You’ve probably heard over the past few years about the rise of digital marketing and the impact it’s had on traditional advertising. Although much of the focus has been on social media and search engine optimization, the underlying principles of digital marketing have always been about engaging your audience and getting them to do something – whether that’s purchasing a product or service from you or your competitors, or simply reading your blog post or social media feed.

While this is all well and good, it’s not very helpful when you’re trying to choose the right technology for your needs. After all, not every tool fits every business. Fortunately, we’ve got you covered on this front.’

MailChimp

If you don’t yet use MailChimp, you should probably get on board with them sooner than later. After all, they are the experts in email marketing and have done amazing things for small businesses around the world. With MailChimp, creating an email marketing campaign is a cinch. All you need to do is pick the template that’s most suitable for your needs (free and pro versions are available), choose a username and password, and then start entering your email list.

A benefit of MailChimp is that they already have a massive user base. This means you can more than likely find a couple of thousand individuals who are already on the platform (and have opted in to receive emails from you). So, instead of starting from scratch, your work will already be half-done. And, at only $2.95 per month plus 20% off the annual subscription (with a free trial), what’s not to like?

HubSpot

You might know of HubSpot, the industry-leading inbound marketing platform. This is the tool that marketers and business owners around the world use to track marketing activities, analyze marketing results, and connect with customers – all from a single dashboard.

What makes HubSpot so special is that they’ve designed it to be easy to use yet powerful enough to take on board a business of any size. Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, HubSpot helps you identify what works and what doesn’t. Armed with this information, you can continue refining your strategy and adapting as you go.

One of the things that sets HubSpot apart from other similar platforms is that they prioritize user experience (UX) and delight. So, not only does your dashboard serve as a hub, but it’s pretty easy to navigate and understand as well.

Pricing:

As someone who regularly consults with businesses of all sizes across the country, let me share a few ways that pricing for online marketing and advertising tools varies by industry and size of business.

Small businesses and startups can find affordable options in most cases, and for the most part, so do mid-sized businesses. However, if your business is larger than a certain size, you might have to look for other options. Luckily, there are alternatives. You just have to know where to look.

One of the things I like most about MailChimp is that they offer a free basic account to businesses of any size. So, not only can you try them out for free, but you can also scale up your account as needed. In most cases, this will determine the cost of the product. So, even if you decide that you like the way MailChimp handles email marketing, you’ll know that your costs are minimal.

Celery

Another great option for those of you looking for a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solution is Celery. Similar to HubSpot, Celery is designed for marketers and business owners who want to track customer behavior, analyze marketing activities, and build (and track) customer relationships.

What makes Celery different from other solutions is that they’ve designed it to be user-friendly and feature-packed. Additionally, and quite importantly, they’ve made sure that the software is PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliant. So, if you’re looking for a tool to process credit cards, you can rest assured that Celery is completely safe to use. With so many benefits, why not give it a try?

Streampix

Finally, if you’re looking for an affordable video hosting platform with an uncluttered user interface and simple yet elegant templates, you can’t go wrong with Streampix.

What sets Streampix apart from other similar products is that they’ve focused on three things: design, design, and design. So, not only do they have a wonderful UX (User Experience), but the templates are equally as appealing. Additionally, and quite importantly, since the platform is integrated with Google Analytics, you can track all of the video traffic coming into your website.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur who wants to build a blog or an inhouse marketer who wants to create an online magazine, you can’t go wrong with any of these four tools. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a Marketing Analytics 101 presentation to prepare for tomorrow.