As a business owner, marketer, or sales professional, you know that getting leads is only the beginning. Creating engaging customer experiences that convert into loyal customers is the key to growing your business.
Since consumers have more control than ever before over the products that they buy and use, marketers need to put in the extra effort to ensure that their customers feel valued and understood. One of the best ways to do this is to focus on the customer experience through the digital sphere.
What does this mean? Well, if someone visits your website and doesn’t have a good experience or isn’t given the information they need to make a purchase, you’ve just lost a customer. With a little bit of effort on your end, you can fix this problem and move on to the next customer. This is where a business comes in handy.
To help you with this effort, we’ve curated an extensive list of the best free online marketing tools to grow your business. These platforms and tools can help you analyze and track the performance of your marketing campaigns, assess your websites, and analyze the behavior of your customers.
Customer Analytics Platforms
Keeping track of what’s working and what isn’t is vital to the growth of any business. Fortunately, there are a number of customer analytics platforms that can help you with this effort. These platforms gather information about customers’ behavior and habits throughout their relationship with your company and present this information in user-friendly ways, making it accessible to anyone with an internet connection.
One of the most prominent analytics platforms is Google Analytics. What makes it stand out from the crowd is its extensive array of tools. Not only can you track the behavior of users on your site, but you can also examine mobile traffic, look at the performance of different campaigns and ads, and much more.
Another great option is Hitbox, which is owned by Twitter. With Hitbox, you can track the performance of your online marketing campaigns and campaigns on social media, look at user engagement and behavior, and much more. With Stripe Analytics, you can track affiliate sales, discover new products that your audience is engaging with, and get performance reports on the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems
Every business, large or small, knows the importance of having a good customer relationship. After all, you’ll never have bad publicity or bad reviews if you treat your customers well. In today’s digital world, having a good relationship with your customers means ensuring that they’re getting the best possible experience from your website or mobile app.
The best CRM systems will equip you with the tools you need to understand and engage with your customers. At the end of the day, the success of any business relies on good relations with its customers, and the better your CRM system, the better your chance at success. Your CRM system should consist of the following:
- Email marketing
- Customer Satisfaction Survey
- Product Reviews
- Inventory Management
- Marketing Planner
- CRM
Some of the best CRM systems out there are:
- Salesforce
- HubSpot
- Wrike
- Grow
- Kolibri
- BlueJeans CRM
- BizEaze CRM
Remember: the better your CRM system, the better your business.
E-commerce Software
Since the dawn of online marketing, the ability to sell products over the internet has been available to anyone with a credit card and a small business website. Building an online store isn’t as easy as it seems, though, and requires a lot of work. However, getting the right e-commerce software can make the process easier and more efficient. You don’t want to go through the trouble of setting up a store with Shopify or BigCommerce and then find out that their product selection and usability are poor. You can also opt for a hosted e-commerce solution like Shopify, BigCommerce, or WordPress Commerce. These services provide you with an online store, but also with the help of their marketing teams, ensure that your products are listed on major shopping websites and that your online store gains exposure in strategic places.
Marketing Automation Software
If you’re looking for an all-in-one marketing tool to grow your business, then you need to check out marketing automation software. While there are a number of standalone marketing automation tools available, most businesses will benefit from the combined power of an all-in-one platform.
Take HubSpot, for example. It’s a customer relationship management system that’s been around for a while and is mostly known for creating and sending out email marketing campaigns. What sets HubSpot apart from the rest, however, is its integration with other marketing platforms and tools. For example, if you integrate your email marketing with HubSpot’s CRM system, you can see all of your contact details and history in one place. This makes it much easier to follow up with customers and get feedback for future interactions.
Website Analysis Tools
A website isn’t just a website. It’s a representation of your brand and the face that your customers will interact with. Since most businesses don’t have the time to handle web development themselves, they turn to experts for help. When it comes to analyzing and improving your website’s performance, there are a number of tools and platforms that can be of assistance.
One of the most prominent website analysis tools is Google Analytics. Google Analytics will track and report on all of the aspects of your website that you can think of, from the number of visitors to the source of the traffic to the types of devices and browsers that your visitors are using. Through Google Analytics, you can identify problems areas of your website and correct them.
Product Review Management
If you’re looking to purchase products for your business, whether they’re online or offline, you’ll need the ability to track them. This is where product review management systems come in. Similar to customer analytics systems, these tools can help you keep track of the products that your business owns or manages. They can also help you discover which products your customers want and need. This and more can be found in product review management tools.
Some of the best product review management tools include:
- Testimonials
- Rating
- Pros and Cons
- Comparison Shopping
- Product Searches
- Gap Analysis
- Free Trials
- Review Clipping
- Tracking Analytics
It’s important to note that product review management tools aren’t just for merchants or businesses. Personal shoppers can also use these tools to discover products that their customers want. In the age of the internet, personal shoppers have a field day with a product review management tool. This is because these tools make it easy for personal shoppers to enter customer information, find products that the customer wants or needs, and create a buying list. At the end of the day, the success of any business relies on customers engaging with and buying from them. Product review management tools can help make this process easier for both you and your customers.
The above tools and platforms can help you grow your business. You don’t need to own all of these tools and platforms; it’s okay to be reliant on a few key tools. It’s also important to remember that no tool is an island. You can’t solely rely on analytics tools, for example, to understand customer behavior. You also need to be using online tools to take advantage of SEO, content creation, and more. The more you use the tools, the more you’ll understand what works and what doesn’t. With a little bit of effort, you can harness the power of the internet to grow your business.