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28 Best Marketing Tools for Small Businesses

November 29, 2023 No Comments

These tools and apps have features that can help small-business owners automate marketing tasks and track the success of their efforts.

Marketing tools can help small businesses maximize their marketing efforts to reach customers, build their brand and drive sales. These tools — including online marketing services, digital platforms and apps — can provide automated features to improve efficiency, plus analytics and reporting to monitor your return on investment. Here’s a look at some of the best marketing tools.

Email marketing tools

Email marketing can be a cost-effective way for a small business to promote its brand, develop relationships with new customers and increase sales. Software can simplify the process through features such as email templates, A/B testing options, lead capture forms for your website, and reports. There are a lot of email marketing software platforms to choose from, but here are our top picks:

Mailchimp: Our pick for best overall email marketing software, Mailchimp’s paid plans offer templates, testing, landing pages, forms and reports as well as access to creative design tools and 24/7 support. Paid plans start at $13 per month, and there’s a free option with limited features.
Constant Contact: If you’re looking for a free trial, Constant Contact has one of the best — 60 days with no credit card information required. In addition to solid email features, it can help with social media marketing. Plans start at $12 per month.
Campaigner: For businesses that want a more advanced platform, Campaigner offers features such as a full code editor, conversion tracking, a Facebook audience builder and a getting started video tutorial. Plans start at $59 per month with a free 30-day trial.

Content marketing tools

Well-written, engaging content is key to a successful marketing campaign. These tools, which use artificial intelligence, can help you write content for blogs, newsletters, videos and social media posts to get the attention of your audience:

Simplified: Simplified offers free features such as a content rewriter tool, a company bio generator and an AI writing assistant, plus additional paid features that can help you create content for your website, blog and social media.
Grammarly Business: Grammarly can help you write mistake-free content for your website, social media, documents, messages and emails. The free plan offers basic features. Sentence rewrites, word choice options and other advanced features are available in the business version at $15 per month per person.

SMS marketing tools

Short Message Service, or SMS, marketing is a way for small businesses to share product information, promotions and upcoming events with their customers via text message. SMS marketing software can automate the process with design tools, website forms and other features. Here are our top picks:

SimpleTexting: Unlimited contacts and keywords, a graphic generator tool and template options are just some of the features that make SimpleTexting our top SMS marketing tool. Plans start at $29 per month with a free 14-day trial.
SlickText: For small businesses that want to use SMS for promotions, SlickText stands out for engagement features such as contests, surveys, promo codes, coupons and loyalty reward options. Plans start at $29 per month with a 14-day free trial available.
TextMagic: If a pay-as-you-go plan is better for your marketing budget, TextMagic lets you skip the monthly subscription fee and purchase prepaid credits that can be used when you want. Pricing starts at 4 cents per outgoing text, and a 30-day free trial is offered.

Website analytics tools

Understanding the behavior of visitors to your website allows you to optimize your content and reach your marketing goals of retaining customers, attracting new customers and increasing sales. The best analytics tools can help you look at key metrics such as page views and conversion rates and even offer details about competitors:

Google Analytics: Google Analytics offers free analytics and optimization tools to help you monitor the activity on your website. This includes acquisition, engagement and monetization reporting.
Lucky Orange: Lucky Orange is an optimization tool that provides analytics, but it also includes heat maps of user behavior, session recordings, surveys and visitor profiles at every plan level, including the free version. Paid plans start at $18 per month.
Semrush: For businesses looking for features such as competitor analysis and keyword research, Semrush offers them along with advertising and social media tools. Plans start at $119.95 monthly, and a free account is also available with limited features.

CRM tools

Customer relationship management, or CRM, tools do more than just store your contact database. The best CRM software can help you organize your contacts and collect information on potential customers interested in your products and services. Some software also has features that can help you manage a sales team.

Zoho CRM: Our top CRM pick offers features to help you collect and sort data, schedule tasks, manage sales pipelines and generate reports. Plans start at $20 per user per month, and a free version with full features is available for teams of three or fewer.
Salesforce CRM: This is a platform that can grow with your small business and includes features such as lead management, automatic data syncs and customizable reports. Plans start at $25 per user per month, and free trials are available at most plan levels.
Freshsales by Freshworks: For small businesses working on a tight budget, Freshsales’ Growth plan is free and allows for up to three CRM users. It includes solid features, such as personalized messages, contact scoring and sales management tools. Paid plans start at $18 per user per month with a 21-day free trial.

Digital marketing tools

When you’re using digital marketing methods to promote your small business and brand, software can help you automate your efforts and also track your return on investment.

Constant Contact: In addition to email marketing tools, Constant Contact also has features to assist you with social media marketing, digital ads and engagement reporting. Plans start at $12 per month.
Hubspot: After purchasing a plan, you’ll have access to email marketing tools, a landing page builder and an online form builder along with features that help you track performance. Marketing Hub plans start at $50 per month.
Keap: For businesses that want dedicated support, Keap offers customer-success managers at all plan levels to help you meet your digital marketing goals. Plans start at $189 per month.

Social media marketing tools

When you’re using multiple social media platforms to engage customers, reach new audiences and generate brand awareness, digital tools can make the management of your efforts easier through features such as automated scheduling, calendars and channel boosting.

