Top Marketing Tools for Small Businesses

When you’re a one man band, marketing a business can feel like an enormous mountain to climb.

With limited costs and perhaps zero or very few staff, it’s down to you alone to make your business seen and heard.

Daunting it can be, but with the right tools, a little organisation, and some creative flare, you can make your business as well known as the big brands that dominate the industry.

Before you begin tapping into all the marketing streams possible, do your research and make a marketing plan that will be helped by these tools. There’s no point trying to enter a forest without a path, so what do you want to gain for your marketing efforts?

After all, when you’re on your own it’s got to be structured and concise because there’s not going to be anyone else there to pick up the slack.

CRM

Customer Relationship Management systems (CRM), have dominated the business industry for a long time as an essential piece of software.

Not only does this enable you to keep your entire database in one neat and tidy space, but it also stores it safely, so that should your computer ever have a bad day, the business won’t.

Enabling you to create profiles around your customers, CRM will give you a more knowledgeable approach when contacting your customers.

Making it feel more personal when you approach them can make a big difference in how they perceive your company.

And an added bonus for all you start-ups is the pay-as-you-go contracts that are now available for any business to take advantage of. So rather than having to fork out a huge set-up and installation fee, this can all be done in more manageable monthly fees.

There are now a number of CRM systems available, all with different benefits depending on your needs, so do your research and swot up on all of the reviews before you jump in.

Social

Managing your social sites can feel like a full time job in itself!

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

There are now many tools including Hootesuite, Sproutsocial and Tweetdeck that can all help you to manage multiple social sites.

Give yourself just 1 hour in each day and see how much you can get scheduled for the days ahead or even for the week ahead.

This will not only ensure that your online presence is kept on top of, but will also give you time to come up with effective posts that will get your customers interacting with the company.

If you know your target audience and their demographics, do a little research into the social sites that your customers are actually using the most.

Don’t waste your time with sites that your customers are not even visiting.

Analytics

Many small businesses don’t get data.

It scares them and feels overwhelming. And the truth is, it is if you don’t know what you’re looking for.

Analytics and reports can give you feedback on not only whether your marketing strategy is working, but also be the key for knowing how to improve it.

Implementing Google Analytics can show you who’s coming to your website, where they’re coming from and if they’ve stayed. This is all basic marketing information that can be used to create better strategies.

Even systems such as CallTracks can show you if the number you’ve added to an advert or to a social site is bringing in conversions. For those that need the phone ringing for leads or sales, this could be a useful tool in knowing if the marketing efforts you’ve spent so much time on are actually going to bring in the business.

Whatever you do, don’t try to keep peddling the same marketing strategy time and time again, improve it, change it and use what’s working.

Time is money when you’re a small business, so use it wisely.