10 Top Digital Marketing Tools for Small Businesses

Marketing tools are the great push for a small business. Nowadays there are plenty of impressive top digital marketing tools for small businesses. With marketing pertaining to everything from SEO to social media to PPC, you can’t do it alone. Fortunately, there are plenty of impressive top digital marketing tools you can use to help create a more effective solution for your small business.

If you work for a small business, it’s particularly imperative you find tools to help you manage the wide scope of your marketing demands.

Google Analytics

Want to comprehensively track your website performance? Google analytics allows you to analyze in-depth details about the visitors on your website, where they came from, the pages they spent the most times viewing as well as other details on your website performance.

These data if properly utilized would help you plan better strategies for your marketing campaigns.

Google Data Studio and Google Sheets is part of the Google Analytics 360 Suite, you can use these online software to create beautiful and explanatory reports for your clients. If you need a software for data visualization, I would recommend Google Data Studio and Google Sheets.

Some of the data points that Google Analytics makes available to you include:

• The number of visitors to your site by day, week, month, or any time period you choose
• Where these visitors are coming from – referrals from other website, organic search, ads, social, or direct
• The keywords people are using in Google to find your site
• The demographics and interests of your users
• How long each user spends on your site and which pages they visit

All this information is interesting, but it’s also vital knowledge that can help you to optimize your website and marketing campaigns.

For example, you might notice through Search Console or Analytics that you’re getting a lot of traffic from a keyword that you lack content covering. Write a blog post optimized for that keyword and watch your traffic and engagement levels rocket.

Getting loads of visitors from Facebook but none from Twitter? Maybe this is a sign you should concentrate your marketing efforts on your main channel.

It’s all about the insights – not just the analytics.

Semrush

Another SEO tool that is used for keyword research, tracking the keyword strategy used by your competitors, running SEO audits of your blog, looking for backlinking opportunities, and much more, Semrush is trusted by big and small businesses across the world. The company has a huge database of over 120 million keywords and 46 million domains.

Some of the areas it tracks are the organic position of a domain or landing URL on Google’s SERP, copies of AdWords ads and their position, competitor analysis, CPC ads, and others.

When it comes to eCommerce, you can optimize your online store from every angle by auditing your site to correct meta information and making your content unique.

You can also take your ad campaigns to the next level by exploring PLA copies and the keywords which trigger them. Finally, you can also manage social media and your reputation online.

Canva

Canva is a drag-and-drop design studio for folks who can’t afford professional graphic design. Canva is a subscription service for people who need web design to be easy and might not have the budget for a full-time graphic designer. Optimized for mobile, Canva makes design easy for amateurs with its visually appealing drag-and-drop features.

You can create shapes, logos, charts, graphs, and your own presentations with custom fonts using the design tools available in Canva. If you’re an employer, you can also check on the status of projects assigned to your employees on a deadline.

It has millions of images in its library and access to them is right at your fingertips.

Hubspot

Hubspot built their brand around inbound marketing (e.g. attracting potential customers by creating valuable content and experiences tailored to them), which is probably the most effective digital marketing strategy for small businesses.

HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing software solution that enables you to bring all your different marketing channels together, and optimize for more traffic, a higher conversion rate, and better ROI.

The tool includes optimized templates that are ideal for creating landing pages along with other features like live chat and user action events which ramp up your engagement and convert more visitors into customers.

Other features of HubSpot include:

• Content optimization tools
• Optimized landing pages
• Email templates
• Marketing automation
• Lead management
• Analytics
• Social media management

The full version of HubSpot has a hefty price tag but small businesses on lower budgets can get started with their free or basic package.

HubSpot has also made the switch from an inbound marketing tool to a complete CRM platform, now offering free and paid sales hubs, customer service hubs, and content management (on top of the free/paid marketing hub).

However, the complete content management platform is only available in paid versions.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a social media scheduling tool in the vein of MeetEdgar and Buffer that allows you to plan and pre-schedule your social media posts. This enables you to post whenever you want on a 24/7 cycle to reach international audiences.

All of the social engagement functions operate within the system dashboard, so you can stay in Hootsuite without switch back-and-forth between services. You can also identify key influencers and hashtags

The one-and-done social media online marketing tool with a post scheduling tool and analytics and monitoring features.

Paystack

Paystack is an online payment platform that makes it easy for merchants to accept card payments online from customers. It is easy to setup and the great part is, you don’t need to own a website to create a Paystack payment link for your business.

WordPress

WordPress is an open source website creation tool written in PHP. But totally simplified for use by those with little or no knowledge in coding, it’s probably the easiest and most powerful blogging and website content management system (CMS) in existence today.

WordPress is also a blank canvass for building any kind of site you want. If you’re looking to write a search engine optimized blog, WordPress is the way to go. Fun fact: 60% of websites on the internet are built with WordPress.

