Only a few world-leading marketing tools are definite must-haves — Salesforce and HubSpot are two we couldn’t live without!
But the martech space is dynamic, and marketing professionals must choose the right tech stack to maximise their ROI and hit targets.
At Cognism, we’re big fans of leveraging B2B marketing tools. So, we curated a list of our favourites! Using these tools, we built an established revenue-generating department in its own right.
Keep scrolling 👇 to get a list of the best B2B marketing tools our team recommends!
1. Cognism
Cognism is a sales intelligence platform offering a global company and contact database. Advanced filters in this marketing tools help you generate highly qualified audiences for your email and advertising campaigns on LinkedIn. It also allows you to find decision-makers in named accounts.
Best features:
- Global contact data (NAM, APAC, and leading EMEA coverage).
- Intent data powered by Bombora.
- Sales event triggers.
- Technographics.
- The largest cell phone numbers database.
- Phone-verified cell phone database with 87% accuracy.
- CCPA & GDPR compliance.
- Seamless integrations with best-in-class tools (Outreach, Salesforce, etc.)
- Powerful Chrome extension that works on LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, corporate websites, and more.
- Unrestricted* viewing and page-level exporting of contact data in all packages.
- Easy set-up.
Use case example:
💡 At Cognism, we use our platform to find senior sales leaders in our target accounts with verified emails. Then, we send them relevant resources that they might find helpful at that point in time. It allows us to be relevant with our outreach.
How much is Cognism?
Cognism pricing is seat-based and depends on your workflow:
- Licences suitable for individual prospecting with unrestricted views and individual & page-level exporting*.
- Licenses for enterprises with operational workflows that require list-building.
*Subject to fair use
What do customers say?
2. Pardot
Pardot is a B2B marketing platform that helps businesses identify prospects who are most likely to convert based on how they interact with your digital marketing assets.
Best features:
- Automated email journeys based on specific triggers.
- Data capture forms.
- Lead scoring and grading.
- Campaign performance analytics.
- Marketing-influenced pipeline reports.
Use case example:
💡 At Cognism, we use Pardot forms to receive our inbound leads and to track our webinar submissions and newsletters. When integrated with Salesforce, it’s a perfect combination of B2B marketing tools for lead nurturing, targeted email campaigns, and lead management.
But don’t just take our word for it!
Andy Ashley, Global Marketing Director at SmartFrame, used Cognism and Pardot to inform a successful email marketing strategy.
What do customers say?
SmartFrame built specific audiences that reflected various ICPs in Cognism and filtered verified email addresses for the campaigns. Next, they downloaded the data as a CSV file and uploaded it to Pardot for a targeted campaign.
3. Wynter
Wynter gives you on-demand actionable insights from verified B2B audiences to fix your messaging and convert more customers. It's a must-have tool for marketers who want to improve their website copy.
Best features:
- Survey your ideal customers.
- Identify their pain points.
- Get their feedback on your messaging.
Use case example:
💡 Wynter is a B2B marketing tool we’ve used at Cognism to submit messaging and pages for review by other demand gen leaders.
Fran Langham, Global Head of Demand Generation at Cognism, has found this feedback to be very helpful. She said:
“It’s let us simplify our messaging and develop a narrative that resonates with our ideal audience.”
You can target your ICP by title, industry, and headcount and get qualitative data on your messaging clarity, relevance, value, and differentiation. And you get the results in under 48h.
Here’s the full interview with Fran about managing marketing campaigns.
4. Metadata.io
Metadata.io is a tool that helps B2B marketers run paid campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google Ads. It eliminates manual work so that you can launch your campaigns faster.
Best features:
Use case example:
💡 At Cognism, one of the use cases for Metadata.io is to get a LinkedIn-like level of targeting on Facebook. Facebook doesn’t allow us to upload a target prospect list natively, so Metadata fills this gap. This allows us to reach our target audience in a different medium than LinkedIn at a lower cost.
5. Ahrefs
Ahrefs is one of the best digital marketing tools for discovering content ideas and link opportunities. You can also track your ranking progress and analyse your competitors’ traffic. It’s also a great tool for auditing your website and uncovering any technical issues.
