Choosing the Best Marketing Software

Looking for ways to improve your marketing strategy? Whether you’re searching for software options to assist with market research, automation, lead generation, or marketing analytics, there’s a product out there to fit your needs. Choosing to invest in marketing software can help your company to improve its efficiency, allowing your employees to work faster and reach greater productivity levels each day.

Four Great Marketing Software Solutions

Check out these four marketing software options to see which could provide your company with the assistance you need:

·         Tableau Software: Need help analyzing marketing analytics? Tableau can help. Use this software to target patterns and create new campaigns. After you’ve set them up, continue to track campaigns’ progress and study the metrics to get the most from your campaign data. With Tableau, you can analyze campaign revenue, track key metrics, evaluate buying metrics on product types by geographical location, and more. The company also offers solutions for email and CRM analytics, website analytics, social media analytics, and survey analysis.

·  PlanPlusOnline: The online version of the Franklin Covey business planner, PlanPlusOnline offers companies a platform to manage essential functions like sales automation, CRM and support, email marketing, project management, and website integration — just to name a few — all in one program. This software helps companies reduce the number of lost leads and improve response time, increasing efficiency. The automated messaging feature also allows sales reps to focus on finding new business opportunities, instead of wasting valuable time sending out repetitive messages. The only potential drawback is that the product was created for real estate, insurance, and finance companies, excluding professionals from other areas of business.

·        Eloqua: One of the most popular marketing automation tools on the market right now, Eloqua can do a number of things for marketers, including providing a space for you to build and manage your marketing database, execute marketing campaigns and measure their success, and obtain leads and route them appropriately. Users sing this software’s praises, saying it has helped them to work much more efficiently and enjoy the company’s first-rate training programs. The only downsides of Eloqua are that it’s a bit on the pricey side and the learning process is perceived as complex by some, so getting comfortable using it can take a bit longer than with some of its competitors.

·       Marketo: Creating a new lead generation model to fit the modern buying process, Marketo helps companies connect with customers faster. This software works to eliminate the gap between initial lead generation and the point when that lead is ready for a sales rep to take action. It offers automated lead scoring and gives companies the ability to create custom landing pages and email content quickly and easily, then run reports to measure their impact. The main customer complaint about Marketo is the sometimes slow-to-respond customer service. This can be frustrating if you’re trying to resolve an issue, but can’t move forward until receiving a response from their service team.

There’s no one-size-fits all solution for marketing software. Each company has its own unique needs, so make sure to test drive a product before purchasing it. You want to invest in software that will really improve efficiency for your business, helping your staff to be more productive. Once you purchase a product, set aside the time to take part in any training offered by the software provider, as this will help you to get the most out of your investment.

Sara Collins is a writer for NerdWallet, a personal finance site that helps consumers find the best credit cards.