Thanks to the Internet your marketing team no longer has to sit in cubicles in an office space. Nowadays you can have a graphic designer in one country and your expert SEO writer in another. If your business has an online marketing team, you’ve likely encountered some of the difficulties that come with working in a purely online environment.

Thankfully there are all sorts of tools and apps available to make everyone’s job a little easier.  Keep reading to learn about 6 web tools that will be more than beneficial for your online marketing team.

1. Hootsuite

Posting manual updates to a variety of social media networks can be overly time consuming. To avoid the headache of missing a post, be sure your team is using Hootsuite. The tool allows you to post and review social media updates on a variety of platforms including Twitter, Facebook, and even Google+. With the app you can create posts and schedule them weeks in advance. This allows you to keep the marketing ball rolling while focusing on future moves and posts.

Hootsuite is free but also provides a paid version that offers detailed reports and campaign tracking. This tool is a must if your company markets using social media.

If that’s not quite in the budget and you’re running everything from a variety of free social media management tools to run your separate campaigns, you may want to consider using anonymous emails to sign up for experimental software and online tools. There are plenty of online services that provide anonymous emails to add an extra layer of security between your online business and the software or website you’re team is testing out.

2. Buzzsumo

While other more flashy forms of content marketing have grown in popularity, content marketing will always have its place. To get the most out of the content that your marketing team produces, consider using Buzzsumo. The tool allows you to locate the most shared or popular content on a specific topic or website. Buzzsumo can also be used to monitor hot topics as well as to find a brand influencer. Using this tool, you can create new content that is sure to interest your readers.

The tool offers a variety of versions, depending on your company size and marketing needs. The Pro version offers plenty of features and costs $99 a month, but if you’re only looking to create a strategy for your own end-product, you can get more than enough use out of the free version.

3. Canva

If you’re a small company, you may not have the budget to afford a graphic designer. But, with a little learning and the right tool, your business can produce awesome visual content. Canva is definitely the go-to tool for all of your graphic design needs. Canva offers pre-made templates that are designed with social media and beauty in mind. Your team can customize graphics and then use them on social media or even for print marketing.

The tool offers a free cloud version as well as a pay as you go option for premium images. A more advanced version of Canva is available for $12.95 a month.

4. Keyword Planner

Creating buzz-worthy content is only one piece of the SEO puzzle. When writing content to post to social media or on your company’s blog, pinpointing trending keywords is a must. By using the right keywords, search engines are more likely to push your content to higher rankings. In turn, more readers are driven to your content. But, choosing the right keywords isn’t simple. To ensure your content is read, use Google’s Keyword Planner tool. The tool allows you to identify a wide range of keywords that will drive traffic to your content. Keyword Planner is free but to use it, you must have an AdWords account.

5. Trello

Trello is one of the newest marketing tools to hit the web but it’s definitely proven its worth. The tool allows your marketing team to stay organized, which can be hard to do when your business is running several campaigns while also planning for future launches. Trello makes project management easy by allowing teammates to collaborate on marketing content before it’s pushed into the public’s view. This tool makes brainstorming and collaborating much easier, especially for teams who aren’t in the same physical location.

6. ProtonMail

To avoid the risk associated with traditional web-based email service, ensure your online marketing team uses secured email.

Web-based email service is a prime target for hackers looking to steal data. In fact, some of today’s most commonly used providers such as Gmail and Yahoo have been the victims of email-based attacks.

ProtonMail is a well-known secure email provider that allows your online marketing team to share confidential business information without the worry of those messages being hacked or intercepted. All messages that are sent using ProtonMail are encrypted, making it all but impossible for a hacker to read them. The tool is entirely free to use which makes it ideal for businesses of all sizes.

Conclusion

These days there are all sorts of web tools and apps that are extremely beneficial for an online marketing team. However, the list is always growing.  Keep these 6 options in mind to keep your marketing team running as effectively and efficiently as possible.

What do you do to protect your online business?  How do you control the security of your accounts?  Share your tips and tricks in the comments.