It’s not easy being a marketer. Sure, we get to come up with all sorts of crazy and creative campaigns. But other times, we have to put on our analytical hats and get our hands dirty.
That’s why it’s so important for marketers to use the right creative tools.
In this post, I’m going to take a look at 23 creative software solutions that can help marketers get incredible results.
Why Does Your Marketing Team Need Creative Tools and Software?
Let’s establish exactly why creative tools and software are so important for marketers before we dive into our set of amazing tools and inspiring techniques.
I chalk it up to three key reasons:
Unlock your creativity
Creativity is a valuable attribute and marketers are lucky to work in a field that demands it. Of course, it’s not always easy to get those creative juices flowing, but it’s critical that marketers can perform on demand.
That’s why marketers need a suite of helpful tools and software to call upon, so they can unleash their best ideas at a moment’s notice. The right tools and software can provide inspiration and techniques that stimulate creative professionals to produce great work.
Share your ideas clearly
Creative work is lots of fun, but it’s also definitely demanding. Creative professionals spend years honing their communication skills and their ability to share their ideas with others. Still, this is never an exact science!
The right creative tools and software help marketers share their ideas more clearly with the team. These assets provide marketers with structure and guidance, so that they can make themselves – and their amazing ideas – understood more easily by others.
Bring order to chaos
The creative process is an exciting one, but it’s also quite abstract and messy sometimes! While this is a big part of the fun, it’s important that marketers are able to reign in their ideas and produce something concrete.
The correct creative tools and software help marketers organize their thoughts so they can share them with their colleagues in a logical and cohesive way. This brings order to the chaos and ensures that marketers achieve their goals.
Best Creative Software Marketing Teams Can Use
Now that we understand why these creative tools are so essential, let’s power up your tech stack. We’ve listed the best possible creative tools below, sorted into the following categories:
- Creative collaboration tools
- Creative writing tools
- Creative video tools
- Creative design tools
- Creative project management tools
- Creative presentation tools
- Creative content marketing tools
- Creative brainstorming tools
Let’s get started.
Creative Collaboration Tools
Marketing teams have a tough job; they have to take the abstract and give it form. The following collaboration tools empower marketers and creatives to articulate themselves and make their ideas heard.
Filestage – Seamless review and approval
Filestage is a feature-rich content review and approval platform that empowers marketers to share, review, and approve their various content elements in one shared environment. Although the review and approval process is often extremely complex (particularly for creative projects), Filestage offers a proven process to get through it.
Key features
- Comment directly on a range of file types
- Manage the review process easily
- Track the status of your projects
- Secure time-stamped and documented approval
Less review rounds, better designs
Get quick and clear feedback right on top of your designs with Filestage.
Slack – Bring your team together
Slack is a truly powerful team communication platform that has become the tool of choice for many teams around the world. This marketing workflow software offers countless possibilities for integration with other platforms, and many of its fans choose it for everyday operations as well as more specialist tasks.
Key features
- Audio and video calls
- Real-time chat and file sharing
- Task management options
- Third-party integrations
Creative Writing Tools
The majority of marketing projects require fantastic copy. To create the most evocative and engaging copy possible, you’ll need to call upon a host of creative writing tools. Here’s a look at some of the best that you can use.
Google Docs – Create copy in harmony
Google Docs is part of the G Suite, and it has grown to become one of the world’s foremost collaborative writing tools. This powerful tool offers almost all of the functionality of popular apps, such as Microsoft Word, while boasting integration with all of the other G Suite applications.
Key features
- Real-time collaboration and editing
- Powerful word processing features
- Integration with G Suite
- Easily share documents with other G Suite users
Hemingway – Produce readable content
Hemingway is a straightforward creative writing tool that makes your writing bold and clear. Copy and paste your text into the Hemingway App to receive your readability grade. The tool also gives pointers on adverbs, passive voice, and sentence structure to make your copy as crisp as possible.
Key features
- Free to use
- Lets you quickly assess the readability of your text
- Features a word count tool
Creative Video Tools
Video projects can be very challenging, but immensely rewarding. Here are some great creative video collaboration tools that you can use to take your results to the next level.
Animoto – Create videos for free
Animoto is a video creation and editing platform that makes it possible for marketers to create impressive videos in a matter of minutes. Users can get started creating videos with a simple drag-and-drop interface, even if they have no previous video editing experience.
Key features
- Add both photos and video clips
- Lots of personalization features
- Share your video directly from within the tool
Camtasia – Screen recording and video editing
Camtasia is a simple video editor for businesses and individuals. The tool focuses on usability, so it can best help marketing professionals create training and educational videos, tutorials, demos, presentations, and more.
Key features
- Customize videos to fit your branding
- Drag and drop your videos
- Share videos from within the app
- Access a vast media library
Placeit – Quickly create attractive mockups and more
Placeit is a smart design platform that offers marketing professionals over 30,000 mockups and templates. The platform makes it incredibly simple for you to create attractive mockups, logos, videos, and designs in just a matter of seconds. And you’ll get truly professional results.
Key features
- Search and find templates quickly
- New templates added on a regular basis
- Move and resize your images
Creative Design Tools
Marketers must create stunning designs on a regular basis to engage with customers and prospects, all the while supporting their brand guidelines. Here’s a look at some of the best creative design collaboration tools on the market.
Canva – Design anything, anywhere
Canva is an immensely popular web-based design platform that empowers marketers to create graphics, prints, presentations, and more. The tool offers a drag-and-drop interface, as well as a host of templates so that even marketers with limited design experience can express themselves and make their projects a success. This software is best paired with other design feedback tools.
Key features
- Lots of collaboration options
- A diverse library of customizable templates
- A rich and diverse media library
Venngage – Create attractive infographics quickly
Venngage is a cloud-based platform that makes it very simple for marketers to tell stories and present their data using great infographics. The tool isn’t limited to infographics, of course, and marketers can also use it to create posters, reports, presentations, and other creative collaterals.
Key features
- Real-time collaboration options
- Data visualization assistance
- A vast image and template database
Adobe Creative Cloud – Creativity for all
Adobe Creative Cloud has concretely established itself as the world’s foremost suite of creative apps and services for marketers and other creative professionals. Applications such as InDesign and Photoshop now integrate seamlessly with one another and empower your creative team to produce all manner of stunning creative assets.
Key features
- Cloud storage and file sharing
- A vast suite of apps and services
- The reference tool in the creative industries
Creative Project Management Tools
Putting together an attractive creative asset is an accomplishment in itself. But the entire process must also be guided by a keen sense of project management, if you want to get the best results. Here’s a look at the best creative project management software out there.
Filestage – Flawless creative project management
Filestage is a content review and approval platform that empowers project managers and marketers to create logical and robust review workflows. These creative workflows can be used to shape and guide entire projects to completion, ensuring that everybody works as efficiently and transparently as possible along the way.
Key features
- Shape projects with just a few clicks
- Quickly invite internal and external stakeholders
- Boost transparency over the course of your projects
Less review rounds, better designs
Get quick and clear feedback right on top of your designs with Filestage.
Trello – Work collaboratively with boards, lists, and cards
Trello is a popular project management tool that gives marketers the ability to organize their creative projects across a series of boards, lists, and cards. The tool offers a range of integrations with other popular tools, helping project managers remain as flexible as possible while coordinating their projects.
Key features
- Use agile project management methodologies
- Kanban board management
- Milestone tracking
- Gantt charts and customizable templates
Asana – An agile work management platform
Asana is one of the world’s most popular work management platforms. The tool offers a host of project management features to help marketing teams focus on their goals, projects, and daily tasks so that they can move their creative projects to completion.
Key features
- Plan and structure work in interesting ways
- Track projects and tasks to completion
- Coordinate milestones and notifications
- Integrate with a number of platforms
Creative Presentation Tools
Marketing professionals often have to create attractive presentations for both internal and external consumption. Here’s a closer look at the main presentation tools that you’ll need to use on a regular basis.
