9 B2B Marketing Tools for 2024: Tested and Reviewed

B2B marketing tools can truly save marketers’ lives, including yours, especially since there’s just no way you can do the amount of work you do manually.

The right marketing workflow software helps you manage campaigns more efficiently, boost your lead generation and nurturing efforts, and dive deeper into data, ensuring you have everything you need to create and execute an outstanding B2B marketing strategy.

In this article, you’ll find tried and tested B2B marketing software solutions to enhance your everyday work and make your life easier.

The top B2B marketing tools for 2024

B2B marketing software is a big niche in the market — there’s quite an array to choose from.

So, after researching many of these tools, I split them into categories and chose the most prominent ones that can truly help you streamline all your processes, from social media management to email marketing.

B2B marketing tools for content creation and distribution

Content is the king of marketing. The right marketing tool can make it much easier to produce engaging content without compromising on quality, regardless of the number of clients you manage.

1. Planable – best B2B marketing tool for collaboration, approvals, and scheduling content

If you’re looking for B2B marketing software to power up your marketing performance, Planable is it. Seamless team collaboration is at the heart of Planable, making content marketing easier, smarter, and much more pleasant.

Excel sheets, endless emails, and 7-day-long approvals — out. Smooth workflows, one-click green lights from higher-ups, and a single dashboard for everything — in.

In Planable, you can leverage separate workspaces for each of your brands or clients, customizing them to fit the needs of a specific team.

Think tailored ecosystem: connect necessary social media channels to publish content, set up roles and permissions to differentiate creators from approvers, and collaborate on content that steals the hearts of your target audience. Everything all together. Pitch-perfect.

With Planable’s Universal Content bundle, you can work on social media content, blog articles, video scripts, newsletters, and any other type of written content.

Any B2B marketing team will find huge value in the customizable approval workflows, including a multi-level approval option and the ability to involve external collaborators. Need to get the OK from a subject matter expert on a particular topic? Invite them to contribute as the content is fine-tuned, make them a required approver, or both — whichever works best for your team.

Key features

• Collaborative features. Give feedback in real-time, not next week. Planable’s collaboration tools include comments, annotations, emoji reactions to messages, and internal notes only you and your designated teammates can see.
• Customizable approvals. Choose from four potential approval flows: none, optional, mandatory, or multi-level. The best part is that you can customize your approval workflow for each workspace.
• Universal Content features. Universal Content allows you to create and collaborate on any written content, from briefs and newsletters to blog posts and landing page copy.
• Content calendar. After your team collaboratively creates stellar content, schedule it in a visual calendar for teammates and clients to see — all your content efforts at a glance.

Drawbacks: Planable has no social listening capabilities and can only be used to publish content on social platforms.

Pricing: Planable offers a taste of content marketing power with 50 free posts. After that, you can upgrade for as little as $11/month, tailoring the plan to the number of workspaces and users.

2. Hootsuite – best for automating social media marketing processes

Hootsuite is a pioneer in social media marketing automation tools. It allows B2B marketing teams to schedule social media posts, manage multiple social media accounts, gather analytics, leverage social listening, and even streamline their marketing efforts in paid ads.

Designed to streamline the content workflow, Hootsuite has a lot to offer, from AI-powered content creation to quite detailed ROI analytics tools.

Key features

• OwlyWriter AI. Hootsuite’s AI generates engaging social media content, offers new content ideas, and speeds up social media planning with celebratory content, current trends, and repurposing tools.
• Social media planning. Use an editorial calendar to plan, schedule, and publish social media content across multiple major platforms, keeping your campaigns organized and timely.
• Ads management. Create, publish, and manage ads for Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn directly from the Hootsuite dashboard, streamlining the entire advertising process.

Drawbacks: Besides OwlyWriter AI, Hootsuite doesn’t provide many features for creating content within the platform. It also only works for social media content.

Pricing: Hootsuite has three paid plans starting at $99/month.

B2B marketing tools for social media management

Social media management is probably the most common marketing process to automate. No wonder: managing multiple channels manually can take a heap of time. Here are the top tools that can help you with that:

3. Planable – best B2B social media management tool for robust scheduling and collaboration

Did I mention that Planable is the ultimate collaboration tool? Well, you can have all of that — customizable approval workflows, real-time feedback exchange, dedicated workspaces, and adjustable roles — plus everything you need to automate your social media management, all in this neat single platform.

