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Brandwatch Consumer Research
Formerly the Falcon suite
Formerly Paladin
Save your seat for a virtual event series with L’Oréal, United Airlines, and more. Get exclusive insights into how leading brands are staying ahead.
Brandwatch Consumer Research
Formerly the Falcon suite
Formerly Paladin
Published August 11th 2025
From social media management tools to SEO and email aides, there are plenty of options to improve your digital marketing.
Being a digital marketing manager isn’t easy. You create and manage all kinds of digital marketing campaigns across multiple channels, analyze data to optimize campaigns, and collaborate with other teams.
It’s a lot to handle, and that’s why digital marketing tools need to come into play.
The right software makes your job much easier and takes repetitive tasks from your shoulders, so you have more time to focus on strategy and creativity.
The difficulty lies in determining which tools are necessary for each aspect of your job. You may be great at content design, but need help with analytics. You may struggle with audience research, but know how to produce amazing SEO articles.
Well, there are tools for content creation, SEO (search engine optimization), email marketing, social media marketing, customer management, and more, all waiting to be discovered.
Feeling overwhelmed right now? Don’t worry, we have you covered. This guide highlights 18 helpful tools to improve your digital marketing efforts. It’s broken down by different categories, so you can identify what you need more easily.
Digital marketing tools are software and platforms that support your digital marketing activities. They make your job easier and save you time, be it reaching customers, collaborating with other teams, or running social media campaigns.
There are tools for every aspect of digital marketing:
As you can see, these tools support a wide range of marketing efforts. For example, social media management tools like Brandwatch allow you to schedule posts in advance across multiple channels, while search engine optimization tools like Ahrefs provide essential features for optimizing websites.
Of course, you don’t need to use every tool in our list. Some won’t be relevant to your digital marketing efforts, while you may find one tool that can perform multiple functions.
The right tool for you will depend on factors like your needs, business goals, the size of your team, and budget.
Whether you’re a beginner searching for budget-friendly options or seeking advanced tools for more complex needs, there are options for everyone
Selecting a digital marketing tool is relatively straightforward once you know what you need. So, as with any strategic plan, the first step is to assess your current set-up and establish what you require to meet your business goals.
You may need a tool to:
Once you pinpoint the challenges and obstacles in your existing set-up, you can begin to earmark specific tools that will help you.
Here are a few things to consider.
Tools come in a range of prices, from free versions to enterprise-level solutions. Determine how much you’re willing to invest, as this will likely shape your choice.
Remember that the most expensive tool isn’t always the best for your needs. Equally, investing in a top-of-class tool may provide a better return on investment (ROI) in the long term, if you’re seeking to expand.
Check if the tool works well with other software you already use. For example, if you rely on a CRM or e-commerce platform, make sure the marketing tool can connect to it.
Seamless integration saves you time and ensures all your data can work together.
A tool won’t be helpful if it’s too complicated for you or your team. Most platforms offer free trials like the Brandwatch demo. Take advantage of those to test the user experience. The best tools have intuitive interfaces and good tutorials to get you up to speed quickly.
Think about whether the tool can grow with your business. Again, this should also be part of your cost consideration. You might only need basic features now, but if your business expands, will this tool still be sufficient? It’s often better to choose a tool that you won’t outgrow in a few months.
Consider the level of customer support (documentation, live chat, etc.) the tool provides. A strong user community or knowledge base is also a plus, as you can learn tips and troubleshoot issues with guidance from other users.
Involve your team in the decision. If possible, have the people who will use the tool daily try it out and give feedback. That’s why you should always take up a demo option first. Your team might notice pros or cons that aren’t obvious at first glance.
The digital marketing landscape changes quickly. Look for signs that the tool is regularly updated with new features and keeps up with trends (for example, incorporating AI features, new social networks, privacy updates, etc.).
A company that actively improves its product is more likely to remain valuable to you in the long term.
Now you’ve established what you need from your digital marketing tool, it’s time to explore 18 of the very best.
We’ve broken these down into categories of specialization. Some tools focus on one element of digital marketing, while others – such as Brandwatch – provide a 360-degree marketing suite to guide every step of your journey.
Social media management tools make posting across platforms and tracking the performance easier.
With the right one, you’ll save a lot of time and can keep your brand’s voice consistent everywhere. After all, the point is to manage your social media output so that it accurately reflects your brand.
You can schedule content in advance, engage with your audience, and measure results, all in one place.
Brandwatch is the standout tool for social media management and analytics.
It’s designed to give you a deep understanding of your audience, track brand mentions, and stay ahead of your competitors.
With Brandwatch, you can monitor conversations across social media platforms, blogs, and news sites. This social listening capability enables you to stay on top of what people are saying about your brand.
