Marketing technologies can be intimidating for most business owners to actually adopt. It takes time to see results and conversions. I know everyone is not always the first to jump on board when it comes to new tools. New technology can be scary so this natural fear makes perfect sense to me as an entrepreneur and as a marketing agency owner. I’ve been familiar with the struggles of innovative tools with a deep learning curve. It requires patience and time to understand a) how it works and b) how it will work within my organization. Below is a rework of an old blog from the LIMG archives. Things change fast in marketing and not everything in the old blog is current. Therefore I’m going to cover which technologies are most relevant to the entrepreneur and the small-to-medium business owner. The enterprise level is another story, even though some of the products mentioned in this blog can apply to those larger organizations. Let’s dive into the marketing technology. Caution: this is a link-heavy blog so save those tabs!

Analytics and Tracking

You need to be able to track your performance, ads, technology and so on. This is the only way to know what is working and what is not. Google Analytics is your best tool. Also, Adobe Analytics is great if you are an enterprise or wanting to head in that direction. Yes, analytics systems are definitely still effective and more so now with the heavy integration of apps, websites, CRMs, and the like. If you’re part of the cool kids and use WordPress, there are plenty of plugins available for analytics as well as 3rd-party installs to pair with your theme.

Marketing Automation and CRMs

Marketing automation suites give your visitors customized content, facilitate sales and marketing processes and can organize your entire business. A Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) is a method for managing a database of customers. This technology automates and organizes everything from prospecting sales to technical support. The world’s most popular CRM is Salesforce. However, there are a ton of other ones to choose from such as PipeDrive, InfusionSoft and FreshDesk. Try Hubspot for a smaller business and Marketo for enterprises. Of course! Automation is key (here’s a separate blog on utilizing some time-saving tools). Automation has the power to save any business incredible amounts of time and money on both the front end and back end of the sales cycle. Be sure not to completely rely on automation to remove the human element of business. Automation should take place of the administrative and busy work that you don’t like to do. My team has written a few great blogs on automation tools, which are linked here for added value to my readers: LeadPages vs. ClickFunnels | Battle of the CRMs | Battle of the CRMs: Round 2

"types of technology" Conversion Optimization

Bringing visitors to your website is just the beginning. You can lose your prospect with anything from an unattractive layout, long forms, or a slow-loading website. That’s where understanding your bounce rate comes in. Conversion optimization can easily double how many people fill out online forms, giving you that invaluable big data. Try using Optimizely for A/B testing of your website’s pages. I firmly believe, along with my team, that A/B testing is one of the most sure-fire ways to earn success. Trying different approaches, formats, opt-ins, forms and so on will ensure you find the right path for your product.

Campaign Management

Campaign management applications help companies segment, target and manage multi-channel marketing messages. Elements of functionality include attribution, data mining, customer segmentation, customer-event triggering, next-best-action recommendation engines, and campaign optimization. Many of these components may be in your marketing automation platform, but not all are necessary. Some of the better campaign management platforms are Integrate, Ensighten, Pardot, and Adobe Campaign.

Email Marketing

Most people aren’t using it as well as they could be. It’s all about sending genuine emails to people who have opted in because they are interested in your offerings. You only want to send valuable information. Make sure your content is personalized. Two great email marketing tools are Constant Contact and Robly.

Re-marketing

If you visit a website and later see an ad for that website somewhere else, it’s most likely a result of being re-marketed. Re-marketing helps you reach people who have already searched for your offering–or something very similar. You pay for these connections via a CPM approach. You can use Google AdWords, AdRoll, or Perfect Audience to get started. Personally, we use Google Adwords for our clients advertising campaigns and love how easy it is to use. The robust dashboard provides more than we need. Don’t take our word for it. Demo the best platform for your business.

Mobile Optimization is part of the foundation in your campaign. Meanwhile, SEO (search engine optimization) and SEM (search engine marketing) are critical add-ons to include in your marketing campaigns. Make sure that your website has integrated a responsive coding design and can be easily navigated on all devices. Check formatting on desktop, tablet and mobile devices to ensure everything is smooth across the board.

Thank you for your attention! Be sure to take these technology tips with you in the downloadable PDF below!