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Expert Answers to Biz Questions Listen in! Pick up some expert advice to a reader's question that we selected from CyberSchmooz. 5 Industry Standard Marketing Technologies That Are Worth The Investment   Marketing is all about technology. Some of the technology we once thought would change marketing forever has had little impact, while machine learning and artificial intelligence coupled with big data are changing the game.   There are tools and technologies essential to any marketing plan, but there are a few that are worth the investment. Many of these tools offer monthly subscriptions you can cancel anytime and pay using your business credit card so you can try them before you commit to the long term.   Others are even free or offer annual subscriptions that will save you money once you have determined the right tool for you and your business.   Here are five of the industry standard marketing technologies worth the investment:     1.     Analytics   The most popular tool for analytics is the free Google Analytics, which is used on over 80% of all small business websites. This tool lets you see the number of your site visitors, and a great deal of information about them, including how long they spent on each web page and how they moved through your website.   The key to analytics is not gathering the data: that part is easy, and many of the tools listed below have their own analytics. The key is having people on your marketing team who know how to read analytics and know what to do with that data.   At some point, you may find that you need the more robust paid version of Google Analytics, or a more comprehensive enterprise type tool like Adobe Analytics.   2. Conversion Optimization   This is the practice of getting visitors to your website, blog, or landing pages to do whatever you want them to do more often. Users who visit from a web ad typically convert at a rate of around 3%. With the right tools, you can easily double this or more.   Top tools include:   Landing Page Grader Optimizely Unbounce   Try each of them to see what works best for you and has the best conversion results.   3. Email   Email marketing is, of course, the giant of marketing technology. Developing a solid email list and sending out regular emails that resonate with your customers is still one of the keys to successful marketing, and one of the most cost-effective.   MailChimp and Constant Contacts are two of the most prominent tools, but many marketing automation tools have their own email programs as well. The key is that you are finding people who are interested in what you have to offer and only sending them valuable information that fits their interests. What you are not doing is buying lists that are also being sold to your competition, and spamming subscribers.   4. Remarketing   Remarketing happens when you visit a site, and then you go to another site like Facebook or even another website, and you see ads for the site you just visited. This is easy for you as a brand to set up, and it is inexpensive. The reason is that you usually pay by the cost per one thousand impressions, or CPM (cost per mille). Remarketing can allow you get a lot of exposure for a small investment. Some of the leading tools are:   Google AdWords Remarketing AdRoll Perfect Audience   One wrench in this method is the new update to Apple’s browser, Safari. Users can opt to prevent cross-site promotions (essentially remarketing). Google and other vendors are working on a solution to this that still will not violate user privacy.   5. Marketing Automation   Marketing automation brings many features together in one package. It often includes analytics, online forms, tracking user behavior on your site, web personalization, email campaigns, integrating information from your CRM and more. There could be an entire article on this technology alone.   There are several tools for mid to enterprise level businesses that work well:   Small to Medium:   Hub Spot ActOn InfusionSoft   Medium and Larger:   Marketo Adobe Campaign Oracle Eloqua Silverpop   Note that one of the keys to all these things is content. Content is still king in the marketing world. However, the user is the queen and user experience matters. This means the content you provide needs to be excellent. That alone can help your conversion rates, inform your email campaigns, and give your marketing automation software something to work with.   If you are not an expert at creating content, you may want to hire a content strategist as a consultant, at least to get you started. Content is the currency of marketing today, and the way to judge if it is good enough is to ask yourself, “Would your customer thank you for that content?” If the answer is no, consider revising it.   There is a lot of marketing technology and a lot of buzz about each different type but these five examples are technologies well worth the investment.   Did you find this article helpful and informative? Leave us a comment with your thoughts in the section below. 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