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8 Best Digital Marketing Tools for Small Businesses

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An illustration of a computer screen that reads Past the basics, digital marketing is far from easy.  Different channels, practices, and campaign types require their own skillsets and tools to tackle. What’s worse, some tools often come with hefty price tags that strain smaller budgets – sometimes needlessly so. We can’t address the former much, apart from offering our advice and services. But the latter we can help with by exploring the best digital marketing tools for small businesses.

What marketing tools do small businesses need?

First, let’s briefly establish what types of tools most small businesses will likely need. Then we’ll suggest an outstanding performer for each one and note alternatives you can consider.

#1 Website analytics tools

A pie chart of traffic sources on a laptop screen.
Analytics is an invaluable resource for any business, regardless of size.

Before all else, any and all marketing activities need website data to inform their course. How much traffic are you getting, and from where? What’s your bounce rate? How do visitors behave?

Knowing exactly how your website performs is crucial, as that’s where you ultimately want to bring and convert your audiences.

#2 A CRM

Similarly, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution can offer immense help as you’re getting started. This software type records all customer interactions with your business, as the name suggests, collecting customer data and actionable information.  You can benefit from this type of software quite substantially – from keeping customer information up to date to using it for email personalization.

#3 Local SEO tools

Next, most small businesses tend to target and rely on local audiences, so they need local SEO. We’ve written about this subject before, if you’d like to know, or brush up on, why local SEO is important.

Of course, much like its general SEO sibling, it also needs all the help from your tools it can get.

#4 SEO tools

An illustration of a computer on a desk next to a sign that reads
SEO is a series of practices that greatly enhances online visibility.

On the subject of SEO, you can not neglect its broader variants either. SEO will offer organic traffic, enhance online visibility, and facilitate long-term growth by improving your search engine rankings.

You can practice basic SEO manually, but Backlinko finds that Google uses over 200 ranking factors. Attempting to cater to them all without specialized tools will often not go well, so digital marketing tools for small businesses can never exclude SEO.

#5 Keyword research tools

Still on SEO, as it holds that much value, keyword research tools are essential as they spearhead it. Targeting the right keywords will get your blog found and serve your content to eager audiences.

Should you want to engage in paid marketing, keyword research will also reveal overlaps with SEO and help the two synergize – letting you prioritize which keywords to bid on and which to chase organically.

#6 Email marketing tools

But beyond SEO, you will most likely also want to engage in email marketing. Not everyone will reach the “astounding 4,200% ROI” that HubSpot finds, but it’s still highly cost-effective.

However, email marketing also requires personalization, outreach timing, and more, making email marketing tools an excellent investment.

#7 Social media tools

Social media activities also come with similar requirements. You can’t safely ignore social media either, as they present an excellent opportunity to reach vast, engaged audiences.

You may combine email and social media with SEO – ideally with the proper consolidated tools for easier management.

#8 Communication tools

Finally, even the smallest businesses need to ensure proper communications among staff. You cannot guarantee smooth operations if everyone isn’t on the same page at all times.

To stress this point further, consider Oak’s communication statistics – where, among others, they find that:

  • 39% of surveyed employees believe that people in their organization don’t collaborate enough
  • 44% of employees want wider adoption of internal communication tools
  • 33% of employees said a lack of open, honest communication has the most negative impact on employee morale
8 Best Digital Marketing Tools for Small Businesses

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8 Best Digital Marketing Tools for Small Businesses

Having covered marketing tool types, now we can move on to specific suggestions. In order, you may consider the following.

#1 Google Analytics

Staring with analytics, one cannot recommend Google Analytics enough. This handy tool offers a wealth of actionable insights, including:

  • Traffic volume and traffic sources (direct, referral, organic search, etc.)
  • Keywords used to find you
  • Visitor behavior; dwelling time, pages visited, etc

The cost of its 360 plan is very steep, unfortunately, starting from $12,500 per month and $150,000 per year. However, you will most likely not need it as the free plan already offers a wealth of helpful analytics features.

Finally, it synergizes perfectly with Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) to truly let your website shine. Thankfully, Google Search Console is also a free service.

For alternatives, you may consider:

#2 HubSpot

On to CRM solutions, HubSpot’s CRM may have caught your eye online before. This excellent solution offers such vital features as:

  • Customer database
  • Reporting dashboard
  • Pipeline management
  • Email tracking
  • Live chat

Most surprisingly, but thankfully for small businesses, it’s completely free. It also synergizes very well with HubSpot’s other marketing services, or “hubs,” should you need them. Price points are a bit complex if you do, however, so Tech.co’s HubSpot pricing guide should help.

