How Using the Right MarTech Tools Can Help Drive Sales

Marketers today all struggle with the challenge to show ROI. That’s why technology has become a given for the modern marketer. MarTech tools can automate, optimize, and analyze your marketing programs like never before. The MarTech landscape is growing as more organizations realize the value of marketing technology, but what tools are the most important for driving sales? Let’s find out. Quick Takeaways * MarTech tools can be a pivotal piece of increasing conversions and sales. * Defining the right stack for your organization can be trial and error. * Using a variety of MarTech tools for specific incremental improvements can conclude with revenue uplift. MarTech Tools That Deliver to Your Bottom Line Building the perfect MarTech stack is not an easy journey. It involves a lot of testing and experimenting to understand how different tools drive sales. So we poured over a ton of data, research, and recommendations, to recommend a small sample of MarTech tools that you maybe haven’t heard of before. Automated Retargeting Retargeting isn’t new in marketing. It’s just become much more efficient with technology. Retargeting can be a very valuable strategy. Those using it tend to be e-commerce companies, but it has value for any type of business that looks to convert through digital mediums. Retargeting works. According to a study by retail media platform Criteo, retargeting accounted for a 43% uplift in conversion rates for its customers. Image: Criteo The challenge with retargeting in the past was that it was manual and time-consuming. Retargeting ads always have to adapt based on user sentiment. Now tools using machine learning and predictive analysis can do this for you. With a smart platform working for you, you can expect to redirect users back to your site for conversion. In addition to Criteo, consider AdRoll (See how it works in the video below.) and ReTargeter Smart Social Media Content Distribution One of the most common MarTech tools used by organizations is a smart content distribution platform. In most cases, these tools allow you to schedule, monitor, and measure engagement with your content on various social media websites. The scheduling part isn’t new or something that leads to more sales—it really just increases efficiency. What’s more important is the real-time analytics and feedback you can gain from these platforms. These features allow you to engage immediately when followers have questions from one central hub. The analysis also informs what type of posts lead to conversions and sales. This segment of MarTech tools is saturated, but some of the top players are Hootsuite, Buffer, Sprout Social, and Loomly. Content Planning and Collaboration Every company is swimming in content. With today’s mostly-virtual environment, it can feel nearly impossible to manage what to create, who is creating it, who edits, and where to publish content. That’s why we use DivvyHQ’s content calendar and collaboration platform. Recent improvements include an analytics dashboard that delivers immediate insight into what’s working and how well you are moving the needle.   AI-Driven Content Optimization Creates Conversion Spikes Artificial intelligence (AI) enables marketers to send the right content at the right time. By using AI tools in the process, there’s a deep analysis based on user behaviors taking place. These platforms work in three ways: * Analyzing existing content to see what works and converts customers * Optimizing content based on user behaviors * Measuring the impact of AI-driven content on sales inPowered is a pretty nifty tool that offers content intelligence and distribution to power ROI. MarketMuse has been around for a while and they offer AI-driven content insights to power planning, and creation of your content. Atomic Reach is a platform that delivers this capability. According to the company’s website, its customers saw a 78% growth in conversion rates, among other improvements. Image: Atomic Reach A/B Testing MarTech Tools Another critical part of your MarTech toolbox is an application that manages running tests. By A/B testing numerous aspects of your content, you can hone your message and visuals to drive more conversions. Optimizely is an excellent tool for this. It powers optimization and testing in one central hub and has a host of success stories. One case study for HP details the company’s experimentation across multiple units. The testing program included 491 campaigns, leading to $21 million in incremental revenue. Image: Optimizely Optimizely seems to have the most market share, but there are other comparable tools, including AB Tasty, Omniconvert, and SiteSpect. Heat Mapping Tools: Find Out How Users Interact with Your Site There’s no doubt you know and understand your customers—their needs, challenges, and motivations. However, you can’t know precisely how they interact with your website without some tech help. Using a heat mapping tool offers you a straightforward way to find out. Such a tool lets you follow the user journey, including where they click and spend their time on the page via how they scroll, and what areas they ignore. With this information, you can determine if your page’s content and user experience lead to conversions. If they aren’t, heat maps can give you some clues as to why. You can then optimize and test new page layouts or content to determine if there are any conversion improvements. Crazy Egg is the pioneer in this space, offering snapshots, heatmaps, and recordings. Below is an example of what you can expect to see. Image: Crazy Egg Other options for heat mapping MarTech tools are Hotjar and Smartlook. Data-Driven Relationship Building Tools for Omnichannel Customer Engagement How well do you understand the customer journey? It’s become more fragmented and complex, considering all the touchpoints available. Harnessing all this data can help you build relationships with context. It can unify the customer journey across all channels; you’ll be able to personalize in real-time, prevent churn, and improve customer service. Segment is an excellent tool for this functionality. And, they have the results to back it up. One case study from IBM reports the company had a 70% increase in revenue following a three-month customer messaging pilot program. Image: Segment Alternatives to Segment that are popular and well-reviewed include Egnyte, Exponea, Totango, and Emarsys. Smart Prospecting Tools Sales personnel shifted to more email prospecting than cold calling in recent years. Phone calls are time-consuming, have a low interaction rate, and are difficult to track. Email isn’t! However, your sales team needs support here. They need the right messaging and the right tools to automate it. A solid pick for this is Growbots, which leverages machine learning for smart email prospecting. Sales can select targets and set up campaigns fast. With an analysis of how emails are performing, sales and marketing can refine messaging to increase conversions. Other tools that offer this functionality include Apollo.io, Zoominfo, Nimble, and Clearbit Enrich. MarTech Tools Plus Content Marketing: The Perfect Pair for Increasing Sales These are just a sampling of MarTech tools in a crowded martech landscape. While the technology is important, every organization should start with a customer-focused content marketing program. With content marketing, you’ll increase organic rankings, attract customers to your website without paying for them, demonstrate thought leadership, and get more leads. If you are ready to get more traffic to your site with quality content published consistently, check out our Content Builder Service. Set up a quick consultation, and I’ll send you a free PDF version of my books. Get started today and generate more traffic and leads for your business. The post How Using the Right MarTech Tools Can Help Drive Sales appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.
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