Best Marketing Tools of 2021
Marketing is one of the most important factors that will determine the overall success or failure of a business. Thanks to the progression of technology, marketing has become much easier than it used to be in the past.
Instead of using billboards, fliers, and other physical media, marketing now will typically consist of virtual advertisements, promotions, and company information online. Although this means that marketing content will be easier to create, there will also be much more competition, and it will probably require some help to reach your potential customers.
Fortunately, there are plenty of apps and software that can help you to market more efficiently in the digital age.
What Is Marketing?
Marketing refers to the various activities that a company engages in whenever they are attempting to promote and sell their products or services to potential consumers. Since this definition is so broad, marketing can sometimes be misunderstood.
For example, most people think of marketing as simply being advertisements. Technically they are correct because advertising is a large part of marketing, but there is a lot more to it than just commercials.
Another key part of marketing is trying to determine who you want to do business with and creating the right message that will encourage them to consider your product instead of a competitor. There are quite a few questions that you will need to answer in order to create effective marketing.
They are most easily summed up by the seven P’s of marketing:
Product. What item or service are you selling? Why is it better than other options?
Price. How much does it cost to purchase your product? Is it more or less expensive than other options? Why?
Promotion. How do consumers hear about you and your product? Are these promotions increasing sales?
Place. Where can consumers buy your product?
Packaging. How are your product and business being presented?
Positioning. What do potential consumers think about you and your product? Are you well known in your preferred demographic?
People. Who are the people involved with selling your product? Who do you want to buy it?
What Are The Best Marketing Tools In 2021?
Now that we’ve covered the broader definition of marketing, it will be easier to understand the different advantages of using certain marketing tools. First, you will need to identify exactly what you are looking to get out of your marketing tool as they are not all built the same.
Each of them will come with different features, benefits, and specialties that can help to boost your overall marketing abilities.
Project Management
It will take quite a bit of planning and coordination to create a marketing campaign successfully. Using software such as Trello can help you to plan, collaborate, organize, and ultimately deliver your various projects on time.
The program isn’t specifically designed for marketing, but it can still be very beneficial for you and your team. Trello uses a virtual version of the Kanban board method to help you visually keep track of the progress you are making with each task and the overall project.
By helping your team to brainstorm and communicate more easily, Trello will make it easier for everyone involved to collaborate remotely. It will also help everyone know exactly what their responsibilities are and the responsibilities of other team members.
This way, they will know who to talk to should they have any issues or questions. Trello is perfect for small businesses as the free version comes with unlimited cards, lists, and up to 10 MB file attachments.
Social Media Management
One of the newest places to engage in marketing online is using social media. Since there are so many popular social media sites with their own unique cultures, it can be pretty difficult to market each one effectively.
That’s where using social media management software like Hootsuite can help out. Hootsuite is designed specifically to help your team to plan, create, and schedule your social media campaigns across several popular websites. One feature that can be highly beneficial is that Hootsuite will essentially bundle all of your social media inboxes into one.
You’ll be able to receive and respond to messages using Hootsuite’s Inbox. Hootsuite doesn’t currently offer any free version of their software, and their prices can be a bit steep for some of the larger packages. However, they offer custom pricing options based on the number of users you want to grant access to and social profiles that you want to be bundled.
SEO Management
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and has become an extremely popular marketing method lately. The basic concept of SEO is to help get your marketing content to rank higher on search engines such as Google.
This way, whenever someone searches for information relating to your industry, company, or product, it will be your links that they select first. It can be a pretty challenging task to reach the first page of results, but that’s why using SEO management software like SEMrush can be so beneficial.
By purchasing this software, you will be able to search for keywords related to your website, analyze the SEO strategies of your competitors, and create content focused on improving your SEO. It can also help you to create pay-per-click style ad campaigns that can be helpful for your business sales.
The software contains all kinds of important features, including traffic insights, content auditing, and backlink analysis. Although this software can be very helpful for boosting your SEO, it can get a little expensive. It might not be worth the money if you operate a small business or a recent startup.
However, SEMrush does offer a custom pricing option, so it may be worth looking into if you feel that your SEO needs improvement.
Contact Management
As a business continues to grow, so will the list of contacts on your phone. Effective marketing is more than just reaching out to strangers and trying to sell a product; it’s also about keeping up solid relationships with your contacts. This can become fairly difficult depending on the overall size of your contact list.
An app like Dialed will help you get your contact more organized and easier to manage. Online marketers and B2B marketers using this app as their customer relationship management (CRM) tool will allow them to create customizable groups and labels for their various contacts, as well as sheets that will include all previous texts and calls. Your sales team will also create a list of priority numbers so VIPs can be put through directly.
However, the best online marketing feature comes in the form of bulk messaging from your mobile device. You will be able to send promotional material and text messages to specific groups that you created from your contact list. As if all of that wasn’t enough, Dialed will provide you with a separate number so that you will be able to block all spam, robocalls, and other unwanted interruptions.
Dialed offers a free trial for seven days but will require a monthly subscription to continue service.
Other Tools and Platforms We Should Mention
Canva for images and branding
WordPress for content management
Social media platforms (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram) for social media marketing and engagement
Buzzsumo for influencer research
Google Analytics for website data
Google Search Console for website and keyword data
Mailchimp for email marketing campaigns
The Takeaway
Marketing is a very involved process that will require much more than creating advertisements and posting them online. In order to properly create and manage an effective marketing campaign, you will need to answer several questions about who you are as a business and how you want to be perceived.
After you’ve answered these questions, you would need to determine which marketing tool is the best fit for you. Whether you select complex software for a high price or use an app that only costs a few dollars a month, there are plenty of options available for you to create effective marketing and bring in new customers.
If you’re ready to begin using one of the best marketing tools available, download Dialed now.
SOURCES:
Marketing Definition | investopedia.com
Marketing, business - The 7 Ps of Marketing | entrepreneur.com
