So we decided to speak to a number of SMB owners and employees about their biggest timesaps at work and what tools they’re using to streamline the more manual side of their business.

In each section, we’ll give a bit of a rundown of why the software’s so good, how much it costs (almost all of them come with a free trial or free option), how much time it’s likely to save you, and a quote from an SMB owner/employee about why they like it so much.

Quickbooks – Finance & Bookkeeping

“I used Quickbooks when I first started my company on the advice of an accountant friend who said I would be thankful I started tracking all of my finances come tax time, and he was absolutely right. 

“Startup businesses would do well not to neglect accounting software from the get-go, because expenses and revenue can become a nightmare to keep track of once your business really hits its stride.”

Trevor Larson, CEO at Nectar

Quickbooks has rapidly become the go-to place for SMBs and sole traders to manage their finances.

The reason is that it lets you manage pretty much anything from a financial perspective – expenses, payslips and pensions, taxes, while it also integrates with your bank and business apps.

For those who struggle with their bookkeeping or want an easier way to do it, this piece of software is a must.

Price: From $7.50 per month

Estimated Time Saving: 8 hours a month (per website)

HR Locker – Recruitment & HR

“The benefits of this product are amazing for me. I can now run reports at the touch of a button and don’t have to use lots of excel sheets, which I was previously using.  I love the help function. I could go on and on about my plans for the usage.”

Anita Walsh, Head of People at Ward Solutions

There are a lot of HR tools out there (we’ve been through a lot of them at Adzooma!), but from our experience nothing comes close to HR Locker.

From managing staff’s time to getting a handle on recruitment, HR Locker is a great all in one software.

HR fundamentals, recruitment and onboarding, staff development and happiness, performance management, and more, HR Locker has it all in its… locker (sorry).

Price: Free for > 4 employees per month, $3.50 per additional employee

Estimated Time Saving: 90% of your time (per website)

Monday.com – Project Management

“Monday.com is an incredibly effective tool that helps our team to streamline and tackle projects as they come. Their social media managing feature has been a game-changer for us!”

Christian Adams, Co-Founder at Coffee Affection

Whether you’re a plumbing business or a digital marketing business, managing your projects and tasks isn’t easy. 

But that’s where Monday.com comes in, as it allows you to easily build, run and scale your workflows in one beautifully designed platform.

Project management platforms are another thing we’ve been through a lot at Adzooma, but Monday.com is by far our favorite. That’s almost entirely down to the stunningly intuitive interface which almost makes project management seem fun (or at least a lot more fun than it used to be). 

Price: Free for up to 2 users. $8 per user after that

Estimated Time Saving: Not stated

Hubspot – Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

“Among all CRMs I have tried, HubSpot has a friendly user-interface that allows new users to easily navigate the software. 

“What I like most about it is how I can jump from creating a sales funnel to creating email campaigns and landing pages in a short amount of time. It is innovative, and just the right software SMBs need to grow their business.”

Nate Tsang, CEO of WallStreetZen

Hubspot is one of the most respectable software companies out there and for good reason, because the products they offer are nothing short of outstanding.

Live chat integrations, customer service ticketing software, email marketing templates, call recording; if you’re looking for a piece of software that can help with every touch point of your CRM journey then you can’t look beyond Hubspot.

From marketing to sales, operations to customer service, Hubspot has all the tools to help keep your current customers happy and get new ones through the door.

Price: Number of free tools. Bundles start from $45 per month

Estimated Time Saving: 250 hours a year (per case study)

Survey Sparrow – Experience Management 

“We have been very satisfied with SurveySparrow and their customer support. The survey platform has helped us to gather user feedback in a very efficient way and their customer support has been very helpful and fast with any questions or problems.”

Jaako Jalkanen, Business Manager at Brella

Now, compared to some of the others on this list Survey Sparrow may seem a little bit basic, but the word I’d use is specialist.

