Are you trying to find the best marketing agency tools to grow your business? Maybe you’re thinking of starting your own agency, but the missing piece of the puzzle is the right set of tools.
From client management platforms to social media management solutions, there are so many amazing tools that can make your job easier.
In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the must-have tools that all marketing agencies should have in their arsenal. We’ll look at both free and paid options to help you find the right solutions for your needs.
Benefits of Investing in Agency Marketing Tools
When you’re running a marketing agency and want to do it well, having the right tools is super important.
You might think using spreadsheets is okay, but as your client list grows, things can get really messy and hard to handle. You certainly wouldn’t want to jeopardize your agency-client relationship due to subpar processes!
By getting special tools for your agency, you can make everything smoother and better. These tools help you work faster, get things done better, and save money.
Apart from efficiency gains, marketing agency tools also help you:
- Work better together: These tools help your team and clients work smoothly. You can share ideas and tasks, making sure everyone knows what’s happening. This makes your clients happy and helps your team get things done faster.
- Save time for creativity: Agency tools handle repetitive tasks, giving your team more time to focus on coming up with fresh and creative ideas. This can lead to more innovative and captivating campaigns for your clients.
- Grow without limits: With these tools, your agency can grow without any worries. It’s like having a plant that can keep getting bigger and stronger because you have all the right tools to take care of it. You can handle more work and clients without feeling overwhelmed.
- Deliver more consistent results: With systems in place for tracking, scheduling, and reporting, your team is less likely to drop the ball. Tools help maintain quality standards across every campaign and client project.
Now that we’ve established why having the right tools is essential, let’s look at 11 of the best marketing agency tools available today.
11 Must-Have Marketing Agency Tools
- Client Management: HubSpot
- Client Meetings: Calendly
- Visual Asset Creation: Canva
- Social Media Management and Approvals: Gain
- Content Optimization: SEMRush
- Insights: Google Analytics
- Project Management: Basecamp
- Analytics: Kissmetrics
- Video Communication: Loom
- Interactive Forms and Surveys: Typeform
- Workflow Automation: Zapier
1. HubSpot
First on our list is HubSpot. HubSpot is an all-in-one customer relationship management platform designed to streamline marketing, sales, and customer service efforts.
Marketing agencies might find HubSpot appealing for client management because it offers a range of tools that handle everything from finding potential customers to taking care of existing ones. It’s essentially a centralized place where all your client information lives.
So, instead of using many different tools, HubSpot consolidates everything in one place, making day-to-day agency operations simpler.
Price: foundational tools are free. The Starter package starts from $15/month (billed annually).
💬 Maria loves HubSpot’s versatility and that it’s packed with useful features: “I like that it’s an all-in-one platform that’s easy to use and implement. I use it every day and it is linked to our Admin, Email, and Aloware, making it super easy to keep track of all communication. It has SO many features that it’s hard not to find what you need.”
2. Calendly
Scheduling client meetings can be a hassle, but with Calendly it’s simpler than ever. This popular scheduling app allows you to quickly and easily schedule appointments with clients.
With Calendly, you can set up availability windows, customize notifications, send reminders, and so much more. It even has an AI assistant that can handle simple tasks such as booking meetings or sending out invites.
Best of all, it integrates with popular calendar apps like Google Calendar and Outlook so you never miss an appointment. Whether you’re organizing one-on-one meetings or catch-ups with clients, Calendly makes it easy to stay on top of your scheduling needs.
Price: basic scheduling is free. Paid plans start from $10/user.
💬 Here’s what one user has to say about the tool: “I bought Calendly for our team because we needed a scheduler. We’re remote, meetings are virtual, and span time zones. Calendly was beyond easy to set up, so our internal meetings worked for the time zones. Creating different types of meetings with different team members was logical and worked.”
3. Canva
Creating high-quality visuals is a must for any marketing agency, and Canva makes it easier than ever to create stunning images. This graphic design platform offers a library of templates, illustrations, photos, and fonts that you can use to create graphics for your clients’ websites, blog posts, and social media accounts.
