Marketing Tools For Business
A marketing tools for business guide:
What you need and how to you use them effectively.
My kids have been creating DIY wood craft projects at Home Depot for 6 years now. On the first Saturday of every month, my husband and I load up the minivan and take our three kids to the home improvement store. They put on their little orange work aprons, peppered with “flair” they’ve earned from the dozens of Kids DIY workshops they’ve attended in the past. As we walk in through the contractor entrance, other kids are usually “ooohhhing” and “aahhhhhinh” at how many projects they’ve completed. “Mom, look how many pins that girl has!”
They’ve made butterfly houses, flower pots, picture frames, mini corn hole sets, Christmas ornaments, and many (many) more fun games and decorations.
And still, they still have a hard time using their tools correctly. They want to rush through the project, skipping instructions, haphazardly grabbing a screw instead of a nail (or grabbing the wrong length of nail), or not tightening the joints before they declare it ready for paint. They want the end result without the patience, focus, and hard work it takes to achieve it. (They are young kids, after all!)
Does this describe your efforts with marketing resources and tools? You want the high quality, professional marketing ads and campaigns, and think, “I’ve got this.”
But the darn marketing screwdriver just seems to keep turning the screw the wrong way! Or maybe your marketing project looks great, but a few days later the leg falls off your campaign because, as it turns out, you did something wrong in the foundational first steps. Whoops. That strategic marketing for business owners advice isn’t something you can just skip over…
If you are looking for step-by-step instructions on how to use your marketing tools properly and strategic coaching to move from novice to expert marketer in order to see your business thrive, you are in the right spot.
Stop letting your marketing campaigns fall apart because you missed a few steps during construction. Crafted Voice offers guidance on the right marketing tools to use and step-by-step instructions to establish a sturdy framework. From on-demand resources to concierge, done-for-you strategic marketing, our team is here to help. Schedule a free consultation today.
What is a marketing tool?
Instead of screwdrivers and hammers like my kids use at Home Depot, marketing tools for small business are traditional and digital resources, techniques, or frameworks to help you promote your business.
Unfortunately, there is not a magic marketing tool that reigns over all other marketing tools. Careful consideration must be given towards which marketing tools are best for your business model and goals.
What are the types of marketing tools?
If you are looking for free marketing tools for business, this list includes both paid and free tools and techniques.
Here is a simple, physical marketing tools list:
- Brochures, flyers, print advertisements
- Radio spots, TV ads, billboards
- Promotional items (a coffee mug that has your logo on it), direct mail pieces
The top 5 tools for digital marketing include:
- Email platform
- Customer Retention Management (CRM) system
- Social media platform
- Digital advertising
- A website
Marketing techniques and frameworks include:
- Content marketing
- Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising
- Influencer marketing
- Affiliate marketing
- Social media marketing
- Cold calling
- Direct marketing
While this list is by no means exhaustive, it gives you an overview of the most popular tools that are included in most marketing mixes.
Why are marketing tools important?
Marketing tools are important because they support the design and structure of your business. Without the proper marketing tools, you will not be efficient nor successful at making sales and reaching your business goals.
When my kids sit down to complete their Home Depot craft for the month, they lay out all of their materials in front of them, and then proceed to fight over who gets to use the hammer first. Without the hammer, they have no way of constructing a structure that will stand up and serve the purpose for which it was designed.
Marketing tools are like the hammer and nails of your business. You designed a wonderful structure for your business, but it won’t stand up without a hammer and nails to add strength to the structure, holding it up to be what it was designed to be.
What are the 4 main marketing tools?
When it comes to digital marketing tools for business, the four tools most businesses use are a website, email platform, a social media platform, and a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.
The combination of these four tools working together creates a basic marketing strategy for small business that uses data to measure success.
Website
A website is a requirement for a business in today’s marketplace, as it establishes credibility as a legitimate business. If done well, a website also positions your product or service as essential for your potential customer to overcome a problem they are facing. A website can be optimized for search engines (also called SEO) to show up on the first page of search results for strategic keywords. Visually, a website can draw in your target audience using emotion and nostalgia to connect.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is a must-have marketing tool, because anyone who signs up to receive your emails is interested or already invested in your business. They’ve taken one voluntary step towards building a relationship with you. Your potential customer has willingly given you something that they own – their email address – and has entrusted you with it. Email marketing offers the opportunity to regularly tell a story that transports your subscriber into a world in which they are the hero and your product or service can help them save the day.
Social Media
Social media marketing is popular because it’s how so many people get their news today and keep up with the lives of their friends and family. It’s also free (if you aren’t paying to boost posts or to run advertisements). While it is popular, not every business should be on every social media platform, so choose wisely before you spend your time and effort there.
