The world has become a global village thanks to technology and business that really wants to succeed beyond its immediate environment needs to have online visibility. There are many platforms online and software that one can use to boost brand visibility and in turn drive sales.
Resources such as funnel builders and marketing platforms are very crucial for business success in this digital age. Marketing platforms help businesses to locate their target audience and make their brand attractive to them. Sales funnels on the other hand help businesses to build lasting relationships with customers who already know their brands and convert them to loyal customers.
Seeing as there are many of these resources, entrepreneurs might have difficulty choosing the best one for them. For example, a business owner might be caught between Clickfunnels vs Gohighlevel or GetResponse vs ActiveCampaign or Kartra vs Kajabi. The list keeps growing by the day so the issue is ‘how do you make the right choice?
In this article, we look at the major factors to consider as you navigate the decision making process for this crucial resource for your business. You need to choose the best one that will maximize sales and help your brand grow and succeed. So stay with us …
Tips for Choosing the Best Marketing Platform or Software
Like we already mentioned you need a product that will enhance your online visibility and boost sales. This has different implications for different businesses. Sometimes entrepreneurs fail to identify their niche and speciality. You may be in the same industry with another company but your target audience are different.
You need to know whether you are a B2B or a B2C company. Do you deal directly with clients or you deal with other businesses? There are also some companies that deal with both clients and businesses. For example, an event planning company deals directly with both clients and other businesses.
Based on this major factor, you may already see the factors that will affect the kind of platform or software you will choose. Find below some of the factors to consider:-
The Peculiar Needs of the Organization
The first major step in your decision making process is to understand what your organization needs. What are the objectives of your organization and your sales target? Who is your market demographic? What are their shopping preferences and habits? When you are clear on these issues, you will know whether you need CRM software (Customer Relationship Management) or an E-commerce platform or both.
Additionally, you will be able to choose the best platform that aligns with the shopping habits of your target demographic. This will ensure that you get maximum user experience and thus increased sales.
Functionality and Features
It is very important to look at the features that the platform offers (that is if you determined that you need an e-commerce platform). Compare these across different platforms to be sure that it has the capacity to contain your product catalogue and also carry the volume of sales that you expect. These features include the way products are listed, the chopping cart and means of payment (how secured are they?).
Another issue to look at here is the integration of Customer Relationship Management. This is one factor that cannot be overlooked if this is priority for your organization. You have to look for and choose software that can seamless integrate with standard CRM systems. This will help to enhance the centralization of the management of customer data and also personalization of marketing campaigns.
Visit this site: https://www.infoentrepreneurs.org/ for more information on the importance of Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
User-friendliness
Any platform or software that doesn’t have intuitive interface is not really of any great use. You need a platform or software that can easily be navigated by staff and customers. This helps to reduce complications in sales processes. Additionally, customers prefer to visit such platforms and even become loyal customers.
Another thing to consider in this regard is how compatible it is to mobile devices. This is very important and a great percentage of people use their mobile devices for almost all their transactions. So to get a big slice of the market pie, you need to ensure that whatever software or platform you choose is mobile compatible.
Customization and Scalability
Look out for software and platforms that allows for customization as this will let you create user experiences that are unique to your brand. Additionally, the flexibility will allow you customize different branding elements, themes and templates so that your store brand can appeal to your target audience.
The desire of every organization is to grow; therefore you must ensure that the product you choose is one that is scalable. The right product must allow you to expand to other niches in your industry, add new products and deal with increased traffic seamlessly.
Compliance to Security Standards
We all agree that online/data security is a big deal to everyone who conducts any form of business online. This therefore means that you should only consider products that take data security very serious; in fact it must be their priority. Additionally, the software or platform must be seen to be actively compliant with the safety regulations of the industry.
Look out for brands that have features such as PCI compliance, SSL encryption and other measure to prevent fraud and safeguard customer data and transaction. In addition, check out GDPR compliance especially if you have EU customers or deal with data of EU residents or citizens. This is even more important if your business is based in an EU member country. Click here for tips on how to shop safely online.
Conclusion
You would notice that this article is not about any particular platform or marketing software but about knowing the important things to consider and look out for as you shop for the brand to use. The reason for this approach is because no two businesses are the same but the principles of success are. So if you get it right at this point, you will be able to choose the best product that will work for you.
While at it, do not forget to look for a brand that will offer you continued after sales support and training, update you with training resources and fit into your budget and give you great ROI.
