Over the years, VIA Studio has worked with various social media publishing tools, including 

, and more. However, two tools have truly stood out and won our hearts — 

. These tools have consistently delivered exceptional results, making us confident recommending them to our clients and partners.

Social media posting tools allow marketers to manage their social media profiles and accounts through one central hub. Their primary function is scheduling and posting content directly from the tool. Managing social media profiles individually can be time-consuming and make reporting difficult, as metrics, features, and capabilities can differ across social media platforms.
Beyond that service, they can offer additional functions like content and graphic creation, social listening, inbox/comment management, and more!

The first platform we have had a lot of success with for our clients is 

. Agorapulse has a streamlined and easy-to-use interface, and once all of your profiles are connected, the post calendar can clearly show everything that has been recently published, as well as what is scheduled for posting in the future.

Another benefit of Agorapulse is its social listening system. With social listening, marketers can understand how their brand is perceived on social media and the web. Users can create actionable searches to discover what their audience says about their brand — and competitors. Agorapulse listens and captures conversations from social networks, thousands of news websites, and millions of blogs.

In addition to its ease of use and social listening capabilities, Agorapulse’s reporting features are an excellent way to evaluate social performance and discover ideas for future content. We have found particular success with grouping our posts by content type (service offerings, holidays, direct marketing, etc.) using tags to get ideas on what platforms best support different types of content and what days/times are ideal for specific posts. Additionally, marketers using Agorapulse may discover that specific platforms are best suited for certain post types - Agorapulse makes these sorts of insights possible. Finally, all of this reporting can help provide marketers with ROI on their tactics to discover their right social strategy.

The base Agorapulse package costs $49 per user/month. Since the cost is per user, we recommend setting it up with a shared email if multiple team members need to use it. Otherwise, that cost applies to each user.

We typically recommend the Professional pricing plan for our clients ($79/month), especially since plans can be upgraded anytime if additional features are needed.

This is a huge benefit if a member of the creative team is managing your social media. You can easily create and schedule well-designed and well-branded posts using Creative Cloud Libraries and/or Brands, Adobe Cloud files, and Adobe Stock. Having creation and scheduling in one place is a huge productivity boost.

Even if you don’t fancy yourself a designer, 

 has A LOT of templates for you to use, which can give your postings a professional look.

Since Adobe is all about design and creative, the app is very good at developing content like video reels, stories, etc. Scheduling is also built into the mobile app.

Adobe Express allows you to collaborate with other team members on the same files and content.

Adobe Express currently allows up to 3 accounts per channel (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, and Twitter)

The biggest downside is the lack of monitoring and response, which is why we also love AgoraPulse!

Adobe Express is less expensive than Agorapulse but also doesn’t have the “social listening” features. Pricing starts at $9.99/month per user.

Whether you are an agency, an in-house marketer, or a small business owner, a social posting tool can help elevate your social content and make your work more efficient.

VIA Studio also recognizes that some tools suit certain needs better than others. We would definitely recommend Adobe Express for users focused on content and graphic creation. Meanwhile, Agorapulse is a better option for marketing-oriented users who are concerned about performance, market share, and ROI. If you need both, they can even be used together!

If you are interested in onboarding a social posting tool but don’t know where to start, 

! We can get you started on social media marketing, create a social media strategy specific to your business and needs, and even provide social graphics art direction to elevate your social presence.

Marketing Strategy

Social Media & Audience Development

Boost Your Social Media Game: Agorapulse vs. Adobe Express

A common theme from new clients is that they have difficulty tracking their communications and interactions with prospects and customers.

How do you manage thousands of contacts? Do you know who navigates your marketing funnel and at what stage? What marketing and sales efforts are most valuable to your business? While the answer isn’t surprising, the number of options and considerations might be.

 software is vital for any modern marketer. It allows them to manage their prospects and contacts, track their touchpoints and communications with them, and determine which strategies and tactics are most effective at driving results.

Over the years, VIA Studio has worked with many clients on onboarding, managing, and utilizing CRM platforms to achieve their goals. We have experience with enterprise-level CRM projects for large organizations and small to medium-sized business-level CRM integration for start-ups and local companies.

Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365 stand at the pinnacle for large-scale organizations, offering unmatched functionality and customization options, albeit with a price tag to match. They can can quickly reach six-figure annual investments in licensing, onboarding, and administration. Here's what we've learned.

Best-in-class with Sales Cloud, offering detailed pipeline visibility and forecasting.

 Tailor Salesforce to fit your business needs by trimming unnecessary features.

 Can be overwhelming for those without the need for intricate systems. 

 External integrations add cost and management overhead.

 Seamless connectivity with Microsoft tools like Outlook. Users don’t have to spend time switching between platforms and accounts to do their jobs. They can focus on their tasks and know their activities are actively logged into the platform.

 Advanced analytics and reporting capabilities through 

 Custom setups require significant development effort. The time commitment is massive.

 Additional cost for Microsoft licenses, unless already integrated into your IT infrastructure.

lacks many ready-made process automation 

For smaller budgets and simpler needs, HubSpot and Constant Contact offer powerful, user-friendly solutions without the enterprise-level investment.

 User-friendly data organization and sales analytics.

 Intuitive automation flows and scheduling functionalities.

For an advanced technology platform, their sales tactics were developed in the 1950's, requiring you to call them on a phone line.

 Full feature access can become pricey for some businesses. Do we love most of what HubSpot offers? Yes. Is it worth what they charge? Unfortunately, only if you’re a certain size company (with a certain sized budget). There are still some automation processes that we would love to have in HubSpot, but the costs sometimes don’t justify the features and functionality.

Constant Contact recently purchased a tool we used called SharpSpring. These notes take both tools into consideration.

 Easy to use with extensive support and prebuilt templates.

 Exceptional service with quick response times.

Basic functionalities that might not suffice for advanced users.

Choosing the right CRM is a strategic decision that impacts every facet of your operations. VIA Studio's extensive experience across the CRM spectrum ensures you make an informed choice, balancing budget, functionality, and ease of use to find your perfect match.

If the path to CRM enlightenment seems daunting, reach out. We're here to illuminate the way, crafting a CRM strategy that aligns with your business ambitions. 

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Unlocking Growth: Choosing the Right CRM Tool for Your Business's Scale and Success

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Researching and planning is key to effective marketing strategy. We use data, insights, our gained knowledge and research born from curiosity to plan inventive, value-drive marketing plans for our clients.

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Marketing Strategy: Blog Posts

Boost Your Social Media Game: Agorapulse vs. Adobe Express

Unlocking Growth: Choosing the Right CRM Tool for Your Business's Scale and Success