Because what Survey Sparrow concentrates on is delivering on customer feedback, and the way it does this is by making sure you can be present with your feedback across a whole range of touchpoints – email, QR code, web link, chatbots, embeds, SMS, etc.

We all know how important getting feedback is, whether it’s for your product/service, your website, your marketing, or for something else, Survey Sparrow does this better than anyone whether you’re looking for customer reviews or conducting consumer research.

Price: Free

Estimated Time Saving: Not stated

Shopify – eCommerce

“We’ve been able to build something in 3 years that a lot of brands haven’t actually gotten to in 10 years. 

“You don’t need to go into debt trying to launch your brand.”

Chimo Ngwudo, Owner of Cee Cee’s Closet

If you’re a company that sells products online then Shopify is your Holy Grail.

Why? Because it offers everything you need, from building your website to processing payments, from managing orders to marketing your business. And it makes all of this so easy too.

Shopify is King for eCommerce businesses, it’s used by nearly 2 million businesses worldwide and over $200 billion has been made in sales through the platform. Honestly, it’s just magnificent.  

Price: 14 day free trial, then from $29 per month 

Estimated Time Saving: Not stated

SEMrush – Digital Marketing

“I’m a small business owner, and SEMrush is what helps me compete with larger firms while sticking to my smaller budget. 

“I have a marketing background, so I want to handle as much in-house as I can, and SEMrush makes all of it easy, especially with all of the new features that are constantly being released.”

Bryce Walker, CEO of CPA Exam Guy

So far we’ve concentrated mostly on the day-to-day running of your business, but now I think it’s time to concentrate on the marketing. 

SEMrush is the ultimate platform for SMBs looking to take a data-led approach to their digital marketing because quite simply, it is a treasure trove full of data.

Whether you’re looking for how many people search for the products you sell on Google every month or you want to know how much search engine traffic your competitor is receiving, SEMrush will be on hand to help. Quite simply, it’s the ultimate tool to help you plan and monitor your online marketing strategy.

Price: Free Trial, then from $199.50 per month

Estimated Time Saving: Not stated

Adzooma – Paid Marketing

“Adzooma is a phenomenal platform that can really be able to save you time and resources, evaluate what is performing and what is not performing, giving you the right suggestions. 

“With the help of Adzooma, I feel like I have a team backing me to make educated decisions to build a strong campaign.”

Alejandra Perdomo, Digital Marketing Manager at Flooret

For those managing paid ads on Google, Microsoft, or Facebook, there is no time-saving platform out there like Adzooma.

Adzooma takes all the manual side out of paid ad management and turns all the overwhelming data into bite-size chunks of information – which you can then action with just a single click. Certain ads wasting money? Adzooma will tell you that and you can sort it out right away.

Adzooma has over 50+ single-click optimizations to help you with your day-to-day work, plus there’s in-built reporting, automation, and SEO capabilities built-in on top. Adzooma really is a no-brainer.

Price: Free

Estimated Time Saving: A day a week (per case study)

AWeber – Email Marketing

“I use Aweber for all my email marketing needs and refer it to all my clients and students. I love their customer support, the ease of using their drag and drop campaign builder, the unlimited emails and their deliverability rates.”

Trent Jessee, Founder of Watchman Advisors

Email Marketing is a crucial weapon in an SMB’s armory and is something that needs to be deployed with poise and quality. We’ve been through a lot of different email marketing platforms at Adzooma, and AWeber is definitely something to help you with both.

Drag and drop editor, pre-built templates, automation, sequences, sales tracking; AWeber contains everything you come to expect from an email marketing platform in 2021, but more than that, it also offers great landing page capabilities and a host of opportunities for ecommerce companies too.

For those looking to get into email marketing for the first time, or looking for an upgrade on their current platform, AWeber is the choice for you.

Price: Free for up to 500 subscribers, $26.15 per month up to 2,000

Estimated Time Saving: Not stated

Crowdfire – Social Media Management

“I have used Crowdfire since my initial days as a Digital Marketer. Since it is browser-friendly, it is possible to track all the social media mentions and manage posts from the browser itself. 

