Updates on tap for popular SMB marketing tools

A few months back, I wrote about Swipely, a payment services company that is adding extensive customer relationship management and loyalty program features to its platform.

The service provider, which focuses currently on about 100 U.S. cities, is further enhancing its analytics capabilities with its first quarter 2013 update, specifically on better ways for local merchants and businesses to measure the impact of their marketing campaigns.

Those features include a reputation management service that helps small and midsize businesses (SMBs) monitor what customers (and others) are saying about them online and what impact reviews are having on in-store revenue; analytics that help measure how event-based campaigns are impacting sales; and ways to show how Twitter and Facebook marketing relates to sales results.

"Doubling our sales under management in three months is proof positive that Swipely's message resonates with local merchants, who for too long have received little or no value from the payments network despite paying high credit card fees," commented Angus Davis, founder and CEO of the developer.

Swipely's service doesn't require a point of sale (POS) technology overhaul: it works with more than 50 different systems.

Constant Contact integrates content creation tools

Well-known SMB email and social media marketing services company Constant Contact has added four content creation applications to its MarketPlace, more tightly integrating them with its core offerings. They include:

• Glyder, a mobile application that includes content templates and "one-touch" distribution of content to email, social and mobile platforms

• Rafflecopter for building and publishing sweepstakes incentive offerings

• LoopLogic for importing, uploading or recording video

• Digioh for distributing attachments (such as white papers or coupons) to subscribers