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As a small ecommerce business owner, you have to wear many hats. It’s not enough being the CEO and founder, you’ll often find yourself acting as head of marketing, operations manager, product designer, and customer support all in a single day. 

Digital marketing is an essential part of a growing business, but marketing efforts can be incredibly time-consuming. When I think back to the hours I used to spend manually updating my spreadsheet of customers so I could send out an email, or the days spent painstakingly trying to design product inserts, it makes my head hurt. 

It can be difficult when you first start an ecommerce business because you’re often operating on a shoestring without the benefit of a huge marketing team or marketing agency, and every penny you have goes into developing and buying products and worrying about your return on investment—not to mention managing stakeholders such as manufacturers and shipping agents.

I held off investing in software for a long time as I was scared of getting tied into expensive subscriptions and diverting money away from new products. It turns out, however, that there’s actually some amazing digital marketing software out there that costs next to nothing (sometimes it’s even free) and saves you hours of time. 

In this article, I’m going to look at how marketing technology can help you grow your business, and I’ll give examples of some of the tools that have been invaluable in helping me build my ecommerce business.

But first, what exactly do we mean when we talk about marketing software?

What Is Digital Marketing Software?

Digital marketing software refers to any tools which support you in your digital marketing strategy. In other words, software that helps you manage your relationships with existing customers and/or helps you to get future customers. 

This includes different tools and functionalities to help you:

Why Do You Need Digital Marketing Software?

Or, to put it another way, how can digital marketing software benefit you and your business?

Digital marketing tools save you time

As I mentioned, the main benefit of using marketing software is the time it can save you. Anyone who’s spent hours manually typing in new customer email addresses into a spreadsheet, or spent a day combing through Google to put together a list of keywords to use in their new product listing, knows how tedious and time-consuming marketing tasks can be. 

The problem is: They have to get done. When you’re a new business or a startup, you don’t always have anyone else to outsource these manual, onerous jobs to. 

Digital marketing software often has the functionality to take these manual jobs off your plate so you can get on with more important (and frankly more interesting) tasks like working on marketing strategy or deciding what new product to launch

Digital marketing tools reduce human error and increase accountability

Another benefit of digital marketing software is it helps reduce human error. Typing out customer details by hand is a quick way to get a database full of typos. A piece of marketing software is far more reliable.

Digital marketing software can also keep you accountable. If you plan to send a social media post out at midday each day, sooner or later, you’re going to forget, or something more important is going to get in the way. 

However, if you’re using digital marketing software, which enables you to schedule your social media posts in advance to go out at a certain time, you can rest easy knowing that a post will go out each day. 

Digital marketing tools compile complicated data and analytics

It’s not just manual jobs that digital marketing software can help with. For example, you can use marketing software to compile complicated data reports that segment your customers into groups based on specific preferences.

Or you could use marketing software that scours the internet to let you know what keywords your website or product listings are appearing for or what sites are linking to your Shopify store, for example. If you’re a data genius, then maybe you can manage this by yourself, but most of us need a helping hand! 

There’s clearly a strong argument for using marketing intelligence software in your business, but if you’re thinking, “That’s all well and good, but I haven’t got a massive marketing budget”—don’t panic. 

The good news is that with the explosion in marketing software in recent years, marketing companies have had to offer increasingly competitive deals in order to attract business owners. Some marketing software even offers free versions, often with just a few feature limitations.

As we consider some of the key examples of marketing software categories, I’ll recommend cost-effective marketing tools that I’ve used in my own business and that I’m confident are worth the money. 

Examples of Digital Marketing Software

There are thousands of different marketing tools out there, and you’ll find marketing software designed for just about every task you can think of.

For this article, I’m just going to focus on the key types of marketing software which I think small businesses should consider. 


Social media tools

74% of consumers use social media when making purchasing decisions, so no ecommerce brand can afford to overlook it.

Posting great content that your target audience engages with is an essential part of building your brand and raising awareness of your products. It’s all about consistency and making sure that your posts are reaching the right people at the right times.

