competitor benchmarking, and influencer campaign tracking all in one powerful social analytics tool.

Feature highlights: Social media reports across multiple channels, influencer campaign tracking

6. Databox

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Databox is an expansive analytics platform that lets you set and track social media campaign goals. It’s a good choice for businesses that have many contacts, social accounts, campaign goals, and target audiences.

Customize metrics that matter most to your campaign or social channels for your reports. Any integration you have, such as HubSpot, will be visible from your dashboard as well.

Feature highlights: Dashboard designer, custom metric builder

7. Grow

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Grow users gain full visibility into engagement on all of the social accounts. The tool integrates with HubSpot, Salesforce, Google Ads, Facebook, Marketo, and Microsoft Office so you can view all data in one place.

Grow breaks down complex data into graphs and visuals, and your social reports are easily sharable which is helpful if multiple people are working on the same project. Grow’s reports are built with metrics chosen by the user — meaning, you can customize reports in a way that works for your needs.

Feature highlights: Data modeling, dashboards

8. ActiveCampaign

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ActiveCampaign is an email marketing software with social media features including reporting. You can connect Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and other platforms to gather insights related to performance.

Since you’ll have both social media and email metrics in one place, this is a good option for businesses with a heavy email marketing focus. Additionally, ActiveCampaign’s reports track what contacts do after they click through to your site. Further, if you’re a HubSpot customer, the software integrates with your CRM.

Feature highlights: Site tracking, landing pages, reports 

9. CoSchedule

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CoSchedule gathers social network, campaign, and engagement data for your profiles and compiles that real-time data into reports.

On your dashboard, compare multiple campaigns to determine the evolving ecosystem of audiences. You’ll also be able to see the top fans of your social accounts, making it easier to create targeted content for them (and followers like them).

Feature highlights: Content organizer, dashboard

9. Hootsuite

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Hootsuite is a social media calendar and planner with analytics capabilities. In one streamlined place, you can measure and analyze performance across different social media platforms.

Reports inform the best times to post based on when your audience is the most active and identify top-performing posts. Pre-built templates make reports customizable and easy to digest. 

Feature highlights: Customizable report templates, recommended posting times

10. Bazaarvoice

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If you’re a brand, social media is a valuable tool for e-commerce. According to HubSpot’s Social Media Report, 50% of survey respondents said social shopping is very important to their overall social media marketing strategy.

Bazaarvoice helps make your content shoppable with their link in bio solution called Like2Buy. You’ll be able to retarget shoppers who clicked the link by creating lookalike audiences and segmenting social campaigns. Tools like Showroom turns your content into a storefront. Bazaarvoice also helps measure ROI from your social commerce efforts.

Feature highlights: Link in bio solution, pop-up shop

11. Buffer

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Buffer measures and analyzes how your content performs across different social channels. With Buffer, you’ll be able to gain insight into how your organic content compares to boosted posts, measure engagement for individual posts and stories, and figure out your audience demographics.

You can also extract data to help you determine the best time to post and the optimal posting frequency.

Feature highlights: Custom reports, daily updates

12. BuzzSumo

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BuzzSumo helps with social content creation with tools like the Content Analyzer — by using the Content Analyzer, you will be able to figure out what topics receive the greatest engagement, broken down by platform.

BuzzSumo can also analyze the social engagement your content receives. This way, you will be able to see the number of shares from each platform and use these insights to determine which pieces of content to focus on in the future.

Feature highlights: Keyword tool, real-time view of trends, Content Analyzer

Choose a Social Media Analytics Tool

Ultimately, choosing the right social media analytics tools for your business shouldn’t be a stressful process. The tools should align with your business goals and deliver the metrics you need to be successful. So review the options above and choose the right one for your business.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in March 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Those who know me, know that I have a healthy obsession with travel, and so, I often pour through travel blogs looking for the best way to plan a trip and the best activities to do in a given place. One tool that will always help me find what I need is content aggregation.

Since they’re not solely for travel sites, content aggregator sites can be a useful strategy. Marketers can reach new audiences, and consumers can find relevant resources.

