Marketing tools for a small business can be a double-edged sword. 

Choose the right ones, and they’ll help you grow faster. Pick the wrong ones, and you risk burning through your marketing budget and wasting time that could be better spent elsewhere.

So how do you know which tools to pick? In 2025, the options are overwhelming. 

From AI-powered platforms to hyper-targeted ad tools, there are hundreds of products promising results, but in my experience, only a few deliver data-driven, meaningful results.

This article provides a thorough breakdown of the best digital marketing tools for small businesses that have produced tangible results for brands that I’ve helped. 

I’ll talk you through what I personally look for in marketing tools and what you should avoid if you’re looking to cut costs for your business in 2025. I’ll also explain how the smartest small businesses use different marketing tools together to produce the best results. 

In my 10 years of digital marketing experience, I’ve worked with a range of small businesses.

This has enabled me to see first-hand which marketing tools are worth the hype, and which should be left at the door.

The following sections will cover specific tools that I’ve used that delivered real results in terms of leads, sales, and improved visibility online. From email platforms that build owned audiences to CRMs that help businesses simplify follow-ups.

Whether you’re just starting with your business or are looking to scale, these top picks are practical, affordable, and produce real, measurable results.

From what I’ve seen, the best tools for small businesses are as follows.

Email is one of the most powerful marketing channels for small businesses.

This is particularly prevalent when it comes to building an owned audience - a group of subscribers that you can communicate with directly without relying on other marketing factors such as social media algorithms or ad spend.

beehiiv is an email tool that is purpose-built for owned-audience growth, offering a simple, results-driven way to grow and engage an email list. It’s an ideal choice for small businesses that are keen to control their communication channels and develop a powerful email marketing strategy.

If you’re looking to streamline your email marketing without sacrificing performance, building trust and conversions along the way, beehiiv is an excellent choice for you.

Here are my top reasons why tools like beehiiv are a must for small businesses in 2025: 

beehiiv and similar email tools are ideal for small teams because they’re practical and easy to use.

They don’t require in-depth coding knowledge to produce a clean, professional-looking newsletter, and most of these tools have intuitive drag-and-drop editing to make template creation a breeze.

beehiiv, for example, has a slick, easy-to-use interface that doesn’t require development experience and combines this with dynamic email content that helps reduce time and improve efficiency. 

These include personalized subject lines, dynamic images and videos, and segmented content, which are designed to tailor content to specific users, helping to improve open rates and engagement for your newsletters.

From an affordability standpoint, email tools offer a wealth of ways to engage your audience without breaking the bank.

beehiiv has a range of generous free tier and paid plans that change depending on list size, making it accessible for start-ups and larger businesses alike.

With beehiiv, you won’t pay for reams of features that you won’t use. Instead, your plan will focus on measurable features such as segmentation, email scheduling, analytics, and growth tools that will produce real results for your business.

What sets beehiiv apart, in my opinion, when it comes to email tools is how well it supports list growth.

With a built-in referral system, customizable subscription forms, and a wealth of earning opportunities, creators can send emails while building a list that they own and can earn money from over time.

If you’re still unsure, check out this case study explaining how beehiiv helped fill the gaps for Milk Road’s growth playbook from 0K - 250k subscribers.

Managing social media schedules can quickly become a full-time job. This is where social media scheduling tools come in. 

The right scheduling platform will not only save you time by allowing you to plan, automate, and track content, but will also help your brand to stay consistent on a range of different social media platforms.

In 2025, the best social media schedulers strike the balance between functionality, ease-of-use, and affordability - I’ve tested a lot of tools, and these consistently deliver:

Hootsuite is a classic social media scheduling tool for good reason. 

It supports a broad range of social platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X (formerly known as Twitter), allowing users to schedule posts in advance from one dashboard.

Hootsuite is particularly useful for small teams due to its calendar view and bulk scheduler. These features allow users to upload a week’s worth of content in one go, saving hours each month.

You can also use Hootsuite’s built-in analytics to see what’s working and the best times to post for improved reach.

Another social scheduling tool I’ve enjoyed using is CoSchedule. 

