Marketing Automation Tools (That Save You Time)

1 year ago 88

Marketing automation tools amended the ratio of your concern by automating boring, repetitive tasks, meaning you tin absorption connected much important things.

Here are my (and the Ahrefs team’s) apical tools that assistance you enactment smarter—not harder.

1. SEO selling automation tools

Many SEOs imagination of automating their business, but however overmuch of SEO tin you actually automate? 

Let’s instrumentality a look.

Ahrefs’ Site Audit 

Ahrefs' Site Audit homepage

Ahrefs’ Site Audit saves you clip by moving scheduled crawls of your website connected a daily, weekly, oregon monthly basis.

  • To docket a crawl, simply click connected + New project.
New project, via Ahrefs' Site Audit
  • While your website is being crawled, click connected the cog successful the right-hand corner, past click connected Edit settings.
  • You should past spot the beneath surface wherever you tin docket your crawls.
Site Audit scheduling settings

Ahrefs Alerts

Ahrefs Alerts let you to way however your marque is mentioned online arsenic good arsenic tracking your website’s backlinks. Manually tracking alerts is not an businesslike usage of anyone’s time. So you should acceptable this up.

Here’s however you do it:

  • Click connected More successful the apical navigation
  • Click connected Alerts successful the drop-down menu
  • Select wherever you privation to nonstop alerts for Backlinks, New keywords, oregon Mentions
  • Click connected + New alert
Alert settings, via Ahrefs Alerts

Here’s an illustration of maine mounting up an automated alert to way backlinks for ahrefs.com.

Backlinks alerts, via Ahrefs Alerts

If you privation to spell further and way circumstantial changes to a website, you tin usage a instrumentality similar Visualping to do this.

Visualping homepage

My colleague, Michal Pecánek, uses Visualping. Here’s what helium likes about it:

Visualping keeps way of changes connected immoderate webpage. You plug successful a competitor’s URL, acceptable up alerts, and you’ll beryllium updated connected immoderate website changes.

My favourite functionality: Getting inspired by UX and CRO tweaks connected competitors’ websites.

I’ve made a batch of decisions based connected website monitoring. Generally, the astir communal usage lawsuit for immoderate marketer is getting inspired by however your competitors effort to compression much retired of each visitant to their website.

Michal Pecánek

Tip

Use this instrumentality to show immoderate changes to your robots.txt oregon sitemap.xml files. If you enactment connected a ample tract wherever aggregate stakeholders tin edit these files, past this tin beryllium utile for tracking changes.

Automate SEO reports

SEO reporting tin beryllium a pain, but it doesn’t person to beryllium that way. Ahrefs’ Google Looker Studio integration helps automate your SEO reports.

With it, you tin docket PDF reports connected the following:

  • Your website’s tract performance.
  • Your competitor’s tract performance. 
  • Your keyword rankings.
  • Your website’s method performance.

If you acceptable up these reports, you tin automate keyword fertile tracking, tract auditing, rival tracking, and monitoring of your website’s performance.

These reports usually instrumentality a mates of hours to enactment unneurotic if done manually. 

If each study takes astir 4 hours to enactment unneurotic from scratch, it could prevention you ~16 hours per period by automating it. 

You tin docket these reports arsenic “weekly” oregon “daily” with a azygous click. 

If we instrumentality the illustration of the regular report, you volition prevention ~480 hours of enactment successful 30 days.

Automate SEO squad and task management

When it comes to squad and task management, each SEO squad has its own way.

Here’re immoderate options that tin assistance you automate galore aspects of task management:

  • Monday – Automate workflows.
  • Wrike – Automate tasks and projects.
  • ClickUp – Automate your accordant processes.

Although these tools person a definite grade of automation consecutive retired of the box, determination are much agency-focused tools. 

An illustration of this is Productive.io.

Productive.io homepage

This instrumentality is simply a one-stop-shop for organizing your agency’s activities and automating things that would beryllium done done respective tools otherwise.

Within the platform, you can: 

  • Track your squad members’ time.
  • Track their tasks. 
  • Track the profitability of your agency.
  • Track your team’s utilization rate.
  • Add squad documentation. 

Although the supra tin beryllium achieved with aggregate platforms and spreadsheets, having everything successful 1 spot is refreshing.

Automate gathering scheduling

Calendly homepage

For SEOs who enactment with galore clients, a batch of clip volition beryllium spent scheduling distant meetings with them. This tin beryllium a symptom constituent if you person a batch of meetings passim the week—and the clip rapidly adds up.

Calendly is simply a scheduling level that makes it easier to publication meetings for the organizer and the invitee. 

You tin embed the scheduling widget connected your website oregon see it wrong your signature. 

