20 Must-Have Chrome Extensions for Digital Marketers (That We Can't Live Without)
Become more informed and productive by adding more functions and features to your browsing experience.
Data from Statcounter, for the period of July 2018 to July 2019, with a dominance of 61.81% of all internet users, shows that Google Chrome is by far the most popular web browser.
The chart below clearly shows its position far out in front, and a long way from its closest rivals, Safari and Firefox.
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There are a number of reasons for this dominance, with one of them being Chrome's extensive library of add-ons and extensions.
There are tens of thousands (it not east to find out the exact amount) of extensions available within the Chrome Web Store. In this post, we'll narrow down the search and list the most useful and most suitable extensions for marketers, sales and other new business/commercially focused professionals.
From productivity to SEO to content to sales to security, here are the 20 extensions for marketers chosen by various members of the Orientation Marketing team.
1. ONE CLICK EXTENSIONS MANAGER
Rating: 4.5 stars / Users: 18k
First on the list is One Click Extensions Manager. We have a large number of extensions to work our way through here and possibly a large number to add to our browsers. In anticipation, One Click Extensions Manager stores all of your extensions into one tidy folder to avoid your browser being clogged up with extension icons. Extensions really do provide an opportunity to become more productive, effective and more knowledgeable. With this extension, you'll be able to quickly find, enable, disable or remove the extensions you want without the clutter.
Now let's jump into the extensions...
2. GRAMMARLY
Rating: 4.6 stars / Users: 10m
The most popular extension on the list by far with over 10 million users. Grammarly helps writers of all levels of ability with writing and content tasks. The extension will make sure your messages, documents and social media posts are clear, mistake-free and impacting. As a marketer, whether your focus in on corporate communications, content marketing or new business, it is likely that for the most part of your day you will need to create some form of written content. This extension will correct your spelling, grammar and other issues as you write, avoiding any embarrassing errors further down the line.
3. WAPPALYZER
Rating: 4.6 stars / Users: 1m
Wappalyzer is a cross-platform utility that uncovers the technologies used on websites. It detects content management systems, e-commerce platforms, web frameworks, server software, analytics tools and other web technologies. The extension is useful for a number of reasons: It can tell you what technologies are running on your website, but more importantly, whatever the unique reason may be, it tells you exactly what technologies are running on other websites. As a technical marketer or researcher, it provides useful information otherwise difficult to attain.
4. MOZBAR
Rating: 3.9 stars / Users: 621k
In the SEO community, Moz may be lagging behind some of the most comprehensive tools. Nevertheless, MozBar still provides marketers with basic SEO information for quick research, giving you instant metrics while viewing any page or SERP. Moz offers a free subscription to its tool (with limited features) where this extension can run without the monthly bills that other more comprehensive providers, such as Ahrefs or SEMRush, will need and which are used by more SEO-specific marketers.
5. SEO QUAKE
Rating: 4.6 stars / Users: 573k
Staying with SEO, the SEO Quake extension builds on what MozBar offers - a quick, comprehensive look at any webpage - along with other useful tools for SEO audits. SEO Quake provides more as it uses other data sources, such as Google, SEMRush and Alexa to provide you with that information critical for in-depth knowledge. Additionally, the extension provides you with other on-page information, such as keyword density, word count and internal and external links, highly useful when looking at competitor content.
6. BUZZSUMO
Rating: 4.3 stars / Users: 22k
If you're a digital marketer, chances are that you often take note at the movements of your competitors by looking at what they are doing online, specifically how their content is performing. Buzzsumo allows you to do just this. The extension will display the number of pageviews, social media shares and backlinks, amongst other details. Knowing how such content performs can be invaluable when setting out to create similar content.
7. HUNTER
Rating: 4.7 stars / Users: 344k
The extension with the highest rating on this list... and for good reason. Hunter lets you find email addresses anywhere on the web via a click when you are on the organisation's website. Along with the email addresses, you can get names, job titles, social networks and phone numbers. All the data has public sources detailed in the search results - it is already online on other web pages, Hunter just finds them for you and stores them in one place. Regardless of your marketing function, if you are looking to email someone directly, and you don't already have their email, Hunter is your go-to solution.
8. HUBSPOT EMAIL TRACKING & SALES
Rating: 4.5 stars / Users: 691k
Like Hunter, HubSpot Email & Sales offers great insight for the outbound and new business professional. Providing you are using HubSpot, the extension connects your email inbox with your CRM and allows you to transfer contact information from your email directly into your CRM. Perhaps more impressively, users can send emails and receive browser alerts when their message is delivered, opened and clicked on. All of which is logged continuously into the CRM. The only limitation to the tool, however, is that a subscription to the Sales Hub (on top of the Marketing Hub) is required.
9. CHECK MY LINKS
Rating 4.2 stars / Users: 189k
SEOs will use Check My Links to find broken links on web pages, to then email the website's administrators to replace the link with another. (A great tactic if you are looking to build backlinks to your website quickly.) But as a content marketer, you can use this on your own pages to find 404s and quickly fix them. We have previously alluded to this on another post that looks at user experience design tips for your website. Check My Links' quickly finds all the links on a web page, and checks each one for you, highlighting which ones are valid and which ones are broken.