CoSchedule is perfect for small businesses relying primarily on content marketing, with their marketing calendar tool allowing users to coordinate blog posts, email campaigns, and social content from one platform.

Their ReQueue feature is particularly good. This enables you to automatically reschedule top-performing posts so that your best content keeps working for you time and time again.

Good design can be the difference between looking professional and amateur, especially for small businesses.

But as a small business or start-up, you’ve probably already realized that hiring a designer for every post or flyer just isn’t sustainable. 

Fortunately, there is a range of affordable design tools that can help you create polished, on-brand content without the need for a design degree or a huge marketing budget.

Two of my favorite affordable design tools for small businesses are Canva and VistaCreate - here’s why.

If you haven’t heard of Canva, where have you been hiding?

Canva has become the default design tool for many small businesses, with its easy-to-use, drag-and-drop functionality allowing even the most novice of designers to provide beautiful visuals.

I love the way Canva can help you produce a range of marketing material, from Instagram posts to business cards. The Brand Kit feature allows you to upload your brand guidelines, ensuring your logo, brand colors, and fonts are used consistently across all marketing content.

Whenever I’ve used Canva with clients, the teams I’ve worked with love that you can collaborate by leaving comments, sharing templates, and approving designs all within the same platform. 

Canva starts with a free plan, and offers a Pro platform at an affordable monthly rate $17 per month, making it one of the most accessible design tools on the market.

VistaCreate (formerly Crello) is a hidden gem of a design tool offering plenty of value.

It’s particularly useful for brands looking to create animated content and short video posts, offering creators access to thousands of animated templates and video assets.

It also provides a rich library of design templates, brand kits, and stock photos for creators to use, all within their free tier.

VistaCreate is highly capable and offers a pro version, which is slightly cheaper than Canva’s at just $10 per month, providing access to team accounts, unlimited storage, version history, and HD downloads.

Small businesses often start by tracking leads via a spreadsheet, but this is only sustainable for so long.

Using the right CRM (Customer Relationship Management) can save your business time while providing a clear overview of your sales process.

Here are three CRM systems that I’ve seen work for the small businesses I’ve helped:

HubSpot is a popular CRM choice for many small businesses because it offers a free, robust platform that allows users to track leads, manage contacts, and automate follow-ups all in one place.

The platform is clean, intuitive, and integrates seamlessly with other tools, allowing small teams to easily manage a range of platforms.

HubSpot also offers paid tiers for businesses looking to scale, starting from $15 per month.

Another CRM I’ve found useful is Zoho.

Zoho is a CRM that is highly flexible, allowing users to tailor fields, workflows, and dashboards to match specific sales processes.

They also offer an intuitive mobile app, which is super helpful for small businesses that work on the go, such as tradespeople, estate agents, or freelancers.

It integrates well with other Zoho apps such as Zoho Mail and Zoho Projects, plus it offers a free plan, which is perfect for businesses with small marketing budgets.

Less Annoying CRM is a platform that lives up to its name.

It aims to strip away the fluff of other CRM systems, focusing on contact management, task reminders, and streamlining pipelines.

What I particularly like about Less Annoying CRM is that it’s designed for users who don’t want to spend hours learning how to use CRM software. This makes it perfect for small businesses keen to hit the ground running, allowing them to begin streamlining their processes straight away.

Less Annoying CRM is priced at a flat rate of $15 per month, with a focus on no convoluted pricing tiers, no hidden fees, and no contracts.

A big misconception among small businesses is that you need to pay thousands to an agency to produce one for you.

This may have been the case a few years ago, but in 2025, this is no longer true. 

There is a range of website builders available that anyone can use to create a professional, highly functioning website, regardless of coding knowledge or SEO experience.

Here are the two stand-out options that I’ve used with clients in the past:

When I work with small teams, I always recommend starting with Wix.

With hundreds of templates and an intuitive drag-and-drop editor, you can customize different sections of your website without needing to touch a line of code, and it's the perfect website builder if you’re looking for a quick, professional design.

