In the ever-evolving digital world, keeping up with the tricks of the trade is crucial. Marketing is no longer a one-way communication from brands, but a dialogue between brands, customers, influencers and various other stakeholders. To ensure that your brand is a part of this conversation, you need to stay on top of the game with your digital media strategy.
Throughout this year, brands will see a confluence between traditional and digital media channels as there will be parity in the kind of messaging planned for both kinds of outlets. More brands will look for ways to share data from paid media with real-time content across channels in a similar manner.
Further, there will be a greater need to generate more relevant and shareable content for all digital platforms, so that it consistently drives traffic to your landing pages and websites.
Here are the top digital marketing tools that have gained immense popularity and you must use in 2017:
Brand marketing is always in search for endorsers, influencers or people who are happy to talk about the brand. Attaining positive press coverage is always beneficial for any business. However, one challenge most marketers face is identifying the right focus group who are interested in your brand. JustReachOut is the easiest way for businesses and individuals to find and pitch their stories to influencers/reporters based on the best fit for the topic.
When using JustReachOut, marketers simply need to enter the keywords that describe the brand/product. The tool will skim through the Internet to find writers/reporters/bloggers who write on businesses such as yours. Further, it will generate a list with their contact information and help craft a customized pitch.
Cost: JustReachOut offers different packages based on your requirements. The most basic plan is available at USD 65 per month.
A great video can be the game-changer in product/service marketing. It may be effective in directing attention towards the marketing campaign. But in the modern competitive space, making an engaging video that attracts potential customers can be challenging. Videolean is one marketing tool that can up your game.
Videolean helps you create short promotional videos for your brand without using advanced video editing skills or having to compromise on the quality of the output. Simply select a video template that will work best with your campaign, customize the design and content, and publish the clip.
The best aspect of using this tool is that it offers a host of video templates that can be customized, like an infographic or explainer video. For businesses planning an economical marketing campaign, Videolean is probably a safe bet. You may not even need a video editor or expensive editing softwares to create videos that attract customers.
Cost: Videolean offers various packages based on the number of campaigns you wish to execute. You can opt for packages with or without the facility to upload your own music. Finalize the one which fits your requirements and you are ready to go. The packages start from USD 39 and go up to USD 199 per month.
This email marketing and sales platform can save a lot of time for marketers. Your customers are having numerous conversations online and your brand should be a part of the relevant ones. Colibri IO helps you find those conversations and participate in them.
Colibri IO can help you send email newsletters and other publications where everyone gets the same message. Further, it also puts together a list of conversations that are relevant to your product/service on Twitter, Facebook, blogs and other platforms, so you can use that list to find the best discussion to engage with potential customers.
You can even introduce your brand in discussions about your competitors and offer impressive solutions to their customers or appreciate the good work done by your competitors. Colibri IO allows you to contact your prospects and leads directly, and influence their purchase decisions.
Cost: The monthly fee for using this marketing tool ranges between USD 45 and USD 295. You can even purchase the agency subscription, which will offer you greater features at USD 995 per month.
Brands should stay in touch with their customers as greater loyalty is key to the brand’s growth. For marketers, a tool like Customer.io can help automate and personalize the conversations that brands have with the target audience.
Among the key features of Customer.io is its ability to send automatic emails to customers based on their choices and clicks on the brand’s website. So, whenever a customer visits your brand’s website, adds something to the shopping cart, but leaves without purchasing it, you can program Customer.io to automatically send a reminder email to the customer about the cart.
Cost: This digital marketing tool offers various packages based on the number of campaigns you wish to execute. You can opt for a free trial for each of these packages before finalizing one. The packages start from USD 100 and go up to USD 1250 per month.
Various brands are now keen on spending a major portion of their marketing budget on social media promotion. With Narrow, you can identify your target audience on Twitter by simply adding keywords in the form of names of influencers, websites, or hashtags. Based on this, Narrow will highlight the relevant tweets and track the ideal users for your brand. This will increase the exposure of your Twitter account and can help increase your following.
Cost: Narrow has segregated its marketing services into three categories - Basic, Pro and Business. The monthly costs for these packages are USD 19, USD 49, and USD 99 respectively. Go for the free trials before closing the deal.
As a digital marketer, you need tools to simplify your job. Missing out on any of these effective marketing tools may not have a devastating impact on your brand(s), but can hinder your marketing from getting better.
So, regardless of your plans to spend on the premium digital marketing tools, use the above tools and enhance your brand’s performance. Make sure that you understand the tools well to bring about remarkable improvements in your marketing efforts. Remember, better tools are equivalent to better marketing.
Thanks to Pratik for sharing their advice and opinions in this post. Pratik Dholakiya is the Founder of The 20 Media, a content marketing agency specializing in content & data-driven SEO, and PRmention, a digital PR agency. He regularly speaks at various conferences about SEO, Content Marketing, Growth Hacking, Entrepreneurship and Digital PR. Pratik has spoken at NextBigWhat’s UnPluggd, IIT-Bombay, SMX Israel, SEMrush Meetup, MICA, IIT-Roorkee and other major events across Asia. As a passionate SEO & content marketer, he shares his thoughts and knowledge in publications like Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, Fast Company, The Next Web, YourStory and Inc42 to name a few.
By Expert commentator
This is a post we've invited from a digital marketing specialist who has agreed to share their expertise, opinions and case studies. Their details are given at the end of the article.
This blog post has been tagged with:
Digital Marketing ToolsTurbocharge your results with this toolkit containing 4 resources
The Content Marketing toolkit contains:
Start your Digital Marketing Plan today with our Free membership.
Recommended Blog Posts
Introducing a new tool to help marketers review and improve the best options for promoting content If you’re a regular reader of Smart Insights, it’s likely you’ve seen – or even better, used – our Content Marketing Matrix developed with …..
A content marketing planning tool to help marketers generate a matrix of ideas for the most engaging content types for their audiences We created our Content Marketing Matrix to help our members audit their content marketing assets as part of …..
What’s the secret to a successful finance content marketing strategy? Find out with 5 foolproof tips. The finance world can be a tough place for a marketer. Creating inspiring finance content marketing that communicates your brand’s messages, engages customers and …..