Slack

In the world of digital marketing tools, the success of any project hinges on the ease of communication between teams. That’s why you should invest in easy-to-use software that provides your team with uninterrupted interaction and data sharing.

One of the most popular team collaboration platforms is Slack. This sweet tool has won the hearts of many digital marketers thanks to its simple data sharing and easy message search options.

Most importantly, Slack can integrate with all major project management, office management, sales, productivity, design, and developer tools, making it easier for you to stay on top of every aspect of your digital marketing campaign. Better for SEO than other platforms like Squarespace.

Yoast SEO 

What use are all the hours you spend researching keywords and topics worth if you don’t properly optimize your content? Even the best of us forget things once in a while.

Yoast is one of the best digital marketing tools for optimizing content for SEO because they offer an awesome free version. Yoast will tell you where to place your keyword, how to improve readability, and perhaps most importantly, let you know what you’re doing wrong so you can improve.

With the paid versions, you can add related keywords, search for semantic keywords within the plugin, get instant internal link suggestions, insights, and more.

Try the free version of Yoast for a while to familiarize yourself with the features and audit your site’s content. When you’re comfortable, upgrade to the paid version to boost your content even further.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a marketing automation platform and an email marketing service which manages your email list and automates your email activities.

With mailchimp, you can design email newsletters and share them to a mailing list of your customers or prospective customers, mailchimp also lets you track your email marketing results by giving you a comprehensive information on your email subscribers, those who receive as well as read your emails.

Social Media Marketing Tools  

Social media tools make it possible to post constantly and organize your social media presence. They’re especially helpful for scheduling posts in advance so you’ve got a steady stream of content ready to go in your queue.

You don’t need any special tools to be on Facebook, Twitter , LinkedIn or Clubhouse. But it’s hard to get the most out of these platforms without social media management tools. (Quick note: Clubhouse does not yet have a third party management tool , you can read more about Clubhouse clubs to follow and how to use it for business on our blog).

Social Media Management Tools help you:

• Schedule and automate social media posts.
• Grow your following.
• Organize leads from social channels.
• Share content.
• Coordinate your social and content marketing.
• Use A/B testing to determine what’s working.

To survive in today’s competitive digital marketing landscape, you need to be intuitive, social media-savvy, and persistent.

Most importantly, you need to be a jack of all trades. Apart from knowing all the digital marketing tips and tricks, you must learn and use a wide range of digital marketing tools to save time and make your work more efficient.

 

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Top 12 Benefits of Email Marketing For Business

 Email marketing is one of the best ways to communicate with customers, with this top 12 benefits of email marketing for business we will highlight, how you can benefit from this and generate money.

And while most email service providers (ESPs) now come with plenty of automation tools, email marketing can still take patience, hard work, and a small bit of financial investment upfront, with this the top 12 benefits of email marketing for business is what we will highlight in this articles. 

Which leads back to that same question:

“Is email marketing worth all the time and effort?”

So, today, we’re going to answer that question with a resounding YES. And by the end of this article, we think you’ll agree.

Email marketing uses email to build relationships with your audience. With the right communication flow, you can send relevant information and convert prospects to customers.

People interested in your product or service can join your list and, through email marketing communications, learn everything they need to know to make a purchasing decision.

By building your email list with your target audience (people who can benefit from your products or services), you can be sure that email marketing will become an important source of income for your business.

Why Email Marketing for Business Works

Unlike some other marketing channels, email marketing allows you to keep in touch with your customers on a consistent basis.

Be it a simple, “Thank you for subscribing,” a cheery, “Welcome on board,” or a sincere “Happy Birthday,” email is the easiest and most effective way to let your customers know you value them. Customers love it when a business treats them as an individual, not just like everyone else.

That value should show in the emails you send, and the more value you provide to your target audience, the more they’ll look forward to hearing from you. When that happens, it’s easier to get them to engage with your call-to-action.

These are 12 top benefits of email marketing for business; that make email marketing the perfect choice for your digital marketing activities.

1. Low Cost

Let’s start with the most important aspect: how much does it cost?

To run professional email marketing campaigns, all you need is a basic strategy and the right tool that allows you to test various tactics.

There are many professional email marketing software ( MailChimp, Benchmark, Sendinblue, Mailerlite, among others). These offer various plans based on the size of your list (number of subscribers).

The services are perfectly scalable. You can use a basic plan to start building your contact list, sell your products, and upgrade to more advanced plans as your online income grows.

2. Full Control

You have full control over your communications.

You can:

– Design your assets (for example, web forms, emails and landing pages).

– Decide the type of campaigns you run.

– Segment users to better direct efforts and achieve better personalization.

Plan your communication carefully to reflect your brand identity and stand out from other companies in your customers’ inboxes.