“It also offers automatic analytics updates weekly which is useful in understanding the social media audience reach and compare it across the platforms. Crowdfire doesn’t have any content limitations, unlike other social media management tools.”

Nathan Hughes, SEO Manager at Diggity Marketing

In 2021, it’s crucially important to have a presence on social media. Even if you’re not super busy, it does a lot for your credibility just to have a profile to make you look legitimate.

But social media management can be a timesap, so that’s why using something like Crowdfire is great because it allows you to manage your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram pages all from the same place. 

From there you can also schedule posts, receive recommended content to post, analyze your competitors, and more. It’s a great way to make social media management a breeze.

Price: Free

Estimated Time Saving: 30 minutes a day (per case study)

Why Productivity Tools?

Productivity tools come in all shapes and sizes, and what’s great about most on this list is that they almost always come with a free trial or freemium option.

Now, tech truly is starting to really take over – from the stock market to how we spend our downtime – it means that the tools that are becoming accessible to SMBs are just getting better and better.

The technology is being taken to new heights, and that’s what you see with the tools on this list. From helping your day-to-day project management to helping you manage your paid advertising, every single part of your working life can be transformed by productivity tools.

Try them out, if they’re not for you, they’re not for you. 

But with more tools popping every single day, there’s definitely going to be a tool that will solve a huge problem for you in the future.

But how does one go about achieving this? It’s a good question, and one that we’re going to answer in this helpful guide to attracting and nurturing as many leads as possible in the new year.

1. Integrate SEO into your site marketing

A study in 2019 by the Small Business Administration (SBA) revealed that as much as 36% of small businesses did not have a website. That statistic alone is crazy when you consider the importance of your web presence in the digital age.

Just think, whenever you consider paying for a service or buying a product, the first thing you do is check out the company’s website to establish if it’s a worthy investment.

But you don’t have that problem; you’re a business owner who recognises the value of a website, right?

So, the next step is to ensure that the site is working hard to secure the sale, generating as high a conversion rate as possible — which of course is where SEO comes into play.

SEO stands for ‘Search Engine Optimisation’. It’s an essential aspect of modern marketing and consists of a variety of methods used to increase your visibility and ranking on search engine results pages (SERP).

For these reasons, it’s become one of the most sought after online marketing services for modern businesses. By optimising your website for SEO, when your potential customers search for queries relating to your industry online, your website will appear quicker (hopefully on the first page) and offer them the solution they need.

By making it easier to stumble upon your website, you not only increase your visibility online, but also secure more opportunities to generate leads. To find out more about optimising your website, check out this helpful guide by Moz.

Another way to integrate SEO into your business is by using Adzooma’s SEO Performance Report. The report will analyse your website and identify immediate actions you can take to improve.

The SEO Performance report will give you the tools to: 

• Get ahead of your competitors by finding keywords they’re missing 
• Increase conversions by improving on-site user experience 
• Compliment your campaigns with more organic traffic

The report is available to all Adzooma users, try the basic version for free to get a taste of what this report can offer. Not an Adzooma user? Sign up for free, here.

2. Use marketing automation

We live in an era where, thanks to the advances in technology, automation is becoming more prominent in a vast range of industries —  and marketing is no different.

Today, businesses benefit massively from automated lead generation software. With this software, when a potential customer interacts with your company (such as signing up to a newsletter or requesting a quote), it triggers an automated process, which provides you with the means to nurture leads with targeted marketing resources — but we’ll get to that later.

Automated lead generation is among the most effective online marketing services, as it offers a more streamlined yet highly-effective lead generation tool. Below, we’ll highlight a few of the most useful marketing automation tools.

Email automation

Email marketing automation allows you to maintain contact with potential customers, which helps to keep them engaged and more likely to purchase from you. It also lessens the risk of a competitor making the sale before you do.