Best features:
- Keyword research.
- Keyword gap analysis.
- Keyword tracking.
- Competitive analysis.
Use case example:
💡 Cognism’s SEO team uses Ahrefs’ Rank Tracker to visualise our money keywords progress. We use tags to group keywords by page type and page author; this is useful for weekly and monthly reporting.
And if your keywords rank in multiple countries, you can filter tracked keywords by location.
💡 Serpstat is a good alternative for Ahrefs if you want to speed up content creation process with AI.
6. Frase
This tool for digital marketing is useful for optimising existing blogs and writing new ones from scratch. Its intuitive dashboard guides you through the SEO research stage, helping to outline your articles.
What’s more, its AI writer features help you overcome writer’s block.
Best features:
- SERP analysis.
- Outline builder.
- On-page content optimisation.
- AI writer.
Use case example:
💡 At Cognism, we use Frase to optimise existing content at scale and speed up the process of writing briefs for freelancers.
Ilse van Rensburg, Senior SEO Executive, likes Frase’s feature that highlights unoriginal findings in our blogs versus our competitors. It’s beneficial since Google prioritises original and helpful content.
💡 We trialled a few B2B marketing tools for content-writing. The runner-up to Frase.io was AI-powered SurferSEO. It uses its own proprietary algorithm to better match user's search intent.
7. Agorapulse
Agorapulse manages and tracks businesses’ and individuals’ social media presence more effectively. It offers features to help B2B marketers engage with their audience. The tool’s marketing insights help you understand your audience better, improve your social media strategy, and drive better results.
Best features:
Use case example:
💡 Binal Raval says Agorapulse has helped her improve Cognism’s brand visibility on LinkedIn. She uses its analytics and reporting features to track the performance of social media campaigns.
This B2B marketing software also saves you time and effort thanks to automating tedious tasks — try its automated comments moderation and saved replies.
8. Goldcast
Goldcast is a B2B marketing platform that runs webinars and creates interactive digital or hybrid events. It integrates with other B2B marketing tools and CRMs to provide account-based insights, track pipeline contribution, and engage prospects and customers post-event.
Best features:
- Customisable registration pages.
- Breakout rooms.
- Attendee engagement features.
- Event data.
- Recordings.
Use case example:
💡 At Cognism, we use Goldcast to host Demandism webinars; it’s worked well for us in terms of increasing our attendance rates and capturing unique data to optimise and measure ROI. It can be used for all business events, such as product demos, launches, or large-scale community events.
9. Zencastr
Zencastr is a web-based platform B2B marketers use to record and produce professional-sounding podcasts. The number one aspect to consider is that the recording quality is excellent. And you can also:
Best features:
- Record multiple audio tracks from different locations.
- Add custom elements (intro, ads, audio, etc.).
- Use a built-in editor for post-production.
- Publish your podcast episodes on popular platforms.
Use case example:
💡 As with any top B2B marketing tool, Zencastr gives you access to analytics reports to understand listeners’ behaviour and track conversions.
Listen to Cognism's Global Head of Paid, Canberk Beker, discussing how paid marketing has evolved — from the number of marketing tools to the increasing number of touch points.
10. Descript
Descript is, as Cognism’s Video Manager Emily Liu put it, an AMAZING tool for B2B marketers in the creative industries. And we agree with her! Here’s why 👇
Descript uses AI to help you edit and mix audio and video content. You can then share and publish your content to other applications. The B2B marketing software features include:
Best features:
- Transcription.
- Screen recorder.
- Filter words removal.
- Voice cloning.
Use case example:
💡 Emily uses it a lot for transcribing and creating dynamic subtitles; they’re a must-have element of videos since most people watch social media clips on mute.
💡 Check out Epidemic Sound to access royalty-free music and sound effects. In Emily’s experience, they’re better quality than tracks on the YouTube audio library.
11. Adobe Premiere Pro
Another useful marketing tool on this list, Adobe Premiere Pro, is an Adobe Creative Cloud suite app used for video editing. Premiere Pro offers powerful tools for editing audio and video.
