In recent years, digital marketing has become more complex and sophisticated than ever before. As a result, small businesses are struggling to catch up with larger competitors who’ve been using online techniques to market their products or services for years now. Fortunately, you can use many digital marketing tools to improve your performance in the modern marketplace. Here are 8 essential digital marketing tools and techniques that every small business owner should be familiar with and use to improve their online presence and make more money
1) Find out where your audience spends most of the time
It’s critical to find out where your audience spends their time online. Are they on Facebook? Instagram? Youtube? Twitter?
Knowing where your audience spends their time will help you decide which tools you should use to reach them.
This might also help you figure out what questions or comments are important for you to respond to if that’s something you want to do.
Finding out where your audience is spending their time isn’t a difficult task, but it does take some effort—you can use Google Analytics, Alexa, or any other traffic-tracking tool at your disposal.
2) Track engagement with campaigns
It’s critical to track engagement with your marketing campaigns.
Whether you’re running a Google AdWords campaign, a Facebook ad, or an email newsletter campaign that uses MailChimp—all of these mediums are most effective when you see how much it’s being used by analyzing data.
You’ll know what medium is working, who is clicking on what part of your content, and which format is getting them to convert into customers. With tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, MailChimp reports, and Social Report, you can track everything from beginning to end.
This will allow you to make more informed decisions about which campaigns work best so that you don’t waste money on ineffective ones in the future.
3) Use SEO Tools
SEO is important to implement as an essential to any digital marketing strategy
Whether you’re trying to figure out what kind of content is likely to rise through search results or calculating how many links you need to secure a top ranking, you’ll want some basic SEO tools at your disposal.
And since some of these are free, there’s no reason not to set up shop with them immediately.
There are some seo tools that you can use to measure your performance from time to time: eg:- Searchmetrics: For monitoring search rankings, traffic referral sources and more,
4) Dive Into The Data with analysis
To ensure your digital marketing efforts are producing results, you’ll need a way to assess progress and make adjustments.
One of the most common ways marketers do that is by using analysis tools like Google Analytics.
Google Analytics lets you measure just about anything on your website: how much traffic you’re getting, where they’re coming from, what they’re doing while there, etc.
You can also track conversions, which is great if you want to know exactly how many people who clicked on your ad bought something (or signed up for something).
The only problem with analysis tools like Google Analytics is that they require some technical expertise—you have to be able to understand what you’re looking at to use it effectively.
If you don’t have time or interest in learning more about data analysis, consider outsourcing it! There are plenty of affordable third-party companies out there who will analyze data for you—allowing you to focus on other aspects of your business.
5) Create a Sales Funnel
A sales funnel is a series of digital marketing techniques (mostly digital) that turn website visitors into customers.
A new company could have as many as 5-7 funnels, but a more established business will have one main sales funnel.
It’s pretty easy to create a sales funnel in Google Analytics and test which landing pages are getting traffic.
From there, you can use your analysis tools to determine which steps (which funnels) need tweaking to increase conversion rates.
6) Focus on Quality Traffic Sources, Not Quantity
While Google Search may be important, you shouldn’t focus too much on it. In fact, 85% of users ignore search ads completely.
The best digital marketing campaigns are built around creating quality content people want to share or buy, not finding as many eyeballs as possible.
Content marketing is one of our favorite ways to do that. At its core, it involves creating valuable content—blog posts, ebooks, whitepapers—and giving it away freely to attract an audience (which then converts into traffic).
In turn, people are more likely to click on your ad or link when they think your website is full of information that will benefit them. Plus, creating great content can help boost brand awareness too!
7) Boost Engagement By Using Popups
Pop Ups provide one of the easiest ways to encourage engagement with a brand.
They provide a powerful way to display information or a special offer when users visit your site, helping you build trust by placing information in front of them that can help increase conversions.
To make sure your popup is not annoying, it’s crucial to have a clear call-to-action with an accurate description of what they will find when they click on it.
Also, remember that some popup campaigns are sent based on events such as geographic location or time spent on site so that only those who have shown interest in interacting with your brand get targeted messages.
8) See What Works By Tracking Conversions/Actions
You can use several digital tools to analyze your digital marketing efforts. These tools provide different views, allowing you to assess multiple aspects of your digital marketing strategy at once.
Using these tools, you’ll be able to create or update your plan based on solid data about how well it works.
You may even find that certain aspects aren’t working as well as expected; such insight allows you to determine whether there is a better way to approach that aspect of your overall strategy—or if there is something else in your plan that could be altered or eliminated.
In order to be successful in the digital age, it is essential to have a comprehensive understanding of the different tools and techniques available for marketing analysis. This list of 8 essential tools and techniques should give you a good starting point for your digital marketing journey.