When small businesses are just beginning, they already have numerous tasks to handle. In order to promote their brand effectively, it is necessary for them to possess a dedicated marketing team that is willing to invest the required time and effort. The most effective approach is to ensure that your team has access to the finest marketing tools right from the beginning.
In the present era of technology, there are various forms of marketing tools available, such as automated email marketing campaigns and social media campaigns.
On average, standard marketing messages have a lower open rate and a lower click-through rate compared to automated email messages, with automated email messages having a higher open rate of 70.5% and a higher click-through rate of 152%.
When numbers are as significant as those, it is vital to have a discussion with the marketing team of your small business and establish which marketing tools can be useful in enhancing the average benchmarks across all digital marketing channels.
What is a marketing tool?
Marketing tools come in different forms and are designed for specific purposes to assist you in implementing your marketing strategy.
Before diving headfirst into trying every tool at once, marketing teams should consider the following as they may become overwhelmed with the plethora of options available.
- Who’s your audience?
- Where’s your audience most likely to be found?
- What materials will your audience find most useful/engaging?
- How can you deliver your materials to them in the most efficient way?
By answering these questions, you will be able to reduce the list of valuable marketing tools that your brand should prioritize.
What are the best marketing tools for small businesses?
Finding the right marketing options for your business may seem overwhelming since marketing tools for small businesses vary in shapes and sizes. To assist you in getting started, we have provided a breakdown of essential marketing tools and recommended platforms for your marketing toolbox.
Platforms for automating email marketing processes.
Compared to other digital channels, email marketing takes the lead in terms of ROI. Marketers typically achieve an average return of $38 for every dollar invested, indicating its value as a worthwhile investment.
Email marketing platforms, like Campaign Monitor, offer marketing teams a comprehensive solution for their email marketing requirements. This platform enables users to develop personalized email campaigns and utilize list segmentation to create more intelligent email lists. Additionally, users can utilize analytics and insight features to track the effectiveness of their campaigns and test everything prior to sending.
- Mailchimp: 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.
Platform for scheduling social activities
Small businesses should also consider using a social scheduler as a beneficial marketing tool. These tools assist marketers in planning, scheduling, and distributing content across multiple social media platforms.
Hootsuite is a popular option as it permits marketing teams to accomplish not only the mentioned tasks but also to observe their profiles and engagement on every channel, while also offering valuable information on the performance of each post.
Tools for content marketing
To have a successful marketing campaign, it is crucial to have well-written and captivating content. Utilizing artificial intelligence, these tools can assist you in composing content for blogs, newsletters, videos, and social media posts, capturing the interest 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.
Tools for marketing through SMS.
Here are our top choices for SMS marketing software that can automate the process of sharing product information, promotions, and upcoming events with customers via text message, making it a valuable tool for small businesses.
- 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.
The tools used for analyzing websites.
By comprehending the actions of visitors on your website, you can enhance your content and achieve your marketing objectives of customer retention, customer acquisition, and sales growth. Reliable analytics tools enable you to analyze essential metrics like page views and conversion rates, and also provide insights 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.
Please rephrase the text while maintaining the same meaning. Do not add new information and do not remove information: Tools for CRM
CRM tools do more than store your contact database; they can also organize your contacts, gather information on potential customers, and aid in the management of 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.
Tools for digital marketing are to be thought about step by step.
When promoting your small business and brand using digital marketing methods, utilizing software can automate your actions and monitor the return on your 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.
Tools used for marketing on social media platforms
Digital tools can simplify the management of your efforts when using multiple social media platforms for customer engagement, reaching new audiences, and generating brand awareness. These tools offer features like 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.
Tools used for design.
When designing, tools can simplify the creation of visually appealing graphics and videos for your marketing endeavors. The top-notch tools provide templates, image libraries, and photo editing capabilities.
- 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.
Project management tools, when considering each step, should not include any additional information or omit any existing information.
Project management software enables you to effectively oversee your marketing projects from beginning to end. The most superior options assist in breaking down marketing projects into achievable tasks with designated due dates and provide customizable dashboards for monitoring 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.
How do you measure the success of your marketing tools?
The measurement of success for marketing tools depends on the specific tools chosen by your team. To monitor their success, consider the following methods:
- Monitoring email and social media analytics/insights
- Monitoring engagement with your marketing materials
- Monitoring how well projects are managed
- Monitoring how often users make use of your team organization and communication tools
Do marketing tools really matter?
Marketing tools are of critical importance as they serve as the essential elements in your overall operations. These tools ensure a seamless flow of operations and prevent your team from encountering numerous obstacles. Having the correct tools to sustain the momentum is indispensable for an outstanding marketing strategy.
