Running a business is expensive - from property rental and the associated bills to employing staff. So, when it comes to marketing your products and services it makes sense to utilise all the free tools at your disposal.

In this month's blog we are discussing the best free online tools available to promote your business on the internet.

Google Business Profile
All businesses should be making the most of Google and most will already be making sure to optimise their website to boost their Google ranking but it’s easy to forget another important part of Google that requires attention- Google business listing. Previously known as Google My Business, your Google Business Profile allows you to optimise the Google listing for your business by adding details such as location, services and products as well as photos of your business. Note that Google Business Profile is only available to businesses that have contact with customers either via a physical premises or meeting customers in other locations (ie consultants, electricians etc).

A Google Business Profile is a fantastic free tool to reach customers that are searching for products and services like yours in their local area.
 
Mailchimp
Free for businesses with less than 2000 subscribers, Mailchimp is an indispensable tool for your email marketing strategy. Mailchimp is one of the best-known email marketing tools and for a good reason. Mailchimp has been helping businesses communicate with their customers since 2001 and their free plan, if you have a designer on board, lets you create great looking email templates, automate email campaigns, follow up leads and convert leads to clients. It also has a fantastic analytics dashboard.

Hubspot
For a free Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool you can’t go far wrong with Hubspot. With Hubspot you have access to tools that help with everything from blogging to SEO, marketing to analytics. It really is a one stop shop marketing software tool. Great for startups and established businesses alike, there’s no wonder Hubspot is such a popular choice amongst many business owners.

Hotjar
With a free basic plan, Hotjar is a fantastic tool for discovering more about your website visitors. Using heatmaps to visualise user behaviour allows you to build up a picture of how customers navigate your website. Over time you can see where you need to make changes to your site in order to improve performance and engagement. 

Typeform
When it comes to knowing where to make improvements to your business, nothing gives you better insight than customer feedback. Typeform is a great online tool that allows you to design forms and surveys so you can collect all the important data you need to help you give your customers what they want!

There are lots of other great tools out there that can help with promoting your business, what tools do you use to help with online promotion? Let us know in the comments!
 
If you are in need of help with your online marketing, contact us for advice.

Hopefully you’ve already got email marketing set up as part of your marketing strategy for your business- if not then we recommend you read ‘Email Marketing For Small Businesses’ to find out why having one is an essential part of your marketing plan.

If you already use email marketing as part of your marketing strategy then great, but it’s important to update your email marketing strategy regularly in order to get the best results for your business. It’s no good just planning then leaving it for a few years. Over time your business changes and so do your customers. If your products or services have changed in order to meet demand, then your customers or your customers’ needs will most definitely have changed too.

Update Your Customer List
It’s so important to make sure you have an up-to-date customer list. If you’re using old contacts the chances are there are several incorrect details as well as subscribers who are no longer interested in your products or services. You need to be tough and cull any contacts that are no longer interested. Finding out who to keep and who to delete might seem like a bit of a task but it’s vital not only for your engagement but also to keep on the right side of the law with GDPR.

Email marketing services such as Mailchimp and Campaign Monitor will help you weed out the old customers and see which customers might just need a bit of a push to re-engage with your business.

Organise Your List
Once you’ve decided who to keep and who to throw out it’s a good idea to organise your customer list, whether that’s by the service they are interested in or behaviour such as previous purchases. Once you’ve got your groups sorted it makes it easier to tailor personalised email campaigns and hopefully increase engagement.

Make Privacy a Priority
You want to build trust with your customers and one way of ensuring that is by letting the customer know that their privacy is paramount to you. Keep on top of all legislation regarding privacy and make sure your customers are aware of the things you are doing to keep their data safe and secure - this can be detailed in your privacy policy. Finally, ensure it is easy for the customer to unsubscribe- make it clear and simple.

Make your Customer Feel Valued
Personalised email marketing is bound to have a much more positive effect on your customer engagement than the scatter-gun effect of just random content that might not resonate with all your subscribers. If you sell a product, you could consider sending out personalised birthday emails with discounts or for services- let them know how you are there to help and support them. You could also look at what's happening in the world currently- many businesses offer discounts to NHS staff or Key Workers in thanks for their continued hard work.
 
Book a health check if you need any support reviving your Email Marketing or Marketing Strategy.

The information you get will give you indications of how you can improve your website to increase visitor rate and sales such as redesigning your homepage to make it more user friendly or ensuring it’s mobile friendly if it appears most of your visitors are using a mobile device.
 
How does it help with each marketing channel?
The information you get from your website analytics data will give you great insight into where your visitors are coming from such as an organic search using a search engine, paid search (Google Ads etc), referral from blogs, social media or email. You’ll be able to see the biggest drivers of website traffic and it will also tell you which channels you need to focus on to see improved traffic flow.
 
