Do you want to grow your business, but don’t have the time or tools to do it? I’m the same. I always feel like there aren’t enough hours in a day and resources at my disposal. Luckily for us, somewhere deep down the rabbit hole of the Internet and new and innovative tools, we can work smarter and move faster, all while getting more exposure and recognition for our hard work. As a marketer, I rely on various digital marketing tools to help maintain my online presence—and let me tell you; this list only scratches the surface of the possibilities of what you can do.
Whether you’re a serious business owner or a first-time entrepreneur, the need for effective digital marketing tools remains a priority.
HubSpot
When it comes to marketing, sales, and CRM software, HubSpot has become one of the top players.
For the sake of this post, let’s focus on its marketing software solutions. The company has this to say about this digital marketing tool:
From attracting visitors to closing customers, HubSpot brings your entire marketing funnel together.
You know just how important it is for your marketing funnel to be in good working order. With this software, you have access to tools that help with:
- blogging
- SEO
- social Media
- website
- lead management
- landing pages
- calls-to-action
- marketing automation
- analytics
There is no stone left unturned when you rely on HubSpot’s all-in-one marketing software. That’s why it’s a top choice for those who are starting a business.
With everything you need in one place, you don’t have to pull yourself in many different directions. This will help you to find success in the early days and help you as you grow.
Sprout Social
Hey, you can’t blame us for putting ourselves on the top of the list!
That’s because Sprout Social is the ultimate control center for any business looking to translate its social presence into actual results.
As a social media management platform, Sprout helps businesses organize their content calendar and assets in one place. This allows you to publish and schedule your content across multiple platforms, all timed to perfection based on when your followers are most active.
Beyond social media management features, Sprout makes it easy to collaborate with colleagues and customers alike. Our Smart Inbox gives you a bird’s-eye view of all of your social messages so you can respond thoughtfully and in a timely manner.
Oh, and don’t forget about Sprout’s full suite of social analytics.
Optimizing your content’s performance doesn’t have to be a guessing game as Sprout identifies your top-performing posts and the success of your social campaigns. Coupled with robust social listening features, you can uncover trends, hashtags, and opportunities to engage with new customers.
Chatbots
A chatbot is not a novel tool. It’s an instrument based on Artificial Intelligence software that interacts with people in a natural way through text chat windows. However, companies often invest heavily in this instrument to make their communications with potential clients more personalized and efficient.
For instance, Google, Yahoo, and Facebook have all implemented chatbots from such aspiring startups as Chatfuel and ManyChat. Insider predicts that the global annual cost savings derived from chatbot automation across the insurance industry alone will surge from $500 million in 2020 to $5.8 billion in 2025.
According to Accenture’s research, the top five trends in the chatbot market today are the development of artificial intelligence, the growing use of instant messengers, cost reduction and ease of development, the interaction between bots, and bot-enabled payments. Chatbots provide multiple benefits to the company. By offering 24-hour customer service and tirelessly responding to customer queries, chatbots can support and scale the organization’s customer relations and may even replace their sales managers because of enhancing personalization with Artificial Intelligence. Basically, chatbots reduce processing time and improve employee productivity. In general, the use of this technology can improve the company’s business performance by 5% to 25%.
GetResponse
With approximately 350,000 customers spanning nearly 200 countries, GetResponse is one of the biggest names in the email campaign and email marketing service industry.
However, there is much more to GetResponse than its email campaign and marketing tools. As of late, the company has become an all-in-one digital marketing platform, giving users the ability to tackle a variety of tasks and easily automate many day-to-day marketing activities.
While email campaigns will always be a big part of the pie, you can also use GetResponse to:
- Conduct webinars.
- Create landing pages.
- Track visitor behavior.
- Review website analytics
- Edit images.
- Conduct online surveys
- Email automation and analytics
- Set autoresponders to match customer behavior.
Businesses of all types can use the platform, but it’s best for those that are interested in a simple and effective solution. With its attractive interface, friendly onboarding process, and top-of-the-line customer support, it remains a favorite of new small business owners who are interested in accelerated growth.
