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09/24/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 09/24/2024 05:19

Best AI Tools for B2B Marketing in 2024

Best AI Tools for B2B Marketing in 2024

Published: September 24, 2024

As the cofounder of a boutique B2B marketing agency, I'm always looking for the best AI tools for B2B marketing - partly for me and partly for my clients.

The more time I spend getting acquainted with automation and AI, the more comfortable I've become with the genuine benefits AI can bring to marketing and business.

In this article, I'm sharing, in no particular order, the best AI tools for marketing in 2024. I've included my experience with them, why they're great, their unique features and pricing, and who I think can benefit most from the tool.

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Why use AI tools for B2B marketing?

According to HubSpot's AI Trends for Marketers survey of 1,062 US marketing and advertising professionals, the biggest concern about adopting AI is that it will replace jobs.

Almost 50% of marketers surveyed voiced concerns about job security. This fascinates me, especially because 68% said AI has helped grow their careers.

Personally, I've not strongly felt this way because I believe that marketing is, and always will be, about human-to-human connection - and AI simply can't do that.

I left the worries about using AI tools in B2B marketing behind me long ago and now embrace what AI tools offer.

That said, although I don't share the sentiment, I do understand the concern. I would argue that AI tools can do so much of our work, but none of the real good stuff or the things we love! As marketers, we still get to add the human touch, but we can "outsource" a lot of the less desirable work to AI.

Let's look at how we can use AI to create a more efficient workflow and free up our time to do what we do best.

  • Generative AI can help us write content faster. In my opinion, there's a time and a place for generative AI. Some content benefits massively from its input, and some content just needs entirely the human touch. I've used generative AI for emails, my website, paragraphs within articles, and even some articles that are almost entirely written with AI.
  • AI and automation in project management tools mean that marketing projects will manage parts themselves. Recently, I've set up ClickUp automation, which left me mindblown and questioning why I didn't embrace it earlier! Project management tools like Motion will organize your week based on task priorities, available time, and desired schedule.
  • Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) is the type of AI you've likely seen in your meetings; Fireflies AI will transcribe your meetings. Loom does the same with its video transcription. The AI is leveled up when it also pulls out key points and actions, so you know exactly what you need to do after a meeting.
  • Predictive analysisin CRMs looks at customers trends, helping sales and marketing to make data-driven decisions about what to do next.

I could continue, but we'll discuss the details of AI features in B2B marketing tools in the next section.

Before we get into that, though, let me give you a top tip for using AI marketing tools: don't try and do it all at once.

74% of marketing professionals say that AI usage increases through existing tools. This makes sense.

Start by adding layers of AI in tools your team already uses and is comfortable with. The chances are they'll be used to the tool's interface so that they will be less intimidated.

Also, the AI features of the tools you're already using should complement existing workflows.

Okay, let's get into it. Here's my round-up of the 11 best AI tools for B2B marketing.

Best AI Tools for B2B Marketing

  1. HubSpot CRM
  2. WriterZen
  3. ChatGPT
  4. Loom
  5. Fireflies AI
  6. Microsoft Clarity
  7. ClickUp
  8. LinkedIn
  9. Slack
  10. Motion

1. HubSpot

HubSpot is genuinely fantastic. I know, I would say that - but the thing is, it's not just me. Crazy Egg and Zapier voted HubSpot the best free CRM.

HubSpot does a lot out of the box for new users, and when you get into the paid features, you'll be unstoppable.

The free version makes it a great place to start for new users and young businesses, and you can guarantee that HubSpot has what it takes to grow with your business.

HubSpot Features

Marketers love HubSpot's many features, including the popular live chat, AI content writer, and website builder.

One great feature of HubSpot is the many integrations. You can connect various apps and streamline your workflows. In a test, I added my Google Contacts to the CRM, which were easily synced and ready for marketing.

HubSpot AI Features

HubSpot's AI features are vast, and it is truly putting AI to the test and adding unbeatable functionality. I won't get through them all in this article, but here are some favorites for B2B marketers.

When you create website pages or landing pages, you can build your site from scratch or generate them using AI.

The same goes for creating content. HubSpot has an excellent copywriting AI; you can generate an entire article or email using AI.

When it comes to AI content, I tend to use it as a starting point and then edit it after. 86% of marketers agree this is what works.

I tested the generative AI and found it very easy. You enter the topic that you want to write about. Next, the AI tool will let you choose a title from five generated options, and voila! You will have your blog post outline.

