As the boss, it’s this personal development you actively encourage and you are dedicated to seeing your team members climb the ranks of success. So what, if anything, is slowing your people down? Do they really have everything they need to succeed? If you’ve got the right people and you’re as dedicated as they are, then maybe it’s the marketing software that needs an overhaul.
Your team is the driving force behind the success of your business and they drive forward sales month after month. Whether there are just a few of you, or you’re part of a much a larger scale operation, it’s true that the people you have on board with you are your best investment.
Get the team right and the rest will follow. A motivated, inspired and dedicated group of people will get behind your vision and drive your goals and objectives forward. They will help you overcome obstacles along the way and see their own personal development grow.
In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the very best in cutting edge marketing software that will take some of the guesswork out of marketing, create amazing campaigns and inspire your team to move from greatness to brilliance.
GetResponse
This Cloud-based package offers users the chance to connect to their customers using email. While this in itself is nothing new, the beauty of this software is the ease with which you can create great looking email and templates with no experience or need to understand how templates work.
You’ll be able to use the preview version to fully test how emails appear and the A/B feature to figure out the best time to send and the optimal subject line.
Basic in concept but an effective and efficient communicator nevertheless and well worth considering.
SharpSpring
If you’re looking for an all-rounder then SharpSpring may tick all the right boxes for your marketing team. This software package helps manage your social and mobile media, create sales team and marketing automation and even track who visits your website.
This smart kit can look up a visitor’s IP address and furnish you with name and contact details in seconds. A powerful all-rounder when it comes to keeping control and scheduling your marketing actions. Perfect for small to medium-sized businesses.
Copper
When sales are your thing, you need to have something on your side that can accurately track sales, flag up any sales in danger of falling through and accurately predict sales figures to keep you and your team on track. If you’re still asking yourself: why should I use Copper? Then the answer is clear, Copper is the effective answer to keep everything in line.
The real benefit to this kind of software is how much time you’ll save. Gone are the days of filling in endless spreadsheets and sales documents and here instead is live tracking where all the information is available at the touch of a fingertip. Another great bonus is that you’ll be able to see individual staff performances, creating greater accountability between team members.
Image courtesy of Pexels
ExpertSender
Another marketing must-have. This smart tech allows you to better tailor your marketing campaign around your customer’s needs and habits. Use it to dig deep into your customer behaviors and create campaigns across a variety of channels to meet them. Use ExpertSender for email, web, and SMS. Split and manage campaigns to account for your audience segmentation and be fully confident that what you’re sending out is GDPR compliant.
Another useful thing to bear in mind with this marketing software is that you’ll also be able to call on the company’s expertise when it comes to designing campaigns and having access to round the clock support.
NiceJob
When your reputation matters, you need some software that’s going to make sure you’re getting the best feedback and testimonials from your satisfied client. That’s where NiceJob comes in. This tech will help manage your reputation by emailing and offering clients the chance to create a testimonial and sending reminders to those who have agreed but not yet finished the task.
This platform allows the business to create picture profiles of customers, tagging them in them, and can be shared not only on your own site but also across social media. A super helpful and smart way to get word-of-mouth recommendations from your customers and share them far and wide.
Infusionsoft by Keap
This package is offered on a monthly subscription basis and features a whole system of support when it comes to Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM) and marketing campaigns. It allows you to monitor your email campaigns and set up triggers that respond to emails being opened and so on.
You can also use this software to set up your e-commerce needs as it offers everything from checkout facilities to payment handling.
This software seems popular in the healthcare and hospitality sectors of industry, so if this is where your business fits in, it might be well worth checking out.
Campaign Monitor
This software is a firm favorite and for good reason. If you’re looking to find out how effective your marketing campaign is, then use this technology to find out.
With Campaign Monitor, you’ll be able to manage new subscribers, create new campaigns and newsletters and create reports.
Vocus
This marketing software helps you keep in touch with your customer base through various social media channels.
It has a comprehensive suite of marketing tools that offers you the chance to manage your marketing emails and online campaigns seamlessly.
Sailthru
If you’re looking to make your customer’s experiences with your business more personal then this software package offers exactly this service.
This startup will send target emails, create personalized homepages and track your customers’ response to your campaign, making sure that they get the personal touch. Used across several industry sectors, this extremely clever technology is the driving force behind many marketing teams.
HubSpot
If you’re looking for a more subtle approach to your marketing contact with customers, HubSpot provides the answer. Founded way back in 2006, this company offers a less in-your-face approach to marketing, looking carefully at customers’ needs and how they prefer to be approached.
They prefer a less traditional approach to marketing, focusing in on personalized strategies and finding methods that people love and will almost certainly respond to, whether that’s a blog post or direct email.
MailChimp
Another old favorite and we can see why. Like other similar platforms, it gives users the opportunity to A/B test and sends out test emails before committing to a mailout. It also has plenty of options when it comes to templates from the very straightforward looking to more complicated in design. A tried and tested piece of marketing software that has stood the test of time.
Wordstream
When you need your words to count, Wordstream is on your side. This package effectively works to help marketers manage their Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) campaigns and get themselves seen more and more during organic marketing campaigns.
Marketing software decisions
Your team deserves the best when it comes to marketing software that’s going to drive your business forward. The problem, of course, is that for at least some of these packages you are looking at a significant outlay. Before you commit to the flashiest, most recent piece of technology, it’s well worth doing some background research.
You might start by sitting down with your team and asking them what they need that might make for a more effective marketing software solution. You’ll probably end up with a variety of answers, so make a note of any common themes that you find recurring.
Another useful activity is to take an audit of all the current software you run. Is everyone using the same package, are they even using it in the same way? If you find that different software is being used for different marketing streams then you may consider ditching those individual subscriptions and signing up for an all-in-one solution.
The advantage here, of course, is that you will better be able to monitor the outcomes of campaigns, allow staff to compare their performance against other team members and simply have all the data you need in one place.
At the end of the day, even with marketing software as sharp as some of those mentioned up post, the real success will come down to how motivated your team is to use the software.
If you choose to make investments without considering your team prior to your purchase, you run a strong risk of alienating the very people who you need to make this work.
Your marketing team is the backbone of your organization so keep them in the loop and up to speed with your plans. Motivate them with financial compensation and a competitive office environment, reward them in the same way. With the right team behind you, helping you plan and reach your business goals, those long term objectives are only a few marketing campaigns away from total success.
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Hausman and Associates, the publisher of MKT Maven, is a full-service marketing agency operating at the intersection of marketing and digital media. Check out our full range of services.