Writing and sending multiple emails takes a lot of time as it is; even more so when they need to customised for each prospect. Thankfully, with automated email marketing software, you’ll have more free time to focus on other crucial areas of your business while generating leads at the same time — it’s a win-win. Here are some email marketing tools that you can use:

• SendFox
• Moosend
• Snovio
• Aweber
• Reply

With an automated email marketing campaign in place, you can distribute pieces of content that inform, engage and drive your potential customers down the sales funnel (otherwise known as ‘lead magnets’). But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves here; we’ll discuss email nurturing a little later!

Facebook automated marketing

Facebook is nothing short of a social media phenomenon, and also happens to be one of the most efficient methods of marketing your business. The platform provides marketers with an abundance of information about prospects, such as their location, gender and interests, as well as specific Facebook groups they’re part of, making it the perfect platform for automated marketing.

If you are looking for a way to increase the output and reach of your marketing campaign, automation with Facebook is a brilliant way to increase engagement as well as brand awareness.

When marketing with Facebook, it’s crucial to create ads that inform and engage customers while avoiding content that may disrupt their feed.

It’s easy for a customer to be put off by ads that feel intrusive or out of place on their timelines, which is why the initial steps of automated marketing, such as creating personas, will give you a more precise understanding of your audience and their needs.

Social media is arguably the most powerful marketing tool available, which makes automated online marketing services so essential to ensure success for modern companies.

LinkedIn automated marketing

LinkedIn is a social media platform for professionals in every industry, and it’s also another resource that can be turned into a lead generation tool with the help of automated marketing software. Creating targeted lead generation ads based on LinkedIn activity, profile information, and interactions is a brilliant way to capitalise on such a broad audience.

From a sales prospecting point of view, you could also use LinkedIn automation to extract your contacts data and export the leads to a CRM.

If you want to set up your own LinkedIn lead generation campaign, Hubspot has put together a brilliant guide to help!

3. Nurture your email list

Email nurturing is a marketing strategy that utilises personalised content as a way to connect and develop stronger relationships with potential customers, and eventually convert leads into sales.

The key to a successful email nurturing campaign is getting to know your audience, which is why it’s vital to craft personas that represent your ideal or most common customers. With these personas in mind, you’ll have a blueprint for the style and tone of content best suited to your potential leads.

From here, you can begin to create emails that are tailored to the needs of each persona and distribute them. As an example, let’s use a four-week quote-to-sale email nurturing process:

• Email 1: Your first email will be the response to initial customer interaction. In this case, let’s say it’s a customer who has requested a quote. This first message will be a brief, yet conversational email that highlights the benefits of the service, provides the quote and explains the next step towards purchase.
• Email 2: One week later, your potential customer will receive an informative piece of content which offers a more in-depth insight into why they need your product/service and how it will improve their business/life. The goal here is to inform, and avoid being too pushy with your sales tactic. By educating the reader about the benefits of making the purchase, you’re not telling them to buy — they decide for themselves. 
• Email 3: The next email you send has to offer something of value and genuinely entice the reader to engage. This is where your personas will prove to be vital. For example, if your audience is small business owners, how can you help them? Will your service allow them to grow their business? Will it provide them with free time to focus on other aspects of their company? Identifying the goals and aspirations of your audience will ensure that your targeted content hits the mark.
• Email 4: This is where you revisit the quote in a brief message that reminds them that they were interested enough to request a quote, but are yet to follow up. This, combined with the previous informative and engaging emails, will offer food for thought and serve as a reminder of why they need your product/service in their life. If you want to increase your chances of making the sale, you could even include a small percentage discount code. Everyone loves a bargain! 

Every email nurturing campaign is different, and will vary in regards to the timeframe, style of content and also the general approach you need to adopt. The example above is a shorter email nurturing process, as it’s vital to strike while the iron is hot.

The customer has requested a quote, and there’s a small window of opportunity to ensure that it’s you, and not a competitor, that they commit to. Therefore, it’s critical for you to identify the best approach for your particular needs and the needs of your customers.

