As of today, there is absolutely no growth hacker that’s not using any software tools to make their life easier. You know it right? All of us are using at least something for social media scheduling, CRO, SEO, content marketing, analytics, customer feedback or video marketing. I’ve personally tested hundreds of them and paid for dozens.
You are digging into all of them to save time and money in the end by using software tools for growth hackers. I’ve made a list of my all-time favorite platforms that I’ve used in the past few months and I’m constantly sharing the love with my friends and professional network.
Alright, let’s go!
Phantom Buster
Literally, thousands of hours were saved. Josh Fechter named it as the top growth hacking software of 2018. And I’ve personally used it to automate my Twitter profile for the past few months. One of my team members used it for sending a connection request on LinkedIn. Also, she created custom audiences for Facebook, then scraped profiles from multiple social media networks to create ads and “boom” new sales in our Stripe account.
Phantom Buster is full of opportunities for growth hackers. And that’s why I loved it. It’s the best tool of 2018, that’s it. You don’t even need to use it every day. Just configure it once a week and leave to do all the work. It’s really easy to set up, takes you 1-2 minutes. Then you can feel the power of growth hacking using just this software. Do it now!
Planable
Have you gone through the process of back and forth emails to finally get approval on the social media calendar you’re planning? You’re probably using Google Spreadsheets and Excel Documents feeling that you hate every single minute of it, right? Yeeees! I know the pain, and I totally understand.
That’s why, there’s Planable – it’s a social media content collaboration platform for marketing teams. You can easily create content and see what it will look like, before publishing any. It’s a powerful Buffer Alternative, if that’s what you’re using now. No need to mock up posts in Photoshop, or work in spreadsheets anymore. You need just one platform to get feedback, receive approval, and schedule the posts directly to social media. They bring team members and social content on the same page for better, faster brand storytelling. Must try!
Data miner + Recipe Creator
Now, wait for it and read my story. When I’ve just started building my own startup, I did not know about scrapping. And I was literally doing this manually. Hundreds of pages to manually copy the name and links of people, pages, and companies. I know it sounds ridiculous now because I have my friends – Data Miner and Recipe Creator.
In the world of information, that’s exactly what you need. You can scrap literally anything – profiles, news, articles, lists, reviews, companies, and any kind of data you need for. I’ve used it to collect reviews on my competitors, then scrap their LinkedIn profiles, connect with them and then engage in conversation. Running personalized ads was the second thing I did. We also scrapped lists of speakers at conferences to run our “I’m sorry I’ve missed you at the conference” hack, which I described here. It’s a bit complicated to use in the beginning, and you’ll need to watch the tutorials, but after 20-30 minutes you’re ready to conquer lists.
LinkedIn Helper
I know their website is really cluttered, and that’s probably why you think that’s not gonna work for you. But.. just give it a chance, possibilities are limitless. There is literally no better tool to automate all of your efforts on LinkedIn. If you’ve tried DuxSoup or Meet Leonard, LH is so much better than any of these. With LinkedIn Helper you can do any of these things:
- Send personalized connection invites
- Auto respond and follow up
- Visit profiles and export these to CSV files
- Build targeted email lists
- Add a signature to messages
- Endorse connections
Hunter
They are connecting you with the business you want to reach. Some of you may think that e-mail outreach became obsolete after the GDPR went into action, but it’s only for European Countries. There’s still a huge opportunity for all the other countries in the world and you can reach almost anyone via e-mail. And getting them is really easy with Hunter. They have multiple tools that allow you do to this. They’ve scrapped the whole internet to get you this data. And you should use it ASAP.
Email Finder, find the email by entering the domain name of the email address and the full name of the person you’re looking for.
Email Verifier, if you already have the email, check if it’s actually a valid one.
Domain Search puts the name of the company (like buzzfeed.com) and sees what results you have.
