Having the right attitude but the wrong tools will get you nowhere fast:
At Orange Pegs, we love technology—and, when we have the time and resources, we spend much of it exploring new and popular tools. When they're great, we adopt them and work them into our existing and future client projects. When they're not, we kick them to the curb faster than you can say, "you're dead to me."
Being a growth agency means we're using and trying a LOT of growth hacking software tools, ranging from marketing automation and data modeling to sales CRMs and project management.
Here is a list of our most popular, favorite, and most efficient growth hacking tools yet (what is growth hacking?)
MORE LIKE THIS: Top Sales Enablement Tools
Different growth tools for different occasions:
We like breaking down my Growth Hacking Tools into four categories:
- Analytics
- Sales
- Marketing
- Production
When it comes to an effective growth hacking tool, there are a few rules to keep in mind:
- It should be easy to integrate with other platforms
- It should provide and help us digest important data
- It should allow for A/B testing or support it in some way
- It's either functional, analytical, or both
Analytics
1. Hubspot 
If we could only have one tool, it would be, without hesitation, Hubspot. From a marketing perspective, there really is no better out-of-the-box platform out there. It performs the execution work (more on that in the respective sales, marketing, and production categories), and since it's centralized, gathering data is second nature.
The custom reporting in the Pro and higher levels is amazing. You can slice and dice the information in many ways, and attribution to sales and growth is a breeze since everything is connected. Each of their platforms does this really well (CRM, CMS, Marketing, Service).
NOTE: being part of a larger group of platforms doesn't make one easy to integrate. Salesforce's Marketing Cloud tool doesn't integrate with its sales tool very well. And, once upon a time, I remember Zoho platforms only capable of transferring data through manual Excel exports and imports.
Hubspot's philosophy is and always has been user-centric, and their tools have come as a result of their mission, not the other way around.
2. Google Analytics
Google is good for a LOT of things. Analytics continues to be a staple in our stack and foundational for all things growth.
Simply put, if your website has the potential to influence sales (and it does for 99% of you), you should have Google Analytics set up from day one. The data it gathers is based on the install, not the lifetime of the website, so don't wait!
It will help you understand how people interact with your website
- What page leads to what
- How long they stay on a page
- How long they visit your website
- How often they visit
- Which pages lose people
- and a TON more
3. Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a fantastic tool for understanding how SERPs are reading your website, what you're ranking for, and which search results users are clicking.
So, Google Analytics shows you where people are coming from and what they do when they get to your website; Search Console shows you how you were found (along with the reasons why you're not).
4. Google Tag Manager
In growth, we create a TON of content, and it's easy to get lost when you're not tracking outcomes to every stage of the Pirate Metric (what's that?). Google Tag Manager helps us stay centered. This is especially important today as the different browsers continue to remove tracking capabilities.
5. Google Data Studio
Data modeling is a key component to successful growth hacking. If you don't have an all-in-one solution like Hubspot, it's helpful to have a clear environment where all info intersects. Enter Data Studio.
6. Microsoft Clarity
There are three types of analysis we conduct in growth hacking: Quantitative (hard data like GA), Qualitative (interviews, UX testing), and behavioral. The latter can be accomplished using a heatmapping software, and Clarity is not only free, but it's easy to use. See where eyes are settling, links are non-existent (but should be), and how users interact with your website.
7. Hot Jar
Hot Jar is similar to Clarity, but costs $ and has a few more bells and whistles packed into it, such as surveys. This used to be my number 1 until Clarity came along. Both are comparable. Come back in the future to see if one gets knocked off the list.
8. SEMrush
We use SEMrush as a centerpiece to our website growth hacking. Containing more features than what we have time for in this article, we're able to assess internal opportunities for SEO along with external threats. ANYTHING SEO-related should be connected to a tool like this.
Sales
9. Hubspot Sales
Let us start by saying, "we hate CRMs."
But we love Hubspot. It's not your typical sales tool. In fact, what makes it atypical is its overwhelming commitment to sales FIRST and management SECOND--a no-no in the world of CRMs, but a yes-yes for all salespeople who hate them.
As a modern sales tool, Hubspot elevates prospect insights and provides unparalleled support for sales right out of the box.
We could go on for days, but you may just want to check out our CEO's review on the tool HERE.
10. Pandadoc
The case I'll make for Pandadoc is as a B2B-specific software. We use it to create just about anything that requires a presentation and contract. We started using it because, in the early days, it was the only electronic contract tool that integrated with Hubspot. Since then, a few others have emerged such as Proposify, which I've used, and really liked, but never made the jump.
Actually, we like the integration between Proposify and Hubspot better, but the simplicity of Pandadoc is what kept us there.
