The best digital marketers rely on carefully-chosen tools to help them automate tasks, gain intelligence, analyze data and organize communications.

If you’re not a seasoned digital marketer, evaluating the thousands of available digital marketing tools available can be a daunting task. Instead of taking a haphazard approach, it’s a good idea to start small by choosing one tool in each major area of functionality that you need and commit to using it for three to six months.

Remember the 80/20 rule; you don’t need tools that can do everything, you just need to start with a core set of tools that will help you optimize your main tasks.

Once you are comfortable with a small set of tools, you can begin expanding the depth of your toolbox or seeing if you can find more effective tools to improve your performance.

Here are 43 essential tools for digital marketers across seven major categories.

Social Media

If you’re just getting started in social media, the first thing to do is to listen. Start by using one of the below popular monitoring tools:

• BuzzSumo – Find key influencers
• Social Studio – Listen, analyze and engage customers
• Brandwatch – Gain insights on consumer opinions
• Google Alerts – Create alerts that are sent to your inbox
• Google Trends – Explore topics
• Alltop – Top stories from around the web
• Social Mention – Aggregate conversation about a brand or topic
• Twitter Search – Search Twitter
• LinkedIn Groups – Listen about specific topics of discussion

When you’re ready to start posting content and sharing, you’ll need a scheduler:

• Hootsuite
• Buffer
• Everypost
• SocialOomph

Creative

For your social media, blog or email marketing, if you don’t have a designer on staff, there are tools that allow a non-designer to create fantastic graphics:

• Canva – cloud-based graphic design platform
• GiphyCam – Create GIFs
• PicsArt – mobile photo editor and collage maker
• Pixlr – online design platform

Website Conversion

Select a tool for on-page A/B testing of landing pages and different messaging, designs, and calls-to-action.

• Optimizely
• Unbounce
• Kissmetrics

Search Engine Optimization

Most SEO experts use multiple tools to measure the optimization level of their sites. Different tools provide different analysis and metrics. Some are free and some require a subscription.

• Google Analytics
• Google Webmaster
• Moz
• SEO Report Card
• Majestic SEO
• WooRank 
• SimilarWeb
• SEO SiteCheckup

 SEM and Online Advertising

Ad networks connect advertisers to websites that host ads. The ad network balances supply and demand with publishers and advertisers.

• comScore is a good resource for obtaining ad network data and publishes their monthly rankings here.
• LinkedIn Ads
• Google AdWords
• Facebook Ads
• Twitter Ads

Retargeting

Retargeting has been an essential type of online advertising for many brands. Here are some retargeting providers:

• AdRoll
• Magnetic
• Perfect Audience
• Retargeter
• Admedo

Email Marketing

And finally, select the staple of most digital marketer’s toolbox, your email service provider.

• Campaign Monitor
• MailChimp
• ExactTarget – Salesforce Marketing Cloud
• Constant Contact
• VerticalResponse