Marketing isn’t an exact science. Often, it’s more trial and error to see what works for consumers. But it’s not all guesswork. In fact, marketers can use several tools to take out much of the guesswork. Here are a few of the best.
1. DialPad for Collaboration Among Team Members
Staying on the same page with all your marketing team members is one of the biggest challenges. Tools like DialPad facilitate easy communication from anywhere.
It has voice and video calling, messaging, and online meeting capabilities for both in-house communication and discussions with clients. It works on the cloud and is well supported, so you don’t have to worry about the kind of malfunctions that often occur with Skype or Google Hangouts.
2. Google Analytics for Understanding Massive Amounts of Data
Companies collect useful data from their customers all the time, but they don’t always know how to use it for marketing purposes. Google Analytics and the associated Google tools are excellent for understanding customer search behavior. They also illuminate the individual and overall effectiveness of your marketing tactics.
3. Mention for Tracking Brand Mentions Online
Of course, you want to know what customers are saying about your brand compared to the competition. Mention is a unique cloud tool that will give you data tied to key phrases and brand names. All the information is in real time so you can feel you’re a part of the conversation as it’s happening.
4. Hootsuite for Managing Social Media Updates
Hootsuite is one of the better free tools for posting and reviewing social media updates. It lets you automate your posts and gives you access to analytics and data that are suitable for improving marketing tactics on social media. It also offers paid features that let you add campaign tracking and provide additional reports regarding the collected data.
5. SimilarWeb for Benchmarking Competitors
Companies should watch their competitors closely. Every industry is loaded with companies fighting for the top spot, and if you don’t see what they’re doing as they do it, they’ll be miles ahead of you before you can catch up.
SimilarWeb is a free tool with premium features that shows you how your site and marketing are performing compared to others in your field.
6. BuzzSumo for More Relevant Content Marketing
About 39 percent of marketers allocate their budget to content marketing, according to TopRankBlog. If you want this money to be well spent, choose a tool that will maximize every facet of your content marketing with BuzzSumo.
It helps you find trending keywords and topics that customers strongly desire to read. You’ll also get detailed reports and charts that show you how your content performs.
7. Canva for Creating Beautiful Graphics
PhotoShop and other pieces of the Adobe Suite are useful, but they’re expensive and complicated. Many firms just need something simple that generates captivating images, memes, infographics, and other multimedia items.
Canva is a popular choice for small businesses. You can also edit existing photos, with some limitations, and store your templates in the cloud.
8. Klout for Identifying Influencers
Influencers are ideal for spreading brand awareness through word-of-mouth marketing, which is the most effective form of marketing. Klout helps you identify social media users who can be leveraged to make your brand more visible.
It rates Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, WordPress, and other digital users on a scale from one to 100 to show you which has the most online influence. It can also show where you are on the scale so that you can measure your progress.
9. Openr for Better Calls to Action
Social posts are much more effective if they include calls to action. Openr makes sure every post you make is accompanied by a call to action link to anywhere you want. It empowers you to direct your social marketing traffic and increase shares of crucial pages.
10. Autosend for Automated Email Marketing
Autosend helps you make more personal connections via email marketing by helping you send more personalized and targeted texts and emails. The personalization is based on a customer’s interactions and browsing history on your site. It’s automated to take some powerful but time-consuming tasks off your plate.