Looking to invest in brand management software but unsure of where to start? In this guide, we’ll walk you through the top options to consider this year.
Consistent branding can lead to a substantial increase in revenue. So it is no surprise if you are considering investing in brand management software to boost your marketing efforts. Designing, sharing, and managing your brand can be a daunting process, however. In this article, we explain why and when one should purchase brand management software, what the different types of brand management software are, tips for choosing the best software option, and the top 10 recommended brand management software providers of 2022.
Why Do You Need Brand Management Software?
Pushing out posts on social media all while maintaining an excellent brand standard can be overwhelming. Brand management marketing software systems are a great tool because they are a one-stop-shop for creating content marketing, designing, scheduling, and working with your team. Using brand management software allows small business owners to efficiently use their time so they can focus on larger-level strategies in their marketing plan. You do not have to be an expert designer or influencer to keep your brand on top.
In this article, we’ll examine some frequently asked questions and address some of the more common aspects of choosing the right brand management software for your business, including:
- When Should You Purchase Brand Management Software?
- What Are the Different Types of Brand Management Software?
- Tips for Choosing the Best Brand Management Software
- 10 Recommended Brand Management Software Options
When Should You Purchase Brand Management Software?
You may be a new business or one with a long history, but you may be asking “when is the right time to purchase a brand management software?” If you are experiencing any of the below complications or concerns, then it may be time to look for a BMS that suits you:
- You can’t seem to keep up with your social media content calendar.
- You need to better track how your team members are doing.
- You are looking to expand your business but don’t know how to.
- You are having a hard time staying in touch with your customers on social channels.
- You are concerned about your brand image.
- You do not want to hire an external brand management agency.
What Are the Different Types of Brand Management Software?
Graphic Design
Creating graphic design doesn’t have to be technical or complicated. Thankfully, there are platforms that make creating a new logo, social post, or poster easy. They offer templates, fonts, formats, and high-quality photo options.
Social Media
With so many different types of social media platforms and the need to repurpose content marketing campaigns quickly and effectively, social media content management is key. Brand Management Software that focuses on this capability allows you to schedule posts, easily repurpose current ones, create marketing automation, and track metrics. For example, if you are looking to do A/B testing on different hashtags, this software will help you get there.
Cloud Collaboration
Cloud Collaboration makes working on projects with your colleagues easy and efficient. Instead of doing manual sharing, this type of software allows for collaborative workflows with colleagues, ending stop gaps and elevating your project management tools. Cloud collaboration software also provides a place to save all your content creating a curation of branded items for your company.
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Tips for Choosing the Best Brand Management Software
Understanding the different options of brand management software is the first step, but now you must narrow down the choices, so you figure out which option is most suitable for you. Here are some tips to consider when deciding which marketing platform to use:
Ask yourself a few questions
Knowing there are three types of brand management software, ask yourself these questions to narrow your options:
How many team members do you have?
Each software’s pricing structure depends on the size of your team or the number of users.
What social channels are you focusing on?
If you are only posting on Meta, specific channels, then you may only need to invest in Meta Business. However, if you are to have a multi-channel approach, it is good to know so you can narrow the software choices down.
How do I want to use the software?
Most of the software is available in use in browser and in-phone apps. If you prefer to use the software on your phone, then choosing one that has that capability is the way to go.
Know your Budget
Once you know the type of software that is right for you, you need to solidify your budget. There are several options for each type of platform, each with its own different price structure, including customizable (and thus pricy) options. Having this budget figured out now will help with your search.
Look Out for Useful Marketing Tools and Features
Depending on the need for your business will help you to narrow down which marketing tools and features you will need. For example, are you looking to rebrand your business? If so, you will want software that can do it all—design, schedule, and house your assets. However, if you only need a tool that can keep your social media posts timely and trendy, then you would look for software that matches that.
Assess Functionality
Branding is a visual art. There is nothing more annoying than working on a design or strategy and the software you are using is not intuitive or visual. Thankfully, most options are very user experience-friendly. However, if this is not important to you, it can be a lesser deciding factor in your decision.
10 Recommended Brand Management Software Providers
UpCity reached out to our small business experts and asked them which brand management software companies they preferred. From this, we curated a list below, broken down by low, mid, and high-priced structures of the best options out there.
Low-Priced Brand Software
The price range for these options is under $25 a month, the most affordable price and are the most options for brand management software solutions.
Podio
Podio is a cloud collaboration software that can help your business stay on top of your branding needs. Founded in Denmark in 2019, Podio is a popular option because you can customize it to fit your specific needs. However, it is the community support option that really is a hit for customers.
The pricing options depend on the number of users:
- Free plan – for up to 5 employees and very basic options
- $87 per year or $9 per month
- $135 per year or $14 per month
- $230 per year or $24 per month
“Podio is the best because it is flexible, and you can build it to match your specific needs. It is also user-friendly and has a great interface. Additionally, it integrates with many other software programs, which makes it even more powerful and useful. Overall, Podio is an excellent choice for any company that wants to improve its branding and goal-tracking efforts.” —John Hofmann, Operations Manager at Fusion Marketing
Metricool
Metricool is a tool to analyze, manage, and measure the success of all digital content marketing. Founded in Spain, in 2015, this company is quite popular in the European market but is starting to make strides in the United States.
The pricing options depend on the number of brands
- Free plan – perfect for small business owners getting their feet wet
- $87 per year or $18 per month
- $144 per year or $29 per month
- $228 per year or $35 per month
- $420 per year or $55 per month
- $660 per year or $119 per month
“I’m able to get analytics for my business website. I can schedule social media posts. This is all at an affordable price.” —Jacob Perkins, Owner of Hen’s Bread Productions
Buffer
Buffer began its development in October 2010 in Birmingham, England by co-founder Joel Gascoigne. Since then, it has grown to 85 employees in 15 countries. This software application is designed to help users manage their social networks all in one spot.
