As an agency established in the world of the interweb, Start Digital is continually on the hunt for new, innovative and effective tools for design, developing, marketing, time wasting and everything in between. Here is a collection of digital tools to use in 2021 and beyond!
You’ll want to bookmark this resource as we’re continually adding new tools each month!
VideoAsk
An innovation from Typeform, VideoAsk takes website chatbots to an entirely new level of connectivity. Using video to get personal with all website users, VideoAsk fosters face-to-face interaction while on the web and builds credibility and trust in the process. VideoAsk can be used for lead generation, recruitment, testimonials and even educational purposes on your website.
LeadFeeder
An ideal tool for B2B, LeadFeeder is a tracking software that helps businesses identify the companies and individuals on their site. A lead-generation platform, LeadFeeder uses APIs and cookies to match up otherwise anonymous website visitors with real businesses and individuals on LinkedIn giving you the ability to find warm leads sitting right at your door. Currently, LeadFeeder offers a Free version that caps data retention to 3 days and leads to a total of 100 while its Premium version starts at USD$63 per month and is worth every cent spent.
Snazzy AI
We’re not all gifted writers like J. R. R. Tolkien so sometimes it’s a real struggle creating content that rules. Snazzy AI exists to solve that issue for businesses across the board. Using artificial intelligence, Snazzy AI creates compelling content for social media captions, website headlines, ad copy, product descriptions and more! One of the best things about Snazzy AI is it does all the heavy lifting for you – all you need to do is offer up some initial ideas and text. Snazzy AI offers Starter and Growth plans, the former is free for a limit of 5 generations per day while the latter costs $49 per month and offers unlimited content plus other features.
Synthesia
Ambitious and effective, Synthesia is using AI to reinvent video production. With video marketing on the rise, Synthesia creates professional videos for businesses of all industries and sizes, saving them filming, money and time in the process. Synthesia has been used to create video campaigns involving Lionel Messi, David Beckham and Snoop Dogg (yep, you guessed it – that MenuLog ad us Australian’s can’t escape!) Choose a template, add your transcript and customise your presenter (according to accent and style) and Synthesia will deliver a polished video for you. While you can try it for free, Synthesia is a paid tool with its base package starting at $30 per month.
Jasper
Jasper (formerly Jarvis) is another AI-backed platform (are you seeing the trend here – it’s time to start embracing robots if you’re not already!) that focuses on more long-form content. Suitable for writing anything from love letters to blogs, real estate listings and video scripts, Jasper is your AI content assistant and he’ll be as handy to you as Tony Stark’s natural-language user interface computer system. With no free version, Jasper is a tool you’ll only want to sign up for if you’re committed to creating content that captures and engages.
Contentdrips
While the tool is marketed as a solution for personal brands, Contentdrips is a tool for far more than just influencers. Contentdrips can help you create engaging and professional-looking content for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and even TikTok! All you need is some text and background media to start creating compelling text and quote posts, carousels, social snaps and more. With more and more (free and paid) templates being added each week, ContentDrips is growing in value for businesses like yours. Start dripping out meaningful content for free before updating to a Starter ($9 per month) or Pro Plan ($17 per month).
Jitter
Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan and many others are very talented at bringing visuals to life. If you’re anything like most businesses, you’re not. Jitter helps the average person (who often doesn’t have the money, skill or time) easily make appealing motion videos that can be exported as videos or GIFs. From animated Instagram stories through to phone mockups, Jitter is a fun motion design tool! Currently, Jitter is a relatively small platform but it’s growing in features and users each month. We’re going to keep a close eye on Jitter as 2021 comes to a close and we reckon you do the same thing too.
BuzzSumo
As a society, we’re consuming content like never before. We can’t get enough which is great for companies as it offers more opportunities to connect and engage their target audience. On the other hand, this obsession means there’s so much content out there and it can be difficult to create content that cuts through. A cloud-based app, BuzzSumo helps businesses and influencers discover the best engagement, content and outreach opportunities throughout their respective worlds of search and social. Used by marketers from BuzzFeed, HubSpot to Rolling Stone, BuzzSumo’s Chrome Extension is an especially noteworthy feature that offers content insights as you browse online. As an established tool, BuzzSumo has several plans available including a free one.
Krisp
With so many video-calls happening since COVID, we’re betting that you’ve found yourself on a business call and all of a sudden, the background noise becomes embarrassingly loud. Krisp aims to silence all of those noisy issues and integrates with Zoom, Google Meet, Slack, Teams and more. With one click of a button, Krisp mutes background noises allowing you that seamless business call. A free Mac application, Krisp offers greater productivity and maximum privacy as well.
Answer the Public
Inspired by the auto search results provided by Bing and Google, Answer the Public aims to make better use of these insights. By presenting visual maps of auto searches alongside lists, Answer the Public helps businesses and individuals see what people are searching and provides opportunities for your business to meet your customers at their queries.
A basic version of Answer the Public is available for free. For agencies or businesses conducting SEO and PR internally, the PRO version is available at $99 a month ($79 per month if paying annually) and includes features such as unlimited searches, location-based results and saved reports. If you’re ever stuck for content or keyword ideas, Answer the Public might just have an answer for you.
Google Search Console
Anything but a new tool, Google Search Console is a powerful tool for optimising your website for search traffic and visibility. We’re using Search Console more and more with changes to the world of consumer behaviour and SEO, and your business should too. Use Search Console to help create content, develop an SEO keyword strategy and performance optimisation. A free platform that is easy to set up, Google Search Console is a tool that your business should be using in 2021 and (well) beyond!
Web.dev by Google
While this tool is best in the hands of web developers, of which many of you aren’t, Web Dev from Google is a powerful platform in 2021. At the very least it’s important to check in every couple of months for updates on how Google is running their business and any changes that it’s planning to introduce such as Core Web Vital modifications.
There you go – plenty of digital tools to use in 2021 and beyond!
If your business is interested in partnering up with a website and digital agency that can propel your business to another level in 2021 and beyond, don’t hesitate to drop us a line or give us a ring on 1300 170 908.