Buffer: For businesses on a tight budget with three or fewer social channels, Buffer’s free plan may be the right fit for you. Post scheduling, calendar view, Instagram tagging, Twitter hashtag suggestions and Facebook page mentions are some notable features. Paid plans start at $6 per month per channel.
Zoho Social: If you’re managing one brand on 10 or fewer social media channels, Zoho Social offers multichannel publishing, content scheduling, an image editor, a publishing calendar, user tagging and summary reports. Plans start at $15 per month, and there’s a free version for one user.
Hootsuite: If you want an app with few limits and advanced features, check out Hootsuite. Notable features include unlimited posts, unlimited scheduling, a social content calendar, recommended publishing times, content curation tools, post boosting and analytics. Plans start at $99 per month, and a 30-day free trial is offered.

» MORE: Best business credit cards for online advertising

Design tools

Design tools can make it easier to create visually appealing graphics and videos for your marketing efforts. The best tools offer templates, image libraries and photo editing.

Canva Business: With built-in tools like a drag-and-drop editor, customizable templates, AI-powered design tools and free photos and graphics, Canva is a top pick. A free plan is available, and paid options start at $12.99 per month per person.
Adobe Lightroom: If you’re taking photos of your product or team to share on your website, social platforms or other marketing materials, Adobe Lightroom offers editing tools, tutorials and cloud storage. Plans start at $9.99 per month.

Direct mail marketing tools

While not as popular as digital marketing, sending postcards, flyers, catalogs and other types of direct mail marketing materials through the U.S. Postal Service to a customer’s physical mailbox can help your business stand out from competitors. Here are some tools that can help you do it:

USPS: The Every Door Direct Mail, or EDDM, tool can help you plan your mailing of postcards, menus and flyers. It offers filtering options and the ability to map routes and select delivery addresses — plus, postage discounts are available for most businesses.
Mailchimp: With an address finder and direct mail campaign automation, Mailchimp can help you send postcards to promote events, announce deals and provide other information to customers and potential buyers. Cost per card (with postage) ranges from $1.03 to 79 cents, based on quantity.
Click2Mail: If you want more than postcards for your direct-mailing efforts, Click2Mail offers flyers, letters, notecards, booklets and brochures, plus tools that can help automate the printing and mailing process. Price varies depending on mailing.

Project management tools

Project management software can help you manage your marketing projects from start to finish. The best ones help you break marketing projects into manageable tasks with assigned deadlines and offer customizable dashboards to track progress.

Jira: For businesses with small teams of 10 users or fewer, Jira’s free plan offers unlimited project boards and customizable workflows, plus reporting and insights. Paid plans start at $7.75 per user per month.
Monday: Designed for marketing and creative work, paid Monday Work Management plans offer unlimited dashboards and items to track tasks, projects, customers and any other information you want. Paid plans start at $8 per user per month, and a free version supports two users and limited items.
Asana: If you want to track more than marketing projects, Asana can help you manage a variety of different projects with list, board, calendar and timeline views. Plans start at $13.49 per user per month, with a free option available with basic features.

» MORE: Free or low-cost ways to advertise your business

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Lisa Anthony 

Lisa is a small-business writer at NerdWallet and has more than 20 years of experience in banking and finance. Read more

Edited by Christine Aebischer  

Sourced from nerdwallet

In News

5 Top Blogging Platforms for Every Kind of Business

November 5, 2023 No Comments

By Amanda Pressner Kreuser

Whether it’s showcasing your company’s work, building your reputation as an industry thought leader, or trying to create demand for your products, a blog is one of the most important marketing tools a brand can leverage.

Posting about your brand on social media has become an essential part of any business marketing plan. But if you’ve let your blog lapse because longer-form content seems like too much of a commitment, you’re missing out on a major opportunity to connect with your audience — and convert them into customers.

At the content marketing agency I co-founded, I’ve seen just how incredibly powerful (and successful) blogging has been for clients like OXO and Nutanix that incorporate it into their business strategies. In fact, 68 percent of marketers find blogging more effective than it ever has been, according to data tracking tool Databox; brands that post content on blogs produce about 67 percent more leads than those that don’t. That’s because blogging can be one of the best ways to drive visitors to your site, whether it’s through organic search or the call to action you include in your posts on another platform — I like to think of both of those as free digital foot traffic.

If the idea of having to write blog posts regularly feels overwhelming, keep in mind that one of the best parts about blog content is it can be repurposed in so many ways. You can rework blog articles into social media posts, LinkedIn thought-leadership pieces, and editorial-style newsletters, helping to fill several channels at once and reach different audiences. Even if you don’t have the time to post very often, as long as you do it with some regularity, you’ll build a body of work that serves to tell your brand’s story and lets customers feel more connected to you.

There are lots of excellent blogging platforms out there, and they serve different needs. These are five of my favourites.

1. WordPress

This might be the first site you think of when it comes to blogging. That’s because WordPress made a name for itself in the early days of self-published websites and blogs. Now, 43 percent of all websites are built using the platform.

WordPress has ready-made themes and layouts but also has a treasure trove of customization options. It’s easy to manage and maintain, thanks to the number of tutorials, and also has plug-ins that can help you drive sales, create newsletters, and more. The platform supports various types of media, so if you want to spice up your blog posts with images and videos, WordPress can handle it. Another plus is that most creators already know how to use the platform, so if you’re thinking of hiring someone to help write your blog posts, they’ll most likely be able to jump right in–no training required.

WordPress is best for those who want heavy customization, greater control over the function of the blog, and search engine optimization features. You can set up a site for free if you don’t mind the “.wordpress.org” tacked on to your URL. If you’d prefer your own domain name, you can do that starting at $4 a month.