There are also many built-in tools, such as SEO assistance and booking forms, which means you can keep most of your online presence in one place.

Wix offers a free plan, plus paid options starting from $16 per month for users seeking more advanced features.

Squarespace is a good choice for small businesses focused on branding and design.

They offer super clean, professional-looking templates, providing features such as built-in e-commerce, online booking/scheduling, and SEO tools straight out of the box.

Website templates are mobile-optimized from the off, and they use a block-based editing system, making it easy to move, edit, and arrange content.

While Squarespace doesn’t offer a free plan, their pricing is competitive with a $16 a month basic tier that includes a free custom domain for one year, plus SSL security and unlimited bandwidth.

Understanding what your audience is searching for online is the key to securing valuable, organic traffic.

SEO tools can reveal different data around online search, including what keywords people are searching for in your niche, the competitiveness of those search terms, and what your competitors are ranking for.

Two of the best SEO tools out there, in my experience, are SEMRush and Ahrefs - in 2025, these tools are still underrated in my opinion. Here’s how they help small businesses grow their presence online without the guesswork.

SEMRush is an oldie but a goodie.

It allows users to understand what users are searching for and the opportunities they may be missing.

Some of their best features include on-page SEO audits, giving useful tips on how to improve SEO on specific landing pages, and backlink tracking, which tells users new and lost backlinks they need to keep an eye on.

A great feature for small businesses is the Keyword Magic Tool, which helps users discover long-tail keywords that may be easier to rank for but bring in high levels of organic traffic.

SEMRush has a free plan, with pro plans starting from $139.95 per month. While this may seem steep in comparison to other marketing tools, I firmly believe that SEO tools are one of the most important platforms you can invest in due to their capabilities in driving valuable, lead-producing online traffic that is fully trackable/measurable.

Ahrefs is a top-tier SEO tool that I’ve been using since I entered the digital marketing space in 2015.

I love that you can plug in a competitor’s website and see what keywords they rank for, their top-performing landing pages, and a full list of their backlinks.

This is SEO gold, giving you so many opportunities to drive more organic traffic.

Another feature I’ve used a lot is their Content Explorer, a tool that shows you the most shared pieces of content on any topic. This has helped me with my content ideas to no end, helping to generate more traffic for my clients’ websites.

Another perk is that it’s slightly cheaper than SEMrush, with their paid plans starting at $99 per month. They also offer a free plan for businesses trying to cut costs.

Time is so important for small businesses.

It directly impacts productivity and efficiency, with good time management ultimately leading to better profitability.

Automating repetitive tasks can be a smart way of protecting your time, whether it’s automating email newsletters or streamlining work processes.

The two automation platforms that have consistently delivered for my clients are beehiiv and Asana - here’s a deep dive into these platforms.

The beehiiv email platform makes automating email campaigns a dream.

This isn’t just in terms of email scheduling like other tools. beehiiv allows creators to set up automated welcome sequences, confirmation emails, drip campaigns, and even automate audience segmentation to better understand subscribers and deliver more relevant content.

This provides access to a range of automation tools, without needing to rely on technical skills or conflicting plugins.

beehiiv also comes with powerful tools such as referral programs, earning options, and an advanced analytics tool, making it a great all-in-one choice.

Pricing starts with a generous free tier and paid plans from $39 per month.

Automating project management is one of the best things you can do for your business.

Asana is a work management platform that can help you automate tasks based on rules and triggers.

For example, when one task is completed, another can be automatically created or reassigned. This is perfect for processes that recur, such as client onboarding or managing deadlines.

Asana offers a free plan for small teams and paid plans starting from $10.99 per month (per user).

Why Listen to Me? I have been working in the digital marketing space for nearly 10 years, predominantly helping brands with their email marketing and online presence. I now specialize in creating great content for beehiiv to help people nail their email strategies!

So, what are the key elements I look for in a small business marketing tool?

For me, the most important factor is for a tool to fit into the reality of running a small business. This means decisions often come down to time, budget, and simplicity. 

Here are the core criteria that I use to determine whether a marketing tool is worth it or if it should be avoided:

If a tool feels at all overwhelming on first open, it’s probably not a good fit for your business.