Still unsure? Well, 85% of marketers and sales pros agree that AI is a very effective tool for content creation and quality.

HubSpot Limitations

While HubSpot does a lot for free, you must upgrade your account if you want the best from the system. You pay for additional users, but Marketing Hub Professional includes three seats.

Pricing

The Marketing Hub Professional unlocks a lot of functionality and AI for B2B marketers. Prices start from $15 a month per seat to $800 a month for larger businesses needing more functionality.

See the full pricing breakdown.

G2 Reviews & Ratings

Hubspot's Sales and Marketing Hub is rated 4.4/5, with over 11,000 reviews. The CMS Hub is rated 4.5/5 points, with over 1,500+ reviews.

Best For

Hubspot is an excellent and comprehensive tool for businesses of all sizes. It offers so much for free that it's perfect for small businesses as it is and is enhanced by the small business AI. HubSpot is undoubtedly comprehensive enough for the largest of businesses.

2. WriterZen

WriterZen is a firm favorite of mine. I've used it for years. If you're doing a lot of content marketing, SEO, and blog writing, you must consider WriterZen because the functionality and price of this tool make it very affordable.

The team is fantastic. They're a passionate bunch and committed to creating the best content tool. I met them all a couple of years ago when I visited their offices, and we chatted about AI, content, and SEO.

The tool is mainly for content writing. I love creating briefs with it, but you can also write articles with the generative AI and manage your entire content production within the tool.

There's a brilliant keyword clustering tool that works by analyzing ranking pages, also ideation tools, plagiarism checkers, and so much more.

WriterZen Features

I'll run through a few features, then focus on my favorite and most used part of WriterZen, the Content Creator feature.

WriterZen's Topic Discovery feature is a great starting point if you need help discovering topics. You start with a head topic, such as "marketing solutions." Then, the tool does the hard work for you, delivering content topics.

Keyword Explorer and Keyword Planner features assist the planning phase of content production. WriterZen will find keywords for you.

Now, onto Content Creator, my favorite feature. This feature helps you write competitive content. You can do everything from keyword research to SERP analysis to writing, all within the same workflow and window.

This feature offers generative AI for title tags, meta descriptions, full article outlines, and the article itself.

I have a full video showing how I use this part of WriterZen, including the AI features.

WriterZen AI Features

As shown in the video above, the AI features within WriterZen can help you:

  • Generate a competitive SEO-driven brief based on what's already ranking. I recommend expanding this to include your direct experience. It's not enough to do what everyone else is doing and expect to rank.
  • Write title tags, meta descriptions, and even the entire article with AI if you want. I have started many articles this way, then edited them until satisfied.

WriterZen Limitations

You can't access the best tools using the free version. Although it is amazing for briefing and writing, keyword research isn't as good as a tool like Semrush or Ahrefs as they will have large databases.

Pricing

The best part of WriterZen's pricing is that you pay for it once and get lifetime access. There's also a free trial and a money-back guarantee.

You can access everything for $405 and never pay another penny. WriterZen boldly compares themselves to other tools.

G2 Reviews & Ratings

WriterZen has 201 reviews in G2 and has a rating of 4.7/5.

Best For

This tool is great for content marketing teams who need support with the SEO layer of content strategy.

How to Use ChatGPT at Work

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3. ChatGPT

I think everyone has at least tried ChatGPT at this point.

Love it or loathe it, you simply can't argue that ChatGPT is a great tool that can greatly enhance B2B marketing. If you're still unconvinced, I'll share some of its features and ways I've used it.

ChatGPT Features

Most people probably turn to ChatGPT for its generative AI and writing blog content, but it can do so much more than that.

Since that is a well-known use for the tool, I'll focus on other features such as image generation, data analysis, and coding.

ChatGPT AI Features

DALL-E allows you to turn your imagination into images. Simply prompt the generative AI with your desired image, and DALL-E will return something you can use on your website or other digital channels.

The images are good, but you need to check them carefully. I've seen generative AI images on websites, and if you know what to look for (the fingers), you can spot a generative AI image quite easily.

I encourage people to use their own images, but generative AI images serve a purpose. I follow the rule that generative AI is fine if an image is just there for decoration.

I've relied on ChatGPT a lot when I'm generating code. I use it a lot for schema.

It's not always perfect, but if I want to add code to a site I'm working on, ChatGPT will get me to my desired outcome or close enough that a developer is making tweaks rather than doing the whole task.

Similarly, you can code tools and calculators that can act as great lead magnets on your site.

