Plus 5 Free Tools to Get You Started

A marketing technology (or “martech”) stack is no longer optional for mid-sized companies. In fact, for most companies, it’s not a matter of choosing if it’s a good idea to use technology to market your brand. Instead, it’s a matter of choosing which pieces of marketing technology to incorporate in order to get you the best lead generation and business results.

The marketing technology landscape is complicated, period. From ecommerce tools to A/B testing to social media to live chat to heat mapping to ABM software, martech solutions exist today for nearly every facet of marketing that you can imagine.

So, let’s start with the basics and simplify the landscape a bit. Below are five essential elements that make up a basic marketing tech stack, plus five free tools to help you get started leveraging technology for better marketing results.

If you want to generate more leads from your marketing and sales efforts, your website is the perfect place to start. A website is a brand’s most valuable sales and marketing asset, yet so few marketers truly leverage its lead generation potential.

Many marketers find themselves overwhelmed and unsure where to start. The good news is that transforming your website into a lead generation powerhouse usually doesn’t require a total overhaul or rebuild, which can drain substantial time and resources. Rather, most websites really only need a series of strategic tweaks in order to successfully transition from a stale online brochure to a repeatable and scalable lead generation machine.

Here are seven secrets to get started transforming your website into a lead generation machine.

Thread Marketing Group recently earned honors as a 2018 best-in-class advertising agency in Toledo by Three Best Rated®, an independent, third-party review organization whose mission is to connect consumers with the top three local businesses, professionals, restaurants and health care providers in any city.

“We are thrilled to have been recognized as a marketing and advertising leader in the Toledo area,” said Judy McFarland, CEO of Thread Marketing Group. “We work in an extremely competitive industry, so to be recognized as the best-in-class amid a group of premiere agencies is an incredible distinction and a tribute to our outstanding staff.”

If you’re a marketer looking to improve lead generation, adding a blog to your website is one of the best investments you can make.

But blogging only produces lead generation results when it’s planned and executed properly. Here are ten blogging best practices sure to improve lead generation for B2B companies.

Set your team up for success

A lot can happen in 12 months, especially in the context of a digital landscape laden with new technologies. While your 2017 marketing strategy may have been on-point, you can take it up a notch by getting a jump-start on 2018. Adopting marketing ideas that help your brand rise above the noise and equip your marketing team to do more with less effort can lead to increased brand awareness and higher revenue for your organization. Here is an inside look at what experts see coming down the pipeline.

As a recent bride who has been through the wedding dress shopping experience, I have realized that the steps to choosing a wedding gown are the same steps to selecting a brand logo.

Your website’s metadata is crucial to search engines and to customers being able to discover your information and in order to use it to research or make a purchase.

As Thread’s Senior Vice President of Communications Technology, I have been helping clients develop custom websites for over 15 years and, therefore helpful advice that will save you time and money when seeking a web development partner.

If you missed it, Whitney Rofkar, Thread’s Director of Public Affairs, was featured on WTOL News 11 discussing the national lunch trends, consumer behavior and how it’s affecting our local economy.

In the ever-changing world of social media, it can be overwhelming to keep up with all of the rules, best practices and techniques as they evolve across multiple platforms and devices. Lucky for you, Thread has a simple solution. Regardless of industry segment, audience type or social platform, here are three items that are essential to social media success.