If you’re stuck in a marketing rut and wondering how better to reach and attract clients, rest assured: there are countless tools that will help you get there. Need a smoother, more personal way to connect with customers? How about professional-level graphics? And where can you find training on the largest social media platform available? Where there’s a will, there’s a tool, and boy are we as marketers glad for their existence.
How grateful are we for today’s marketing tools? Let us count the ways…
1. Email Marketing Software
Who doesn’t like receiving mail, especially from someone you want to hear from? MarketingSherpa finds that 91% of U.S. adults enjoy receiving emails from companies they do business with, whether to take advantage of deals and promotions, keep up with new products and developments, or to learn more about the company itself. Platforms like Vertical Response, Constant Contact and Mailchimp offer an ideal solution for businesses to communicate directly with their clients. Email marketing enables businesses to build credibility and maintain a dedicated client base, all while boosting sales. Email marketing also gives companies the potential to grow their audience, if clients feel compelled to forward emails to their friends and family. Best of all, email lets you reach your audience on any device!
2. Facebook’s Advertising Platform
As anyone who uses the social media platform knows, Facebook is growing and changing daily. Facebook increasingly offers more ways for businesses to reach targeted audiences: think about “checking in” to a business, or tagging a business in your post, or leaving a review on a business’s Facebook page. All of these actions will lead others to a business, and it helps if that business is utilizing the available tools appropriately. Use Facebook’s scheduling tools to strategically deploy your posts at opportune times of the week/month; create ads right in the platform; track analytics to learn which kinds of posts result in the most responses; micro-target specific demographics to deliver your message to the right customers.
3. Facebook’s Blueprint Training Library
Did you think we’d send you off into the wilderness to learn Facebook advertising on your own? Never! The social media platform now offers e-learning courses and training on everything you ever wanted to know about FB. Whether you want to learn how to target the right audience, increase your sales, get creative inspiration or (don’t be embarrassed) start learning how to use Facebook for your business, their Blueprint Training Library has got you covered. Visit www.facebook.com/business/learn/courses to get started.
4. Wix
This incredibly easy-to-use cloud-based website hosting platform does away with any excuse you once had not to build your own stellar website. Wix offers streamlined templates ready to be filled with your content, or allows you to design from scratch with a seemingly endless catalogue of visual elements and super responsive AI design tools. With the option to add apps, book appointments, integrate a blog, create a membership website, integrate with your email marketing, Wix can do it all. And now, so can you!
5. Adobe Creative Suite
Where would we be without all the incredible design tools that this suite offers? With even the most basic understanding of programs like Photoshop (photo ads), InDesign (page layout), and Spark (social media posts and videos), you can create professional visual materials that can be used across multiple platforms, both print and digital. YouTube is brimming with tutorials that cover everything from the basics of these programs all the way down the rabbit hole of little-known functions and “secret” tips and tricks. Not saying you should go without your talented and invaluable Graphic Designers, but for quick projects or a tight budget, business owners have little excuse not to learn how to design a brochure or alter their logo. Best of all, it’s fun!
6. Google Analytics
This is one of the most important *free* tools for marketers to understand how their campaigns are performing and where website traffic is coming from. Just provide Google with some basic info about your site, and you will receive a tracking code you can paste right into your site to start collecting information about visits and activity. See how users respond to your site, how long they spend on it, and how much action certain areas of your site see. Almost like a secret key to getting to know your current and potential clients, you can’t afford not to take advantage of Google Analytics. And with a price tag like that, who could resist?
7. Shopify
For our clients selling products online, Shopify makes it easy to create an attractive and engaging website, with a simple, easy-to-use admin panel to manage your e-commerce business. Nothing against e-commerce giants like Amazon or eBay, but Shopify allows merchants to customize their sites until they look nothing like the online stores shoppers are used to–Shopify makes shopping online, dare we say it, beautiful. With over 600,000 stores active worldwide, Shopify is quickly becoming the go-to for online retailers.
8. Instagram
Not just for the kids! This visual sharing tool is changing the way we look at things, engage with customers, and offers yet another opportunity to get creative. The Facebook-owned image-sharing platform now offers the ability to shop directly from the app, boost posts, and target preferred demographics based on their scrolling and “liking” habits. And with accounts from many of the world’s most renowned artists, writers, ad agencies, and publications, a solid 15 minutes on the app is all you need to get inspired for your next ad campaign–just be sure to credit your inspiration!
9. SlideShare
Best described as YouTube for presentations, SlideShare is a public hosting service for slideshows, webinars, infographics, and documents–basically, anything you’d wish to share with a client when you can’t be there to pitch in person. SlideShare is a dynamic platform for supplemental information as well; PowerPoints and supporting materials can be privately shared with a client to peruse at their leisure, or to look over before or after an important face-to-face meeting or phone call. Utilized by organizations from IBM to the White House, SlideShare (which is owned by LinkedIn) receives 80 million unique users a month, connecting businesses to clients on an easy-to-use, interactive platform.
10. Google
The name says it all. Google Search, Google Webmaster tools, Google Classroom, Google Calendar, Google Adwords, Gmail….this list goes on and on, longer than it would take you to choose an acclaimed restaurant in Google Maps! With proper Search Engine Optimization through Google Search Console, your business can be catapulted to the top of Google search results; the same can be accomplished with user reviews through Google Maps, and hosting your website’s videos on YouTube (Google-owned) greatly improves your chances of being found. If the name of a search engine doubles as a verb the world over, chances are it’s doing its job.
So when you’re tucking into your Thanksgiving meal this November, gathering with loved ones and giving thanks, raise a toast to these invaluable marketing tools–where would we be without them?
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