For alternatives, if you can budget for them, you may also look into:

#3 Google Business Profile

The logo of Google Business Profile (GBP), formerly Google My Business (GMB).Next, digital marketing tools for small businesses need to address local SEO specifically. For this purpose, there’s nowhere better to begin than Google Business Profile (GBP).

Formerly Google My Business (GMB), this free listing service is the spearhead of all local SEO campaigns. It grants your business access to Google’s app ecosystem, most notably Google Maps, and it boosts your local search ranking. If you’d like to know precisely how to make the best of it, you may consult our article on local SEO.

Unlike the other tools on this list, GBP has no replacement. You may augment it, however, using:

#4 KWFinder

The home page of KWFinder, a keyword research tool.On the subject of SEO, keywords are a fundamental part of it. Thus, to fully cover your bases, you may consider KWFinder, one of the best keyword research tools around.

KWFinder offers such features as:

  • Keyword analysis; SEO difficulty and search volume
  • Related and hidden keyword suggestions
  • Localize keyword results for local SEO

KWFinder comes with a free 10-day trial, after which you may opt for the affordable $29.90/month plan. If it doesn’t serve your needs or you want to explore your options, you may also consider:

#5 Ahrefs

The home page of Ahrefs, an SEO tool.But keywords are only a part of SEO, not its sum. Digital marketing tools for small businesses should thus always include broader SEO tools, which Ahrefs stands out among.

This comprehensive tool’s features include:

  • Website auditing tools
  • Competitor analysis tools
  • Rank tracking
  • A content explorer
  • A built-in keyword research tool

It does start at $99/month, but it compensates for it through its breadth of features and ease of use. Still, you may also want to explore its paid competitors, like:

Or, if you’re now getting started with SEO, you may begin with free alternatives like:

#6 MailChimp

The homepage of MailChimp, offering to “do it all” for marketing campaigns.Next, SEO aside, you will most likely need email marketing regardless of business size. You can’t ignore its excellent ROI or ability to bring you customers.

For this purpose, MailChimp remains by large the industry leader. Its pricing plans do come with list limitations, but you can consider upgrading as your lists grow. The free plan comes with a limit of 2,000 subscribers and 10,000 monthly emails but also has excellent features, like:

  • Email automation
  • A built-in marketing CRM
  • A creative assistant, alongside form and landing page tools

Chances are you may soon find this restricting, however. If so, the Essentials plan at $11/month offers some excellent value, adding:

  • A vast email template library
  • A/B testing tools
  • Delivery by time zone
  • Chat and email support
  • A new limit of 50,000 contacts and 500,000 emails per month

While relatively restrictive, MailChimp is still among the best digital marketing tools for small businesses. If you’re unhappy with it, you may look into alternatives like:

#7 Hootsuite

The home page of HootSuite, a social media marketing tool.Moving on to social media, social media marketing does offer small businesses an excellent, albeit demanding, engagement channel. You may consider the world-famous Hootsuite to make your job much more manageable.

Hootsuite’s reputation is well-deserved, as they’re industry experts – producing insightful annual digital reports alongside We Are Social. Their social media marketing platform seeks to cater to these insights, offering:

  • A central social media management platform
  • Scheduling tools
  • Advanced reporting tools

Unfortunately, more specialized features are reserved for higher pricing plans, and the basic Professional plan starts at $49.00/month. If it doesn’t suffice for you, and you can’t budget for its Team plan ($129.00/month), you may consider alternatives like:

[Editor’s note: you may also look into Buffer, which helps schedule social media posts on multiple platforms. It’s free for up to three platforms, and charges if you need more. This is the one I’ve chosen to use.]

#8 Slack

The home page of Slack, a communication tool.Finally, when all is said and done, even the smallest teams need efficient communication. For this vital purpose, you may consider Slack – one of the best digital marketing tools for small businesses out there.

Even in its free version, Slack comes with a wealth of valuable features like:

  • The synchronous communication platform that reduces email time waste
  • Simple, efficient data sharing
  • Integrations with over 1,500 apps

It does have some limitations, however, such as:

  • Only searching for the 10,000 most recent messages
  • Only allowing 1:1 calls
  • Limiting active integrations to 10 at a time

The Pro plan removes these restrictions for just $6.67/month, leaving you with an excellent communication tool. Still, if its interface doesn’t suit you, you may also consider:

  • Discord (free, $9.99/month for advanced features)
  • Google Chat (Free to Gmail users)
  • RocketChat (free for up to 1.000 users, $3 per user per month for more and advanced features)

In closing

To conclude, digital marketing does require technology’s help to meet its increasing demands. Thankfully, the market continues to provide affordable digital marketing tools for small businesses to let them elevate their efforts. While brief, this list hopefully helped you get started.