However, it can be time-consuming and easily forgotten among all the other tasks on your plate, especially if you are managing various social media apps.

That’s where social media marketing software comes in. These tools allow you to create a load of posts in one go and then schedule them so they are automatically sent out at a later time and date. You can also create workflows to make your social media posting completely automated.

A good social media tool will also serve as a content management tool, showing you what the best times of day are to post on social media platforms, making recommendations about which hashtags to use, as well as providing you with invaluable analytics. 

Examples of social media marketing tools

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For established businesses: Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a sophisticated social media management tool that allows you to connect lots of different social media channels, monitor interactions with your brand, and schedule posts. It also has analytics tools.

For small businesses: Tailwind

Tailwind is a more basic tool, but it’s user-friendly and starts at a much cheaper price point. It’s great for scheduling posts and also comes with handy content suggestions. 


Email marketing tools 

Email marketing is one of the most important tools for an ecommerce business, but most businesses suck at it. 

Most basic email marketing tools will enable you to create templates (so you don’t need to design your emails each time) and schedule emails to go out at a later date, as well as provide analytics about open rates and click-through rates. 

Like with social media posting, sending out individual emails can be boring and laborious, but good email marketing automation software will make the process a lot easier. Many software providers now include marketing automation tools that allow you to streamline the process and create rules and sales funnels so that when a customer or contact carries out a certain action, they are automatically sent a follow-up email or SMS. 

This works particularly well for things like product abandonment, cart abandonment, order tracking, and shipping confirmation. Many of these tools are customizable and will allow you to segment your contacts based on certain metrics like geographic location, purchase history, or other customer characteristics. 

You can find email marketing tools designed for every kind of business, and the cost will vary immensely. At the top end, you could spend hundreds of pounds a month for a tailored email marketing automation platform that comes with really powerful integrations and segmentation options that will be used by huge brands like H&M. 

On the other hand, there are some really fantastic options for new ecommerce businesses which will have all the tools you need for a fraction of the price. A lot of email marketing software will be free until you reach a certain number of contacts.  

Examples of email marketing solutions

For established businesses (with 5,000+ contacts): Drip

A sophisticated marketing platform that integrates with your store to provide behavior-based customer segmentation and personalization, A/B testing, and a wide range of automation.

For small businesses: Klaviyo or Mailchimp

Klaviyo also integrates with Shopify and allows you to create behavior-based customer segmentation. It also comes with a lovely range of email templates to get you started. 


Online advertising tools

Chances are, as an ecommerce business, you will need to invest in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising of some kind, whether that’s on Google, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, or on a marketplace you sell on. Google ads continue to be the leader in this field, with nearly two-thirds of people (63%) likely to click on a Google ad. 

Managing advertising campaigns involves regularly reviewing a huge amount of data—a job that can take a lot of time and be very painful if you’re not a data-driven person. Luckily, there are lots of online advertising tools out there which will analyze the data for you, monitor your spending and conversion rates, and automatically update your keyword bids. 

Depending on where you’re advertising, you can find advertising tools specifically for that marketplace or channel. For example, there are a whole host of tools designed for advertising on Amazon specifically.

Examples of online advertising tools

For established businesses: TapClicks

TapClicks is a sophisticated campaign management tool that provides campaign analytics, management, and reporting across multiple different sales channels.

For small businesses: Google Ads Manager

If you’re advertising on Google Ads, you’ll have access to Google Ads Manager for free which comes with Google Analytics features and other tools to help you keep on top of your ad campaigns. 


SEO tools

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a vital part of growing an ecommerce business. In order for your website and products to get found by customers, they need to be ranked for the right keywords so that they appear in customer searches. 

Search engine optimization tools will enable you to identify what keywords you need to rank for in order to get in front of your target customers and track how well these keywords are performing for you.

Like online advertising, there are a lot of SEO tools designed specifically for the sales channel you’re selling on. For example, there are tools designed for specific marketplaces like Amazon or Etsy.