Anyleads
What I like most about Anyleads as a software tool for growth hackers is that you can easily set up campaigns will all the necessary conditions based on your own parameters, such as click, open, download, or anything else that fits your goals best. It has all the powerful integrations of email providers like Sendgrid, Google, Amazon, and Mandrill. Anyleads help you to find unlimited B2B contacts, verify emails, find them, import contacts, create lists, segments, and templates, add an unsubscribe button, add a signature, get replies and follow-ups in a simple way. I’ve tried multiple tools, but I was amazed when a friend of mine told me about them. Definitely worth a try, if you’re into an email outreach.
Calendly
I’ve used this software since day 1 one of the customers outlined for a research paper on my product. When I outreach to some prospects, I immediately asked for a 20min call to get their feedback on our idea (we already had a mockup of the interface).
We have all experienced the email back and forth nonsense. It often takes A LOT of time to schedule a meeting. And Calendly solves exactly that. It’s a simple calendar setting app. You make a list of dates and time slots you’re available (15 min, 30, or 60min) and then just send the link to the person. They select a time, leave their contact details and any other information you request – then Voila! You’re done. No need for any more emails. Both of you have the event on your calendars and know when it’s time to have the meeting.
Grammarly
As a growth hacker, you have to create lots and lots of content to engage with your prospects and audience all the time. Grammarly will help you to achieve better results with your content. I’m using it with Wordcounter as well to have a better performance on my SEO and understand which keywords frequency I have. Especially now with the improved Grammarly, it’s so much easier to know that your grammar is under control. I’m using it right now.
Instagram Polls
I know what you’ll say – “whoa! it’s not a tool man, coooome on!” But Instagram Polls are really useful for you in segmenting the audience, understanding what they actually like, and engaging with your followers. All of it, in just a bit of an effort. You also have powerful analytics to see what’s your user’s choice. Then, you can act on this data to change your marketing strategy in real-time. If users are taking the time to engage with your brand, here’s how to do that. They’re also more likely to convert in actual sales.
Headspace
Have you been ever experiencing fear, anxiety, an abundance of work, or being overwhelmed by everything that’s happening around you? As a growth hacker, you probably have so many ideas to do all the time and with all the notifications, e-mails to catch up, videos to shoot, and content to write – one day you wake up with the feeling of being lost. That’s exactly where Headspace comes in. It helps you manage your mental health with a few breathing exercises. And it’s really handy.
Headspace will guide you through the world of meditation, by helping you manage a regime and make sure you do this constantly. It will improve your mental health for better productivity and less stress on your tasks. Believe me, try this out.
GetFlow
You probably tried in the past multiple tools for task and project management, such as Trello, Asana, and Wunderlist – but you were still unhappy about them? Well… let me help. Here’s GetFlow, it’s a really pretty and flexible project management app for teams. It’s designed for any project or workflow. You can set up priorities, task projects by timeline, set up checklists, Kanban views, or list views on tools. They’ve got you covered! It’s organized for multiple mini-projects, such as SMM, SEO, Ads, and Content and you can have a complete overview on just one screen. We’re using it already for a year, and are totally happy about that.
Ahrefs
When I first discovered Ahrefs, it was through a few articles to understand how to build SEO for my websites. Then, I saw their SEO course completely for free and wanted to try it out. I have seen THE BEST SEO COURSE ever by Tim Soulo and I loved every minute of it. It was on point, clear, and very actionable. Afterward, I immediately went to Ahrefs to upgrade and start using it for my website.
In case you don’t know, Ahrefs is a well-known tool for backlinks and SEO analysis. They have a large base of live links, a huge index, and the best speed on index updates. Ahrefs are constantly improving its algorithms to give you the freshest data and actual backlinks. Apart from that, these are my favorite functionalities they have as
- Site Explorer helps you with an overview of any website
- Content Explorer, find the most shared content for any topic by multiple filters
- Keywords Explorer, see what’s the best keyword to use in your niche
News Feed Eradicator for FB
It’s the best thing I’ve done on Facebook in the past 365 days. It helps you save precious time by not scrolling for hours and hours of the newsfeed on Facebook. It just disappears, and you can’t see it anymore. Additionally, I’d recommend you to use “Feedless” on iOS devices, which will block the Facebook Mobile version on Safari. A great combination to become a better growth hacker.
