Regardless of the field or industry, every practitioner, artist, consultant and professional requires a capable set of tools to get their jobs done efficiently. Whether it's a pen, shovel or piece of software, tools enable us to remain relevant, gain a competitive advantage and serve clients well. They cannot be ignored or taken for granted.
With fast paced trends in data consumption and analysis, we see a plethora of premium software on the market geared towards helping businesses in every industry achieve success through knowledge and efficiency. No longer is the scale tipped in the favor of large conglomerates but the average, small, fast moving startup, now stands a chance at Billion dollar successes.
The Importance of Marketing Tools & Automation
Though many businesses have been reluctant and slow to respond to social media and the changing face of online marketing, we see an uptick of investments in resources to boost performance; by both small and large enterprises. All signals indicate the relevance of marketing automation as revenues for business-to-business (B2B) marketing automation systems will grow 60% to reach $1.2 billion this year, according to Raab Associates. Up from about $100 Million in 2009.
Consumers innately require more from businesses and merchants as they’re more likely to respond on an emotional and personalized level. Meaning that if you’re not capable of adequately managing customer and prospect relationships in a native, meaningful and responsive manner, it’s quite possible your marketing shenanigans will be ignored for the most part. Achieving this at scale requires people behind stable systems and tools that work.
A vast majority of leads you will qualify on a daily basis will not be ready to purchase immediately. Customers respond to feeling connections with brands that speak to their daily life problems and interests; and this requires continuous and persistent engagement. Your marketing model should not be based on solely closing sales but nurturing leads. Nurtured leads spend more money on brands they trust and are the key to developing loyal customers.
The Ideal Tools to Start With
So where does your business stand and how capable is your team at managing the numerous leads and opportunities that will present themselves? To get you started on your marketing and sales journey, here are 8 vital tools you should never try to do business without.
GetResponse
GetResponse is a powerful email marketing and analytical tool used to create and manage email marketing campaigns. Packed with features such as landing page creation, custom email designs, auto-responders, form builder, social integration and lots of automation functions, it's the perfect and possibly only email marketing app you'll ever need.
The fact that relevant emails drive 18 times more revenue than general broadcast emails, (Source: Jupiter Research), your email marketing plan needs to include providing a rich experience for your audience. This should be backed by the goal of nurturing leads and customers, not as a one-time event, but a continued investment of time and effort in relationship building.
A highly personalized and targeted email marketing campaign is quite valuable. Here’s what’s been observed from the industry:
- 66% of consumers have made a purchase online as a result of an email marketing message (Direct Marketing Association)
- 72% of B2B buyers are most likely to share useful content via email. (Earnest Agency)
- Emails that include social sharing buttons have a 158% higher click-through rate. (GetResponse)
- 40% of B2B marketers rated the leads generated by email marketing as high quality. (Software Advice Survey)
- For every $1 spent, $44.25 is the average return on email marketing investment. (Experian)
- Personalized subject lines are 22.2% more likely to be opened. (Adestra July 2012 Report)
Email obviously still produces a high rate of return.
Consumer Barometer
Market research, data collection and analysis can be quite challenging and expensive. Yet, it is necessary to have a means of acquire key data regarding your industry and target market’s trends and behavior.
Consumer Barometer offers companies trying to attract clients online crucial information about online consumers, of whom they need to make more informed business decisions. Providing insight into how customers use online and offline information resources in their purchase process. Discover key data such as buying trends and triggers and even how users in different territories interact with the web. It’s a powerful and friendly tool for studying your target markets and determining what prospects will most likely respond to.
Here’s an example report on how UK consumers research and purchase digital cameras in comparison with Ireland. Based on this simple report we can quickly conclude that UK may be more lucrative for online sales versus Ireland, where the typical consumer prefers buying from a physical storefront.
This analysis was presented within a few clicks. Imagine what you can discover within your industry.
Vend
Vend is on a mission to make the traditional cash register obsolete. This web-based point-of-sale and inventory management software comes with a strong set of features at a very affordable starting rate. It's easy to set up, operates on any device with a web browser (online or off), and even works with hardware you already own. Vend is perfect for startups since it's nimble and its API intuitively integrates with many other popular apps and services like PayPal, Shopify, Authorize.net and Timely to name a few. The service also allows users to discover reviews online, access sales history to predict demand and manage inventory. Sign up for a free trial and check out a tour of their system here.