We use it as a presentation tool that pulls whatever information we want from Hubspot, so adjusting for different clients is super easy. Then, once we have buy-in for our presentation, we pull the boilerplate and signature lines through the library.
Easy peasy and super strategic. For growth hacking purposes, it serves both analytical and functional needs. Both are important to growth hacking. And, the reality is that in growth hacking, nothing in the pirate metric framework is off limits. It improves your ability to close deals while giving your growth marketers powerful insights into effectiveness.
11. Vidyard
We. Love. Vidyard.
It comes free with your Hubspot Sales Pro subscription, although we have a couple of upgraded seats as well.
Vidyard is a simple screen recording tool, which is highly effective at helping salespeople move conversations forward. Our CEO uses it for internal production as well. Any time he wants to explain a complex situation as simply as possible, instead of writing out walls of texts, he sends his teams short video clips explaining his position.
It gives great insights into viewership, and most importantly, helps sales close more deals, checking both boxes that make it a fabulous growth hacking tool.
Marketing
12. Hubspot Marketing
Most people associate Hubspot with Marketing, and they'd be right to do so.
However, the most efficient growth hacking tools are the ones that do more than one thing. And, efficiency is key. Any time we can cut hours out of our day trying to decipher buying signals and patterns, we're winning. Hubspot does that well.
It's a(n):
- email automation messaging platform
- lead capture platform
- social media marketing and listening tool
- paid ad management and analytical platform
- data modeling tool
- content marketing tool
- campaign manager
- all-in-one growth hacking tool
13. Hubspot Operations
This is a new-ish platform at the time of the writing of this article, but it has already proven itself as a main-stay in the world of growth hacking marketing. We use it to integrate complex systems and automate things that sales, marketing, or service struggle to automate.
14. Hootsuite
When we get into a Hubspot Starter bundle, we're left without an integrated social media marketing tool, and in those instances, Hootsuite is still our top choice for data and functionality.
Production
Never overlook production when it comes to growth hacking. Your North Star isn't only impacted by investments you make in sales and marketing. Often, we find that the shortest path to growth is with existing customers--either getting them to buy again or continue buying into the future.
These production-based tools were chosen because they still capture the essence of growth hacking and in many ways are the backbone to it.
15. Basecamp
This is our project management tool of choice, but we haven't properly run many others in the past, so it's not a comparison to, say, Asana or Monday.com—but rather, a simple shout-out to a great company that does this project management thing really well.
To fit the growth hacking tool stack it needed to be highly functional and easy to create clonable templates.
We have our entire production cycle embedded as a master template, so there is no guess-work when it comes to executing a growth hacking program that is rigid in process and agile in output.
I have a few suggestions for their programmers (such as "make it easier to clone templates!"), but they've done a great job evolving to make it more functional while still leaning into the simplistic aspects that made it a great tool to begin with.
16. Google Sheets
As much as we hate spreadsheets, we love spreadsheets.
But let us be clear--we use them as building blocks and gap-fillers, not main events for things like sales contact management or growth reporting. For those we have CRMs and data modeling tools.
For me, I find 2 irreplaceable (for now) reasons to use Google Sheets and 1 that does the job for data modeling in a pinch when nothing else is available:
- Calculators
- Organizing our experiments
- Data modeling
Calculators are great inbound give-aways, so they're good for marketing, but I also pull open Sheets when I'm crunching numbers and don't want to use my fingers or a pad of paper (which is always).
Experiment cycles can get extremely complicated, and it's very easy to lose track of different things you have running, their intent, and ultimate outcomes. So, we program a template Sheet to keep it all organized and even alert us when experiments are maturing.
For data modeling, as a 5th or final resort, we will build APIs to connect with Sheets so we can import data from different locations.
17. Slack
While Basecamp is our go-to communication tool for assignments and client interaction, Slack is great for back-office and quick chats that may not fit a project conversation. Plus, many of our clients use it, so it's good for communicating with people outside of our organization.
18. Everhour
Everhour was a gamechanger for OP. It helped us correlate costs with outcomes more accurately, another critical piece in the growth hacking framework.
It's a time-tracking tool that integrates quite well with different project management platforms (including Basecamp), so we can see exactly how much time something takes to complete, who did it, and what their corresponding costs are.
CONCLUSION
Your growth hacking tool stack should reveal insights and provide functional recourse to all aspects of your business. Whether you use Asana, Basecamp, Monday.com, or something else entirely, it's as important to have project management covered as it is marketing and sales.
We know it may seem overwhelming (that's a lot of tools!), but these technologies are solving problems and enabling growth marketing outcomes that would otherwise be out of reach. They also have the tendency to amplify the impact of individual contributors, which means you're paying less on overhead overall.
Our Growth Hacking Services leverage these tools, so you don't have to worry about how to get them working for you with Orange Pegs by your side. Click HERE to learn more:
