E-marketing tools, also known as internet marketing tools, are resources and strategies used to market a business’s products or services using the internet and other media. To be considered an e-marketing tool, the resource or strategy should be available for use on the web and can therefore be accessed by anyone with an internet connection.
An e-marketing tool is a method used to send an advertising message over the internet. Using the internet instead of the more traditional methods of advertising has several advantages and disadvantages.
Benefits of online marketing
A key benefit of using online channels for marketing a business or product is the ability to measure the impact of any given channel, as well as how visitors acquired through different channels interact with a website or landing page experience. Of the visitors that convert into paying customers, further analysis can be done to determine which channels are most effective at acquiring valuable customers.
Analytics for web or mobile app experiences can help determine the following:
- Which online marketing channels are the most cost-effective at acquiring customers, based on the conversion rate of visitors to customers, and the cost of those visitors.
- Which channels are effective at acquiring and driving higher lifetime value for customers — such as email marketing, which drives repeat purchases to prior customers.
- Which cohorts of customers exhibit strong engagement behavior and high potential for upsells — such as software or mobile apps, which expect to sell more products to customers with high engagement.
Online marketing tools
There are a number of tools that can be used to build and maintain a robust online marketing program:
- Email marketing
- Social media marketing
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Display advertising
- Search engine marketing (SEM)
- Virtual events & webinars
- A/B testing & website optimization
- Content marketing
- Video marketing
- Marketing analytics
- Marketing automation
- Customer relationship management (CRM)
- Content management system (CMS)
- Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
- LinkedIn ads
- Affiliate marketing
Examples of online marketing
Some examples of online marketing campaigns include:
- Canon advertises for search keywords related to “photography” on Google, Yahoo, and Bing search engines to market their cameras to a relevant audience to drive traffic to a specific webpage.
- Whole Foods collects email addresses on their website to create email lists that can be used to advertise new products, sales, and events in their stores.
- Dove creates video advertisements and shares them with their audience on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms to promote favorable conversation about their brand and products.
- Bite Beauty partners with influencers to promote a new lipstick to their target audience of high-quality, beauty enthusiasts.
Although online marketing creates many opportunities for businesses to grow their presence via the internet and build their audiences, there are also inherent challenges with these methods of marketing. First, the marketing can become impersonal, due to the virtual nature of message and content delivery to a desired audience. Marketers must inform their strategy for online marketing with a strong understanding of their customer’s needs and preferences. Techniques like surveys, user testing and in-person conversations can be used to understand the overall user experience.
Online marketing can also be crowded and competitive. Although the opportunities to provide goods and services in both local and far-reaching markets is empowering, the competition can be significant. Companies investing in online marketing may find visitors’ attention is difficult to capture due to the number of business also marketing their products and services online. Marketers must develop a balance of building a unique value proposition (UVP) and brand voice as they test and build marketing campaigns on various channels.
Company Website
Maintaining a company website is a vital eMarketing tool for an organization. Use the site to build your brand, launch new products and utilize other eMarketing tools. A company website gives an organization a way to connect with customers, which allows you to market to them directly. It also offers a way for the organization to maintain a relationship with the customer.
Online Distribution & Payment Processing
Online distribution of products is an eMarketing tool that gets products directly to customers. The distribution can be done via a third party, such as Amazon.com, or directly to the consumer via the company website. If the organization chooses to do its own online distribution, then another eMarketing tool comes into play. The company will need an online payment processor to accept customer payments for products, such as Google Checkout or PayPal. The payment processing screens can usually be branded with the company name and logo.
Lead Generation & Response Collection
Online lead generation forms can help a company increase its customer marketing list. Such tools are usually implemented on the company website; for example, asking customers to sign up for a mailing list or newsletter on the company website in exchange for a coupon. You can place response collection tools on your website to gain insight about your customers, such as posting a poll asking them their about favorite scent in your line of body lotions, or which of your ice cream flavors they usually purchase.
Online Advertising
Online advertising methods, such as Google Adwords and Facebook Ads, give companies the opportunity to target specific demographics, such as women in Los Angeles that like pets. Online advertising can be triggered by user searches; for example, if you utilize Google AdWords, text ads that relate to the user’s search are displayed. Text ads can also be placed on specific websites to target users. Similar ads appear on Facebook, which allows companies to target users based on the demographic information listed in their profiles. This type of advertising can be valuable when trying to gain new customers, or when marketing a product to a specific niche group.
Online Marketing Tools to Start a Business
Here are some online marketing tools we’re going to cover in more detail that will make starting a business easier.
MobileMonkey
MobileMonkey is a must-have chat marketing automation tool that gives customers a way to chat with you, and you with them automatically.
With 75% of customers reporting that chatting or texting with a business is a better way to connect than email or phone, getting your customer chat up and running can’t be ignored by any business.
MobileMonkey is a great choice for marketing and support because it connects to all your customers’ favorite messaging channels including:
- Instagram DMs
- SMS text messaging
- Live chat
- Facebook Messenger
With MobileMonkey, everything you need for customer chat from Instagram marketing tools to Facebook messaging lead ads to live chat is available in a single platform.
Not only can you use one inbox to view and respond to the incoming messages from all your messaging accounts, MobileMonkey makes it easy to set up automations to respond, collect lead info, and send leads straight into your other marketing systems.
I’m using MobileMonkey Instagram marketing tools to automatically reply to Instagram post comments and story mentions. It improves my Instagram engagement rate and boosts my content reach to gain more followers.
Trello
Trello is a digital marketing tool that helps you to manage projects and stay on the same page as your team–a sound digital marketing practice if you want to save time and frustration.
For example, you can share blog posts on Trello before you publish them. This gives others on your team the opportunity to review the post, weigh in with their thoughts and make changes that could strengthen the piece before it goes live.
In the past, before the days of Trello and similar programs, email was the best way to collaborate with your team. While this is still helpful, to a certain degree, it can lead to confusion, missed messages, and frustration.
With Trello, everything related to your online marketing strategy can be shared in the same place. It only takes a few minutes to set up a board. Even better, you can quickly invite your entire staff, all of whom can jump in on the action without delay.
Trello isn’t the only digital marketing tool of its kind, but it’s, by far, one of the best. When it comes to collaborating with others regarding marketing tasks, this tool is hard to beat.
Hootsuite
Social media plays a big part in the success of any company, regardless of size, age, or industry. In fact, I’d argue that social media marketing is a must to thrive in this digital era.
Digital marketing tools like Hootsuite allow you to schedule social media posts in advance, thus saving you loads of time.
Hootsuite offers tons of features to help you grow your business. For example, you can:
- Identify influencers for your marketing team and leads for your sales team
- Reply to comments and mentions through the dashboard–there’s no reason to visit each individual platform
- Take advantage of pre-written responses
- Schedule posts when your audience is most active (even if you’re asleep!)
Social media marketing is not as difficult as it sounds, especially when you rely on tools like Hootsuite. With this particular tool, you can schedule and manage social media profiles for more than 30 platforms.
Imagine doing this by hand, without a central dashboard to guide you. It would be enough to frustrate even the most experienced entrepreneur, let alone a new business owner. Let Hootsuite take over like the social media marketing manager it is.
Conclusion
A lot of small business owners face intense competition from big businesses. It can be hard to get found by customers online with all the noise out there. It’s no wonder that many small businesses are using E-marketing tools to help them market their business online. E-marketing is big business now, and the variety of tools available makes it easy for anyone to market their products or services through the internet.