Hello, everyone! As promised, here is a continuation to my last post, which can be read here. Before looking at the product options, let’s review. The main functions/themes of inbound marketing are:
- content creation – content is king! make sure you create content that is good/relevant & create it often
- lifecycle marketing – target people based on where they are with interacting with your brand (e.g. new customers should be handled differently than leads, than returning customers, than customers who promote your brand, etc.)
- personalization – people will connect with your company/brand more effectively if they feel it can do something for them and if you care for them; tailor messages to specific customers to leave impressions on them
- multi-channel communication – see where most of your customers/potential customers interact most with your brand online and meet them there; with that said, don’t conduct all your promoting on one platform…find different modes/channels of communication to maximize the opportunity to reach more people
- integration – let your publishing and analytics tools work for you by giving you information about all your channels so you can focus on proper content creation
Ok, great! Let’s get to it with those last three options!
This company focuses mostly on marketing automation, which basically “refers to software platforms and technologies designed for marketing departments and organizations to more effectively market on multiple channels online (such as email, social media, websites, etc.) and automate repetitive tasks” (Google). Eloqua promises to simplify automation for its clients, and even offers a free .pdf booklet that you can download to understand the process better.
Pardot truly is the definition of integrated marketing. You can choose to use one, a few, or all of their services (e.g. email marketing help, social marketing, etc.). Specializing in business-to-business (B2B) marketing, Pardot focuses on how to get you a return on your investment (ROI). It offers you a demo version of its product(s) and like Eloqua, has its own free downloadable book that helps you understand its services and the ideas behind integrated marketing a little bit more. Also, I would like to personally add that its website is user friendly and the layout/design is nice and clean.
So there you have it! From this post and the last one, you have a list of a few options of what’s available to you and your company. As always, I am not endorsing one or the other, nor am I being paid to mention these services/companies. I hope this is able to help some of you and the future of your brand!
Cheers!
