“Go where the customer is.” Every marketer must have heard this phrase, and there is no debate in saying that these five words have a tremendous amount of wisdom. Whether it’s a traditional brick-and-mortar store or a highly cosmopolitan eCommerce store; for any business to succeed, it is important to identify its target market. This is why marketing is often defined as a mechanism to target the right person at the right time at the right place. Good research and analysis of the target market are not just helpful but are inevitable. You must know the mindset of whom you are selling and how and where to engage with them.
Due to the abundance of available channels and a constant rise in multiservice content consumption, modern-day marketing has turned into a catch me if you can game. Thanks to developers, today we have dozens of marketing tools available designed to identify and target customers. Some of these tools are absolutely free that can help you reach and convert your audience into customers.
In this article, I am not going to list down the generic and obvious tools such as Google keyword planner or Google Analytics. I have done further research on marketing tools and gathered something more to this topic than what meets the eye.
1. KW Word – Long Tail Keyword Tool
The importance of keyword research is no secret. Almost 90% of inter-users start looking for information by making a search engine query. To be honest, the power of Google keyword planner is of course unmatchable. It is the greatest keyword research tool ever.
The reason for recommending KW word is because it is good to engineer long tail keywords. For effective search engine marketing, you must choose long descriptive keywords and be more specific about what you are selling. KW word is good in this regard. It has a simple and easy-to-use interface and helps you dive into local keyword research. This means you have the opportunity to target customers based on their location and demographics.
2. Mailchimp – Email Marketing Tool
The effectiveness of email marketing in reaching out to potential customers is undeniable. However, email marketing is a powerful mechanism. According to DMA 77% of the whole email marketing ROI came from targeted, segmented, and triggered campaigns in 2015. This means that email marketing campaigns must be triggered carefully.
MailChimp is a popular tool, and you might have heard of it before. MailChimp is a perfect email marketing tool as it allows you to set up and deliver emails based on the recipient’s time zone, multiplying the effect. It comes with an easy email creator, autoresponders, segmenting contacts into groups, merge tags, and simple tracking. The basic version is free of cost, and a paid version starts from 10US$ per month.
Here’s a good resource on How to Create High‑Performing Email Campaigns with Mailchimp.
3. Hootsuite – Social Media Tool
Social media marketing is the most interactive way of targeting the right audience. But the reality is that “97% of marketers are currently participating in social media campaigns out of which 85% aren’t sure what social media tools are the best to use”. – Social Media Examiner
Hootsuite is perfect for beginners. It is easy to use and enables you to manage multiple social media networks under one roof. It is one of those tools you can work hundreds of hours and still never get tired of. It allows you to post updates, connect to several other platforms, review pages, and connect with your client base and this list goes on. In short, Hootsuite helps you easily manage multiple contributors, update multiple social networks in a single step and optimize delivery.
4. Outbrain – Content Marketing Tool
Modern-day marketing is no longer about the glorification of your products and services. It’s now about the ability to tell and create stories. Thanks to the internet, today you can create a brand story online without much investment. However, for this marketing strategy to work, you must use the right tools for content marketing.
Outbrain is a perfect tool to publish and distribute content if you are facing issues with content marketing. With Outbrain, you can amplify and reach your target audience for any type of content. It can be a video, infographic, or a blog post. The content will appear as a promoted and suggested similar content alongside all popular local and national sites. This is a pay-to-play option and you get your content out to a more significant and relevant audience.
5. Jorhna – Affiliate Marketing Tool
Affiliate marketing has been around us since 1999. Some entrepreneurs think it is a new phenomenon. Well, I believe it always existed in one form or another. Today, affiliate marketing itself is a billion-dollar industry and giants like Amazon and eBay are using affiliates to increase their sales.
Jorhna is a powerful extension if you are using Magento for eCommerce web development. It comes with a sophisticated dashboard and allows you to create and design your own affiliate program based on your set of criteria. Moreover, the flexibility and ease of use are fantastic. You can configure the commission, create accounts, and custom links. It offers a free and relatively cheap version as well.
Conclusion
It is not always easy to “go where the customer is.” Marketers face a lot of potential communication barriers in connecting with customers. However, with the right tools in hand, you can personalize and localize your marketing campaigns and take your sales to a whole new level.