2. Wix

If you’re not too concerned with customization, Wix is the platform for you. The drag-and-drop builder plus the ready-made layouts mean you’ll soon be able to get down to writing. The platform is optimized for mobile, so once you get your feet wet, if an idea for a post strikes you, you can write and publish even when you’re on the go.

Though Wix wasn’t always known for good SEO tools, a recent update means you can now optimize your blog posts. The paid plan is free for the first year and $22 per month thereafter. So you can play around and get up to speed at no cost, and once the paid plan actually kicks in, you may already be seeing the ROI.

3. Squarespace

Squarespace is the place for e-commerce businesses that want to leverage content to help them reach potential new customers and boost sales. And Squarespace is one of the best platforms for e-commerce functionality. With its easy-to-use platform (like Wix, it is drag and drop) and e-commerce features (including integrated shopping carts and product pages), Squarespace is ideal for that combination of selling products while sharing your brand story. Prices start at $16 a month, but the platform does have a free trial, so you can give it a test drive before committing.

4. LinkedIn

You may be surprised to see a career platform on a list about blogging, but you can easily create “article” pages from your own personal account or business page. It’s as simple as typing up your article, choosing a header image to go with it (always a best practice to include an image!), and clicking publish.

I personally use LinkedIn as my blogging platform because it has the best engagement with our client base at Masthead Media and has allowed me to build a stronger connection between the LinkedIn community and my company. I highly recommend it if you already have a large following and if SEO isn’t your top priority.

5. Medium

If writing is something of a passion for you, and you like to share insights and opinions about your industry, Medium is your platform. Unlike WordPress and Wix, Medium won’t give your company a homepage with a unique URL, but it comes with an already-engaged audience who receive a daily email promoting the best new stories posted to the site. You simply write your piece and publish it, and it has the potential to be shared with millions of readers.

The platform has also rolled out a new payment model whereby popular pieces can earn you money. So if your blogging objective is to share your thought leadership with a broad audience, check out Medium.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By Amanda Pressner Kreuser

Co-founder and managing partner, Masthead Media@mastheadmedia

Sourced from Inc.

In News

8 Instagram Features Perfect for Small Businesses

May 19, 2023 No Comments

Sourced from appPicker

Instagram isn’t considered one of the best marketing tools, but that is because the larger companies have a hard time breaking its formula with raw capital alone. They have to pay massive amounts to influencers on Instagram to receive far less value for money than if they paid Facebook or Twitter influencers. As a result, smaller businesses are able to sneak into the public view and make some gains on a brand-by-brand level. Here are a few Instagram features that favour smaller businesses.

Create a Wall of Branding Messages

Put simply, you can turn your Instagram account into a big repository of your branding and marketing messages. All you have to do is put your evergreen stuff in there, and it will still be interesting to the people who visit. Added to which, it helps spread your brand message on social media.

You Can Buy Attention Three Ways

These days, you can pay for Instagram promotion through their marketing systems and tools. This is expensive and fairly inefficient. You can pay influencers and celebrities to promote your brand, but that is even more expensive. Or, you can go online and buy Instagram accounts from a company like Fameswap, and then exploit the accounts of other people who have already built up their audience.

Test Your Ads Through Instagram Stories

This is a trick as old as time. You can run all your most shaky ads through Instagram to see how people react. Oddly, if people do not react at all, it probably means your advertisement is okay for mainstream use but may need improvement. Nevertheless, taking a few chances and running a few risky ads through Instagram is rarely a bad thing, even if you don’t gather much data.

You Can Ask Your Customers For Input

As with all social media, you can ask your followers and potential customers for input on your services, your products, your brands, your offers and your social media posts. As a smaller business, you can be more interactive and authentic with your customers.

Watch and Maybe Even Copy Your Competitors

You can copy your competitors posts, ideas and sales. You can check out what works for them, and then make your own version. The great thing is that there is nothing they can do about it. Plus, you don’t have to try their methods right away, you copy their stuff, make your own, make it better, and then release it when the time is right.

Try Instagram Live For Certain Promotions

There are certain companies that are able to make the most of Instagram live. Haunted houses are pretty popular at the moment, and there are times of the year when fireworks are popular too. If you are running events that are live themselves, like live standup comedy, then you can do very well with the Instagram Live features. There are even people making unboxing videos of their own products, so you could try that too. They seem to be oddly popular for unknown reasons.

You Can Upload Videos of 60 Minutes

If you run a business account that is verified, you can run videos of up to 60 minutes. If you have the sort of content or even the types of services that warrant a 60 minute run-time, then you have an advantage over all the accounts that cannot post 60 minute videos.

Get Yourself Listed on Google

If you have a fully fleshed out Instagram profile and a well maintained Instagram account, then you will appear on Google when people are searching for your business. It doesn’t have a big impact, but it is one more Google result in your favour, possibly ranking above the Instagram profile of your competitors.

Sourced from appPicker

In News

6 Marketing Tools you Must Have to Grow Your Online Business

March 11, 2022 No Comments

By Vasid Qureshi

Growing your online business can be difficult, especially if you’re doing it alone. You need the right marketing tool if you want your online marketing plan to succeed.

Growing your online business can be difficult, especially if you’re doing it alone. You need the right marketing tool if you want your online marketing plan to succeed. Small business owners often try to do their own marketing, but this can be very time-consuming and ineffective.

There are many great tools available that can help you reach your target audience and achieve your marketing goals. In this blog post, we will talk about 6 marketing tools you must have to grow your online business.

