D. Marie Smith
  • HOME
  • The Biz Blog
  • Contact

Top Digital Marketing Tools for Entrepreneurs in 2025

12/10/2024

 
Are you ready to grow your business in 2025? As technology continues to improve, entrepreneurs and business owners have access to more tools than ever to refine their marketing strategies. Whether you are just starting or looking to level up, using the right tools can help you streamline tasks, attract more traffic, and increase conversions.

Here’s a handpicked selection of the greatest digital marketing tools to help you grow in 2025.
​
​
Picture
1.SEMrush  HERE

When it comes to SEO, SEMrush is a powerhouse! It offers capabilities for keyword research, site audits, and competitor analysis. With its easy to navigate platform, you can monitor your website’s performance and identify possibilities to improve your position. SEMrush’s content marketing tools helps you to develop optimized content that interacts with your audience!

2.Canva  HERE
​
​
Visuals are a key in catching attention on your website and across social media platforms. Canva provides  design tools that are straightforward to use, even if you are not a designer. With its extensive library of templates and themes for social media, presentations, and infographics, you can create good looking visuals that highlight your business! 

3. Hootsuite  HERE
​
​
managing many social media networks can feel difficult, but Hootsuite simplifies the process. From scheduling  posts to tracking engagement, and measuring results, all from a single dashboard. Its analytics offer useful data to help you change your strategy efficiently.
​
4. GMass  HERE
​

Email marketing remains a great way to connect with your audience. GMass simplifies email marketing with capabilities to customize messages, track responses, and automate follow ups. Whether you are nurturing leads or maintaining customer relationships, GMass lets you save time while staying organized.
​
5. Asana  HERE
​

Organization is vital for entrepreneurs, and Asana makes project management simple and straightforward. From managing campaigns ,coordinating content development, Asana’s task lists and collaborative features help you keep on top of your work and fulfill deadlines.
​
6. Google Analytics  HERE
​

Understanding your website’s performance is key to making informed marketing decisions. Google Analytics gives  insights into visitor behavior, traffic sources, and conversion rates. Use this day to refine your marketing plan and increase your outcomes.
​
7. Zapier  HERE
​

Automation is crucial in 2025, and Zapier helps you connect your preferred apps to reduce repetitive tasks. Whether its synching data across platforms or automating notifications, Zapier frees up your time to focus on building your business.
​
8. HubSpot  HERE
​

HubSpot offers a full array of tools for inbound marketing, CRM, and social media management.  It helps you attract, engage, and keep audiences while delivering detailed reports to assist better your methods over time.
​
9. Later  HERE
​

For managing social media content, Later is a helpful resource. It allows you to schedule posts visually, track performance, and organize media assets. It's especially great for entrepreneurs trying to boost their Instagram approach.
​
10. Sprout social  HERE
​

Sprout social is a great tool for managing your social media presence. It allows you to plan posts, track engagement, and gain insights into audience behavior through detailed analytics. With its social listening features, you may track mentions and trends to stay connected with your audience. Sprout Social makes managing social media effortless and effective.
​
Ready to Transform Your Marketing in 2025?

With the correct business tools, you may optimize your process and gain remarkable outcomes in 2025.  Whether you are focusing on SEO, social media, or email marketing, these tools can help you design a more effective approach.
​

Are you ready to refine your marketing approach and archive substantial results? Let's talk how i can help tailor solutions to fit your goals.
​
​
Schedule an appointment with me HERE, I look forward to helping you succeed!​

Understanding 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Party Targeting in Advertising: Best Practices for Success

10/3/2024

 
In today’s advertising world, understanding the nuances between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd party data is crucial for running successful ad campaigns. Each type of data comes with its own set of advantages and challenges. Using them effectively can significantly impact your ad targeting and overall business performance. This blog post will guide you through the best practices for using 1st, 2nd, and 3rd party data in ad targeting, helping you make the most of your advertising efforts.
​
Picture
1st Party Data: The Gold Standard of Ad Targeting

What is 1st Party Data?
​

1st party data refers to the information that you collect directly from your audience or customers. This data is gathered through various channels, including your website, mobile apps, CRM systems, social media platforms, and other touchpoints where you directly interact with your audience.

Why is 1st Party Data Important?
​

1st party data is considered the most valuable type of data for ad targeting because it is accurate, relevant, and directly tied to your audience’s behavior and preferences. Since you collect this data firsthand, it is often more reliable and specific to your business needs.