Planable integrates with Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, and Google My Business, allowing you to create, schedule, and post social media content directly from Planable’s social media calendar. Plus, the platform gives you a mockup feed for each platform so you can preview exactly how your content will look.

Draft your social media content, exchange feedback with teammates and clients, get the final approval, and schedule it to go live on one or multiple platforms using the Sync content feature. Fast, easy, and without any fuss.

Key features

• Multiple content views. Besides the classic calendar view, you can view your content as a list, grid, or in a mockup feed for each platform.
• Planable AI. Make your text punchier, shorter, or longer, rewrite it to fit another social media platform, or generate the initial draft to get out of writer’s block.
• Social media analytics. Empower your B2B social media strategy with data. Gather post- and account-level analytics, identify top-performing posts, and generate comprehensive reports.
• Built-in editor. Polish your images and videos directly in Planable. Crop, use filters, and add text annotations to create show-stopping visual assets.

Drawbacks: Planable has no social listening features. Analytics is only available for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok (but keep an eye out for updates).

Pricing: After 50 free posts, you can upgrade for $11/month per user or tailor your plan based on the number of workspaces, users, and features.

4. Later – best Instagram-oriented social media tool

Later is a scheduling tool designed primarily for Instagram. It supports scheduling content for major social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and Pinterest. However, most additional features, like analytics, the best time to post, and the visual grid planner, are Instagram-specific.

Later is a solid choice for B2B marketing teams looking to enhance their Instagram presence, especially if their focus is on influencer marketing campaigns.

Key features

• Influencer marketing campaigns management. Later has a built-in influencer solution by Mavrck that allows you to find and manage influencer collaborations and analyze the final results.
• Caption writer. Boost your Instagram post captions with Later’s AI-powered suggestions, ensuring your content is engaging and on-brand.
• Hashtag suggestion. Later’s analytics will identify the most engaging and popular hashtags that do the heavy lifting for you.

Drawbacks: All features besides scheduling content are Instagram-specific, making it slightly less useful for other social media platforms.

Pricing: Later has a free plan and four paid options starting at $25/month.

5. SocialPilot – best social media tool with a unified social inbox

SocialPilot is a B2B marketing automation tool that helps teams streamline their social media efforts. The platform allows scheduling and publishing content to all core social media channels and gathering in-depth marketing analytics.

Its unified inbox enables teams to monitor brand mentions and reply to comments and DMs on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google My Business.

Key features

• Content repository: Keep your content organized in a dedicated space, making it easy for team members to access, manage, and repurpose saved texts, images, and hashtags.
• Approvals-On-The-Go: Streamline the approval process by allowing clients to approve content via mobile or PC even without a SocialPilot login.
• Marketing campaign management: Effectively schedule, post, and analyze content across social media platforms for a thorough overview of your marketing campaigns.

Drawbacks: SocialPilot doesn’t support post promotion or boosting and lacks certain actionable insights, such as the best times to post for optimal engagement.

Pricing: SocialPilot has four paid plans starting at $30/month.

B2B marketing tools for SEO and website optimization

SEO is not dead. Period. You can choose the optimal tool depending on your primary goal — technical SEO or content optimization. Here are my top picks:

6. Ahrefs – best for comprehensive search engine optimization

Ahrefs is B2B marketing software tailored to smooth and efficient SEO of websites and blogs. It offers a suite of tools to enhance your SEO strategy, ensuring your client’s website ranks higher on search engines.

This feature-packed comprehensive platform helps teams with keyword research, competitor analysis, backlink tracking, and overall site health monitoring.

Key features

• Unified SEO dashboard. Get an overview of your website’s performance, including key metrics such as organic traffic, backlinks, and keyword rankings, all in one place.
• Site audit. With detailed audits, identify and fix any technical and on-page SEO hiccups on your website. Dive deeper with real-time crawl logs and detailed recommendations.
• Content explorer. Discover top-performing content in your niche, analyze competitors’ strategies, and find content gaps to capitalize on.

Drawbacks: Ahrefs is pretty expensive. The cheapest plan, $129/month, offers only 6 months of historical data and no Content Explorer.

Pricing: Ahrefs has four paid plans starting at $129/month.

