B2B Connection

You need to market where the people are, so…where are they? Today everyone is on social media to communicate, collaborate, entertain themselves, and shop brands. You can cancel the newspaper ad and radio commercials, because just having an active Facebook business page will take you to the moon. Social media marketing (SMM) is one fast and simple way to make human connections with consumers whether by responding to tweets or by implementing a targeted ad campaign. A glass screen is all that separates your ideas, services, and thought leadership from potential customers. What is Social Media Marketing? SMM is a form of B2C marketing through social media networks. Advertising teams research which social media channels their ideal demographics regularly use. With that valuable information, they increase their social media presence with posts, video content, polls, surveys, and ads placed on the social media site itself. Some marketers also utilize influencer marketing, where content creators are sponsored by a company so they can then inform their followers on their social media channels. It’s particularly effective if business owners choose influencers applicable to either their product or target audience. This type of social media marketing strategy is especially popular on video content […]

Pricing is a key consideration for most software buyers. If you’re looking to improve business decisions with marketing intelligence, pricing plans can have an important impact on costs and on your ability to build successful marketing strategies, increase market share, and grow at scale. Marketing campaigns that track costs improperly can endanger your whole business.        What TrustRadius Research Says Pricing for Marketing Intelligence Software will vary depending on data sources, feature set, number of users, and payment structure. Software offering cloud-based lead generation or in-depth industry information will typically have a higher price range than tools focused on digital marketing, market research, or web analytics. Access to sophisticated competitive intelligence tools will also increase costs. While many vendors will provide detailed pricing plan information, others require buyers to contact them for customized pricing.  Free trials and free versions are available, but you are unlikely to get most of the features you’re looking for. Paid versions typically range from around $75 to $500 per month, though customized enterprise plans will be more expensive.  To give buyers a more complete picture of what to expect, we’ve put together a complete pricing breakdown for four top-rated Marketing Intelligence Software in 2022.      Product Price […]

Pricing is a key consideration for most software buyers. If you’re looking to improve business decisions with marketing intelligence, pricing plans can have an important impact on costs and on your ability to build successful marketing strategies, increase market share, and grow at scale. Marketing campaigns that track costs improperly can endanger your whole business.        What TrustRadius Research Says Pricing for Marketing Intelligence Software will vary depending on data sources, feature set, number of users, and payment structure. Software offering cloud-based lead generation or in-depth industry information will typically have a higher price range than tools focused on digital marketing, market research, or web analytics. Access to sophisticated competitive intelligence tools will also increase costs. While many vendors will provide detailed pricing plan information, others require buyers to contact them for customized pricing.  Free trials and free versions are available, but you are unlikely to get most of the features you’re looking for. Paid versions typically range from around $75 to $500 per month, though customized enterprise plans will be more expensive.  To give buyers a more complete picture of what to expect, we’ve put together a complete pricing breakdown for four top-rated Marketing Intelligence Software in 2022.      Product Price […]

Companies of all sizes use marketing intelligence to help them make the best business and investment decisions. Marketing Intelligence Tools combine market research and competitive analysis to help businesses target customers and position themselves competitively. They can also help build awareness of user sentiment regarding competing products. In short, these tools are designed to give organizations the information they need to match customer expectations ahead of the competition.   For small businesses and freelancers who may be on a tighter budget, having access to quality free marketing intelligence tools can be a game-changer, as automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning capabilities become increasingly widespread. Larger companies can also use freemium versions to test the software solution, acquiring premium packages if the product integrates well with company workflows. Here are some of the best free tools for marketing intelligence in 2022.     Best Free Tools for Competitor Analysis in 2022 By tracking competitor activities, businesses can gain a broad understanding of what they’re up against. Competitor analysis leverage business intelligence and product intelligence to give you an accurate assessment of the competitive landscape. Competitor analysis tools can help you answer the following questions: How am I performing against the competition?  How are products […]

It’s an inevitable part of operating a business: eventually, you’ll have to start posting on social media. Maintaining a social media presence is more than a simple checkbox step in establishing your business’s credibility. 54% of social media browsers use social media to research products. Your small business needs to draw these browsers in with engaging posts and quick replies to turn them into buyers. A good social media marketing tool can help you quickly make strong social media content. Your Small Business’s Social Media Marketing Strategy Small businesses have a great advantage in the social media landscape. It’s easier to show your brand’s personality and make genuine connections when your company has yet to reach Buy-n-Large proportions. Marketing professionals at small businesses wear many hats and are often unable to give all their attention to social media. Enter, social media marketing software.  A social media marketing tool will allow you to access all your social media accounts in one place. You can schedule posts ahead of time and send them throughout the month. This is extra important when you can only carve out a chunk of time for social media work once every couple of weeks. You can also […]

