Guest Author
The unfortunate truth is that many businesses are myopic in their marketing. Maybe you are too, but you just don’t know it.
“Marketing Myopia” was a term coined and popularized by marketing legend Theodore Levitt, in his Harvard Business Review article. It refers to a company’s short-sightedness and inward-looking approach to marketing.
When you’re myopic with your marketing, you don’t focus on the big picture i.e., building a long-term relationship with your prospects & customers. Instead, you look only for immediate pay-offs, in the form of sales. So, you may end up using just one or two digital marketing platforms that help you achieve these immediate payoffs while foregoing other digital marketing platforms and apps that may be crucial to your long-term success.
Marketing myopia can cost your company thousands of dollars worth of business, not to mention, adding years to your brand development efforts. The only way to ensure your marketing efforts help you achieve your objectives and drive long-term audience engagement is to follow an approach that isn’t skewed to just one facet of marketing.
What does a well-rounded digital marketing campaign look like?
A well-thought-out and multifaceted digital marketing campaign includes the following elements:
- High-quality data
- Active social media engagement
- Compelling marketing content
- Timely prospect/customer communication
- Responsive website
- Influencer & affiliate networks
- Targeted social media posts
- Personalized emails
By creating campaigns that focus on each of these elements, you can ensure that you connect with prospects at every touchpoint and increase opportunities for conversion.
Top digital marketing platforms and tools to help you with your marketing efforts
Running a well-rounded online marketing campaign isn’t really difficult, once you have the right digital marketing platforms on hand. Here we’ve listed the 10 best digital marketing platforms and tools which you can use to run the most effective marketing campaigns:
1. SocialBee – For Effortless Social Media Scheduling & Posting
Most entrepreneurs and managers are busy as a bee. But, what if you’re too busy to actively update and maintain your social media presence? Well, that’s where SocialBee comes in.
A tool designed specifically to make your social media scheduling seamless, SocialBee empowers you to post fresh content on each of your many social channels, repurpose evergreen posts for new audiences, and curate content for particular niches.
SocialBee follows a category-based system, where you can collate posts following certain themes or derived from a specific source, into different categories. You can set these categories to unique posting schedules based on how frequently you wish to share or repurpose them.
The tool can help you create the content variant you want, to suit the needs of your diverse audience groups. The collaboration feature allows your entire team to recommend edits, suggest ideas, and work on posts together.
SocialBee comes built with a social scheduling calendar, which you can set up with ease. The Schedule Overview option allows you to get a bird’s eye view of your weekly and monthly social scheduling, so you can make the modifications necessary. All of these features are available in plans that start at $29/ month, with a 14-day free trial.
If you need more help, SocialBee has several Concierge Services where experienced strategists will work with you closely to help you grow your social media reach, create blog posts, guides, and lastly, do community management and launch ads for you.
2. Narrato – Content Ordering and Freelance Writer Marketplace
If contests and giveaways help you grab new prospect attention, content in the form of spellbinding articles and serious whitepapers can turn the occasional website visitor into a loyal patron.
It’s been found that content marketing leaders who really commit to content creation and experiment with creative content, generate 3x more leads than outbound marketing.
Creating compelling content repeatedly and consistently can be challenging – this is where Narrato can assist. Narrato is a content ordering and freelance writer marketplace where companies can get original, well-researched, and highly customized content affordably.
The writers on Narrato include subject matter experts and highly experienced copywriters, who boast of writing experience in diverse fields. There are thousands of vetted writers on the platform that get automatically matched to your content jobs based on project requirements and writer profiles. You can also choose to work with select writers if preferred.
The platform eliminates the long writing qualification and hiring processes required on other freelance platforms, which is a big plus. It also offers 4-tiered pricing and writer levels to suit individual budgets. Unlimited revisions, free images, and automatic plagiarism checks are other enticing features. They have a great trial offer in place, which makes getting started on the platform risk-free.
Narrato is also launching a content creation workflow software, which looks like a great tool for content marketers to streamline their content production. Currently, they are offering limited-time free 6-month subscriptions for early users – might just be a good idea to get on their list right away!
3. MobileMonkey – Omni-Channel Chatbot Engagement Made Easy
We know how important conversational marketing really is. But omni-conversational marketing is even more important and significantly more powerful.
What do I mean by “omni-conversational marketing”? Well, I’m referring to using conversational technology like chatbots to provide your prospects with an omnichannel engagement experience.
MobileMonkey is a cutting-edge, patented chatbot software that you can easily integrate with a variety of platforms. The tool gives you the technical support you need to run omnichannel engagement campaigns. You can build a custom chatbot for your website, each social media platform, mobile phone, and more. The unified inbox helps you track conversations and engagement, from each prospect, across platforms.