The pricing options depend on the number of users and social media accounts:
- Free plan – for individuals and businesses getting started with social media, is very basic
- $40 per year or $5 per month
- $120 per year or $10 per month
- $1200 per year or $100 per month
Note that there is a 14-day free trial.
“Is such an amazing and useful tool for brand management, at least on the social end. It helps you manage your content in all ways necessary. You can automate your entire social presence and the best part about it is that it is free for up to three or four profiles to manage. Managing more does require a fee, however, it is entirely worth it. You can set up your posts, set the dates and times for posts, share helpful information with team members, and overall just coordinate all things social in regard to your brand or others that you may manage.” —Justin Rissmiller, Owner of T&R Solutions
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a social media management platform created by Ryan Holmes in 2008. A customer can manage social channels like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube through an easy-to-use dashboard.
The pricing options depend on the number of users and social accounts:
- Free plan – this is a great way to dip your toe into what Hootsuite has to offer. The plan is only for 2 social accounts and a limited number of messages per month
- $49 per month
- $129 per month
- $739 per month
Note: Hootsuite offers a 30-day free trial on all plans.
Hootsuite makes sharing schedules, analytics, and to-dos with your team. Hootsuite is great if you use many different social accounts and need to look at all your marketing campaigns in one spot.
Mid-Priced Brand Software
The price range for these BMS options is between $25 to $40 a month.
Mozeo
Mozeo is a leading software platform in the texting space. They have been in business for over 10 years helping small nonprofits to Fortune 500 companies to send text messages to their clients.
The pricing options are based on monthly credits (number of texts and recipients):
-
$300 paid yearly or $30 per month
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$504 paid yearly or $50 per month
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$1,020 paid yearly or $100 per month
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$1932 paid yearly or $190 per month
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$3,768 paid yearly or $370 per month
Many customers love how Mozeo is able to convert prospect contact information into a lead that you can communicate easily with. With texting becoming a marketing force, Mozeo is a leading product.
RelayThat
RelayThat was founded by Craig Carpenter in 2016 in Boston. It provides creative tools and resources to help share a business’s message and get more engagement in less time. With a focus on productivity and results, RelayThat focuses on productivity and results.
RelayThat’s pricing structure is based on the number of users:
- $15 per month
- $25 per month
RelayThat is one of the easiest-to-use software tools out there. It is very similar to Canva (the leader in graphic design software) but has features like SEO (search engine optimization) imaging that optimizes your marketing efforts.
Loomly
Loomly is a global company founded in 2016 in Los Angeles, California. It is a content calendar-based content marketing creation tool for small to midsize businesses. This is a Brand Success Platform empowering over 16K+ marketing teams across the world to streamline collaboration.
Loomly’s pricing is based on the number of users, social accounts, and ad budget.
- $312 paid yearly or $35 per month
- $708 paid yearly or $79 per month
- $1548 paid yearly or $172 per month
- $269 paid yearly or $359 per month
Note they have a 15-day trial.
In addition to providing a dashboard of features that you can use with your team, Loomly helps businesses stay on top of trends so that brand strategy is easier to maintain. Similar to Hootsuite, if you mostly use Meta products, Meta Business may be a better system to use as it is native.
Frontify
Frontify was founded in 2013 when founder Roger Dudler saw a need to collaborate on branding projects more effectively. The company started in Switzerland and now works with 9,000 brands and 2.5 million users in over 100 countries.
Frontify’s pricing is based on the number of users and storage:
- Free plan – this is a great way to dip your toe into what Frontify has to offer, though it is very limited
- $948 paid yearly or $99 per month
- $3348 paid yearly or $349 per month
“This great brand management software allows us to maintain cohesive brand guidelines across all of our clients. When we are creating new websites, graphics, marketing materials, and more—this software allows us to never make a mistake when building new materials for our clients!” —Hunter Ray Barker, Co-Founder of Bullfrog Digital Marketing Agency & SEO Company
High-Priced Brand Management Software
The price range for these software options is over $40 per month.
Falcon.io
Falcon.io launched in Copenhagen in 2010 under founder Ulrik Bo Larsen. Today, this company is all over the world with offices in New York, Berlin, Budapest, Sofia, Melbourne, and Chennai. Falcon.io is a SaaS platform for social media listening, engaging, publishing, advertising, measuring, and managing customer data.
There are two plans through Falcon.io. There is the Essential package which is $1,296 yearly or $129 per month. The other option is a suite which is great for larger teams. There is a 14-day trial for the Essential package.
Falcon.io is extremely popular for larger companies that have multiple team members who need to manage social accounts. The UI is very user-friendly, though it is a pricier option that may not be for everyone.
Brandfolder
Founded in 2012, and located in the heart of downtown Denver, Brandfolder is a leader in digital asset management. Brands like Slack, TripAdvisor, Lyft, and HealthONE use Brandfolder to deliver consistently organized and efficient brand experiences.
Brandfolder offers two pricing tiers: Premium and Enterprise. The Premium option is great for a small business that does not need as many capabilities as the Enterprise option. Specific pricing requires contacting the Brandfolder team for a quote.
“In my opinion, the best brand management software I like to use for my business is Brandfolder. It is an online digital asset management system that allows you to upload and organize your brand assets in a single location. You can easily share your assets with approved people and have them download materials directly from the program. This makes it a snap to manage your people and ensure they’re using the right assets.” —Ansar Hammad, CEO, Entire Looks
Next Steps
At UpCity, we understand how vital it is to be able to grow your brand. As social channels continue to evolve, having a brand management software system will be your friend. Luckily, UpCity has a detailed list of branding agencies that can help you with your brand management journey.