It besides has integrations with Stripe and PayPal, meaning you tin automatically complaint for your consultation time—another time-saver. 

2. Social media selling automation tools

It’s nary concealed that determination are millions of progressive users connected societal networks. 

But reaching the close assemblage connected societal media tin inactive beryllium a challenge. Marketing automation tools tin assistance you reach them.

One peculiar “time hog” successful societal media is posting. Luckily, determination are a fig of tools that tin assistance automate this process and velocity things up.

I caught up with Rebecca Liew, who heads societal media present astatine Ahrefs, to spot what her favourite societal media automation tools are.

Here’s what she had to say:

I’d personally urge Typefully and Hypefury. …Typefully’s bully for customizing elemental images, mounting up auto-RTs, creating and scheduling threads.

Hypefury has contented prompts, which I like. Also the auto-RT relation and quality to make polls (which Typefully doesn’t have).

Rebecca Liew

These are the tools Rebecca recommends: 

Typefully

Typefully allows you to docket tweets, way engagement, and amended tweets using AI.

Typefully homepage

One of the chill things astir Typefully is that it integrates with Zapier—allowing you to automate immoderate of the mundane tasks astir posting tweets connected Twitter.

Here are a fewer examples of the benignant of automations you can run:

Automation integrations example, via typefully.com

These automations are no-code, meaning you don’t request immoderate improvement acquisition to integrate with different platforms.

Hypefury

Hypefury describes itself arsenic your ain idiosyncratic adjunct and helps you turn your assemblage by utilizing auto-retweets.

Hypefury homepage

One of the chill features of this instrumentality is that you tin person your tweets into Instagram posts automatically.

Like this:

Hypefury tweet to Instagram, via hypefury.com

If you regularly station connected some platforms, this tin beryllium a time-saver for your business.

3. Email selling automation tools

With 332.2 cardinal emails sent daily, email is inactive a large mode to scope your customers. Websites nonstop retired regular newsletters utilizing email selling automation tools to marque the process easier. 

Mailchimp

One of the astir fashionable tools retired determination for automating email is Mailchimp.

Mailchimp homepage

Mailchimp allows you to bash a lot. With its automation features, you tin automate the following:

  • Welcoming caller subscribers with an email
  • Encouraging online reviews
  • Sending emails to shoppers who wantonness their carts
  • Celebrating your customers’ birthdays
  • Collecting lawsuit feedback
  • Emailing tagged customers 
  • Automating bid confirmation emails
  • Automating post-sale promotions to thrust lawsuit loyalty
  • Promoting cross-sells
  • Split-testing taxable lines
Mailchimp lawsuit    automation travel  builder, via mailchimp.com

Once you person tally your campaign, you tin past analyse the show of the run and recognize however galore clicks and opens your newsletter got.

Mailshake

Mailshake homepage

Another email selling automation enactment is Mailshake. It’s a level that allows you to automate your outreach. If you run a lead-based business, past you whitethorn find this instrumentality peculiarly useful.

Key features:

  • Monitor your pb status, email opens, and clicks for every email 
  • Understand which portion of your series is converting
  • A/B trial emails, follow-ups, and campaigns

Saleshandy

Saleshandy homepage

Saleshandy helps you standard your acold outreach. This means that you tin utilize features specified arsenic creating 26 variations of your emails to enactment retired what works champion for your audience.

It has a fig of features you tin usage to amended your pb management:

  • LinkedIn email finder
  • Email tracker
  • Auto follow-up
  • Email sequences

If you are funny successful A/B investigating your emails, this whitethorn beryllium a utile instrumentality successful your arsenal.

Further recommendations:

  • ConvertKit – Allows you to physique automated subscriber journeys visually.
  • Customer.io – Customer engagement level that enables you to nonstop newsletters to segments of customers.

4. AI selling automation tools

AI selling tools are incredibly fashionable close now. But however overmuch tin you trust connected them to assistance you successful automating your selling efforts?

ChatGPT

ChatGPT homepage

My colleague, Si Quan Ong, precocious wrote astir ChatGPT. It isn’t strictly a selling automation tool, but it tin assistance prevention you a important magnitude of time. 

I caught up with him to spot what helium had to accidental about it:

You tin usage it to bash astir anything: make code, rewrite your sentences, springiness you ideas, etc. I deliberation of it arsenic my originative partner. I usage it to spot if I’m missing retired connected thing successful my content. 

However, conscionable due to the fact that it writes successful specified a assured and authoritative mode doesn’t mean it’s ever correct. Be definite to fact-check everything ChatGPT creates; it’s known to invent quotes, citations, and more.

Finally, ChatGPT can’t springiness you archetypal ideas. So that’s inactive down to your hard enactment and creativity.