Use Loom
Over the past few months, I started to become more familiar with voice recording, because when I have an idea to say and I’m too lazy to type it, I just recorded it in Messenger, and Voila! But then, I discovered Useloom and I’m using it to share all the updates on our app, interact with people, send video recordings for onboarding new customers and share my thoughts on some design materials. It’s the easiest way to interact with my team and customers I’ve ever had.
Dropbox Paper
Ah, I finally can mention Dropbox Paper as my go-to tool for all the copywriting and content management. What I love about Paper – it’s the cleanest platform for writers. So easy to arrange your content with just 3 size types, upload URLs, Google folders, Youtube Videos, design materials or create a check-list. We’re not gonna debate it – if you’re writing a shitload of content – Dropbox Paper should be the software you’re using all the time.
First Promoter
When I was researching my affiliate platform, I thought all of them are super expensive for a small startup (for example, GrowSumo which starts from 300$ / month). I love First Promoter for being really really simple and that the Founder is always there to help you with any questions you have. It has all the pieces of information you need, analytics, and numbers and it’s easy to integrate with Stripe or any other tools.
Zest.is
It’s by far my favorite Chrome extension. I’m using it every single day and consuming that amazing content. Imagine Zest as a place where all the marketers hang out, with a customized dashboard where you can share your articles, recommend others, discover new ones, and filter them by exactly the topics you’re most interested in. As soon as you open a Chrome window – you’ll immediately see articles, podcasts, white papers, PDFs, infographics, and videos. Growth hackers follow growth hackers, see what’s trending and connect with others.
Unlike other sharing content platforms – Zest is unique in being the only platform specifically for marketers and the content goes through a manual approval system.
Stripe
Ready to start getting paid for a hell of an amazing job you do? Then, Stripe will become literally your second best friend. They make online payments so freaking easy by taking care of all of your needs. No effort is required from your side. It’s very easy to work with and great for handling different payment plans or subscriptions. Highly flexible with easy integration and friendly API. You have real-time money going into your bank account and all the handy analytics.
Socialinsider
It’s a social media analytics tool that serves up a full view of a competitor’s digital strategy for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. It’s super easy to set up, and most importantly, it provides all the most important and relevant stats and metrics. Get a front-row seat to your competitors’ digital marketing strategies, save countless hours on reporting, and explore new content ideas for your social media channels.
Bannersnack
Bannersnack is a cloud-based, easy-to-use, professional banner maker with which you can create fully responsive banners that will look perfect on all screen sizes, on any device. Making your own interactive display ads has never been easier: you can create HTML5 animations, add videos, and links, or embed your own custom code. Choose from millions of stock photos, hundreds of templates, icons, and preset animations, all of which are being updated constantly. You can easily create static and animated professional banner ads, either starting from scratch or by using one of the hundreds of templates that Bannersnack offers.
IFTTT
IFTTT is a free platform that helps you do more with all your apps and devices. It means you can connect IFTTT to a huge variety of services, and then, based on “triggers” from one connected service, you can drive something to happen elsewhere. It has curated tools for every part of your life, applets to help you explore the universe, connect your home, streamline your social media, and much more.
You can automate a big part of your life with IFTTT and make it so much easier, from the basic platforms you’re using to sending a reminder of the upcoming church events to all of your community. Author bio: Vlad Calus is Chief Marketing Officer at Planable and a Marketing Hustler. Dropped out of college, moved to another country with 2 of his friends, and built Planable at 19 y. o. Have any questions? Ping anytime at @vladcalus on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn.