The systems, from someone who runs them.
25 tools I have implemented or bought myself. For each: what it is good at, what it costs to own, and when it is a poor fit.
25 systems, and counting
CRM and automation
Where the customer record lives, and what it costs to keep it honest.
- HubSpotMarketing, sales and service on one contact record: ad clicks, emails, sales calls and support tickets on a single timeline, with reporting that joins up…
- SalesforceA CRM built for sales organizations with structure: territories, permission layers, approval chains and a sales motion complicated enough to need custom…
- PipedriveA sales CRM built around the pipeline view, light enough that a small team keeps it updated without being managed into it.
- KlaviyoLifecycle email and SMS for ecommerce, triggered by what people do in the shop and reported as revenue per flow.
Advertising
The platforms most of the money goes through, seen from inside the accounts.
- Meta AdsAdvertising across Facebook and Instagram where the platform chooses who sees the ad and your job is supplying ideas worth a reaction.
- Google AdsAdvertising against search: your offer shown at the moment someone types a need that matches it.
- LinkedIn AdsB2B advertising targeted by employer, role and seniority.
- Pinterest AdsAdvertising placed into the catalogue of ideas people build while planning a purchase: a renovation, a wedding.
- TikTok AdsPaid reach in a feed the algorithm assembles person by person.
Organic social
The platforms people check before they buy, and what it takes to keep them alive.
- Instagram (organic)The company’s own presence on the platform: the profile a buyer checks before her first order, and the feed that keeps customers within reach.
- TikTok (organic)Publishing video to a feed that auditions each post before a fresh audience and distributes on performance.
- YouTube (organic)A video library that search keeps serving. People arrive looking for an answer, and a video published this year is still being found in three.
Web and commerce
What the site runs on, and who has to maintain it after launch.
- ShopifyA hosted platform for selling physical products online. Shopify runs the servers and the checkout; your team runs the catalogue and the campaigns.
- WebflowA visual site builder and CMS in one hosted tool: the designer builds in the browser and the marketer edits in the same place. Webflow hosts it.
- WordPressOpen-source software for running a website, installed on hosting you choose and maintained by someone you name.
- Headless (Next.js)The site is code in a repository, generated ahead of time and served as static files. There is no server and no admin panel unless you add one.
Infrastructure
Where the site lives and who holds the keys. Invisible until the day something breaks.
Data and measurement
The layer every number passes through before anyone reads it.
- GA4Google’s free analytics for websites and apps. It records visits and the events you define, and ties them to the channels that brought them.
- Google Tag ManagerA container that holds your tracking tags, so marketing ships or changes measurement without a code release.
- Server-side trackingConversion events sent to the ad platforms and to analytics from a server you control, either beside the browser tracking or as its replacement.
- Looker StudioGoogle’s free dashboard tool. It draws charts from connected data sources and publishes them as a web page anyone with the link can open.
Search
What the market is asking for, and who is visible for it.
AI in the working day
The tools that changed how the work gets done, described like any other purchase.