Next Level Organic Marketing: Cutting Edge Marketing Tools to Slice Through the Noise
If your business is growing, you are most likely doing something right when it comes to marketing. You have your marketing automation and weekly blog posts down, your social media posts are all duly scheduled, and your PPC ads are set in place.
But where do you go from there? Soon enough, you may be scraping the bottom of the barrel unless you are willing to invest in cutting-edge marketing tools that can bring your brand deeper into organic marketing. It is time to take your digital marketing to the next level.
“Creating content is not enough. Rather, you need advanced strategies rooted in your objectives so that you can engage and persuade today’s social readers.”
Instead of investing more money in paid traffic, it’s time to make your content feel more organic for your audience. This article takes a deep dive into two more advanced marketing tools that the most successful brands use to make more intelligent campaign strategies: predictive analytics and A/B testing.
Adam Wagner, Chief Strategy Officer at branding and advertising firm Raindrop, doubles down on the importance of finding organic ways to reach your audience. They tend to find warmer leads in your target audience. “Do the things at the bottom of the funnel really well before moving up the funnel into paid advertising,” Wagner writes at Forbes. “You’ll get an immediate return with long-term dividends.”
This way, instead of spending on marketing ad space you can invest in marketing tools that get you closer to already warm leads. These are some of the more advanced efforts that will get you there.
Getting Big With Data: Predictive Analytics
Predictive Analytics software helps business teams, banks, governments, insurance companies, and more make informed decisions about the future based on data from the past. Using massive sets of data, AI, and statistics, predictive analytics solutions find patterns, risks, and opportunities based on previous consumer behavior.
Because Predictive analytics is one of the most common enterprise applications of machine learning, they are often understood to mean the same thing. While it’s true that machine learning is an excellent means of forming predictions from data, machine learning is a much broader domain than predictive analytics. It encompasses things that fall outside the remit of predictive analytics like facial recognition and natural language processing.
The benefits of predictive analytics across industries is powerful. This analytic strategy can help organizations detect fraud, improve customer relationships, increase sells, forecasting, improve hiring practices, and lower risks.
One survey found that more than 86% of executives who have used predictive analytics for at least 2 years have seen increased ROI. Only 5% did not.
Uses for Predictive Analytics
Predictive analytics are used across industries and can be used for many different purposes. Here are some of the teams who use predictive analytics and how:
- Marketing and Sales: You can calculate the potential lifelong spending of a customer, predict what they might buy next, or learn how to attract their attention in your marketing materials.
- HR: Intelligent recruitment, sourcing, and more successful hiring
- Operations Management: Inventory predictions, price point suggestions, resource management, machine maintenance, etc.
- Banking and Financial Services: Credit scores, reduce and detect fraud, customer management, cross-sell/up-sell opportunities
Predictive analytics is important for a growing company, but not everybody is ready to jump in. Companies considering predictive analytic technology should first consider why they want to use this type of solution, what their goals and desired outcomes are, the cost the software, and a plan to hire trained personnel who can translate the analytical insights into actions.
Also, consider the challenges. Many report that finding and integrating the data to make predictive analytics run can be difficult. Others say that predictive analytics is not the same as prescriptive. You must have someone who can understand this data well and explain how that will affect day-to-day operations.
Predictive Analytics Tools to Consider
Here is a list of Trust Radius’s Top Rated tools for Predictive Analytics:
- KNIME Analytics Platform is a big data, open-source platform for developing data science applications and services.
- Anaconda is a python data science platform that integrates data sources, streamlines science workflows, and encourages collaboration among all team members at enterprise levels.
- RStudio is a free open source data analysis software that makes R easier to use for enterprises.
- Alteryx Analytics is a predictive analytics solution where you can discover, prepare, analyze, and use your data.
- RapidMiner Studio is a data-science software that works across industries to drive revenue, improve efficiency, and cut-down on risk.
Finding the Best Version of You: A/B Testing
A/B testing (or split testing) tests multiple versions of a page to see which converts more visitors. For example, a site will have two versions with some slightly different marketing. After half of the visitors see one version and half see the second version, the conversion rate is calculated. Whichever site converted visitors to subscribers, customers, or ad-clickers wins.
Almost any content, calls to action, buttons, or links can be tested through A/B testing. The goal is to see which alterations makes for the most optimized websites possible.
The main benefit is that testing allows businesses to improve their product and increase revenue. The ROI of A/B testing is generally more significant than attracting paid traffic. Also, instead of relying on an executive’s stylistic preference, teams can see what works objectively. This creates better results and decreases conflicts among staff.
A/B testing can also show which changes convert different demographics. New customers often will have a different reaction to a certain version of a page than returning customers. Returning customers typically don’t appreciate changes to something they are familiar with.
Other demographics, such as location, language, or user persona, can be tested as well. This can be a helpful tool for sites that utilize personalization.
When to Use and What A/B Testing Tools to Consider
The benefits are clear yet many businesses neglect to analyze potential improvements to their sites. Many executives wonder when A/B testing is actually worth the investment and time.
The answer is: it depends. Many digital marketing influencers differ on this question. Neil Patel claims that sites must have at least 1,000 monthly conversions before A/B testing becomes worth it. Growthrock, an A/B testing solution for e-commerce sites, says that businesses should roughly have at least $2,000,000 in revenue and at least 100,000 visitors to their site each month.
A/B testing can be a powerful tool for enterprises to yield more conversions and stay cutting edge with their competitors. If you are ready to take the leap, here are Trust Radius’s Top Rated A/B testing tools to consider:
- Evergage is a real-time personalization and customer data platform that features A/B testing to optimize 1:1 personalized experiences.
- Kameleoon is an A/B testing and optimization solution that offers personalization at scale.
- AB Tasty is an all-in-one conversion optimization platform that uses A/B testing to build better performing websites easily.
- Monetate is a customer experience optimization platform featuring A/B testing, 1:1 personalization, and trigger product recommendations.
- Qubit is a personalization software that uses A/B testing to build sites that delight customers and encourage more spending.
Getting a Jump on Advanced Marketing Efforts
If your business is ready to ramp up marketing efforts, don’t jump into a new campaign based on what your boss thinks looks good. Instead, you can take an informed approach to your content marketing efforts and website renovations based on data and analytics.
Gather the evidence you need and implement a strategic plan with tools like predictive analytics and A/B testing. There are other tools that you could benefit from as well, like mobile testing and optimization and audience segmentation.
If you’re still not sure which advanced marketing tool will work best for your team or growing business, you can jump deeper into research by reading customer reviews. Honest reviews will give you the detailed insight you need on these advanced marketing tools to get an educated start.