Written By Jason Rowse - Digital Marketing Expert Updated: 09/05/2021 |
What is Hootsuite?
For most social media companies today, Hootsuite represents a way to save time and a tool for connecting better with the audience and for keeping it interested. This software is based in Canada and has been in this industry since 2008. Right now, over 200,000 pay for their accounts on this platform.
Hootsuite Pros & Cons
PROS | CONS |
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PROS
- It has a free trial and a free version: One of the best things about Hootsuite is that it doesn’t only provide a 30-day free trial but it also comes with a forever free plan. Yes, it’s quite limited but for an individual or a small business, it does the trick just fine.
- It has a mobile app: This platform also has a dedicated mobile app that everyone can download for free from both the App Store or Google Play. It looks nice and it’s very useful for when you’re on the road and need to manage your campaigns.
- It has one of the best monitoring features: What I love about Hootsuite is its incredible activity monitoring feature that is very well done and extremely useful. Seeing how your content is performing is mandatory for all future activities of your brand and this platform does a great job at that.
CONS
- The advanced paid plans are expensive: Apart from its most basic paid plan, all the others could seem costly for some people or brands. Even if they do offer more features than the free and basic plans, the price could make certain people run away.
- The dashboard looks crowded and not intuitive: I didn’t really like the dashboard on this platform mostly because it looks crowded, the font they used is way too big to be comfortable, and it didn’t give me the feeling of being intuitive. It can certainly be used, but it bothered me quite a bit.
Who is Hootsuite Good For?
- All company sizes: Hootsuite is definitely the type of software that works regardless of your business’ size or industry it activates in. The free and basic plans work very well for small brands and entrepreneurs while the more advanced ones are good for larger companies.
- People looking for a good free tool: In case you or your company are on a budget but still want a good tool for your marketing endeavors, Hootsuite is for you. Even if it’s a bit restrictive, the free plan is still very useful as it’s the basic one.
Hootsuite Isn’t Recommended For:
- People without any marketing experience: Let’s say that you’re just now starting in this business and want a tool that can help you out. Well, Hootsuite could seem a little bit too complex for a beginner as its UI is not the most intuitive.
- Big companies that want a cheap product: I already said that the free and the cheapest plans on this platform are good for small businesses. However, if you are a large company that’s looking for a good tool at a very small price, look elsewhere. The advanced plans on this platform can get expensive but they also deliver for that price.
Hootsuite Pricing
Number of users | Price/ month | Number of social accounts | Team access management | 24/7 Priority Support | |
Professional | 1 | $19 | 10 |
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Team | 3 | $99 | 20 | ✓ |
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Business | Over 5 | $599 | 35 | ✓ | ✓ |
Enterprise | Unlimited | Custom | 50 | ✓ | ✓ |
Hootsuite provides a plethora of other features for each of these paid plans. The free plan only has 1 user, 2 social accounts, and 5 scheduled messages, which can be enough for an individual or very small business. The enterprise one is almost fully customizable according to your goals and preferences.
Cancellation/Refund Policy
Clients are free to downgrade or cancel their plans at any time by following some simple steps outlined on the official website. The platform can also cancel a plan at any time for any reason. In the case of Self-Serve Services, the client needs to pay for the remainder of the plan or a refund is not possible.
Hootsuite Features
With a large variety of marketing and social media management features, Hootsuite is certain to help all types of businesses and entrepreneurs in various ways. Right now, I will talk a bit about some of the most prominent features it has.
· Quality content creation and publication
Rating: 5/5
This feature makes it incredibly simple to plan, create, and publish high-quality content across multiple channels. Planning ahead is very simple and you get an overview of your upcoming and current campaigns. Plus, thanks to the Composer tool, clients can come up with personalized and engaging posts for their audience.
· Channel management
Rating: 4.9/5
Thanks to this feature, clients can always stay one step ahead and monitor conversations, performance, as well as the activity of the competition. Custom streams can be created so you can zoom in on the topics that interest you the most. There are also real-time insights available so you can see what people talk about and where your brand gets mentioned more easily and quickly.
· In-depth planning
Rating: 5/5
Planning is extremely useful when it comes to extensive marketing campaigns. So, Hootsuite allows everyone to view all upcoming content that has been scheduled, create campaigns and fill in content gaps, or even suspend all scheduled posts in case something unexpected happens.
This is the look of the Hootsuite dashboard
· Message monitoring and management
Rating: 4.8/5
This feature helps your company when it comes to staying in contact and never missing a message. You can set up custom streams, manage all incoming messages coming from different platforms, and you can make sure that you provide a quick and professional answer to each of them. Plus, the saved replies tool helps you a lot in case you get repetitive questions.
· Result analysis
Rating: 5/5
In this case, seeing how your efforts are doing and what results they are bringing is crucial. So, Hootsuite helps you when it comes to assessing your social media presence and provides a clear insight into what worked and what didn’t. Thanks to the Hootsuite Impact tool, you can even calculate your ROI and see where you can go from there, for future campaigns.
Creating a new stream on Hootsuite
Hootsuite Automations
The Hootsuite automation tools help all clients because they provide great aid when it comes to not losing any time and creating engaging and targeted marketing campaigns. The following features are extremely important:
- E-mail marketing automation: This helps you schedule all of your content in such a way that it helps you increase your reach and audience. The Auto Scheduler tool works as a calendar that you can customize depending on your posts.
- Composing content automatically: The Bulk Composer tool helps you come up with pre-made messages that you can then automatically send to your community, either as answers or brand-new interactions.
A look at the Hootsuite planner
Hootsuite Integrations
There are over 20 integrations available for clients on Hootsuite and each of them helps your brand grow and makes it easier for you to stay in touch with our audience. This list includes the most important social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, as well as other useful content-based ones like YouTube and Pinterest.
Some of the most important integrations on Hootsuite
Hootsuite Alternatives
Mailerlite is an option for all kinds of brands and businesses in case they need a good platform to help them with creating and sending inspired and professional e-mail marketing campaigns. The paid plans start at only $10 per month and it also comes with a free 14-days trial.
Omnisend is a bit more expensive than Mailerlite but it also provides a wide range of features and tools meant to aid brands when it comes to marketing campaigns. There are a lot of templates available, as well as e-mail automation, funnels, and many others at prices starting from $16 per month.
Aweber is in a similar price range, its prices start at $16.15 per month, and it offers you the possibility to create more personal connections with your audience members in a friendly yet profitable manner. You can also build your own landing page and manage push notifications with this one, besides using its e-mail marketing tools.
Conclusion
Hootsuite is one of those tools that most people in this domain already know about and are aware of its capabilities. So, in the light of this review, I will say that it is definitely one of my recommendations. It does everything that a good e-mail marketing and social media manager-type platform should do and it does those things very well.