In this post, you’ll learn what content aggregation is and discover high-quality sites.

Table of Contents

How Content Aggregators Can Help Marketers
How to Pick the Right Aggregator Service
Aggregation vs. Creation vs. Curation
Content Aggregation Tools

Essentially, content aggregator sites collect and repost content so viewers can see articles from various sources all in one place. Usually, these sites are set up to aggregate content through RSS feeds automatically.

So, now that we know more about content aggregation, see how you can get started.

How Content Aggregators can Help Marketers

Content aggregation can help marketers distribute content on multiple platforms, making it easier for people to find you.

The more platforms you’re on, the more exposure you have to a variety of audiences. Given this, content aggregation is a tactic you could include in a brand awareness strategy.

Additionally, using content aggregators to distribute your business content can help you become involved in your community, especially if you encourage interaction. For example, people can leave comments, have discussions, and also have conversations with you.

Before you get started, it’s essential to understand how to pick a content aggregation site.

How to Pick the Right Aggregator Service

When it comes to picking the right aggregator service for your business, the most critical question is the type of content you’re hoping to share on it.

For example, there are specific sites for news stories, others for blogs, and others focused entirely on social media content — you want to pick the one that aligns most with your needs (our list below will help).

In addition, some aggregators cost money. If you have a strict budget, you’ll want to visit the pricing pages of services to see if there are any fees.

However, many services are free of cost and are curated by editors or algorithms, so your choice depends on your business needs.

Aggregation vs. Creation vs. Curation

There are a variety of ways you can provide valuable content to your audience. It’s important to understand which approach (or combination of approaches) best suits your business’ goals and your audience’s interests.

Content creation is the process of developing topic ideas and content for your target audience through written and visual products. This information is made available through blogs, videos, infographics, and other digital formats.

Content curation is a bit closer to content aggregation in that it is not original content. Instead, it is content that is curated and presented to the target audience.

The content is manually collected, organized, and annotated, so it often includes commentary and/or context.

Finally, as previously explained, content aggregation is different from both content creation and curation in that it’s automatic and collects information based on keywords.

The content is gathered from different sources online and put together in one easy-to-find place.

This tool allows your audience to derive a lot of value from your distribution and aggregation with minimal and efficient effort on your end.

Each of these methods can offer a way to expand your marketing strategy and are worth your consideration. However, here we are just focusing on digital content aggregators.

Content Aggregation Tools

Now, let’s go over some different high-quality content aggregation tools that can be valuable to you.

Blog Aggregators

As implied in the name, blog aggregator sites focus on blog websites. They can contain general blog posts or more niche-focused aggregators, such as a travel blog aggregator that’s focused on travel blogging content.

1. Travel Blogger Community

Travel Blogger Community is a content aggregation site that I use when searching for travel blog content. You can request to have your content featured, and it is curated by editors.

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Pro tip: Travel Blogger Community is a great example of a niche site that may also exist within your industry, so be sure to do some research if you’re going to implement a content aggregation strategy.

2. Flipboard

Flipboard is a popular blog aggregator that allows users to create a custom feed based on their interests.

What we like: Personalization allows you to create a profile, submit an RSS feed, and share your content. You can also create a personal storyboard with content related to your business and link to it on your website via social buttons.

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3. The Web List

The Web List is a single-page content aggregator with original content from a variety of sources. It highlights the most popular items of the day at the top, then organizes other articles by source.

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News Aggregators

News aggregator sites compile content from various high-quality news sources. These sites can be for general news, location-specific news, or industry happenings.

4. Google News

Google News displays the top news stories for the day, saving users a trip to their search engine.

You can’t submit your content to the site as it is curated based on search history and location, but if your site gains traction, you increase your chances of being featured.

Best for: Customization. Users can customize their feed by “following” specific topics, sources, or searches.

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5. AllTop

AllTop aggregates content from various topics and sources, such as top news sites and social media forums.

