Columnist

How modern marketing tools are the best way to get your business in shape to sell

All too often, business owners wait until financial disaster threatens before deciding to sell up. Even mild losses can prompt a nervy proprietor to throw in the towel.

However, if a business is trending downwards, it’s not going to be as attractive to prospective buyers as a thriving enterprise.

Blindingly obvious as this fact is – it is remarkable how many owners panic and put their mediocre businesses up for sale, with a few fudged figures and questionable credentials.

Preparation is key to selling a business and, although not all owners have the luxury of time (life has a way of scuppering our most carefully laid plans), ensuring a strong presence in the market and a solid customer base is the first and most important step towards optimum saleability.

Even if it is not your intention to sell in the near future, the best way to run your business is to assume you might have to.

The web is awash with clever marketing aids that are easily accessible, simple to use and which can seriously improve the health of your business.

Here at Businessesforsale.com we’ve picked out 6 of the best of them:

Mention

A slicker and more effective hi-bred of Google Alerts, Mention is proving to be an increasingly popular choice for brand monitoring.

When marketing your business, it’s vital to know how your presence is being felt in the wider realms of your industry, and to react accordingly. Mention has tapped further into this idea.

Google Alerts only sends you an email if new articles, webpages or blog posts make it into the top ten Google News results (which might not be that often), whereas Mention literally trawls the internet for mentions of your business and sends an email with a detailed overview.

It also has social media functions that allow you to react to the mention or share industry news that you find.

Followerwonk

Like Mention, but more focused on Twitter, Follwerwonk is a very handy tool for those who are struggling to gain an influence on that social platform.

Offering analysis on followers of your tweets, Follwerwonk breaks them down into demographics, and lets you know what time they are online (so you know the best time to tweet), and also when the folk that you follow tend to be logged on – in case you want to connect with them.

HootSuite/Buffer for Business

Ok, so there are two marketing tools here, but essentially they do the same thing and are equally liked by businesses. They can even be used in conjunction to maximise their comparative strengths.

Both HootSuite and Buffer are powerful social media automation tools that enable you to read and share information on a range of social networks at a dedicated time each day (so you’re not constantly glued to your Facebook feeds).

They will send your updates to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and App.net and have built-in analytics that provide you with information on why certain posts are doing well, and the best times of day to publish, depending on your audience.

WordPress

As a small business owner, your talents may not lie in web development and design. But every business needs a significant on-line presence in order to stay competitive in their field.

WordPress has stood the test of time as the go-to content management system, offering stylish and ergonomic solutions for small websites and blogging platforms.

There are two versions to choose from: WordPress.com which is free and Wordpress.org, which is self-hosted and costs a little (but well worth it if a business will be using their blog as a primary marketing tool).

There is an excellent range of free or premium design templates to choose from, and a variety of plug-ins.

Feedly

When running a small business, an effective way to engage your customers and inspire loyalty, is to simply communicate with them on a regular basis.

Feedly is a one-stop shop for all your favourite industry blogs and news sites. You can subscribe to RSS feeds to keep up to date with news related to your business and share these with your clients.

Showing you are enthusiastic about your industry and sharing positive information is a great way to exude a successful, trend setting image.

CRM software

CRM means Customer Relationship Management and there are several software packages available that can elevate you company’s client liaison and sales prospects to new heights.

CRM programs take your customer details and provide a platform which tracks important psychographic information, schedules follow-ups, sets reminders and so aids the conversion of leads into deals.

Packages include Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, SugarCRM and Landslide and all use the latest technology to organise, automate and synchronise sales, marketing and customer services.

What are your favourite marketing/social media tools? Let us know at Businessesforsale.com

This article was contributed by Nicky Tatley, Managing Editor of BusinessesForSale.com, the market-leading directory of business opportunities from Dynamis. Nicky manages content across all titles in the Dynamis stable, as well as well as being a regular contributor to other industry publications, both print and online.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by BusinessesForSale .