Best Practices for Using 1st Party Data:
​
  1. Prioritize Data Privacy and Compliance: Ensure that your data collection processes comply with relevant data privacy regulations, such as GDPR or CCPA. Always obtain explicit consent from users before collecting their data.
  2. Leverage Data Segmentation: Use your 1st party data to create detailed audience segments based on behaviors, demographics, and preferences. This allows for more personalized and targeted ad campaigns.
  3. Integrate Across Channels: Integrate 1st party data across various channels (e.g., email, social media, website) to create a cohesive and consistent experience for your audience. This integration also allows for more accurate tracking and measurement of campaign performance.
  4. Utilize Lookalike Audiences: Use your 1st party data to create lookalike audiences on platforms like Facebook and Google Ads. This helps you expand your reach by targeting users who share similar characteristics with your existing customers.
  5. Regularly Update and Cleanse Your Data: Ensure that your 1st party data is regularly updated and cleansed to maintain its accuracy. Outdated or incorrect data can lead to ineffective targeting and wasted ad spend.

​2nd Party Data: Building Strategic Partnerships
​

What is 2nd Party Data?

2nd party data is essentially another company’s 1st party data that you have access to through a direct partnership. This data is not purchased on the open market but is shared between businesses that have a mutual agreement, often benefiting both parties.

Why is 2nd Party Data Important?
​

2nd party data allows you to expand your audience reach by leveraging data from a trusted partner. This data is usually highly relevant and accurate, as it is sourced directly from another company’s audience.

Best Practices for Using 2nd Party Data:
​
  1. Choose the Right Partners: Select partners whose audience aligns closely with your target market. The relevance of the data is crucial for effective targeting, so ensure that there is a good match between your business goals and your partner’s audience.
  2. Negotiate Data Sharing Agreements: Establish clear agreements with your partners regarding data usage, privacy, and security. Ensure that both parties understand how the data will be used and protected.
  3. Combine with 1st Party Data: Integrate 2nd party data with your own 1st party data to create richer audience profiles and more targeted campaigns. This combination can enhance the precision of your ad targeting.
  4. Respect User Privacy: As with 1st party data, it’s important to ensure that any 2nd party data you use complies with data privacy regulations. Be transparent with users about how their data is being used.
  5. Monitor and Optimize: Regularly monitor the performance of campaigns that use 2nd party data. Use insights gained to optimize your targeting strategies and improve overall campaign effectiveness.

3rd Party Data: Broadening Your Reach
​

What is 3rd Party Data?

3rd party data is information collected by entities that do not have a direct relationship with the consumers whose data they gather. This data is typically aggregated from various sources and sold by data providers.

Why is 3rd Party Data Important?
​

3rd party data is valuable for reaching a broader audience and for filling in gaps where 1st and 2nd party data may be lacking. It allows advertisers to target users based on a wide range of attributes, such as demographics, interests, and online behavior.

Best Practices for Using 3rd Party Data:
​
  1. Vet Your Data Providers: Not all 3rd party data is created equal. Work with reputable data providers who offer high-quality, accurate data. Poor-quality data can lead to ineffective targeting and wasted ad spend.
  2. Understand the Limitations: 3rd party data is often less accurate and more generalized than 1st or 2nd party data. Be aware of these limitations and use 3rd party data to complement, rather than replace, your other data sources.
  3. Focus on Relevant Data Segments: When using 3rd party data, focus on specific segments that align closely with your target audience. Avoid using overly broad segments that may dilute the effectiveness of your targeting.
  4. Combine with 1st and 2nd Party Data: Enhance the value of 3rd party data by combining it with your 1st and 2nd party data. This approach can help create more detailed audience profiles and improve targeting accuracy.
  5. Test and Optimize: Continuously test and optimize your use of 3rd party data. Analyze the performance of your campaigns and adjust your targeting strategies based on what works best.

Conclusion: The Power of a Multi-Data Approach​

​Effective ad targeting is no longer about relying on a single data source. The best results come from a strategic combination of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd party data. By understanding the strengths and limitations of each type of data and following best practices, you can create highly targeted ad campaigns that resonate with your audience and drive results.
Incorporating these data strategies into your advertising efforts will help you reach the right audience, at the right time, with the right message—maximizing your return on investment and contributing to the overall success of your campaigns.