Users can search for topics of interest and get the top stories or just browse through the homepage.

Pro tip: AllTop sometimes accepts site submissions, so be sure to check back periodically if you want to feature your content.

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6. Pocket

Pocket is an aggregation site that features a wide variety of content that users can customize to meet their interests by clicking a “Follow” button. You can also bookmark content to read on the go on your mobile devices — hence Pocket.

Best for: Anyone! There is a wide range of categories from tech through finance to travel.

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7. WP News Desk

WP News Desk is a unique aggregator site that focuses on content related to the WordPress community.

You can’t submit your own content to be featured, but if you run a high-quality WordPress blog that is informative for users, you may find your site featured on the aggregator.

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8. Feedly

Feedly is a content aggregation site that’s focused on helping users create their own feed, so they aren’t overwhelmed with information overload.

Pro tip: The site has both free and paid plans, so users can aggregate content from as many sources as they want and across any niche.

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9. Techmeme

Techeme is a niche news aggregator site that provides readers with the top news stories about technology-related topics, curated by editors.

In addition to the homepage, which features the day’s top stories, you can also choose the River view to see live updates or the Leaderboard view to find articles by topic.

Pro Tip: You can pay to have your content, event, or job listing posted on Techmeme, so if you’re in the tech business, this may be a great resource to tap into.

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Information Aggregator Websites

Information aggregator websites contain exactly that — information. This can include blog posts, news stories, links to social media content, and any information that users can benefit from.

10. Upstract

Upstract is a popular information aggregator. It allows users to choose the platforms they want information from to create a custom feed.

What we like: The crazy variety — it pulls from Reddit, Huffington Post, The Verge, Google News, Wired, and even TikTok, setting them all side-by-side.

While you can’t submit your site to be included in this aggregator, it’s nevertheless a powerful platform to be aware of if you’re going to start using content aggregation.

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11. Panda

Panda offers both a website and Chrome extension specifically curated for developers, designers, or just anyone who identifies as an entrepreneur.

It allows you to stay up to date with industry news from sources such as Hacker News, TechCrunch, and Github.

What we like: It is presented in an easy-to-use and aesthetically pleasing manner, making it the perfect content aggregator for anyone in the industry.

However, keep in mind that Panda doesn’t allow user submissions. Therefore, your feature may just come about if your content rises to the top of any of these notable news sites.

12. Reddit

Reddit is a household name, and if it isn’t in your home, then you must be living under a rock. However, it is also one of the most popular information aggregator sites.

It features trending topics from all different areas of interest while also providing a forum where people can comment and discuss the latest news.

Pro tip: As I’m sure you know, members of the site can submit content such as text posts, images, and links. Therefore, it’s a great tool for marketers to spread their word further.

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Social Media Aggregators

Social media aggregators compile high-quality content from sources such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. Most social media aggregators help markets find user-generated content to share with their audience to build brand trust.

13. TaggBox

TaggBox is a social media aggregator focused on helping marketers develop brand trust and engagement through user-generated content.

You create an account, select the tags that are relevant to your business, and you’re shown posts across different social media platforms that your audience has made about you.

Pro tip: You also have the option to create a social feed of user-generated content to display on your own website, helping site visitors see your content in action and generate trust from other consumers.

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14. Tagembed

Tagembed collects and curates engaging social media content related to your business that you can then display on your website.

What we like: You can generate a social feed from multiple sites and share the custom content within your site for all users to see.

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15. Curator

You can draw posts from the most popular social media sites to create and share your own feed on your business’ website.

You can choose whether the posts automatically appear on your site or whether you manually approve each first. Curator offers free and paid plans.

Best for: Building brand trust by sharing customer posts with prospects and site visitors.

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While it may not make up the core of your marketing plan, content aggregators are a unique and exciting tool for marketers to use to share their content and gain exposure, while simultaneously becoming involved with your community.

You’ve likely heard how artificial intelligence can revolutionize the way marketers work. In fact, you may be using AI-powered tools right now.

But if you’re like me, you haven’t “pulled back the curtain” to see how this technology works — until now.