It also integrates with other Adobe Creative Cloud applications, allowing users to transfer their work between programs and share their projects with others.
Best features:
- Multi-cam editing.
- Colour correction.
- Advanced audio mixing.
Use case example:
💡 Emily Liu uses Adobe After Effects to create motion graphics and Adobe Illustrator to create shapes and vectors in animations. You can preview her work on our homepage and Cognism’s YouTube channel.
💡 If you want to create videos but haven’t quite got the money for it, Emily suggests looking into DaVinci Resolve or Fastreel. They are free B2B marketing tools for video editing, effects and post-production.
12. Mutiny
Mutiny is a B2B marketing software where you can create personalised experiences for specific audiences and increase conversions on your site.
Thanks to integrations with other marketing tools such as Salesforce, Google Analytics, and Clearbit, you can create target segments based on various attributes, e.g. industry verticals, buying stages, company sizes etc. Features include:
Best features:
- Website personalisation.
- Website conversion optimisation.
- Account-based marketing.
- Website A/B testing.
Use case example:
💡 At Cognism, our marketers use Mutiny to run two personalisations simultaneously to test which one will convert better. It’s been a great tool for us to test content, copy and experiences for different visitors.
13. Funnel
Funnel is ETL tool marketers and data analysts use to extract data from marketing ad advertising sources and transform it into actionable business intelligence. It offers:
Best features:
- Integrations with 500 marketing data sources.
- Automatic data categorisation into metrics and dimensions.
- Data transformation with custom or recommended rules.
- Sending data to visualisation apps or data warehouses.
Use case example:
💡 At Cognism, Funnel helps our marketing team stay on budget and track global campaigns. And custom dimensions let us segment the data the way we need. Because paid ads eat a considerable amount of B2B marketing budgets, tools like Funnel help us make more informed decisions.
14. Figma
Figma is a cloud-based marketing tool UX design teams use to test user experience and create user interface designs.
This is one of the most popular B2B marketing tools because of its extensive library of plugins and widgets. Its best features include:
Best features:
- Wireframes.
- Mockups.
- Interactive prototypes.
- Visual designs for websites and mobile applications.
Use case example:
💡 Verche Karafiloska, Cognism’s Head of Product Marketing, said Figma was useful for planning the rebranded Cognism website.
Figma facilitated this complex process by allowing Cognism’s product marketers to work together in real-time and give feedback in context.
15. Canva
If you’re working at a startup with minimal resources, but you still want to produce graphics that wow your audience, then Ognen Bojkovski, Cognism’s Senior Graphic Design Manager, suggests that Canva is the right choice for you.
Best features:
- Millions of pre-made templates.
- Vectors and design elements.
- Stock photographs.
Use case example:
💡 With Canva, you can create social media posts, LinkedIn carousels, presentations, posters, and other visual materials. All for free! And the best thing about this B2B marketing tool? Its drag-and-drop interface.
💡 Ognen’s second choice for graphic design without breaking the bank is Piktochart. It’s a free B2B marketing tool to create stunning infographics.
16. Adobe applications
Adobe offers a range of products for graphic design, web development, video editing, and photography. To create and edit the wide variety of digital content we produce, Cognism’s design team uses its multiple products.
Best features:
- Illustrator for most of the designs.
- Photoshop for image editing.
- Indesign for designing larger documents.
Use case example:
💡 Stevco Naumoski, Cognism’s Senior Graphic Designer, recommends trying out Adobe Bridge for managing Adobe files and folders. It has efficient search thanks to adding keywords and metadata to your files.
💡 Stevco said that Cognism’s design team uses Figma more and more instead of Illustrator. Why? Because it’s more versatile and allows real-time collaboration between the stakeholders. It’s also good for creating reusable components, e.g. banners or CTA buttons.
17. Survicate
Survicate is an effortless survey tool that allows you to collect continuous customer feedback through various channels, such as email, websites, in-product, and in-app interactions. It has over 400 ready-to-use survey templates, with AI-assisted search and personalized recommendations.
Best features:
- Automated feedback collection with recurring surveys.
