Marketing Tools

Whether you are an early technology adopter or not, there is no denying that the careful application of certain technology tools can help you more effectively automate your marketing processes.

Automation allows you to contact more clients and prospects more frequently with less work - all good things. The following is a list and brief description of my Top 10 Marketing Automation tools.

1. AWeber - This is a service that allows me to automatically manage my email database, send auto responses to requests and send this newsletter. There are many choices for this type of service but AWeber is the best.
2. TypePad - This is a hosted blog software that is simple to use but very powerful. With a Pro account you can set-up as many blogs as you wish. Blogs are great but what about using the technology as a client portal. You can password protect a TypePad blog and use it to share information and files with clients.
3. AudioGenerator - Publish audio content to your website. Create audio testimonials. All you do is call a phone number, record your message like voicemail and pick-up the code to put the audio on your web site. This is a great way to get audio testimonials from clients.
4. Feedburner - This is a service use to extend the power your RSS feeds. Feedburner makes the feed compatible with any reader, gives tools to promote subscriptions and even automatically alerts the major blog and RSS directories every time I add new content to my blog.
5. Google News Alerts - Type in as many search terms as you like, even your name and your company name, and Google will deliver an email alert of any mention of your search terms in the Internet new wires. This can be a great way to track some of your own PR and and keep tabs on competitors and industry trends.
6. BlinkList - Your surfing around the Internet and you come upon a web site that you want to remember. Hit a button and add the site to a BlinkList folder. The service is free and allows you to create and store web page URL's in a way that you can access them at a later date. This is a great research tool. An added benefit of this online service is that you can publish your lists as RSS feeds. Surf around and find lots of great resources that relate to your business and with one line of code you can paste this list on a web page. When you change the list, it automatically updates on your site.
7. Submit Your Article - This service allows you to submit up to four articles each month and then distributes the articles to hundreds of web sites, article directories and ezine publishers. There is a charge for this service, but it is well worth the exposure and traffic you will gain from consistent use.
8. PRLeads - Dan Janal's PR Leads service sends you leads from reporters who are working stories that relate to your business or expertise. Several times a day you will receive an email with contact information of reporters who are requesting information. This service has led to several major PR mentions for me including two appearances in Entrepreneur magazine.
9. PRWeb - A free press release distribution service. This service allows you to post press releases and see them automatically distributed around the Internet. For a $30 donation you also get inclusion in Google and Yahoo news. With the amount of sites that republish those news feeds you get great exposure whether a reporter calls or not.
10. ACT - This customer relationship management software allows you to keep detailed information on clients and prospects as well as keeping tabs on mailings and lead generation campaigns. Add a new contact and you can set-up ACT to alert you to mail the new contact series of letters automatically.