BROUGHT TO YOU BY to Help with Your Small Business Marketing APPS 10
Sep 08, 2014
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
to Help with Your Small Business Marketing APPS10
Between social media and
networking, marketing is a 24/7
game that can eat up a huge amount
of your time. To remain competitive,
you have to keep your brand in front
of customers and be responsive at a
moment’s notice. What tools do
business owners use to attract
customers and increase sales? Here
are 10 of the best marketing apps,
and why our SUCCEED: Small
Business community members love
them.
10 Apps to Help with Your Small Business Marketing
With Buffer, you can take the
time to determine the exact best
time to post for each of your
social networks and create a
schedule and queue to take
advantage of that. Facebook, for
example, has peak usage times
in mid-afternoon, so if I'm going
to share something today,
shouldn't I share it then?
BUFFER
—Mike Allton Content Marketing Consultant
“
Schedule a week’s worth of social media posts in advance so you don’t forget.
1GET THE APP
“
social media schedulingand management
Streak is remarkably lightweight
and integrates seamlessly right
inside Gmail. In this way, you can
easily mark incoming emails as
leads, contacts, accounts, deals,
or create your own custom
labels for your pipeline.
STREAK
—Mike Ziggy Giles Co-Founder & Art Director at Blacknight Studios
““
Add custom fields such as “date shipped” to help you determine the right time to follow up with a customer and ask for a review of your product.
2GET THE APP
Google Chrome extension for Gmail inbox customization
Want to know how you can
afford a nifty infographic on a small business budget? The DIY approach works best
if you have an app that helps
with the graphics. Piktochart
lets you plug in your stats,
pick your icons and images,
and get visual.
PIKTOCHART
Throw in some stats from your own company’s research so you can offer data that no one else has compiled before.
3GET THE APP
web-based infographic design app
With so much to manage,
how do you keep track of all
your social media? Hootsuite
is a hub that provides a single
dashboard for Twitter,
Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+,
WordPress, and more.
HOOTSUITE
Create a Hootsuite stream to track key phrases about your industry so you can join the conversation.
4GET THE APP
social media management system
I use Skitch five times a day to
capture parts of the screen. I send them to colleagues,
create graphics for blog posts
(with proper consideration for
copyright), or just save for my
own future reference.
SKITCH
—Virginia Nicols Small Business Marketing Champion
“
Use Skitch image and annotation functions to create a short tutorial to share useful information with customers.
GET THE APP
5“
Evernote tool for manipulating visual elements
My clients are finding that the
best way to connect with local prospects is through local
customers. For a car dealer,
posting a photo on Facebook of
a happy customer next to their
new car is important. When the
customer shares with their
network, it builds local referrals.
—Jerry Gitchel Technology and Marketing Consultant
“
Share geotargeted, local content, such as fun photos, events or special deals, with your customers. Targeted posts help you better reach your audience with more relevant content…and build customer loyalty.
GET THE APP
6“
social networking and business advertising platform
Do you only have time to mess
with social media once a day?
Are constant notifications driving
you crazy? This app will track all
the activity on your social
accounts and send you a daily
summary. It’s an easy way to
keep your finger on the pulse of
your customers.
NUTSHELLMAIL
Adjust your notification settings on each social account to make sure your daily digest isn’t overwhelming.
GET THE APP
7 social networkaggregation service
According to research from
Medium.com, the ideal length for
a blog post is 1600 words. That’s
practically a novel. While regular
blog posts keep getting longer
and longer, microblogging is still
short and sweet. If you don’t have
time for regular blogging, consider
using Tumblr to share your
insights in bite-sized snippets,
engaging photographs and
entertaining memes.
TUMBLR
Tag your content with at least seven tags (but not more than a dozen) to make it more searchable.
GET THE APP
8 microblogging andsocial networking platform
It’s a good idea to seek
partnerships with deal apps. List your deals on apps like
Yowza!! and RedLaser to get people to find them.
YOWZA!! & REDLASER
Check out deals other local businesses are offering and consider running a joint special with a related industry.
GET THE YOWZA!! APP
9
—Francesca Nicasio Retail Blogger, Vend
“
REDLASER APP&
10 “
mobile shopping anddeal finder apps
““
Action
Identify one app on the previous slides that helps you tackle an aspect of marketing that you struggle with.
Advice
Don’t try to download every marketing app out there—you’ll just get overwhelmed and frustrated. Instead, choose a few and stick with them in order to make more happen in your business.
Inspiration
The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” !— Peter Drucker
“
>> The Best Mobile Apps for Small-Business Warriors
>> The Top 5 Apps to Make Your Small Business More Productive
>> 10 Great Small Business Apps for the iPad
ADDITIONAL READING
WHICH DESKTOP AND MOBILE APPLICATIONS DO YOU USE TO
MARKET YOUR SMALL BUSINESS?
Share your favorite apps in ourSUCCEED: Small Business Network
community on LinkedIn.
Share this SlideShare with a fellow small business owner.