3min
Try saying the word 'marketing' without the word 'technology' tripping off your tongue right after it. They are synonymous today, like never before. And there are so many options there's no wonder so many businesses are too intimidated to even try some out. So let's take a look at how technology changed marketing
Like everything else, there is no one size fits all when it comes to your marketing technology (Mar Tech), and it's important to have a good grasp of what's out there, and what you can most benefit from. Most technology these days is easy to set up being cloud-based, and usually comes with a free trial if not a free layer to get you started.
So if you haven't yet progressed to a full-on marketing stack like HubSpot to integrate your efforts into the one place, check these out...
Our Top 10 'small business' friendly technology platforms that have changed marketing.
CRM Systems
It's increasingly the case that tools like those we use for email sending basic marketing automation also come with a form of CRM. And again, there seems to be one for every use case you can imagine.
Try Nimble.com for Microsoft and Gmail integration. It's easy to set up and use, and pretty reasonable too.
Email is still the biggest and most effective marketing channels. Its harder to use than ever before though, due to the plethora of 'rubbish' we get into the inbox and increasing legislation around data privacy. And be warned, data protection laws like GDPR apply to B2B emails as much as B2C if the target of the email is a natural data subject - a real live person.
Try Activecampaign.com for easy to use email and simple automation. With subscriptions from around $9 per month at the time of writing, it won't break the bank either.
Design
If you want to take your desktop branding (and beyond) to an amazing professional level, you can't beat Canva.com for ease of use, speed of design and endless templates. They have useful extensions, a desktop app and web browser versions. Starting from free, there is also a Pro version with awesome capability.
Social Media Design
While most platforms like Canva can handle social media brilliantly, check out Pablo.buffer.com for amazingly quick social posts with extremely professional-looking results. Its the fastest way we've ever found to fill up your social media feeds if you use automation to plan posts for the coming weeks and months. Talking of which...
Social media posting
Try Buffer.com for managing your social networks and planning posts and content calendars. A brilliant interface, easy to use and once more a free and paid-for version for more serious users is available. There are a few of these types of platforms out there and we've tried most, but Buffer usually wins out.
Video
We have two entries here, and both do an amazing job. The first choice Loom offers a similar set of features to the second entry, but we prefer the second for more heavyweight work. Loom is brilliant for recording fast screen recording or cam recordings for sending video over email or posting to social media. Lovely and easy to use, and dead reliable. Also comes with editable CTA's right in the view screen, and offers some analytics too.
The second entry here is Vidyard. Vidyard also offers great functionality when it comes to sending video over email seamlessly and without fuss, but it earns its place here because of the way it can handle embedding video via its own player into your website. That offers freedom from those horrible 'related videos' if you use YouTube as a player, but also offers excellent analytics and again editable 'Calls to Action' (CTA).
Note that Vidyard also features an exceptional integration for HubSpot users.
Writing
Grammarly is another of those wonderful, 'how did I cope without it' Chrome extensions. Its a 'spell checker' on steroids as it will also pick up your grammar, and in more advanced options help out with 'passive voice' and synonyms too. Plus much more. Free and paid-for options exist, and many people will find even the free version life-changing! You can also download it into Word and even Mac OS to ensure a professional writing experience for your readers.
Sentiment Analysis
An increasingly important area. Knowing exactly what your customers and prospective customers think of your brand is a vital insight for your business. Tools like Brandwatch allow you to do just that and more. Sentiment tools help with brand management, crisis management, help you find potential influencers online to help your outreach campaigns and even inform your content strategy. A serious tool for serious marketers.
Technology Insight
Sometimes there's a need to know what technology a potential client is using for their websites before you get to meet them. Wappalyzer is a great little tool that sits in its place in your Chrome extension bar. Simply navigate to the website you want to 'wappalyze' and click the extension to see relevant information like the web building tool, analytics, CDN and other specialised technology listed in the little box that appears. Great for Dev's and software sales people!
If you would like to know more about how marketing technology can be deployed in your business, or even how a fully featured martech platform like HubSpot can be used to help you grow, get in touch for a free consultation!