 

About the author

Andrew Miller is a freelance digital marketer and copywriter with over a decade of experience in both fields. An avid SEO practitioner and a CRM enthusiast, he often authors content specifically for SMBs and local businesses.

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What E-commerce Companies Need to Do to Generate Online Sales

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It's easy to get inundated with SEO and Internet marketing technology. That's why we try very hard to translate everything into plain English.Sales conversions are vital to the survival of any business. Thanks to the array of digital marketing tools available, e-commerce businesses can easily advertise their products and services online to customers internationally with a few clicks of a button.

Have a Good, Well-Designed Website That’s Easy for Customers to Use

Customers will have to visit your company website and look through your product pages to make orders online. The website must be written in simple language that’s easy for customers to understand (translated into foreign languages if you are selling products or services online internationally). The pages must be easy to navigate, and the homepage needs to be particularly engaging, so customers stay on your website.

A vital metric that affects the number of sales on your website is the bounce rate. A good bounce rate across the pages on your company website increases the likelihood of online customers sticking around and deciding to purchase your products or services.

Develop a Strong Presence Across Social Media Channels

Some of the more popular social media sites.Engaging, interesting social media channels are a great digital marketing strategy that can attract customers and increase your conversion rate. You can also use social media to get an idea of customer opinion on your company by looking at customer feedback and engagements on comments, the results of social media surveys such as Twitter polls, likes, shares and re-posts.

Your social media channels should directly link back to your company website. In general, digital marketing and advertising products and services online is indispensable for e-commerce businesses in 2022.

Apply SEO Best Practices To Your Site

SEO really does improve small buisiness visibility.Search engine optimization (SEO) is a key part of managing any website, and this is particularly true for e-commerce companies. That’s because your whole business revolves around your ability to reach your target market, and the best way to do that is by being at the top of relevant searches.

SEO encompasses a range of different strategies and practices, including improving your social media presence and website usability. It also includes identifying relevant keywords and phrases, including them in well-written content, earning high-quality, relevant backlinks on authority websites and more. Explore a range of ways to optimize your e-commerce site for SEO to find the best strategy for your organization.

Have a Responsive Customer Support Team

Having a fast-responding customer support team in place is another way e-commerce companies can facilitate online sales. Companies may need to have employees who work night shifts to provide customer support through things like online live customer webchats, social media, telephone services, and so on 24/7.

What You Need to Do to Generate Online Sales

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Listen Properly to Customer Feedback

Online reviews and your responses to them can drive more sales.An e-commerce business will not be able to grow its customer base, make lots of online sales, and thrive if it fails to listen properly to its customers. For example, are your customers consistently telling you across online platforms and in conversations with your support staff that your company website is confusing and difficult to navigate? In that case, you should take in this feedback and look into ways you can resolve these issues with your website.

Set Goals and Assess Performance Regularly

Your e-commerce business must have goals, and these can include sales goals, customer satisfaction goals, marketing campaign goals and so on. To measure your company’s success, you should regularly review your performance against these goals. Consistently increasing your sales over time is a crucial indicator that your e-commerce business is healthy and should be able to survive and prosper.

Unfortunately, all businesses have to be aware that unexpected things can happen which may have a considerable impact on business and sales rates, such as pandemics, recessions, and a rise in unemployment levels. Assess employee performance quarterly (every three months) or even monthly. Annual employee reviews are a bit of a thing of the past as they lag behind events and involve looking over things that happened a long time ago.

 

About the Author

Drawing on her experience collaborating with small businesses and helping them to use content to boost their rankings, Grace Murphy writes informative articles about SEO and digital marketing. Her work is designed with small business leaders in mind, so her audience can make the most of her expertise.

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Email Marketing and Social Media: What If Combined with SEO?

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Digital marketingDigital Marketing

What is digital marketing? How can some digital channels be combined and have SEO baked in? How can you make this scheme actually work?
You already know that social media contributes to your SEO efforts. Well, so does email marketing! In fact, email marketing and marketing automation is one of social media’s predecessors — one that can be quite profitable.
Hence the need for various email marketing and marketing automation platforms, such as Moosend and MailChimp, two of the best free email marketing services-and various marketing tactics.
But how do these tactics work together? What kind of impact do they have on each other?
Let’s go ahead and see…

Why combine them?

