No large enterprise starts out that way, so what can smaller businesses learn from corporations about effective marketing? One factor to pay close attention to is how technology is used to reach an intended audience more efficiently. Here are a few tools that have been successfully utilised by big businesses to improve performance and grow their global reach.
1. Slack: Workstream collaboration
Messaging platform Slack has swiftly become one of the preferred communication methods for businesses large and small, cutting back on time-wasting internal emails with dedicated channels. This also enables real-time communication during a heavy marketing push, while encouraging interactions between far-flung departments.
A prime example can be seen in this Ticketmaster case study. This California-based ticketing company handles 480 million transactions annually, spread throughout 28 countries.
They’ve used Slack to build new features, keep track of glitches impacting site performance, and help manage the highest-demand events via Slack channels. For smaller businesses, this same concept can be applied to enhance collaboration for marketing endeavours. A company directory, stored conversations and user-friendly features keep remote workers up to speed.
2. Trello: Project management
We’ve already mentioned Trello as a great PR tool for small businesses on a budget – but it’s also a favourite for larger companies for its effectively simple project management concept. Marketing involves a lot of moving parts, which is where the platform’s list features come in handy to keep track of everything from editorial calendars to product launches and social media channels.
Enterprises as large as Deutsche Bahn AG, a German rail service, have successfully used Trello to manage remote teams working on varying devices. In this case, they’ve used the tool as part of the company’s digital collaboration initiative, organising the platform’s boards by stages and tasks for a streamlined workflow.
3. Bynder: Digital asset management
In the digital era, quickly accessing media files is essential for fast-moving campaigns. Another top organisational tool to help you keep track of your project’s digital content files is Bynder.
The idea behind this platform is not just to keep track of media files, but also to manage the full content cycle from first point of creation on through distribution and publishing.
As small businesses experience rapid growth, they need to scale branding efforts accordingly. One example is Innocent Drinks, which started off as a small team selling smoothies at a music festival. As they expanded into European markets in the 2000s and grew exponentially in size, innocent needed a way to ensure branding consistency with all their creative assets.
The company used Bynder for digital asset management, storing creative files in an easily searchable main library to retain control of brand consistency across international markets.
4. HootSuite: Social media management
Managing multiple social media accounts can be a big job for small businesses, and as with branding when they grow in size the task becomes far more complicated.
This is where tools like HootSuite come into play, keeping your Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and other accounts all in one place. Set up automated posts and reactions, search Twitter feeds for mentions of your business, or organically boost your Instagram followers.
One success story involves the City of New York, which tripled its online audience with a HootSuite-enabled marketing strategy. The marketing team needed to maintain a consistent voice while managing 200 social media accounts in multiple languages to suit the city’s diverse population.
Features like photo searches, geo-location reports and keyword searches also helped spread information quickly during emergency situations like Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
5. Marketo: Marketing automation
There are a number of features to look for in a marketing automation platform, from email marketing to analytics. Marketo is a popular tool for medium-large businesses with marketing teams, offering advanced mobile features, A/B email testing and a unique ‘Engagement Engine’ that allows users to track prospect behaviours to better target website visitors.
This has led to strong results for global businesses like Panasonic, who wanted to target larger customers while engaging more efficiently with existing ones. By using Marketo, the business increased their marketing campaign output five-fold, doubling their CRM contacts system and having more relevant, targeted conversations with sales prospects.
So what can small businesses take away from these examples? As you grow your business, use scalable software to manage your efforts more efficiently. This frees up the marketing team’s time to focus on innovation.
Further reading on improving your marketing