Whether your business is large or small, marketing intelligence can give you a leg up in an increasingly competitive business world. Marketing intelligence refers to the insights, stats, or data that help businesses position products and services within their niche industry. Let’s take a closer look at what marketing intelligence is and why it’s important.      Why Marketing Intelligence Matters Marketing intelligence is all about seeing the big picture, while also exploiting specific data sources to gain a competitive advantage over rival firms.  By following market intelligence best practices, businesses can gain actionable insights into their existing market. They can also acquire the necessary knowledge to break into a new market, whether that means rebranding or expanding overseas. For larger companies with several product lines, marketing intelligence will be more complex and even more indispensable.         Benefits of Marketing Intelligence In general terms, we can break the benefits of marketing intelligence down into a knowledge trident that involves self-discovery, market understanding, and customer understanding.    Self-Discovery It’s hard to excel at anything without knowing what you do best. Identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT analysis) will help you develop business strategies that play to your strong points. These strategies will help you […]

If this is your first foray into the world of call centers and contact center technology, a critical first step is understanding which software products are available.  For new contact center businesses, nothing’s more frustrating than investing in an inbound call center solution only to realize your agents need an outbound contact center platform. Worse still is realizing your new on-premise software will need to be replaced with a cloud-based solution within the next year.  There are a range of different types of call or contact centers that may be more or less appropriate for your business:  Call Centers Contact Centers Inbound Centers Outbound Centers Cloud-based Centers On-premise Centers Multichannel Centers Omnichannel Centers Before investing the time and money into searching for, purchasing, and implementing software, make sure you’ve found the contact center product that will best match your current and future needs.  If you are looking for the hottest stats and trends in the contact center world, we have you covered. Click the button below to learn more. 4 Comparisons to Consider Before You Start Taking Calls Not all contact center technology is equipped for the full range of call center activities. Conversely, software that has an exhaustive list […]

Marketing is the lifeblood of any sales-based organization. As a result, many strive to continue to innovate in this area. Experiential marketing, live marketing, engaging marketing, and many other titles are all labels for the same concept: immerse your customers in the product or service on a far deeper level than normal. In a sea of advertising noise, experiential marketing can cut through the competition and fatigue. It can also be harder in a global pandemic. With all these factors accounted for, we have assembled the hottest statistics, trends, and funding news in experiential marketing.  10 Hottest Experiential Marketing Statistics 75% of marketing convention participants felt more connected to a brand as consumers after an in-person B2C brand experience. (Agency EA 2021)  Only 50% of marketing convention participants said they felt connected to a brand after a virtual experience. (Agency EA 2021) 71% of B2B marketers and 63% of B2C marketers have planned a hybrid event in the last 6 months. (Agency EA 2021) Consumer Experiential Marketing’s 10-Year Growth Streak ended in 2020. (Cision 2020) Experiential marketing was projected to rebound in 2021 with 6.1% growth rate.  (Cision 2020) 32% of organizations report using in-person events or trade shows as […]

The best content ever written means absolutely nothing if it’s never seen. Search engine optimization (SEO) tools are designed to ensure your hard work gets seen your target audience in the most efficient manner possible. Our blog and SEO team atTrustRadius went through our own buying process for content SEO. We originally used Topic, but they’ve since joined the CafeMedia family. We needed a replacement and realized our buying experience can help other content creators find their best SEO tool. Each of the tools we looked at occupies a different niche and could be right for you depending on what you need in an SEO tool. We will also cover two tools that fall somewhat short, and explain why they may not be ideal for content marketing and production use cases. There’s a wide array of tools out there for blog and marketing content optimization. Some offer simple optimization guides and keyword suggestions and checking, while others can generate content for you. Understanding exactly what you are looking for, your budget, and what your limitations are are key for choosing the right tool.  The SEO tools covered in this piece are: Growth Bar SEO Frase ClearScope Content Harmony Surfer MarketMuse […]

Advertising is one of the most important fields for most commercial companies. The best part of advertising is it’s always changing because people change. Advertising is all about following people, and these past 2 years have been unprecedented for everyone.   Certain areas of marketing have decreased while others have flourished with the pandemic. Below we look at the growth, trends, and major changes in the advertising industry. 12 Noteworthy Advertising Statistics for 2021 In 2020, 70% of all marketers focused their efforts on content marketing (HubSpot, 2020). About 35% of marketers feel it’s integral to analyze the ROI of their campaigns (HubSpot, 2020). In 2020, 52% of marketers relied on attribution reporting (HubSpot, 2020). In 2020, over 75% of consumers participated in an internet activity that was new to them (Qualtrics, 2021). It’s estimated 20% of marketers participated in email marketing automation for their campaigns throughout 2020 (HubSpot, 2020). Ad revenue in 2020 fell to 578 billion USD worldwide, but the market expects 12% growth while recovering from the coronavirus (Statista, 2021).  Digital Advertising is noted to grow by 15.4% for 2021, while print advertising like magazine ads is noted to decline (Statista, 2021). One of the major advertisers on […]

