The Odds Of Business Success Are Not Favorable. These Marketing Tools Will Help Tilt The Scale In Your Favor.
According to the latest data from SBA, about “two-thirds of businesses with employees survive at least 2 years and about half survive at least 5 years.” Interestingly, survival rates have not changed much since SBA started tracking this data, survival rates have not changed. Oh, and the economy can’t be blamed for this since rates do not change much during economic downturns. Perhaps this is old news, you made it past the 5 years mark and no longer worried about survival, or think statistics don’t apply to you. Good for you. Maybe we got your attention? Then, check out our list of the “Best Marketing Tools For Your Business”. You worked hard to get to this point, don’t leave the rest to chance.
Marketing Is What We Know
No, we can’t help you make the things you do better, or help your services become instantly superior. However, we can help with all things digital marketing. It’s our specialty, passion, and expertise. This article will focus specifically on marketing tools readily available, fairly easy to implement, and above all, tools that most experts in our domain would agree are key to success.
First, there are many, too many. Some may work great. Some may not apply to what you do or offer. That’s OK. We recommend you at least check these tools out since they really do and can make a big difference.
Ready To Grow & Expand Your Business? Check Out The Best Marketing Tools Available Today
All tools listed should apply to the majority of businesses out there, including yours. We focused on free tools or ones with relatively low cost to entry. These are scalable and can easily accommodate your future growth.
1. Google My Business
Google My Business helps you get listed on Google for Free. They offer numerous tools to help you better connect and communicate with your current and potential customers. The world searches on Google. Turn those searchers into customers.
The numbers are more than compelling. Every month, there are:
- 5 billion searches on Google for restaurants.
- 3 billion searches for hotels.
- 1 billion searches for clothing stores.
- 600 million searches for hair and beauty salons.
Get your business listed on Google today.
2. Get Your Business Listed Everywhere Else
Sorry to hurt feelings, and take sides, but Google My Business really is the most important place that your business has to be listed on. With that said there are other “lists” you can and should be on. All of these are free, and there’s no good reason to ignore them.
- Bing Places For Business
- Yelp For Business
- Facebook Business Pages
- Claim as many other social media business pages as makes sense for you, and that can be realistically managed. We recommend you avoid creating a profile that will forever be ignored – looks bad on your business and brand if the place becomes a ghost town.
Please make sure you fill in every box these platforms make available. Keep your information up to date and consistent across platforms. Besides not confusing your clients, it helps with Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
3. Get A Website
We should not have to say this, but you have to have a website for your business. There are many tools that let you create and manage your own website if you’re into that, and have time. And, although many could build a website, yes, including you, that doesn’t mean they should. It does not cost much to have a solid website done by an expert. We would love to help if you need a new site or want to update an existing website. If you have someone build the site for you, make sure they are good at what they do.
4. Business Analytics
Like every tool on this list, there are many. Two stand out and should be on your site now. If you had to pick only one, go with Google Analytics. But there’s no reason for that so install both. Don’t know how to do it? There are tons of articles online. Don’t care to do that? Give us a call and will take care of it for you. We really enjoy it. Data is like gold. More is better.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is infamous for all the great tracking made available. All for free. It helps you understand your website traffic, sources for that traffic, and what the users do once on your site. Did they buy what you’re selling? Are they signing up for the excellent services you provide? Or did they bounce to the competitor? There’s a lot of data there, sweet, delicious, precious data. Great marketing is built an great data and insights. Get Analytics Analytics and truly know what’s happening.
Facebook Analytics
Facebook Analytics is similar to Google Analytics, but not as robust. So why should you implement it? if you ever decide to run Facebook campaigns, or hire someone to do it for you, Facebook Pixel and Analytics are the only way to do it well. Don’t waste your hard-earned money on boosting your latest Facebook post. It’s truly a waste and makes us sad. Get started with Facebook Analytics.
5. Tools To Help Make Social Media Manageable
We know, there are a lot of social media platforms, and only so much time to manage them all. These tools will help you tame that social media beast, as much as possible. These social media management tools can help you schedule, post, manage, and report on your social content. Try them all and see what you like.
6. Email Marketing
Although considered by some antiquated, email marketing is well and thriving. Email marketing is still going strong because it’s proven to be effective, with excellent open and conversion rates. One important point to make: your email marketing strategy and results will depend on your list. Have a vast list of clients, or potential clients, that are the perfect audience for your products and services? You will do well, very well. Did you buy an email list from the guy at the corner? You will fail spectacularly. Email marketing is on this list because depending on the tools you use, it can be entirely free or have a really low cost of entry. Here are just a few in a very crowded market. You have lots to choose from:
- Constant Contact – All The Tools You Need to Succeed for Marketing Your Small Business. Beautiful Templates. Real-Time Reporting. Easy to Use. Expert Support.
- SendinBlue – Enjoy Unlimited Contacts with Sendinblue. Best Value All-in-One Marketing Platform. Only Pay Per Email Sent! Flexible Price Plans. Easy Set-up.
- HubSpot Email – Be one of the first to try HubSpot’s free email tool, now live. Free Forever, Not a Trial. CRM-Powered. Grow Your Business. Best for SMBs & Startups.
- MailChimp – Explore Mailchimp’s Easy-to-Use Tools to Get Your Business Online Quickly And Affordably.
- Personal email platform (Mail, Outlook, Gmail…) – these work, but we recommend you use one of the above platforms since they are significantly more robust.
7. Canva
If you’re reading this article, chances are you do not have the budget to hire a great graphic designer or even a bad one. That’s where Canva comes in. It helps you create beautiful designs and documents for your website, social media, print, and more. The free plan works well but you might opt-in for the paid version as you grow. No design experience needed. Beautiful design templates, tools to boost your workflow. Simple to use interface. Get Started with Canva
8. Slack
Slack is where work flows. It’s where the people you need, the information you share, and the tools you use come together to get things done. Stay productive with your team working from anywhere. Slack is one of the best tools to bring and keep your teem communicating well and effectively. Get Slack for Your Team
9. Video Conferencing & Communication
Video Conferencing, Communication, and Screen-share. COVID de facto made video conferencing the go to communication method for many around the globe. We believe that, pandemic or not, this is the future of doing business. No matter what tier you sign up for with these popular platforms, it will be boatloads less expensive compared to actually traveling or renting office space. There are many out there, but these are the ones you should stick to since they are likely to be around for a while, and almost everyone you will want to communicate with will already be familiar with them. The best videoconferencing tools available today:
- Zoom – a leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars.
- Google Meet – to communicate and video chat with coworkers, friends, and family. Encrypted network to safeguard your privacy while you stay connected.
- WebEx – leading enterprise solution for video conferencing, online meetings, screen share, and webinars. Web conferencing and cloud calling.
- Facebook – Messenger Rooms or Workplace – video chat where you can use link sharing to connect to more people.
Final Thoughts,
Look we know that there are thousands of tools out there. Perhaps we did not include your favorite marketing tool here. That’s ok. The reality is, it would be impossible to include them all. Even if we did, you could not really use them all. You do have a business to run, right?
These are the tools we as a digital marketing agency use to grow our own business. These are tested, proven, work well, highly recommended by experts in the digital marketing industry, and, most importantly, essential if you are serious about growing and expanding your own business.
Please check back here. Will update the list as new technologies arrive and old ones change or become extinct.