As a content marketer and SEO, I often deal with large datasets, like keywords. You can upload files to ChatGPT, and it will return tidy data. Using ChatGPT in this way saves me hours.

ChatGPT Limitations

ChatGPT is pretty unlimited once you start paying for it. Iterating images is poor. It tends not to understand a request to tweak something on an already generated image.

Pricing

The free version gives you access to GPT-4o mini. However, if you want to use all the ChatGPT features, the upgrade will cost you $20 per month. I've used both the free and paid version. Start with free and see how you go.

G2 Reviews & Ratings

ChatGPT is rated 4.7/5 with over 580 reviews.

Best For

This is an excellent AI tool for any B2B marketer. I struggle to think of anyone who wouldn't benefit from ChatGPT.

4. Loom

I love Loom. It's an excellent recording tool overall. It's not perfect, and I'll discuss that in the limitations section below. That said, I pay for Loom Business, and the extra to use the AI features is well worth the $5.

Loom Features

Loom is a video recording software. I use it to communicate with clients, demonstrate tools, send proposals, and create onboarding and training documents.

You can share your video by just generating a shareable link. Loom tracks video views, comments, and more.

There's a desktop app, a browser version, and a Chrome extension. I highly recommend the app, which, in my experience, has the fewest problems and is least likely to glitch.

Loom AI Features

Loom uses quite a bit of AI.

You can generate video transcripts with automatic speech recognition (ASR), which is helpful. I'd go as far as to say that Loom's ASR is one of the best I've used. I never edit it because it's good enough for what I need it for.

You can also edit your video using the trim and stitch editor. Compared to apps like TikTok or CapCut, the editing feature is not the best on Loom, but it is good enough.

It's enhanced with the Loom AI package, which you do have to pay for, but the AI will cut any pauses and filler words.

Plus, the AI will generate a video summary and chapters. I often edit the chapters but barely touch the summary; it's good enough.

Loom Limitations

There are a few limitations with Loom. The free package limits you to 25 videos and five five-minute duration. To be fair, I do think that's generous enough, though I was on the free version for ages.

As mentioned, the video editor could be better.

Loom is not really a video generator in the sense that you are creating creative videos; it's really for recording processes and your screen. However, there are AI video generators and other tools to help with that.

My biggest gripe with the software is that it does seem to glitch; videos don't always save. When I load the app, it minimizes my browser the first time I use it, but it is fine the second time.

These little bugs irritate me, but not enough, as I still use it.

To Loom's credit, whenever I've had problems, customer support has responded quickly and resolved many of my issues.

Pricing

Loom costs $12.50 a month if paid annually. You can optionally add Loom AI for $5 per user. The extra $5 is worth it for me, but I probably use Loom at least every other day.

G2 Reviews & Ratings

Loom is rated 4.7/5 with over 2000 reviews.

Best For

Loom is great for day-to-day marketing teams looking to showcase demos, record training, and create onboarding videos. If you need to do a lot of editing, you can still use Loom, but you might want to download the video and edit it elsewhere.

5. Fireflies AI

Gone are the days when a VA or junior team member was brought to take meeting minutes. In 2024, this is handled entirely by AI, and when Fireflies is as good as it is, why wouldn't you?

For the most part, I find Fireflies to be pretty accurate, and I appreciate action points being delivered directly to me. It prevents people from being distracted while taking notes, so everyone can engage fully in the meeting.

Image Source

Fireflies AI Features

Fireflies integrates with many apps, such as Asana, Airtable, ClickUp, Google Meet, Google Docs, HubSpot, Monday.com, Notion, Zoom, Skype, Trello, Slack, and many more.

Once you integrate an app (e.g., Zoom), this tool will join the meeting and email you a transcription at the end.

Usefully, there's a topic tracker where you can create topics that help you search and highlight relevant parts of meetings quickly. This feature is only available for the premium plan.

You can upload an audio or video file to generate a transcript. Depending on your file size, it will be processed in 10-15 minutes. This supports formats like MP3, MP4, WAV, and M4A.

AI Features Within Fireflies AI

One great feature is the magic soundbites. You can use the power of AI to create new media from your video or audio. For example, the Magic Soundbites app will automatically generate a highlight reel for your meetings.

Although not strictly marketing, it all plays a role: you can generate a scorecard to rate the performance of sales reps.

Fireflies Limitations

The free version only includes 800 minutes of video storage. That is, however, pretty reasonable.

Pricing

The free plan is very reasonable as a starting point. If you want access to more features, you can start at $18/month, rising to $29.

