Marketing Tools

Marketing is a field that is so relevant today that a modern businessman should be ashamed not to know its basics. However, its use is not always effective and profitable, but all because many are not aware of the elementary. To close this gap, it is imperative to study modern marketing tools.

Next, you will find a huge list of them, as well as a valuable application guide. Knowing and implementing them in practice, you will be able to get new customers in a short time and notice a tangible increase in profit. Practical marketing is more than just a business task. This is a whole art, and our article will open the doors to it for you.

4 key marketing functions

Marketing is understood as a whole range of activities aimed at increasing the income of the organization. The activity of a marketer is based on the following functions:

1. Analytical. Its essence is to study the market in which the company is represented. This is a deep analysis not only of the niche as a whole, but also of competitors and buyers.
2. Production. Development of new products and ways to reduce their cost, as well as improving the quality of the current line.
3. Sales. It includes everything related to the processes of selling goods to the customer: from choosing the most valid sales channel and organizing the product matrix to the sales price and logistics.
4. Managerial. The task of a marketer is to establish such interaction between departments so that communication is as fast and effective as possible. The speed and quality of information transmission is key for making timely decisions, as well as for developing a company’s marketing strategy and providing relevant analytics to the top.
5. In his work, the specialist uses a whole palette of marketing methods and tools, each of which performs a certain role in the cycle. In order to study consumer needs, one set of tools is needed, for the organization of production and sales — a completely different one. Marketers have to adapt, constantly hone the current tools and invent new ones to match the speed with which the world is changing.

Advantages of using marketing tools

Marketing tools are used to attract customers, but this is not their only advantage. In addition, they perform a number of other functions:

1. They increase the efficiency of product promotion on the market due to the greater objectivity of the data that are at the beginning of the process.
2. They directly affect the volume of sales.
3. They play into the hands of the business owner, as their knowledge helps to create a positive and professional image in the eyes of customers.

Marketing Research Tools

A general look at the marketing sphere helps to determine that the main marketing tools include:

1. Market Analysis
2. A deep and comprehensive assessment of the market situation helps to determine the company’s place in the business arena. This tool includes, among other things, market segmentation, which makes it possible for an organization to clearly identify a niche and highlight its customers. Here it is also important to identify the competitive position of the company, on the basis of which you can get a real idea of the strengths and weaknesses in comparison with other firms.
3. Market surveillance
4. This is a recurring task in the process, the main purpose of which is to track fluctuations and new trends for timely decision — making when the situation changes.
5. Market forecasting
6. It is important not only to react to an obviously fait accompli, but also to predict by the signs characteristic of the industry what changes this or that event may lead to. This applies not only to the ability to capture and use future trends for your own benefit, but also to the ability to anticipate the reaction of customers to a marketing strategy. To think that the consumer will accept all changes with pleasure is a mistake. It is impossible to give an exact answer to this, but the task of a competent marketer is to calculate the probability of this or that outcome.
7. Heuristic and mathematical methods help to build a correct forecast. The first include special logical rules that help to come to a certain conclusion based on incomplete data. In simple words, these are intuitive ways of working. The second category includes those methods that work with clear statistical data.

Modern online marketing analysis tools

1. Systems of marketing tools for complex analytics

2. Google Analytics (statistics on site visitors)

3. More than a hundred flexible personalized reports will allow users of this application to see everything they would like to know about their customers. The application synchronizes with the site from which sales are conducted, and based on the data obtained qualifies visitors not only by the source of traffic, but also more pointwise by their geolocation, the type of device from which the entry was made, and much more.

4. Market surveillance

5. This is a recurring task in the process, the main purpose of which is to track fluctuations and new trends for timely decision — making when the situation changes.

6. Market forecasting

7. It is important not only to react to an obviously fait accompli, but also to predict by the signs characteristic of the industry what changes this or that event may lead to. This applies not only to the ability to capture and use future trends for your own benefit, but also to the ability to anticipate the reaction of customers to a marketing strategy. To think that the consumer will accept all changes with pleasure is a mistake. It is impossible to give an exact answer to this, but the task of a competent marketer is to calculate the probability of this or that outcome.

8. Heuristic and mathematical methods help to build a correct forecast. The first include special logical rules that help to come to a certain conclusion based on incomplete data. In simple words, these are intuitive ways of working. The second category includes those methods that work with clear statistical data.

Modern online marketing analysis tools:

1 . Systems of marketing tools for complex analytics

Google Analytics (statistics on site visitors)

More than a hundred flexible personalized reports will allow users of this application to see everything they would like to know about their customers. The application synchronizes with the site from which sales are conducted, and based on the data obtained qualifies visitors not only by the source of traffic, but also more pointwise by their geolocation, the type of device from which the entry was made, and much more.

myTracker (analytics for all sources of income)

An excellent application for those who want to work on the principle of a single window. The fact is that myTracker allows you to combine data on web and mobile purchases into a single report, as well as track income for the actual purchase of goods through the application, subscription payment and even monetization from advertising integrations. No restrictions on data storage and volume.

Comagic (evaluation of advertising effectiveness)

A universal marketing tool that can be integrated with more than fifty analytical and CRM systems. Its peculiarity lies in the fact that it analyzes in the context of a specific advertising source, from where and at what price customers came. Plus, it evaluates the effectiveness of salespeople and summarizes data on traffic and the work of the department in one window.

SimilarWeb (analysis of competitive sites)

An interesting application with an elementary interface: I entered a link to a competitor’s website and received a detailed report. The value of such analytics is that you can analyze how your competitor behaves online, as well as evaluate the involvement of its users.

2. Mobile Analytics services

AppsFlyer

Despite the fact that the application has been on the market for more than ten years, it has not lost its relevance. It precisely adjusts the interaction between the user and advertising at every touch, has sufficient functionality for a full-fledged traffic analysis and allows you to configure dashboards according to the required metrics.