A cool feature to take note of here is Vend’s built-in loyalty program which allows store owners to offer great benefits to customers. Loyalty programs are excellent for securing repeat sales and growing your business.
Nearly 90% of all Americans participate in some sort of rewards program and the market is estimated to be valued at $54 Million and grows at a rate of 20% per year (California Management Review). Customers love rewards and they significantly improve chances of making a purchase.
Data sources: Nielson – A View of Loyalty Sentiment & 2013 Maritz Loyalty Report
Closing the gaps and lag between vendor, client and the sales process will result in faster product and service delivery and better customer experiences. The numbers do not lie.
Salesforce
Salesforce may seem intimidating at first, packed with a powerhouse of features and built-in tools. In reality, at a low price starting at $5 per month, their platform allows any business with vision to build almost any kind of functionality and custom reporting they need into the app. Salesforce is built to scale and your startup, whether you need sales reporting, bug tracking or data collection, is covered. It's a CRM that is adaptable to any business.
Typically, businesses experience improved efficiency and a strengthened ability to nurture clients while creating a more cohesive sales and support team.
Through better managing the sales and support process, many businesses experience:
- Revenue increases of up to 41% per sales person
- Decreased sales cycles of over 24%
- Lead conversion rate improvements of over 300%!
- Customer Retention improvements of 27%
- Decreased sales and marketing costs of 23%
- Improved profit margins of over 2%
- Increase the customer service efficiency
- Increase in revenue per month per sales representative
Automation and systems that ensure accountability and tracking simply make sense.
Check out a free training course on Udacity on how to build your own custom Salesforce app accessible via web and mobile. I found it very useful the very first time that I setup Salesforce.
Feedly
Content discovery and delivery through your blog is vital. Feedly makes finding great content to share with your audience easy. Not only can you subscribe to RSS feeds to keep on top of industry blogs or news sites, you can also use Feedly to discover new content related to your topics of interest. It's a useful app for keeping track of what others are saying and doing in your industry.
John Boitnott, contributor at Inc and good friend always says "the app will help keep you “down to earth” as you witness real stories as they occur. Statistics are important for mastering your niche but you have to be up to date in real time with live data from the industry and competitors."
Compfight
The use of images is a great way to engage your audience and draw them into your business, whether it's through your blog or social network. They also grab attention when someone shares your stuff on social media channels. Unfortunately, good photography can cost a lot of money, and with regular blogging, the investment can add up fast. Compfight helps you overcome this by searching Flickr’s high quality database for photos that have the appropriate Creative Commons license for Commercial Use.
It’s important to note also that photo posts on social networks get more engagement than links, videos or text-based updates. They actually account for 93% of the most engaging posts on Facebook. According to Hubspot, photos get 53% more likes, 104% more comments and 84% more click-throughs on links than text-based posts.
Images that seamless tell stories and evoke emotional responses from users increase engagement and impact.
Buffer
Buffer is one of my personal favorites and I use it daily. It is known for powerful social media publishing and analytics. It sends your updates to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and App.net. It also has built-in analytics to help you understand why certain posts are working well, and the best times to publish updates based on your audience. Plus, you can collaborate with your team to keep your accounts relevant with fresh content.
The Buffer App has a feature that allows easy sharing of images to any of your social profiles. Therefore, reducing the time and workload to share and generate content your audience will find useful.
Semalt
Semalt helps you discover your website's hidden potential in search engine performance by suggesting and tracking keywords that are relevant to your website and business. It's a strong tool for webmasters to gain almost real-time analytics of competition performance, social media reputation and track how web properties progress daily and overtime.
SEO is still relevant in this age as the average business I’ve come in contact with receives 50% of its organic traffic via search engines. This tool helps you get off on the right foot.
Starting your business with these apps requires a relatively low investment that will yield massive results when used consistently. Importantly, focus on developing working systems that can be easily replicated throughout your organization. People will always fail but thoroughly thought out and executed systems are more reliable and are capable of withstanding market pressure. Determine the appropriate system for your market and get the ball rolling.