With Canva’s easy drag-and-drop editor, you can customize visuals to fit your exact needs in no time.
Price: free. However, there is an option to upgrade to Canva Pro for $120/year/user.
💬 Communications manager, Alexia, thinks that Canva is great if you need an easy tool to do quick design projects: “I’ve used Canva for years and love the innovative fonts and pre-created designs available for quick projects and time management. It’s so helpful for branding purposes and allows me to save brand colors, logos, etc.”
4. Gain
Now, if you need a tool to manage social media campaigns for your clients, you should definitely check out Gain. Gain is a social media management platform built specifically for agencies and teams who need a smoother way to handle content creation, approvals, and scheduling across multiple accounts.
What makes Gain stand out is its powerful, customizable content approval workflows. You can set up as many rounds of feedback as needed, loop in multiple stakeholders, and rest easy knowing the platform will automatically ping the right people when it’s their turn to review. Once everyone gives the green light, your content gets scheduled and published all without you lifting a finger!
On top of that, Gain makes it easy to stay organized. You can create separate workspaces for each client, tag and filter content for easy access, and manage all your assets in one place. It also integrates with Canva, so you can send your designs straight to Gain and bring them into your approval workflow.
All in all, Gain makes it easier to stay organized and ensures that your clients’ social media presence is always top-notch!
Price: $99/month, which includes unlimited features and 10 users.
💬 Konstanty likes best Gain’s intuitive content approval feature: “What I like best about Gain is how it simplifies the entire content approval and collaboration process. The interface is clean and intuitive, making it easy to create, review, and approve marketing materials quickly. It’s a huge time saver for teams, helping everyone stay aligned and productive without endless email chains.”
5. SEMRush
Depending on the nature of your business, you might be providing services where you create content for your clients. If that’s what you’re doing, then you’ll want to make sure that the content you provide is in the best possible shape.
To make this happen, you might want to consider using SEMRush. This powerful tool can help you figure out the most effective strategies for improving your clients’ website content. It helps you keep track of how well their website ranks and also find new keywords that could work well.
Additionally, it comes with various features that help you understand what your clients’ competitors are up to and even explore potential sources for getting backlinks.
SEMRush has an intuitive interface that makes it simple to use no matter your level of experience.
Price: starts at $139.95/month.
💬 Laura loves the versatility of SEMRush: “This is my first time using SEMrush with a subscription, and I’m surprised at how versatile and intuitive the tool is. The features are designed to work together and get the most out of them, and I have found unique insights that can be gained through the tool’s AI.”
6. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is an essential tool for any marketing agency. With it, you can easily get insights into how visitors interact with client websites and identify areas of improvement.
You can track page views, check out user demographics, view website funnels, and more. Plus, you can integrate Google Analytics with various tools to get a comprehensive overview of your marketing campaigns. Best of all, it’s totally free!
💬 Paid search strategist, David, likes the in-depth data that Google Analytics provides: “Google Analytics provides in-depth insights into user behavior, traffic sources, and site performance—all in real time. I particularly appreciate the ability to see which marketing channels are driving the most conversions and how users navigate through the site.”
7. Basecamp
If you’re looking for a reliable project management tool to add to your agency tech stack, Basecamp is the perfect solution. Here, at Gain, we use Basecamp as our team collaboration tool, and we love it!
This all-in-one platform offers an array of features that make it easier to keep your projects organized and on track.
With Basecamp, you can easily assign tasks and due dates, create to-do lists, comment on tasks, set up reminders and notifications, and more. Besides, it integrates with popular apps such as Slack so you can stay in sync with your team.
Price: offers a limited freemium plan. Paid plans start from $15/user per month.
💬 Kevin enjoys using Basecamp with his team because of its low learning curve: “It’s great to use and collaborate with team members. Our team uses it daily, and it’s easy to get started with little to no learning curve needed.”
8. Kissmetrics
Lastly, we’ve got Kissmetrics. Kissmetrics is a comprehensive analytics and customer engagement tool designed to help businesses track and optimize their online marketing efforts.
