When you take a step back and look at technology in business, it can be intimidating. Where do you possibly start, and how do you pick the solutions that best fit your organization? The best answer is to focus on what will bring the highest return on the investment. In most B2B and B2C industries, the answer is marketing.
Addressing marketing challenges with technology has the power to unlock the full potential of your brand, increase sales and maximize available resources. However, even technologies as segmented as marketing can seem intimidating. How do you determine which areas of marketing need the most attention?
While it will be different for every company, most should focus on implementing technologies that enhance content marketing, search engine optimization, analytics and social media monitoring. Furthermore, always ensure you’re protecting your assets when implementing new solutions. According to Synetics Technologies, a trusted IT resource, “The wisest course of action is two-fold: educate those in charge of disposing of your IT assets on the best practices of doing so and choose a highly certified IT asset management firm to handle your ITAD needs.”
Content Marketing
There are plenty of content marketing tools to choose from, including solutions tailored to content creation, distribution, organization, syndication and more. With so many choices on the market, avoid settling for what’s cheapest or most convenient. Don’t be afraid to ask tough questions when searching for a new technology. There is arguably nothing more important in internet marketing than quality content; you can’t afford to cut corners.
Top technologies:
This incredibly powerful, yet simplistic, resource lets users schedule content across multiple platforms. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, choose which times of day to post and where. All you’re required to do on your end is sync your profiles, schedule your desired posting times and upload content for individual posts. Buffer then works as your personal assistant and ensures all content goes exactly where it’s supposed to, when it’s supposed to.
Use PRWeb to syndicate press releases and instantly gain access to more than 30,000 journalists and 250,000 opt-in subscribers. While there’s no shortcut for good quality writing, you could potentially have your press release picked up by a handful of websites and news outlets if it’s relevant and appropriate. Think of PRWeb as your personal connection to the media.
Email Marketing
While it can seem like email marketing has lost some of its pizzazz, it’s still a critical component of any successful marketing strategy. However, the mechanics of handling this area of marketing have changed. Almost every aspect of email marketing is now automated, and you need a technology that’s flexible enough to meet your needs as you scale. Specifically, find email marketing tools that reduce the need for additional manpower. This frees up existing employees for more pressing needs.
Top technologies:
For easy marketing to an existing email list, MailChimp is the perfect solution. It helps determine the best way to distribute content and boost engagement.
This platform smoothly integrates with MailChimp and lets users create and curate content that meets your email marketing needs. The curating feature is the most valuable, as it sifts through hundreds of thousands of articles, news stories and blogs for content that’s relevant. You can then sort through that content and choose what to include in your email campaign.
Search Engine Optimization
The industry’s best content is useless without visibility. That’s where SEO comes into play. While you may not be able to afford the salary of a full-time SEO expert, you can enhance your efforts by implementing some helpful tools and technologies. The good news is that many of them are free, including popular tools like Google Trends, Open Site Explorer, Alexa and Google Keyword Tool.
Top technologies:
Are you working with a WordPress site? Yoast is an SEO plugin that allows websites to reach their full potential by simplifying the optimization process and ensuring it’s in line with industry best practices. The premium plugin includes 17 tutorial videos to explain everything the plugin can do, which includes creating and managing redirects, retrieving crawl errors and tweaking your articles so they can be featured in Google News.
In addition to offering competitive content marketing analysis, Searchmetrics is also one of the top SEO platforms on the web, trusted by companies like eBay, Trip Advisor, Boomerang and others. The insights it provides – such as SEO recommendations, rich website analytics and even PPC campaign development – are able to help small and large companies develop targeted SEO strategies.
Analytics and Analysis
It’s essential to understand how marketing efforts and messages are being received and there are plenty of tools to help. The most popular of these is Google Analytics, but there are dozens of other free and paid technologies on the market. When choosing a solution, make sure it’s specifically tailored to your growing needs and demands.
Top technologies:
This platform offers various content marketing features, including the ability to repurpose existing content, choose hot topics designed to stimulate social conversation and combine it all with compelling graphics. However, it’s the analytics portion that’s most valuable. Brafton actually predicts which content will perform well with which audience by reviewing past data and taking social growth and proprietary indicators into account.
Not many platforms can boast the user base Clicky can. With close to one million web sites depending on its services for around the clock, real time monitoring of website data and traffic, you can rest assured Clicky can satisfy your needs with rich analytics capabilities.
Social Media Monitoring
Finally, social media activity must also be monitored. While platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn can be great, they also have the power to degrade your reputation if you aren’t careful.
Integrating the right monitoring technologies ensures your brand is using social media correctly. Most social media monitoring tools have features that alert users when people are talking about their brand, sends reminders to post content and filters content based on value.
Top technologies:
This incredibly powerful and feature-rich resource lets users cut through the noise and discover who’s talking about them and what they’re saying. Not only does it scan popular social media platforms for brand mentions, but it also scans blogs, news sites and even smaller forums and message boards.
If you’re worried about missing out on conversations regarding your brand, Sysomos is the tool for you. It scans more than 25 different social media platforms and finds conversations that are relevant to you.
Learn to Use the Tools You Have
While it’s easy to identify the areas that need to be addressed – and somewhat easy to implement new technologies – it’s particularly challenging to unlock the full potential of those technologies and fully integrate them into a pre-existing workflow. After installing a new solution, take the time to learn about how it works and what it can do. Technology can be your best friend in marketing if you use the right tools for the job and in the way they were intended to be used. What are your go-to content marketing tools?
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