Much of our blog content discusses the technology used by businesses as a part of their operations, but technology is extremely valuable for several other parts of running a business, including managing relationships with existing and potential customers. The technology of marketing can be remarkably effective for getting the word out about your goods and services, and you will want to ensure your IT is up to the task of managing it.
The Tools That Fuel Business Marketing
The secret sauce to improving your marketing is simple: utilizing your data to the best of your ability. When you have data, you have the ability to answer critical questions that will help you address what your clientele seek from you. Questions that can help to guide your collection of data and your marketing efforts include:
- What challenges or problems does my business solve for my clientele?
- Who should my marketing efforts be targeting, or in other words, who am I talking to?
- How can I most effectively communicate the reasons my business is the best choice for my prospective clients to choose—what is it that they find important?
- Where can I most effectively reach the people I should be talking to?
There are many tools that make organizing your data much easier, particularly for the purposes of marketing and for answering the above questions.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Platforms
With a CRM at your disposal, you’ll be able to track information about potential customers—information that can help you provide better experiences for them, from attracting them to your brand, onboarding them, building loyalty, and retaining them over time. A great example is how you can track frequent purchases or contacts with your customers to know what they have purchased, how often they have done so, and how often your organization has been in contact with them. With this data in hand, you can use your customers’ pain points to drive your own organization’s priorities.
Automation Tools
You might browse a certain website looking at products only to find yourself on the receiving end of marketing emails asking you what you think about upcoming deals or related goods. Through a CRM and an automated email marketing tool, businesses can pull off tasks like this with relative ease. Basically, the system takes insights collected from the website and can then send those individuals information on products. You can do this too by setting up automated email campaigns; for example, maybe you think people who buy X from you would also be interested in Y.
Additionally, there are various ways you can use other platforms to save time and eliminate some redundancy. Many social media applications allow you to schedule posts well in advance, leaving you more room to focus on “now” tasks rather than future tasks. These platforms also provide insights you can use to learn more about the people your business depends on to succeed.
Analytics Platforms
With analytics, you can look at what has worked for you in the past, as well as what has not worked well for you in the past, to make better decisions moving forward. Various analytics platforms exist to give you more information and insight, and the right tools can make this information digestible and actionable. They are well worth the investment, as if they are implemented correctly, you’ll be able to transform the expenses into greater profits.
Marketing Means Nothing Without Effective Operations
You can promise the world to your customers, but if you don’t follow through on these promises, you’ll get nothing but frustration from your clientele. You can support your operations with IT services from Lantek to keep things running smoothly. Get started today by contacting us at (610) 683-6883.