Brandwatch’s social media management suite gives users extensive tools to oversee their digital marketing campaigns on social sites – all from one platform. Top features include:
Brandwatch Social Media Management is a perfect choice for medium to large companies and agencies. Its advanced features can handle even the most complex social media strategies and customer support, and many training materials are available to help get your team up to speed in no time.
2025 update: Brandwatch has developed its social media influencer management platform in 2025, with an improved user interface (UI) for sourcing influencers and a leaner influencer messaging platform. Influence is just one of seven modules available in the Social Media Management suite, the others being:
Sprout Social is another social media management tool that seeks to streamline your social media workflow and give you insights about your online presence.
It features a unified inbox, from which you can manage all your social interactions from one place. You can publish and schedule posts across multiple social networks, saving you a lot of time and work.
Like Brandwatch, medium to large businesses that are looking for a social media management tool use Sprout.
2025 update: Sprout launched a new AI subtitling feature in 2025 that auto-created video subtitles before publishing.
Hootsuite is another social media management tool aimed at mid to large businesses and agencies.
The platform offers analytics to track your performance and monitor how well your posts are doing in real-time. Gauge what’s working best and make adjustments as needed.
Like the other platforms on the list, with Hootsuite you can manage different social media accounts from one place and schedule posts across social networks like Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok.
Mid to large businesses use Hootsuite, with multiple plans to choose from.
2025 update: Hootsuite provided a fresh set of social media post templates at the start of 2025, while simplifying its reporting tool to make digesting analytics less complicated.
Buffer is a social media tool angled towards content publishing and analytics. It can be integrated with other platforms, such as the graphic design tool Canva. This way, you can create graphics without having to jump between different apps.
Like other social media management tools, you can post and schedule your content across multiple social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X.
Small businesses and individuals looking to streamline their social media efforts use Buffer.
Consumer research tools are essential to understanding your audience and where they hang out online. Knowing what your potential customers think about your brand, product, service, competitors, and/or industry means you can build a digital marketing plan based on real insights.
Brandwatch Consumer Research is separate from Social Media Management but can be used in tandem with that platform, or in silo.
The consumer intelligence tool monitors over 100 million online sources to gauge sentiment, spot trends, find gaps in your market, and track competitors.
It’s packed with consumer data going back to 2010 and leverages AI to segment and categorize data in real-time.
Medium to large companies and agencies use Brandwatch Consumer Research to understand their industry and audience. Its use of smart AI makes it a standout tool in the field of consumer research, with access to trillions of data points.
2025 update: Brandwatch improved its AI-generated Iris Quick Search feature in 2025 to make it faster to get answers around trends, spikes, and sentiment. Dashboard summaries and the new AI Query Writer further accelerate information flow, so you can get the answers you need.
If you’re a digital marketer who wants to boost the visibility of your website, you need an SEO tool.
This way, you can track your rankings, optimize your content, and stay one step ahead of your competitors.
There are two big players in the SEO game: Semrush and Ahrefs. They aim to improve your search engine rankings by offering valuable insights into keywords, backlinks, and competitor strategies.
Here’s what you can achieve with SEO tools:
Choosing the right SEO tool can have a big influence on your digital marketing success. Let’s look at Semrush and Ahrefs in a little more detail.
Semrush is a solid digital marketing tool for anyone who needs to master Google. It’s a platform that covers a wide range of areas, including SEO, content marketing, and digital competitor research.
The platform provides tools that help you improve your content marketing and, in turn, boost your SEO rankings. Its keyword research tool is what usually attracts users to the platform.
Semrush is used by businesses of all sizes that need to improve their online presence and want all their data in one place.
2025 update: Semrush has launched an AI Toolkit aimed at informing users of how their website content ranks on AI-driven search results. This is new territory for many digital marketers as AI is rolled out across Google and other search platforms.
Ahrefs is another SEO tool for digital marketers. The platform comes with many features, like keyword research, that lets you analyze millions of keywords with detailed metrics like search volume, difficulty, or potential traffic.
Ahrefs also shines in the realm of technical SEO. Its Site Audit tool crawls your website and identifies issues that might be hindering your search rankings.
Ahrefs is used by SEO professionals, digital marketers, and content creators who need deep insights and analysis alongside content tips.
2025 update: Ahrefs began tracking outbound link clicks in 2025, meaning users can see which external links are catching audience’s attention the most. Outbound links can be beneficial or detrimental to your brand’s goals, depending on where they link to.
Email marketing is one of the most important areas in digital marketing and can sometimes get overlooked by other efforts to connect with audiences.
There are plenty of excellent tools on the market that can help you launch and manage your email campaigns. Most integrate into your existing systems to make the process much smoother.
