Anybody that is in business today understands the central challenge that businesses in the current environment face – ensuring that there is a constant flow of customers into the business in order to generate revenue from. Additionally, new businesses and relatively unknown businesses face an arguably even more difficult challenge – creating awareness of their offering in order to attract customers to generate revenue from. In previous era’s this challenge was solved by an individual from the business going out and knocking on the doors of potential customers, and cold calling their way to sales. This was time consuming, restricted to the businesses direct geographic location and required great interpersonal sales skills.
In the modern era however, there are a number of digital tools available to businesses that allow them to shortcut the prospecting and lead generation process and place their value propositions in front of the right people, at the right time and maximize the potential that that decision-maker will turn into a customer. The aim of this article is to identify and unpack four digital tools that any business can use to turn unknown markets into happy, returning customers.
1. Email Hunter
The first tool that should be in the arsenal of any business that needs to generate revenue from sales activities, is an email hunter. An email hunter can be defined as ‘the automation of the task of extracting data from digital sources for further manipulation’. In short, an email hunter is a piece of software that extracts email addresses online. With an email hunter you can extract email addresses from websites, search engines, newsletters and other sources, for the purposes of compiling mailing lists, generating leads, conducting market research, and monitoring competitors’ marketing activities.
While the application and use of an email hunter may feel like it should fall into an ethical grayzone, the truth is that it is perfectly legal to acquire and use the digital tool from the perspective of data privacy laws globally, given that the email addresses are gathered in the public domain, and that no legislation was breached in the acquisition process. In light of this, there are a number of legitimate options available on the market today, with the average associated cost generally between the $49 – $299 per month mark, depending on features.
2. Data Enrichment Tool
While the application and use of an email hunter may feel like it should fall into an ethical grayzone, the truth is that it is perfectly legal to acquire and use the digital tool from the perspective of data privacy laws globally, given that the email addresses are gathered in the public domain, and that no legislation was breached in the acquisition process. In light of this, there are a number of legitimate options available on the market today, with the average associated cost generally between the $49 – $299 per month mark, depending on features.
Data enrichment typically takes the form of purchasing a subscription to an online data enrichment database, where millions of data points have been pre qualified as valid and constantly updated to ensure their accuracy and relevance. The associated cost of a data enrichment subscription can fall anywhere from $49 to a few hundred dollars depending on usage and features.
3. Prospecting Tool
The next tool that is required in the sales arsenal of a company is a sales prospecting tool. A sales prospecting tool can be defined as ‘A software platform that helps your sales team automate or simplify tasks associated with lead qualification’.
The next tool that is required in the sales arsenal of a company is a sales prospecting tool. A sales prospecting tool can be defined as ‘A software platform that helps your sales team automate or simplify tasks associated with lead qualification’.
4. Email Campaign Management Tool
The final tool that we will look at today is an email campaign management tool. Email marketing is about more than just pitching an offer at a potential customer, it builds brand awareness and customer loyalty, it nurtures leads, and increases the sales of a business. From this perspective, an email campaign management tool is a software application that allows you to plan, execute and monitor your email campaigns.
Email campaign management tools generally include features such as email builders, email schedulers, and automation tools that allow you to streamline operations and report and analyze performance through metrics of measurement. In terms of pricing, as per all the other tools discussed in this article, most popular email campaign management tools operate on a subscription basis with the cost varying anywhere between $19 and $299 depending on features required.
Conclusion
As discussed in this article, the business environment of today is one that is marked by digital innovation, and primed for the implementation of the associated business tools as a valuable advantage in the market, an advantage that was not possible only a few years ago. However, an externality of this exponential leap in potential productivity is an exponential increase in the competition facing businesses today, and in order to create parity in the market and remain competitive, it is becoming vital that each business implements the tools that are on offer. This however does come at a cost, and that cost increases rapidly with every tool added to the business.
One way of bypassing rising variable costs is to implement platforms designed to mitigate assembling multiple business tools, in lieu of a seamless and integrated system. Systems such as LeadsChilly offer all of the business tools and benefits discussed in this article, at a price point that is up to 75% lower.
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