First of all, let’s clarify a very basic thing: the marketing approach email marketing uses is very different from the one social media marketing does.
The two media are quite different, but this doesn’t mean you can’t make them work together. Especially since email marketing provides measurable ROI — up to  4400% to be exact — and social media’s ROI can’t be easily measured.
Email marketing is used to entice, engage and keep an open dialogue between people who opted to sign up. In short, it’s not like you’re going to send a newsletter and your work is done. You need to maintain a profile that will gently nudge the user into interacting with you.
On the contrary, social media can be used to actually draw attention and help a brand go viral. A clever punchline and a well-made visual, perhaps a post with a sneaky QR code that people will have to scan to get special prizes -kind of like a treasure hunt game- will draw more attention and reach a larger audience.

Social media and email markewting can work togetherTo reach more people

Combining the two media will help get rid of an obstacle or two.
Let’s say you’ve already got a mailing list and you’ve just created your first social media profile. Try uploading your email list on your social media profile.
Just click on the “Find people you know” button for Twitter, “Add connections” for LinkedIn and so on, and click on the email option each social media platform will give you. This way, you’ll create a followers’ count without even trying, simply by following your subscribers.
Urge your followers to share your posts around and incentivize the offer. That way, you’ll get more brownie points when it comes to referrals and you’ll grow your reach through affiliate marketing.
Let’s assume that you’re a company like Amazon or eBay. Your product is a service. And let’s assume that you want to use affiliates and referrals to grow your prospects’ base.
You can have your prospects share your posts or your email. Every person clicking on the post will be redirected to a landing page with one simple purpose: to get your prospects to sign up and earn either some kind of discount code or an incentive like free shipping.
Incentivise sharing your content.But here’s the thing: you need to incentivize the process for those who are going to share the post around, otherwise why would someone share your post in the first place?
Perhaps, the more people they get to sign up to your website and services, the better their chances at a huge discount.
That way, you incentivize both ways and people are eager to share your social media posts around and have more people sign up.
Not to mention that the more people to see your ad, post or anything your followers decided to check out, the better when it comes to being viral and generating more traffic and, ultimately, more conversion.

To get new followers and — in the end — buyers

It’s a shame to have just a selected few see your email marketing campaigns, as you’ve invested a lot of effort there.
And despite its cost, it’s also a shame to not spread the word when it comes to your email marketing efforts through your social media channels as well.
Include one of the stunning visuals you’re going to use in your next email campaign in one of your posts and spice things up with a headline promoting a discount or a customer loyalty program.
Then create a landing page — optimized for conversion, of course! — and link the landing page to your post. Urge them to subscribe and give them a little extra if they share your landing page with their loved ones.
A prospect won’t convert to a customer just because you asked nicely. You’ll need to include multiple touch-points into your strategy, and this means leveraging social media to your advantage.
But your efforts won’t be enough without the use of some good  SEO tactics.

How is that even possible?

It may sound a little strange and the two media may seem to be quite different from each other, but in reality they’re not, as you can always use one to promote the other and vice versa.

Email marketing in social media

First of all, you can add a subscription form or a little subscribe button to your Facebook page and encourage people to subscribe.
Secondly, repurpose content from your emails. Turn them into posts and ask for feedback. If people love these, urge them to subscribe to get more content like that.
Create a contest that will be urging people to subscribe to your mailing list for better chances at winning, or maybe to know more.

social media marketingSocial media in email marketing

Of course, this goes vice-versa as well.
The buttons of your social media pages need to appear down at the bottom of every email newsletter you send. This way you can spark curiosity and have your prospects connect with you using different methods.
Another benefit of using social media buttons on your email campaigns is the credibility those add to your brand overall.
Your brand’s social media pages are the place for your prospects to communicate with you in real-time, which is increasingly important in 2020.

Combining Email Marketing and Social Media with SEO

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Time for some SEO

I’ll bet most of you wonder what SEO has to do with these two mediums — especially with email marketing. Well, there’s a strong relation, even though it may not seem obvious.
It all comes down to the content you decide to use for each campaign and each post.

A high bounce rate represents lost business.Email marketing boosts SEO efforts

One thing SERPs are affected by is the time spent on a website and the bounce rate. You could have excellent SEO and it still wouldn’t work well if too many people bounce from your website.
Linking your website from your email marketing campaigns is one way to get quality traffic — in other words, control the quality of people who visit your website.
Remember that those are the people who’ve already subscribed to your email list and they’re, by extension, already engaged and eager to receive your content.
Also, by making your content shareable to social media, you can easily engage people outside the realm of your email marketing campaigns… However, this content practically demands some SEO optimization, as social media have a direct link to SEO.

