Marketing strategies need to be efficient, and with the library of tools available for marketing teams to use it can be difficult to decide what the proper combination is. Ultimately, what you want is a combination of tools that are accessible 24/7, help organize your team, collect traffic data and metrics, and give you ways to communicate both within and without your company. Here is a list of five that we think fit the bill perfectly.
Acton
Acton is a marketing automation service you should definitely consider using or partnering with a company that provides it as an integrated service. While automating lead nurturing as per your specifications and giving you the tools to manage your campaigns, Acton also has a number of other tools that give you data about who visits your website and offers analysis of this data to get you marketing as efficiently as possible.
Salesforce.com
Salesforce is a great way to bundle up your entire campaign into one easy package. This all in one access point organizes all of your company’s resources, from sales opportunity information to product support and training. It also provides social channels for your employees to open up discussions, allowing for a much freer, less-structured form of open communication. The main perks of Salesforce are its speed and its social machines that can connect users both within your company and without.
This one doesn’t need much exposition, but LinkedIn is a tool that every marketer should be using. It’s a great way to connect with experts in the field, advertise the professional side of your business, and generating new leads in ways that you otherwise couldn’t. LinkedIn networks are powerful tools for lead generation, especially when trying to connect with other businesses. In some cases, your LinkedIn account is the only invitation you need to get talking to someone who is otherwise difficult to contact in person, and that’s a tool you can’t afford to pass up on.
Data.com
This is a tool you’ll want to combine with Salesforce. It’s a program that communicates with Salesforce and constantly keeps its user data up to date, meaning that your operations won’t be running on information from a month ago or even a week ago – you’ll have automatic updates on the most current interactions your marketing campaign has had with your potential customers.
Okta
Okta wraps everything up. Where Salesforce is a great way to get your campaign under one hood, Okta bundles it up with all your other tools into one easy to access dashboard console. Each of your team members will gain access to their own dashboard which will be accessible on both handheld devices and personal computers, giving them constant access to the tools they need to do their jobs. It also lets you connect new hires to all of your resources within minutes instead of days.
Honorable mentions:
Without going into too much detail, these are the tools you should know about as well. Some are on here as potential replacements to the above suggestions while others are listed just to make sure you’re aware they exist:
- timeTrade
- Insightly
- Google Apps
- YesWare
Whichever set of tools you choose to use for your own company, consider taking a look at the ones we’ve mentioned first. They’re a great place to start and they’ll make sure to get your team up and running quickly.
