Top Marketing Tools for Startups: Boost Efficiency and Growth

Discover the best marketing tools for start-ups to optimize efficiency and automate processes. From HubSpot to Klaviyo, unlock the key to faster growth and success for your business.

Table of contents

HubSpot Starter Bundle as a comprehensive foundation
Create social ads with Pencil
WriterZen for relevant SEO content
All-in-one SEO tool: SEMrush
Helpful tool for startups: Email marketing with Apollo.io
Lemlist for automated emails
Triple Whale for precise numbers
Klaviyo for email and SMS automation
Cassandra for marketing mix modeling
Carbon Accounting

Introduction

There are countless inexpensive tools on the market that start-ups can use to implement their marketing strategy efficiently. After all, good and well thought-out marketing is crucial for the success of a company. But it doesn't necessarily have to be expensive. By using marketing tools, you can optimize and automate processes. This not only saves resources, but also time and money - especially for start-ups this is essential. By using various marketing automation tools, you spend less time on complicated dashboards and grow your business faster to reach exactly what you really want: your target group.

I have been working with companies and start-ups for many years and have been able to get to know and test various tools. In this blog post, I present a list of tools that I can recommend to you based on my experience, which will help your startup grow faster and get your marketing rolling.

Useful marketing tools for startups

HubSpot Starter Bundle as a comprehensive foundation

HubSpot is a particularly exciting tool, more like a toolbox, because it offers a very good basis for starting a business. Why did the offer convince me and why do I use it myself? The tool combines various disciplines and thus ensures a seamless connection between the different tasks in marketing. This makes the connection and use of additional external tools obsolete, such as Mailchimp, Webflow, Calendly and others. HubSpot is best known for the CRM part and the very successful blog.

Here is a brief overview of what this comprehensive tool has to offer:

• The marketing hub includes functions such as email marketing and automated lead generation. A point that is often underestimated.
• The Sales Hub can be used to schedule appointments, track emails and share documents, which is particularly useful for acquiring your first customers in an organized way.
• The CMS Hub can host websites with forms, landing pages and a content hub, like a blog.
• There is a large selection of templates and themes to make your website optimal and customer-friendly.

Costs for the HubSpot starter bundle:

HubSpot's starter bundle costs 46 euros and offers a very good foundation for startups with all the necessary functions. If required, individual jobs can also be outsourced to specialized tools at a later date.

Alternative: Various individual tools such as Wordpress, Calendly, Mailchimp, Google Sheet, Typeform, Webflow etc.

Create social ads with Pencil

The marketing tool Pencil can help you to work data-based, reach your target group better and grow faster as a company. The tool works with artificial intelligence and uses machine learning to automatically create CI-compliant ads for Facebook and Instagram based on raw material and a brand kit.

This is particularly exciting for start-ups, as each member of the team has to take on several tasks and responsibilities. This includes creating ads for social media channels such as Facebook and Instagram. This task is often neglected and therefore falls short of its potential. The result: low marketing efficiency and higher costs for leads and sales.

The fastest growing companies test a lot of ads, because: Nine out of ten ads on Facebook and Instagram simply don't work. In general, ad testing and learning is slow, costly and tedious. Many start-ups fail because of this. With Pencil can, in my experience, speed up the creation and testing process and overcome graphic designer bottlenecks. However, it should be mentioned that despite all the artificial intelligence, the tool must be briefed and controlled at the beginning. This is the only way to create better ads in all formats such as 1:1, 5:5 and 9:16 including text.

Costs for Pencil:

In the pay-as-you-go package, three ads per month are free. Each additional ad costs ten USD or you can use the unlimited package for 100 USD per month.

Alternative: Do it yourself with Canva or hire a graphic designer.

WriterZen for relevant content

Creating exciting content for the various landing pages or the blog is essential for start-ups and an important long-term strategy. I find the Topic Cluster for Topical Authority from the SEO tool WriterZen and the writing assistant. Keyword research with keyword ideas is also covered, making other tools superfluous. With this content tool, you have the support you need to avoid writer's block and write smart, appealing texts for your target group. It is very easy to use. However, the tool does have one drawback: the writing assistant is currently limited to English.

Costs for WriterZen:

The Basic plan starts at 27 USD for an annual subscription and 39 USD for a monthly subscription.

All-in-one content tool: Semrush

In this context, and as an alternative to WriterZen, I would like to recommend a well-known marketing tool for startups: Semrush. It is more comprehensive, combines many useful tools and is therefore more expensive. However, due to the mass of offers, such as SEO, content marketing, competitor research, social media marketing and others, I also find it confusing at times. My tip: If start-ups are still at the very beginning, it's worth focusing on the most important task: creating and monitoring relevant content without getting lost in the many possibilities of Semrush. I like to use WriterZen and Semrush for their respective strengths - WriterZen for the topic clusters and Semrush for the analytics.

Cost point for Semrush:

For smaller teams, the Pro package costs just under $100 USD for an annual subscription and $120 USD for a monthly subscription.

Alternatives: Ahrefs, Moz Pro.

Helpful tool for start-ups: email marketing with Apollo.io

Apollo.io is what I would describe as the better LinkedIn Sales Navigator and is a helpful tool for a company's email marketing. To reach the right readership, you can use this useful tool to search, filter and export contacts on the LinkedIn platform and then contact them in sequences using Lemlist. You can use the following filters to specify the search for your contacts: Based on the software and company size used, industries, funding rounds and others. For example, you could filter all contacts for Germany with a Shopify store and VC funding and then write to them collectively. This saves resources and time - and you reach potential customers in a targeted manner.

