Welcome to marketing, where sticking to "the usual" can mean you’re irrelevant. Most people (including me) have an attention span of an ant, meaning preferences shift at breakneck speed. So relying on traditional and one-track methods will leave your efforts unnoticed. It’s not about changing things up just for the sake of novelty; it’s about staying agile, responding swiftly to the market’s ever-changing demands.
That’s why I’m spotlighting essential tools for every marketing angle—use these tools to adapt quickly and stay ahead.
tl;dr
Standing out in today’s marketing hustle requires sidestepping the predictable. From creative flair with CRM magic to SEO savvy and project management wizardry, this little guide is your ticket to revamping your marketing.
Here’s the Lowdown on Your Marketing Magic Wands:
Brainpower = Content
Start with the heart of the matter - Content. It's the bread and butter that fuels your strategy, engages the crowd, and turns browsers into loyal fans.
BuzzSumo: Like a compass for content creators, BuzzSumo lights the way to what's hot and what's not. It's the secret sauce for making sure you're talking about things people actually want to hear.
Jasper AI: Jasper is like your go-to for content strategy. Just plug in your target personas, their main pain points, and what your customers aim to achieve. Jasper then crafts a full content strategy and plan for you. It's straightforward and efficient, ensuring your content aligns with your goals. Caveat is that sometimes it’s a doodoo head and thinks that you want it to use your “voice” as part of the content, so remember to make your prompts as if you are talking to an idiot.
Your Creative Team
If you’re like me (a startup owner), you don’t have the money to hire a team of writers and designers. Or even if you do, wouldn’t you want to get your stuff faster and on the mark (almost) each and every time? Here’s where these tools come in handy for all of us.
ChatGPT: It generates content fast but it’s all about how you use it. It’s super fast at generating content and really smart and sensitive to your asks. Pro-tip to enter something that you wrote, ask it to describe your tone and voice, then tell it to use that tone and voice to write your stuff.
Canva: I use Canva to make sure every pixel packs a punch. It’s the ultimate tool for crafting visuals that not only pop but also resonate with your audience—no cringe, just pure eye candy that gets the message across.
Adobe Spark: Got something to say? Say it louder with video. Adobe Spark is your cheat code for videos that don’t just talk the talk but walk the walk, making your message impossible to scroll past.
The Cool Tool Boxes
Ok so we have the tools and now we need a house for them. A house that helps them function efficiently, more importantly. Here’s what I use to do just that.
HubSpot: They’ve been around forever and they’re basically the gold standard of everything marketing Whether it's keeping tabs on emails, tagging content with goals or customer journey, or keeping up with your CRM data, HubSpot makes sure you're using the content to get you the most growth.
Hootsuite: Because who has the time to live on social media? (Okay, maybe some of us do.) But for when you don’t, Hootsuite keeps your business going on your feeds so you can do all the other things.
Mailchimp: I love their marketing (subscribe to their newsletter if to get the good stuff) and I also love how it streamlines email marketing with drag-and-drop builders and good, solid templates. More importantly, it does segmentation, behavioral targeting, and detailed analytics so the people you’re targeting actually reads and interacts with your emails.
Measuring Sticks
If you do all the things and you’ve no idea how the things are doing, what’s the point? Here are some tools to make sure your things are actually working.
Google Analytics: Your website’s personal trainer that tells you your website's traffic, user behavior, and how many people are actually going to join you or buy your things. You can and need to use this data to improve your marketing strategy, site functionality so you can make all the moolah.
Semrush: This is a super easy-to-use SEO tool that aids in keyword research, competitor analysis, and tracking your site's ranking and backlinks. It's designed to improve your online visibility and search engine performance.
What The Heck am I supposed to be working on?
I ask myself this at least 5 times a day, and that’s where project management tools come to play. If you’re lucky enough to have project managers, these are the tools they need to keep your company on track.
Asana: This is easy to use but I’m kind of meh on it. It’s a straightforward project management tool that keeps tasks organized and makes sure your team members know what they need to do, but has some technical hiccups that can be improved.
Notion: Notion project manages your world and it’s seriously on steroids. You have to shift your mindset—it’s not your run-of-the-mill PM software. It’s a whole “database” where you can, in addition to creating timelines, kanban boards, make a whole internal portal for your team. Meaning you can make your own wiki sites, store documents in there, and it’s all kinds of crazy.
Key Takeaways
If you read this whole thing and you’re like “what in the world did I just read?!” I don’t blame you. Marketing is a lot and every tool needs to be purchased (unless you do the free trial forever?), learn how to use them, and implement them. You could choose the first crucial ones (I would say ChatGPT and Google Analytics to start) and go from there. Or you can hire an agency who have these tools and have them do it for you (ahem…yes I’m talking about Chien Industries. Pick us! Piiiiiick usssssss!).
In any case, let me know if you have any questions about these tools or if you just want to talk shop! And remember, don’t be boring!
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