Marketing Tools for Small Business: The Ultimate Guide to Smarter Growth
Introduction
Owning a small business is both an amazing and challenging endeavor
You are faced with the challenge of competing against larger companies, managing social media, generating potential clients / leads, emailing prospects, advertising and analyzing data to understand your success while helping your actual clients with limited time and budget, as well as very few staff.
That’s where there is value with marketing tools for small businesses.
Marketing tools save you time and provide you with the means to:
Automate repeatable activities
Reach new types of customers
Improve ROI (conversion rate)
Monitor actual performance
Increase your ability to grow without hiring a lot of additional employees
In this guide, you will find great suggestions on some of the best tools for marketing for the small business owner, intuitive how to use each tool, mistakes to avoid when using marketing tools and advanced techniques for increasing ROI.
Let’s get started
Marketing Tools That Small Businesses Need
Before we discuss specific tools, let’s first look at why they’re important.
The three biggest challenges with marketing for small businesses are:
Time
Budget
Human Resources
Marketing software has transformed how businesses conduct their marketing by:
Automating Processes
Centralizing Customer Data
Providing Data-Based Analytics to Make Better Informed Decisions
Putting Less Dependence on Larger Teams
You do not have to rely solely on trial and error to discover what works for your company.
Types of Tools that small businesses should use for their marketing
There are many types of marketing, but not all of them do the same thing, so the core categories of marketing tools that most small businesses should use. Here is a breakdown:
EMail Marketing Tools
One of the highest store of value (ROI) channels for marketing is still email marketing.
Here are some of the more popular email marketing tools:
Mailchimp
ConvertKit
ActiveCampaign
Email Marketing’s Benefits
Builds Relationships Directly with Customers
Encourages Customers to Buy from You Again
Follow-up with Customers Automatically
Creates Higher Customer Lifetime Values
Real World Case Study
A small bakery that sells its products only through an e-commerce website collects customers’ email addresses at the time of checkout. The bakery then takes advantage of email marketing automated email processes. The bakery sends emails to their customers. The bakery sends emails to customers every time they have a birthday and offer them a discount.
They will also send customers seasonal offers. In addition, the bakery sends customers an email once a week reminding them of any products they have in their shopping cart but did not purchase.
The result has been a steady increase of 25–30% of customers making repeat purchases from the bakery.
3. Social Media Management Tools
Spending time on manually managing all the various social media accounts takes up hours each week.
Social Media Management tools include:
Hootsuite
Buffer
Later
They’re used for:
Posting content ahead of time
Keeping track of visitors’ activity
Watching how well content is performing
Managing multiple accounts
An example would be: a small fitness studio posts all of its content for a one-month period in one day and then [schedules] the posts. This allows them more time to provide service to their clients.
3. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Tools
A CRM tool allows users to manage their leads and customer information in an efficient manner.
The most popular CRM tools include:
HubSpot
Zoho CRM
Salesforce
Reason why CRMs are important:
Automatic tracking of leads
Manage customer interactions
Better follow up on leads generated
Increase in final sales
Example: A local consulting firm uses a CRM to:
Track all inquiries received
Schedule automated follow up for each inquiry
Track the different stages of their deals
Their close rates increased because they did not forget about any [of] their leads.
4. SEO & Content Marketing Tools
If you’re not found online, you don’t exist!
Popular Tools
SEMrush
Ahrefs
Ubersuggest
How They Help You
Keyword Research
Competitor Analysis
Backlink Tracking
Content Optimization
Example of using the tools in real life
A small landscaping company uses keyword tools to target phrases like
“affordable lawn care near me”
“residential landscape services”
And instead of guessing what to blog about, they use keywords to write blog posts on topics with actual search demand.
5. Graphic Design Tools
You don’t need to employ a graphic designer to create social media posts.
Popular Tools
Canva
Adobe Express
Benefits
Easy to use and drag-and-drop graphics editor
Pre-designed templates
Branding kits
Even if you’re not a trained graphic designer, you can produce polished visual content.
6. Marketing Automation Tools
Automation allows you to work much more efficiently!
Popular Tools
Zapier
ClickFunnels
Sample Workflow Example
If someone fills out a contact form on your website
They will automatically be entered into your CRM
They will get a welcome email from you
Your sales team will receive an email from you letting them know about the new customer
They didn’t know about before!
How to Select the Best Marketing Tools for a Small Business
More is not always better when it comes to marketing tools.
