From my perspective, digital marketing is all about the thinking involved rather than just the tools. But tools these days are making it increasingly easier to implement those creative ideas, connect with more people, do research quickly and get your content out there.
So without further ado, here are a list of some of our favorite digital marketing tools for 2016:
(I’ve a put a Snap symbol next to the ones you should check out today if you haven’t)
1. Inspectlet – Use heatmaps and screen recording 
2. Optimizely – A/B testing
3. Unbounce – Landing page and A/B testing
4. MozBar – Domain Authority Plugin for Google Chrome, SEO monitor in a Chrome Plugin
5. Pitchbox – Send mass emails to bloggers
6. Wappalyzer – Determine technology on Chrome
7. Clickfunnels – Landing page and A/B testing
8. Search Console – Tracking clicks in search results
9. aHrefs – Tracking search ranking positions and backlinks
10. HitTail – Quick keyword opportunities
11. Boomerang – Email tracking so you know when someone has opened your email
12. Flux – Screen dimming and temperature change for working at night without damaging your ideas or keeping you awake
13. Rescue Time – Tracking weekly wasted or unproductive time
14. Google Analytics – Tracking conversions and noticing trends in traffic and organic traffic growth
15. Flitter – Social media following and unfollowing
16. Buffer + Buffer chrome extension – Social media scheduling
17. HiPlay – Recycling evergreen content on social, works in conjunction with Buffer
18. Archie – Social media automation on Twitter and Instagram
19. AutoPin – Social media automation on Pinterest
20. Call Rail – Tracks, records, routes calls/conversions in analytics
21. UserTesting.com – Get feedback from users
22. UsabilityHub.com – Get quick 5-second tests from a lot of people quickly
23. Twitter Search – Find things that are trending, look for people who need our help
24. GIF Share Phone App – Make GIFs into videos for Instagram
25. EZ GIF – Make short videos into GIFs for Twitter
26. Typeform – Create really beautiful one-step-at-a-time forms
27. Spyfu – For competitive analysis and keyword ranking
28. HootSuite – For social post scheduling
29. Megalytics – For creating pretty reports
30. Awesome Screenshot – for screenshots using the Chrome extension
31. Keywords Everywhere – plugin that shows keyword volume & cpc in search, console, analytics
32. Copyscape – checks for duplicate content
33. Advise – specs for image sizes
34. Canva – drag and drop graphics
35. Google Keyword Planner – keyword research based on GEO location
36. Google PageSpeed – Google pagespeed check
37. Pingdom – Speed test that shows detailed information
38. Google Structured Data Testing Tool – tests structured data
39. Google – finds a bunch of really cool and useful information
40. Google Consumer Surveys – Get poll/survey information back about whatever you need info on, from the people you need it from.
41. Google Consumer Barometer – Get industry specific data to help inform your marketing decisions
Favorite WordPress Plugins
43. WP Smush – Reduces image size
44. SEO Redirection – Manages Redirects
45. Google XML Sitemaps – Easily create an XML Sitemap for your WordPress Site
46. Google Analytics Dashboard for WP – Analytics in wordpress
47. Better WordPress Minify – Minify css and js, loads scripts at end
48. Gravity Forms – Makes beautiful Quick Forms on WordPress with a lot of customization and add-ons for developers
49. Advanced Custom Fields – Allows developers to separate fields in a very intuitive way
50. Better Click to Tweet – Creates sharing within an article for quotes that automatically adds the URL it was found on and your Twitter Handle
51. Jetpack – I use Jetpack for its solid “related posts” functionality, site stats and website security functions
52. Akismet – Blocks spam comments on WordPress like a boss
53. W3 Total Cache – Helps you speed up your website
54. Super Socializer – Allows quick adding of social sharing functionality, and it now has alternative Twitter share count technology after Twitter recently stopped offering it
55. Yoast SEO – Helps nudge you in the right direction to create a more search engine-friendly site
Don’t get bogged down in the tools, but do experiment with them! Try out new tools all the time, but understand that none of these tools are a magic bullet. Be prepared to do hard work in conjunction with whatever tools you use on a regular basis and you’ll be setting yourself up for success.