If you have an in-house marketing team who can craft a targeted email nurturing campaign for you, fantastic! If not, you may want to seek guidance from a professional digital marketing agency that specialises in this area, and has experience working closely with businesses across many different industries.

Let The Brains take care of your lead gen!

The Brains helps its clients generate high quality leads using online advertising, marketing automation and creative content. Having worked with ambitious businesses such as DHL, McDonald’s, and Corgi and been featured on the BBC, The Brains has what it takes to turn leads into conversions for your business.

Find out more about The Brains on Adzooma Marketplace.

There are several ways to optimise these. Your email campaigns need to carefully planned. If you need assistance, professional copywriters can help you write an eye-catching subject line, preheader text, email marketing copy, and preview text.

To achieve the maximum email marketing ROI, you must boost your email marketing strategy. Here are 8 top email marketing tips.

1. Personalise your emails

Email campaigns should be made personal wherever possible. There are email tools you can use which enable you to enter shortcodes that will automatically be replaced with each individual recipient’s name. Include a real person’s name as the sender as well, this will add a further personal touch to the email.

The name and subject line is the first thing the reader will see and what convinces them to actually open the email. By using an email address with a person’s name, followed by your company’s name is a way to appear both welcoming and legitimate. Include your recipient’s name in the body of the email where possible as well.

2. Keep them short

It’s not only about enticing your readers to open the email, but you’ve also got to keep them interested once they read it. Email marketing copy can make or break your campaign in the body of the email just as easily as in the subject line. You need to keep your emails short, snappy, and easy to follow.

The last thing you want to do is waste your reader’s time or confuse them. Keep your reader’s attention by being concise and to the point. Set yourself a word limit each time, use bullet points, and only a single call to action (CTA). Don’t divert their attention with too many bells and whistles.

3. Know your audience

Email marketing ROI is directly related to how well you manage to engage your audience. In order to reach out to them effectively, you’ve got to know your audience. Think about buyer personas and the language associated with these, for example, certain vernacular. Also, think about your brand’s tone of voice.

Brainstorm the hobbies and interests of your target audience and even their typical daily routine. This way you’ll be able to come up with more appealing ways to communicate to them. Collect data to analyse your audience and which strategies work best in order to reach out to them.

4. Send regular emails

Consistency is an important part of your email marketing strategy. It’s a good idea to send regular emails. You might think it’s irritating for customers but actually receiving regular emails has been shown to more effective.

You will create consistency and brand recognition. Your recipients are either previous customers or potential customers who have willingly subscribed to your mailing list, so don’t worry about appearing as spammy.

Your competitors will be forgotten if they aren’t as consistent, so by regularly showing up, you’ll be able to draw in more business eventually.

5. Keep them out of the spam folder

Email marketing campaigns can sometimes be identified as spam and there are certain tricks email copywriters use to avoid this. Try not to “shout” by using too many capital letters, especially in your subject line.

This is a key trait of spam emails. It’s also important to ensure your emails are opened and read as often as possible. This is actually linked to whether or not they are seen as legitimate.

Focus on keeping them out of the spam folder by learning how to engage with your audience.

6. Think about the subject line

Your subject line is important often it’s the first thing your readers will see. You’ve got to find a way to draw your potential customer’s interest with this one single line.

This means making it clear and concise and delivering the necessary information in a few words. You could try little tricks like adding emojis to make it stand out from the rest of their emails, or use a cliffhanger. The reader needs to see that your subject line matches your name and what you’re offering them.

If you don’t get the subject line right, then there’s a good chance they won’t open and read the rest of the email.

7. Importance of preview text

Preview text allows you to give your reader a snippet of what’s included in your email. This is important because it’s a way to further entice them to open it. Try and write a unique preview text.

You can do this so that it’s hidden in the HTML and won’t appear in the main body of the text when they open and read the email.