The tool is extremely responsive and it allows you to initiate conversations on any channels/platforms that prospects currently use, making engagement seamless. MobileMonkey supports numerous Zapier integrations, that allow you to track and harvest insights from multiple digital marketing campaigns simultaneously. You can even customize your chatbots for specific campaigns such as lead generation, email subscription, social media engagement, and more. MobileMonkey is very easy to use and there are step-by-step instructions that you can follow to build your chatbot and launch them in minutes.
4. Xara – Creating Marketing Materials Has Never Been Easier
Branded content is essential for company success. 69% of marketers believe that branded material is more effective than PR, in raising brand awareness. But your material will be effective only when it has been created with a unique vision and is compelling enough to attract prospect attention. This is where Xara can help.
State-of-the-art, cloud-based document creation and editing tool, Xara can help you and your team collaborate on all of your marketing creatives, enabling you to develop aesthetic and informative branded content. From business cards to digital flyers to social media posts, Xara offers more than 1600 templates that marketers can use to create marketing materials for different stages of the sales funnel. You can easily import files, photos, videos, and other content formats onto the tool.
The tool comes with a built-in editor that facilitates easy application of branded elements such as logos and taglines. You’ll find hundreds of image filters to edit images on the go. You also have features to create bespoke graphs, charts, and infographics.
The cloud integration ensures easy collaboration. Now you can comment, save version history and be in sync with the rest of your global team. Once you’re done, you can easily publish your marketing material online or download it in PDF format for printing.
5. Tidio – Live Chat, Free Chat, Website Chat & Online Chat Tool
Today’s customers prefer quick service and fast responses from brands. This is something that conversational technology like live chat software offers.
Studies show that 46% of customers prefer engaging with a brand via live chat than they do through emails and social media. They are more likely to stick with your brand and continue to be your patrons for years if they get the timely communication and service they seek.
When choosing a live chat software to purchase, consider Tidio. A live chat tool, Tidio can help you get your conversational marketing campaigns off the ground. You can customize your chatbots according to your preferences and create a visually aesthetic platform where prospects can engage with you.
Tidio offers comprehensive reports about where your visitors are coming from, how often they browse your site, and what content they peruse. You can also identify visitors in real-time and answer questions, provide solutions and clarify queries as they browse through your website. This way, you can provide customized sales pitches to your prospects and drive them through the sales pipeline management in real-time, finally converting them.
6. Landingi – Optimized Landing Pages & Banner Advertisement Creator
Here’s an important bit of information – companies that have around 31-40 landing pages, generate 7X more leads than companies that have only 1-5 landing pages.
Landing pages that have been customized for each buyer persona, can be really effective in driving leads, engagement, and sales. With Landingi, you can create multiple, fully-customized landing pages for each prospect group. This digital marketing platform offers over 300 colorful and beautifully designed templates to choose from. You can use them to develop as extravagant or minimal web design as you want.
The easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor allows you to make changes quickly. You can schedule the publishing of your newly-changed landing pages on the days you want – this is especially beneficial when you run A/B tests. Landingi supports over 40+ integrations, which help you track and monitor landing page performance and generate important site usage insights.
In addition to landing pages, you can use Landingi to design and deploy banner advertisements that help you improve your outreach.
7. Intribe – Co-Marketing Platform
Are you looking to expand your reach and expose your brand to a larger audience? Try Intribe, an online platform that makes it easy for you to find compatible businesses with a similar target audience.
By using Intribe to connect with other businesses, you save time and eliminate the manual tasks of having to research possible partners and get in touch with them. Now you can do it all from one platform.
Here are the best Intribe features:
- Create an appealing brand profile that accentuates your strengths as a co-marketing partner.
- Find partners for 13 different types of partnerships, including affiliate, content, co-branding, event integration, and cause marketing.
- Search for potential partners by partnership types, industries, location, and target audiences.
- Run a quick assessment of partner potential in a one-page view.
- Create campaigns that you can proactively invite brands to partner on both from the platform and off-platform.
- Participate in partner speed-dating and educational events.
8. Upfluence – Smart Influencer Marketing Platform
Did you know that some businesses are making a whopping $5.20 for every $1 they spend on influencer marketing? You can join their ranks as well if you implement a rock-solid influencer marketing campaign.
But the fact is, many brands find it very challenging to select the right influencers. Once they’ve found the right people, some companies aren’t really sure how to go about implementing their campaigns. You can eliminate all these ambiguities by using an online marketing tool like Upfluence.