Building your Business and Brand with The Biz Tech Toolkit

6/4/2024

 
If you’re an entrepreneur starting your business, developing a Technology Toolkit has to be at the top of your list. Your Technology Toolkit should manage essential information and help you establish processes designed to help you grow. 
Picture
Technology Tools are key to increase your online presence, lead generation, branding, and expose your services to consumers. Which is why we created the Biz Tech Toolkit, a downloadable document that shares three key steps to build your business and brand and the tools that will help you get there (DOWNLOAD HERE). Let’s explore The Biz Tech Toolkit and how it enhances your business and branding goals.
​

1. Develop and Design a Website with Widgets: Adding widgets to your website can enhance the user experience and provide additional functionality. Widgets are small applications or tools that can be embedded on your website to offer specific features. For example, you can add a chat widget for customer support, a social media widget for sharing content, or a lead capture widget for capturing visitor information. By including widgets strategically, you can improve engagement, increase conversions, and enhance the overall user experience on your website.

2. Promote on Primary Platforms: Primary Platforms refer to the key digital channels or online platforms where you establish a presence to connect with your target audience. This can include social media platforms, e-commerce platforms, or other online marketplaces. By identifying and leveraging the primary platforms where your target audience spends time, you can effectively communicate your brand message, showcase your products or services, and engage with potential customers.

3. Use Activation Applications: Activation Applications are tools used to drive conversions or specific actions from your audience and track online activity through data. Activation Applications can include tech tools such as lead generation forms, email marketing automation tools, or tracking tools like Google Analytics and social media pixels. Activation Applications help streamline and simplify the customer journey and encourage prospects to take desired actions, such as signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase, or becoming a brand advocate.

By implementing the Building Blocks of the Biz Tech Toolkit, you can enhance your business and brand presence, improve website functionality, engage with your target audience more effectively, and drive desired actions.

Are you ready to build your Technology Toolkit? Click the link HERE or button below to download our Biz Tech Tool for FREE and get immediate access to the best technology tools for your business and brand!

D. Marie Smith is a source for tech learning, reviews and online services. Click subscribe to be notified of our new content. Plus sign up for our newsletter to get exclusive details on products, service and more! Don’t miss more opportunities to learn from our team. Follow us on our social platforms @bizteachmentor.

Download The Biz Tech Toolkit

An Overview of Zoho Cloud Software

8/20/2023

 
Cloud software is a needed tech tool for businesses and brands because they help manage the company's operations, automate processes, and equip you with professional tools that serve customers and employees. One of the most diverse Cloud Software solutions for small businesses and large enterprises is Zoho and its features rival the likes of  Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. Zoho has also been used by large organizations like Delta Airlines, Amazon, and Loreal. Keep reading to get the  game on 11 ways Zoho can work for you and your team:
Picture
Marketing
  • Social Media: Build your content calendar, publish posts, and measure success with a single tool.
  • Emails: Create campaigns with an easy-to-use tool designed to help streamline communications, automatically organize your lists, and build 1st party audiences. 
  • Marketing Plus: Access a collection of tech tools that allow you to do a vast number of marketing functions in one ecosystem including the two above. ​
Collaboration
  • Email and Documents: Better control communication with customers, suppliers, & co-workers.
  • IT Helpdesk: Create tickets,  automate thenext steps, and give access rights to customers and internal teams with ease.
  • Project Management: Develop processes that help plan, track, and implement business projects.​​
Sales
  • Bookings: Meeting scheduler that helps send reminders and allows for prepayment. 
  • Affiliate Programs: Revenue share your website’s eCommerce sales with people who promote your product or service with this pay as you go service.
  • Customer Relationship (CRM): Manages customer relationships by tracking every step their experience.
Operations
  • Finance: Access apps and APIs that help to manage invoices and payments, budgeting, reporting, and so much more.
  • Human Resources: Manage your workforce’s performance, trainings, hours, wages.

At the current moment, I am testing Thrive,  Zoho’s affliliate and loyalty program tech tool (see HERE).  Have you ever considered or tried a Zoho product? How does it compare to other platforms in the marketplace? Let us know in the comments.
    Picture

    D. Marie Smith

    Business Technology and Social Media Consultant

    Categories

    All
    Affiliate Marketing
    AI
    Algorithm
    Automation
    Business Management
    Business Operations
    Business Productivity
    Business Technology
    Cloud Software
    Collaboration
    CRM
    Document Management
    ECommerce
    Email Marketing
    Marketing
    Passive Income
    Project Management
    Sell Online
    Shoppable Ads
    Social Media
    Social Media Marketing
    Team Management
    Tech Tools
    TikTok Marketing
    Video Marketing
    Website Development
    Website In Weeks
    Website Widgets

    RSS Feed

Follow us @BizTechMentor on social!
Some links are affiliate links. When you make a purchase through one of our affiliate links D. Marie Smith, LLC will receive a commission at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting D. Marie Smith, LLC.
  • HOME
  • The Biz Blog
  • Contact