What is effective marketing?

Marketing includes a number of activities based on the company’s communication with the client. Its goals are primarily to increase sales, but also, for example, to improve recognition or image. Achieving business goals requires, first of all, formulating them and then creating a strategy for their implementation. It should include, inter alia, defining the target group and its needs, as well as analyzing the company’s situation and its business environment. Only on this basis, it is possible to design specific actions within the short- and long-term marketing strategy, along with their schedule or budget. When the strategy is developed, you can proceed to its implementation, constantly monitoring the effects and analyzing the obtained results based on previously developed indicators.

If the above description sounds complicated, it’s because that’s the job of a marketer. A good specialist should not forget about any of the above aspects – only then can he count on obtaining the expected results. Therefore, in his work, he uses many tools that perform various functions and facilitate work in specific areas.

Internet Marketing – Analysis Tools

Analytics is a very important part of a marketer’s job. The actions taken should result from the conducted research and conclusions drawn from it. The analysis should be carried out at the beginning – assessing the company’s situation before implementing the assumptions of the marketing strategy – and then constantly monitor changes in indicators (the so-called KPI). This is the only effective way to assess which of the adopted assumptions prove to be correct and which actions bring the most profits.

There are many analytical tools. Each of them has slightly different functions and is suitable for slightly different tasks. Importantly, some of them are completely free!

Google Analytics
Google Analytics is an indispensable tool for anyone who runs a website. The marketer can use it to obtain important data that is helpful both in planning and in measuring the effectiveness of implemented activities. An example may be data on recipients containing information on the demographics of internet users visiting the website. In addition, you can see what devices users are using, what they are interested in and how they spend their time on our website.

From the marketing point of view, very important data are also those concerning the sources of traffic. They tell you how users come to your website. The information in this section is really detailed, so you can check the results of your campaigns and analyze each keyword. You can also check how effectively the traffic generated from a given source translates into conversion. As a result, actions that do not bring the expected results can be eliminated, and the resources freed in this way can be allocated to the intensification of more effective methods. It is also worth checking multi-channel paths for this purpose. There you will find data on how the different traffic-gaining channels support each other and which paths convert best.

Google Analytics is a free tool for the marketer that offers a wide range of possibilities. It’s worth taking the time to get to know them inside out because they provide a lot of valuable information.

Tools for the marketer – content marketing and SEO

SEO and content marketing are currently the main areas of interest for most marketers. Actions taken to increase the visibility, value and credibility of the website bring long-lasting results. Therefore, they are the main pillar of the long-term strategy of any company that is serious about marketing. Effective SEO or content marketing, however, requires tracking trends and careful content development. Fortunately, there is no shortage of tools that facilitate work in this area.

Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner
These two tools for the marketer, SEO expert or content creator are absolutely essential. Google Trends is about trends – you can use it to see which phrases are currently typed most often in the search engine window. The application also allows you to check historical data on searching for specific phrases. Therefore, you can see if a specific keyword is gaining or losing. It’s a great tool for finding publication ideas.

Google Keyword Planner is related to the Google Ads platform. It allows you to plan keywords necessary for SEO or SEM campaigns. Its functions enable, among others creating a database of keywords related to the industry in which the company operates, as well as checking their popularity. What’s more, you can check the competitiveness of your phrases and average advertising rates

Senuto
Senuto is also a tool supporting both SEO and SEM activities as well as content marketing. It is quite an advanced application that allows you to analyze the visibility of any page on the Internet. The data presented by it concern, among others the distribution of positions in the search engine and their changes in terms of decreases and increases. They also allow you to check the history of SERPs for a given keyword and indicate tabs exposed to cannibalization of phrases. Thanks to the program, it is also possible to perform a fairly advanced analysis of the phrases themselves – not only in terms of the average number of searches, but also their difficulty or relationship.

Senuto can be used both when planning content marketing activities and checking their effectiveness. It also allows you to optimize SEO, eliminate errors and increase effectiveness in this area. In addition, it offers an analysis of the results of competing websites.

BuzzSumo
How to check if your publications are popular? Just use BuzzSumo. This is a kind of tool for the marketer that allows you to primarily monitor content sharing on social media. Based on this, you can easily draw conclusions about which publications attract the most interest and take steps to maximize their potential. In addition, BuzzSumo allows you to check the amount of content published on the website in a selected period and their total number of views. It also provides slightly more advanced analyzes – it helps, for example, to check how long the content is most popular or on which day of the week it is most often shared. The built-in alert system facilitates work and saves time, which is certainly an additional advantage.

