Tools to Add to Your Marketing Toolbox

 

As technology has developed over the last 15 years, we all know it arose with the obsession and novelties of apps, and so the saying “there’s an app for that” came to be. Well, in the digital marketing world, there may not always be an app for that (90% of the time there probably is though, don’t get us wrong) but there most definitely is a program or service or software for that, especially when it comes to marketing research! From third party analytical software to see how well you’re measuring up to your goals, to websites that allow you to set up notifications to see how often people are searching for a specific keyword related to your business, today we’re going to cover some marketing tools you should DEFINITELY have in your arsenal. 

 

Google Trends 

First up is our good friend Google Trends. When it comes to marketing research, Google Trends should be one of your top tools. While originally created for journalists, Google Trends is invaluable to marketers and research around the stuff your target audience is into and looking up. If you haven’t, brainstorm with your team what topics/keywords your ideal consumer or group probably looks up in relation to your brand. 

 

For example, if your brand is centered around dog training, you’re going to want to set keywords related to dogs, dog training, dog care, etc. It’s helpful in seeing what your consumers research the most, and then you can incorporate those trends or keywords into your website and eventually boost your SEO. 

 

Hootsuite

While Hootsuite is a third-party scheduling software that helps you plan out your content and the like, it’s also really good for watching behavior our topics or trends related to your brand on social media. It allows you to keep track of these conversations, increased trends or hashtags, across multiple different platforms, and it can notify you when your brand name or a subject related to you is spoken about. 

 

As social media is basically everyone’s number one priority and is probably one of the biggest influencers of decision making around purchases, this is a great tool to obtain information that can ultimately boost your marketing. If they’re talking about it on social, it’s definitely something you need to know about. 

 

 

UserForge

We’re always talking about making sure you know who your “ideal consumer” is. But did you know there’s a place where you can literally create one? It’s called UserForge. Create your ideal user “persona” in a social media profile like setting, and then when more information from research comes to light you can add it to your many different ideal consumer profiles! They also have a feature that allows you to “map” where you can create paths based on your research. UserForge describes one of the ways to use maps as “creating locations for each step along a customer journey, then draw connections showing the different paths that can be taken.”

 

 

CrazyEgg

This program is SO cool. Essentially, CrazyEgg is a visual website audit. It shows you where most of the clicks on your website take place, which in turn can help you see where to put more of your efforts into and where to move resources. You can also have reports from them that tell you where your website visitors are coming from, where they’re staying/leaving, and how to keep them on your page. It’s a free 30-day trial, and you can also input your homepage URL to get an example of what they do! Having a visual heatmap of where the most activity takes place on your website can provide you with game changing insights.

 

 

Shopify Behavior Reports

If you’re a B2C company and use Shopify, or in the market for a good website building software, Shopify can provide you with a good site AND analytics (best of both worlds, if you ask us). You can see things such as conversions over time (how many people visit your site and purchase something), the top searches your consumers use when looking for a product within your storefront and those they searched that didn’t give them any results, see what are the most popular products your customers have in their shopping cart, and more. 

 

 

Sprout Analytics

We could not write this blog without a shoutout to our favs over at Sprout Social. We use Sprout and we love the analytics reports we get from them. You get reports on top-performing posts, monthly and yearly graphs that show follower growth and loss, where your audience is mainly from growth or loss of impressions, engagement, and clicks, profile views, shares, all things you need in doing marketing research especially for your social channels.  The interface is also user friendly, and while it’s not free, the base package allows for up to 5 accounts, which is a pretty good deal if you ask us. 

 

 

Survey Monkey 

Surveys may be one of the things your consumers find annoying, which is why it’s important to send them with software that makes them engaging and simple and quick. Survey Monkey allows you to create customer satisfaction surveys and other kinds of surveys with their numerous templates that allow for instant feedback and market research. You can also create surveys for your employees as well that can allow for information to better your workspace, which is always just as valuable as market research. 

 

So when you’ve got almost any program to do almost any sort of research you need, you don’t have an excuse to NOT do the research. Besides, good marketing research will change your marketing game, both digital and physical, and so what do you have to lose? With the right statistics, you’ll know the when and where to put your marketing efforts, which will save you time AND money. Who doesn’t love that?