CRM
A CRM system is an important structural tool for your marketing strategy because it sets your business up to use data analytics to measure success. Once a potential customer enters your system, you can track all touchpoints between the two of you: email and social media engagement, purchases, messages, reviews, and more. A CRM is a powerful tool to help you take the guesswork out of marketing and use data-driven decision making as the backbone.
Strategic Communications & Marketing Business Coaching
If you need a partner to help guide and direct your strategy and activities, Crafted Voice offers strategic communications and marketing coaching that provides expert guidance and data-driven insights to lay a strong marketing foundation. With our coaching, you’ll have a trusted partner by your side, supporting you exactly where and when you need it. Schedule your first 30-minute session, free!
What is the best marketing tool for a business?
There are many professional marketing tools for business out there, and choosing the “best” one is subjective. For our team at Crafted Voice, we agree that the “best” tool is one that supports your marketing strategy. There isn’t a one size fits all approach to business, so choosing the right one for you that brings the most success looks different for every business.
For example, right now, the best marketing tool for Crafted Voice is LinkedIn, a professional social media network. We have established three customer personas as our north star, directing where we focus our marketing efforts to reach our target audience. Since all three of our customer personas are business owners (each at different stages of business development and growth), LinkedIn is an obvious choice for building brand awareness and establishing credibility among our personas. To be clear, company pages don’t usually rake in the engagement numbers. It’s a brand presence foundation that is boosted by the business owner’s own posting and thought leadership. Check out Founder Kristina Gorr’s LinkedIn, paired with the Crafted Voice page.
We made this decision after completing data-driven customer personas and a competitive market analysis for our business. We complete these two steps for all of our clients at Crafted Voice; establishing a solid and strategic communications foundation before beginning any marketing activities is critical to achieve your business goals. If you need a partner in setting your foundation, schedule a free consultation with our team.
What is the most powerful tool in marketing?
Word of mouth marketing is hands down the most powerful tool in marketing. Why? Because peers and cultural idols make more of an impact than owned media coming from the business doing the selling.
Word of mouth marketing relies on the “good word” of current customers to share their positive experience with your brand or product with others in their network. It’s “free” marketing that has an incredibly high conversion rate.
For example, when my practical husband wants to buy something, he looks online for reviews to determine if it’s a worthwhile investment. And if his good friend or favorite podcaster tells him a product is legit and they love it – he quickly becomes a customer because he trusts their judgment. Do customer service really well, and make word of mouth marketing a part of your marketing strategy for powerful sales conversions.
What is the most popular marketing tool?
The most popular marketing tool among business’ today is social media. From Facebook and Instagram to TikTok and LinkedIn, there are a variety of platforms to choose from. Social media is “free” in that you don’t have to pay to have a company page and post to the platform. “Free” is in quotation marks because your time to create a social media strategy, draft and edit content, design graphics, schedule posts, and engage with your potential customers adds up to a lot of time spent…and time is money. You can also spend quite a pretty penny on social media advertisements and boosting posts. There are businesses out there that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on social media marketing.
If you choose to pursue social media marketing, carefully consider where your target customers hang out, and focus on developing a strategy that meets them where they are. Then, craft messages that are relevant to them and appropriate for the platform.
Is social media not right for your business? For some, it’s not! Sign up for a free download of 45 ideas that you can leverage to reach your target audience without the go-to marketing activity: “post it on social media.”
What is the best tool for online marketing?
The best marketing tools for business increase efficiency and bolster sales while targeting your target customer successfully. This perfect formula for “best tool” contains variables that equate to a different look for each business. For example, the marketing tool that works best for Crafted Voice, a woman-owned, strategic communications and marketing agency for small businesses, will not work best for an automotive repair shop with 5 locations.
To determine the best marketing resources and tools for your business:
- Develop data-driven customer personas.
- Conduct thorough competitor research and market analysis.
- Craft brand voice guidelines.
- Carefully plan a marketing strategy that uses your personas as the north star.
- Compare the functionality of your marketing tool options with your budget and marketing strategy.
If you need help, Crafted Voice is ready to serve as your strategic communications and marketing partner through business coaching. We provide expert guidance and data-driven insights to small business owners looking for marketing support without the expense of hiring internally.
What Marketing Tools Will You Use?
Deciding on the right marketing tool for your business doesn’t have to feel like you are trying to learn a foreign language before dinner tonight. By following our formula for effective strategic communications and marketing, it’s just another step in the process that can be fun. Avoid the overwhelm and confusion by partnering with an expert who can successfully walk you through the process. Schedule a free consultation today to learn how your business can achieve success with our team by your side.
Reach Us
We’re proud to serve business owners where we call home in the greater Columbus, Ohio metropolitan area. We also serve clients from coast-to-coast.
Together, let’s craft your story and captivate your audience!
Hilliard, Ohio