There are countless marketing tools to help you save time and improve your marketing and communications activity.
The role of the marketing & communications professional can be a busy one. More often than not, it’s the Marcomms team who are working late, during weekends, or checking their emails “quickly” at dinner, the gym, family events, or days off. So here are four tools that will help you save time and improve your marketing and communications activity.
In this post-COVID world, the role of the marketing and communications expert has never been more critical. They help organisations navigate digital transformation projects, internal comms, crisis communications, social media engagement, lead generation, and anything in between. Not to mention always being on the lookout for new opportunities. Metaverse, anyone?
In this post-pandemic world, reducing overheads and creating time efficiencies are two initiatives you can focus on that will help separate your business from the rest.
But how do we do it? In short, marketing tools. As iPhone once said, there is an app for that. It’s been over a decade since those words were uttered, and now you can never be more sure that there are apps for things you never thought you needed.
So here’s our round-up of some of the best marketing tools designed to help make the role of marketing and communications just a bit easier, if only to save you some time and make things look just a little better.
Grammarly
I can not recommend this enough. Grammarly is one of the few marketing tools where I will actively tell you to “spend the money”. I advise my teams, clients, and students… “Grammarly it”. Why? Well, it’s not only because poor writing, spelling mistakes, and bad grammar can cost you money, but it’s also because writing well takes time. Whether you are writing only a few words or an article or blog to boost your SEO, you want to ensure that you articulate your point well. The free version of Grammarly is OK, but the paid version is where you will make your time and money back. You’ll also find that you start catching some of your Grammarly errors even before using the AI tool. Grammarly helped take this article from a performance score of 85 to 98. https://app.grammarly.com/
Pexels
Pexels has done what the internet does best and found a way to make stock photos free. Other than saving you money, this marketing tool also benefits regional companies. If you are a company in Dubai, the UAE, or The Middle East, you can probably recall some of the “typical regional images” you’ve seen. Stock image of a local GCC man throwing money? check. The sometimes limited selection of photos available in the Middle East can even be a detriment to your brand. Even more so when your competitors are all using the same images. Sites like Pexels mean you don’t need to commit to one platform or marketing tool, and you can shop around for more cost-effective options with a different range of images. You can also donate to the original photographer if you wish. https://www.pexels.com/
Canva
If you haven’t heard of the $40 billion design platform Canva by now, please tell us how you’ve enjoyed your time on the moon. Some have hailed Canva as a design and marketing tool that can turn even the least creative amongst us into a ‘graphic designer’. While we wouldn’t go that far, the tool does provide you with a fantastically simple drag-and-drop interface and a range of creative assets, fonts, and templates, to let you create your very own designs. However, what is important to point out, is that Canva has limitations. Your eye for design being one limitation, and this probably helps to illustrate why professional designers are so important. That being said, Canva is ideal for the social media or marketing team working to a small budget. And not only that, Canva can help you create better presentations, websites, internal comms, tutorials, and even your CV. https://www.canva.com/
Otter.ai
Most Marcomms experts will have, at some point in their careers, found themselves at a conference, presentation, or event, frantically scribbling down as much of what the speaker says as possible. You’ve probably found yourself missing a few crucial points along the way. Writer’s cramp is fun for no one. In situations like these, marketing tool Otterly.ai is the content collector’s best friend. This speech-to-text (and translation) tool uses AI and machine learning to turn your speaker’s words into text. This means you can simply cut and paste the quotes you need to add to your press release, social post, internal company newsletter, or website. You may even have time to drink that coffee you bought. Not only that, Otter.ai claims to be able to help you reduce the number of meetings you have each week and align your teams. https://otter.ai/
There are, of course, thousands if not millions of other tools that will support you in your marketing, communications, and social media roles. However, if you have your stock imagery, wording, and design strategically focused, aligned, and looking fantastic. You are certainly on the way to saving time and improving your marketing & communications activity.
If you are looking for fresh ideas, help solving a marketing challenge, a creative injection, or a marketing, communications, social media, digital, or events brief, then let us know. We’d be more than happy to share our experience with you.