Between digital and offline channels, today's marketing ecosystem is more complex than ever. The bottom line is that you need to reach your target customers at key points in their research, decision-making, and buying journeys.The challenge that you're likely facing, however, is that you have limited time to manage—and perfect your approach—to the many different marketing channels required to reach, engage, and interact with your customer base. We've rounded up the following 5 tools to help.

1. Tour Builder by Google

Type of Marketing Tool: Storytelling Platform

Cost: Free

Why We Picked This Tool: Originally designed for traveling military and veterans, this tool allows people to share stories about the places they're visiting. Tour and activity merchants can take advantage of this resource by encouraging customers to share stories about their experiences—information that can later be repurposed into testimonials and other customer stories.Storytelling is important for every tour and activity merchant, as consumers will often want to understand what an experience will be like—before they commit to making a purchase decision. The best way to share what your business is like will be through the lens of your customers themselves.See Also: Want More Bookings? 7 Proven Ways to Boost Conversions

2. Canva

Type of Marketing Tool: Design

Cost: Free

Why We Picked This Tool: Great design is a powerful tool for making a strong first impression—but it's also both time consuming and expensive to create. It's challenging to create flyers, brochures, and advertisements that look beautiful if you don't have a design background—especially if you're a busy small business owner who spends the majority of your time on the ground and growing your customer base.With pre-made templates, layouts, and guides for beautiful design, Canva simplifies this pain point by making it possible to create your own designs at a low cost. Rather than hiring a designer, you or someone on your team can DIY and create beautiful visuals at no cost beyond your time.

With pre-made templates, layouts, and guides for beautiful design, Canva simplifies creating well designed flyers, brochures, and advertisements

3. Edgar

Type of Marketing Tool: Social Media Management and Scheduling

Cost: $49-$99/month

Why We Picked This Tool: Tour and activity merchants know that platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram are important for customer acquisition and engagement, but often lack the resources to build and manage a dedicated social media strategy. Edgar simplifies this pain point by making it easier for business owners to curate, organize, and schedule status updates.Unlike other available tools, Edgar will let you group your social media updates into categories that you can track over time. As you continue to share status updates, photos, and articles, you'll develop a clear view of what's performing well and why. Instead of casting your net wide and relying on guesswork to build your social media strategy, you can focus your energy and investment on the types of posts that are driving results for your company.

4. BuzzStream

Type of Marketing Tool: PR

Cost: $29-$249/month

Why We Picked This Tool: Word of mouth is a powerful marketing engine, and media mentions have the potential to enhance your business's credibility. The challenge, however, is that PR takes time to build—if you want journalists to review and write about your tour and activity business, you'll need to conduct at least some level of outreach to build relationships with your community.BuzzStream makes this relationship-building process earlier by helping business owners and marketing reps conduct searches, track emails, and learn about their recipients based on contact details. You can optimize, streamline, and focus your PR activity based on the information that you track and analyze with this tool.

5. LeadPages

Type of Marketing Tool: Landing Page Design

Cost: $25-$67/month

Why We Picked This Tool: Let's say that you're running a special offer, promotion, or targeted marketing campaign—like for a seasonal opening event or summer promotion, for instance. You'll likely want to create a series of custom landing pages to give your audiences the most targeted, relevant, and personalized experiences possible.The challenge with creating custom landing pages, however, is that the process can be resource-intensive when you're creating marketing assets—especially ones that integrate with other tools—from scratch. LeadPages can help with readymade templates and integrations. You can create the landing pages that you need within minutes, without relying on costly web development and IT resources to get up and running.

Final thoughts

As a small business owner, you need tools and resources that help you make more out of your limited time. These marketing resources can help you create stronger audience experiences with less effort.We're looking forward to your perspectives as well. What marketing tools have been instrumental for growing your business? Share your thoughts and nominees in the comments section below.

Table of contents

Between digital and offline channels, today's marketing ecosystem is more complex than ever. The bottom line is that you need to reach your target customers at key points in their research, decision-making, and buying journeys.The challenge that you're likely facing, however, is that you have limited time to manage—and perfect your approach—to the many different marketing channels required to reach, engage, and interact with your customer base. We've rounded up the following 5 tools to help.

1. Tour Builder by Google

Type of Marketing Tool: Storytelling Platform

Cost: Free

Why We Picked This Tool: Originally designed for traveling military and veterans, this tool allows people to share stories about the places they're visiting. Tour and activity merchants can take advantage of this resource by encouraging customers to share stories about their experiences—information that can later be repurposed into testimonials and other customer stories.Storytelling is important for every tour and activity merchant, as consumers will often want to understand what an experience will be like—before they commit to making a purchase decision. The best way to share what your business is like will be through the lens of your customers themselves.See Also: Want More Bookings? 7 Proven Ways to Boost Conversions

2. Canva

Type of Marketing Tool: Design

Cost: Free

Why We Picked This Tool: Great design is a powerful tool for making a strong first impression—but it's also both time consuming and expensive to create. It's challenging to create flyers, brochures, and advertisements that look beautiful if you don't have a design background—especially if you're a busy small business owner who spends the majority of your time on the ground and growing your customer base.With pre-made templates, layouts, and guides for beautiful design, Canva simplifies this pain point by making it possible to create your own designs at a low cost. Rather than hiring a designer, you or someone on your team can DIY and create beautiful visuals at no cost beyond your time.

With pre-made templates, layouts, and guides for beautiful design, Canva simplifies creating well designed flyers, brochures, and advertisements

3. Edgar

Type of Marketing Tool: Social Media Management and Scheduling

Cost: $49-$99/month

Why We Picked This Tool: Tour and activity merchants know that platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram are important for customer acquisition and engagement, but often lack the resources to build and manage a dedicated social media strategy. Edgar simplifies this pain point by making it easier for business owners to curate, organize, and schedule status updates.Unlike other available tools, Edgar will let you group your social media updates into categories that you can track over time. As you continue to share status updates, photos, and articles, you'll develop a clear view of what's performing well and why. Instead of casting your net wide and relying on guesswork to build your social media strategy, you can focus your energy and investment on the types of posts that are driving results for your company.

4. BuzzStream

Type of Marketing Tool: PR

Cost: $29-$249/month

Why We Picked This Tool: Word of mouth is a powerful marketing engine, and media mentions have the potential to enhance your business's credibility. The challenge, however, is that PR takes time to build—if you want journalists to review and write about your tour and activity business, you'll need to conduct at least some level of outreach to build relationships with your community.BuzzStream makes this relationship-building process earlier by helping business owners and marketing reps conduct searches, track emails, and learn about their recipients based on contact details. You can optimize, streamline, and focus your PR activity based on the information that you track and analyze with this tool.

5. LeadPages

Type of Marketing Tool: Landing Page Design

Cost: $25-$67/month

Why We Picked This Tool: Let's say that you're running a special offer, promotion, or targeted marketing campaign—like for a seasonal opening event or summer promotion, for instance. You'll likely want to create a series of custom landing pages to give your audiences the most targeted, relevant, and personalized experiences possible.The challenge with creating custom landing pages, however, is that the process can be resource-intensive when you're creating marketing assets—especially ones that integrate with other tools—from scratch. LeadPages can help with readymade templates and integrations. You can create the landing pages that you need within minutes, without relying on costly web development and IT resources to get up and running.

Final thoughts

As a small business owner, you need tools and resources that help you make more out of your limited time. These marketing resources can help you create stronger audience experiences with less effort.We're looking forward to your perspectives as well. What marketing tools have been instrumental for growing your business? Share your thoughts and nominees in the comments section below.

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