5 Must-Have Tools to Grow Your Startup

— May 26, 2017

Online marketing offers a cost effective solution for every business to generate more leads. As most of the startups are bootstrapped, tools that cost less and deliver the maximum value are preferred the most.


Here are the top 5 tools that are a must have for every startup:


1- MailChimp – Email marketing still remains one of the most powerful channels of digital marketing. MailChimp is a powerful email and marketing automation tool that targets customers based on their behavior, preferences and previous sales.



Here are some of the top features of this tool:



  • You can easily start your own campaign using the pre-designed email templates.
  • It has advanced reporting features that you can access from anywhere.
  • Mailchimp offers easy integration with other popular apps like Salesforce, Google, Twitter, Facebook, Shopify etc.
  • It is easier for you to send message to the right people based on group segmentation that results in higher ROI.
  • The API is flexible and you can customize it to suit your exact marketing needs.
  • You can create, send, and track customized order confirmations, invoices, and other notifications from your MailChimp dashboard.

This tool is best for a startup because it is free to use for up to 2000 subscribers per month. Moreover, you can send 12,000 emails for free each month.


2-Buffer Social media is a must have channel for every startup. However, it is not easier to manage the different social media accounts on a regular basis. Buffer is an amazing tool that schedules, publishes and analyzes all your post from one place.



With Buffer, you can:



  • Reach your target audience at the right time by scheduling your posts. This helps in driving more traffic to your site.
  • Increase your social fans engagement as it becomes easier to schedule content on social media.
  • Share content across multiple social networks in just one click.
  • Have a closer and accurate look at your campaigns with the help of built-in analytics right in your dashboard.

3- Influence.co Word of mouth promotion still remains one of the most powerful forms of customer referrals. People trust businesses referred by their friends. Influence.co is a great platform to connect with influencers and generate a loyal following for your business.



Influence.co makes it easier for you to:



  • Search influencers by category and by location.
  • You can choose to connect with influencers that have real contact information.
  • Moreover, you can filter influencers on the basis of their instagram follower count.
  • You can identify the influencers that have worked for your competitors or the bigger brands related to your industry by using the “Collaboration” search filter.

4- SEMrush – Startups face a tough competition from major brands when it comes to grabbing the organic traffic market share. Tools like SEMrush are an absolute necessity that makes it easier to spy on the competitors in order to improve the organic presence of the business.



Here are some major features offered by SEMrush:



  • You can see your competitors best organic keywords and easily discover new organic competitors.
  • Your competitor’s ad strategies, ad budget, keywords etc can be uncovered.
  • Keyword research is easier and it lets you gather phrase matches and long tail keywords.
  • You can conduct a comprehensive link audit and understand the referring domain authority.
  • You can create customized PDF reports based on the selected SEMrush data.

5- Trello – It is a great tool to remain connected with your teams and keep track of everything. Trello provides a visual representation of all the projects that are worked on along with the team member details of who is working on which project.



Here is what Trello offers:



  • You can organize projects on the basis of cards. Moreover, a cards can have comments, file attachments, checklists, labels and much more.
  • There is no limitation on the number of people you can invite on a particular board. A simple drag and drop is required to divide the tasks among teams.
  • The platform sends you automatic notifications whenever something important happens. Notifications stay in sync across all your devices.
  • It has checklists and due dates that can be added to every card so that you do not miss important deadlines.

Running a startup is not easy! You need to have access to smarter tools in order to improve your current productivity and reach new prospects.


Which tools are you currently using to boost the productivity of your startup? Please let me know in the comments below.

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Author: Joydeep Bhattacharya


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