9 Must-Have Tools to Drive Efficiency and Maximize Sales

A product everyone will love and want to buy – that's the dream. You or your company might have already come up with one. No one will care if you don't get the word out, though! People hardly bother with physical mail anymore; word-of-mouth can only get you so far. Taking your marketing efforts into the digital space is the way to go. This article will show you how.

Useful marketing tools number in the thousands, so finding individual ones can be a nightmare. Rather than bombard you with specific products, we’ve condensed our recommendations into nine categories. Each tackles a challenge you’re likely to face and explains what the right tool can do to overcome it.

1. CRM

Customer Relationship Management or CRM software is the springboard to your company's marketing success. It replaces outdated spreadsheets but can do much more! At its core, a CRM is an automated database of clients, prospects, and leads.

Data in a spreadsheet, like a client's contact info, is at a CRM's base. However, it also tracks your interactions with clients, their purchase histories, or the last time they visited your website. CRM uses such info to help you identify hot leads and reach out with solutions to their specific problems.

CRMs range in complexity and scope. Some only maintain up-to-date databases. However, more sophisticated CRMs integrate various automation, campaign creation, and analytics tools. This is handy for personalizing your outreach and creating awesome follow-ups. Ideally, your CRM should be able to integrate seamlessly with as many of the following tools as possible.

2. Lead Generation

The last thing anyone wants is to get a call asking about their pet shampoo preferences during downtime. You want to reach out to people who show genuine interest in your product or service, and that's where lead generation comes in. While it’s among the most challenging marketing aspects, lead generation creates some of the biggest rewards.

Lead generation tools help you come up with compelling ways of attracting attention to your content and offers. These include everything from building inviting landing pages to activities like quizzes & surveys visitors will want to participate in. Successful lead generation collects valuable data from engaged individuals. It helps turn a curious visitor into a buyer over time.

Direct engagement via chat is another fast-growing lead-generation method. It includes the use of automated bots as well as human interaction. Chatbots are great at discovering and categorizing leads across social media and other online platforms.

On the other hand, live chat on your site demonstrates customer care and establishes trust. After all, someone’s more likely to try a service or product out if they get fast and accurate answers.

3. Email Management & Marketing

An email address remains one of the most valuable leads you can get. Marketing via cold opens and email campaigns is challenging, but specialized tools exist that lessen the burden. The right email marketing tool can work wonders for your open-and-click ratios.

For instance, it can help you send personalized emails to thousands of addresses without the recipients dismissing them as spam. Additionally, some email marketing tools suggest at what time and how often to send a message.

Investing in email marketing tools is a no-brainer for marketers who don't want to bother with technical stuff. Many offer campaign and template creation that doesn't require coding knowledge. That way, you get to focus on the copy and delivery while the tool takes care of the presentation.

4. Social Media Management

Many people no longer take businesses seriously if they have no presence on the most popular apps. Social media managers help you stay on top of things. Any social media manager worth its salt offers account management from one place. The best ones take things much farther.

For example, social media managers are crucial for planning and structuring ad campaigns. That includes tailoring posts to the specific platform, running time-sensitive ads, and recycling content that did well before.

Such tools often incorporate analytics. These tell you what content has the best track record and what your followers want to see more of. They also help you interact with followers by collecting posts from all your accounts. You can then respond to questions or take gentle jabs at the competition without having to sign into individual accounts.

5.  Password Management

Almost all marketing tools either build up or leverage large databases with lots of diverse information. This ranges from contact info to trade & company secrets like data on campaigns for upcoming products. A data breach is the last thing a marketer wants on their conscience, so having a password manager can be a lifesaver.

There's also the convenience angle since all the tools above require some form of credentials. Why bother coming up with and juggling passwords when you can remember one strong password to rule over all? This makes tasks like testing a landing page’s format on different devices without having to sign into each a snap.

Passwords shouldn’t be a marketer’s daily concern. That’s why the “set it and forget it” nature and the secure credential storage password managers bring a perfect fit.

6. SEO

The bread & butter of getting noticed, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) defines much of your online presence. The majority of internet searches happen through Google. If Google doesn’t rank it highly, your company might as well not exist in the digital world. Luckily, SEO tools offer the solutions you need to put your name on the map.

You probably know about some good SEO practices already. Sticking to relevant keywords and creating content that brings value to site visitors are the most common. SEO tools augment every aspect of keyword implementation.

Some SEO tools have built-in editors that recommend alternate keywords and even suggest article layouts. Others focus on keyword analytics, providing insights into successful strategies for keyword usage and backlink generation.

Smaller companies with limited SEO knowledge benefit greatly from these tools. They can see what works for the competition and develop effective strategies to secure their own niches.

7. SEM

More often than not, it’s hard to get traffic from organic keywords alone. Your site needs a helping hand, and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) will give you one. SEM involves paying for campaigns that boost targeted searches. It grew out of general SEO and is now a crucial field in its own right.

Throwing money at your search visibility woes isn’t enough for them to go away. SEM tools help by providing the data necessary to come up with effective PPC campaigns targeting specific keywords.

SEM tools rely heavily on data. They offer insights into your competitors’ campaigns, the best-performing long-term keywords, and effective copy. They also keep track of keyword relevance changes and future estimates. Armed with info like that, you’re likely to spend less while getting more relevant traffic.

8. Content Creation

Need a stunning banner or eye-catching popup people won't want to close? No need to wrestle with Photoshop's layers or bother the design team anymore! In fact, it's easier than ever only to use online tools to put together impactful marketing content. Think of anything from various ad types through compelling presentations to complete site layouts.

Ease of use is the best thing about such tools. Companies create them with non-designers in mind, so anyone can put together believable content fast.

Automation is the newest trend sweeping the content creation landscape. Integrating it into your workflow allows you to create templates based on prompts that instantly come with several alternatives. It’s a huge time saver! Plus, you might end up with a happy accident that looks cooler than your original vision.

9.  Project Management & Collaboration

Your job is to create value, not wonder if your coworkers are pulling their weight. Project management tools ensure everyone on your team is on the same page regarding responsibilities and deadlines. They can take on a wide range of forms, all with the task of boosting productivity & accountability.

Some of the most popular project management tools adopt a virtual post-it system. This lets a manager assign tasks and group them into categories. Once someone does their part, they can pass the task along or mark it as done.

Communication plays a vital role in project management. With the advent of collaboration apps, you no longer need to send emails and hope the right person sees or bothers to respond.

Such apps drastically improve coordination. They make forming groups of people based on a project’s needs a cinch. It’s equally easy to reach out to individual members, send approved files, or lighten the mood with a well-timed GIF.

Final Thoughts

Today’s marketing specialists face unique challenges. Luckily, more than enough tools exist to keep these challenges manageable. Acquainting the right ones will speed up your workflow and raise efficiency. No less importantly, it will let you form a genuine connection with your customers. Getting people in touch with the services and products they need is a noble effort. With the right tools in your tool belt, it can also be fun and rewarding.