SurferSEO
To be successful in marketing, you don’t always need to be original. Often a better solution is to use someone else’s experience and duplicate the best-working patterns. SurferSEO facilitates analytics in this area. It is a program that analyzes the current results of the top 50 in the Google search engine in terms of potential ranking factors for the query phrase. It gives a wide range of analysis of the competition and the position of a specific website among similar websites. It has the option of a quick SEO audit that clearly presents data related to the most important ranking factors and allows you to identify areas where your site deviates from the competition. The Content Editor function is also interesting, as it allows you to automatically create a brief for a copywriter. The guidelines are based on the given keyword. However, they can be adjusted according to your preferences.

Canva
Content-based marketing requires presenting it in an appropriate form. With Canva, no help from a graphic designer is needed to create engaging content. It is a very intuitive program that allows you to instantly create aesthetic graphics, ideal for example as binding for posts in social media. The biggest advantage of this tool for the marketer is its simplicity – it includes an infinite number of ready-made templates for any occasion.

Internet Marketing – Management and Organization Tools

Proper organization of work and task delegation is not easy, especially in marketing, which is such a dynamic and multifaceted field. That is why it is worth using applications that help to control the chaos of information and the precise separation of responsibilities.

Asana
Managing collaborative projects can be a headache. However, it is much easier when you use the Asana. It is a project management application that is very functional and intuitive. It works great both when acting alone and when working with a team. It allows you to create projects and tasks and then delegate them. It allows you to check progress, set deadlines, exchange files, as well as communicate between project participants. All this is presented in a clear and convenient form.

Slack
Slack is a kind of marketing tool that will work in almost every industry. It is a business messenger that facilitates collaboration. It enables public, closed-group and one-on-one discussion, so it can be used by the entire company.

Marketo
Marketo is a slightly different way of organizing work, or actually its automation. It is a comprehensive platform characterized by wide availability of functions. It enables the automation of various marketing activities, incl. content marketing, e-mail marketing, website analysis and internet advertising. It has extensive analytical functions, thanks to which it provides a lot of valuable information – e.g. information on the effectiveness of specific channels and marketing campaigns in terms of increasing revenues. The tool is integrated with the most popular CRMs. It is great for deep analysis of the customer’s purchasing path. It allows you to draw conclusions leading to better resource management and optimization of campaign costs.

Internet Marketing – Mailing Tools

Newsletters and mailing campaigns are an important element of a marketer’s work. Their coordination requires assistance in the form of dedicated software. The available tools make it possible not only to coordinate the dispatch and manage address databases, but also to prepare attractive messages.

MailChimp
MailChimp is one of the most popular newsletter management tools. It includes a number of options for managing shipping and recipient lists, as well as creating a sequence of messages. In addition, it allows you to create pop-ups and landing pages encouraging you to subscribe to the newsletter. An interesting feature is also reports that allow you to check the results of individual campaigns and compare them with the results of the competition. It is not without reason that so many specialists use this application.

OptinMonster
OptinMonster is primarily used to create effective pop-ups that are designed to encourage subscribers to the newsletter. The tool is easy to integrate with almost any email marketing program. It includes a number of useful options. Thanks to it, you will create an attractive and inviting pop-up and specify the rules for its display. It also allows you to conduct A / B tests. They consist in checking which of the two versions of the prepared material is more effective. You don’t want to use pop-ups? With OptinMonster you can also prepare other types of messages promoting the newsletter.

Klaviyo
An e-mail marketing platform that supports business development by delivering recipients precisely selected e-mail messages at the right time? This is Klaviyo. It is a tool designed mainly for e-commerce that allows you to manage and automate e-mail communication. The program can be easily integrated with pop-ups or other similar elements on the website to obtain e-mail addresses for the database. Plus, it provides tons of options, including sending message sequences to people who have abandoned their cart or viewed a product but didn’t put it in their cart, creating second purchase campaigns, creating reactivation campaigns targeting inactive subscribers, and more. The great advantage of the tool is the possibility of very precise segmentation of users. Klaviyo also allows you to create attractive messages, conduct A / B tests for almost every element and analyze the effectiveness of activities.

Woodpecker
Woodpecker is the perfect tool to automate cold mailing. It allows you to prepare messages addressed to a completed database, which do not look like offers, but rather like traditional e-mails. It enables full personalization of the content and connects to the user’s e-mail box, so replies are sent to the selected address. Advanced settings allow you to adjust the mailing parameters to your preferences in such a way that the correspondence looks natural. This also applies to subsequent messages sent when certain criteria are met. This makes the tool also suitable for communication with a group of clients. It is easy to use and intuitive.