Here, we’ll cover the four main types of artificial intelligence — reaction machines, limited memory, theory of mind, and self awareness — and how each type can power your marketing.

How many types of AI are there?

There are four main types of AI: reactive machines, limited memory, theory-of-mind, and self-aware.

However, since AI can be categorized by function (the types listed above) and capabilities, you add three more to the mix: narrow intelligence (ANI), general intelligence (AGI), and superintelligence (SGI).

Below we’ll explain each type.

4 Types of Artificial Intelligence

Reactive Machines

As the name suggests, reactive machines react and respond to different prompts. It does this without the use of memory or a broader understanding of the context.

For example, this type of AI is commonly used in game design to create opponents. The opponent will respond to your actions, movements, or attacks in real time but is unaware of the game’s overall objective. On top of that, it stores no memories, so it doesn’t learn from past experiences and adjust its gameplay.

Reactive AI powers a lot of marketing tools. A notable example is chatbots. These programs use reactive AI to respond to messages (or inputs) with the right information.

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Chatbots are a popular tool in customer service, but they can also boost the productivity of marketers. For instance, HubSpot’s ChatSpot is a handy AI-powered assistant that can pull reports, create contacts, and send follow-up emails based on certain commands.

Beyond chatbots, reactive AI can analyze customer behavior, campaign performance, and market trends. With these insights, marketers can optimize their campaigns on the fly, improving their effectiveness and ROI.

Limited Memory

Limited memory AI is able to learn from a limited amount of data or feedback. However, it doesn’t “bank” any memories for extended periods of time.

A great example of the ‘limited’ aspect of this AI is ChatGPT. It has a limit of 4000 tokens (forms of text like words) and can’t recall anything from a current conversation after that limit. So, if a conversation is 4097 tokens, ChatGPT responds based on the latest 97 tokens.

This technology can be found in self-driving cars. It can detect lanes and map out the road ahead. It can also adjust the car’s speed and break in real time based on traffic patterns and road conditions.

In marketing, limited memory AI can be used to analyze large amounts of data, helping marketers make smarter decisions about their strategies and tactics. It can also make predictions and recommendations based on this data.

While limited memory algorithms are effective, they aren’t foolproof. They can make mistakes or provide inaccurate predictions, especially when working with outdated data. In other words, the output is only as good as your input. So, it’s important to train these algorithms with accurate, relevant, and up-to-date information.

Reactive machines and limited memory AI are the most common types today. They’re both a form of narrow intelligence (which we’ll discuss further below) because it can’t perform beyond programmed capabilities.

Theory of Mind

Theory of mind exists only as a concept. It represents an advanced class of technology that can understand the mental states of humans.

For instance, if you yell at Google Maps because you missed a turn, it doesn’t get offended or offer emotional support. Instead, it responds by finding another route.

The idea behind theory of mind is to create machines that can interact with humans more effectively because they understand their needs, goals, and motivations. If an AI system can understand the frustrations of a disgruntled customer, for example, it can respond more tactfully.

In the long term, theory of mind AI could have significant implications for marketing. However, it’s still in its early stages, making it difficult to predict when it will become a reality.

Self Aware

Self-aware AI is seen as the next phase in the evolution of theory of mind, where machines are able to understand human emotions and have their own emotions, needs, and beliefs. Currently, this type of AI only exists hypothetically.

M3gan, the robot from the movie of the same name, is an example of self-aware AI. She’s sentient and knows who she is and experiences emotions, and can understand the emotions of those around her. She’s awkward like we’d expect from a robot, but she has social interactions.

