If that sounds like a lot, you're right!
How on earth do we continuously do all that for all our client accounts?
We use marketing tools. In fact, we could not exist without them. Marketing tools make it possible to manage multiple marketing campaigns at once without spending all our time in front of a computer screen (hey, we've got lives, too!) and without sacrificing any potential ROI.
Do you want to run a successful digital marketing strategy without devoting your entire life to the process? You have options: you can partner with us, or, you can take a DIY approach.
If you're curious what about marketing tools you can use to bolster your own marketing campaign or you want to know a few of our favorites, read on.
[Non-DIYers can contact us for more information]
First things first, you need to know your website's analytics. Google Analytics is a completely free tool that you can connect to your website with a tracking pixel or plugin. It tells you how many website visitors you get, your website's bounce rate, the search terms people type in to get to your website, other links that lead them to your site, and so on and so forth.
This is an essential tool to track data on your website, and it's used in tracking clicks and conversions in nearly all of your digital advertising, especially with Google AdWords.
What started out as a simple social scheduler has turned into a huge social media marketing tool. Now Buffer offers social media scheduling, conversation monitoring and engagement, and analytics for your social media performance. This all-in-one tool is one of the more affordable options available and it comes with a team which includes customer support if you ever have any issues.
Want to put together a quick and easy social media contest? Tools like Woobox are perfect for this. They can easily help you set up a landing page with email entry, rules, copy, and its own individual URL. You can share the landing page over all of your social media pages, send it in your email newsletter, etc. Then Woobox even takes care of picking the winner(s) for you with their random generator. All the hard work, taken care of!
Take even more advantage of your website's lead generation power with a digital marketing tool like Drift. This plugin allows you to add a chatbox to your website with a bot that automates lead generation and appointment setting. Create options for website visitors to select, including one to set up an initial consultation with your sales team.
When running digital marketing campaigns and ads, it's imperative to take your prospects directly to the information they're looking for. If you run an ad for a single service, don't lead them to your full services page or your contact page with no other information about that service.
Instead, use LeadPages to easily create a dedicated landing page with specific information catered to that ad campaign with specialized copy and a contact form all in the same place. LeadPages is a great tool to use because it provides visually appealing templates to get you started and an easy drag-and-drop interface to customize elements of your landing page.
OptinMonster is a tool for increasing leads and email subscribers directly from your website. It allows you to create a pop-up on your site, a slide opt-in as visitors scroll down your page, a signup form in your sidebar or footer, and more. It offers endless methods to get website visitors to see and opt into your email list so you can begin nurturing leads.
In digital marketing, you'll be using a number of tools, and to ensure everything stays on track, it's important that the tools can 'talk to each other'. Unfortunately, not every tool has that ability pre-built in. That's where the amazing and endlessly useful tool Zapier comes in to play. If you need two tools to talk to each other, you can use this tool to create "zaps" and connect the two tools in exactly the way you need.
The more you use this tool the more you'll appreciate the automation and integrations that can help speed up your business processes. You can even create processes you didn't realize you needed. Definitely count this in on your must-have list.
In every campaign you ever run, you're always going to need visual assets to accompany it. Canva is a cheap and easy way to create graphics without having to fork over a ton of money for the Adobe Suite. They have preset dimensions for specific social media graphics so you don't have to keep every dimension in the back of your head. Plus, Canva offers a ton of premade graphics templates to get you started, which is especially helpful for users who may not be design savvy.
There's a free version available, but you can certainly opt for their pro version to upload brand fonts, colors, and other elements within your account.
If you ever want to send out a buyer survey, or if you're conducting a poll, or any other question-asking format for customers, Typeform is hands down one of the best survey softwares out there. Not only is their interface extremely user friendly, but their surveys are beautiful and fun to fill out. Win-win? We think so!
If you're just getting started with email marketing, Mailchimp is the perfect starter for your business. Although they have limited automations, new and small businesses don't need to worry about all the bells and whistles yet. Sign up for Mailchimp's free account (free for up to 2,000 subscribers!) just so you can get started building a list and sending out email newsletters. You can worry about a CRM and automations after a little bit of growth.
Do you use any of these tools already? Or does the list make you feel overwhelmed? If so, don't worry, Connection Model can help.
Let us set your business on the pathway to success. Whether you're interested in learning a little bit more about digital marketing or if you need help with marketing campaigns, contact us.