BROUGHT TO YOU BY

to Help with Your Small Business Marketing APPS10

Between social media and

networking, marketing is a 24/7

game that can eat up a huge amount

of your time. To remain competitive,

you have to keep your brand in front

of customers and be responsive at a

moment’s notice. What tools do

business owners use to attract

customers and increase sales? Here

are 10 of the best marketing apps,

and why our SUCCEED: Small

Business community members love

them.

10 Apps to Help with Your Small Business Marketing

With Buffer, you can take the

time to determine the exact best

time to post for each of your

social networks and create a

schedule and queue to take

advantage of that. Facebook, for

example, has peak usage times

in mid-afternoon, so if I'm going

to share something today,

shouldn't I share it then?

BUFFER

—Mike Allton Content Marketing Consultant

“

Schedule a week’s worth of social media posts in advance so you don’t forget.

1GET THE APP

“

social media schedulingand management

Streak is remarkably lightweight

and integrates seamlessly right

inside Gmail. In this way, you can

easily mark incoming emails as

leads, contacts, accounts, deals,

or create your own custom

labels for your pipeline.

STREAK

—Mike Ziggy Giles Co-Founder & Art Director at Blacknight Studios

““

Add custom fields such as “date shipped” to help you determine the right time to follow up with a customer and ask for a review of your product.

2GET THE APP

Google Chrome extension for Gmail inbox customization

Want to know how you can

afford a nifty infographic on a small business budget? The DIY approach works best

if you have an app that helps

with the graphics. Piktochart

lets you plug in your stats,

pick your icons and images,

and get visual.

PIKTOCHART

Throw in some stats from your own company’s research so you can offer data that no one else has compiled before.

3GET THE APP

web-based infographic design app

With so much to manage,

how do you keep track of all

your social media? Hootsuite

is a hub that provides a single

dashboard for Twitter,

Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+,

WordPress, and more.

HOOTSUITE

Create a Hootsuite stream to track key phrases about your industry so you can join the conversation.

4GET THE APP

social media management system

I use Skitch five times a day to

capture parts of the screen. I send them to colleagues,

create graphics for blog posts

(with proper consideration for

copyright), or just save for my

own future reference.

SKITCH

—Virginia Nicols Small Business Marketing Champion

“

Use Skitch image and annotation functions to create a short tutorial to share useful information with customers.

GET THE APP

5“

Evernote tool for manipulating visual elements

My clients are finding that the

best way to connect with local prospects is through local

customers. For a car dealer,

posting a photo on Facebook of

a happy customer next to their

new car is important. When the

customer shares with their

network, it builds local referrals.

FACEBOOK

—Jerry Gitchel Technology and Marketing Consultant

“

Share geotargeted, local content, such as fun photos, events or special deals, with your customers. Targeted posts help you better reach your audience with more relevant content…and build customer loyalty.

GET THE APP

6“

social networking and business advertising platform

Do you only have time to mess

with social media once a day?

Are constant notifications driving

you crazy? This app will track all

the activity on your social

accounts and send you a daily

summary. It’s an easy way to

keep your finger on the pulse of

your customers.

NUTSHELLMAIL

Adjust your notification settings on each social account to make sure your daily digest isn’t overwhelming.

GET THE APP

7 social networkaggregation service

According to research from

Medium.com, the ideal length for

a blog post is 1600 words. That’s

practically a novel. While regular

blog posts keep getting longer

and longer, microblogging is still

short and sweet. If you don’t have

time for regular blogging, consider

using Tumblr to share your

insights in bite-sized snippets,

engaging photographs and

entertaining memes.

TUMBLR

Tag your content with at least seven tags (but not more than a dozen) to make it more searchable.

GET THE APP

8 microblogging andsocial networking platform

It’s a good idea to seek

partnerships with deal apps. List your deals on apps like

Yowza!! and RedLaser to get people to find them.

YOWZA!! & REDLASER

Check out deals other local businesses are offering and consider running a joint special with a related industry.

GET THE YOWZA!! APP

9

—Francesca Nicasio Retail Blogger, Vend

“

REDLASER APP&

10 “

mobile shopping anddeal finder apps

““

Action

Identify one app on the previous slides that helps you tackle an aspect of marketing that you struggle with.

Advice

Don’t try to download every marketing app out there—you’ll just get overwhelmed and frustrated. Instead, choose a few and stick with them in order to make more happen in your business.

Inspiration

The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” !— Peter Drucker

“

>> The Best Mobile Apps for Small-Business Warriors

>> The Top 5 Apps to Make Your Small Business More Productive

>> 10 Great Small Business Apps for the iPad

ADDITIONAL READING

WHICH DESKTOP AND MOBILE APPLICATIONS DO YOU USE TO

MARKET YOUR SMALL BUSINESS?

Share your favorite apps in ourSUCCEED: Small Business Network

community on LinkedIn.

Share this SlideShare with a fellow small business owner.