Follow these steps when selecting marketing tools to use:
STEP 1: Define Your Marketing Objectives (Your Goals for Marketing)
What are your marketing objectives?
Generate New Leads
Increase Repeat Business
Increase Brand Recognition
Increase Website Visitors
Choose only marketing tools that help you accomplish these goals.
STEP 2: Begin with a Smaller Number of Marketing Tools
Be cautious of too many marketing tools. Start with just three tools:
One Email Marketing Tool
One Social Media Scheduling Tool
One Customer Relationship Management Tool
After your revenue grows, you can start using more marketing tools.
STEP 3: Verify Your Marketing Tools Can Integrate With Each Other
All of your tools should integrate with one another.
Examples Include:
Email Marketing Software and your CRM System
CRM System and Automation Software
Website and Analytics Tool
If your tools do not connect with one another, you will create more confusion and chaos!
Mistakes Small Biz Owners Make
Even with the best marketing tools for small businesses, if they are not used properly they will not work.
1.Buying Too Many Tools
A lot of business owners subscribe to many platforms which they barely utilize.
The Fix: Master one item before adding another one.
2.Not Utilizing Analytics
Tools provide data, but many owners do not utilize the information provided.
Track the following:
Open Rates
Conversion Rates
Click-Through Rates
Cost-Per-Acquisition
Decisions based upon data-take precedence over guessing.
3.Not Enough Automation
Manual marketing limits the ability to grow.
If you are:
Sending emails manually
Posting daily with no schedule
Tracking leads with a spreadsheet
You are wasting precious time.
4.Only Focusing on Social Media
While social media is a major aspect of any marketing strategy, it should not be the only tactic in your arsenal.
If you want to see higher returns than what social media provides, you should look at email marketing, search engine optimization, and pay-per-click ads.
Advance Marketing Strategies Using These Tools
After getting the basics down, move on to the more advanced tactics listed below:
1.Behavioral Email Automation
Sending emails that correspond to a user’s online activity has a dramatic effect on conversions.
Examples include:
Website Visits
Product Views
Abandonment of Cart
Prior Purchases
2.Retargeting Campaigns
Utilize Facebook and Google ads to retarget:
Website visitors
Abandoned carts
Former customers
Retargeting is cheaper and has a higher conversion rate than traditional advertising methods.
3.Funnel-Based Marketing
Rather than conducting random marketing campaigns, create a systematic funnel for your marketing efforts:
Awareness (e.g., blog postings, advertisements)
Lead Capture (e.g., free guides, discounts)
Email Nurturing
Sales Offer
Upsells
A combination of marketing tools can automate each step of the funnel.
Budget-Conscious Marketing Tech Stack for Small Businesses
If you’re just starting out on a shoestring budget, this is an example of a simple marketing tech stack:
Email: MailChimp
Social Media Scheduling: Buffer
CRM: HubSpot (Free Version)
Creative: Canva
SEO Research: Ubersuggest
With this combination of products, you can quickly cover the majority of your marketing needs at an affordable price.
Action Plan: Implement Marketing Tech in 30 Days
Here’s a simple action plan that you can follow to implement the marketing tools in your tech stack.
Week 1:
Define your goals
Select your core tools
Set up your email automation
Week 2:
Schedule out 30 days’ worth of social content
Set up Analytics tracking on your website
Week 3:
Build a lead magnet
Create an email sequence to follow up with leads
Week 4:
Use the Analytics from your website to analyze their performance and iterate on your strategy to improve overall performance
Remove any unused tools
The key to successful marketing is consistency not complexity.
Marketing Tools For Small Companies In The Future
Marketing tools powered by artificial intelligence (AI) are becoming the norm. Expect more and more marketing tools to start providing:
AI Content Suggestions
Predictive Analytics
Customer Segmentation Automating
Smart Personalization
The technology that once was only available to big companies is now available to small companies. This gives the small business a significant advantage over their larger competitors. (Use the previous sentence as a starting point for a new paragraph.)
Summary: Smart Tools = Smart Growth
The correct marketing tool can cause your company’s growth to increase by the use of smart tools to support your marketing strategy.
When used correctly, the right marketing tools will increase revenue, save you time, provide more efficient service and improve your relationship with customers.
The best way to use marketing tools is to start doing simple things that will create consistency, analyze your data frequently and optimize as often as necessary.
Small companies using smart marketing tools have the opportunity to grow beyond being just small; they will grow to be larger companies.