- Drag-and-drop survey creator, no coding required.
- A wide range of native integrations with third-party tools.
Use case example:
💡 Use Survicate for continuous voice of the customer collection and analysis. For example, metrics like NPS, CSAT, and CES can help your business spot trends in customer sentiment.
Some companies even use NPS for investor reporting to indicate company’s overall health and potential for growth.
18. Mouseflow
Mouseflow is a behavior analytics platform offering marketing tools like session replay and heatmaps. Its main goal is to empower marketers to understand their website visitors and improve user experience and website conversion rates.
Best features:
- Session recordings.
- 6 types of heatmaps.
- Conversion funnels.
- User feedback tool.
Use case:
💡 Monika Kisielewska, SEO and Content Manager at Cognism, says marketers can use B2B marketing platforms like Mouseflow to step into users’ shoes and look at how they interact with your website.
For example, it helped us understand friction points that prevented website visitors from converting on some of Cognism’s key pages, like Uplead vs ZoomInfo.
19. Crayon
Crayon is a competitive intelligence platform for B2B marketers that monitors your competitors' online activity and alerts you to relevant intelligence in real-time.
Crayon also makes it easy to create battle cards for your sales team, enabling them to win more competitive deals.
Best features:
- Automated competitor tracking.
- Sales battlecards.
- Win-loss analysis.
Use case example:
💡 At Cognism, we use Crayon to set up alerts on our competitors. It helps our B2B marketers and sales build and update a variety of deliverables, such as dashboards, battlecards, and competitor pages, like Apollo.io vs ZoomInfo.
20. DataFeedWatch
DataFeedWatch is a multichannel e-commerce platform that empowers businesses to maximize their product sales across diverse advertising channels and marketplaces. It enables streamlining the creation, management, and optimization of data feeds for multiple shopping channels.
Best features:
- Configure and optimize channel feeds with a few clicks.
- Automate product feeds.
- Publish or edit listings in bulk.
- Turn product feeds into compelling text ads.
- Feed review available before submitting.
Use case example:
💡DataFeedWatch helps boost revenue while making multichannel selling smoother. Not only does it help save time, but users see big jumps in ROI from PPC campaigns thanks to product feed optimization. Additionally, the extensive channel integrations enable businesses to expand their reach and connect with new audiences in multiple countries, which drives even more revenue.
21. Smaply
Smaply helps organizations manage and improve customer experience. It is suitable for journey mapping and continuous journey management. Smaply's easy editor enables B2B marketing teams to work flexibly and customize journey map structure.
Best features:
- Journey map hierarchies.
- Portfolio management to prioritize critical touchpoints.
- Service blueprints to structure processes.
Use case example:
💡 Smaply's real-time collaboration features help break down silos in organizations. For example, marketers can organize an online journey mapping workshop where cross-functional teams visualize and analyze the journey that customers undertake when interacting with the brand. The tool helps understand customer pain points and make data-driven decisions.
22. Qatalog
Qatalog is an enterprise search and AI-powered workplace assistant that works across all your company's apps. It lets enterprises search through internal documentation to improve knowledge management and improve productivity. By integrating with various apps and platforms used within the organization, Qatalog provides a unified search experience, allowing employees to quickly locate documents, project updates, communication threads, and other critical information.
It’s a platform for marketing teams and agencies that serves as a single point of access for employees to retrieve relevant information and data.
Best features:
- Integrations with 50+ third-party marketing apps, including Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, and more.
- Enhanced privacy security.
- No data indexing needed.
Use case example:
💡Qatalog serves well for fast-growing organizations and those with distributed or remote workforce, making the information needed to do their job easily available.
23. Moosend
Moosend is a cloud-based, AI-powered email marketing software that lets you target your audience at scale. The platform enables you to segment your audience and create a dynamic recipient group. It's also intuitive and easy to use.
Best features:
- No-code campaign editor.
- Automatically-triggered emails based on real-time user behavior.
- Advanced reports and dashboard.
Use case example:
💡 If you need to migrate any bulk size of data into and out of the system, Moosend has very high threshold API rate limits.
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