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Let’s first start with the basic question you may be asking, “What exactly is a marketing tool?”
A marketing tool can be defined as any technology, technique, strategy, or software that helps you to perform marketing activities. Marketing is simply the promotion of your products or services.
These tools can range from a marketing software at the center of your day-to-day operations to short term advertising for a specific outcome. There are a wide variety of options. Choosing the best option for your brand can be confusing.
Here are six helpful questions to ask when starting out your search for the best marketing tools to fit your business.
This is the most important question to ask. Knowing all of your options is a top priority before making a choice. When it comes to marketing tools there are many options to consider.
Some of these tools are:
While this is not a complete list, it’s a pretty good start. Now that you know some of your marketing tool options, let’s dive into five more vital questions to consider when choosing the best fit for you.
Maybe you are just starting out your business. Perhaps sales aren’t that great yet. While small businesses need marketing tools just as much as the bigger brands do, the types of tools you choose will center around different priorities than your larger competitors.
Small businesses should evaluate tools based on their current needs and how they plan to scale their business in the coming months and years. If your brand is small then you should start out using smaller marketing tools too.
Paying close attention to the pricing structure of these tools is vital. Some tools charge a flat rate, others charge per service, still others charge by the number of accounts.
A cost-effective tool for a big business might be far too expensive for a smaller business. When looking at cost it’s not always the most expensive tool that is going to be most effective for your brand.
In fact, choosing a tool that is too large for the size of your business may actually inhibit growth. However, if you are a high-end luxury brand, you will want to choose different marketing tools than a budget-friendly brand.
So make sure to consider the size of your brand.
All brands should consider how much work they will have to put into a tool. Some marketing products require high tech oversight to work with your systems. Integration with high tech tools can be a long and confusing process.
If you don’t have a team member with high levels of tech skills, or the resources to higher one, this will affect your choices of marketing tools.When researching marketing tools you should look closely at the technical skill they each will require to operate.
If able, hiring a full time technical support person will increase the smooth flow of using marketing tools considerably. This is something to consider as you create your marketing budget and team.
If you are not able to use the marketing tools you choose yourself, do not have our own tech team, or marketing team, this will greatly increase the budget needs of marketing your brand.
Knowing your target audience is an upfront consideration when it comes to marketing tools. As you think about who you are wanting to promote your brand to, try putting yourself into their shoes.
To do this you may ask yourself; If I needed a product like my brand's product, where would I go to find it? What places, sites, or programs would I frequent? What would grab my attention faster than anything else?
As an example; maybe your brand sells top notch video equipment. Your target audience is Youtubers, TikTok users, Videographers, and the like.
It probably won’t be that effective to place an ad on a local billboard in your area of operations. But, creating a social media presence with colorful and quality video ads across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube could bring in customers by the hundreds (or thousands).
On top of releasing content that your target audience would be drawn to you could also use tools like media monitoring or direct emails to further target influencers in the realm of your brand’s niche.
The target audience is the most important factor to consider, as you need to choose tools that will reach them where they are and deliver messages in a way that resonates with them.
You have chosen some marketing tools that you think will be effective for your brand, now it’s time to consider how those tools work together, if they can integrate, and if not, will it be a problem.
Most businesses will end up using more than one marketing tool. It often helps to build your presence across many arenas rather than just focusing all of your marketing in one area. Broader reaching tools will likely bring in greater traffic.
Sometimes these tools, though different, can be paired by an integration causing them to work together. When this happens your brand's marketing can take place on one single site. Other times the tools may not be compatible. In this case you will be dealing with two separate platforms and/or creators.
Consider using integrated platforms, as they may provide you with a broader set of tools than purchasing individual tools. They also provide additional features you wanted, but couldn't afford, as well as having analytics built in, making it easier to pass data between the different tools.
Modern marketing is a many-faceted endeavor, but that doesn’t mean you need dozens of different tools to manage your day-to-day marketing. If you can find 1 or 2 core technologies that fulfill your most important requirements, you can add supplemental tools as needed.
Your marketing strategy doesn't have to be complicated to be effective, so consider how the tools you choose will pair.
All effective marketing strategies start with a plan. This plan should be as clear and detailed as possible.
Some tips for making your plan are to; sketch out your main strategies, ensure your entire team knows your desired direction, and prioritize tasks.
With the plan in hand, hone in on crucial tasks. It might be email marketing one month or blog marketing the next. The idea is to always know where your focus should be.
Make sure your plan is laid out with doable steps that lead to the desired outcome. Because the tools you use need to align with those goals, defining them lets you focus on what tools you'll need.
There's a myriad of tools out there, and we believe in trying them out. Whether it's a new marketing software or an analytics tool, test it to see how it aligns with your needs.
Testing marketing tools is crucial for making informed decisions. Sometimes it’s hard to tell how a certain tool will perform before a trial run. By analyzing the results from such a test, you can refine your strategy and improve overall marketing efforts.
Just remember that the effectiveness of a marketing tool can only be measured after a test run of at least three months. The longer the trial period the more insight will be gained as to the tools effectiveness.
Good marketing strategies involve constant reevaluation. Once you find the tool that is most effective for your brand it doesn't stop there. Times are changing and technology is constantly advancing so must your marketing strategy.
We recommend that you test the effectiveness of your current marketing tools at least once every calendar year. Ever six months is even better! Stay up to date with analytics into your marketing effectiveness.
Choosing the most effective marketing tools for your brand comes only by trial and error. So, don’t waste another minute! Consider the 6 questions above, make your marketing plan, and dive in.
Start leveraging the marketing tools that your brand needs today!
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