10. AWESOME SCREENSHOT
Rating: 4.6 stars / Users: 1.7m
Awesome Screenshot is the highest-rated screen capture and image annotation tool on the Chrome Web Store (and probably the oldest). Once you take a screenshot of a selected area of your screen or an entire web page, you can crop, highlight, draw shapes and blur sensitive information. You can also record a browsing session with the extension and share in the same manner. A very simple extension, but it becomes very useful when are looking to share elements of web pages with your colleagues.
11. EYE DROPPER
Rating: 4.0 / Users: 695k
If you're a marketer that works with images, logos and other design-related elements, Eye Dropper will come in very handy. The extension allows you to pick colours from web pages, colour picker and your personal colour history. So if you are looking to match a specific colour from any web page, Eye Dropper will identify its exact colour and provide a variety of colour codes (Hex, HSL, RGB). One click on the specific colour you are matching, then you have your colour, and you have it stored.
12. WHATFONT
Rating 4.1 stars / Users: 1.1m
Similar to Eye Dropper, WhatFont allows you to identify the font on any given web page. A very simply extension, all that is required is a click on the extension and then a click on the font you are looking to identify and it will provide all of the necessary font details.
13. SIMILAR SITES
Rating: 4.1 stars / Users: 76k
Ever found a website and want to find similar websites to it? Or even similar websites and web pages to your own? Similar Sites shows you a list of websites similar to the one that you are currently on. If you are looking to see who your competitors are, or those who are competing for the same keywords, or even looking to find the competitors of competitors, this extension can help. You can also use the tool to find new keywords or even potential websites and organisations for collaboration.
14. TOGGL BUTTON
Rating: 4.5 stars / Users: 231k
We use Toggl to keep track of the time spent on certain projects. The productivity tool, with its timer, will track each minute of any project you input into Toggl and you’ll be able to see exactly how your time (or your employee’s time) was spent that day. The extension is particularly useful as it integrates with many other project management tools - such as Trello, Todoist and, as we use at Orientation Marketing, Asana - and provides automatic reminders within the browser if set up to do so.
15. ASANA
Rating: 3.4 stars / Users 107k
Asana helps you plan your time so you can get more done. With Asana, you can create lots of tasks and set dates and when deadlines are approaching Asana will send you an email to remind you. The Chrome extension enables you to quickly add and search for Asana tasks from any web page. Providing you use Asana for your project management, like we do, it enables teams to move work from start to finish and is simple to get started, but powerful enough to run your entire business' project management function.
16. HTTPS EVERYWHERE
Rating: 4.5 stars / Users: 2.1m
HTTPS Everywhere is an extension created by EFF and the Tor Project which automatically switches thousands of sites from insecure "HTTP" to secure "HTTPS". It will protect you against many forms of surveillance and account hijacking and some forms of censorship. Browse assured that all your personal information is kept safe and your computer doesn't catch malware while you are online.
17. ONETAB
Rating: 4.6 stars / Users: 1.8m
One Click Extensions Manager (at the start of this list) stores all of your extensions in one place. OneTab, similarly, neatly stores all of the tabs you want saved. So when you are conducting research, or wanting to save your sources, potentially for citation later on, this extension keeps everything there for you. Whenever you find yourself with too many tabs, click the OneTab icon to convert all of your tabs into a list. When you need to access the tabs again, you can either restore them individually or all at once. Very simple but very effective. Pocket is another popular option that offers the same solution.
18. BITLY
Rating: 3.8 stars / Users: 385k
The Bitly Chrome extension is fully integrated with your Bitly account allowing you to copy, customise and share your links straight from your browser. Many marketing automation platforms will allow you to customise your links directly from the platforms, where in recent times, Bitly has been left behind. But Bitly still can provide value to users, especially if you want to track mini campaigns on social media or want to measure an internal campaign that isn't linked to your overall marketing objectives and measurement, for example. Recommended having.
19. GOOGLE DICTIONARY
Rating: 4.4 / Users: 2.5m
You might feel as though you do not need to be referring to a dictionary now that, as a marketing manager professional, you have completed your formal education. 2.5 million users would, however, disagree with you. Google Dictionary is a great extension to have on your side, especially when you are researching or reading/consuming scientific or complex material online. With this extension, if you find yourself unsure about a particular word, double-clicking the word will give you the definition required for a full understanding of the word. Go ahead and test this extension... you will find it very useful and you will use it.
20. EARTH VIEW
Rating: 4.1 stars / Users: 924k
Finally, something a little more fun. Browsing on the internet, opening tab after tab, can become a little tedious. Earth View looks to make this process a little more fun where every time you open a new tab you are presented with a beautiful satellite image from around the world.
TAKE YOUR PRODUCTIVITY TO ANOTHER LEVEL
Once you start experimenting with these browser extensions, you will really wonder how you ever lived without them. Having recently switched over to Chrome, experimenting with browser extensions, and realising their benefits, I am surprised that some marketers still do not use them. My tip: Get started right away.
For more productivity tools, see a previous post on 19 Essential Tools for Digital Marketers. Many of the tools listed will also have similar extensions that you can download - you may already be using tools that have extensions that can boost your productivity. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our monthly email science marketing round-up to receive tips such as these in your inbox.
Have I missed an important extension? If so, get in touch to add to the list.