Google Slides – Create amazing presentations
Google Slides is a critical part of the G Suite offering. This powerful tool offers much of the functionality that you could expect to find within PowerPoint while boasting all of the benefits that come with G Suite integration. A vast array of templates gives marketers the ability to create attractive presentations in no time at all.
Key features
- Integration with the G Suite
- Real-time collaboration between team members
- A wide range of templates
- Powerful design features
Prezi – Engage and persuade with great presentations
Prezi is a piece of presentation software. It gives marketers the ability to stand out from the competition by offering attractive and engaging presentations. The tool makes it easy for marketers to adjust the content of their presentations, depending on their audience, thus guaranteeing more meaningful engagement.
Key features
- A wide range of animations and transitions
- Customizable templates
- A vast media library
- Powerful search features
Haiku Deck – Beautiful presentations in minutes
Haiku Deck is a creative tool that helps marketers unleash their presentation superpowers, so they can create beautiful presentations without breaking a sweat. The tool empowers marketers to produce impressive and professional results, regardless of the level of their presentation design experience.
Key features
- Search and filter options
- Plenty of video content to choose from
- Customizable templates
- Present without connections
Creative Content Marketing Tools
Marketers must also learn to optimize and share the creative content that they craft alongside their team members. Here are some of the best creative content marketing tools that you can use, to get your content in front of your audience.
WordPress – Create beautiful online content
WordPress is the world’s most popular open-source software for creating blogs and websites. Countless websites are built using this technology, and it’s adored for its adaptability and flexibility. If you need to share your content, using a website, this could be the best option.
Key features
- Integrates with countless plugins
- Offers many website management features
Buffer – Manage your social media
Buffer is an intuitive social media management platform that’s used by businesses around the world. Marketers use this platform to coordinate their posting schedules, surface the best possible content and connect with their audiences. Buffer is also a great way to distribute your creative content to your audience.
Key features
- Reporting and analysis features
- Automated publishing
- Manage multiple accounts at once
- Content management
Ahrefs – Maximize your content reach
Ahrefs is a well-developed, feature-rich SEO platform that offers a host of tools. You can use it to grow your search traffic and get more eyeballs on your content. The platform contains a wide range of diverse tools and features that will ensure you boost your results and conquer the competition.
Key features
- Make the most of its location-specific ranking reports
- Explore and plan content
- Find great keywords
- Select from a host of useful reports
Creative Brainstorming Tools
During the creative process, you’ll need to organize your thoughts, and then share them with the rest of your team. Here’s a closer look at some of the best creative brainstorming tools that you can use to improve your overall results.
MindMeister – Collaborative online mind mapping
MindMeister is an online mind-mapping tool that empowers marketers to collaborate with their colleagues. The tool offers a suite of special features, such as voting and multimedia notes, so that teams can share their thoughts and get great results.
Key features
- Cloud-based for mobile collaboration
- Integrated chat with colleagues
- Create great presentations
- Basic project management features
LucidChart – Create visual diagrams
LucidChart is a visual workspace tool that brings diagramming, data visualization, and collaboration tools into one space. The tool can be used to help accelerate the understanding of creative ideas and to drive innovation within forward-thinking marketing teams.
Key features
- Create diagrams and notes quickly
- Use data to create your diagrams
- Work from anywhere
Coggle – Easily share complex information
Coggle is a tool that makes it simple for marketers to share complex and abstract information with each other. The tool helps you to create beautiful notes quickly and easily and lets your friends and colleagues contribute their own ideas, as well.
Key features
- Share with as many people as you like
- Work within the browser
- Collaborate in real time
Closing Thoughts
Can you feel your creative juices flowing? We hope that these creative tools make your next project a roaring success!
If you’re going to work alongside others, you’ll undoubtedly want to use a review and approval platform to harmonize the process and meet your targets. Why not start your free Filestage trial today, to see how our platform can boost your results?
