When you’re running a small business, it’s difficult to dedicate time specifically to marketing. The digital world is made up of multiple channels that seem to require constant management, essentially making marketing a second full-time job for managers and business owners. Luckily, having the right marketing tools in your arsenal can simplify and automate your digital marketing strategy, as well as optimize it for ROI. Keep reading to find out how you can get started today!

Lead Scoring

Lead scoring determines which leads are most likely to make purchases. If you’re running a small business, it’s essential to focus on the hottest leads first, putting moderate effort on those who need nurture efforts and minimizing the time spent on the leads least likely to convert. By implementing lead scoring, you’ll also know what each lead needs to make a purchase decision.

To get started with lead scoring, determine the factors that make a lead valuable to your business. Assign point values to specific demographic traits, such as age, industry and job title, as well as to actions like form fills and click-throughs. Add up these points and you get your lead “score.” Effective use of CRM marketing tools should let you directly implement automated lead scoring based on user actions on multiple platforms.

Email Drips

An email drip, or sequence, is a series of automated emails sent in a specific order based on user actions. Email drips perform particularly well compared to single send blasts: you can expect an 80% higher open rate and 300% higher click-through rates. If you’re using an effective CRM and email platform, you can add users to email drips based on their unique behaviors.

When you build your drip campaign, keep your users and their specific needs in mind. Leverage the capabilities of email marketing tools to make content more specific to each of your audience segments. Most email drips last between 6-12 messages; that’s enough to take leads through the entire buyer’s journey from awareness to a decision.

Social Listening

Social listening is typically used by larger brands to track mentions of their name and products, but it can be equally beneficial for small businesses keeping an eye on the competition. Social listening is offered in the form of several marketing tools that allow you to follow mentions of tags, profiles and locations on social media.

Social listening lets you go beyond just following your competitors’ accounts to truly understand what audiences are experiencing and how you can help. These marketing tools allow you to track keywords related to your business and engage in conversations with potential customers. Keep in mind that it’s not enough to simply track social media — you need to use your findings to engage with your audience.

Dynamic Content

Dynamic content is digital hypertext markup language (HTML) content that changes based on the individual viewer. As individuals match the dynamic content fields, they will be able to see a customized version of that content. For example, a store could have their “locations” page only provide the closest stores to a viewer’s geotag. A service company might dynamically display the testimonials most relevant for a viewer’s chosen service.

This might sound highly technical, but most marketing tools make dynamic content simple. You don’t need to write HTML code if you choose the best marketing tools for your small business needs. Email personalization, such as including a recipient’s name in the greeting, is a simple and high-value way to get started. Dynamic content is a marketing automation tactic for small businesses that can take websites, landing pages and targeted ads to the next level, especially when used effectively and consistently.

Choosing Marketing Tools for Your Small Business

There are thousands of marketing tools and automation platforms out there, each with its own strengths and drawbacks. For small businesses, specifically, it’s critical to ensure that you’re maximizing your marketing budget. Opt for a fully-equipped marketing platform that’s simple to implement and intuitive to use on a daily basis.

AUTHOR
Rebecca Wentworth