A smart influencer marketing and digital marketing platform, Upfluence empowers you to find and collaborate with the top influencers in your niche. The tool allows you to identify visitors to your site and monitor their social media presence. Based on the insights you get, you can hand-pick the most-relevant influencers for your market, from a database of over 4 million+ influencers from across the world.
Upfluence offers a dynamic dashboard that updates in real time. Here, you can track your influencer partner’s performance and evaluate the success of each campaign you run. The social listening feature of the tool allows you to track your brand/influencer’s mentions on various social media channels and compare competitor performance with your own. Both the website version and the app support in-tool emails. Now you can negotiate contracts, share campaign briefs, and communicate with your influencer-partners seamlessly.
9. Uniqode – Drive Site & Store Visits Through Proximity Marketing
43% of customers report that they’d gladly pay extra for purchase convenience. One factor that affects convenience is the geographical proximity of the product/service. If your retail store is geographically near where a prospect is, there’s a very high chance he/she will purchase from you.
One way to inform prospects of your proximity to them is to use technology like beacons, QR codes, and NFC signals. This is where BeaconStac can help.
BeaconStac is a smart technology provider and proximity marketing specialist that allows you to connect with prospective buyers who are geographically close to your place of business. Their expansive line of proximity technology such as Bluetooth-powered beacons, NFC signal devices, and 2-D barcodes allow you to leverage the power of short-range communication to inform prospects of your presence and send targeted promotions that can bring them to your store.
BeaconStac has a robust dashboard, where you get visibility into the performance of each proximity technology you use. You can see your best and worst-performing beacons/QR codes, identify the deployment location, see the web/e-store campaign associated with that device/code, and calculate the number of store visits or website visits from that particular device/code.
Depending on these insights, you can create custom offers that your target demographics will be more likely to respond favorably to, increasing your site and store traffic.
Pricing is accessible, with QR codes starting at $5/month, NFC technology at $83/month, and the complete package of beacons, NFC, and QR codes starting at $166/month.
10. Omnisend – Omnichannel Marketing Automation Software
Omnichannel marketing has become the catchphrase of 2020, and for good reason. Research shows that companies that adopt omnichannel marketing have a 91% higher YOY customer retention rate than companies that don’t.
When you implement an omnichannel campaign, you get access to high-value leads at various touchpoints. This integrated approach ensures you cover all the bases and that your marketing campaign is bullet-proof.
Omnisend is a powerful omnichannel marketing automation software that combines email marketing, SMS marketing, and eCommerce. From welcome emails to cart abandonment SMS notifications to order-specific communication, Omnisend can be used to engage prospects at various stages of the buying journey.
This digital marketing platform allows you to track buyer behavior and send timely communication. The built-in editor is easy-to-use and you can create compelling messages that are customized to the recipient’s needs and buying patterns.
The best thing about Omnisend is that it’s fully-integratable with various eCommerce platforms and online marketplaces right from Shopify to Amazon to WooCommerce and its alternatives. The best thing about Omnisend is that it’s fully-integratable with various eCommerce platforms and online marketplaces right from Shopify to WooCommerce to Amazon, or if you want to integrate Wix with eBay, you can also do that. The tool supports quick and easy migration of data, ensuring nothing is lost during the move. There are numerous ready-made workflows to choose from and all you need to do is select one and get started.
11. Inspectlet – Dynamic Heatmaps and Session Recording
Did you know that marketers waste 21 cents per dollar of their marketing budget on wasteful activities due to bad data? When you don’t know how your prospects use your website or what triggers registration, activation or purchase – you are just wasting precious marketing resources and losing potential customers. This is where a digital marketing platform like Inspectlet comes in.
Inspectlet helps you get the timely data you need, to understand how prospects are engaging with your site (and why they’re not). The online marketing tool comes with a host of features from session recording that allows you to see exactly what your visitors do on your site, to dynamic heat maps that track mouse clicks, cursor scrolling & keypresses.
You also have filters that allow you to track what specific visitors did on your site or how particular tools were used and if they resulted in leads/sales. The real-time updating conversion funnels help you see where visitors dropped from your site. The tool’s A/B testing feature empowers you to make changes to your site design and compare visitor engagement with your site.
Wrapping Up
The most effective digital marketing campaigns are the ones that enlist a variety of channels to engage and hook prospective customers. By using the above digital marketing platforms, apps & tools, you can easily find and connect with leads, take them through the buying journey and ensure a conversion.
So, give these platforms a try today and achieve your digital marketing objectives.
Nisha Prakash is a writer at Godot Media, specializing in social media marketing and content management. She is an avid runner, a trekking enthusiast, and a lifelong bibliophile.