Digital marketers operate in a fast-moving environment where the tools, platforms, and best practices available are in a state of continuous development. Staying current with the right applications can make a significant difference to the effectiveness of a digital marketing strategy — helping marketers manage their channels more efficiently, analyse performance more accurately, and produce better quality content more consistently.
The following selection covers some of the most useful and widely adopted tools available to digital marketers, across SEO, social media management, analytics, content creation, and digital advertising.
SEO and Site Performance
1. SEO Site Checkup
SEO is one of the most important aspects of digital marketing — and monitoring both a site's own SEO performance and that of competitors is essential for maintaining visibility. SEO Site Checkup provides a clear overview of SEO health, identifying issues and opportunities that can be addressed to improve search engine performance and help a site reach its target audience more effectively.
2. Bitly
Links are a fundamental part of digital marketing, and understanding which links are driving traffic — and from where — is a valuable insight. Bitly allows marketers to shorten, track, and analyse links, providing clear data on which sources are generating visits and enabling more informed decisions about where to focus distribution efforts.
Social Media Management
3. Sprout Social
Managing multiple social media profiles simultaneously requires a tool that brings everything into one place. Sprout Social allows marketers to manage profiles, monitor responses, comments, and shares, schedule content in advance, and track engagement across platforms. It is particularly well suited to teams who need to maintain consistent activity across several channels.
4. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is one of the most widely used social media management platforms available, offering the ability to monitor keywords and hashtags, check analytics, schedule posts across multiple profiles, and maintain a consistent publishing schedule. For marketers who manage a significant volume of social media activity, it provides a structured and efficient way to keep everything on track.
Analytics
5. Google Analytics
Google Analytics remains an essential tool for any digital marketer. It provides a comprehensive view of website performance — including visitor numbers, traffic sources, behaviour on site, and conversion data. The volume of information available through Google Analytics is substantial, and developing a strong working knowledge of the platform is one of the most valuable investments a digital marketer can make in their own skills.
Content Creation and Video
6. WeVideo
Video content continues to grow in importance across digital marketing channels. When video is shared across platforms such as LinkedIn, X, and others, it tends to generate strong engagement — and having a reliable tool for creating and editing video content is increasingly valuable. WeVideo provides an accessible, browser-based video editing environment that allows marketers to produce quality video content without specialist technical skills.
7. Apps Geyser
App creation has become an increasingly relevant consideration for businesses looking to deepen engagement with their audiences. Apps Geyser provides a straightforward platform for creating basic applications, making the process accessible to marketers and small businesses that do not have dedicated development resource. As more interactions shift to mobile, having an app presence is becoming a more mainstream expectation.
Email Marketing
8. Mailchimp
Email marketing remains one of the most cost-effective digital marketing channels available, and Mailchimp is one of the most established platforms for delivering it. Free plans are available, making it accessible for businesses of all sizes, and the platform provides a straightforward interface for designing, sending, and tracking email campaigns. Despite being a well-established tool, email marketing through a platform like Mailchimp continues to produce strong results when campaigns are well targeted and well designed.
Digital Advertising
9. AdRoll
Retargeted advertising — reaching users who have previously visited a website or engaged with a brand — is consistently one of the most efficient forms of digital advertising, because it focuses spend on audiences who have already demonstrated some level of interest. AdRoll is one of the leading platforms for retargeted advertising, offering a largely self-service model with support available when needed. For marketers looking to make their digital advertising spend work harder, retargeting through a platform like AdRoll is worth serious consideration.
How Professional Academy Supports Your Journey
Understanding and using digital marketing tools effectively is a core competency for modern marketers — and it sits at the heart of the CIM digital marketing qualifications delivered by Professional Academy. From SEO and analytics to content strategy and digital advertising, Professional Academy's qualifications develop the skills and knowledge that enable marketers to use these tools with greater confidence and to greater effect.
To explore the full range of CIM marketing qualifications, or to find out which programme is the right fit, visit the Qualifications Navigator or book a call with the team.
