8 Pieces of The Marketing Mix That Can Be Automated Through Technology
As a brand manager, you have to think about a marketing mix that includes everything from radio ads to SEO. You're expected to master wide range of skills in order to promote your brand, but let's be serious...it's impossible to assume marketers should develop an expertise in every single part of their marketing mix. Luckily for us, we can now rely on a large rolodex of technology solutions that specialize in doing one specific area of our jobs more efficiently.
Here are eight parts of the marketing mix that the new age digital marketer can automate and optimize with technology:
1. Content Management
Managing your brand's content can be very time consuming. If you aren't already, using a social media management tool can help to make your life a whole lot easier. Tools like Hootsuite were created to actually help you manage, measure and schedule all of your content marketing efforts. By doing so, you can now schedule posts for the entire week and monitor everything in one easy place talk about efficient!
2. Search Engine Optimization
In recent years, search engine optimization has become a major buzzword within the marketing industry. By using certain keywords strategically, you can help to bump up your website's ranking in any search engine, like Google, so consumers can find you easier. We're a big fan of tools like Gshift or Deep Crawl that can help you detect which keywords you're ranking well for, and where you need improvement.
3. Email Marketing
Email marketing has become a major touch point for you to reach consumers directly, and for good reason. According to Experian, for every $1 spent on email marketing investment, $44.25 is the average return. Create professional looking branded newsletters with a user-friendly email templating tool like MailChimp. Not only will it give you design customizing capabilities, but MailChimp also provides valuable analytics, so you can see who actually opened your emails.
4. Audience Control & Targeting
Just because you've created killer content for your target audience, doesn't mean it will necessarily reach them. Tools like AdGear and Rocket Fuel can help you create targeted ads that reach a specific audience (including gender, age and location) ensuring that the right eyes are viewing your content. The best part? You can spend as you go, so it can always adjust to your ever-changing marketing budget.
5. Website Analytics
You may have the perfect website up and running, but it doesn't mean much unless you have concrete analytics on how your site is actually performing. If you don't already use it, Google Analytics is a great tool for monitoring your page views and site visitors all in one convenient place. Studying this data allows you to take a closer look at how your consumers are interacting with your website so you can always stay ahead of the game.
6. Product Sampling
We all know the pains that come with traditional sampling methods, like experiential marketing or direct mail: high cost, minimal ROI and a total lack of targeting. End-to-end product sampling management and analytics platforms, such as Sampler, can help you take your sampling efforts entirely online. Using a digital sampling tool, you can now target a very specific audience, plan your follow-up marketing and gather deep consumer analytics with just a few clicks.
7. Lead Management
Looking to simplify the process of launching and monitoring your digital marketing campaigns? Lead management platforms, like Marketo, offer great features like lead generation, ROI measurement and optimization, budgeting tools and marketing calendars. Tools like this can help you streamline your complex marketing funnel, giving you more time to spend on the tasks that make you money. Sign us up!
8. Customer Service
A great product means very little if your customer service is lacking. In order to create long lasting relationships with consumers, choosing the right customer service strategy is crucial. Tools like LiveChat can actually be integrated into your website, making it easy to help consumers at any time. LiveChat can live on your page as a Chat now
