The Digital Tools We Actually Use (And Why We Keep Coming Back to Them)
Running a digital marketing agency means your tools have to work as hard as you do. Over the years, we've put a lot of platforms through their paces. Some earned a permanent spot in our workflow. Some didn't survive the first month.
What's on this list are the ones that stuck. We use these every day, across our agency and with our clients, and they've proven themselves worth every dollar. For any digital marketing agency trying to do more with less, the right tools make all the difference. These are what we believe to be the best tools for digital marketing agencies.
Sendible: Social Media Scheduling Tool
Sendible is our favorite social media scheduling tool, and we've tried plenty of others. It handles the volume we need across multiple clients and social channels, at a price that makes sense, and it includes scheduling to Google Business Profile pages, which is a huge advantage for our clients and us.
The collaboration tools, post previews, bulk scheduling, and content tools check every box we had when we went looking for something better than what we were using. If you've outgrown your current platform, check it out at Sendible.com.
Email Marketing
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is one of the most accessible email marketing platforms out there, and that accessibility doesn't come at the cost of capability. The free tier is useful for smaller lists, and the platform has grown well beyond basic email into landing pages, automation, and design tools.
For businesses getting their email marketing off the ground, it's a strong, approachable starting point. Try it at Mailchimp.com.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact earns its spot for teams that want a little more support and structure. It tends to be more intuitive for less technical users and brings solid event-based email features that Mailchimp doesn't prioritize.
The right platform comes down to your list size, your goals, and how hands-on you want to be. Either way, we can help you figure out which one fits.
HubSpot
HubSpot can run your entire marketing operation if you let it. Right now, what we rely on most is the free version's pipeline management and its website visitor identification, which shows you what companies are visiting your site even when nobody fills out a form.
We're not just saying that works in theory. We spotted a company visiting our site, reached out cold based on that visit alone, and they became a client. That's the kind of intel that changes how your sales team operates.
SEO and Site Auditing
SEMrush
SEMrush is where our SEO work starts. Keyword research, competitive gap analysis, rank tracking, content opportunity mapping. It's the tool that answers "what should we actually be writing about?" with data instead of guesswork. We use it across clients and internally, and it consistently surfaces opportunities that wouldn't be obvious otherwise.
Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog is the tool we reach for when a site needs a real technical audit. It crawls your website the same way a search engine does, flagging broken links, duplicate content, missing metadata, redirect issues, and over 300 other SEO problems most people don't know they have.
For web developers and SEO work alike, nothing else comes close for that level of technical depth.
Conversion Optimization and Heatmaps
Crazy Egg
A/B testing landing pages used to eat up a lot of time. Crazy Egg changed that for us. Heatmaps, scroll maps, session recordings, and built-in A/B testing tools make it fast and efficient to understand what's working on a page and what's killing conversions. When a landing page isn't performing, this is the first place we look.
Microsoft Clarity
For a free tool, Clarity is impressive. Heatmaps and session recordings show you exactly how real users are moving through your site, with no cost and no complicated setup. It won't replace a robust paid platform for deep optimization work, but as a starting point for understanding user behavior on your site, it delivers.
Canva
Canva is our go-to tool for creating fast, on-brand visuals. Whether it's social graphics, blog headers, email banners, pitch decks, or other client-facing materials, it helps us get high-quality designs out the door quickly. It's easy to use, makes collaboration simple, and allows us to keep up with the constant demand for visual content. While it's not a replacement for more advanced design work, it's an incredibly valuable tool for day-to-day marketing needs.
Scribe
Anyone who has built a process doc by manually taking screenshots, organizing them, and labeling each step knows how much time that eats. Scribe eliminates all of it. Walk through a workflow once and it auto-generates a clean, shareable step-by-step guide. We use it for client onboarding, internal training, and any process that needs to be documented and actually followed.
Asana
Asana is how we run the agency. Every client has their own workspace. Every active task lives there, with clear ownership and status. When a blog draft is ready for internal review, it moves from the writer to the account manager without a single email thread. At the end of the month, we can pull exactly what was completed for each client and build reports from real data, not memory.
If you're still managing projects through email and shared spreadsheets, Asana is the kind of upgrade that makes you wonder how you managed without it.
LastPass
Every agency relationship involves passwords. Platform logins, client accounts, shared tools. LastPass keeps all of it organized, secure, and shareable across the team without anyone sending credentials over Google Chat or writing them somewhere they shouldn't. We also use it to securely share access with clients, and have clients share with us. Clean, simple, and one of those tools that quietly makes everything safer.
Website and Hosting
Leadfeeder: Find Out Who Has Been On Your Website
Ever curious about who or what companies are visiting your website? I’m sure your sales team would LOVE this information.
Leedfeeder is great to see what businesses and who is visiting your website. A few of our B2B clients use this, it’s how we found it and started using it ourselves. Leadfeeder has a lot of great capabilities that goes beyond just showing you who’s visiting your website.
An example of this is the automatic lead scoring through Leadfeeder that displays your hottest leads at the top of your list, making it easier for you to prioritize who you contact and when. T
That is only one example of the useful features Leadfeeder has, it also integrates with many CRM platforms for even better tracking. Check out the rest when you try it out using the link here.
Gravity Forms
This is hands down one of our favorite WordPress forms plugin. Lead forms, contact forms, surveys, job applications, payment collection, donation forms. The add-on ecosystem is extensive, it integrates with most CRM platforms, and it's flexible enough to solve a lot of problems quickly. An annual agency license is less than $200, and it has allowed us to help clients pivot fast, setting up online payments or selling products within days. Worth every dollar.
Dreamhost
Dreamhost is our go-to for hosting smaller client sites and managing domains. It's user-friendly, reasonably priced, and easy to navigate without a technical background. Simple custom controls, one-click installs, and good support make it a great fit for small businesses that want reliable hosting without the complexity.
WP Engine
Larger WordPress sites with real demands get hosted on WP Engine. They separate their services into four pillars so agencies and businesses can find what works for them, and they make it simple to migrate sites, monitor security, manage staging environments, and get support from people who actually know WordPress. If your site is doing real work and you're still on shared hosting, this is the move.
Google Workspace
A huge portion of our day runs through Google Workspace. Gmail, Google Drive, Docs, Calendars, Meet. It's affordable, scalable, and accessible from anywhere on any device. When you factor in everything it covers, it's one of the most cost-effective tools to run your business on.
And for anyone worried about the Apple or Outlook angle, you can still use Workspace as your email provider while managing it through Outlook just fine. If you're still using a personal Gmail to run your business, making the switch to Workspace with your own domain is one of the easiest and most impactful upgrades you can make. Workspace.google.com.
Find What Works. Cut What Doesn’t
The best tools for digital marketing agencies aren't the flashiest ones. They're the ones your team actually uses, that hold up across clients, and that make the work better without adding complexity. This list has evolved over the years and will keep evolving as better options emerge.
If you want help figuring out which of these belong in your stack, or getting more out of what you're already using, that's exactly the conversation we're here for.
