There are a growing assortment of marketing automation, aggregation, and information tools that are perfect for small business owners looking to save time and measure success. Most offer free sign up with limited features. Additional features can be unlocked for a relatively low fee which is usually payable on a monthly or annual basis.
Here are 8 popular tools that can enhance your email marketing and business communication skills.
Email & Content
Mailchimp
MailChimp is one of the easiest email marketing programs to use. Templates and automated services allow you to send emails at a time that works for you and your customers. MailChimp also provides analytic features so you know exactly who is opening your emails and more.
Free & Paid options
Grammarly
Grammarly is a grammar-checking tool that is available to add to your Chrome browser. It will check your grammar & spelling, and give suggestions to improve your writing. While there is a free version, paid services include a plagiarism checker and native desktop apps for Windows and OS X.
Free & Paid options
Boomerang for Gmail
Boomerang is an email management tool that allows you to schedule email, check how “respondable” your emails are, and automate follow-up emails. Paid services include unlimited message credits (10 credits/month for free users), mobile access, and CRM integration.
Free & Paid options
Social Media
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a social media management platform, and its paid services include ROI measurement, campaign creation, custom-branded URLs, and app integration. Its free services include social media scheduling and publishing, and basic analytics.
Free & Paid options
Facebook Insights
Anyone owning a Facebook page has access to a set of invaluable statistics regarding their page and audience. Information like audience demographics, days and times fans are online, post analytics, page recommendations, and more. This information becomes available after your page reaches 30 likes.
Free
Twitter Analytics
Acting much the same as Facebook, Twitter’s analytics allow you to see your audience demographics, your tweet analytics, and the engagement rate on your tweets.
Free
Research & ideas
Feedly
Feedly is an online and mobile feed aggregator, allowing you to subscribe to multiple news, media, and industry sources so you can have all the information you need at your fingertips. It allows for a tidier process of accessing news, with all of your information in one site rather than receiving updates via email.
Free & Paid options
An alternative to Feedly, Flipboard is more visual-focused. Its user-interface is magazine-style, allowing you to literally flip through articles and boards.
Free
Many of these tools are free and easy to use, and most of them integrate with services like Google Analytics and e-commerce services. It’s definitely worthwhile looking into these platforms and others to help you streamline the marketing, research, and analytics in your business.
