You’ve probably heard this before:
Content marketing is 20% creation and 80% marketing.
If you don’t promote your content, then it will simply sit there on your site, gathering digital dust balls on its slide to the back pages of even the most obscure search engine results.
Whether or not you agree with the ratio of Pareto’s theory, the principle remains the same:
Marketing is massively important.
It’s a huge undertaking to consistently get your content on the first page, and to keep it there. But in doing so, your content turns your company into a brand that people know and trust.
Perhaps you’re feeling overwhelmed by the mission?
Luckily for marketers today, we are spoiled for choice on tools to use.
And no, they won’t all break the bank.
In fact, I’ll have you know it’s possible to have a kickass marketing automation stack for the paltry fee of $300.
A worthy investment for any ambitious company.
The toughest choice is deciding what tools to include in your marketing tech stack.
The Two Styles of Marketing Technology Stack
If you want to go gung-ho, consider market leaders like Marketo and HubSpot. They have a full arsenal of marketing artillery, which can help you blow the competition away.
Or at the very least, put you on the map alongside the movers and shakers.
The other option is to make a custom stack, where you select the specific solutions needed to meet your marketing goals.
Consider your company’s goals, technical know-how and overall budget when making your decision.
Key Features of a Marketing Automation Stack
A great marketing tech stack can transform your business, turning content from mere words and images into real marketing muscle.
Let’s show you the features worth having and the best point solutions of 2018 so you can make up your mind.
Lead Generation and Tracking
If you're looking for lead generation and tracking support specifically, we found your go-to tool.
Introducing: Leadfeeder.
At $53 per month, Leadfeeder is a great investment.
Here’s why:
One of the main reasons companies purchase marketing automation systems is so they can gain more information on who’s checking out their site.
Leadfeeder recognizes what companies come to your site, whether or not the visitor downloads a resource or fills out a form.
Automated Lead Management
Zapier is the most powerful workflow automation tool on the market and amazingly, only goes for $20/month.
It provides workflow automation between platforms and individual apps, triggering actions from one place to another.
CRM
For a reliable CRM solution, we found that HubSpot is your best choice. One of our favorite aspects is that it provides free CRM (specifically, Zoho CRM).
On top of that, HubSpot Free CRM is user-friendly, and includes the majority of features you’d find in a paid program.
Marketing managers will happily make use of the free HubSpot Marketing platform while sales managers can use the lead management and pipeline features.
It also provides API key access, which means third-party integrations are simply an API key generation away.
Contact Forms and Landing Pages
For your editing needs with contact forms and landing pages, we suggest Unbounce.
At $99 per month, this tool does a lot more than just edit.
Yes, Unbounce provides a general contact form and WYSIWYG landing page editor, however it also includes A/B testing webhook and setup integrations that are easy to use.
Almost any workflow tool such as Zapier can easily be merged to form data and collect into an email marketing platform, CRM or any other campaign action platform.
Email Campaigns
For your email campaigns and needs, let us direct you to MailChimp.
The free account is good for up to 2000 contacts and 12,000 emails per month.
It’s basically telling you to startup a business on their dime.
MailChimp offers marketers a slick email marketing platform with many integrations, all of which can be expanded by connecting to Zapier.
MailChimp features include dynamic content creation, email template creation and implementation, list segmentation and A/B testing.
Considering this is all gratis, it sets the stage for an impressive start for any marketer.
Website Analytics
Google Analytics provides numerous reports which offer insight into the demographics, behaviors, acquisition and conversion analytics of your visitor.
Once you become familiar with its capabilities, particularly reporting and funnel analytics, you’ll get a better understanding of your prospects and customers.
This will facilitate more informed decision-making.
SEO
Moz has been #1 for SEO services for a while now.
Not only are its prices fair - one month free, then $99 monthly thereafter - but it also offers a powerful suite of SEO tools.
From running keyword queries and backlink reports or tracking rankings of up to 300 keywords, you have a plethora of user-friendly, effective customer-building tools right at your fingertips.
Social Media Marketing
While Hootsuite and Buffer take over social media management, Sendible provides a social media marketing platform with expert features for minimal damage to your budget.
For $29 per month, you have access to features such as collaboration, post scheduling, analytics and custom URL integration.
Content Marketing Tools
WordPress stands strong as the kingpin of free blogging, website creation and management platforms.
All you need to pay for is the cost of your host server, which can start as low as $5 per month.
WordPress provides an extensive plug-in marketplace for an endless well of marketing stack tools to load up your site and create the blog you want.
Medium is a good alternative, that allows you to offer your audience content in that specific setting.
bonus we love:
Its import feature allows you to republish your content on Medium without being penalized for duplicate content.
All of this, for free.
Dynamic Content
Google Tag Manager guides marketers in managing and implementing tracking codes and other tags through their website.
This tool is 100% free, yet offers a list of features that helps you optimize site performance while helping marketers make use of the JS and JQuery code, injecting content into pages.
What Marketing Technology Stack Solutions Are Right for You?
The answer depends on your specific needs and your budget.
For example, do you have a large email list? Point solutions costs spike with the number of contacts you have. In this case a full-stack solution may be your best choice.
However if you’re looking for a start-up or nimble endeavor, a customized stack with the features you want will provide awesome results.
And you’ll still have cash in the bank for other marketing endeavors.