What you want is essentially a straightforward teaser, something that gives a good summary of your email’s message, but intrigues the reader to find out more. Use strong action words, or power words, to draw more attention.

8. Entice reader with preheader text

Your preheader text needs to be as enticing as your subject line and preview text. This will increase the chances that your readers will open the email, so don’t neglect this space.

Your preheader text should support your subject line. The preheader text follows on from the subject line in the subject box so it should link in. Its purpose is also to hint further about the content of the email itself.

It’s often the first line of the email in some cases so you want to think about making this clear and concise. Alternatively, add a little bit of text just after the tag in your HTML, to greet your customers.

Email marketing tools

There are a ton of email marketing tools that you can use to create email campaigns easily. Here are our favourites:

• SendPulse
• Moosend
• AWeber
• Snovio
• Woodpecker
• Reply

Further resources

• Top 7 Email Marketing Firms of 2020
• How To Make PPC & Email Marketing Work Together
• A Guide To CRM: The Simple But Effective Way To Manage Your Customers
• 6 Top CRM Agencies in the UK

Email marketing is an effective way to generate interest and awareness in your business. Optimise your email marketing campaigns for the best results.

No matter the size or type of your company, knowing exactly how to sell to your customers during this tough time will help you achieve more success. As the saying goes: you reap what you sow and that’s no different in business.

Here’s how you can be socially conscious when selling through COVID-19, with actionable tips to keep your customers onside.

1. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes

If you don’t know how your customers feel, you aren’t going to be able to sell to them. It really is that simple. People who are deeply affected by the crisis aren’t going to care about your hand-picked bohemian earrings if you’re trying to shove them down their throat like they’re the next best cure. You have to be realistic.

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. For example, if you received an email from a brand trying to sell you some jewellery, would you rather:

1. “Stop stressing today with our beautiful tear-drop two-piece set – perfectly crafted to make you feel better. Buy yours today to make isolation a breeze!”
2. “Want to celebrate your loved one’s birthday while social distancing? We have the perfect gift. Or, if you want to treat yourself once the crisis is over, we’ve got you sorted.”

The first option would probably annoy you because it clearly isn’t true. Yet for some reason, it’s how hundreds of brands are trying to sell their products or services during this time.

To avoid this, you can:

• Imagine every customer is your grandparent. You wouldn’t try and trick them into believing a product or service is essential for them, so you shouldn’t do it to your customers either. By selling to everyone like they are someone you respect and wouldn’t want to be taken advantage of, you will speak in a much softer tone, while still including important details.
• Think about your personal needs. If you don’t think it’s important to order items such as jewellery or clothing during COVID-19, don’t assume your customers will be any different. Write your sales pitch in a way that would be convincing to yourself, and the likelihood is it’ll be much more effective than your usual techniques.
• Address the fact your business isn’t a huge necessity. If this is true, admit it before you sell. You can still highlight the benefits of your business, but this will help you come across much more genuine and show that you understand the effects of the crisis. A brand that has done this particularly well is the personalised gift company, The Book of Everyone, as you can see in their email here:

Better yet, there are several CRM platforms that can help to improve your messaging and scale your lead generation. They’re great for building relationships, analysing key interactions, and putting strategies in place to focus on customer retention.

If you aren’t sure where to look, Adzooma Marketplace can put you in touch with CRM agencies who specialise in these areas.

2. Reevaluate your content

To be socially conscious doesn’t mean to completely get rid of your entire marketing strategy. If you had a plan in place, you can adapt the content you were originally going to publish and turn it into something much more suitable during COVID-19.

A good example to learn from is VSCO, a photography mobile app which recently launched its new video-editing feature “Montage” at the beginning of the crisis. Had COVID-19 never happened, they probably would’ve marketed this as a way to collate and edit your favourite photos and memories in the app, from travelling, special occasions, and more.