The Stages of AI

Artificial intelligence has three stages, largely defined by its ability to replicate human capabilities:

Narrow Intelligence (ANI): Narrow AI represents most AI systems that exist today. At this stage, AI is designed to perform a specific task or set of tasks. It doesn’t have the ability to learn or adapt beyond their programming. Examples include chatbots and virtual assistants (like Siri), and recommendation algorithms.
General Intelligence (AGI): This is the next evolution of AI. These systems are designed to have human-like intelligence, allowing them to learn and adapt to new situations, think abstractly, reason, and solve problems. At this moment, AGI is still largely theoretical.
Superintelligence (ASI): ASI is an advanced form of AI that surpasses human intelligence, enabling it to solve complex problems, create new technology, and make decisions beyond the scope of human understanding. ASI is a hot topic of debate, and its potential benefits and risks are highly speculative.

While these stages are widely accepted, there is ongoing debate about what defines each stage and when we might achieve them — or if we should evolve AI at all.

Top Types of AI in Marketing

As mentioned, reactive and limited memory AI (both are narrow AI) are all that exist today. This means the AI tools marketers use are strictly reactive, or reactive + limited memory.

We surveyed 1350+ marketers in the U.S. to learn more about their use of AI and automation and the tools they use in their roles. Here are some key takeaways.

First, when asked about the generative AI tools used in their marketing roles, most marketers use AI use chatbots (66%).

Chatbots can be both reactive and limited memory AI. For example, a rule-based chatbot following an if/then model and is programmed with canned responses could be called reactive AI because it follows a set structure and can’t deviate from the structure.

Machine learning chatbots, like conversational chatbots, are limited memory AI because they leverage data and past conversations to respond to customers. They become more effective over time, but their memory is limited.

Marketers also said they commonly use visual AI tools (57%) and text generation tools (56%). Regardless of the tool they use, all generative AI is limited memory AI because the tools can create new content based on the data it’s trained on.

All AI/automation users that responded to our survey say that AI and automation tools save an average of 2 hours and 24 minutes per day.

Back to You

From reactive machines to limited memory AI, theory of mind, and self-awareness, each type of AI has its strengths and limitations. Knowing these differences is key to choosing the right tools, leveraging them effectively, and staying ahead of the curve.

Calls-to-action (CTAs) are a crucial part of your marketing arsenal. You need effective CTAs to convert website visitors into leads. CTAs prompt your audience to take an action in their lifecycle that actually benefits them — and the growth of your business.

In addition to your CTA’s copy, its design needs to grab people’s attention. That’s why we created 28 free call-to-action (CTA) templates in PowerPoint for you to customize and use. Don’t let the fear of DIY design stop you. The template will teach you how to customize your new CTAs effectively.

This post will give you a sneak peek into a large set of designs available in the template. Download it now and follow along.

Download Now: 28 Free CTA Templates

Best Free Call-to-Action Templates

Struggling to create engaging CTA designs or just looking for some inspiration? Here are some of the best free call-to-action templates that can help you.

1. Basic Calls-to-Action

Sometimes you just need a quick and clean button that helps drive conversions.

Building a landing page that requires a customized submit button? Working on a website page that needs to drive visitors to a coupon? Drafting a blog post that needs a “read more” button after the summary? We’ve got you covered.

Here are some template examples for basic CTAs.

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2. Contextualized Calls-to-Actions

You’ve seen some basic CTA options thus far. The next set of CTA templates call on you to include more context.

Here are two sample designs available in the template.

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These designs are created to further explain the value of taking action. Just be sure to keep the overall layout of the button simple so that users can easily see the action you’re calling on them to take.

3. Photo and Mobile Device Calls-to-Action

Photos can serve as a great asset when creating your call-to-action designs. Not to mention it’s super easy because all you have to do is overlay some text.

Photos make it easy to humanize and customize your messages for your brand and audience.

Here are three sample CTA designs from the bunch.

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Similarly, mobile and desktop devices can help make your action “pop.” Rather than including a screenshot of your product, try putting that screenshot on a kindle to show it in action.

If you have trouble locating copyright-free photos, you can download our free stock photos resource. No attribution is required; just download and use.

4. Qualifying Calls-to-Actions

When you’re trying to nurture a lead further down the funnel, you want to ensure you’re presenting CTAs to qualify them for your sales team.

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For these CTAs, it’s essential that they are welcoming and not pushy. Having a great design can help you naturally move your leads further down your marketing funnel.