Market segmentation is the art of finding niche markets for your products by building profiles of potential customers and breaking them down into groups. Segmenting customers with similar needs and wants into groups makes it easier to target them directly. Whether you’re a small business or a Fortune 500 company, knowing who your customers are can boost revenue and lead to sustained brand growth.  Marketers can choose from several useful tools and strategies that can help them get to know their customers and keep marketing plans up to date. Segmentation analyses of target markets over time help businesses of all sizes stay ahead of the curve. Here are the four different types of market segmentation and how you can reap the rewards of knowing your target audience. Demographic Segmentation The demographic market segment classifies customers by individual attributes. Examples include age, gender, disposable income, family size, marital status, and education level. All of these stats might impact demand for a product or service.  Interest levels may depend on a variety of different attributes at the same time. Some products may or may not be gender-specific A completely different approach might be needed if you plan to target baby boomers or […]

Building a high-functioning website and collecting customer data is one of the most important things a business does today. An optimized website can: provide valuable company and product information to clients serve as a platform for stories and educational blogs enable ecommerce stores provide users with a personalized experience Though the website serves as a public face for a company, its purpose runs deeper. A website collects vital customer information that can be used for marketing and selling purposes. To collect customer data and to function at full capacity, websites use tags. Whether you are just starting to build a website for your business or have an established site – tags are one of the most important tools to integrate into your site. Tags can be a difficult and complex group of tools to keep in order. Too many tags can clutter a website and result in slower load times. Implementing a tag management strategy is key to making sure tags are performing as they should be and optimizing – rather than slowing down – your site.   Here we take a look at the basics of tag management, why it matters, how it works, examples of popular tags, and some […]

SMS marketing is one of the fastest-growing trends in the modern world. As generations change, more and more interest is garnered for text communication from companies. This report looks at the amazing growth of the new marketing medium, along with it’s pitfalls and triumphs.  Below are statistics meant to give a holistic view of SMS marketing and its importance to businesses and consumers.  10 Major SMS Statistics for 2021 Before the Covid-19 pandemic, 51% of US retailers planned to invest more in SMS marketing, and in 2020 the percentage grew to 56% (eMarketer, 2021). Using texting for B2C customer service is rising, reaching 2.7 trillion in 2020 during th pandemic (eMarketer, 2021). The number of mobile phone users stands at 7.1 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow to 7.4 billion by 2025 (Satista, 2021). To give perspective, there are over 7.7 billion people on earth.  About 96% of marketers claim SMS marketing drives revenue and 60% found SMS marketing greatly improved revenue (Attentive Mobile, 2021). Of the marketers that have not used mobile marketing, around 66% have highly considered or plan to in 2021 (Attentive Mobile, 2021). According to adults that received SMS texts, 29% valued notifications about […]

For entrepreneurs looking to start or grow a small business, having the right marketing tools is necessary for success. Digital marketing tools can level the playing field, allowing upstarts to compete with established players. If you have a limited budget, it’s essential to maximize productivity and keep your overhead low.  By understanding the arsenal of affordable tools available to your brand, you will be able to improve your marketing experience and maximize sales.  3 Fantastic Web Design Tools A website or social media page is a company’s calling card to potential customers. In 2020, around 80% of shoppers reported making online purchases. With the increasing number of resources available for businesses to improve online channels, providing a fantastic buyer experience online has never been more crucial. Web design tools can empower small and mid- sized businesses to optimize their sites and social media. This will help you make them more attractive, competitive, and effective.  Product Price trScore Pros Cons WordPress.org Free, with hosting costs at $46 – $100 per year 8.7/10 Integrated link management,Customizable templates,SEO-friendly permalink structure Number of plugins,Customer support,Learning curve BigCommerce     $30-$300 per month 8.2/10 Integration with marketplaces,Automated inventory management,Dropshipping  High fees,Reporting,Customer support Canva $0-$290 per year  […]

