Business , Small Business Ideas
There are over 1000 companies selling marketing technology in more than 40 categories. It’s not surprising that this is the most popular word marketers use to describe themselves.
This is a waste of time. These tools have proven to be a huge success for marketers. However, the first step was convincing higher-ups to invest. To help you get on that path, I suggest a Marketing Technology Starter Kit. This includes seven programs that every marketing team should have at least access to to increase leads, opportunities and revenue.
These programs can be viewed as an online version of direct marketing. The list getting materials to the right audience as well as the offer offering something they value and will act upon. These are the most crucial factors in direct marketing campaigns. Direct marketers have been optimizing and measuring results for decades. even David Ogilvy loved. My Starter Kit will show you how marketing technologies can help you reach the right audience at just the right time and with the right offer.
Here are seven technologies I believe will be of interest to marketers today:
Analytics Marketing is now at an inflection point. Everything, including channels, technologies and offers, can be tracked like never before. John Wanamaker, a pioneer in advertising and retail, said over a century ago that half of the advertising money he spent was wasted. The problem is that smart marketers know which half isn’t working. To do this, you must have web analytics systems in place and people on your marketing team who are skilled at using data.
Leading tools
The Google Analytics is far and away the most widely used website analytics tool. It is used on more than 80% of small- and medium-sized websites. This is a great place to begin. However, you might need the paid version or another enterprise analytics tool such as Adobe Analytics. You’ll also find their own analytics platforms in the tools listed below.
Conversion Optimization – Conversion optimization refers to getting people to your website or to engage with you online to do what you want. Usually, this involves filling out forms so you at least have their email address. A website form can only be filled out by about 3% of those who came from an online advertisement. With conversion optimization, that number can increase to 6%. Some companies can achieve conversion rates that are several times higher by using marketing apps or outstanding offers. I have a form on my website that has a 33% conversion rate. You need as many people as possible to convert if you are going to spend the time and money to drive traffic to your site.
The leading tools for Word stream’s Landing page Grader is free to use
Optimzely allows you to run A/B testing on landing pages and other elements of your website.
Unbounce allows you to create landing pages and test them with A/B testing
ion interactive allows non-programmers to build marketing apps. These apps may be more engaging and convert than a content or form download.
Email marketing is the 800-pound gorilla in digital marketing. And I don’t mean spamming people with lists that can be sold to your rivals. It’s about getting people to agree to you emailing them more information and then sending valuable content that is relevant to their interests. Email marketing is powerful because it keeps you in front of prospects and customers who have expressed an interest in hearing from you.
Leading Tools:
- MailChimp
- Constant Contact
- Market automation programs (see below), often have strong email marketing capabilities built-in
Search Engine Marketing – Search Engine Marketing includes both paid searches, such as Google AdWords and search engine optimization (SEO), to ensure that your website content is found in the top organic search results. You need to be present when people search for your product, even if they are B2B buyers of large-ticket items. You can optimize keywords, ad copy and offers with search ads.
You can also track people downstream by integrating your Google Analytics data and CRM. This will allow you to see not only which ads get clicked on most, but also which ads generate the most revenue and opportunities. These insights can be used for all your traditional and online marketing. SEO is more than just technical improvements to a site. It also involves regularly creating quality content. This is what Google values highly and ranks highly.
Leading Tools:
- Google AdWords
- Bing, Yahoo
- WordStream
- Wordtracker
- BrightEdge
Remarketing – You have probably seen remarketing. It’s when you visit a website, and their ads show up on any other websites you visit. Because you are only advertising to people who already expressed enough interest to visit your site, it is very easy to set-up and extremely cost-effective. You can customize it to display ads for specific products or services that they have looked at. You get tons of impressions for free since you typically pay on a CPM-basis. Remarketing is used by more than 50% of software companies, but only 10% of other companies. Follow the example of these software companies.
Leading Tools:
- Remarketing with Google AdWords
- AdRoll
- Perfect Audience from Marin Software
Mobile – Half of all emails are opened on smartphones and half of searches will soon be performed on smartphones. Therefore, all websites must be mobile-friendly. Today, however, only a third are mobile-friendly. You need a site that is simple to read and easy to use on a smartphone. Google will penalize you for having a site that is difficult to read and use on a phone. This is the first step. Once you have a mobile-friendly web site, you can move on to mobile advertising and other forms mobile marketing. This is just a starting kit.
Leading Tools:
Responsive design is the most popular way to make a website mobile-friendly. It automatically adjusts the site to the size of the device it is being viewed. If your browser is set to horizontal, you can check if it resizes itself. This happens as an example in the mayoclinic.org website. Another option is to create and manage a separate mobile website, such as the New York Times . Smartphones are automatically directed there.
Marketing Automation – Marketing automation brings everything together. This technology includes analytics, online forms and tracking what people do on your website. It also allows you to personalize your content and manage email campaigns. You can align sales and marketing with lead scoring and automated alerts to salespeople. These activities are informed using data from your CRM or third-party sources. It is impossible to give more details here. Just get it.
The most popular marketing automation programs for small and mid-market businesses:
- HubSpot
- Act-On
- InfusionSoft
Top programs for the mid-market or enterprise:
- Marketo
- Adobe Campaign
- Oracle Eloqua
- Pardot, ExactTarget (Salesforce).
- Silverpop – IBM
You might have noticed that I used the word “content” multiple times when describing how these programs were implemented. Modern marketers consider content to be their currency, even in B2B. It is tailored to each member of the buying team at different stages of the buying process.
You can create content in many formats, including blog posts, infographics and marketing apps. The quality of the content is crucial. Ann Handley, MarketingProfs Chief Content Officer, asks: ” Would your customers thank you for that?” High quality content is important, but it is not a technology.
And, no, I didn’t forget social media. While social media is essential for engagement, for content promotion, and other purposes, I don’t consider it a top seven for lead generation.
These seven are actually synergistic, even though I have listed them separately. Search ads don’t perform as well as search ads that have great website conversion forms and automated email follow-up. All of this can be tracked in a marketing automation software and integrated with your CRM.
It can get complicated. It’s not about what you do, but how well. There are no magic bullets and poor marketers blame their tools. You will need to surround yourself with people who are able to see the whole picture of digital marketing and not just those who support it.
