Too Many MarTech Choices? Check Out Thomvest Venture’s 50 Favorites!
According to Scott Brinker (www.chiefmartec.com), there were over 7,000 marketing technology (martech) platforms available online at the end of 2018. That’s 40% growth versus 2017! The number of Martech options is predicted to grow at double digits for the foreseeable future. That’s a mind-numbing number of platforms for marketers to keep up with and consider using (given there were only 150 in 2011).
Rather than try to wrap our heads around over 7,000 platforms in 49 different categories, we thought we would keep it simple and break it down into just two classifications: Free and Paid. We wanted to give a “shout out” to 50 Martech tools we like and use on a somewhat regular basis. At Thomvest Ventures, we also have a strong bias for Martech platforms we’ve already invested in (i.e. Netbase, Vungle, Singular, and dataxu) since we think they are each outstanding in their respective sub-categories.
We will be the first to admit these 50 Martech platform favorites are based on our personal opinions. For the paid ones, we did include the rating from G2Crowd when it was available (and recommend using G2Crowd.com to evaluate software you are considering using). We are discovering new Martech platforms every day (as well as new ones coming online all the time) so we’re sure this list will change over time.
Here are our top Martech picks that are free (or at least offer part of their services for free) and paid, as well as a brief description of what they do:
Google Analytics measures advertising ROI as well as tracks Flash, video, and social networking sites and applications.
Google Trends allows comparison of various search terms over time as well as what latest trending topics are.
Displayr is latest machine learning and statistical and learning techniques with automation tools included (paid service available for more advanced use).
Internet World Stats features up to date usage data on internet usage by country.
Reuters Polling is an online survey that began in 2012 (polls 2–3k Americans per week) on a variety of topics.
Marketing Charts is a collection of marketing data, graphs and analysis.
Statista is a broad collection of market data, surveys and statistics (also has paid subscription options).
Roper Center provides a wide variety of surveys (from US and other countries) on a host of topics (also has paid subscription options).
Studio YouTube allows video creator to monitor and analyze a variety of online user metrics and reports.
Pew Research is a non-partisan website which provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the world.
USA Facts is a non-partisan summary of publicly available data sources (national and local).
Nation Master is a compilation of data from various countries which enables comparison of data from different nations on various issues and topics.
Orspub is an online database of public opinion polls from the US and 100 countries around the world.
Crowd Tangle is a chrome plug in used to see how often a link was shared, who shared it, and what they said (quick way to find detractors/influencers, especially of disinformation).
Ipsos is a global research firm website with variety of surveys from different countries on various topics (also offers paid services).
Trendsmap shows latest Twitter trending hashtags and topics from anywhere in the world.
Kumu is a visual data platform that creates map of relations between various factors. Helpful in breaking down complex issues and processes into more manageable components.
Iuni is used to monitor and track bot activity (and combat activity from “bad actors”).
Social Bakers provides a suite of tools which allows measurement and improvement of social media performance.
Media Bias Fact Check uses methodology which is transparent (i.e. rates both bias and accuracy) so one can search sources to validate accuracy of online information (i.e. resource used to fight “fake news”).
Medium is a popular website for writers, thinkers and storytellers who share their thoughts on a wide variety of topics. Good platform to link your company website to in order to share with a wider audience.
Canva enables you to design your own professional quality graphs without hiring a graphic designer.
Paid Martech Platforms Where there was a G2Crowd rating score available, we’ve shown it in parenthesis. Here are our top picks for paid (i.e. SaaS) Martech platforms:
Buffer (4.3 score) allows for easy scheduling of posts, analyze the performance of various social media channels and overall social media management.
Data Treasure (4.3) creates a single view of each customer profile using a Customer Data Platform (CDP).
Muckrack is a search engine for journalists, monitor news and build reports about various media sources.
Pathmatics (4.1) offers users easy-to-access data visualizations, summaries, ranking reports, data maps, tables, charts and comparisons.
Netbase (4.1) is a social media sentiment analysis platform which uses a high-precision natural language processing (NLP) engine to process billions of social media posts to extract structured insights delivered via customizable dashboards.
Singular (3.8) enables marketers to connect, measure, and optimize siloed marketing data in various industries, including commerce, travel, gaming, entertainment and on-demand services.
Dataxu (4.5) is a cloud-based global platform with tools which allows advertisers to optimize their media spending and better understand and engage consumers in a programmatic world, no matter what device they’re using.
Vungle (4.5) is an in-appvideo platform for performance marketers used for creative optimization, targeting and HD video ad delivery to reach and acquire high-value users worldwide.
Grouphigh (3.9) is a content marketing tool that allows one to find any blogger’s contact info, research blogs and build targeting outreach list.
Zignallabs is a media intelligence platform which surfaces insights from news and conversations across the entire media spectrum.
MOAT (4.7) measures real-time attention attributes.
AdQuick is a dynamic marketplace to buy and sell outdoor advertising.
Buzzsumo (4.5)analyzes what content performs the best for any topic or competitor.
Newswhip (4.5) identifies current events and trends that a specific audience cares about with real time monitoring of major social media platforms.
SEMrush (4.5) is a digital platform to determine what is driving traffic.
Comscore (4.1) is used to plan and evaluate media across various platforms.
Critical Mention (3.9) allows for real time tracking and monitoring of brand coverage and issues on a global basis for a variety of media channels.
Trend Hunter leverages big data, human researchers and AI to identify and leverage consumer trends (“cool hunting”).
ZohoSocial (4.5) is a social media management platform for scheduling posts, monitoring keywords and other key activities.
Moz (4.3) is a tool that helps get insights on a specific retailer account’s audience.
Keyhole (4.2) is a real-time tracking for Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook.
Global Webindex allows one to profile and segment audiences using a database of 22 million consumers from 45 countries.
Talkwalker (4.4) analyzes online, tv, print, radio in real time in 187 languages — used to determine what consumers think of marketing campaigns, brands, events, etc.
Acupoll is a testing service which can be used to evaluate concepts, advertising, packaging and products.
Supermetrics (4.4) allows you to put all of your marketing metrics in one place, along with automatic downloading of data and customizing reports. Works with a wide variety of platforms, including Google Analytics, Google Ads, Facebook, Bing, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
Slidemodel (5.0) contains over 20,000+ PowerPoint templates that are easy to download and edit. Allows you to do your presentation in less time with a more professional look.
Mixmax (4.5) is a direct marketing platform that enables you to create templates, sequences, automatic reminders and email autoresponders.
Hunter (4.2) lets you find email addresses for individuals and companies as well as verifying email addresses.
We would invite you to send us your nominations for a more democratically selected “Top 50” Martech platforms that we’ll publish in a future blog. Send your nominations to kip@thomvest.com along with why you think they deserve to be included. Happy hunting!