As a small business owner, you’re probably time-poor, and the last thing you need is a platform that needs a manual to use. This is why a simple, clean user interface is paramount in my experience.

A great marketing tool should feel like an assistant, not another project. It should have a clear navigation, minimal clutter, and essentially help you move faster and feel more in control of your business.

No business has money to burn, but small businesses need to be even more in tune with the pricing of their marketing tools.

I look for marketing platforms with free tiers or flat rates - a big factor for me is that pricing is clear and doesn’t skyrocket as you grow.

Many plans offer real value without high subscription costs, so focusing on these rather than premium tools is always a good move.

I want a tool to grow with my business.

Powerful marketing platforms shouldn’t just solve today’s problem - they should seek to move with your business and create more solutions as your business grows.

Ask yourself, “Will this tool still be useful a year from now?”. If the answer is no, you’re probably better off looking for a different tool that will stay with you for years to come, protecting you from the headache of switching platforms every 12 months.

Not all marketing tools are worth your time or money.

This is especially the case if you’re running a small business with a lean operation. Here are two platforms that look great on paper but tend to fall short for small businesses.

As one of the most well-known CRMs in the world, Salesforce always crops up on go-to lists for marketing platforms.

However, in my experience, it’s overkill for most small businesses. The setup is time-consuming and complex, and customizing it to a business’s workflow often requires a consultant or hours of training.

Small businesses generally just can’t accommodate this, plus there are other tools out there, such as Hubspot and Zoho, that provide a similar experience for a lower price.

If you have a dedicated sales team and a high budget, Salesforce can absolutely improve your processes. But for those looking to go lean in 2025, Salesforce may offer more burden than benefit.

In 2025, over 7,000 companies will be using productivity tool ClickUp (6sense).

However, while it has a rich number of features from task management to chat functionality, in my experience, it tries to do too much.

The problem with platforms that try to do everything is that it’s not only overwhelming, but also provides a mediocre service for lots of features rather than being an expert on just one element.

I find the ClickUp interface cluttered, the setup is overly long, and it needs close management.

If you’re focused on fast, focused execution, Clickup can quickly become a distraction rather than a solution.

The most effective marketing strategies involve a few carefully-chosen tools that integrate well together.

This involves building smart workflows that connect core business functions such as communication, marketing, and sales to connect with their audience in the best ways.

For example, business owners may start by launching a beehiiv newsletter to send regular emails to their customers. They’d pull ideas from SEMRush or Ahrefs, identifying keywords and questions their audience is already searching for.

Next, they’ll create content based on these topics, either publishing to their beehiiv site or creating posts on platforms such as Squarespace or Wix, and linking back to them via their email newsletters.

This can all be overseen via the project management platform Asana, with form submissions auto-creating a task to ensure all business functions are kept consistent and intentional.

In my experience, the key to a successful business isn’t doing everything - it’s doing a few things very well, on repeat. When your content, email, and projects work in synch, you can save time and be more efficient.

If you’re a small business looking to grow your audience, beehiiv checks all the right boxes.

With its intuitive interface, built-in tools for automation and audience segmentation, plus monetization opportunities, beehiiv provides more than other marketing tools while integrating well with others in the process.

Best of all, you can try out a free 30-day trial to test out the different features. No credit card, no pressure - sign up today!

The most successful marketing tool for small businesses depends on the business model and industry, but email marketing platforms, like beehiiv, are consistently effective.

They enable small businesses to grow their audiences, build relationships with customers, and drive repeat business - all in a measurable, affordable way.

The 7 types of digital marketing are:

There is no one-size-fits-all tool for marketing, however, a few powerful marketing tools that work well together can provide value in a data-driven way.

Some popular tools include beehiiv for email, HubSpot for CRM functionality, and Ahrefs for SEO.

The best CRM for a small business is Zoho.

The Zoho CRM is affordable and scalable, offering robust features without the hefty price tag. It provides small businesses with lead tracking, sales automation, and detailed analytics all in one place, with a free plan or paid plans starting from $14 per month.