Hootsuite Alternative: Which Marketing Tool Is Best For You?
Full disclosure, there is a little bit of self-promotion in here! The most common question we get at Tactycs is whether we are like Hootsuite, the classic Hootsuite vs Tactycs? We actually love the Hootsuite tool and think it's incredibly supplementary to Tactycs. We thought creating a quick Hootsuite alternative breakdown would help us get ahead of the question and highlight both tools' benefits!
To understand each software, we will take a look at the primary functionality, dashboards, reporting & analytics, and collaboration.
Primary Functionality
Hootsuite
Hootsuite's primary function is a social media management tool. Helping users write, schedule, and publish social media posts from one dashboard. They also aggregate your social media channels into one simple view. Displaying the information you wish to see from each platform.
Finally, as Hootsuite is integrated with each social network it collects the data from each post and displays it on their reports page.
However, it's important to identify that Hootsuite is just a social media management software. You can only interact with your social media feeds and that's about it. Anything outside of social media marketing you cannot do. For example, you won't be able to manage your Google Ads.
Ultimately, Hootsuite aims to keep your team organized efficient and on top of great social media content! Here's a quick demo from the Hootsuite team.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVwBPh-CHJs
Tactycs
Tactycs , the Hootsuite alternative, on the other is more than just a social media management tool. Tactycs primary function is to educate and direct you on your entire marketing strategy. Creating a strategy that includes all types of marketing, from social media marketing to pay-per-click advertising to physical activities. By using a data-driven algorithm, the Tactycs tool considers your resources, audience, objective, and organization to define which marketing activities will result in the most success for you. It will tell you your social media strategy including which social media networks to use, what other paid to advertise you should focus on and more!
Tactycs also creates a marketing calendar with optimal distribution according to your resources. Taking your total time and budget available and creating a customized marketing calendar for you. As an example, this could include a breakdown of fifteen social media posts, three blog posts, and two weeks of consecutive ads on Google.
Finally, Tactycs also collects social media data and adds it to its list of integrations every day. The only difference is Tactycs doesn't just report the data; the tool also makes recommendations based on it. Continuously optimizing your marketing strategy and calendar according to the performance you see. Ultimately, Tactycs aims to guide, measure, and optimize your entire marketing strategy. Here is a short demo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMnIuK6a3LM&t=2s
Hootsuite Alternative: Dashboards
The dashboard is the biggest visual differentiator between Hootsuite and Tactycs. Hootsuite focuses on aggregating multiple social media channels feeds into a set of vertical feeds. The tool allows you to choose which feeds are present from your own social media accounts to trending content to competitors. On top of the quick view Hootsuite provides, you can also engage from the dashboard. Liking, sharing and retweeting the content that shows up in said feeds
Tactycs dashboard is a depiction of your marketing strategy. It uses its main pages to outline which activities you have coming up and directing you on what's next to succeed. It includes a list view and a calendar view for users to quickly see how their strategy or social media campaigns are laid out and what they need to execute.
To summarize, the Hootsuite dashboard is what's happening right now, and the Tactycs dashboard is what's coming up! A management of current vs. a proactive of the future.
Reporting & Analytics
Both tools aim to automatically gather the data from your marketing initiatives. Of course, Hootsuite just gathers data from you social media platforms, and Tactycs grabs social media, social media campaigns, advertising campaigns, etc. Both tools also have a dashboard that identifies/visualizes the key performance indicators for your accounts.
Hootsuite separates its dashboard data by social channels and then into four views; posts, followers, engagement, and metrics. They also allow users to export custom reports and PDFs of said data.
Tactycs chooses to visualize its data via a rendition of the marketing funnel by grouping KPIs into awareness, engagement, clicks, and conversions. Allowing users to get a quick view of which activities are influencing each stage in the funnel. As well as a brief overview of where the funnel may need work or is overperforming. Additionally, the Tactycs software is built out based on your objective from day one. It creates custom views for you to see your objective's current standing.
Collaboration
Collaboration typically refers to permissions and various accounts within a software. That seems to be a baseline for all tools these days, so it's more pertinent to discuss the collaboration or organization a team can achieve by using the tools.
Hootsuite takes multiple social media accounts and brings them into one location. An extremely valuable concept, especially when you consider teams that have individuals devoted to each platform. By having a central location to pre-load content, the whole team can see what's scheduled and work together for maximum coverage.
A similar concept can be found on the Tactycs side. By multiple team members having access to the same marketing strategy and calendar, the whole team can refer to the same concise implementation plan. Additionally, the tool allows for a level of communication with higher-level stakeholders that are often lost in more specific tools such as Hootsuite. A chief marketing officer or CEO doesn't necessarily want to see the nitty-gritty of which written tweet is being published at 2:13 pm, but they may want to see which marketing activities are planned as a whole and how resources are being allocated to each. The Tactycs tool provides the same type of collaboration as Hootsuite as well as allows multi-level stakeholder(s) or multi-team stakeholder(s) (such as agencies) to see what's currently planned.
Furthermore, both tools have basic project management/task management features built into the software. Such as the ability to unlimited scheduling and post scheduling across all your social media accounts. One more way to ensure the team knows who is doing what and when!
Hootsuite Alternative Pricing
The pricing model of Hootsuite ranges from $49 to $599 per month with some features being locked based on your tier. As opposed to Tactycs, which is a flat $299 per month and gets you access to all the features.
Similar to most softwares, there is a custom solution for both. Hootsuite offers custom software additions upon request. Whereas Tactycs brands themselves as a strategic partner and offers marketing support to execute your strategy. Acting as an extension of your team.
How The Combination of Hootsuite and Tactycs Is A Lot Like A Real Marketing Team
There is a succession of value between the two tools. Tactycs, the Hootsuite comparable, handles the planning portion of the strategy, and Hootsuite helps schedule and publish said content automatically. If you were to compare it to a real-world marketing team. Tactycs would be a director, providing guidance on when and where to go. Hootsuite would be the project manager, getting things ready and out the door. The content writer or do-er is the last piece of the puzzle, actually writing based on the director's guidance and giving the project manager what he needs. Want to learn more about Tactycs send us a message today!