However, since it was announced on 22nd March 2020, just two days before the UK went into lockdown, the feature was revealed in a much softer and less promotional tone. The email read:

“Share your perspective with us

As the world slows down, we know that these times can feel difficult and uncertain. And in a small way, we hope our community connects you with others around the world documenting their realities and finding beauty around them.

We also hope that you keep making and sharing your perspective with VSCO Montage, the newest storytelling tool included with membership.”

All three of these points are extremely important: now we’re in a crisis, the things people ‘need’ have quickly turned into luxuries that they can go months without, making it harder than ever for businesses to sell non-essential items. But, when like VSCO, you find a way to sell with compassion, consideration, and understanding, you’ll find people still want to buy from you.

Simply adapting your language also works well, especially if you can use it to fit in with conversations amongst your target market. American brand Anthropologie is a good example of this, keeping their customers engaged through Instagram captions about isolation.

3. Use social media

Blending social media with other marketing channels can really help to drive you more profits, even if you have to step away from the traditional sales techniques you’re used to. Selling doesn’t always mean harsh, straight-to-the-point, and direct promotions, particularly during a crisis.

Social media can have untold benefits for your business. As well as allowing you to promote your products or services without the hassle of PPC advertising (pay-per-click), it gives you the chance to highlight your brand naturally as your posts will be surrounded by other generic content.

The best thing? Techniques like this are made even easier with social media marketing agencies.

Moreover, social platforms are a great way to humanise your brand during COVID-19 by being upfront and honest about the effect it’s having on your business. American television personality, fashion designer, and actress Kristin Cavallari did this excellently, as she promoted a sale for her jewellery brand Uncommon James.

Here’s what she posted on Instagram:

As you can see, she was honest and transparent about her motivations rather than trying to flog her jewellery because she wanted money, which proved she isn’t going to hide behind her impressive following to dilute the impact of the crisis. The fast-paced nature of social media would’ve also spread this message far and wide, making it much more effective than some cold telephone calls.

If your brand or existing social media persona doesn’t really suit this type of content, increasing brand awareness during the crisis will lead to an increase in sales when COVID-19 passes. Some great examples include:

• McDonalds Brazil running an ad showing its iconic golden arches separated to indicate social distancing
• Nike launching a campaign encouraging people to ‘play inside’, with the line “If you’ve ever dreamed of playing for millions around the world, now is your chance.”

To figure out which platforms are worth advertising on during this period, there are useful resources online that break down discussions about COVID-19 and note which ones seem to be the most popular.

Lay the groundwork for an incredible future

Selling your product or service during COVID-19 might not be easy, but it definitely isn’t impossible. Even if you aren’t getting a regular stream of customers right now, considering your context and tone, reevaluating your content, and soft selling on social media can build the foundations for a great strategy once the crisis has passed.

And remember, not everyone is going to be your customer, and that’s okay.

You don’t need everyone to like you, but to keep those who do onboard, you need to prove that you are an attentive, authentic, and caring brand.

In this article, we’ll look at what an email marketing agency does, whether you need one, and compare the top 6 as chosen by us. We’ve made sure the list is a mix of services—with agencies that handle all sides of email marketing to email marketing software providers—to suit all budgets and requirements, for SMEs and larger enterprises.

What does an email marketing agency do?

As the name suggests, email marketing agencies handle the email channel of a marketing strategy. Some of their services include:

• Creating and managing promotional emails, newsletters, and other email content
• Data analysis (ROI, open rates, click-through rates)
• Improve conversions
• Building loyalty
• Driving lifetime customer value

The medium of email is one of the most widely-used across all markets. As such, email marketing is one of the most effective ways to directly reach as large an audience as possible.

1. Mocha Marketing

Location: Midlands. UK

Mocha Marketing specialise in being able to audit a business and develop successful marketing strategies to achieve their client’s goals. They are entirely bespoke to their client’s needs; from strategy to the planning, to the output – from creating the concept to delivering the craft.

