The evolution of digital technology has been a game changer in the way consumers interact with businesses and vice versa. This is in the way how consumers research, interact and make purchases. As such, companies need to have a good grasp on how to utilize digital marketing and related technology platforms.
It is therefore important for businesses to perform diligent research on the many platforms that are available in order to make informed decisions. In the case of companies operating within a Business-to-business (B2B) environment, we have collated a comprehensive list of some of the most important and trending tools that will likely contribute to building an effective digital marketing capability.
1. SEMRush (SEO)
Source: Semrush
SEMRush is an all-in-one search engine optimization platform that helps you optimize your website for search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo! One of the best things about SEMRush is that it makes conducting keyword research much easier by helping you find which keywords your website (or a competitor website) is ranking for. This helps you add in keywords and track their respective positions in the search engine result pages of prominent search engines, based on geographical locations. You can also access a wide range of data and information on specific keywords and possible keywords for which you can rank.
Using the SEMRush Magic Tool, you can access metrics such as competitive density, SERP features, search volume, keyword difficulty, and cost-per-click data. It can also help you discover high-performing keywords that you might have missed otherwise. You can even explore the site health and site audit function that lets you view a ranking percentage of how your website's backlinks and technical SEO perform against that of your business's top organic competitors. The best thing is that it also guides you with tips on how to improve your website's backlinks and technical SEO.
2. HubSpot (CRM)
Source: Hubspot
If you have been looking for a cost-effective customer relationship management platform (CRM) to seamlessly manage and analyze customer communications and interactions, you may want to explore the HubSpot CRM platform. It has built-in blog hosting capabilities and allows you to store countless contacts and create start-to-finish content offers. There’s also a free version that offers basic functionality, seamless integration capabilities and analytics that can be a good starting point for your business.
The key features of HubSpot CRM include company records, website forms, deals, contact management, tasks & activities, email tracking and notifications, advertisement management (Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google), Gmail and Outlook integration, reporting dashboards, and email templates. It also offers the possibility to expand these capabilities by opting for sales and marketing add-ons.
3. Mailchimp (Email Marketing)
Source: mailchimp
Email Marketing is as relevant in 2021 as it was ever before for successful B2B marketing campaigns. With Mailchimp you can stay connected with your customers, generate leads and traffic, and gain more valuable insights about your customers. Mailchimp also provides a customizable email automation service that is empowered by out-of-the-box analytics and collaborative working capabilities.
You can also explore value-driven features such as pre-built demographic segments, new campaign benchmarking data, a cookie notifications bar feature for websites, and a subject line helper.
4. Calendly (Automated scheduling)
Source: Calendly
Calendly is best described as a simple yet powerful automated scheduling tool that takes much of the logistics and administration out of a typical scheduling process. It helps users spend more time on their core priorities and can be integrated with Outlook, Office 365, and Google calendars and apps such as Stripe, GoToMeeting, Salesforce, and Zapier for a seamless user experience.
B2B marketers find Calendly useful as it helps them save time coordinating with prospects to schedule meetings. It also eliminates the hassles of misinterpreting time zones and getting reminders about meeting days and times of availability.
5. Salesforce Pardot (Marketing Automation)
Source: Salesforce Pardot
As part of the Salesforce Marketing Cloud family of products, Salesforce Pardot empowers sales and marketing teams to work more seamlessly with each other to identify and nurture leads and close more deals. It includes features such as lead scoring packages, list-building features, A/B testing, segmentation, dynamic content generation, campaign rules, contact tags, and more that cover a range of AI-powered analytics and integration options. Salesforce Pardot is one of the better MarkTech platforms to make the most out of your MarTech (Marketing technology) automation and email marketing requirements and it is quite easy to use.
The list of benefits associated with Salesforce Pardot doesn't end here. It is powered with out-of-the-box integration with other Salesforce platforms, especially Einstein Analytics that can add a powerful, actionable, and valuable business intelligence (BI) layer easily and effortlessly. Furthermore, Pardot users can easily build customized automation solutions without getting into the intricacies of full-on custom development.
6. Sprout Social (Social Media)
Source: Sprout Social
If you have been looking for a powerful platform to assist you with social media marketing, Sprout Social may be a good choice for you. A full-service social media suite of tools, Sprout Social helps your business collaborate in real time, streamline publishing workflows, better connect with audiences, and transform social data into meaningful insights. The intuitive platform of Sprout Social is designed with seamless user experience at the core to simplify analytics, reviews, social publishing, engagement, and interactions.
Furthermore, Sprout Social helps you identify the best posting times for your social media accounts so your posts receive the maximum engagement across different platforms. The scheduling features help you easily handle different social media accounts without hassles. You can even leverage the social listening tools of Sprout Social to quickly search for the best performing hashtags and specific terms around your promotional campaigns to enhance the level of customer engagement across a wide range of social media channels and platforms.
7. Magisto (Video Production)
Video production is a popular and effective marketing tool to evoke the attention of existing and potential customers. According to a Marketing Charts survey, 41 percent of B2B marketers were of the view that videos should be included in their marketing strategies and this is where Magisto can fit in.
Magisto is a seamless platform that helps you with the production and editing of business videos. The platform's video editor tool, which is powered by artificial intelligence, lets you create product and marketing videos with a great amount of efficacy. All you need is to shoot a video and upload it to Magisto. Thereafter, you can select an editing style of your choice and an available soundtrack from the Magisto library and wait for the magic to happen!
One of the best things about Magisto is that it simplifies the otherwise complicated process of video production. You can share video content on multiple platforms, host business videos on your website with the native player of Magisto, and optimize video content for email marketing, video advertising, and social media platforms. Magisto also lets you access useful insights on the performance of your video content and the viewing behavior of your audience.
8. Piktochart (Graphics Creation)
Source: Picktochart
In Content Marketing, visual content is a driving force that drives customer engagement by creating engaging graphics - be it media graphics, infographics, or blog banners. You can create graphs and charts using Piktochart by simply importing the data and numbers to the tool and then proceed to selecting a type of chart and customizing it according to your requirements.
9. Brandwatch (Marketing and Reputation Management)
A powerful digital consumer intelligence suite, Brandwatch can be defined as a web monitoring and analytics tool that will surprise you with the range of benefits. It is considered to be one of the best tools for social listening needs and expands the reach of marketing and promotional campaigns. It also helps with planning and near real-time analysis to identify trends, analyze and interpret conversations about the brand, understand auditory behavior better, identify the best and top influencers, access invaluable consumer insights, draw meaningful conclusions out of the biggest topics, and track social media mentions on different platforms.
10. Google Analytics (Website Analytics)
Source: Google Analytics
A free website analytics service, Google Analytics lets you track and report website traffic. Google Analytics is undoubtedly the most comprehensive and value-driven tool in the armor of B2B marketers when it comes to understanding the performance of a website, from website traffic and engagement to conversions. Using Google Analytics, you can access a wide range of insights and information on how to stay ahead of your competition by improving the performance of your website.
Conclusion
B2B companies often find prospect engagement a tough task. However, value-driven and purposeful B2B marketing platforms can help you leverage the most out of B2B marketing initiatives to increase the visibility and awareness of your brand.
Want to find out how to leverage the best B2B marketing tools to stay ahead of the rest?
Here at cmoCre8, we have the expertise and experience to help you with this task. While some tools are easy to use and implement, others are more complicated and so require significant time and effort. Our marketing consultants at cmoCre8 are well positioned to help implement your Marketing technology so you can focus on growing your business.