Small Business News

July 22, 2016 By Carrie Gallagher

5 Top Marketing Automation Tools for SMB’s

Author: Matthew Toren

Join us for a free, live webinar and learn how to drive revenue with content marketing. Tune in 8/4 at 10:30 a.m. PT. Register Now »

Marketing slowing you down? Tons of small to mid-sized businesses are using marketing automation tools to boost productivity, increase revenue and get rid of monotonous day-to-day tasks.

GetResponse is an all-inclusive marketing automation tool made to truly get stuff done. SMB’s love it for its email automation features. GetResponse’s “workflow builder” makes it super simple to create the ideal conversion funnel by clicking and dragging filters, actions and conditions into place. Once set up, the workflow builder will send welcome emails, coupons, social media links, newsletters and more in response to certain triggers. Colorful email templates even take the hassle out of sculpting the perfect newsletter online. How much time will that take off your plate?

Related: 10 Marketing Automation Hacks All Businesses Should Be Using

Want to see who’s opening and tossing your emails? GetResponse’s analytics share insight without overwhelming you with raw data. “Email ROI” helps you understand exactly how much your business is benefiting from email campaigns over time. There are also tracking capabilities for your company’s website, so you can uncover who’s visited your site, what visitors click on most and when leads turn into paying customers. Guesswork is a thing of the past.

Top Sales Performance Gurus #salesgurus

Author: Nick Riseboarders

Mark Hunter Hunter Sales motivation tips and proven sales training techniques to help you increase sales, profitably

Jeb Blount Founder of Sales Gravy and Author of People Buy You, People Follow You, People Love You and Power Principles. Expert on human behavior in the workplace.

Deb Calvert Be more effective by putting People First! We can help! Top 50 Sales Influencer & blogger, Certified Master The Leadership Challenge, instructor at UC-Berkeley.

Jeffrey Gitomer King of sales, dad, granddad, writer, friend. Learn more, earn more, make more with Gitomer Gold. https://t.co/vlzqYBIOrL

Jim Keenan CEO A Sales Guy Inc, Keynote Speaker, Author, Professional Ski Instructor (aka Ski Bum) Dad of 3 crazy, in a good way, girls. FINDER OF THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

Jill Rowley All me, all the time. I don’t outsource or automate social. Startup Advisor. Keynote Speaker. #SocialSelling Evangelist. 16 years #SaaS. Husband, 4 Kids, Doggie

Geoffrey James Professional speaker, award-winning sales blogger, and author of Business Without the Bullsh*t and How To Say It: B2B Selling. http://t.co/BoTVuCvASA

To Increase Sales, Get Customers to Commit a Little at a Time

Author: hbr.org

Most sales models include a conversion funnel in which reps try to convert a marketing-generated lead into a prospect and then a customer through sequential steps. In this model, sales people are expected to make the process as friction-less as possible for the potential buyer and to close the deal at the end by using certain phrases and techniques to “overcome objections.” This perspective is promoted in books and seminars, but research indicates it is not how people buy.

As one of us noted in a previous article, buyers work their way through parallel streams (rather than a funnel) as they explore, evaluate, and engage in purchase decisions via web sites, white papers, social media, and contact with other buyers through sites like Marketo, and so on.

This why the end of a sales process is the worst time to handle objections — prospects typically contemplate their objections long before “close,” and, to avoid conflict, often cite a socially-acceptable rationale such as price, which may not be the real barrier to buying. To better address this reality, sellers should ask prospects to make incremental commitments throughout the process.

#CMOStudy2015: Featuring Top 50 Marketing Influencers – ScribbleLive

Author: scribblelive.com

The leading content marketing platform: ScribbleLive gives marketers, publishers, and agencies everything they need to create effective content. Our software platform makes it possible to predict when content campaigns are going to be successful, simplifies collaboration, and helps unleash creativity. In an era when interruptive advertising is becoming less successful, content is providing a more authentic, more powerful way to connect with your audience. From knowing what your audience cares about to delivering it to them in the right channel and optimizing results, our content marketing platform empowers organizations to make effective content a predictable part of their business.

6 Collaboration Tools for Social Media Marketing Teams : Social Media Examiner

Author: Ana Gotter

Do you want to improve communication with your marketing team?

Looking for tools to help?

Collaboration tools make it easier for everyone on your team to stay on track with content creation, task assignment, and deadlines.

In this article you’ll discover six tools to help your social media team collaborate.

Evernote is an app that allows you to organize content into notebooks, within which you have individual notes. You can add text, images, and files to notes and share them with other users.

The app lets you turn your notes into PDFs or (for premium users) instant presentations. You can also add reminders to individual notes, which will sync with your Google Calendar. Add tags to make your notes easier to find.

Evernote also has a chat function that allows you to exchange instant messages in real time with other members of your team.

For business account users, you can access Evernote online through a program downloaded onto your computer or via their mobile app. This allows you to take your content with you on your mobile devices without any extra effort. Of course, your data is also accessible on your computer.