Helpful email marketing tools will have:
Choose tools that empower you to create engaging emails and track their performance. With their analytics features, you can track open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.
Mailchimp is a well-known platform in the email marketing space. It lets you create and send email campaigns, manage your customer lists, and track your performance.
Mailchimp has an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor, so you don’t need any design experience to create nice-looking emails. You can choose from a range of templates or design your own from scratch.
Small to medium-sized businesses looking for a strong email marketing solution usually side with Mailchimp. It’s particularly useful for e-commerce brands that want to automate their email marketing.
2025 update: Mailchimp launched an additional set of improved tools in 2025 aimed at helping users design mobile-friendly emails.
ActiveCampaign aims to boost your email marketing campaigns, while also providing WhatsApp and SMS messaging. It does this by combining email marketing with automation and customer relationship management.
The tool integrates with various platforms, enabling connection to your website, e-commerce store, and other apps you use. While the platform offers a wealth of features, it may take some time to get familiar with them.
Small to medium-sized businesses that want to take their email marketing to the next level and connect with customers on WhatsApp and SMS, too. It’s a good choice for companies that need to automate their customer communications and sales processes.
2025 update: ActiveCampaign began rolling out WhatsApp messaging in 2025, with the aim of creating “conversational experiences” with an automated approach. Brands can run personalised campaigns entirely in WhatsApp.
Creating compelling content is crucial for successful digital marketing, and the right tool can help improve your content strategy.
A good writing tool will boost your productivity and increase the quality of your content. Platforms like Brandwatch that have the latest AI technologies can assist you in crafting blog posts, ad copy, and other types of content. They offer suggestions for improvement and can help speed up your writing process.
When it comes to graphic design, there are tools available that allow you to create eye-catching visuals without needing a design background. You can easily create social media posts, presentations, flyers, and more, either by customizing your designs to fit your brand style or by choosing from a library of templates.
Meanwhile, amplification tools take your content and magnify its impact by spreading it far and wide.
With these tools, you can not only improve the quality of your content but also extend your reach and save a lot of time.
Let’s explore some top options that can help you amplify posts, craft engaging content, stunning graphics, and more.
Cision is the ideal platform to generate fresh content ideas and amplify content across the wider digital landscape. It looks beyond social media and allows users to amplify content through press releases, videos, webinars, white papers, blogs, and more.
Users can retarget content to better suit their intended audience and republish on multiple outlets. There’s also a handy reporting dashboard to analyse all metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) in one place.
Medium to large businesses and agencies that amplify content and manage PR campaigns appreciate Cision’s extensive platform.
2025 update: Cision launched an integrated AI suite across its global CisionOne platform in 2025, with the aim of revolutionizing PR workflows. The AI Assistant and a suite of intelligent features automate routine tasks and generate real-time insights.
Canva is a graphic design tool that doesn’t need downloadable software, making it user-friendly for non-designers.
With Canva, you can create social media posts, presentations, flyers, and more. Some marketing platforms integrate with Canva to make the production and publishing process smoother.
Individuals and small to mid-sized businesses use Canva as a quick photo editing tool. While it may have some limitations for more complex projects, it’s more than enough for most digital marketing needs.
2025 update: Canva launched Visual Suite 2.0 in 2025 with the aim of pulling all design types – websites, whiteboards, videos, and more – into one place. Users no longer need to jump between tools or import content.
Jasper is a digital marketing tool specialising in AI-powered writing assistance. It’s used by content marketers who need words. Whether you’re writing blog posts, social media updates, ad copy, or anything in between, Jasper offers a tool to help.
Provide some basic information, and the software will create entire paragraphs for you. You can choose from an extensive library of 50+ writing templates that cover different types of content.
Digital marketers who create written marketing content may consider Jasper a worthwhile contender. The tool can adapt to different tones and styles, making sure the copy aligns with your brand voice.
2025 update: Jasper unveiled a new model in the summer of 2025 with the aim of bringing multiple touchpoints from a digital strategy together. Jasper Canvas helps users map high-level strategies from ideation through to individual assets.
You need to track your performance to discover areas for improvement, and this is the only way to make sure you stay ahead of your competition. Analytics and data tools provide the insights you need to make informed, data-driven decisions.
Some tools, like Brandwatch, have analytics built into their wider marketing platforms.
Specific analytics tools, meanwhile, offer detailed information about all kinds of things, like your website visitors, their behavior, and how your content is performing. With the right analytics tools, you can:
By leveraging these tools, you’ll be able to fine-tune your digital marketing strategy and achieve better results.
Google Analytics is usually the first platform digital marketers use to understand their brand’s online presence. It provides insights into how visitors interact with your website, helping you gauge where they come from and what actions they take.