In order to get a real understanding of the numbers you need to look at each marketing channel's analytics as well as your website analytics. Understanding how well a certain email campaign has performed compared with a blog or social media post can help you see where you need to focus your attention.
 
How can you find out this information?

• Google Analytics With this fantastic free tool you’ll find valuable information about all your website traffic and find out how your marketing channels are performing.
• Website reports
• Social media insights - most social media apps have their own free analytics so you can see how well they’re performing where you can make improvements.
• Email marketing insights - use this data to help you produce effective email campaigns. Insights will tell you what your readers are interested in so you know what to focus on in the next campaign.
• Collect your own data - trade shows, events and networking are fantastic opportunities to find out more about your customers and what they’re really interested in.

 
It’s really important that you use all the analytics tools available and measure everything you do. Focus on one marketing channel at a time, really get to understand it and build on this. Make it manageable for you and your business - if you find it tricky to get your head around or you lack the time and patience, get support from your web designer.
 
Understanding your numbers
If 100 people visit your website how many of those turn into a call, enquiry or an order? If you’re finding the number of conversions is dropping it’s worth reassessing your website. Perhaps your homepage isn’t clear - is it obvious what your products or services are? Or maybe your Contact Us form asks for too much information. If a customer is taking those first steps you don’t want to scare them off with lots of questions. Fundamentally you need to understand your customers so that all your marketing and content is relatable and relevant to your potential customers.
 
Contact Creative Remedy for further advice or to take advantage of a Free Website Audit

What does understanding the customer journey help you achieve?
Before a customer makes a purchase through your website they will first go through many interactions with your brand/business starting with when they first become aware of your brand right through to making a purchase. The route each customer takes to get to the final sale is varied and personal to them. We call this the customer journey.

Finding out about the customer journey is important if you want to help build a strong, loyal customer base. Knowing each stage the customer goes through helps you identify weak points in your communication strategy which you can then be improved to create a better customer experience and increase brand loyalty and sales.
 
How to track your customer journey
To understand the customer journey you need to analyse all the data from your marketing channels:

• Paid Advertising Basically any type of advertising you have to pay for ie. Google Ads or social media ads such as Facebook 
• Offline Activity Business cards, leaflets, networking, trade shows etc
• SEO All the channels you use to improve your website ranking in search engines such as Google  
• Social Media  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, blogs etc.
• Email Marketing

 
The different marketing channels all have the same aim - to lead the customer to your website. But, as you know, just getting the potential customer to the website isn’t enough, what you want is for the customer to take the next step:

• A phone call

• An enquiry/contact us form
• An order/purchase

 
There are ways to measure how all the marketing channels are performing using various apps:

• Website Analytics 

• Google Analytics 
• Mailchimp Stats
• Social Media Insights
• Collect your own data from questionnaires, trade shows, events and networking

 
These websites and apps will collect all the data you need and help you get a better understanding of your audience so you can then adapt your marketing strategy to try and turn those visits into sales and in time increase brand loyalty and keep customers returning.
 
Get to know your customer
For any of this to work it’s important you really get to know your customer at every stage of their journey. This will help you develop content and services that are relevant to your customer. Find out how the customer feels at each stage of their journey - what made them take the next step? What stopped them from making a purchase?
 
To get the most out of your data you need to understand your numbers then you can see where improvements need to be made in order to boost traffic, increase loyalty and get more sales.
 
For help understanding the customer journey and making sense of it all contact Creative Remedy

A marketing funnel is basically a way of mapping a customer journey from awareness of your brand/business through to the final stage (purchase/sign up). There are different types of funnels focusing on specific areas of marketing (social media marketing funnels, video marketing funnels, email marketing funnels etc) but they all have the same role - to follow the steps a customer takes before fulfilling the final stage.

Why do you need a marketing funnel?
Having a marketing funnel will give you great insight into your customer journey. The data you will get from the funnel report will highlight if you are losing customers along their journey and help you focus on the weaker areas of your marketing plan. You will see which areas are strong and which areas you can build on. It will help you focus your marketing to your target audience which will ensure a better conversion rate. Understanding your customers and their needs makes it much easier for you to guide them through the ‘funnel’ and hopefully bring you more sales through your website/leads.
 
It may seem like a lot of data but it all makes sense once you understand your numbers and can see where you can improve brand loyalty or increase conversion rates.
 
How can a marketing funnel help your business?
A marketing funnel is a great way to build brand loyalty which in turn leads to recommendations, new customers and further sales. The marketing funnel is made of stages your customer goes through before making that purchase:

• Awareness - Attracting new customers
• Attention - Make your brand stand out from your competitors

• Action - Encouraging your new customer to make the purchase
• Engagement - Keeping in touch with your new customer through social media channels
• Loyalty - Building trust with your customers so they recommend your business to others

 
The information you will get from a marketing funnel will help you gain understanding of your audience and ultimately help you convert them into loyal customers.
 
If you need help with your marketing plan and would like more information, why not get a FREE Health Check