Anyone who has worked for a small business knows that in order to be successful, especially in the beginning, you’ve got to wear a lot of hats. From answering phones to social media marketing, you’ve probably figured out how to do it all, and do it all well. But that doesn’t mean it’s all been a piece of cake.
Luckily, though, cutting edge tech tools keep popping up with the sole purpose of making small businesses more competitive and efficient, so why not take advantage?
We compiled a list of the top tech tools that will help you improve your Content Marketing game and make your life a little easier.
SEMrush
A major reason you’re doing content marketing is to show up in the search engines, and that’s where SEMrush can help!
SEMrush is a comprehensive SEO tool that does everything from making you aware of backlinking opportunities to help you determine what keywords you need to incorporate to rank higher than your competitors on Google.
SEMrush will also run an SEO audit on your site and help you find areas that need improvement.
Price: After a 14-day free trial, SEMrush has several monthly pricing plans– ranging from $99.95 to $399.95– for you to choose from. You can also get a discount by purchasing the yearly subscription.
Canva
You want your content to look good! If you don’t have the budget for a design team, look into Canva.
This graphic design software can help you create aesthetically pleasing branding and marketing tools. And the best news? You don’t need a graphic design degree to pull it off.
Think of any marketing material you may need– invites, email funnels, social media posts– you name it, Canva can help you create it all with your branding in mind. Other exciting news: you can use Canva as a plugin inside WordPress. This means you don’t have to choose between your content management platform and your design platform. You CAN have both.
Price: Canva does have a free option, but if you want more advanced customization, you can go with the Pro plan at $12.95 per month ($9.95 if you pay for the whole year at once) or the Enterprise plan at $30 per month.
Vidyard
2020 is the year of the video. So if you haven’t incorporated videos into your marketing strategy, it’s time to get going. Luckily, one relatively new tool, Vidyard, will make it easy for you to create engaging videos with interactive call-to-actions.
Use it to create videos in only a few minutes, making your content more engaging and giving you more opportunities to generate leads and sales.
Price: Vidyard offers a free option, but you can also gain more functionality with their Pro, Starter, or Plus plans start at just $15 a month.
WordPress
Ok, this recommendation probably is exactly news to you – WordPress has been a standard with small businesses for a long time now.
But we highly recommend that you make 2020 the year that you dive into all of the options the platform has to take your marketing to the next level!
You can choose from countless plugins that make your site more attractive, more functional, and a more integrated part of your marketing plan.
Best of all? You don’t need to understand coding to use this platform. Again, it’s WordPress’s easy-to-navigate design that makes this a win-win for small businesses.
Price: FREE, but there are charges within the platform for things like your site’s domain name, design features, hosting, and plugins.
Google Analytics
Again, Google Analytics is nothing new, but it’s one of the least understood and underutilized tools, and yet one of the most powerful and useful by far.
You can track conversions, analyze data, and measure engagement all with one free tool. Best of all, you can use it alongside other Google tools like Tag Manager and Google Adwords Keyword Planner to integrate smart data throughout your marketing process.
If you need to brush up on your Google Analytics knowledge (we ALL do!), we highly recommend that free training on the Measure School Youtube Channel – he’s brilliant at keeping it simple!
Price: FREE
Power Tools!
With new technology coming out every day, you can still compete with the big guys even with your small business budget. Using the five affordable ‘power tools’ above, you can research and reach your target market, increase leads, and drive revenue – take full advantage of them!