While it is said that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, in fact many of us do, and a similar mechanism works for the newsletter as well. If it is not visually attractive to the recipient, the chance that he will devote enough time to read the content is minimal. Besides, there is also the question of whether the user will see our message at all. Nowadays, e-mail has sophisticated anti-spam filters that redirect the mass of messages to the “spam” or “offer” tab. So in order to reach our potential customers, we need to send messages from a source that they will read as trusted.

So that the newsletters we send do not hit the vacuum and bring measurable benefits, we should choose a tool for sending them that has a high delivery rate and allows you to create visually attractive e-mails. Here is an overview of the most popular programs on the market with which you can create and send such newsletters.

MailChimp

MailChimp is one of the most popular systems for creating and sending newsletters. Its huge advantage is the extensive free plan. It is available without time limits and allows you to send as many as 10,000 messages per month. As part of this offer, you can build a database of 2000 contacts.

Newsletters sent by MailChimp can be easily adapted to various industries and current needs. The program provides access to over 100 e-mail templates and an advanced text editor, so the newsletters created in it can be graphically interesting and adapted to the visual identification of the brand. The tool also allows you to independently combine graphic and text elements using an editor that works on the principle of “drag and drop”. This means that without any programming knowledge, you can place frames for texts, photos, CTA buttons, headers or other components anywhere.

Features and packages
MailChimp also provides its customers with extensive reports and the ability to test different types of messages to find the most effective version. It can be integrated with various platforms, including WooCommerce, Magento or Zapier. Most importantly for marketers – e-mails sent by this system have an acceptance rate of 96-99%, which means that messages almost always go to the recipient’s main mailbox instead of offers or spam.

The tool has three paid packages, the cheapest of which costs $ 9.99 per month. They differ in the number of available functions, for example, only in more expensive plans are dynamic content available, i.e. content adapted to a specific recipient.

The most important information at a glance
– over 100 templates,
– English platform,
– the ability to create newsletters in the mobile application,
– acceptance rate 96-99%,
– free plan for up to 2000 contacts,
– Unremovable MailChimp footer in the free package.

MailerLite

MailerLite is a system that also has a free version for an unlimited period. In this case, however, the number of subscribers is much smaller – it is a maximum of 1000 contacts. The platform is intuitive to use and has a built-in drag-and-drop editor. It can be integrated with many tools (including Shopify, WooCommerce, Zapier, WordPress).

There are only two packages in this tool: Free and Paid. The latter, however, does not have a fixed price – subscription costs are constantly increasing along with the extension of the contact list, so choosing it, you have to take into account a gradual increase in expenses. You can compare the features of the packages during the 14-day trial period of the paid version.

The most interesting features
What interesting features does this tool have? The built-in photo editor is definitely worth mentioning here, thanks to which you can crop and correct photos that are to be sent in messages directly in MailerLite. The platform also allows you to conduct A / B tests to help determine the most effective version of the message, and to create pop-ups encouraging you to subscribe to the newsletter. Options that are useful for marketers are: automatic resending of messages to people who did not open the email, and delivery of messages by time zone.

The most important information at a glance
– 14-day trial period for extended versions,
– free version up to 1000 subscribers,
– English platform,
– built-in photo editing,
– automatic resending to people who did not open the message,
– A / B tests,
– delivery of messages according to time zones,
– 24/7 chat support with a paid package.

GetResponse

GetResponse includes a drag-and-drop editor, but also a database of over 220 ready-made templates – this is the program that has one of the largest libraries of this type. However, there is no permanent free plan, you can take advantage of a 30-day trial period, but then you have to decide on one of the paid plans. However, it is worth knowing that within one package, the price increases as the number of subscribers increases.

The most interesting features
GetResponse allows you to adjust the dispatch to local time, and also offers a perfect timing tool. This means that messages are sent by the system when recipients respond best to them, which is estimated by algorithms based on their previous behavior. An interesting option is also the ability to create dynamic content, i.e. content that changes depending on the preferences of the recipient. Thanks to this, each subscriber can, for example, receive an e-mail recommendation of products that he was interested in.

What distinguishes the tool from the previously mentioned programs is multifunctionality. Thanks to GetResponse, you can not only send newsletters, but also, for example, run webinars (in more expensive packages). So, if you’re looking for a program that can do things more comprehensively, this is an option definitely worth considering.

The most important information at a glance
– 99% deliverability,
– 30-day trial period,
– access to ready-made e-mail templates (220),
– built-in photo editor,
– database of free photos,
– perfect timing tool – sending messages when recipients respond best to them,
– adjusting the shipment to local time,
– A / B tests,
– you can also do webinars in more expensive packages.

