Digital marketing is one of the most powerful forces shaping the business landscape.
It’s made everything from lead generation, customer service, to announcements, more accessible for the average consumer.
However, beyond that it’s allowed smaller, more creative companies to leverage technology to gain the upper hand in the face of rising competition.
In this guide, we take a look at what advancements in digital marketing processes are helping make businesses more efficient.
Prospecting Tools
The prospecting tools that marketers have at their disposal today are unparalleled with that they used to have a decade ago.
Marketers can easily build lead generation lists using sophisticated software that automatically pulls up not only a list of names and their numbers, but also valuable socio-demographic indicators that can help with personalizing communication.
Nowadays, doing the groundwork for market analysis and penetrating new segments can be done using a computer.
It doesn’t just end there, more advanced prospecting can be done via technology-used, second and third connections with other people, etc. leading to more niche prospect lists.
These tools can also integrate with other apps and social media platforms.
Related: Prospect Research and Profiling Tips to Help You Build Your Contact List
Retargeting
Real digital marketing transcends a single medium and that’s why retargeting is now becoming a part of daily life.
Although the idea of being tracked can seem a little creepy, proper retargeting has helped the lead generation efforts of a lot of organizations.
There are ways to tailor your retargeting to make sure that prospects are “gently” being guided through.
Facebook is a prime example of this with Pixel, and its custom audiences feature in its ads manager.
This is great news for content marketers who want a secondary touchpoint after a prospect bounces off.
Automation
The rise in the use of automation has been one of the biggest breakthroughs in making business practices more streamlined.
A lot of repetitive business tasks that involve a computer can now be automated using specialized software and programs, with a lot of these solutions residing in the cloud so users would always get new versions and have access anywhere in the world.
There are instances where even prospecting has been automated to a certain degree, auto-responders and repliers are now becoming the norm, and even scheduling and booking a meeting can all be done without needing a human to personally balance schedules for two parties.
At times, you don’t even need a full system, apps such as Zapier can automate one or two menial tasks at a time.
These advances have allowed a lot of businesses to focus more on their competencies than spend time doing busywork. Organizations can now spend time doing things that are more valuable to the business than worrying if a certain contract was automatically sent or if a reply was given to an inquiry.
Related: How Marketing Automation can make an impact on Singapore B2B Marketing?
Scheduling Software
Everyone loves scheduling software.
It can be used to automatically post on social media, send out emails, and even put out blog posts.
Apart from standalone scheduling software you also have the likes of Facebook with scheduling software baked right into their Business Suite.
It’s allowed marketers to plan out their content beforehand, make changes if necessary and not worry about being awake on different time zones to post things online for their different audiences.
This doesn’t just free up time, but it allows creatives to manage their time properly.
Related: How to Generate Software Sales Appointments in Singapore (and APAC)
Chatbots
Chatbots have taken customer service to the next level with their “AI” powered responses and ability to cater to both prospects and customers with minimal human supervision.
With chatbots, basic customer related queries can be answered immediately and they can help serve as a touchpoint if prospects happen to land on a landing page.
Another great thing about them is that they’re now being set up for lead nurturing, they can help guide a buyer through a website and recommend solutions to their needs.
The use of chatbots has grown tremendously over the last few years, and they are becoming common in almost every site conceivable.
For startups who want to take their customer service to the next level, using chatbots is the way forward.
CRM Integration
Customer relationship management tools have been around for a while, but their integrations have slowly become so vital to how a lot of companies operate.
CRM providers such as HubSpot, for instance, allow massive integrations with a variety of apps making tracking the process of a prospect from the first touchpoint to the point of remarketing very calculated.
This has helped companies in a number of ways, sales and marketing can now sync up efficiently, there’s a proper reporting process, and it can even help check on your digital marketing efforts.
Related: Top 5 Sales Tools for Your Work From Home Setup
Digital marketing tools will continue to lead the way forward in revolutionizing the way standard business practices work and it’s exciting.
We should see better prospecting, qualifying, and marketing moving forward.
These are truly exciting times for marketers all over.