G2 Reviews & Ratings

Fireflies.ai has 4.8/ 5 out and 448 reviews.

Best For

This is best for individuals and businesses, particularly those in and out of meetings regularly and want to save time.

How to Use ChatGPT at Work

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6. Microsoft Clarity

Any good B2B marketer should pay attention to how their website functions for the user. Microsoft Clarity shows how visitors interact with your site.

The setup is very straightforward. You simply add code to your website. For a savvy website administrator, you won't even need a developer.

Microsoft Clarity Features

Image Source

Clarity is free to use. It has analysis and reporting features, and you can get quite granular. Under recordings, you'll see your website visitors' activity, User ID, location, and browser and device details - MacOS, IOS, PC, etc.

Heatmaps, as pictured, show where users click or scroll. This is the data that B2B marketers need to create the best possible pages for conversion.

Once you know where and what your users click, you can develop a page that helps funnel traffic to conversion.

Microsoft Clarity AI Features

Copilot is Microsoft Clarity's AI partner. It's free, and you can use natural language to help you understand your website's performance.

Microsoft Clarity Limitations

I'm struggling to find limitations. It's completely free and does what you want it to. It's supposed to be better than alternatives as it's not too "heavy" on the site and, therefore, doesn't slow it down as much.

Pricing

Clarity is free to use forever.

G2 Reviews & Ratings

With 36 total reviews, Clarity is rated 4.5/5.

Best For

Microsoft Clarity is great for anyone with a website. For B2B marketers, you can make data-driven decisions. Even if you're not ready for this yet, I'd recommend getting Clarity on the site so you start gathering the data.

7. ClickUp

It took me a while to warm up to ClickUp, an AI project management tool, but the more I use it, the more I love it.

Project management tools are a must for me.

As a consultant, I see way too many marketing teams hoping actions get done after meetings or working in Google Sheets. A good project management tool with great AI features greatly benefits work efficiency.

ClickUp is free to start with and does much more out of the box than its competitors.

ClickUp Features

You can import tasks from previous tools, including Monday, Asana, Trello, and Notion, or an Excel and CSV file if you already use another project management tool.

Image Source

One of the better features of ClickUp is that automations are available on the free version.

Within my own ClickUp board, I use automation for new tasks, which are automatically assigned to me and populated with descriptions and priorities.

One of my favorite features is the form view. As pictured below, the form allows you to ask for specific details from anyone, even those not using your ClickUp setup. Information provided on the form can populate your next ClickUp task. This feature has considerably sped up workflows and increased accuracy for me.

ClickUp AI Features

Like most good project management tools in 2024, ClickUp has a generative AI feature. You can use this to write job descriptions and tasks, summarize notes, and more.

You can ask the AI questions like what tasks you have, what's next to do, and more. It can be faster than navigating to your tasks/boards, especially if you've got a lot going on within the software.

With ClickUp Brain, you can quickly create drafts of your project plans and subtasks from your task details or even get real-time project updates without opening the task.

For marketers, you can integrate with docs outside of ClickUp. For example, you can easily add Google Docs as a view. I use this feature for content briefings.

ClickUp Limitations

The free version only has 100 MB of free storage, and guests must be granted full access (no permissions). It only has five spaces, and the free version only allows 100 uses when using custom fields.

Although limited, this is reasonable for the free version. Solo entrepreneurs and small businesses might find this very workable for them.

Pricing

The Business Plan costs $12 per member/month, and the Business Plus is $19 per member/month.

G2 Reviews & Ratings

ClickUp's G2 rating is 4.7/5, with over 9,700 reviews.

Best For

I would go as far as to say that anyone could benefit from ClickUp, but it's certainly ideal for teams looking to work more efficiently.

8. LinkedIn

At this point, everyone knows about LinkedIn, but not everyone uses this professional social media platform to its fullest extent.

LinkedIn is responsible for the vast majority of my B2B leads. I just love it.

LinkedIn Features

We all know LinkedIn as the social media platform, so I'm not going to talk too much about that, though there are AI features there for comments and generative AI to write in mail and messages.

The main features for B2B marketers are advertising solutions, a sales navigator, and recruitment tools.

LinkedIn AI Features

For marketers posting on LinkedIn (which you absolutely should be), generative AI can help you write a perfect post.

Like many tools, it's easy to use within the interface. I would criticize the AI on LinkedIn; I don't love it, but I'm all about being authentic and enjoying the writing.

Sales Navigator is an excellent (but paid) feature that will help you connect with precisely the right people.

