By: Allie Walters
Creative Director
#Brand, #Marketing, #Tools
January 29, 2020
In this blog, I’ll talk about “Essential small business marketing tools for 2020”. Working from home can be challenging if you’re not used to it but there’s some really great online tools out there that can really help your business during these times. As we all have a bit more time on our hands, now’s a good time to assess some of these tools that are available.
The increasing sophistication and complexity of digital marketing in particular can sometimes feel overwhelming, particularly if you’re not a marketing specialist. I’ve put together a light list of tools that can help any company focus its marketing efforts more effectively from home.
Some of these tools you will already know about – you’re probably using a few already. None will break the bank either. Some of them are even free!
Starting with the basics, a good website is as essential in 2020 as it’s ever been and no one offers more flexibility than WordPress or Squarespace when it comes to creating your own. WordPress.org remains a great tool and is much more customisable than wordpress.com. You have a choice of 1000’s of templates to choose from or you can get a web designer to customise one for you. However, do note it’s a good idea to get a developer to help you if you go down this route. It’ll cost a bit but WordPress remains one of the best web engines for search engine optimisation (SEO) and flexibility in terms of complete customisation.
Once you’ve got your website up and running, Google Analytics and the wider Google Marketing Platform will give you a better understanding of who visits your site and how effectively your content is working for you.
Moving to social media, Hootsuite is the best one-stop-shop to help you find, manage and schedule content more effectively – it’s an invaluable tool in helping you identify prospects and serve customers.
To help target your messages more directly, Mailchimp is probably the best-known email campaign tool. But look a bit deeper and you’ll find a feature-rich integrated marketing platform that’s capable of much more, offering everything from a website builder to a fully featured CRM.
Once you’ve figured out how to move your marketing to the next level, productivity tools such as Asana and Slack will help you organise your activities and coordinate the efforts of your team more efficiently.
But we’re putting the cart before the horse here. Having a slick website and strong social media presence, working efficiently and knowing your customer only gets you so far. You want to stand out and leave a lasting impression on prospective customers. You want to reach a bigger audience and generate more sales. To do this, you need a strong brand that’s presented to the world in an impactful and consistent way.
There are no short cuts to developing the right brand for your company. You must truly understand your market and your customers, you must offer products or services that address a genuine need, and you’ll need to establish your company’s personality and somehow find a way to express it visually and verbally. None of that is easy. Many small businesses don’t have the resources to design their brand materials well but a well designed, consistent brand creates trust and engagement for your business.
Once you’ve done that work and you’ve found your brand, there are tools out there that can help you take it to market in a professional, consistent way, such as Canva. Canva is a well known platform for designing your every day design needs. It’s free and easy to use and you can also upgrade to a relatively cheap pro version, which uses your brand colours and imagery.
And of course, I need to mention our very own tool, Meadow. Meadow empowers everyone who loves your brand to create beautiful marketing materials, within minutes, without the need for an expensive designer. With Meadow, you can easily create day-to-day marketing tools whenever you need them, saving valuable time and money. Meadow is customisable to any brand; large or small. We cater to your colours, fonts, templates and work-flow.
Sign up for a free demo and give it a whirl!
New online tools are appearing all the time – and existing ones are constantly evolving. So it’s well worth keeping a look-out for new ways to improve your digital marketing from a home environment. It doesn’t have to cost much and it could be the factor that keeps your company flourishing during these times.
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