Traditionally, small and medium sized businesses have been placed at a marketing disadvantage. Television, radio, and even print advertising, can often be too expensive for most locally owned businesses, therefore making any kind of traditional advertising out of reach. However, with the popularity of inbound marketing teaming up with online marketing, now small and medium sized businesses have discovered that it's a game changer.
Having an online presence is critical for small and medium sized businesses. Tapping into the enormous number of online users at an affordable price means that a company who takes advantage of the opportunity that inbound marketing, and, especially social media offers, can rise far ahead of their competition. It doesn't matter if your business is local or international, online marketing evens out the playing field.
Unfortunately though, using social media to market your business can be overwhelming for people. Many business owners not only run their business, but they also do their own marketing -- and, since they're already stretched to the limit, effectively and consistently marketing their business can be difficult at best.
Fortunately, there are tools that can make getting found and making inbound marketing efforts a whole lot more efficient, effective and easier.
Here are 7 tools that we use in our inbound marketing efforts and we recommend to our small business clients -- and they are even available for the iPad.
- Evernote. If you ever run into problems keeping organized (and who doesn't?), then Evernote is the perfect app. It installs on your computer, phone and any mobile device, then automatically syncs so locating websites, notes, graphics -- almost anything digital is quick and simple.
- LinkedIn. With 161+ million members worldwide, Linkedin is the world's largest professional social media site. There is a huge amount of business knowledge available as well as other marketing professionals in all niches.
- GoToMeeting. If you ever need to meet with someone, but the distance is too great, check out GoToMeeting. It's a simple to use app that provides web conferencing, webinars and other meeting tools.
- Keynote. Does your inbound marketing business require presentations? If so, then the flexibility of Keynote iPad is hard to beat. Keynote allows you to incorporate graphics, animations, charts and graphs into a presentation -- and it can be saved as a .pdf, ppt or .mov file.
- PollDaddy. One highly effective inbound marketing strategy is engaging your visitors -- and asking their opinion is a great way to not only involve them, but also use the responses for market research. PollDaddy is an easy to use app that allows you to create surveys, quizzes and polls quickly and easily.
- Facebook Messenger. Using Facebook is essential for many businesses. Facebook Messenger allows you to stay in touch, quickly send and receive messages and update Fanpages while you're on the go.
- Hootsuite. Small businesses who use social media as part of their inbound marketing strategy need a flexible iPad app that allows them to instantly communicate with their leads, and not waste time and energy. Hootsuite's dashboard not only allows you to manage your social media, but also recently has teamed up with HubSpot to pull in keyword data. So now an inbound marketer can instantly create posts and generate inbound marketing leads.
As online marketing strategies change and new ones develop, it's essential for small businesses to continue evolving in the online arena. If you'd like more information on how you can take your inbound marketing to a new level, contact us - we'd be glad to discuss how we can work together.