There are many digital marketing platforms to consider, making it a challenge for new business owners to decide on a direction. Fortunately, when you turn your attention to GetResponse, you’ll be in good hands from the start. With a combination of affordable pricing and superb quality, it’s a great option for many businesses.
Google Analytics
As one of the top free tools from Google, Analytics should be part of your digital marketing strategy from the very start. In fact, I’d argue it’s one of the most powerful digital marketing tools out there.
It only takes a couple of minutes to add the Analytics code to your website, giving you the ability to track every action by every visitor.
This is considered by many to be nothing more than a traffic tool, but it can actually have a big impact on your marketing strategy if you know what you’re doing.
Take, for example, the ability to see where your traffic comes from:
Maybe you realize that a particular social media campaign is driving tons of traffic to your website. With this data, you can adjust your future strategy, in an attempt to capture the same results.
Or, maybe you find that a particular set of keywords is doing wonders for your organic traffic. Again, you can turn your attention to these keywords, ensuring that you keep these in mind as you create content down the road.
Google Analytics isn’t one of those digital marketing tools you can ignore. Installing this early on is a key decision, in regards to your digital marketing strategy. The data you can collect is extremely valuable.
Audiense
We’ve talked time and time again about the importance of social listening for identifying trends and potential customers.
Tools like Audiense take listening to the next level by helping companies both identify and segment their social media audiences. Doing so makes it easier to run laser-targeted ad campaigns and likewise dive deeper into your customer personas. Digging into demographics, personality straights, and beyond, you’d be surprised at what you can learn from social alone.
The audiences platform focuses primarily on Twitter, making it great for B2B brands interested in prospecting and B2C companies looking to understand more about their target audience.
Email marketing tools
Email represents arguably the most tried-and-tested, scalable marketing channel available to modern companies. As such, email solutions are a staple of Internet marketing software for businesses big and small.
From list-building and improving deliverability to coming up with awesome offer campaigns, let’s look at some tools that can break down your customer data and put a good chunk of your marketing efforts on autopilot.
Voice Search
Voice Search will bring your SEO strategy to a new level. The average number of voice searches per month is one billion. Voice search utilizes innovations like Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri, and Amazon’s Alexa. More and more users are now talking into their search bars instead of typing, whether they use voice-activated AI assistants on their desktops or smartphones. The popularization of voice search changes the keywords and phrases people use to find what they are looking for online. This tool will not only track keyword distribution but can also assess your search visibility and report on fluctuations in the number of keywords used to sell your advertising.
Buffer
There are businesses out there that want nothing to do with social media, but they are few and far between.
If you’re starting a new or small business in 2016, you need to put plenty of resources into popular social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms. This is particularly true if you have a business that is of local interest. Do not underestimate the power of social media for your marketing campaigns.
But here’s the million-dollar question: how will you find enough time to share and manage numerous social media accounts?
Buffer is one of the best online marketing tools for social media management, thanks to features such as:
- Schedule your social media posts for later.
- Post to all social media sites within a matter of seconds.
- Track interaction and engagement from your twitter users, Facebook users, and other social network users.
Here’s how simple it can be:
All you have to do is complete the necessary information and make a few key decisions, such as when you want to publish the content on your social media sites From there, Buffer will do the rest of the work for you.
One of the best ways to accelerate the growth of a new business is through a sound social media marketing plan. The only issue with this is that it can be a time drain if you don’t have the right system in place across your social networks.
You can rely on Buffer to save you time and keep your social media updates fresh.
Conclusion
Think of these tools more as a checklist, but one curated by the experts at our digital agency. With over 2 decades in digital marketing, we’ve tested just about everything in the book. From list building to smartphone photography tricks, our agency head honchos have decided to share the top five digital marketing tools with just about any business person that wants to succeed online. All you need to do is use them.
Many consider digital marketing tools as a strong foundation for any online marketing strategy. Using the most appropriate and powerful digital marketing tools in your business will definitely help you to accelerate your business growth by boosting productivity.