The Most Successful Marketing Tools for Small Businesses
There are so many marketing tools on the Internet. Which marketing tools are best suited for small business owners?
Many tools meant for small businesses are also implicitly intended for small businesses (I’m thinking about you, Slack).
Marketing tools may be available to small local businesses. They must be able to afford a budget that is relevant to their business, affordable, and flexible enough to be used multiple times.
These are the marketing tools that I have used to help my local clients. After working with many businesses, including Realtors to car repair shops to law firms , these tools have been a great benefit to me.
Google My Business
Local marketing is usually started and ended at Google. Google leads local marketing in almost all channels, except Search and Maps.
Google My Business lets local businesses claim, manage, and update all Google products information.
Recommendation Google My Business, a must have tool for small-scale businesses. Register now to keep your profile current.
Pricing – Free
– You can manage all your Google listings and Google My Business listings from one place.
Google Analytics
Every local business should have a website. Google Analytics tracks how visitors interact with your website. This will help you evaluate the effectiveness of your website and learn more about marketing.
Recommendation – Google Analytics is easily installed on any website.
Pricing – Free
Alternatives If you would like to use an alternative product to Google Ads such as Fathom and Search Console, then you can.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console provides data about your website’s performance in Google Search. This complements Analytics and My Business.
Although search engine optimization (SEO) is not a primary channel of marketing, it is important. It is important to have control over search results and how customers find your site.
Recommend- Setting up the SEO Console is much easier than Google Analytics.
Pricing – Free!
Alternatives: Many SEO tools such as SEMrush and Ahrefs provide similar data. Google Search console provides the most accurate and useful data for your site.
Market & Ad Research Tool
A market and ad search tool will help you spend your marketing time more efficiently.
Recommendation-SEMrush provides a complete set of marketing tools for social, local and organic marketing. Register now to receive a free trial .
Pricing – ~$100/mo depending on plan & service.
Alternatives Mangools has a lower price but offers limited SEO/organic data.
Local Listing Management Tool
Google My Business will be your local listing centre.
These websites (think Yelp, Angie’s List and Yellow Pages) are a great example. These websites (think Yelp, Angie’s List, Yellow Pages etc.) have their own users searching for businesses. Google will also crawl your listings in order to verify your NAP and relevance.
All listings must be maintained if you wish to compete in local search. A local listing service is better.
Recommendation- SEMrush provides a Local Listing Management tool in their tool suite.
Prices Starting at $20/mo
Other – You can also use standalone local services like WhiteSpark and Moz Local. These services have some lock-in risk, but could be worth it for multi-location businesses.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Tool
A common business saying is that the best customer is the one who already knows you.
Buying new customers is risky and costly. Getting new revenue from existing customers is worth the investment.
It is important to have a good CRM. There are many CRMs available, from small WordPress plugins to large enterprise SalesForce.
Recommendation- Hubspot integrates many tools and is the best CRM. Chat can be used to get help.
Starting at $50/mo.
Other CRMs – There are many CRMs that suit your needs. Jetpack CRM is available for WordPress users. It is free of charge.
Landing Page Tool
Never direct people to your homepage. This is the first rule in online advertising and marketing.
A common website makes it difficult for you to create a landing page.
Recommendation: WordPress is the best content management system for managing websites. You can also use their self-hosted site builder to manage your website.
WordPress has an easy Add New Page button. WordPress also offers pre-formatted templates, blocks and other features that make it easy to create landing pages quickly. This can help increase your website’s organic traffic.
Prices WordPress Software $0
Alternatives There are many drag and drop landing page tools available, including one for WordPress like BoldGrid.
These can all be very useful but they are expensive and will not be able to be integrated with your website after the campaign has ended.
Retail & Shopping Cart Tools
Local businesses are more likely to be visited by customers in person.
But, 2020 showed that online sales will be a very popular channel for local businesses. Customers expect local businesses to offer online ordering.
Recommended (Robust Option) – WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that allows you to quickly add products, shopping carts and order management to your site. It takes some time to set it up.
Recommended (Quick Option). Recommended (Quick Option).
Prices Up to $20/mo
Alternatives Shopify offers a robust Lite version. This option costs $9/month plus processing fees for credit card transactions.
Email Marketing Tool
Email marketing directly is the best method without an algorithm filter.
It’s extremely important to have an email address as well as marketing consent from customers. An email marketing tool that is well-designed can help you reach customers consistently.
Recommendation: MailChimp is the market leader for email marketing, especially for small-sized businesses.
Pricing – Starting at free.
Alternates Constant Contact is an easy, flexible way to use Aweber in conjunction with Aweber.
Ad Management Tool
Google ads and Facebook ads are essential for every business.
But, Google’s self-service setups for Facebook or Google are confusing and overwhelming. Local businesses can optimize their ads simply by refreshing them frequently. Ad management software is extremely useful for this job and can often be paid for.
Recommendation- AdEspresso is a stand-alone advertising management tool.
Prices Starting at $49/mo
Alternatives SEMrush includes an ad management tool in its subscription. MailChimp also offers this tool.
Social Media Management Tool
While social media can be a great tool for local businesses, it can also cause tedious work and a lack of success.
Batching social media tasks is the solution. Write multiple updates and answer questions at a time that works for you.
This process is faster but requires a social media management tool.
Recommendation: Buffer is my favorite tool to manage both client and personal accounts.
Prices Starting at $10/mo
Alternatives Hootsuite is available as a standalone tool.
Graphic Design Tools
Small businesses don’t have to look the same way as big cities. Anyone can do professional graphic design.
Recommendations : Use Stencil to create quick social media mockups (see Stencil Review), and Tailor Brands for designing and formatting branded merchandise (see Tailor Brands Review).
Prices Starting at $10/mo
Alternatives Canva is a tool that allows you to upload files online.
Project Management Tool
Online marketing and promotion are complicated with many small tasks that need to be managed. Project management software is essential.
Clients and consultants often fail due to poor execution and implementation. This is not due to a lack knowledge.
Recommendation: Trello is a solid and easy-to-use project management platform.
Prices Free or Up
The most popular tool is .
Print Materials Tool
Local businesses should have their online marketing campaigns tailored. It’s important to link brands and designs.
Recommendation: VistaPrint is a well-known name in the industry and offers great pricing.
Pricing – Depends.
Alternatives Zazzle has tons of printed options and integrates with graphic design services like Tailor Brands.
Next steps
There are many tasks you can do in marketing. Make sure you use the right tools to automate as many of them as possible.
My guide to local business marketing strategy.