A/B testing tools are a way for companies to make more money by putting forward the best version of their websites, emails, ads (etc.) possible. Testing two designs and seeing which one drives the most traffic allows companies to ensure that the content they put out will result in the most engagement possible.  A/B testing can also help examine user behavior on web pages. With data from A/B testing, companies can determine whether they should stick to the status quo, or if changes couldincrease their conversion rates and engagement. For example, something as simple as a red or green button could make a 21% difference in the number of clicks. Such an increase in clicks on a CTA button is nothing to sneeze at for any business! 9 Essential A/B Testing Statistics Businesses large and small are utilizing A/B testing, and the market is poised for growth. Business Insider predicts that the A/B testing software market will surpass $1.08 billion by 2025. (QY Research 2019) 51% of the top 10,000 sites on the internet were utilizing A/B testing as of October 2021,  (BuiltWith 2021) 27.1% of businesses using A/B tests are using client-side and server-side simultaneously, while 17.8% are running […]

There is no shortage of web conferencing tools out there, but not all are suited for large meetings. A virtual meeting app may work well for chatting with a client but struggle with group meetings of 10 people or more. Thankfully, TrustRadius has thousands of user reviews for different web conferencing options, complete with information about use cases and pros & cons, to help you make this decision.  In this post, we walk through the answers to two important questions to ask when looking for a new web conferencing software: what factors you should consider before investing in a web conferencing platform, and which enterprise web conferencing products are recommended for large meetings.  Factors to Consider for Web Conferencing Software If you need a video meeting app for large conferences, you most likely either manage a large client-facing team or work with a remote workforce. Either way, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. You’ll want to be sure you invest in a web conferencing tool that fits your needs.  These are a few factors to consider when choosing a web conferencing platform: Take time to understand the real cost of each solution.  Some software pricing depends on how the software is hosted, […]

Ecommerce solutions help business owners create their online stores. With the right platform, users can showcase their products and attract more sales. Small businesses should consider the ease of use and price of each platform. Although the products mentioned in this piece share the same purpose, they work best in different circumstances. This piece will give you an overview of the popular eCommerce platforms for small businesses.  Affordable Ecommerce Platforms for Small Businesses Shopify – Web Hosting Shopify is a popular and versatile platform for small businesses. It is extremely user-friendly and offers a wide spread of features. You can customize every aspect of your store with HTML and CSS. Users host their websites on Shopify and have access to a complete blogging platform.  Shopify integrates with over one hundred payment gateways, making it extremely convenient for merchants and customers. You have the option to set up free shipping and determine the price point at which it applies. Shopify is unique because it includes abandoned checkout recovery for all of its subscription levels. It also offers a free SSL certificate, which is designed to protect transaction and credit card information. This platform is essential for conducting business online. Shopify is […]

You need product demo videos to share your vision of your product. You may think your new app is amazing and everyone will love playing it, but that won’t translate with a simple description in the AppStore. Customers need to be shown what’s in your head. That’s how you generate excitement, by sharing how you see your product.  The statistics for viewer engagement are great, and today there are so many mediums to share your video like Facebook, Instagram, and even TikTok.  There is so much for you to consider going into this form of advertising. Who will make this video? And what do you need to make it yourself? The best part of the process is learning there are options for every situation. Small business, low-budget, there are few obstacles in the modern age. Some of the cheapest, shortest videos can drive campaigns.  Overview  Before you get into specifics, make sure to check all prerequisites before video production. Poorly planned videos are a waste of your time, money, and won’t achieve your goals.  Video Goals Are you looking to spread awareness or make sales? Do you have a detailed marketing plan around this video and other advertising? Where are […]

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software can revolutionize how your organization deals with its customers. Many of these game-changing tools are available for free.  Of course, free software has limitations on how many users or features you are allowed, so it’s worth looking into the paid plans. But if you can satisfy your needs with the free software, then you’ve saved a chunk of your budget. Every CRM use case is unique, which means you could find the free software that best fits you.  If you’re actually new to free CRM systems or need a better background, Zoho CRM has a great video explaining how they work. CRM Software  Price  trScore Special Features  Use Case  HubSpot CRM Free – Unlimited Users  8.3/10  Email Marketing, Social Media Engagement, Mobile App for android and iOS, Customization, Single Sign-on, G Suite, Microsoft Office, Third-Party Integrations Small, to medium, and even large businesses. Ideal for remote companies.  Zoho CRM Free – For 3 Users  8.1/10  Email Authentication, Advanced Filters, Page Customization, Mobile App for android and ios, G Suite, Microsoft Office Freelancers growing their enterprise.  Freshdesk CRM Free – Unlimited users 8.4/10  Ticket Creation and Submission, Ticket Response, Help Desk, Customer Portal  Small schools or […]

Higher conversion rates can mean higher sales, traffic, and so much more. Check out these tips on how to improve your conversion rates.