Online Marketing Resources

The following 10 Online Marketing Resources* are free online tools and recommended companies who supply products and services essential to a good Business Marketing Plan. The suppliers in this list have all been personally tested or tested by our clients. To ensure that this list continues to promote only companies that provide exceptional products and services, please give us feedback about your experiences and how these links have benefited your business.

1. Free Google Research Tools

2. Email Marketing, E-Newsletters and Online Surveys
3. Business Planning Software
4. Logos and Branding
5. PR and Bookmarking
6. Domains and Hosting
7. Websites
8. Essential Anti-Virus Protection
9. CRM, Automated Sales and Marketing Systems

10. Online Shopping Carts

1. Free Google Research Tools

Before any marketing campaign, whether online or offline, it is essential you do your homework. There are many free tools you can use to determine what the customer is looking for, here are our favourites:

Google Keyword Tool to find out the popular keyword terms and phrases used by your target market

Google Insights for search to determine where and when in the world these keywords are being used

Google Wonder Wheel This link takes you to google.com (click on the '+ show options' on the top left of each search) to show related search phrases to reveal the true intent of the searcher.

Google Analytics to analyse the traffic data on your website.

Google Local Business Centre List your business on Google Maps, essential now 30% (and growing) of all searches state a specific area to search in.

Google Page Rank Checker - find out how Google ranks your website, the higher your score, (1 to 10) the more likely your site may rank highly in the search engines.

2. Email Marketing, E-Newsletters and Online Surveys

In today's marketing environment, email marketing systems make keeping in touch with your prospects and clients a cheap, easy and yet effective process whilst online surveys help us do our research. The following are all well known and well tested online systems that allow you to pay a low monthly subscription or annual fee based on your usage.

Company	Email	Online Surveys	Events	Free Trial	Starting Price (USD)	Comments
	y	y	y	60 days	$15/mth	Constant Contact is a leader in it's field. It's slightly more expensive but offers more functionality.
	y	n	n	15 days	$9.95/mth	iContact is an online email marketing system payable monthly.
	y	y	n	30 days	$9.95/mth	RatePoint combines both email marketing and online surveys. User friendly and cost effective.
	n	y	n	Up to 100 replies	$199/yr	Zoomerang easy and effective online surveys.
	y	n	n	No - signup for $1 (Stops Spam)	$19/mth or $49/qtr	AWeber is the system professional email marketers use for huge lists and unlimited autoresponders.
	y	y	y	No - 60 day guarantee	$495/yr	Interspire has more features than all the others, hence the higher price tag.
MailChimp	y	n	y	FREE for up to 500 contacts	$30/mth +500 contacts	Mailchimp is simple and cost effective. Integrates with Xero and JavelinCRM.

3. Business Planning Software

These are our favourties based on their simplicity and effectiveness:

4. Logos and Branding

The companies listed below are all online providers as an alternative to a local designer. For a New Zealand based company, we recommend the Christchurch based Plato Creative Design.

5. PR and Bookmarking

There are many online and offline methods of PR. 'Bookmarking and sharing' allows visitors to recommend your site to others and/or save it to their own favourites so they'll revisit in the future. There are free online systems like www.prlog,org or paid companies such as PRWeb:

6. Website Domains and Hosting

These have all been quick and easy to use but don't all provide .co.nz domains. A New Zealand based alternative is Freeparking.

7. Websites

This is a difficult area to recommend as we've had dealings with literally hundreds of web companies. For a simple website or mobile website, see Find My Business. For a custom designed website, please contact us for advice.

To determine your website statistics, use the free Google Analytics tool.

8. Essential Anti-Virus Protection

As it says, essential. We've used ESET for over 6 years and can't fault it. It doesn't slow your system down like some of the better known makes...

9. CRM, Automoted Sales and Marketing Systems

Imagine a systems that allows you to link your emarketing to a system to track and follow these leads, to a system that then sells to these leads to a system that then invoices and collects payment. These are essential sales automation tools for any business. Here are several options that automate all or part of your sales systems for you:

Company	Free Trial	Starting Price	Comments
	Unlimited	Basic program is free, Pro Edition is $360/yr	Sugar is an open source CRM program so it has the potential to be highly customisable. The standard system is totally free but needs some technical knowledge to set up and host.
	Free up to 2 users and 250 contacts	$12/mth for the full package	Javelin is a simple, user firendly system that integrates with Xero and mailchimp for a full SME solution. *** Recommended***
	30 day trial	From $5 per mth	Sales Force is a well tested CRM package, you can add additional applications as needed..
	30 days	$199 full package/yr	ACT is a well tested CRM Sales Pipeline management system. It can be customised.
	15 days	$199/mth basic, $299/mth Pro	Infusionsoft ia a fully integrate CRM, email marketing, ecommerce, affiliate sales and sales force automation.

10. Add-on Online Shopping Carts

Want to convert your website into an ecommerce site? This bolt on package starts at just $24.95 US/month for 100 products.

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*NB:
We only recommend systems we (ourselves or our clients) have tested. If you have a poor experience with any of these companies, please inform us immediately as we want to ensure a consistently high quality of our alliances. The details on this page were last updated on the 3rd November 09 but may change without notice. Please check with each supplier for their up to date information. Commissions may be paid to us on some of these links.