So, let’s get started!

6 Marketing Tools You Must Have To Grow Your Online Business

If you aren’t sure which marketing tool is best for your business, go to the KickAss MasterMinds website which carefully reviews various marketing tools and determine which will work best for your business. Plus, they offer an amazing community and support system to help you succeed.

We’ve put together a list of 6 popular marketing tools that we believe are essential for any business looking to grow online. These tools include:

Buffer

Buffer is one of the most popular social media scheduling tools for the web and mobile, designed to manage accounts on social networks. In the beginning, Buffer was a simple tool for scheduling Twitter posts, but now it’s become a more powerful tool for managing social media.

This tool allows users to schedule posts to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Instagram Stories, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. You can also analyse your results and engage with your audience.

Even though it works for large companies, it is perfect for start-ups and small businesses who want to automate and optimize their social media strategies.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is one of the most popular and best online marketing tools out there, so you are probably familiar with it. Ahrefs offers tools to build links and analyse competitors, track rank and audit your sites. When you are starting a business, it is a good idea to search for all your competitors in order to improve your marketing campaign.

Find out which backlinks they have and see if you can get the same ones for yourself. The majority of Ahrefs’s functionality is geared towards marketing professionals. Ahrefs is a popular website optimization tool for high Google rankings.

Hubspot

When it comes to marketing, sales, or CRM, Hubspot is a leading player. Hubspot tool helps you to create web forms, start an email marketing campaign, or analyse the behaviour of visitors. This tool is ideal for businesses of any size. You will find it quite useful for driving traffic, converting leads to customers, and keeping the teams organized and efficient.

MailChimp

MailChimp is one of the most popular email marketing tools that allow you to send out emails to your customers. This tool offers several key features such as Website traffic tracking, Email templates, Widespread software integrations, Drip campaign design, and It’s free for small companies.

You can automate your emails with MailChimp and design campaigns with ease. The tool is easy to use, even though some of its marketing automation features are limited. If you want something more powerful, you might want to check out a tool like Autopilot or HubSpot. However, MailChimp is a great choice if you’re just starting out.

SEMrush

A successful marketing campaign and content are essential in this competitive era. With SEMrush, you can find valuable keywords, earn backlinks, and keep a close eye on your site’s performance.

It is easy for beginners to analyse organic and paid search results with this tool. With these tools, digital marketing and PPC experts can monitor their competitors and improve ranking.

ClickFunnels

ClickFunnels is a popular marketing and sales funnel builder tool that helps you create high-converting websites and sales funnels. With ClickFunnels, you can create custom landing pages, email opt-ins, and order forms that will help you convert more leads into customers.

Plus, with the built-in split testing feature, you can test different versions of your funnel to see which one converts the most leads into customers.

Conclusion

If you want your online marketing plan to be successful, you need the right marketing tool. These tools will help you to reach new customers, connect with your audience, and increase sales. Therefore, if you’re looking to grow your business, be sure to use these marketing tools. Apart from these tools, there are many more that are not included in the list but are helpful for your digital marketing strategy.

Feature Image Credit: Photo by emerson23work on Pixabay

By Vasid Qureshi

Sourced from Influencive

In News

6 Non-Marketing Tools You Should Use While Conducting a Content Analysis

August 10, 2021 No Comments

By Petra Sestak

Content analysis is not the most exciting project. There are a lot of tedious and repetitive tasks to complete before you can get to the fun part of actually reworking and improving your previously published content.

What makes it even more challenging is its unique ability to become messy very quickly, especially if there is a lot of content to go through, or if multiple people are working on the same content analysis.

Today we’ll be looking at all those other, non-marketing tools that can help you manage the process more easily and give your content the revamp it deserves, sans headache.

1. Project management

In order for a project to run smoothly, it either needs a project manager to stay on top of tasks and deliverables, or a project management tool that takes on the mantle of organization and delegating.

However, there is a caveat. Unless you take the time out of your day to use the project management tool, it won’t be doing much good. The tool itself is not a silver productivity bullet. The way you use it is.

Start by dividing up the work. Even if you are working on the content analysis alone, write down every task, including the most minute ones. Set reasonable deadlines, and keep marking tasks as done or in progress as you go.

Add all of your key notes in there too: a link to the sheet you’re working from, the minimal metrics you have chosen for the project, the goals, and expected results.

Any project management tool will do – from Monday to Trello and Asana to Basecamp, pick whichever option you like best (or the one you can afford), and use it religiously.

2. Overview outlet

The best way to organize the actual content analysis is to use Google Sheets. I’ve tried other methods, but somehow Sheets always turns out to be the most straightforward solution.

Compile a list of all the pieces of content you are analysing – an export from Google Analytics will do the trick. You can also use Screaming Frog if you don’t have access to Analytics.

Fill your sheet with raw data. The more data you have, the better decisions you are able to make – in theory. In practice, looking at endless rows and columns of numbers doesn’t facilitate focus and productivity.

Stick to the bare bones:

word count,
main and secondary keywords,
current rankings for each keyword,
date of publication,
number of backlinks,
traffic,
conversion rate.

The two most important columns in the sheet are the notes and the status ones. The first should feature your comments and observations, while the latter is there for the keep, edit, delete, and similar remarks.

Remember that you also need a strong content marketing plan to back your analysis up – without it, your observations will be nothing more than random.