Here are two examples from the templates you could customize to help convert a lead to marketing qualified lead.

Crafting Your CTAs

Not sure how to exactly save and use these templates? Don’t worry. Your download of these 28 templates will include step-by-step instructions on how to save and use these templates on your website.

Soon you’ll be grabbing customers’ attention and driving leads.

There’s no way around it — every business needs to drive leads to grow. 

However, B2B lead generation is far from a simple task.

You are competing with other businesses, navigating misinformation, and playing trial and error with various tools. Not to mention, you also might be selling a product that’s more expensive or requires a hire subscription fee than many B2C offerings. 

Though a complex task, having the right B2B lead generation tools can simplify and speed up the process of lead generation.

In this post we’ll cover:

What is B2B lead generation?
Why you need lead generation tools
Best B2B lead generation tools

While a B2B lead is made when anyone shares name and contact information that enables you to identify and follow up with them, a quality lead is one that signals their seriousness about product interest by providing other useful information and engaging further with your business. Qualified lead information varies and is harder to get. But, it generally includes name, occupation, and email address.

Ultimately, the goal of B2B lead generation is to create a consistent pipeline of qualified leads who are likely to convert into customers.

Why You Need B2B Lead Generation Tools

Trying to generate B2B leads without tools is like showing up to a sword fight without a sword — you will not be equipped with the tools you need to achieve your goal.

Because it is distinct from B2C lead generation, B2B lead generation requires a different set of strategies. B2B lead generation tools are critical for any business wanting to get high quality leads from the right places. These tools can automate processes which saves time, provide critical data to help you make better decisions, and integrate with other tools like CRMs.

Best B2B Lead Generation Tools

1. HubSpot Marketing Hub

Source: HubSpot

Overview: HubSpot Marketing Hub is a suite of tools that aim to help marketers funnel leads through the attract, engage, and delight stages of the marketing flywheel.

For example, you can use Marketing Hub to create compelling content to attract your target audience, capture leads via site, email, or social media; and nurture tools like automated workflows that can continue to engage contacts via email and other types of messaging. 

Features: HubSpot Marketing Hub has multiple features designed for lead generation, including a lead capture tool. It is also equipped with forms, popup forms, live chat, and chatbot.

What we like: Lead generation tools like an email builder are available for you to use. HubSpot Marketing Hub also integrates with HubSpot CRM.

Pricing: Paid tiers run from $45 to $3,600 per month depending on company size.

2. LeadPages

Source: LeadPages

Overview: LeadPages enables you to create custom landing pages for different, specific audiences. It also integrates with other software, funneling leads into your CRM.

Features: Build websites, landing pages, pop-ups, alert bars, and more.

What we like: You have the ability to choose from hundreds of templates — there is a high level of customization.

Pricing: 14-day free trial, then$27/month for Standard (one website), $59/month for Pro Plan (three websites), and $239/month for Advanced Plan (50 websites)

3. Leadfeeder

Source: Leadfeeder

Overview: Leadfeeder is a sales and marketing tool that identifies website visitors, even if the site visitors don’t fill out a form or contact you. The company boasts a database of static and dynamic IPs. Furthermore, Leadfeeder shows contact information for employees at the company.

Features: Features include automatic lead scoring, instant lead generation with their tracker, personal email alerts, and CRM automation.

What we like: Leadfeeder captures data from website visitors, turning anonymous traffic into potential leads. It also has custom segmentation features to help you identify high quality leads.

Pricing: $139+/month after a 14-day free trial.

4. OptinMonster

Source: OptinMonster

Overview: OptinMonster enables users to build lead forms, with over 100 templates to choose from. There is a segmentation and targeting engine to display the popup.

Features: Build opt-in forms like lightbox popups, fullscreen takeovers, floating bars, and slide-ins.

What we like: There’s a drag-and-drop builder for easy form building.

Pricing: Prices start at $14/month for Basic (one website). $30/month for the Plus Plan (two sites), $47/month for three sites, or $80/month for Plus Plans covering five or more sites.

5. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Source: LinkedIn

Overview: LinkedIn is known as a platform to connect with B2B audiences. Its Sales Navigator Professional and Team tool can help businesses target specific prospects, track leads, and engage with potential buyers with InMail Messages and TeamLink.

Features: Lead and company search tools, automated lead recommendations, and CRM integration.

What we like: You can build and automate custom lead and account lists.

Pricing: $65+ /month with a one-month free trial and annual commitment. There are two options — Sales Navigator Professional and Sales Navigator Team.

6. Qualaroo

Source: Qualaroo

Overview: Qualaroo is an website polling tool that collects user feedback and leads using the tool.

Features: Qualaroo boasts customizable survey options and advanced targeting features. 

What we like: Surveys are an interesting way to generate leads. Qualaroo makes categorizing leads and sending them to designated funnels based on their answers seamless.

Pricing: Prices start at $80 for the Essential tier. The Enterprise tier is quote-based.

7. Discover.ly

Source: Discover.ly

Overview: Discover.ly is a Google Chrome add-on that allows you to find and score leads from social media.

Features: Discover.ly profile scans recommend and score prospects you’re connected to on social media.

What we like: This convenient Chrome extension that delivers digestible information.

Pricing: Free.

8. LeadQuizzes

Source: LeadQuizzes

Overview: Does a question ever pique your interest? How about a quiz? LeadQuizzes is an online quiz maker that helps businesses capture site leads.

Features: LeadQuizzes boasts features like website embedding, embeddable CTAs, website popups, announcement bars, and ad campaign tools that integrate with Facebook Pixel and Google Ads.

What we like: Quizzes are a unique way to capture your audience’s attention and generate leads. LeadQuizzes simplifies quiz-making and can be integrated into your website.

Pricing: $49+/month after a 14-day free trial.

9. Hello Bar

Source: ConvertFlow

Overview: When you visit a website, you may be greeted by a popup that splashes across the screen. Hello Bar is a widget that enables you to create those popup bars that appear across people’s screens when they visit a website.  

Features: You can choose from a wide variety of popups: bars, modals, alerts, sliders, and full-screen page takeovers.

What we like: Hello Bar is highly customizable; personalize your message, CTA, and position.

Pricing: Freefor up to 5,000 page views per month. Upgrades available include: Growth for $29/month (50,000 monthly page views), Premium for $49/month (up to 150,000 monthly page views), and Elite for $99:month (up to 500,000 monthly page views).

10. Everwebinar

Source: Everwebinar

Overview: Webinars are a good content marketing method for B2B businesses to generate leads. Everwebinar helps you schedule and automate your brand’s webinars.

Features: Everwebinar has features like a room that mimics a live webinar with chat, and boasts high definition quality. It also enables you to tailor your messaging for post-webinar follow ups.

What we like: Everwebinar enables you to run webinars with automation and customizable follow-up pages.

Pricing: $499 annual (billed annually) or $874 biennial (billed every two years).

11. MailChimp

Source: MailChimp

Overview: MailChimp is an email marketing tool that you can integrate with your landing page tools or CRM.

Features: Email automation tools, lead capture forms with exit-intent technology, and shareable newsletter URLs.

What we like: MailChimp has manyemail tools that help you create on-brand emails and track campaign performance.

Pricing: Mailchimp has a free version with a 1,000 send limit. The Essentials version starts at $13 per month, the Standard at $20 per month, then the Premium at $350 per month.

12. HotJar

Source: HotJar

Overview: At its core, HotJar is a customer experience platform that enables you to visualize user behavior with heatmaps and design surveys. 

Features: Heatmaps, surveys, and a dashboard for viewing analytics.

What we like: Heatmaps provide useful intelligence about how users behave on your site. HotJar also enables you to target visitors by URL, device, and user attributes.

Pricing: The Basic tier is free and the Business tier is  $80+/month.

