Inbound marketing in 2019 can be overwhelming, but there is a huge array of tools that we can use to help our digital efforts.
Many marketing tools can aid productivity in a very cost-effective way. A lot of them are SaaS offerings, that all you need to use is a web browser and low monthly fee. Some of them are so easy to use, even marketers who don’t consider themselves very tech savvy can make use of these tools.
Here are our top ten recommendations that we think you should add to your productivity tool kit this year.
1. SEMrush
Keyword research represents a crucial component of attracting prospects via organic traffic. By developing valuable content around the right terms, businesses can position themselves as valuable resources for potential buyers. The key is targeting terms that you can realistically rank for, amid a sea of competitors.
That’s why SEMrush is such a valuable inbound marketing tool, providing a detailed overview of search volume, competitive keywords and lets you see who is currently ranking for them. Understanding these data points is critical for content creation and driving traffic as well.
2. TalkWalker
With businesses outputting so much content, it’s easy to see your name get lost in the shuffle. That said, positive feedback and earned media mentions from customers and influencers alike can be convincing social proof to attract new prospects.
TalkWalker alerts you to new mentions, as well as allowing you to define specific parameters to zero in on the mentions that matter most. This keeps you from having to dig through feeds on multiple different social media platforms, and have those mentions delivered directly to you. It is allowing you to spend more time on important marketing efforts.
3. AdRoll
Just because you couldn’t convert someone the first time, and they saw your content, doesn’t mean they’re a lost cause. Ad retargeting gets your brand messaging in front of visitors in the form of banners on third-party sites and platforms. It can take dozens of touches to make an audience member sales-ready, so retargeting provides you with much-needed additional chances to convert.
AdRoll is a fantastic inbound marketing tool that offers options for serving up ads to the same people across multiple channels, to do exactly that. Through display ads, social ads and targeted emails, you can speak directly to those who might need an extra push to convert.
4. Click Meeting
In an era of content marketing dominated by video, webinars are powerful tools for educating and converting customers.
Click Meeting’s webinar platform is perfect for onboarding leads and showcasing your brand’s value simultaneously. As teaching your audience is a cornerstone of modern digital marketing, the ability to continuously roll out webinars is a game-changer, given the popularity of video.
5. Facebook Groups
Facebook’s recent algorithm change is driving many marketers away from pages and toward paid promotion. However, Facebook Groups provides a constant channel to nurture leads through exclusive content and offers that, once again demonstrate your value.
Given that group members are generally active and willing to engage with your content reach becomes much less of an issue. Your brand’s Facebook group may be one of the most effective channels you can invest in to turn your users into a proper community, helping each other to derive the most value possible from your product.
6. Zendesk
Responding to customer requests promptly is a must for achieving high customer satisfaction and retention. In this day and age of easily amplified shouting on social media, failure to pay attention to even the smallest inquiries can result in a reputational hit.
Zendesk offers marketers a consolidated, collaboration-ready platform to stay in touch with customers and quickly respond to their concerns, regardless of the platform on which they initially reached out to you.
7. Dropbox
Dropbox is the perfect inbound marketing tool to keep your team organized and your files under control. With cloud-based software to keep your records accessible anywhere at any time, Dropbox helps your team store all its data in a central location while also making it easy to collaborate. Tools like Dropbox Paper, which allows you to write and work in real time on the same doc – and sharing tools for shared folders and files, will put you well on the way to better organize and ready for any project that comes your way.
8. Wistia
Video is one of the hottest trending marketing channels. But how do you actually implement it into your inbound marketing strategy?
Maybe your strategy is just to put a YouTube video embedded into one of your blog posts or landing pages. But then what happens? Someone else’s ad plays on your landing page before your video even begins. That’s bad for your conversion rates, brand, and your user. Don’t worry; there is a solution.
Wistia is a powerful video hosting platform that allows you to host your videos on your website, ad-free, with a guaranteed smooth playback and responsive player. The platform also helps you prove the ROI of your video efforts by offering you video analytics and key metrics to fine-tune your video marketing efforts over time.
9. Drift
Another trending marketing area is conversational marketing. According to Gartner, by 2020, conversational marketing will be a recognized channel of B2B and B2C customer engagement and revenue, displacing a combination of marketing, sales and service activities.
With Drift on your website, any conversation can be a conversion. Instead of traditional marketing and sales platforms that rely on forms and follow-ups, Drift connects your business with the best leads in real-time.
Drift is a really effective inbound marketing tool that takes on-site customer interactions to the next level by using live chat boxes and intelligent bots to prequalify leads and prospects before they’re sent to your sales team.
10. Survey Monkey
Surveying your customers is a great way to get data that can be used to make business decisions. Survey Monkey lets you connect with people via email, your website, social media, and more and allows you to gather intelligence and then analyze it using built-in powerful data analysis tools. The data you collect can then be used to create a content marketing strategy.
Utilizing expert, pre-written templates, you can create surveys, polls, or quizzes in minutes.
Conclusion
As experienced digital marketers, we know that inbound marketing is the most powerful way to get high-quality leads and convert more loyal customers than ever – but there is a lot to it. It can be overwhelming, and you might feel worn out by trying to get in front of your customer on every channel available.
However, there are lots of digital tools out there that will allow you to stay on top of everything, increase productivity and drive more traffic without burning out. Use these tools to help you create engaging content and get it out there in front of your target audience, capture data and analytics that will help you grow your business like never before.
Check out more guides on lead generation strategy here:
How to Generate Leads with Clever MarketingÂ
How Social Media Affects Lead GenerationÂ
A Beginners Guide to Lead GenerationÂ
