With the rapid development of technology nowadays, there are many tools out there that can help companies accomplish their jobs better, faster, and easier. However, with an overwhelming amount of tools available, sometimes it can be difficult for businesses to choose the right ones. And that’s where Blayzer comes in! Here’s a list of must-have marketing technology for 2017.
1. Analytics
Analytics is a method used to identify a business’ performance. This tool will help you know which campaigns are running successfully, as well as those that need a little bit more work.
Google Analytics is the most popular analytics tool on the web. Why? Because Google Analytics is a web platform that allows you track and collect data from every visitor to your website including how the user came to your site, how much time they spent on your site, how many pages they clicked through while they were on your site, and much more.
To keep track of data, Google Analytics breaks it down into four categories: Who is on your site? How did they get there? What are your viewers doing when they get to your site? And most importantly conversions, did they complete your call to action?
A call to action could be something as simple as clicking on a specific video or link that you wanted them to view, or downloading a certain piece of content from your web page.
Google Analytics optimizes your digital marketing efforts because you can see the results from your online campaign(s) instantly allowing you to tweak segments that aren’t doing well and continue and or increase successful tactics.
Google Analytics also offers conversion and behavior reports to rate how user-friendly your web page is. Behavior reports indicate which pages are viewed and engaged with most frequently while conversion reports do the opposite by telling you where/at what point are viewers leaving your site.
Google’s audience report is an essential tool to use by letting you know things such as what web browsers are most commonly being used to get to your site, and are those browsers up to date? Maximizing your website’s usability will maximize your customer’s satisfaction.
But Google Analytics is not the only analytical tool out there, there are others such as Adobe Analytics, but Google is Blayzer’s tool of choice.
2. Conversion Optimization
Conversion optimization is the practice of getting your visitors to do what you want them to do whether that is purchasing your product, signing up for your newsletter, registering for a webinar, downloading a whitepaper, or filling out a lead/contact form. Some we recommend to increase conversions include Landing Page Grader, Optimzely, and Unbounce.
Landing Page Grader is a free tool that gives you a detailed report on how your web page is currently doing, and what can be done to improve it. Reports are assessed based on SEO, analytics, mobile responsiveness, links, speed, and whether or not your page’s forms are set up to succeed.
Optimzely and Unbounce are paid conversion sites that increase web traffic to your page. Both of these sites offer a free trial to new users, which can be helpful if you’re still deciding which conversion method would be the best fit for your business.
3. Email
Email is ever present in the current day and essential to digital marketing campaigns. Email is one of the easiest ways to reach mobile customers. “52% of US cellphone users access email on their phones.” Email marketing is not just limited to cellphones though, it is also accessible to desktops, laptops, and tablets therefore if we don’t reach you via email on your phone were more likely to reach you on some other device.
Email marketing keeps consumers informed, and is a quick and easy way to remind them of a sale or upcoming event or offer customers a coupon.
So don’t forget to use MailChimp or Constant Contact to build a consistent powerful email campaign.
4. Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization is necessary for both paid and unpaid searches because let’s face it if your content doesn’t show up on page one on search engines odds are it won’t be seen. That’s where SEO comes into play. The purpose of SEO is to create specific keywords and title tags to optimize your webpages views. The more informative and descriptive tags that you use for those keywords, the more likely your content will show up quicker in a sea of results pages. By putting the right keywords into your results the clicks on your content will increase resulting in higher web traffic!
SEO is an important tool in a marketing campaign because it allows you to be accountable for keeping track of rankings, your web traffic, e-commerce purchases, engagement, demographic info and more! Even if you don’t have e-commerce on your website that’s ok, are your web viewers watching the videos you post? Are they reading your blogs, and filling out surveys or forms? How much time are they spending on each page? All of this can and will be measured. But for those who do have e-commerce, how did your consumers route around your website until they made a purchase? Or did they think about making it, and change their mind? Knowing their online route can make a huge difference when deciding which content is working and what isn’t.
SEO is cost effective because it is only targeting those who have an interest in your product, and or services. No longer do you have to worry about reaching out and wasting your time to those who may or may not be interested.
Being on the first page of a search engine’s results will create a lasting impression on your customers and increase brand awareness dramatically. SEO is a necessary component to any well rounded integrated marketing campaign.
5. Marketing Automation
Marketing automation will automatically manage your campaigns across various channels, such as social media, email, direct mail. What’s more, it combines robust, insight-focused capabilities from your CRM, lead management system, web analytics platform, and other systems to create something that’s more than the sum of the parts.
Top 6 Reasons for Using Marketing Automation:
- Traces a customer’s journey through your web platforms which can allow you to nurture and redefine this journey
- Allows you to reach customers throughout a multitude of digital channels
- Gives marketers the ability to A/B test their campaigns at every stage of the process
- Lets you manage all of your social media campaigns in one place
- With marketing automation, you can plan in advance when specific social media campaigns are going to send creating less worry and hassle
- Through marketing automation, you can build software, landing pages, email, and social campaigns
Marketing automation will help companies like yours increase operational efficiency, grow revenue faster, increase web traffic, conversions, as well as the productivity of your team. A couple tools that Blayzer recommends include: HubSpot, Marketo, and InfusionSoft.
With so many digital, must have marketing technologies to choose from, it can be hard to determine the best strategy for your business! So don’t stress let Blayzer help come up with a specific digital campaign for you today! We have experience using these tools and a variety of others on a daily basis.