Costs for Apollo.io:

You can create a free account and use it to write 250 emails a day. You can test the basic plan for two weeks before the price increases to USD 49 for a monthly subscription.

Alternative: Echobot, manual search on LinkedIn.

Lemlist for automated emails

To scale email marketing as a channel, the email marketing tool Lemlist is a very good choice in my experience. This is because it allows you to personalize and A/B test several emails at the same time. This allows you to address your target group directly and improve relevance and therefore the open rate. Apollo.io also offers the direct sending of emails, but I see this only as a secondary aspect of Apollo and not a strength. You can also use Lemlist to send automated follow-up emails to maintain communication.

Important note: According to the GDPR, writing without permission, i.e. so-called "cold emails", is not permitted. Unless you have received a possible exception permission for direct marketing from your readers. My experience: If you communicate in a relevant, empathetic and fair way, no one will make a fuss about it.

Cost factor for Lemlist:

You can initially test the email outreach and sales engagement plans for free before the price increases to 50 USD per month and 83 USD per year with a paid subscription.

Triple Whale for precise numbers

Tracking the customer journey and identifying the impact and value of different marketing measures is not easy. Google Analytics, for example, is suitable for the marketing attribution of Google Ads. However, this is less suitable for social media platforms. This is because the type of attribution cannot be changed from Last non-direct click and therefore favors Google search.

I have found an alternative for this: Triple Whale. This tool offers alternative solutions with freely selectable attribution and thus provides an independent view of marketing efficiency. It usually uses its own tracking pixels and UTM parameters. The evaluation also includes post-checkout surveys that ask on which channel a customer first heard about the brand. This is particularly exciting, because with the help of precise results in reporting, the budget can be allocated and adjusted more intelligently in marketing and the marketing measures can be used optimally.

Alternative: Foshpa for non-shopify, Rockerbox for larger companies.

Klaviyo for e-mail and SMS automation

Klaviyo is relevant for email marketing with Shopify because you can use it to send targeted, personalized emails and text messages based on collected customer data about user behavior. This gives you a constant point of contact with your target group and addresses them with appropriate content. For example, you can address customers with a product recommendation based on their purchasing behavior. Emails and text messages can be sent automatically, for which the marketing tool offers a large selection of templates, depending on the objective to be achieved. Important: The messages may only be sent with the user's consent.

Klaviyo cost factor:

You can send up to 500 emails and 150 text messages with a free membership. If the number of your customers grows, you can send up to 15,000 emails and 150 text messages per month for USD 45.

Alternative: Drip, Hubspot.

Cassandra for marketing mix modeling

Marketing mix modeling used to be firmly in the hands of expensive consultants who spent a lot of time and effort calculating marketing mix models by hand. But since Google and Meta have made their own algorithms Lighthouse and Robyn available as open source and providers such as Cassandra offer them as SaaS solutions, there is no longer any reason not to use marketing mix modeling.

• Cassandra shows you with degression curves at which budgets channels no longer pay off and helps you to optimize your advertising spend for each channel.
• Cassandra's Budget Allocator not only tells you how much you should spend where, but also predicts the revenue and ROI you can expect from each channel.

It should only be noted that significant models can hardly be generated from media budgets that are too small or, in particular, from media budgets that are too small and spread across too many channels. As a rule of thumb, at least €15,000 over a maximum of 3 channels or €10,000 over two channels is required to calculate reliable models. The higher the expenditure over longer periods of time, the better. I have described exactly how Cassandra works in this article: Marketing Mix Modeling Made Easy: An Introduction to Cassandra.

Cassandra costs:

You can create 1 model with one user. Additional users and additional models currently cost €500/month.

Alternative: Sellforte, Robyn.

Carbon accounting to reduce your own CO2 emissions

Startups should use carbon accounting for several strategic, environmental and economic reasons. First, it allows them to accurately measure and understand their carbon footprint, which is the first step in taking effective action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is not only a contribution to environmental protection, but also shows that the company takes its responsibility towards the environment seriously.

Compliance with legal requirements and standards is also facilitated by carbon accounting. In many countries, regulations regarding the reporting and reduction of CO2 emissions are becoming increasingly strict. By implementing carbon accounting, startups can meet these requirements and avoid potential penalties or reputational damage.

Another important aspect is the improvement of market positioning and brand image. As consumers and business partners increasingly value sustainability, startups that actively improve their carbon footprint and communicate transparently about it can positively differentiate themselves from competitors and build a more loyal customer base.

Carbon accounting can also lead to significant cost savings. By identifying key sources of emissions, targeted measures can be taken to improve energy efficiency and resource utilization, which can reduce energy consumption or logistics costs in the long term.

In addition, investors and lenders are increasingly paying attention to companies' sustainability performance. Startups that practice carbon accounting improve their chances of obtaining funding by demonstrating that they actively manage the risks associated with climate change.

Addressing their own carbon footprint also encourages startups to innovate. It can encourage them to develop environmentally friendly and economically advantageous products, services or production methods.

Finally, carbon accounting helps startups to manage risk by helping to identify climate-related risks at an early stage and develop strategies to overcome them. This is particularly important for industries that are strongly affected by regulatory changes or the physical effects of climate change.

By implementing carbon accounting, startups lay the foundation for sustainable growth, actively contribute to climate protection and strengthen their position in the market.

Costs: CO2 calculators are available free of charge, SaaS solutions are available from 200 euros upwards.

Would you like to use these tools and find out how to do this most effectively? Please get in touch with me.