3. Communication channel

In order to ensure everyone is on the same page and that nothing gets lost in translation, so to speak, you need to use a communication tool as well. It will ensure information is passed on in a timely manner, and enable everyone to exchange thoughts and ideas in real-time.

The same principle applies as with the project management tool: pick one and stick to it. There are hundreds of more or less popular ones to choose from, ranging from Zoom and its renaissance, Lark, Slack, the somewhat forgotten Skype, or even FaceTime if you want to have video calls.

Ideally, you’ll simultaneously update your project management tool with all the relevant information, and use the chat app for exchanging ideas. You can also use a communication tool that can be integrated with a project management tool (Slack for instance does this really well). That way you’ll save yourself additional time and effort.

In fact, you should clearly define which tool accomplishes what, to be on the safe side. Sometimes members of your team will chat about a certain article or a way to do things and forget to update everyone else. When this happens, frustrations are likely to arise. Some may feel left out, and important updates might be missed.

4. Brainstorming

Let’s now move over into the realm of creativity. For starters, you will hugely benefit from using a mind map to, quite literally, map out your content ideas.

One of the main challenges of content analysis is the fact that you just keep piling more content on top of the content. The mind map eliminates this, as it’s much simpler and easier to go through someone’s thoughts than their sentences.

Mind maps allow you to visualize your creative ideas better. If you are a visual person and prefer working with illustrations to words, you’ll appreciate them greatly. Even if you don’t mind reading sentence upon sentence someone has written down about an idea, in order to save time and effort, try using the mind map.

You can write down your ideas for each individual piece of content, or you can group ideas together for a series or cluster of interconnected articles. Mind maps are also a great way to brainstorm future content topics and to map out any editing and research that needs to be done.

If you want to forgo the customary creative chaos that comes with content analysis, especially if it’s a collaborative effort, give this tool a try.

5. Editing and proofreading assistant

Another much-needed tool for any content analysis project is an editing and proofreading one. Even if you’ve read every post twice, a bit of AI-powered help can go a very long way.

Consider it an option to further enhance your best and well-performing posts. You can add in further keywords, you can re-optimize the post for another audience segment, you can make the post more engaging or easier to understand, and so on.

The two best tools for this job are Grammarly and Hemingway.

Grammarly will help you eliminate spelling and grammar errors, but it does more than that. It will tell you the tone of voice you are using and how you are likely to come across. It also helps with fluency, can check your writing for plagiarism, and allows for formality level adjustments.

Hemingway is similar but smart in a slightly different way. It points out too complex and difficult-to-read sentences, analyses your use of the passive voice, and helps you speak at a specific language comprehension level.

6. Headline analyser

Another tool you should consider using is a headline analyser. Given the fact that headlines are one of the most important parts of an article, you want to make them more impactful and click-worthy.

CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer will tell you if you’re using the right keyword, if there are any extra power words you can use, and how much in line with search intent your proposed headline is.

You’d be surprised how much impact a very simple tweak can have, so run all of your ideas through the tool before you hit publish. Of course, don’t forget to consider your own knowledge about your audience. It may be smart, but AI still isn’t better at marketing and copywriting than you are.

Wrapping up

Give these tools a whirl next time when conducting content analysis. While they won’t be able to offer any sound advice on the digital marketing direction you should be taking next, they can save you time, effort, and the aforementioned headache.

By Petra Sestak

Petra Šestak is an internet marketing specialist at Point Visible, a digital marketing agency providing custom blogger outreach services. In her free time, you can find her on a tatami trying to improve her aikido techniques or in the local pub with her friends. Also, she’s a coffee & chocolate addict.

Sourced from Jeff Bullas

In News

10 Email Marketing Tools For You To Consider

May 27, 2021 No Comments

By Elena Osipova,

Email Marketing can be challenging. I learnt this lesson from my experience in the digital marketing sphere and being a support representative at an email software company. Why? There are a number of reasons. They come in different forms and from various places and refer to segmenting an audience, finding contacts, designing a perfect subject line, to name a few.

Such activities require from marketers tons of creativity, consistency and research. Yeap, email marketing is still one of the most efficient marketing channels due to ROI. This fact only fuels the competition in the industry, leading to seeking new solutions.

Notably, email campaign software has become the go-to option for many brands and businesses. Automation interferes in many spheres and enterprises, while digital marketing is not an exception. Email campaign software makes a difference there.

However, how many email platforms are there? A lot. I have been working in digital marketing for some time and understand why one can find very confusing the amount of software available before marketing teams.

That’s why I have designed a list of the top email marketing software that can add to your small business, start-up, or long-term campaign. This post will be helpful for those who have doubts about which email marketing to use or have just started a journey into the marketing world.

Top Email Marketing Services

Before all, the automation tools I am listing in this post are different and answer to similar needs of a marketer. Some of them are all-in-one solutions; others aim to facilitate a specific issue. Interestingly, you can combine one tool with another.

How to choose the best marketing software? Pick the one that will help your business needs or goal. The right email marketing tools are about answering the challenges. What are some that marketers consider crucial? Scheduling, organization, personalization, segmenting and data collection. Each of them is equally important for the open and click rates within lead generation.

At the same time, many of you have struggled with email templates; there are tools for it as well. Among other things, the platforms help to track results and report on valuable data. All in all, it is what a reliable marketing tool is to be expected of.

Let’s look at the options that can help you with the email marketing objectives.

1. Constant Contact

Constant Contract is at the beginning of the list as it has a specific focus on email marketing and has been long enough in business. Despite the idea that I had used it only for a while, many colleagues of mine refer to it as an excellent solution for small business. Why is it good?