13. Zapier

Source: Zapier

Overview: Zapier is an automation platform that lets you connect over 3,000 apps, so within automated workflows..

Features: Pre-made templates for connecting and automating  tasks, plus countless integrations

What we like: Zapier is compatible with over 3,000 apps, making integrating software and tools easy.

Pricing: Zapier has a free version. The Starter plan is $19.99/month while the Company plan is $599/month.

14. Turnstile by Wistia

Source: Turnstile

Overview: Is it Turnstile the band, or Turnstile the lead generating email capture tool? It’s the latter. Turnstile helps you collect emails from your videos to generate leads. It is compatible across all devices.

Features: You can customize how you want your email collecting form to appear, like on hover. You can also personalize the submit button copy.

What we like: Turnstile’s form is simple, but effective. You can connect Turnstile data to HubSpot, Marketo, and Pardot.

Pricing: T Requires Wistia Plus for $19/month.

15. Datanyze

Source: Datanyze

Overview: Receiving quality data is important for generating quality leads — it also helps you cut down on time spent prospecting. Datanyze collects contact information about technologies used by different companies that could become prospects.

Features: Stores, collects, and exports prospect data from LinkedIn pages and company websites, including email addresses and phone numbers.

What we like: Consolidates and organizes data.

Pricing: 90-day free trial with two paid monthly ($29 or $55 per month) and yearly ($21 or $39 per month) tiers.

16. MobileMonkey

Source: MobileMonkey

Overview: Smartphones are omnipresent. Why not reach customers via text message? MobileMonkey enables you to target leads via mobile devices and messaging.

Features: SMS promotion tools, surveys, and integration options that let you connect to top-of-funnel channels like blogs and social media to the platform.

What we like: MobileMonkey automates the process of engaging and re-engaging contacts and leads.

Pricing: Demo required for pricing information.

17. Hootsuite

Source: Hootsuite

Overview: Hootsuite enables you to monitor social profiles from one place, schedule posts in advance, and analyze social campaigns’ performance.

Features: Post scheduling , advertising tools, messenger integrations, and analytics.

What we like: Hootsuite consolidates social media activity across multiple channels.

Pricing:  Plans start at $49/month for Professional and $129/month for Team with a 30-day free trial

18. SEMrush

Source: SEMrush

Overview: It would be hard to drive qualified site leads with bad SEO. SEMrush is an SEO tool you can leverage to perform website audits and use that information to assess where you can improve in driving search traffic to lead-gen content.

Features: You can run technical SEO audits; track SERP positions; integrate with Google Analytics and other data tools, build,execute, and monitor PPC (pay-per-click) ad campaigns.. SEMrush also offers social media post scheduling for major channels.

What we like: SEMrush integrates with Google Analytics, making insights more powerful. 

Pricing: After a 7-day free trial, plans cost $99 or $199 per month dependent on features and user size.

19. ActiveCampaign

Source: ActiveCampaign

Overview: ActiveCampaign is a CRM that aims to m help users collect and organize leads. 

Features: Pipeline management, follow up and email segmentation.

What we like: You can affordably get a lot out of ActiveCampaign’s features.

Pricing: $15+/month.

20. Jotform

Source: Jotform

Overview: Every B2B website needs some sort of form for collecting data. Jotforms do exactly that  by allowing you to collect data like website visitor emails, payment information, and names.

Features: You can build professional-looking forms that integrate with email marketing services, project management boards, CRMs, cloud storage apps, and more. You can also be paid directly through your form.

What we like: Jotform has over 10,000 templates for you to choose from.

Pricing: There’s a free tier, but paid plans range from $34 to $99 per month.

How to Choose Winning B2B Lead Generation Tools

While the list of lead generation tools feels endless these days, here are a few quick things you want to keep in mind when choosing the right tools: 

What channels are most effective for your lead generation efforts? – Which channels can be improved?
What’s your budget for lead generation? 
What level of ROI do you need? 
How many users will need to use these tools?

By answering these questions, you can identify the best tools for your exact needs. For more help with lead generation, check out the offer below.