In our time, Batman has become a crowd-favorite superhero. However, this billionaire orphan who fights crime at night wouldn’t have had much success without his utility belt. All those tools and gadgets allow him to appear greater than a mortal man.
The same can be said about a digital marketer. We would be nothing without our software tools and platforms (utility belt). The basic tools that I’m going to outline that every marketer should have for their company are an email list, marketing automation, Google Adwords, Google Analytics, blogs, and social media.
1. Email list
During the start of your product or company, you’re going to want to gather as many emails as quickly as you can. At your next event, collect emails from the people who visit your booth. Install a tool like GetDrip on your website to capture emails from website visitors.
Start gathering the emails of people who may take an interest in your product or service. You’ll have many opportunities to use these emails in the future to capture leads and increase your sales. Plus, you’ll need emails for the next tool I’m going to describe.
2. Marketing Automation
Automation can simplify your workload and increase the number of leads you generate.. Using an automation tool like Hubspot allows you to send an email blast to your lists, leveraging your fresh piece of content to an interested party. Once you see your open rates and conversion rates increase, then you’ll have leads!
The best part is once your leads have downloaded your piece of content, they can be thrown into a set of already-created emails. Through the power of automation, they’ll be nurtured through your series of emails with new pieces of content until they’re ready to purchase your product!
3. Adwords
If you can’t escape Google, then neither can everyone else. Leverage the tools that Google provides to start driving traffic to your website and to keep your sales team busy. With Google Adwords, you can create ads to remarket to your website visitors or pay to show up for certain keyword searches. If you’re not jumping on the Google train, then you’re losing to all your competitors.
4. Analytics
Analyze, analyze, analyze. They say that you remember things that come in 3’s, thus I’m telling you that you need to analyze. Using analytics for every aspect of your marketing is key to tracking what works and what doesn’t. With Google Analytics, you’ll be able to track where all your website traffic comes from, when your traffic comes in, and where your best leads come from.
Analyze your social media ad performance to see what ad copy resonates with your target market. If nobody is clicking on your ads, then you’ll want to start A/B testing images and catchy titles.
5. Blogs
It’s time to freshen up your writing skills. Posting a blog at least once a week keeps the cogs turning in your well-oiled machine. The fresh content boosts your ranking in Google and provides new content for your leads to feast on. This tool also lets you express your knowledge within your given field. You can build yourself up as a thought leader in your industry, and then share your blogs through social media.
6. Social Media
Social media is one of the best tools to connect with your target market. You’ll be able to interact and engage with your followers on a personal level and show that you’re more than an incorporeal entity. Using your email lists, you can create custom audiences and run social media ads for them. Here are the first social media platforms that you’ll want to start with:
- Facebook/Twitter: These platforms have great ad targeting for B2C companies, and through social posts, you can build your following and thought leadership.
- LinkedIn: This is where B2B magic happens. Most of the users on this platform are professionals and are looking to make connections or build their businesses. Their ultra-targeted ads can give you the best B2B leads outside of your own email list.
When starting a business, ensure that you take advantage of all these marketing tools. They can be a lot to manage, but it’s a great place to start.
Much success,
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