First of all, it puts simplicity and accessibility in email campaign designation. For instance, the particular platform offers the management of emails, sending schedule, and content. It refers to template and newsletter creation, together with the insertion of CTA buttons. Importantly, it has integrations with Shopify underlining its usability for small businesses.

Also, it offers email list management and segmenting for better targeting. In the end, it is used by many small companies to generate leads. However, what I heard is that their users wish they paid less for the simplicity the particular platform offers.

2. GetProspect

Have you ever struggled with your email list enrichment? I bet you are. GetProspect email finder may be a solution with its simple interface, easy-to-use functions, and extracting possibilities. I have worked at this company for some time and must say it does a pretty good job in what they offer. What exactly is it, and what value does it provide to your business?

Well, small businesses usually struggle with getting contacts of their target audience. If you are a b2b service, they may be business owners, CMOs or CEOs of firms. If you are a marketer or SEO specialist, they may be influencers or bloggers. Lastly, if you already have an extensive database, you may need to verify it. GetProspect has these functions. With it, you can extract the emails from Linkedin or any corporate website.

It’s not the only email finder on the market. Still, it can be integrated into other CRMs by Zappier and has a very minimalistic design. Thus, you can extract your groups of contacts, transfer them to the greater platform and produce the campaign you want.

Many of its users say that that simplicity and straightforward solution to email enrichment captivate them.

3. Mailchimp

You probably have heard of this marketing tool. It is one of the leaders for a reason. If I haven’t mentioned this in my post, it would be a mistake. Why is it good? There is a free package, providing valuable functions, while paid options are to bring even more.

I used Mailchimp for its easy-to-use tracking and email building. Particularly, it has the drag-and-drop feature, which can help a lot if you are new to email design.

Simultaneously, Mailchimp can be handy in segmenting audiences. I had to use it on my first marketing assignments and was very glad it had a drag-and-drop function. Making discount coupons and give away campaigns required much less time, thanks to a large collection of templates.

However, looking back, I can say it has basic analytics and segmentation, while for the advanced ones, the user should pay. Notably, a friend of mine had some issues with the support department and their responses. Bad luck, possibly.

Lastly, integration capabilities with other platforms can significantly add to the user’s experience, though. It will be a great choice if you are supposed to level your email creation before entering a larger market and nurturing more leads.

4. Hubspot

HubSpot is another popular solution that many businesses use. The pros of this email marketing software lie in its universal nature. The particular software offers an all-in-one automation solution for many marketing platforms. However, it as well as a separate email marketing tool that is free.

Similar to Mailchimp, it provides assistance in preparing visual materials and producing the body of emails. Some of my colleagues did like the interface and the follow-up sequences upon purchasing via websites. However, as it is a free tool, though, by a recognized company, it has some limitations, while the full version can be costly for small firms.

I would be using it if I have plans of enlarging my business, where email won’t be the crucial part of my marketing activity but add to the social media strategy. At the same time, it would be great if you are trying and experimenting with email marketing or considering unifying all of your channels under one CRM system. Then, Hubspot will be the perfect solution.

5. Sendinblue

Sendinblue has made it to this list due to its surprising features, considering the time we live in. Who sends SMS messages today when we have messengers? However, the particular tool does! It as well facilitates email campaigns management, having automation and personalization possibilities. In short, it is excellent for transactional messages sending. I had my team use it for one event project, and it did great.

Simultaneously, the template options are not as advanced as the top marketing email services above provide. Thus, choosing this option would be suitable for those who have their template game on an adequate level. That is one downturn among some other ones.

They refer to a limited free package and multiple logins only under advanced packages.

Still, it is affordable and should be a good choice if it suits your goal and strategy.

6. Sender

In regard to this email marketing software, you may want to use it if you pursue your deliverability improvement. The algorithms behind Sender focus on tracking delivery rates. At the same time, there is a facilitator for template creation. One can add different visuals that will for sure optimize the engagement rates of the campaign. The service pays attention to details making your email marketing campaign bright.

Still, I heard that they had some lags within their segmentation feature, which the company is likely to have taken care of. Why? Their customer support is friendly and lends a helping hand irrespective of the issue’s complexity, despite that the pricing is relatively low.

7. Drip

You may think that this tool can be helpful in drip campaigns. This mailing campaign software has a powerful segmenting focus and synchronizes with many website constructors.

Such a combination makes Drip useful for many entrepreneurs or small business owners that conduct their business online. In addition, they have a bunch of personalization features. That’s why many consider it ideal for firms with small operations in specific niches.

One of the cons is that it can be a bit pricey. Yet, it offers some educational materials for users. Again, the data analytics, targeting features, and personalization within this email automation service can become a game-changer for an owner of a small firm.

8. Convertkit

Convertkit is another email marketing tool that is handy in email campaign designation. As Drip or Mailchimp, it is excellent for segmenting the audience. However, compared to them, this service offers it through tagging. Some colleagues of mine have said that it is easier to have different groups and target them by tags at your display, especially if there is only one product of yours.

On the other hand, the particular instrument can be challenging to use at first. You may need some time to comprehend all the functions. This happened to me, and I decided to go for another solution. Still, if you want to enhance your lead generation funnel, this can work.

9. Aweber

Aweber is a traditional and straightforward mailing campaign software that was designed solely for email marketing. It has both advanced and drag-and-drop features for template creation. Besides, as it is a long time on the market, it has an extensive knowledge base and support.