Examples of SEO tools

For established businesses: Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a powerful tool that allows you to do keyword research, track what keywords your website is ranking for, monitor backlinks, and analyze competitors

For small businesses: Keywords Everywhere

Keywords Everywhere is a simple but effective tool that allows you to analyze keywords on a competitors site, find search volume for keywords, and identify keywords.


CRM tools

Not all ecommerce businesses will need a separate customer relationship management (CRM) software as many ecommerce platforms and email marketing tools come with a basic CRM which will be enough for small brands.

However, if you’re a large ecommerce business or you have multiple sales channels, then you will most likely want a CRM. 

A good CRM will help you streamline your lead generation efforts and manage information about your customers and potential customers, allowing you to create effective marketing campaigns and email campaigns, plan marketing strategies, and spot opportunities for growth. 

Examples of CRM tools

For established businesses: Hubspot

Hubspot is an all-in-one marketing software tool combining a powerful CRM with a whole range of tools and plugins, including social media, email, marketing automation, and analytics.  

For small businesses: Drip or Klaviyo

Email marketing tools like Drip and Klaviyo include a basic CRM that allows you to analyze and segment your contacts. 


Design tools

Unless you already have a designer on your team, the chances are you will need to use some design software at some point in order to create things like product inserts, content marketing, social media posts, infographics, and imagery for product listings or your website and product packaging. 

Again, there is a massive range of tools out there, from free online image editors to sophisticated design tools. Personally, I’m not particularly design literate, so I love tools like Canva, which come with lots of templates, so I don’t need to spend ages coming up with ideas. 

Examples of design tools

For established businesses: Adobe Creative Cloud

Adobe Creative Cloud includes a whole range of design tools, including Photoshop and InDesign. It doesn’t necessarily offer the best user experience, but for serious designers, it’s a must.

For small businesses: Canva

Canva is an amazingly user-friendly design program with hundreds of great templates for all kinds of design projects. I mainly use it for coming up with infographics, product inserts, and graphics for product listings.  


Marketplace-specific software

Selling on marketplaces such as Etsy and Amazon is really important for ecommerce businesses. In the US, 45% of all ecommerce transactions took place on Amazon US last year!

When considering effective digital marketing software, it’s important to remember that there are a whole host of tools designed for specific ecommerce channels such as Amazon, Etsy, or eBay.

Many of these types of software will package together with a range of marketing tools that an ecommerce business owner might need, which can end up being more cost-effective than using lots of different software. Here are some key marketplace-specific tools that are worth considering if you sell on these platforms:

Helium 10

Many Amazon and Walmart sellers swear by Helium10. It offers several SEO tools, advertising management, emails, landing pages, as well as lots of operational tools.

Jungle Scout

Like Helium 10, Jungle Scout is designed to help Amazon sellers with all aspects of their business, including SEO research, market analysis, and product launch tools. 

eRank

eRank offers a wide range of tools designed specifically for Etsy sellers, including SEO tools and competitor research analysis.

Marmalead

Marmalead is another Etsy tool offering help with SEO, keyword tracking, and competitor analysis. 

Need expert help selecting the right Email Marketing Software?

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Don’t Skimp on Digital Marketing for Ecommerce: Get The Software Solution You Need

Marketing is really important for your business, but it can use up a lot of time and brainpower. 

The right software can revolutionize your business, reducing the time and effort it takes to build customer relationships and grow your brand. There are options out there for all budgets—from free plans to paid plans—so it’s just a question of working out what you want help with and then finding the most suitable option for you.

Subscribe to The Ecomm Manager for more expert advice and insights on ecommerce, as well as how-to guides and reviews of the latest ecommerce tools and software. 

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By Teddy Smith

Teddy Smith is an ecommerce brand founder and a former Senior Ecommerce Consultant for Accenture. He is also an independent ecommerce consultant, specializing in selling on Amazon and marketplaces. Teddy has 13 years of experience working with both enterprise and small scale ecommerce brands, and has provided over 3,000 hours of independent ecommerce consulting sessions.