Don’t wait until you urgently need new marketing technology—start the vetting process today.
You know the value of having the right marketing tool in hand to solve a specific problem. While there are thousands of tools out there, marketers usually only need a handful of them.
I have found that as our clients’ marketing needs change and expand, so too should our “toolboxes” of go-to resources. Being ready with a relevant tool is always better than rushing through the research phase.
Maybe your next marketing need will require an email testing and rendering service. Or a spider tool for indexing your website. Regardless of objective, when the need arises it’ll almost certainly be critical and urgent.
That’s why I always maintain a virtual toolbox of digital marketing options I can activate at a moment’s notice. Following are a couple I find myself returning to often.
SurveyMonkey
You already know about this one, either from employing it as a marketer or from using it as a customer yourself. As a brand, SurveyMonkey has a couple things in its favor that competitors lack. One is name recognition; it’s been around for what feels like forever. The other is a nominal reference to primates. I don’t know why, but digital marketing brands love their monkey names. (Is it too soon for a UX-testing app called Harambe-havior 360™?)
Naming aside, SurveyMonkey still offers a pretty solid solution for creating, sharing, and analyzing surveys for just about any purpose. I started using this tool last year for our clients, as well as our own agency strategy. It’s simple to use, offers a slew of options, and the most popular plan runs about $25 a month, a more-than-fair deal.
My niggles with SurveyMonkey are scarce but annoying nonetheless. Namely, the dashboard and editing screens feel outdated compared to modern platforms. And even though there are a lot of features to choose from, menus and settings aren’t organized intuitively. Still, if your survey needs are moderate, this is a safe option to consider. Check out their pricing here.
Eventbrite
Event registration is another one of those things most of us rarely get called on to manage. For me, it wasn’t until last summer when I first needed to set up a customer meeting for one of our clients. We required an easy, turnkey registration system in place, and fast.
I had used Eventbrite in the past as an attendee for events, both personal and professional, so I decided to start there. A few minutes of researching other marketers’ use of the platform made mine an easy decision. I was up and running with something to show for my work in less than 30 minutes (new account and all).
There are probably dozens of reasons so many organizers like using Eventbrite. If I had to guess what the key motivator is, I’d go with ease of use. And Eventbrite excels handily at that. I can’t speak to pricing firsthand because so far, all of the events I’ve created and managed for this client are free meetings. Eventbrite doesn’t charge marketers a fee to organize meetings that are free to attend; only if there’s a cost associated with attendees’ tickets. Bonus!
While I really appreciate the layout and user-friendliness of Eventbrite, one word of caution. Consider how promoted (or not promoted) your meeting should be. Eventbrite offers some useful options to get a little bit of free exposure to your event…if you want it. In our case, I’m setting up meetings on behalf of our clients that are open to their customers who register, but not the general public. Eventbrite lets me manage all of those settings—and they’re excellent features—I just need to plan for that in advance.
Why This Matters to You Now
In both of my examples—customer surveys and event registration—I benefitted from already knowing about these two marketing tools when our clients’ needs arose. In both cases, I didn’t have much time to spare, and starting the “shopping” process from scratch would have set me back further.
This is why I continually “bank up” good digital marketing tools. I don’t need to talk with every vendor who cold calls me. But I keep contact pricing info handy for the worthwhile ones. I’ve found it also helps to have a bookmark folder in my browser where I can save promising options to check out later.
You may not need marketing automation or a landing page builder this week. But when you do need one of these platforms, having a vetted lead at the ready will be a lifesaver…for you and your customers.