Top Marketing Tools Which Each Marketer Should Use to Perform Strategies

Which marketing tools must a marketer use? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.

Types of marketing tools

Below are some marketing tools with an explanation of what they are and why businesses use them.

Classified adverts

Classified adverts or classified ads are useful for generating leads. In this context, the word ‘leads‘ means potential customers.

Classified ads can direct people to a specific website or webpage (the word exists as one or two words, i.e., ‘web page’). They can also attract people who seek further information.

Social media

In the world of Internet marketing, social media is a marketing tool where you try to develop an interactive online relationship with consumers. Your aim is not, for example, to surreptitiously mine customer data.

Blogging, posting, sharing and tweeting are popular social media marketing tools. Media sharing, pinning, bookmarking, and commenting on social media websites are also popular.

Internet marketing refers to marketing that only occurs online. Search engine optimization (SEO) and online advertising are examples of Internet marketing. There are several ways to increase your SEO. One of the first steps is to secure a reliable and simple domain name that is relevant to your site, industry, or keywords you want to match for.

Search engine optimization refers to techniques to increase one’s website’s appearance on search engines.

Surveys

Surveys are useful for determining which products to create and also for improving or upgrading existing goods. The word ‘goods‘ in this context means ‘products.’

Surveys are also useful if you want to rate your and your rivals’ products. A survey can ask a representative sample of consumers what they like about your and your competitors’ products.

You can carry out a survey face-to-face, on the telephone, by normal post, or online.

Most marketing professionals will mention surveys when you ask them to list their most important marketing tools.

Google Analytics

If you have an online business or your company has a website, Google Analytics is extremely useful. It gives you an overview of where your visitors are coming from. It also tells you what type of people are visiting, and which content on your website performs best.

You can also use Google Analytics to work out visitor conversions. This data will help you set up conversion goals.

Direct mail

Direct mail or direct mail marketing specifically targets potential customers. Traditionally, we have referred to the letters as ‘mailshots.’ Ever since the advent of the Internet and emails, we also have ’emailshots.’

Regarding emailshots, Media Training | Training the Content Creators | London says:

“Designing an emailshot differs from creating a webpage or designing for print as you have to consider the specific needs of your target audience and the technical requirements of different email applications.”

This brings us to modern-day email marketing tools which many marketers still consider to be more effective than other types of digital marketing.

Media monitoring tools

These marketing tools scan the web and inform you of conversations that are relevant to your company, product, or brand. These tools scan, for example, social media sites, forums, blogs, and videos.

In a Huffington Post article, Matthew Collis, a marketing and communications professional, makes the following comment:

“Media monitoring lets you discover what people are saying about you online so you can jump in and respond or react to conversations, decrease the spread of negative PR, and even help increase awareness of your product, service, or organization.”

Customer loyalty programs

Customer loyalty refers to the likelihood that existing customers keep coming back. In other words, how frequently customers come back for more again and again. It differs from brand loyalty.

Among marketing tools that many small businesses overlook, customer loyalty programs are one of the most common. This is a pity.

It is much cheaper and requires less time to get an existing customer to buy your products than new ones. Some studies suggest that it costs seven times more to get a new customer to buy from you than an existing one.

Automation

Automation tools are marketing tools that save a lot of time. Marketers can save time wasted doing those daily tasks like saving files and emails to spreadsheets.

Some tools allow you to create chains of applets. In other words, simple conditional statements or ‘if this then that’ statements. IFTTT (IF This Then That) is one of those services. It works with Facebook, Twitter, Fitbit, Google Drive, and Gmail.

There are hundreds of marketing tools out there. They all sound fantastic when you read about them. Many of them are fantastic! However, be careful. You will only need a few of them. Be selective.

Contributed by Davida Shensky, President at Career Performance Institute (1983-present)