It can be hard to find the best technology stack for small business marketing. There are tools every small business should have in their technology stack in order to automate, optimize, and augment their marketing efforts. Marketing technologies can be used to analyze the performance of your business’ marketing campaigns, conduct research on marketing tactics and strategies, and communicate with customers and prospects.
A technology stack can look different to every small business, and tech stacks are powerful tools that can be employed as a marketing strategy, creating optimized collateral and generating qualified leads for your business. However, it can be difficult to know which solutions and best practices are worth investing time (and money) into when choosing which to include in your marketing stack!
To figure out what tools your small business will need for your unique marketing strategy, take some time to think about your business’ goals and budget. It’s also important to look at multiple options when considering tech stacks. We know that can be easier said than done, so we’ve put together a list of essentials that every small business should consider adding to their marketing technology stack. However, every business is different, so choose what works best for you.
CRM
Small businesses today really should invest in a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solution. There are so many benefits to using a CRM solution:
- Ability to store customer (and potential customer) data
- Quote and Deal history
- Sales forecasting ability
- Customer (and potential customer) segmentation
- Having a scalable and repeatable systems for sales
- Having a scalable and repeatable systems for customer service
- Having a scalable and repeatable systems for marketing
- Information storage, sharing, and backup
Hands down our recommendation is HubSpot, but we fully disclose our bias as a HubSpot Agency. We use it ourselves.
Other notable CRM Stack Tools: Pipedrive, Zoho, and Keap.
Social Media
Social media should be integrated into any marketing strategy. It is a valuable tool that houses most of your target audience on its platforms (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram) and it is a great way to always keep your company top-of-mind for your audience. Social media, however, can become very mundane very quickly. Luckily, you can automate your social media tasks, such as publishing and scheduling content using a tech tool.
Many social media stack tools have easy to use interfaces, and you can schedule your posts in advance, creating an easily accessible and editable content calendar. You’ll never miss a posting prime time again, and many social media stack tools provide you with basic analytics data for each of your posts! These tools all offer different tiers of pricing, so you can choose what works best for you.
Notable Social Media Tech Stack Tools: HootSuite, Planoly, Buffer, MeetEdgar, CoSchedule
SEO – Search Engine Optimization
You might have an amazing business, product or service, along with an awesome website, but aren’t getting found by your target audience. If this is the case, SEO is definitely something you should incorporate into your marketing stack. Search engine optimization helps you keep up with the constantly changing search engine algorithms. There are lots of very insightful tools on the market that will help search engines direct customers to your site!
SEO tools are often loaded with technology and analytics to measure and improve your online presence and visibility. Many tools feature reports around click rates, keyword hits, backlinks, competitors, research, and more. Like any tech software, the companies which provide these powerful tools often offer several options and levels built for any business size and budget.
Notable SEO Stack Tools: SEMrush, Google Search Console, Moz, Ahrefs
Collaboration
Have you ever wanted an all-in-one communication platform for your team, where you can share files, assignments, and more? There are lots of collaboration tools that allow your team to communicate with each other quickly and efficiently. This software, when utilized by an entire business, can improve overall productivity dramatically.
In collaboration software, members can send messages to each other, coordinate tasks, share files, and delegate responsibilities. With the recent widespread adoption of remote collaboration, being able to communicate quickly and thoroughly, in an organized manner, is more important than ever.
Notable Collaboration Stack Tools: Asana, Slack, Monday, Trello, Microsoft Teams
Analytics and Insights
Did you know that your website’s analytics are much like the organs in your body? They give a snapshot of the different things that contribute to the overall picture: web performance, leads, sales, and new customers. By studying your analytics and insights data, you can turn a jumble of numbers into a strong asset to your marketing strategy!
Analytics are something that not enough people pay attention to, and that usually happens because analytics data can be difficult to decipher at times. That’s where analytics technology comes in: making analytics make sense.
We have to mention the most notable analytics tool out there, the one that stands out from the many (many) web analytics tools and software on the market today. Google Analytics is a free tool, and provides users with valuable insights into their webpages, audience demographics, audience behavior, and more. They make interpreting the data easy by offering tutorials on what to do with all of the data they provide!
Notable Analytics Stack Tools: Google Analytics, Crazy Egg, Optimizely, Amplitude
Best Technology Stack For Small Business Marketing
Think of choosing components of your tech stack like choosing a car. How long will it fit your growing business? Take every tool for a test drive before purchasing a plan. Most tools offer free trial periods where you can decide if it’s right for you.
Have more questions about small business marketing, marketing automation, or technology stacks? Contact us here.