It won’t necessarily revolutionize your brand, as third-party tools can draw much more data than Google Analytics. However, it’s a good place to start if you’re new to the world of digital marketing.
Google Analytics is suitable for businesses of all sizes and is usually the first option for a digital marketer when they’re understanding their brand’s existing reach. It’s easy to set up, and you don’t need to be a tech expert to use its basic features. However, over time, you may find a third-party solution is more relevant to your needs.
2025 update: Google Analytics is continually updating in 2025, with generated insights the latest development. Users get concise AI-created summaries on data fluctuations to help explain the latest changes to web traffic and conversions.
SurveyMonkey is an online survey tool that can help you gather valuable insights from your customers to make better data-driven business decisions.
It integrates with more than 220 other tools – from email marketing tools like Mailchimp to CRMs like Salesforce – to make data transition from your surveys much more efficient.
SurveyMonkey is used by marketers wanting to conduct primary market research, track customer satisfaction, and gather feedback on new products.
2025 update: SurveyMonkey has expanded its connected apps menu to EU data center customers, adding new languages too. Mobile users can also create surveys quicker using a “Build with AI” feature that converts speech into text.
Managing digital marketing projects can be quite a challenge. Project management and collaboration tools help keep your team organized and make sure that your campaigns are running smoothly.
Collaboration tools help you streamline tasks, share files, and facilitate communication among team members.
Great project management and collaboration tools will come with these important features:
The best tools are easy to use, can be tailored to your team’s needs, and will improve productivity.
Just ensure you think about what your team struggles with the most. Do you need better task tracking? Easier file sharing? More effective communication? Choose a tool that can solve your biggest challenges and boost teamwork.
Trello is a standard choice for many businesses seeking help with project management. It organizes tasks and boosts collaboration within teams through its visual boards and cards.
You can set different boards for various marketing campaigns or projects, with each board containing lists and cards that represent specific tasks or ideas. Effectively, it creates one giant visual representation of a project’s individual processes.
Trello is used by marketing teams of all sizes, especially for those who prefer a visual approach. It excels in visual organization, but may not be the best choice for more complex projects.
2025 update: A “new” version of Trello launched in 2025 with plenty of additional features. Users can now get a unified tasks inbox, AI-powered messaging analysis, and connected content planners with Google or Microsoft calendars.
Asana is similar to Trello in focusing on the project management and collaboration space. You can create boards, lists, and timelines, making it simple to visualize your projects.
The platform also offers customizable templates tailored for different marketing activities. Just make sure everyone on your team knows how to use the tool; otherwise, it can get messy quickly.
Asana can be used by marketing teams of any size that manage multiple projects and tight deadlines. It’s also a choice for remote teams that need to collaborate on a centralized platform.
2025 update: Asana rolled out AI workflows in 2025 to standardise best practices and boost efficiencies. Smart workflows cover request tracking, ticketing, creative requests, and work intake.
Video marketing has become a core marketing pillar for brands. The rise of TikTok and Instagram means short-form videos are in vogue, while YouTube and LinkedIn give brands ample space to publish long-form video content.
With the right video marketing tool, you can create, host, and analyze your video content all in one place without having to be an expert.
When choosing a video tool, it’s important to consider your specific needs. Are you looking for user-friendly editing features? In-depth analysis? Or perhaps the ability to add captions or interactive elements?
A great video marketing tool can help you to:
Let’s look at some of the top options that help you create engaging videos without hassle.
Wistia is a video marketing platform that provides a set of tools to help you create, manage, and analyze your video content. You can upload your videos, and the platform comes with a lot of customization options.
Wistia lets you add forms directly to your videos, making it easier to turn viewers into potential customers. This lead capture feature can also be connected to many popular CRM systems to manage.
Businesses of any size looking to engage in video marketing are likely to encounter Wistia.
2025 update: Wistia has updated its language bank, with 22 languages and 64 regional accents now supported on the site. This helps generate dubs and translated scripts, making it a useful tool for multi-national brands.
Vimeo is an advanced tool that makes it easy to create, manage, and share high-quality video content. The platform comes with strong privacy settings, allowing you to control who gets to see your content.
You can produce videos even if you don’t have a background in design.
If you want to enhance the quality of your videos and require professional-grade hosting, Vimeo is one of the first choices to consider.
2025 update: Vimeo launched a deeper AI translation feature for its videos in summer 2025, which gives more accurate outcomes and permits post-translation editing. Also improved are video monetization options and search features within Vimeo itself.
When it comes to understanding consumers, businesses choose Brandwatch ahead of any other tool.
Consumer Research gives you access to deep consumer insights from 100 million online sources and over 1.4 trillion posts.
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