They will build and segment your audience, create campaigns, develop a strategy and report back on your statistics. Mocha Marketing believes that a good email campaign is not just the art of sending an email; that’s why their campaigns are built with their client’s goals in mind. By being strategic, they can maximise their client’s results.

2. Content Loop Digital

Locations: Downtown Core, Singapore

Content Loop Digital is Singapore’s leading digital marketing agency. They specialise in SEO, search engine marketing, social media marketing, email marketing and many other digital marketing services.

Their copywriting team will help you craft emails that engage with your audience and compels them to take action. They will also take care of the setup and marketing automation.

3. Bloominari

Location: California, US

Bloominari is a full-service digital marketing and creative design agency dedicated to providing small businesses with solutions to increase their customer base and grow their brands online.

Their team of email marketing experts will help you create and deliver your email messages to your customer’s inbox. Bloominari offers a wide range of email marketing packages, including:

• Email strategy consulting sessions
• Web-based administration of email campaigns
• Email newsletter creation
• Monthly email reports
• Follow-up emails
• Email marketing templates

They will help you build a complete marketing plan that includes thorough research, effective messaging and cohesive distribution, which will drive consumers to your business.

4. Ketchup Marketing

Locations: Leicestershire, UK

Ketchup marketing offers a wide range of email marketing services; you can have personalised one-off emails for you or a branded email template to use in the future. They offer complete email agency services, where they will design, write, send and monitor the performance of as many emails as you need to grow your business.

They will take a considered approach to the design, copywriting and production of your emails, so they’re never mistaken for spam. Every email campaign created is fully integrated with Google Analytics, tracking how successful the email campaigns are. You will see who has opened your emails, whether they clicked on an offer and even what sales were made as a result of the email.

Ketchup Marketing understands the benefits of email and manages multiple campaigns each month, including for large retail brands such as SimplyBe.

5. Shareable

Location: Hertfordshire, UK

Shareable is a specialist digital marketing agency dedicated to empowering new and existing companies, ventures and entrepreneurs through effective paid advertising. Their team of experts will work directly with you to create winning strategies which work for your business goals. From keyword research to daily monitoring and optimising, to retargeting, they will make sure your budget is put to good use, bringing you the results you want.

At Shareable, they believe that there’s no marketing channel with a wider reach than email. As marketers, they are focused on driving conversions for their clients – regardless of whether this is in the form of leads, sales, memberships – their ultimate goal is to turn potential customers into paying customers.

6. Zelst

Location: Harrogate, UK

Zelst is an experienced digital marketing agency that helps clients be seen and get found online and achieve ROI through creative and strategic inbound marketing.

They are experts at helping you to use email marketing to connect, engage and develop a relationship with your audience. They will segment your subscriber list by relevant factors such as gender, location and profession; this will enable them to tailor each email to its intended audience. Your email campaigns will be closely monitored to ensure that they reach their full potential.

They will also regularly cleanse your subscriber list and help you handle unsubscribes to maximise efficiency and help you get the most out of your email marketing.

Do you need email marketing?

When it comes to finding and converting leads, it’s important not only to try to grab the attention of those who don’t know your brand but to also work on those who are already engaged. Those within your audience who are most interested could be willing to sign up for emails, and email marketing is all about optimising your use of the medium to make it as effective and convincing as possible.

Hubspot compiled an extensive list of email marketing stats with some interesting findings:

• In the US alone, it was estimated that $350 million was spent on email advertising in 2019
• 59% of survey respondents said marketing emails influenced their intent to buy
• Over 59% of marketers said email was their biggest source of ROI

Whether you’re an online commercial business or in the B2B sphere, email marketing can offer some real progress towards your company-wide goals.

The best email marketing strategy is the one that is built to the specific needs and strengths of your business. Consider your goals, how email marketing can help with those, and then choose the team that fits that approach. Be sure to take a closer look at each of the email marketing firms mentioned above to get a better feel for how each team focused on improving your approach through email. We also have a great selection of email marketing agencies on the Adzooma Marketplace.