The tool provides in-depth insights into user behavior on websites and applications, allowing marketers to understand how visitors interact with their content and make data-driven decisions.
For marketing agencies managing multiple clients, Kissmetrics is a must-have tool due to its ability to centralize and streamline data across various accounts. This enables agencies to monitor the performance of each client’s campaigns and digital assets.
Price: starts at $299/per month.
💬 One user says, “I like being able to monitor my company’s marketing by conducting a geographic study of consumer behavior concerning services, including which services are the most viewed, which are the best sellers, and what people’s criteria are for these things.”
9. Loom
Sometimes, writing things out just doesn’t cut it, especially when you’re trying to explain campaign feedback or walk through analytics. Loom helps you communicate clearly and quickly by letting you record your screen and camera at the same time.
Marketing agencies can use Loom for internal communication, client updates, training, and async presentations.
Price: free for up to 25 videos per person. Business plans start from $22.00/user/month (billed annually).
💬 Here’s what Claire has to say about Loom: “Loom is incredibly easy to use, just record and go. I love how quickly I can create a video and get information out to those who need it by instantly sharing a link.”
10. Typeform
Need to collect feedback, run quizzes, or onboard clients? Typeform makes form-building feel fun and engaging. Its clean, one-question-at-a-time layout improves completion rates, and you can personalize logic flows for different audiences. It’s perfect for marketing agencies looking to gather client insights, run lead generation quizzes, or even power branded surveys.
Price: entry-level plan starts at $25/month/user (billed annually).
💬 Ashley loves how easy it is to use the tool: “What I liked best about Typeform is its user-friendly, visually appealing interface that makes creating forms feel more like designing a conversation than filling out a survey. The drag-and-drop builder is intuitive, and the wide range of templates helped me get started quickly without having to build everything from scratch.”
11. Zapier
Zapier connects the tools your agency already uses and automates repetitive tasks between them. Want to automatically send new Typeform responses into your project board in Trello? Or add new Mailchimp subscribers to your CRM? Zapier makes it easy to link apps and build automated workflows without writing a single line of code.
For agencies juggling lots of platforms and processes, it’s an effortless way to boost productivity and eliminate time-consuming manual work.
Price: free plan available. Paid plans start at $19.99/month (billed annually).
💬 One user says, “Zapier saves me hours of manual work every week. I use it mainly for CRM integrations—like syncing leads between platforms, auto-updating contact records, and triggering follow-ups—and it runs reliably in the background. It’s also great for setting up marketing automations, like sending email sequences or updating ad audiences, with almost no ongoing maintenance once the zaps are set.”
FAQs
It depends. All-in-one tools like HubSpot or can simplify your workflow and reduce app-switching. But using best-in-class apps for each function, like Calendly for meetings, SEMrush for SEO, or Gain for social media approvals, gives you more flexibility and deeper features in each area. Many agencies prefer a tailored stack that fits their exact needs rather than a one-size-fits-all solution.
Not all at once. Start lean with core essentials: a CRM, a social media scheduler, and a project management tool. As your agency grows and client demands increase, you can layer in more advanced or niche tools.
Start with free plans or trial periods offered by most platforms. Use that time to test how well the tool fits your team’s workflow, integrates with your existing stack, and solves real problems. Also, don’t forget to get feedback from your team before committing to a paid plan, as you might need to explore alternatives until you find a tool that works for you.
Take Your Pick
When it comes to running a successful marketing agency, having the right tools is essential. From content optimization and project management to social media management—there’s a tool out there for everything.
Remember, the benefits of investing in agency marketing tools extend beyond just the immediate gains; they position your agency for long-term growth, innovation, and the ability to provide exceptional value to clients in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
Are you a marketing agency doing all things social media? Then, you might want to add Gain to your toolkit to really boost your teamwork and save time.
With automated approval chains, role-based access, and an intuitive interface that makes it effortless for clients to review and approve content, Gain removes the hassle from managing multiple clients (and all their feedback!) and helps you get content out the door faster.
Get started with Gain now