Moreover, it has all the standard features referring to personalization, follow-up automation, listing and segmentation. Notably, what is the most important thing is its simplicity.

I believe I have started my email marketing journey with this tool, and for me, as a newbie in marketing, it was pretty easy to use. That’s why it can be a universal tool for tiny companies who just start selling their product and have not developed large lists yet.

10. Omnisend

Omnisend can be a great choice if you are developing your business on several channels. Although it has a basic set of features, it has SMS automation features and can work with numerous platforms.

You can have different campaigns, while the Omnisend reporting system will show from where you got the revenue. It is essential for prioritizing the campaigns and offers for the customer groups.

Except for simplicity in management, automation and the beautiful design of templates, it can offer affordable packages. Suppose a person needs something for a small business related to visually pleasing products, like jewellery or craft. In that case, they are likely to benefit from the templates of this email campaign software.

Lastly, if you want something that would better align with other strategies or website designing, another option can be a better solution for you.

Bottom Line

There are many email marketing software, and picking the right one depends on your goal and your business. You may need an email marketing tool solely for email campaigns or contact research. The best is the one that is the most efficient. I have made this list due to what I experienced and heard from my colleagues.

When choosing the best tool, look at what challenges you have or how a tool can give you an advantage. If the issue refers to contacts extracting, then, Getprospect is a solution. If you have multiple products and many platforms or channels, MailChimp or Hubspot can be a pick.

If you need some help with templates, picking an email automation service focusing on their designation would increase your engagement rates. Lastly, if you lack segmenting, Drip and Convertkit have efficient mechanisms and reporting to work with contacts’ data.

By Elena Osipova

Sourced from Data Science Central

In News

How to Improve Social Influence with Content Marketing

October 9, 2020 No Comments

By Chris Christoff.

Your social influence, if used properly, is one of the most effective marketing tools you have at your disposal.

Internet shopping has fundamentally changed the way consumers interact with businesses across all industries. Until this time, people were primarily influenced by what friends and family said about a company or their personal experiences.

Now, social influence is on the rise, and business owners are finding more unique ways to engage and build trust with their audience with the power of the internet. Another name for social influence is social proof. It all boils down to taking actions to show users that you’re reputable, trustworthy, and offer top-notch products and services.

There are plenty of exciting ways to show consumers that your brand is worth their time by creating unique content.

In an effort to help online businesses thrive, we want to examine several low-cost ways you can build social influence and grow your business.

Create a testimonials page

Testimonials are effective tools you can use to grow your business. If a high-profile client or reputable news source makes a statement about your products, ask if you can use their feedback on your testimonials page.

As a general rule of thumb, you’ll want to make sure that the testimonial is honest and represents a typical experience with your brand. Create a page dedicated to showing prospects why you’re the best in the business.

You can break down your testimonials based on the product, customer case use, and more. If someone leaves you positive feedback and say that shopping with your business helped them accomplish a specific goal, or addressed a common pain point, don’t forget to highlight that feature on your sales page.

Congruency between what you’re selling and what the testimonials say is vital for building trust and helping prospects come to the right conclusion about your brand.

Allow on-site product reviews

The next way you can use content to build social influence with your audience is through individual reviews on each product. Believe it or not, 70% of consumers look for reviews before making a purchase. This statistic means that people don’t just rely on friends and family for feedback. Instead, the opinions of people with real experiences play a dominant role in purchasing behaviour.

You’re likely familiar with the effectiveness of this strategy if you’ve ever used Amazon. Under every single product on Amazon is a list of reviews for the product on display — providing users have left feedback.

Consumers are free to browse through the good and bad reviews and make a decision for themselves. There’s evidence that shows the effectiveness of product reviews. Specific products with a list of real reviews see a 270% boost in sales compared to pages without reviews.

Mention company milestones

Company milestones are often mentioned during internal meetings, but are you using this information to improve social influence? Consumers want to hear about how your company is performing in a way that makes sense to them.

For example, a SaaS company might include the number of downloads on their homepage. When someone stumbles across the brand website for the first time and sees that thousands of people have invested in this product or service, they are experiencing social proof.

Here’s a quick example to show you what we mean.

If you had to choose between two companies that offer a similar product, but one states that they have over 1,000,000 installs and features awards from reputable news organizations, and the other is a basic landing page, who would you trust more? It’s a safe bet that you would go with the company with awards and over one million customers.

A little transparency goes a long way. The next time you’re thinking about updating your homepage, start thinking about ways you can display these tidbits clearly for new visitors.

Customer feedback is useful on your website, but it can provide more value when you share it on social media. You’re going to see people mentioning your brand and telling you how much they enjoyed their experience with your company. Use this as an opportunity to share their thoughts with the rest of your audience so people who are not committed can see how other people feel about your business.

Let’s say you’re interested in a new coffee company. You’ve browsed their website, checked out on-site reviews, but you’re still not ready to make a purchase. One day, you’re browsing Twitter and find the company, so you decide to give them a follow.

Weeks go by, and you start seeing more and more posts from real users complimenting the coffee company for their exceptional product and service. You would probably feel justified to go back to the site and have another look. This situation we just described is social influence in practice.

If you’re not getting much feedback on your social media page, you can create a feedback form and use it on your website and email. Reach out to current customers and ask them to leave their thoughts. Make a note saying that their opinions may be shared on social media. If the user agrees and fills out their form, you can create the perfect piece of social proof content.