FreshMail

In Freshmail, we do not have access to the free version, after a 14-day trial period, you must subscribe to one of the paid packages. However, the prices are quite attractive here – the cheapest version costs $ 10 a month and allows you to build a list of up to 1000 recipients. This program also allows you to create newsletters using the drag-and-drop method and has a rich database of message templates – there are over 150 of them. This program has one interesting option that you will not find in most tools of this type. There is an option to buy a specific pool of messages to be sent without subscribing. In this model, we can, for example, buy 10,000 messages and simply do a one-time mailing. This is a very profitable option for people who send newsletters less than once a month.

What else does the tool offer?
This shipping system offers great opportunities when it comes to user segmentation. You can divide by interests, gender or location, among others, and send mailing only to those people who are the target group for a specific message. Freshmail also has the functions of optimizing the sending time of newsletters and creating dynamic content. In addition, it is also worth paying attention to the large possibilities in terms of creating a shipping schedule – the platform allows you to plan any number of them.

What else does Freshmail offer? A useful function is, for example, anti-spam tests, thanks to which, before sending, you can make sure that the message will not be read by email filters as junk. In addition, many interesting options are included in the highest package. Onboarding, which introduces the secrets and functions of the tool, contact with a dedicated customer manager and the possibility of creating webinars, are also included in the price.

The most important information at a glance
– 14-day trial period,
– over 150 ready-made templates,
– anti-spam testing before shipment,
– shipping time optimizer,
– schedule of any number of shipments, – in higher packages: onboarding, webinars, dedicated account manager,
– option to buy a news package instead of subscribing.

ActiveCampaign

As part of this program, you can count on a 14-day trial period, after which you must buy one of the paid packages, the cheapest of which costs $ 15 and allows you to create a base of 500 subscribers. In addition to the standard “drag and drop” editor, ActiveCampaign offers ready-made templates, the base of which, however, is relatively small – it is currently 25 versions. What is an advantage of this tool, however, is free photo hosting, thanks to which you can store photos and graphics that you want to use in the future in the cloud. A useful feature of ActiveCampaign is also the history of changes – if at some point in the newsletter creation we find that the earlier version was better, we can easily return to it.

In ActiveCampaign, there is no problem with integration with various platforms or with importing contacts, if we previously used a different tool. There are also options for personalizing messages, delivery control and Lead Scoring. What is the last of these functions? Well, we can automatically assign points to our contacts depending on their engagement, thanks to which we create a list of our most loyal recipients. Active Campaign also allows you to do A / B tests, and in the highest of the packages we also get basic CRM functions – for example, assigning tasks to people from the company. What to take into account is that the price within the package increases as the contact base grows. It is quite a powerful tool that is best suited for large companies that need more than standard solutions.

The most important information at a glance
– e-mail templates (about 25),
– message change history,
– free image hosting 14-day trial period,
– personalization of e-mails,
– deliverability control,
– the function of adding ticks.

MailPoet

MailPoet, on the other hand, is not a standard program, but a WordPress plugin. It is free for up to 100 subscribers and there is no distinction between packages – it’s just that the price of the paid version grows in proportion to the number of subscribers. Its advantage is that it allows you to send an unlimited number of e-mails, no matter how wide the contact base is. It also works on a drag-and-drop basis and offers around 50 templates for free.

A useful feature not found in other programs is the automatic removal of uninvolved subscribers, so we don’t have to spend money sending newsletters to people who do not respond to them. The time after which a person is considered disengaged can be freely set in the panel according to current needs. The plugin has a high message delivery rate and is easy to use, so it is a good choice for WordPress users.

The most important information at a glance
– platform in English,
– free templates (around 50),
– free of charge up to 100 subscribers,
– unlimited number of e-mails,
– there is no division into packages
– the price increases with the number of subscribers,
– automatic removal of uninvolved subscribers,
– high deliverability ratio.

EmailLabs

EmailLabs is a platform that has very high message deliverability. We can even decide on a dedicated IP address, thanks to which only we have influence on the reputation of the address and message deliverability. The tool offers 4 packages, including one completely free, which allows you to send 24,000 messages per month. At EmailLabs, we also have ready-made templates that make creating mailings simple and fast.

In the case of this tool, great emphasis is placed on ensuring the client’s security during the transmission of messages and encryption of communication. In higher packages, we also have access to full onboarding, training for employees and the support of a dedicated specialist who helps, among others, in carrying out the necessary integrations. Reporting options are also expanded, including not only basic data, but also open tracking, link tracking and e-mail deliverability alerts.

The most important information at a glance
– very high deliverability,
– 24,000 messages a month for free,
– dedicated IP in higher packets,
– very extensive options to ensure security,
– free plan forever.