Social media platforms are mini-search engines

Don’t tell me you’d never thought of that…
Social media platforms have those little search bars and those search bars work in the exact same way as a search engine. In other words, they look for keywords.
Hashtags are keywords tooSo, in order for your content to pop up first, you need to work with keywords, to show that it’s interesting and up-to-date.
And hashtags are keywords as well.
So, optimize your content for the keywords you’re trying to target each time and then post it on social media with captions that contain spot-on hashtags.
Now, of course the links you receive from social media do not affect your SERP efforts. Directly. But indirectly, there is much at stake if you don’t optimize for SEO and don’t get links from social media shares.
Keywords will mean that your content will pop up first, which means more traffic, which means more brand awareness and buzz around your name.
And who doesn’t need some buzz?

Content always needs optimization

Content is always critical.Last but not least, we’ve got content. And content needs to be aligned with your SEO efforts, whether it’s on your website or in a documents file somewhere in your computer.
Using keywords and SEO optimization, you can create content that will be segmented, making your life easier when it comes to going for some serious targeting.
After all, well-written and valuable content can always appeal to a wider audience and feel tailor-made and specific.
And if you’ve no idea what type of content your audience would love, just ask them through a poll or a survey.
Another reason you should optimize everything for SEO is that you can always repurpose your old content, be it from your emails or an older social media post and turn it into a blog post, a roundup post or website content.
Of course, this goes vice versa since you can repurpose old web pages and blog content and create fantastic social media posts. Especially if it’s video content, which is always short, bite-sized and easily comprehensible — therefore, full of keywords and SEO optimized, provided the content is valuable, of course.

Takeaway

Combining email marketing and social media is no easy task, but it’s one of the most beneficial things you can do, as it shows brand consistency and can easily create more buzz around your name.
What’s more, it can make you go viral, increase your reach and satisfy your already existing prospects.
By combining social media and email marketing and creating content based on SEO principles, you’re aiming for high engagement and, in the end, conversion. You’re also creating content your prospects will find valuable and will spend time on, as they’re the ones creating trends and — by extension — keywords.

About our guest blogger

Téa Liarokapi

Téa Liarokapi is a content writer working for WriterZone, email marketing software company Moosend and an obsessive writer in general. In her free time, she tries to find new ways to stuff more books in her bookcase and content ideas — and cats — to play with.

 
 
 

Note from Rank Magic:

If you struggle with this, we can help. We can help personally with your SEO issues, and can recommend strategic partners who specialize in email marketing and social media. Reach out to us!

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7 Trends for Successful Digital Marketing (Infographic)

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There’s a lot going on in digital marketing lately. For your small business to compete successfully, you need to be aware of and respond to current trends and changes in internet marketing and digital marketing more broadly. Here are the 7 top trends to be aware of:

Below is an excellent overview of the most important trends in digital marketing you need to watch. Thanks to the folks at Serpwatch for all their hard work on this.
7 trends in digital marketing for small businesses to be aware of.

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How to Drive More Readers to Your Blog Posts

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There are lots of ways to attract readers to your blog.None of us writes a blog just to admire our own words of wisdom. We write it to provide information, to bolster our credibility, to illustrate our expertise, to attract new customers … the reasons are many and varied. But they all share the common factor that we want readers.

 

Attracting Readers

Just creating and writing a blog is not a guarantee that it will attract readers.  There are many things readers may find attractive: humor, images, pithy writing, helpful information, insightful analysis, compelling content and more. But if no one knows about your blog, no one will read it.  Just like a website without SEO, it may end up being like a Billboard in the Woods.

How to drive more readers to your blog.

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Where Do You Get Exposure?

There are a bunch of places to seek visibility for your blog posts. BlogPros.com recently listed 50 of them. Let’s highlight some of the best ones for a small business blog.

  • Social Media Sites
  • Social Bookmarking Sites
  • Article Directories
    • These no longer provide link juice to your blog posts like they once did, but they can still drive traffic to your posts. Here are a couple of the best:
    • Blog Engage
    • EZine Articles
  • Personal Resources
  • Paid Advertising
    • Pay Per Click ads can get expensive, and many businesses spend thousands of dollars a month on them. But they can also help on a much smaller scale for small businesses. These are the top two:
    • Google Ads
    • Facebook Ads
  • Specialized Sites
    • Google AdWordsBusiness2Community is a great place to automatically syndicate your blog.These are similar to blog directories and bookmarking sites, but are more narrowly focused. Here are a few examples:
    • Business2Community for business related content
    • BizSugar for content related to small businesses
    • DesignFloat for material related to web design
    • DeviantArt for the art and design community
    • MySpace for music and entertainment related content

Tell us about your success (or lack of it) with these. Is there a technique you’ve found that’s not listed here? Please tell us about it in the comments below.

Need help with your visibility? Rank Magic can help!