This feature allows you to identify your target audience based on several filters, including company, seniority, and more. Instead of wading through profiles, you can now use Account IQ, which will summarize everything you need to know.

LinkedIn Limitations

LinkedIn is free to use for posting, viewing profiles, making connections, etc.; for many, these limitations won't be an issue.

However, the free version will limit marketers looking to get really smart with their outreach to using LinkedIn Sales Navigator, which is paid.

Pricing

A premium subscription starts at $39.99 per month.

G2 Reviews & Ratings

LinkedIn has several features, and the reviews for each differ.

Sales Navigator has a rating of 4.3/5 and over 1,900 reviews.

The Job Search feature has 4.5/5 (over 1000 reviews), and Recruitment Marketing has 4.2/5 (over 800 reviews).

Best For

I'm a big LinkedIn fan and genuinely think that every B2B marketer should at least consider it for their individual profiles and company pages.

I recommend using individual profiles alongside company pages because, as cliche as it sounds, people do business with people.

9. Slack

In 2024, everyone is using or has used Slack. We're all familiar with it as software for communication. Slack does have some AI features that you might not be aware of. I'll get into this below.

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Slack Features

There are a couple of features that I like about Slack.

Firstly, you can group conversations into channels. For my B2B marketing business, we have one channel per client. Plus, there are some internal channels. Others might use it for different departments or marketing channels.

Secondly, Slack is very easy to use when you have access to multiple accounts. Over time, you might be invited into multiple Slack channels from clients or suppliers. You can manage all of this very easily within the same interface.

Finally, the huddle feature is handy. Sometimes, you just need to talk, Huddle allows for quick and impromptu meetings.

Slack AI Features

Slackbot is a helper and messenger. This feature reminds you of things you haven't done yet to keep the workflow moving.

You can search for snippets of conversation within Slack to find lost messages. The AI element means you can search in natural language, asking questions like " What's the Q1 sales strategy?"

The features for navigating Slack are pretty good. You can swipe through conversations to quickly review missed messages, and with AI, you can also summarize conversations.

Slack Limitations

When you use the free version, integration with other tools is limited to 10 tools only. The messaging feature's 90-day history is also limited to the #general channel, and channel posting permission is limited to the #general channel only.

Pricing

The Pro version costs $7.25 per person/month, billed yearly. The Business+ Plan is $12.50 per person/month.

G2 Reviews & Ratings

Slack has an impressive 32k reviews in G2 and rates 4.5/5.

Best For

Slack is best for businesses with teams from various locations, but I've found it really helpful even when working within a physical office.

10. Motion

I think Motion is great! I've used it for about a year. It's perfect for managing solo entrepreneurs and maybe smaller teams.

Image Source

Motion Features

This app will help you with project and task management. Its calendar feature allows you to automatically plan your day based on tasks and priorities.

Motion also serves as a master calendar, a feature that I found incredibly helpful as I work with multiple calendars. I sync my calendar from Google and Outlook, and I expect you could sync Apple Calendar, too.

Motion AI Features

The primary AI feature within Motion is its scheduling AI. You give Motion a list of tasks you complete and when they need to be completed.

You can set recurring tasks, so once you set it up, it manages itself each month. The initial setup can be time-consuming, especially as you input a time estimate for each task.

Once that's done, though, Motion will manage your entire work day, considering task duration, available time, and task priority. It takes the mental load out of what to do next and ensures you don't have pockets of wasted time.

Motion Limitations

This tool is limited to project management and task organization. While the AI side of it is excellent for organization, it's not the most multi-use tool.

The calendar view irritates me, too. You can view your calendar by day or week, never month, which feels standard. I did put in a ticket and requested a monthly view.

Pricing

For one user, Motion is $19 per month, but there is a cost per user saving if you have a larger team, you'll pay $12 per person.

G2 Reviews & Ratings

Motion has a rating of 4.1/5 and only 90 total reviews.

Best For

This is best for individuals who would benefit from AI taking the mental load on what to do next.

Don't Sleep on AI Tools for B2B Marketing

I know how it is. AI hasn't always had the best reputation among marketers (remember, almost 50% think it'll replace them). However, when used well, AI is here to help marketing teams do more, sell more, and connect with their audience.

How to Use ChatGPT at Work

Discover the key to unlocking unparalleled productivity with this ultimate guide to revolutionizing your workflow.

  • 100 ChatGPT Prompts
  • Real-World Examples
  • Productivity Hacks
  • And More!
Download for Free Learn more

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