Si Quan Ong

Recommendation

Check retired Sam Oh’s video to recognize the champion and worst cases for ChatGPT in SEO.

ChatGPT’s functionality is wide-ranging. But unless you usage the API, it volition inactive beryllium a semi-automated process. 

Grammarly 

Grammarly homepage

Grammarly is an AI-powered penning adjunct that provides adjuvant recommendations, semi-automating the process of proofreading your contented for you.

Although you tin proofread contented utilizing tools similar ChatGPT, Grammarly provides a much acquainted interface for contented writers to interact with.

AI tools tin assistance velocity up your selling efforts, but it’s worthy noting that, arsenic we person seen above, they are not 100% automated and inactive necessitate your input.

Tip

To support up to day connected the latest AI automation tools, you tin hunt for them connected websites similar Product Hunt oregon Futurepedia, which are updated regularly with new tools.

Customer narration absorption (CRM) tools assistance you to show and way communications. It’s a large database wherever you tin support way of your leads and their status. 

HubSpot

HubSpot homepage

HubSpot is 1 of the astir fashionable CRM automation tools—particularly for selling teams. It is 1 of the much accepted selling automation tools connected the list.

The level of automation you get with HubSpot depends connected the program you are on. But you tin usage it to acceptable up webhooks, trigger interior notifications erstwhile a interaction takes action, and guarantee follow-ups with automated task reminders.

For immoderate businesses, they whitethorn find that they don’t request a CRM. But for those that do, a instrumentality similar this tin beryllium an invaluable mode to streamline lawsuit interactions. 

The integrations that HubSpot has with different tools marque it a fashionable prime for galore businesses.

Pipedrive

Pipedrive CRM level    homepage

Pipedrive is simply a CRM that sends you automatic reminders and notifications that assistance support way of your income funnel.

Here are immoderate of the cardinal features of Pipedrive:

  • Visual income funnel
  • Activity reminders
  • Lead segmentation
  • Detailed reporting
  • Web forms
  • Revenue forecasting

6. Advertising automation tools

The placing, optimizing, and monitoring of your paid hunt ads tin often take time. 

Luckily, galore tools are disposable present that automate and negociate astir each of the process of mounting up your PPC campaigns.

These are immoderate of my favourite tools for paid advertizing automation.

Adbot

Adbot homepage

Adbot is an ads bidding bundle bundle that places and optimizes Google and Bing ads for tiny businesses.

Its main selling constituent is that it’s cheaper than utilizing an bureau oregon a freelancer.

Optmyzr

Optmyzr homepage

Optmyzr is simply a instrumentality that speeds up optimization and helps you get maximum show from your advertisement campaigns. It’s chiefly targeted astatine agencies and endeavor businesses.

Opteo

Opteo homepage

Opteo helps amended the show of your Google Ads campaigns by providing astute recommendations that thrust conversions.

Features:

  • Manage keywords
  • Improve advertisement creative
  • Optimize bids
  • Exclude atrocious traffic
  • Detect errors
  • Manage buying ads
  • Monitor show and budgets
  • Explore segments
Opteo show  dashboard

7. Customer connection automation tools

Providing an casual mode for customers to interaction your concern is important and thing astir customers person travel to expect from a website.

At Ahrefs, we usage 2 superior platforms for automating lawsuit interactions and feedback.

Intercom 

Intercom homepage

Intercom is simply a unrecorded chat level wherever customers link with our squad regular to inquire questions. Using a level similar Intercom enables companies specified arsenic Ahrefs to automate parts of our lawsuit interactions.

Anna Ignatenko, caput of Ahrefs’ lawsuit enactment team, had this to accidental astir Intercom.

What we successful our squad similar astir Intercom is that it is simply a broad and perpetually processing strategy for each types of lawsuit enactment services. 

Automated tools/bots assistance america successful antithetic ways arsenic well: Some get each the needed accusation from a lawsuit to assistance the enactment cause resoluteness the contented faster; immoderate way a idiosyncratic to get the needed portion of information; immoderate assistance to reply customer’s question(s) without the quality input at all.

Anna Ignatenko

Canny

Canny roadmap, via canny.io

Canny.io is different adjuvant merchandise feedback level that Ahrefs uses to organize, analyze, and automate parts of the lawsuit feedback process. 

It’s useful for businesses successful the SaaS space, arsenic it allows customers to upvote oregon downvote projected changes to a merchandise oregon service. 

Final thoughts

Small selling tasks whitethorn look manageable initially. But if you bash them regularly enough, the clip rapidly adds up. 

Using tools that automate your selling efforts lets you absorption connected higher-priority tasks, making your concern much businesslike and yet much profitable.

Got much questions? Ping maine on Twitter. 🙂

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