Amplitude

One of the key tasks of marketing is to form an idea of user behavior and experience. And in this, Amplitude has proved itself as an effective marketing tool. Thanks to this system, it is possible to analyze both customer data and the degree of their involvement.

AppAnnie

In addition to the basic functions of collecting statistics and providing reports, it has an extremely useful bonus in the form of a multimillion-dollar database of mobile resources. An excellent tool for analyzing and evaluating the actual state of the mobile market.

3. Services for end-to-end analytics and call tracking

Calltouch

The functionality of the service is extremely extensive. In addition to collecting statistics on the effectiveness of advertising channels, campaigns and keywords, the program is able to automatically score telephone calls and evaluate their tonality.

Callibri

A simple service to answer a difficult question: what works and brings results, and what only spends the advertising budget? An interesting solution is the built-in multichat, which not only helps to communicate, but also works to attract customers.

Roistat

The platform contains dozens of tools for marketers, analysts and business owners that are already integrated with the end-to-end analytics system.

Calltracking

A good marketing tool for businesses that want to automatically upload data on expenses, sources and leads. It provides a transparent report on the payback of each traffic, and also has the functionality of call and email tracking, capturing leads from advertising and from chats.

Ringostat

Shows which advertising brings calls. Analyzes the profitability of investments in advertising channels. Provides multifunctional telephony. Allows you to process applications from messengers in one window.

CRM system

CRM system is a transaction accounting system. It stores all customer data: what and when they acquired, which manager conducted the transaction, how it moved from stage to stage. Different companies conduct their transactions in different ways: someone documents each step in detail and attaches records of conversations and correspondence, someone enters only the main thing.

Thanks to the CRM system, you can analyze transactions: how many of them end successfully and unsuccessfully, which manager is the most effective and vice versa, at which stage the transactions hang the longest, which clients are the most profitable. Thanks to this analysis, it is possible to identify the weak and strong points of the sales process.

In addition to analysis, CRM will help in segmentation, personalization and automation of mailings. Information about transactions can be substituted in letters: for example, a customer bought plates, and after a while you offer him a set of glasses in a set with a discount, that is, you make a cross-sale.

CRM can be different, from simple systems for small companies to complex ones used by large online stores. Of course, it’s better to start with a simple one. SendPulse has a CRM system that even an absolute beginner can handle: it has a clear, simple and intuitive interface.

Promotion tools are understood as marketing methods and techniques that a company uses to stimulate sales of its goods or services on the market.

In practice, most organizations use the following five main promotion tools:

Advertisement.

This marketing tool was mentioned above. We should add that it is distributed in various ways: external advertising (billboards, advertising on and inside transport, inscriptions on asphalt, promoters, etc.), internal advertising (in cinemas, shopping and business centers, airports and train stations), Internet advertising (contextual, targeted, etc.), etc. D.

Public relations (PR).

This is promotion through the popularization of products and stimulating demand by holding seminars, speaking to the target audience, publishing articles in periodicals and the Internet, mailing company catalogs, etc.

Sales promotion.

This is the promotion of goods due to sales growth in the short term. It is achieved by providing discounts to customers, holding contests, sweepstakes and lotteries, distributing samples, etc.

The main disadvantage of this approach is that demand growth is short–term, the company bears hidden costs associated with conducting a marketing campaign.

Personal (personal) sale.

This is the promotion of products through direct communication between the seller and the buyer through trade presentations, business meetings, organization of industrial exhibitions and fairs.

Sponsorship.

We are talking about providing money to a sponsored company for an event, provided that advertising information about the sponsor’s products and its brand is placed.

In addition to these tools, direct marketing is also used in practice to promote products.

Non-standard marketing tools on the verge of fiction

Environment.

This is an unusual advertisement that becomes a part of the target audience’s life. It can shock or surprise, but at the same time perform the main function — to convey important information about a product or brand to consumers.

Such advertising can be found almost everywhere: on the walls of houses, on asphalt, in public transport, on a park bench or in a cinema.

Product sitting.

In order to bring a new product to the market or increase sales of items from the current assortment, the company offers people to whose words consumers listen to test the product and express their opinion. Such test drives are often carried out by bloggers on their social media pages.

Crazy PR.

The essence of this advertising marketing tool is clear without explanation: a small, and maybe a big crazy thing will only benefit the brand.

Come up with some crazy idea and bring it to life (observing the boundaries of reason and the norms of decency, of course). Just do not forget that such advertising should fit into the product or brand positioning strategy.

Social marketing is a way to promote a product or brand by influencing consumer preferences, popularizing a certain lifestyle, advertising fashion trends.

This is one of the newest marketing tools. It appeared relatively recently, about 10 years ago due to the deterioration of the environmental situation in the world, a large number of low-quality food on store shelves and depletion of natural resources.

Social marketing is most actively used in medical and environmental projects, as well as in charity. In recent years, social marketing programs in education and commerce have been gaining momentum.

The main goal of social marketing, regardless of the specifics of its scope, is to form the loyalty of the target audience through association with ongoing social programs.

So, let’s summarize. The main tools of Internet marketing.

To begin with, to make it easier to navigate, we will give a simplified classification of the main Internet marketing tools. This:

• content marketing
• email marketing
• SEO
• paid advertising
• placement on trading platforms
• analytics
• SMM
• The blog
• Webinars
• Automation
• A/B testing
• Lidmagnit

Conclusion:

So, we got acquainted with the basic marketing tools. It is very difficult to study all the tools in more detail and for this you need not a small amount of time, but even this knowledge is enough to communicate on you and understand marketers and even perform some targeted actions yourself.