As we start to wrap up 2015, I wanted to share with you the seven online marketing tools which I used most throughout this year to improve various parts of my online businesses.
Today there’s a tool for just about everything. Whether you want to find your keywords, create better sales funnels or automate your social media process – you can.
With so many online tools to choose from it can be difficult to know which ones to pick. In today’s article I want to share the benefit of my experience and outline the ones that I couldn’t have managed without.
ClickFunnels is a marketer’s best friend. It’s more than just a landing page software, as it can build out entire sales funnels and even membership sites.
Admittedly, the investment to use ClickFunnels is higher than the average landing page software, but the flexibility and power of the interface means that I would find it hard to ever switch back.
Buffer is another all round marketing tool but its biggest strength lies in managing your social media profiles. I mentioned in other blog posts that if you don’t have the time to properly manage several social media accounts, you should stick to one and do it properly one instead of spending a few minutes per week on several.
Buffer lets you have your cake and eat it. You can post on several profiles from a centralised dashboard and saves you hours of work each week.
Aside from managing all your social media updates, Buffer will also give you feedback on the best performing posts, users who interact with your brand the most and it works with several other apps and extensions. It’s pretty much an all-in-one solution for social media.
Email marketing still offers you the best opportunity to build relationships with your prospects, and it is hands down still the most effective sales tool that you can automate.
Mailchimp presents an easy to use interface and for small lists, is entirely free to use. It is without the doubt the best entry level tool for anyone wanting to get started with email marketing (and here’s why you should).
I don’t want to say too much about the Google Keyword Planner as I’ve talked about it before, but if you’re looking to get into SEO and have a limited budget, the Google Planner is the best free option available.
Crazy Egg is a heat mapping tool that reveals how visitors interact with your website. Why should you care? Well if you know where users are looking and clicking, you’ll have a better idea on where to place your call-to-actions, products and what elements of your website are producing the best results.
In my How I Increased Sales By 50% Through The Use Of Website Heatmaps article, I showed how a simple change in my website design lead me to generate 50% more sales.
I love AdEspresso, not only is their blog packed to the gills with useful Facebook marketing advice, but their Facebook SaaS tools is so much easier (and prettier to look at) then the Facebook Power Editor.
AdEspresso is only of use for businesses who spend a lot of time marketing their business via Facebook. Within seconds you can create variants of the same advert for testing, target multiple audiences just as fast and it shows ad results in a clear and concise manner.
Mention is a useful tool if you spy a lot on competitors or are often talked about in the online world (forums, social media, etc). Mention crawls the Internet everyday finding any mention of your website and reports back with links of the source.
This is good for two reasons, first of all if someone is asking a question about a product or service you have, you can quickly answer it. The second is that you can also follow your competitors’ and industry related keywords should you want to ride a trend or get a better understanding on how your prospects are feeling.
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My favourite online marketing tools in 2015
1. ClickFunnels
ClickFunnels is a marketer’s best friend. It’s more than just a landing page software, as it can build out entire sales funnels and even membership sites.
Admittedly, the investment to use ClickFunnels is higher than the average landing page software, but the flexibility and power of the interface means that I would find it hard to ever switch back.
- Best for: businesses who generate most of their sales/leads online.
2. Buffer
Buffer is another all round marketing tool but its biggest strength lies in managing your social media profiles. I mentioned in other blog posts that if you don’t have the time to properly manage several social media accounts, you should stick to one and do it properly one instead of spending a few minutes per week on several.
Buffer lets you have your cake and eat it. You can post on several profiles from a centralised dashboard and saves you hours of work each week.
Aside from managing all your social media updates, Buffer will also give you feedback on the best performing posts, users who interact with your brand the most and it works with several other apps and extensions. It’s pretty much an all-in-one solution for social media.
- Best for: for managing your social media presence.
3. MailChimp
Email marketing still offers you the best opportunity to build relationships with your prospects, and it is hands down still the most effective sales tool that you can automate.
Mailchimp presents an easy to use interface and for small lists, is entirely free to use. It is without the doubt the best entry level tool for anyone wanting to get started with email marketing (and here’s why you should).
- Best for: creating great email campaigns
4. Google Keyword Planner
I don’t want to say too much about the Google Keyword Planner as I’ve talked about it before, but if you’re looking to get into SEO and have a limited budget, the Google Planner is the best free option available.
- Best for: Search engine optimisation.
5. Crazy Egg
Crazy Egg is a heat mapping tool that reveals how visitors interact with your website. Why should you care? Well if you know where users are looking and clicking, you’ll have a better idea on where to place your call-to-actions, products and what elements of your website are producing the best results.
In my How I Increased Sales By 50% Through The Use Of Website Heatmaps article, I showed how a simple change in my website design lead me to generate 50% more sales.
- Best for: optimising your website.
6. AdEspresso
I love AdEspresso, not only is their blog packed to the gills with useful Facebook marketing advice, but their Facebook SaaS tools is so much easier (and prettier to look at) then the Facebook Power Editor.
AdEspresso is only of use for businesses who spend a lot of time marketing their business via Facebook. Within seconds you can create variants of the same advert for testing, target multiple audiences just as fast and it shows ad results in a clear and concise manner.
- Best for: businesses who use Facebook ads a lot.
7. Mention
Mention is a useful tool if you spy a lot on competitors or are often talked about in the online world (forums, social media, etc). Mention crawls the Internet everyday finding any mention of your website and reports back with links of the source.
This is good for two reasons, first of all if someone is asking a question about a product or service you have, you can quickly answer it. The second is that you can also follow your competitors’ and industry related keywords should you want to ride a trend or get a better understanding on how your prospects are feeling.
- Best for: keeping an eye on competitors and learning what others are saying about your brand.
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