Only 20% of small businesses make it to year two of their operations. And to ensure your startup falls within this category, there are certain measures you need to implement to have a competitive edge against the already established industry players. An effective way of achieving this is by using tools that help streamline your marketing operations. You can have a fantastic product or service but still fail because you couldn’t convince your potential customers to consider your products.
Luckily, there are tools to help streamline your marketing efforts to spread your brand’s name amongst your competitors. Without further ado, here are some of the best tools to streamline your marketing operations.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Tools
Marketing entails understanding and influencing your customer’s behavior throughout the customer lifecycle. This is why using CRM tools is advised if you want to remain competitive in today’s cutthroat market. CRM tools are software applications that help companies manage customer data and customer interaction, automate sales, marketing, customer service, and communicate better with customers.
As a small business owner, it’s advised you use CRM tools as they help streamline your sales and marketing processes. These tools do this by enabling you to record customer data and keep track of the entire sales cycle by organizing information in a single repository. They can also automate repetitive tasks, such as sales emails, follow-up calls, and other activities that can be time-consuming.
In addition, the use of CRM tools also provides you with valuable insights using data analytics tools that help small business owners predict future outcomes based on past trends. They can also use this data to improve their product or service offering to meet customer needs better. Understanding this helps resolve any confusion you might have had on the ERP vs CRM. Examples of CRM tools you should consider using include HubSpot, Less Annoying CRM, Zoho, and Pipedrive.
Social Media Management Tools
Social media has become a critical part of any marketing strategy, but it’s not always easy to keep up. This is because today’s business world has changed, and what used to work for small businesses just a few years ago may now be obsolete. One of the most significant changes you should make as a startup owner is fully embracing social media, from daily posting on Facebook and Instagram to video creation and use on YouTube. But all this can be time-consuming.
Luckily, there are tools available that can help you be more efficient with your time and better manage your social media accounts. This entails using social media management tools to help you streamline your marketing operations and shift your focus on the key issues, which is running day-to-day business operations.
There are a ton of social media management tools available that you can use to streamline your marketing efforts and one of the most popular options is Jarvee. With the help of this tool, you can build an interactive online relationship with potential customers. In addition, it helps you manage your social media presence so that it’s engaging, consistent, and professional.
Email Marketing Tools
Email marketing tools are the most crucial part of any marketing strategy as they help businesses engage with customers, convert leads, and close deals. These tools boast a greater return on investment compared to any other marketing tool, hence why you must use them to increase your company’s chances of success. With the right email marketing tool, you can save time by automating tasks like email scheduling and list segmentation. You can also improve your communication through personalization and tracking features.
Using email marketing software will also help you with this task by making it easy to manage your subscriber lists and create professional-looking emails that capture people’s attention.
But while email marketing is a powerful way to keep in touch with your customers, promote your business and drive sales, choosing the ideal platform to use can be quite confusing. This is because there are many such tools available in the market, and choosing the right one for your business can be overwhelming. Some of the best options to consider include.’
- MailChimp
- SendinBlue
- ActiveCampaign
- Drip
- Moosend
With any of these email marketing tools, you can to better engage with your customers and build relationships with them. You also can direct your attention to growing your business and making more money instead of stressing about whether or not you remembered to schedule your email broadcast for the upcoming week.
Project Management Tools
It is always important to keep the big picture in mind when marketing. However, that big picture often consists of many small tasks. This is why planning your marketing operations is essential if you’re going to cope with the intense competition from business rivals. But to achieve this, you need some tools to help you break down those tasks and streamline your marketing operations, and this is where project management tools come in handy.
Using a project management tool, you can easily break down large team-based tasks into manageable pieces to ensure your entire team is on the same page. This tool also helps you identify bottlenecks or roadblocks that may be inhibiting your team’s performance, keeping everyone accountable for the marketing tasks assigned to them. Another benefit of a project management tool is that it helps you get more done with less effort.
There are plenty of options like Basecamp and Slack, mainly used for internal communications. In addition, there’s also Asana and Trello that are used for more formal project management.
Takeaway
As a small business owner, there’s always a lot on your hands. Therefore, it wouldn’t hurt to get some help from tools that can help you streamline your marketing efforts and better reach your target audience. These marketing tools are handy if you lack the finances to hire an in-house marketing team. If you want to have this competitive edge, this guide has detailed the tools you need to use to streamline your marketing operations.
Author Bio
Ted Grealish is a marketing expert and boasts more than 10 years of experience in the industry. He enjoys sharing his insights by writing blogs and guest blogs to startup owners and aspiring marketers. During his free time, he spends his time hiking, camping, swimming, and scuba diving.
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