Here are ten top options to get you started…
(by Ian Hainey, CEO, iHC)
With marketing budgets around the world tightening up and those holding the purse strings requiring increased metrics, marketers and agencies are expected to prove their worth with extra evidence of RoI and solid spend justifications.
But just because demands to demonstrate marketing efficacy are higher, it does not necessarily make delivering quantifiable results more difficult. For those in the know about the top tools on the market to improve conversions and drive sales, proving your worth can be simpler than ever.
Here are 10 top tools (many free to try) you should be considering for your business to make this year’s sales performance one to remember. The tools you will end up opting for will depend upon the nature of your business and your specific goals:
Leadfeeder: this impressive data collection tool tells you which companies visit your website, even if they never fill out a form or contact you. As long as you have Google Analytics set up, Leadfeeder can detects many of the companies that have visited your site in the last 30 days and even the contact information for employees at those companies.
Cost: 14-day free trial is available, then $59/pm
VoilaNorbert: for those who go after targeted prospects, this is a nifty email-lookup piece of technology for tracking down the all-important decision maker. When LinkedIn isn’t getting you to who you want, you can enter the name of the person you’d like to find the email address for, along with the company they work for, then VoilaNorbert will find the email address. You can even find identities in bulk.
Cost: Free to find up to 50 emails, then plans start at $49/pm or pay-as-you-go at $0.10/lead
Boomerang: I’ll bet you’ve never thought you even needed an email follow-up tool. Enter Boomerang, which is especially helpful for those who deal with a lot of leads, but don’t have the time, patience or organisation to keep track of outreach efforts. This Gmail extension helpfully delivers emails back to your inbox when you don’t receive a response from the person you originally emailed. Therefore, you can reach out to a number of prospects and set it up so you get the email back in your inbox within, say, a week. Perfect for those without the time or personality to be super-organised, but don’t want to forget about precious leads.
Cost: Free at 10 message credits/pm, then paid plans begin at $5/pm
OptinMonster: is one of my personal favourite data capture tools, due to its simplicity and effectiveness. It can be easily integrated with most websites and any email marketing software, such as MailChimp. The email opt-in popups can be adjusted and arranged as you like until you are happy with the way it appears to those visiting your site. Grab the valuable details of potential customers before they leave – because they were in there for a reason.
Cost: Packages start from $9/pm
MailChimp: having tested several email software options over the years, we keep coming back to this cheeky little monkey. Its ease of use and simpler integration with other platforms like WordPress and OptinMonster are the main reasons for it remaining the most popular email marketing platform. One of its best features is its intuitive, easy to use drag-and-drop email builder and relatively user-friendly automation, which is more complicated on other platforms.
Cost: Free to store up to 2,000 email contacts and send out 12,000 emails/pm. Then, paid plans start at $10/pm.
Unbounce: there’s been a proliferation of landing page tools popping up in recent years and this is one of the most popular choices. It’s particularly helpful for those who require help creating custom landing pages and lead capture forms for their website and can help when encouraging visitors to sign up for a lead magnet, such as a free demo or sales call back.
Cost: 30-day free trial, then plans start at $79/pm
IFTTT: which quirkily stands for ‘If This Then That’, is a brilliantly conceived platform that can be used to complete a specified action after another specific action happens. A simple example: if someone posts in a Reddit category, you will receive an email alert with that post. This would be extremely helpful if the post was connected to a specialist lead a service provider is looking for. In addition, it will perform monotonous tasks for you, such as sending the same automated response to a standard enquiry.
Cost: 30-day free trial, then plans start at $79/pm
LinkedIn Sales Navigator: as with most things LinkedIn, the superior comprehensiveness of the job profiles database comes at a premium, but any serious networker should be using this premium facility. We train countless clients on its use and even operate it on behalf of some of our busier B2B C-Suite executives. Once mastered, it is just like having a business development team in the palm of your hand. Those insufferable capitalists at LinkedIn hold back some of the key filter refinement features even on your Premium account, meaning you still need to upgrade to Sales Navigator in order to make your prospecting as smooth as possible.
Cost: plans start at $65/month
Zopim: another favourite for iHC’s clients and one regularly recommend as an addition plugin to websites we build. There are a plethora of live chat tools that capture more leads from potential customers browsing your site. This is as good as any we have used. Begin the conversation live with potential customers and strike while the iron is hot by answering any questions they may have. Even if no one from your team is there, it’s fantastic for prompting a message to return to as soon as you are.
Cost: has a good, functional free system to get started
Hubspot: is the granddaddy of all-in-one marketing and CRM solutions, but can become quite complicated and expensive, so tends to be favoured by agencies and large in-house marketing operations. Hubspot has a vast array of integration features, from handling inbound data, managing contacts and communications, to posting to your blog, creating landing pages and finding prospects. There are three main platforms, which cover a variety of potential requirements: Hubspot CRM, Hubspot Sales, and Hubspot Marketing.
Cost: Basic options are free but limited, then paid plans can go up in price quickly with features chosen and complexity of requirements
Bonus tip: Still not using WhatsApp to capture leads? Half your customers don’t even want to talk to you straight off the bat, so give them a platform they want to communicate using. Read my guide to WhatsApp lead gen here.
iHC is the MEA 2018 B2B Agency of The Year and 2019 Best Agency for Integrated B2B Marketing Services.If you would like some help with sales/ lead generation and content marketing, then contact the team dubai@ih-c.com +97145584785 or: click to send me a WhatsApp.
If looking for more information to try these tactics yourself, then you can order Promoting Your Business 2019 on eBook or paperback by clicking here
There’s no doubt you will generate more sales if you follow this advice – but no need to give a cut of the profits, just click to share here
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