Compile the best reviews and make a collage that shows off your company’s strengths. Sharing this image on social media is a sure-fire way to get more people engaged in your brand. What makes this tip more compelling is the fact that 43% of consumers check social media when they’re thinking about buying a product.

Work with partner brands and influencers

It’s possible to create content that builds social influence by working with partner brands and influencers. Regardless of your industry, plenty of other companies would happily promote your brand on their website if you’re willing to return the favour.

Partner brands are especially helpful at building social influence because it’s a safe bet that the brand you’re writing for has a similar target audience— the difference pivots on the type of product, and the pain point it solves. Look for companies that operate in your industry with an audience that could also benefit from the products or services you offer.

The reason this qualifies as social influence is because the brands promoting your product have a dedicated audience. So the opinion of this company can have a significant impact on how consumers perceive your brand. Think about your favorite company. Now imagine that the company promoted a product from a different brand. You would go in assuming that the other company is a good fit because you value the opinion of the brand sharing their content.

A whopping 60% of bloggers write between one and five guest posts every month for other publications. Their goal, in this case, is to spread brand awareness while bolstering social proof.

On the same note, social media influencers are an excellent choice for building influence. The same rule to other businesses applies here. Consumers trust influencers on YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram to promote helpful products with actual value. If someone’s favourite influencer is sharing your product, the person seeing the ad will instantly trust you more than if they found your company elsewhere.

There’s no doubt that adding a social influence strategy to your business can help you dramatically improve consumer confidence and sales. You have to take the time to gather valuable feedback from customers, which can include sending feedback forms via email, making it easy for users to leave product reviews, and by forging partnerships with other companies.

All of these steps lead to a more transparent and trustworthy business. At the end of the day, your goal is to provide a great product to your customers. But for people to see the value of your brand, you have to find ways to put your company on display.

By Chris Christoff

See Chris Christoff’s Profile

Co-Founder of MonsterInsights, the leading WordPress plugin for Google Analytics.

Sourced from business.com

In News

A Press Release Can Still be One of the Most Effective Marketing Tools—If You Have the Right Contacts

September 1, 2020 No Comments

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe.

Linking News is a press-release service that gets your info noticed by media outlets that matter.

One of the most challenging aspects of running a business is getting the word out about your product or service. You may be sitting on something that is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but if people don’t know about it, they can’t buy it.

Of course, thanks to the Internet and social media, there are more ways to market your business. However, if you’re looking for something tried and true that guarantees exposure on the biggest news and media sites, you need to take a look at Linking News, the press release service that can get your info noticed by the media outlets that matter.

Linking News is a white label press release distribution service that gets your press releases published on hundreds of top tier media outlets, including ABC, NBC, FOX, USA Today, MarketWatch, Bloomberg, Business Insider, Buzzfeed, the Associated Press, Yahoo, and many more.

Why press releases?

Press releases have been an essential marketing and public relations tool for entrepreneurs and business owners for more than a century. And while you might think they’d be outdated in the age of digital media, the opposite is true. The rise of social media has actually created more publishing options for press releases, making them even more valuable.

Amazingly, the basic idea behind a press release has not changed much over the last century. A press release is still an official statement created by a business or organization and issued to news outlets for the purpose of informing the public about something noteworthy, whether that’s an upcoming event, an innovative new product, or a new business undertaking. What has changed is how entrepreneurs and businesses make use of this tool.

Before the rise of digital media, if your company didn’t have any contacts or connections in journalism, your only option was to submit a press release to as many news outlets as possible and hope that one of them would agree to run it. Today, press release distribution services like Linking News do all the legwork for you and provide guaranteed access. All you have to do is make sure your product and pitch are on point.

Today, the press release is especially useful for startups, entrepreneurs, and small businesses that are just starting out and trying to build a brand. It’s basically the modern equivalent of making cold calls or selling your product or service door to door, only instead of telling one person at a time, you’re telling an audience of thousands and sometimes even millions of people.

Linking News’ white label press release service

Image credit: Linking News

When you publish a press release with Linking News, you get access to a network of more than 300,000 publications, 900,000 journalists, and 90-million social media influencers. Exactly which media outlets your press release gets published on depends on which package you subscribe to. However, all packages guarantee publication on over 100 sites, including many top tier outlets, within 24 to 48 hours. And all clients receive a full publication report with live links within one-to-three days.

Best of all, unlike other press release distribution services, with Linking News all publications are strictly white label. That means your press release will not be published on linkingnews.com, and their brand will not be mentioned in your press release and report. All your press releases will appear under your brand, so your clients, customers, and competitors will never know you used a third-party distribution service.

So if you’re looking for an easy, cost-effective way to build your brand, take a look at Linking News White Label Press Release Distribution. It could be just what you need to take your business to the next level.

Feature Image Credit: Linking News

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

In News

10 Fresh Social Media Marketing Tools To Boost Brand Storytelling

August 6, 2020 No Comments

By Lane Ellis,

Are you using the latest social media marketing tools that help you create a new variety of remarkable campaign experiences?

We’ve got you covered with a look at our 10 latest featured social media marketing tools to help you refine and expand your marketing efforts and boost brand storytelling.

Sifting through tens of thousands of available tools can be a hit and miss proposition, but these 10 fresh marketing tools let you skip a lot of the research queue and get right into useful tools for helping you tell marketing stories in new ways.

Let’s dive right in with our collection of 10 fresh tools to boost your social media marketing experiences, including image and video manipulation tools, headline analysis utilities, and social media monitoring apps.