3. Accuracy

When you build your list organically, ask people to confirm the subscription. This way, you know that your contacts want to receive emails from your brand, which means that you are targeting people who are genuinely interested in your offering. This list is considered high quality and is likely to provide better business results.

You can run A / B tests, track statistics, and monitor the results of your campaigns in real time. Based on the information collected, you can make small changes (for example, layout, copy, structure, or workflow) and optimize your digital marketing program.

4. Easy to use

Creating an email marketing campaign is straightforward. You can design your templates, it’s just drag and drop, no coding required! And if design isn’t your thing, you can use ready-made templates to set up your campaigns.

5. The preferred Marketing medium

According to the DMA (Data & Marketing Association), most people prefer that companies contact them through email rather than other channels.

The survey results make perfect sense, as well-designed email marketing campaigns are relevant and non-intrusive – emails wait in the inbox and subscribers decide when is the right time to open and read it. And if they no longer want to receive the content, they can unsubscribe with just a couple of clicks.

Permission marketing means, according to Seth Godin, the Marketing guru, is privilege (not the right) to deliver relevant and personalized messages in advance to customers who really want to receive it.

6. Can reach mobile device users

The percentage of email that is opened on mobile devices continues to grow. According to a Benchmarks report, openings through a desktop account for 45.69%, followed by mobile device openings with 34.31%.

This means that you can reach your customers and influence their purchasing decisions wherever they are. You can also integrate your online and offline marketing, p. Eg by collecting email addresses at events or while shopping at a physical location.

7. Email is its own medium.

The digital marketing strategy is divided into paid, earned and owned media. Email belongs to the category of proprietary media (unless we are talking about sponsored email). It means that your company has full control over this online marketing channel.

In fact, over time, your email list becomes your greatest online marketing asset – a massive database of people wanting to know your brand.

8. Targeted and personalized communication

You can collect relevant information from your contacts throughout the subscription process and use it to tailor the communication to your needs and preferences. Based on the data, you can create segments of people who share common traits.

Your subscribers will stay on your list as long as they see value in your communication; so over time, you can build a huge email list that generates impressive income.

9.  Boost sales

According to a report from the Direct Marketing Association, 66 percent of consumers have made a purchase online due to an email marketing message.

By promoting your business through email marketing, it gives your audience the chance to make a purchase right from their phone or laptop.

Email marketing can be used to sell to prospects, boost referrals, upsell to current customers, and even re-engage customers that have not purchased from you in a while. The more relevant and targeted your email content is, the more likely the reader will take an action.

10.  Increased traffic to your website

Emails are a great way to get customers to visit your website. You can include relevant links to your site within your email content. You can also use your email campaigns to get customers to engage with other great pieces of content available on your website or blog.

For example, a local design school could send out emails to let them know about their new design class that has a limited number of seats. Many of their customers and potential leads may have missed out on this opportunity to attend the class had they not revisited the website in time.

The design school then can fill all the seats more quickly by promoting the class via email, instead of waiting for reservations to trickle in.

11.  Maintain 100% Control over Your Audience

Out of all the email marketing benefits, this may be one of the biggest: you want complete control over your audience.

More than any other platform, email marketing gives you the most stability.

With social media, you always run the risk of having your account suspended or shut down. Sometimes this isn’t even from something you did intentionally wrong.

People have had their accounts shut down for promoting their page on certain groups (without knowing they couldn’t) or by breaking other rules they weren’t aware of.

It’s why you hear horror stories of people building their entire business in Facebook pages and groups, only to get shut down and lose everything.

And the world of content marketing isn’t any better.

Thanks to algorithm updates and changes in SEO ranking factors by Google, you never know when your content will fluctuate on the results pages (SERPs).

12. Stronger customer relationships

Your customers appreciate a good email. The time and effort it takes to draft the perfect email doesn’t go unnoticed. They want to know what’s happening with your business, and how they can get involved.

It’s nearly impossible to reach out to all your customers in person or by phone. Email marketing campaigns bridge that gap. You could even set up a drip marketing campaign to help you smooth out the process.

Drip campaigns are ongoing and drive the user down the buyer’s journey to a final conversion point. They’re often used to provide constant value to subscribers while helping keep your brand top-of-mind. Often times, these emails slowly “drip” helpful information, products, or tips, over days, weeks, or months.

For example, the emails you receive when you browse Amazon, but don’t buy anything, are a drip email marketing automation at work.

Summary 

It’s easy to get caught up in the intricacies of building out an email marketing campaign that works for your customers and your business.

There’s a lot of learning involved, but there’s also a lot of opportunity to communicate with your customers, rather than just sending emails all the time.

With email marketing, you can build your brand, out-do your marketing goals, and set yourself up as an expert, all without breaking your budget.