FIND OUT WHICH MARKETING TOOLS EARN OUR TEAM’S STAMP OF APPROVAL.
By Taryn Grisham, Senior Project Manager
With so many marketing tools to choose from, how do you know which will help your digital marketing strategy come to life? I’ve asked our team to share some of their favorite digital marketing tools for each of these components of a successful strategy: organization, marketing automation, website development, data analysis, and conversion improvement. Here are the ones that made the cut:
- Organization: Dropbox, Asana
- Marketing Automation: Sprout Social, MailChimp
- Website Development: Drupal, WordPress
- Data Analysis: Google Analytics, WebCEO
- Conversion Improvement: Google Optimize, Grammarly
Read on to find out what our team says about each of these free and low-cost marketing tools.
ORGANIZATION
When developing a digital marketing strategy, collaborative assets and files can get lost in the shuffle. If keeping your team, records, and data organized is one of your hang-ups, the next two marketing tools can make your life a whole lot easier. Keep things organized with these practical tools that our team relies on:
MARKETING AUTOMATION
We hear it all the time: there’s only so much time in a day! If you’re looking for marketing tools that can help you implement a digital marketing strategy seamlessly, consider these automation-friendly options:
Dropbox
“Dropbox is a nice way to store and share files with team members and clients without being dependent on email. With files accessible anywhere with an internet connection, you can get what you need on-the-go or at home. The interface is very user-friendly, and you can start using it with a free plan!”
– Amy Mills, Graphic Designer
Asana
“Asana is our agency’s project management system of choice. It can be used to effectively manage tasks, project timelines, and teams of all sizes. As a central repository for everything from to-dos and need-to-knows, it helps keep your team (and clients) on-task and informed. It also connects to other tools you may already be using, such as Dropbox or the Google Suite. When creating projects in Asana, you also can easily set permission levels to ensure that the right people view your marketing materials at the appropriate stage in the project.”
– Taryn Grisham, Senior Project Manager
Once everything is organized effectively, learn how to crush project management like a pro with these helpful hints.
WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT
It’s essential to consider the content management system you’ll use before diving into website development. These tools help you create and modify all your website content – and one wrong turn here can steer you down an expensive and stressful path. Two of our favorites are open source and easily installed on virtually any shared hosting.
MARKETING AUTOMATION
Sprout Social
“Sprout Social is a comprehensive social planning platform, including everything from analytics and social listening to engagement reports and publishing. It allows you to schedule your social content ahead of time to all major platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Its helpful post preview shows you how your content will display on each platform when it goes live so you’ll never need to guess. Sprout Social also conveniently stores all incoming messages and platform engagements in one place – no need to log in to each platform separately to see your results.”
– Juliana Reams, Former Social Media & Marketing Intern
MailChimp
“MailChimp is an email marketing software that helps you manage your email campaigns, mailing lists, and campaign performance all in one place. Its selection of templates and guides gives users the ability to customize their email campaigns to make them true to their brand. MailChimp offers multiple subscription levels (beginning with a free plan!) that allow you to level up as your email list grows. The customer support is only a chat or email away, and the mobile app helps you keep tabs on your customers and campaigns from your phone or tablet.”
– Matt McCracken, Social Media & Marketing Intern
If social media marketing or email marketing are part of your digital marketing strategy, check out our blog for helpful tips. There, you’ll learn which social media platforms your business should use to reach its goals and how to use email A/B testing to produce read-worthy sends for your customers.
WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT
It’s essential to consider the content management system you’ll use before diving into website development. These tools help you create and modify all your website content – and one wrong turn here can steer you down an expensive and stressful path. Two of our favorites are open source and easily installed on virtually any shared hosting.
Drupal & WordPress
“While the best content management system depends on your project’s specific needs, Drupal and WordPress are two systems that I recommend to most clients. WordPress is widely known and supported. It works for everything from small e-commerce sites to large sites without complex functionality.
Drupal is another option for sites with high complexity, or those needing user permission granularity. In my opinion, Drupal is also more secure than most competitors.”
– David Francis, Senior Programmer
Evolving websites from brochures to salespeople is our primary goal. Learn how to ensure your website design generates a return and other website improvement tips on our blog. Are you looking to get a quote for an upcoming website design project? Contact us today!
DATA ANALYSIS
At our core, we’re all data geeks, and nothing gets us more excited than seeing our hard work pay off. If data analysis is something you struggle with, the next two tools might be the solution to your problem.
Google Analytics
“Google Analytics is an easy-to-use platform which helps you learn about your website visitors and their behavior. You can find out how they landed on your website, which pages they visited, how long they were there, which devices they used, and who they are (via psychographic and demographic information). This free marketing tool provides an abundance of information that will help you measure and track website visitors, create reports, and make better marketing and communication decisions in the future.”
– Laurel Cavalluzzo, Senior Social & PR Strategist
SEMRUSH
“Search engine optimization (SEO) is critical to driving traffic to your website – and a lot of businesses are just starting to take note of it. SEMRush provides a comprehensive analysis of your SEO work. This all-in-one SEO marketing tool can help you find new keywords, determine how you rank on local search engine results pages (SERPs), review backlinks, see broken links and other page errors, and discover SEO trends.”
– Casey Rogers, Marketing Specialist
Do you need help figuring out what your data is telling you? Consider our Google Analytics Analysis service, where we’ll set up a dashboard that can track and measure the metrics that are important to you. If increasing your organic rankings is important, contact our team of SEO experts to learn how to get started.
CONVERSION IMPROVEMENT
Is your website driving the right traffic? Are you getting qualified leads? If the answer to these questions is no, conversion improvement may be right for you. Updating website features and written content are two ways to start converting more visitors to leads.
Google Optimize
“Google Optimize is a tool that uses Bayesian statistical methods to model the live performance of your experiments, giving you more accurate results. It’s one of the simplest tools for A/B testing, as it allows you to change elements of a website without involving complex programming. You can use its advanced targeting to deploy the right experience for your customers at the right time to avoid interference. When used with other conversion improvement tools like heatmaps and website video recordings, it’s even more effective.”
– Greg Sanders, Principal
Grammarly
“What good is content if it’s unclear, cumbersome, or ridden with mistakes? Grammarly helps make digital communications like emails, blog posts, and social posts clear and free of errors and typos. In addition to grammar, spelling, and punctuation edits, it also offers style and word choice suggestions to make writing even more concise and impactful. Limited access is available for free, and there’s also Grammarly Premium, the upgraded option for a monthly fee. It’s worth the investment because this service delivers much more than your standard spell-check. It’s like having a built-in editor at your service to help you – and your message – shine.”
– Jenny Ragatz, Content Manager
Ready to take the plunge into conversion improvement? Our team is eager to answer your questions about this proven lead-producing tactic. Don’t delay – contact us today.
With the help of these and other digital marketing tools, there are many exciting possibilities for improving your digital marketing strategy. Whether you’re looking to develop a new website or help your existing website perform better, contact our Madison-area digital marketing professionals today.
