Are you a business owner and confused about which tools for online marketing are the best to utilise? You aren’t alone! With so many tools and online marketing options out there, you’d be forgiven for getting overwhelmed and throwing up your hands in despair. There are some good tools for online marketing, and then there are some duds to be avoided.

To help get you started, we’ve identified the top five tools for online marketing. These are the ones most relevant for 2022, designed to grow your business, get you seen, help nurture and build customer relationships and, ultimately, get you sales!

Is content marketing effective?

One of the best free tools for online marketing is creating content, otherwise known as content marketing. Content marketing is a great way to promote brand awareness through the process of creating online and offline content, such as videos, blogs, social media posts and newsletters. With content, you can start to build more than just awareness about your product or service; you start to build relationships. 

Any strategy adopted should include a focus on creating content. It not only helps promote your brand and build awareness, trust and relationships, but it’s also a useful way of establishing yourself as an expert in your field. 

Take the example of wanting to position yourself as a thought leader: showing your authority on a subject. If you want to be the ‘go to’ when it comes to your product, create content that shows your experience and expertise. 

• Talk about how long you’ve been in business

• Your credentials, such as certificates or courses

• Provide feedback and examples of your workmanship. 

• Explain how you do something better than your competitors. 

Content creation isn’t so much about ‘selling’, but more about putting the framework in place to grow awareness about your brand and keep you top of mind with customers. Using storytelling in your content marketing strategy informs people about where you've come from, who you are, and what you do. Storytelling personalises content and is helpful in promoting your brand, building engagement and connecting with customers. So start telling stories!

Get used to video content marketing

Video content marketing was virtually non-existent up until a few years ago but is now considered one of the top tools for online marketing. With numerous social media platforms vying for attention, your video content needs good planning and execution; it will be the difference between getting seen or sidelined. These three points are designed to get your video content marketing up and running: 

No. 1

The platforms you post your video content to need to align with your goals, objectives and the key customer segments being targeted. Doing this work initially will save you time and resources later on. You don’t want to be posting content to people that just won’t see it. The top social media video platforms for 2022 are currently:

• YouTube

• Facebook

• Tik Tok

• Instagram

While YouTube is in front, the continued momentum and dominance of Tik Tok indicate this is likely to change. Depending on your target audience, it may mean more focus on Tik Tok over another channel.

No. 2

Expect to feel a little uncomfortable and overwhelmed, to begin with, creating video content doesn’t come naturally to everyone. The first few videos may not be great and make you cringe, but the best way to overcome your fears around video content is to JUST START - take small videos on your phone and work your way up. The great thing about video content on social media is that it’s here today, gone tomorrow! So don’t get too caught up in how polished it looks initially. 

No. 3

If you’re stuck on what video to create, these video content ideas are useful. Creating a great video starts with planning a story. People love storytelling! Some ideas to think about:

• How you started your business and why

• What you want to achieve

• Plans for the future 

Personalising video content will get you better engagement over a sales pitch. Think about a good story that is somehow related to your business, and tell it!

Who is the target audience?

Do you think about your target audience much when looking at tools for online marketing? Maybe not. But a crucial part of any marketing planning is firstly understanding who the target audience is. 

Target audience segmentation is used to understand the people we want to buy our product or service. While demographics play a part in this, it includes much more than that. You need to go deep into an understanding beyond age and gender. Finding out as much as possible about the people you are targeting to purchase your product will save you time and resources. Spend a day in your customers' shoes and consider all factors that influence customers purchasing decisions. 

These factors include: 

✳️Personal factors - personality, demographics, lifestyle

✳️Situational factors - time, physical factors

✳️Psychological factors - attitudes, beliefs, motivation to buy

✳️Social factors - social settings, family background, culture

✳️Economic factors - disposable income, income vs expenses

For example, you might be targeting customers that are 40, male and live in Brisbane. But what else do you know about them? Are they big spenders or frugal? Do they make purchasing decisions quickly or require more time to consider and research purchase decisions?  What about their personal settings? Are they single, married with children? This can make a big difference in terms of how much available time they have to shop.

If you don't understand what drives purchasing decisions, you can't talk to your customers in the language, tone and messaging they relate to. That makes it difficult to sell anything. When you know your ideal customers, the job of marketing to them begins. What target audience you uncover from your market research will then determine the best tools for online marketing to work with. 

Search engine optimisation strategy

Another tool for online marketing which is often overlooked in the rush to get on social media platforms is getting a search engine optimisation strategy in place. Put simply, getting your website to rank at the top of an organic Google search, behind paid Google ads. That’s when someone types in a keyword and your website ranks well for it, without needing to pay for it. With time and effort, it is possible to rank well in an organic Google search.  

Take for example if you want to rank highly for cat grooming. If cat grooming is a hard word to rank for organically, there may be another search term that still ranks highly but isn’t as competitive, such as top cat grooming services near me. 

Getting your website optimised for online searches is usually focused on during website development, and then quickly forgotten about. That’s why getting a search engine optimisation strategy in place helps direct you toward the right areas within your website to focus on.

Tools for online marketing are about finding ways to get all areas of your marketing working together in harmony. That can’t happen if your website content isn’t optimised for the right keywords, headings, meta tags, and descriptions. Unless you can dedicate hours upskilling yourself, it’s best to leave this to the experts and invest in someone managing this. A good SEO specialist will work with you to identify the keywords and may even do all the ‘backend’ stuff to your website. 

Which social media platforms are the best?

We know some of the best tools for online marketing are found on social media. Social media is a great way to promote your brand’s personality, encourage engagement and create loyalty. But deciding which social media platforms are the best is where it can get confusing. There are plenty to choose from and all of them are free to create your own business accounts. 

The most used social media platforms are:

• Facebook

• Instagram

• Tik Tok

• LinkedIn

• YouTube

• Pinterest  

• Twitter

You then need to determine which of these social media platforms are the best for your business. To do that, consider the following:

• Your objectives

Are you trying to build brand awareness, drive people to your website or get a sale?

• Who is your target audience?

If it’s Gen Zers, think Tik Tok, Instagram and Youtube. 

• What content are you creating?

Instagram, Tik Tok and Youtube are all about video, while you might get audiences on LinkedIn and Facebook that still prefer static posts.  

Some platforms perform better depending on the content you’re posting, while others are more visual. While it may seem like up and coming platforms like Tik Tok might seem like the best social media platform to use, it really depends on some key factors, like who your target customers are, your goals and how you are positioning your brand. 

Where to from here for marketing assistance?

Putting the right tools for online marketing in place ensures you’re putting time and resources towards the best practices. When these top five online marketing tools are followed your business is better placed to build brand awareness, get sales and be seen by the right customers, at the right times.