7. Surfer SEO – best for SEO-friendly content creation

Surfer SEO is an SEO wingman for teams who want to create highly optimized content that ranks well in search engines. Unlike Ahrefs, Surfer SEO focuses on content creation and optimization, using data-driven insights to improve on-page SEO.

We all know SEO content creation can be tedious, but Surfer SEO truly makes it easier for content creators. In fact, I wrote this very article using the Surfer SEO content editor.

Key features

• Content editor. My personal favorite, the content editor provides real-time suggestions on keyword density, general content guidelines, and content scores based on top-ranking pages.
• Keyword research tools. Find the best keywords to target with comprehensive research tools that provide insights into search volume, competition, and related keywords.
• AI detector. One of Surfer SEO’s free tools, AI detector, helps you evaluate whether content was written with AI and humanize it to sound more natural.

Drawbacks: Surfer SEO concentrates on optimized content creation rather than more technical SEO, so for those who need in-depth backlink reports, Surfer SEO might lack functionality.

Pricing: Surfer SEO has four paid plans starting at $89/month and several free tools like an AI detector, outline generator, and keyword extension.

B2B marketing tools for email marketing and automation

B2B marketing software comes especially handy in email marketing matters. No one’s ready to send out thousands of emails manually, right? Here are some prominent email marketing tools:

8. Mailchimp – best for email marketing automation

Mailchimp is a leading email marketing software for B2B teams. Its simple yet powerful tools help teams streamline their email campaigns and move customers more efficiently down the sales funnel.

With Mailchimp, you can set up email chains triggered by specific actions, such as an abandoned cart or a filled-in lead generation form. This strategic bump to your prospects and clients boosts engagement and conversion rates.

Key features

• Email segmentation. Create targeted email lists based on customer behavior, preferences, and demographics to ensure your message hits the bull’s eye.
• Email automation. Set up automated email sequences triggered by specific actions, such as sign-ups or purchases, to nurture leads and maintain customer engagement.
• Reporting. Access detailed reports and analytics to track the performance of your emails and make data-driven decisions.

Drawbacks: Some say Mailchimp’s automation logic is not as sophisticated as it could be.

Pricing: Mailchimp has a free version and three paid plans starting at $13/month.

9. HubSpot – best B2B marketing automation software

HubSpot is an all-in-one suite of marketing tools for B2B automation. It automates various marketing processes, including email marketing, lead nurturing, social media management, and customer relationship management (CRM).

The HubSpot platform ensures seamless workflows, making it a marketing tool for big and mighty B2B teams.

Key features

• Lead nurturing. Nurture your leads through automated email chains and follow-ups, ensuring potential customers move smoothly through the sales funnel while they’re still warm.
• CRM integration. Sync your marketing efforts with HubSpot’s CRM to keep track of customer interactions and maintain a comprehensive view of your sales pipeline.
• Analytics and reporting. Utilize advanced analytics to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns and make informed decisions to optimize your strategy across multiple marketing channels.

Drawbacks: HubSpot is not easy or cheap to implement. It consists of multiple marketing automation platforms, and it might take you a moment to figure out your perfect setup.

Pricing: Some tools, like basic CRM, are free. Paid plans are many, and they start at $15/month per seat in a Starter Pack.

What to look for in B2B marketing tools

Tools for B2B marketing can significantly enhance your team’s efficiency, especially when managing complex marketing campaigns and large client bases. Automate what you can — that’s my motto.

Here are the most important aspects to consider:

• Integrations. Ensure the tool integrates seamlessly with your existing software and platforms.
• Intuitive interfaces. Look for user-friendly tools that reduce the learning curve and improve productivity.
• Collaboration features. Opt for tools that facilitate collaboration among team members (*cough* like Planable *cough*).
• Automation capabilities. Choose tools that automate repetitive tasks, saving time and reducing errors.
• Robust analytics. Prioritize tools with solid reporting and analytics to track performance and make data-driven decisions to enhance your marketing strategies.

The verdict: B2B marketing software is the cornerstone of modern strategies

Integrating the right B2B marketing software into your workflow can magically transform your processes. Proper tools help you optimize your workflows, ensuring you concentrate on getting great results, not technicalities.

Planable helps thousands of marketers who strive to deliver powerful content with less hassle. Sign up for a 50-post free trial to experience Planable’s benefits firsthand!