Tis’ the season to be thankful. These marketing tools are what we’re thankful for because they make our work lives easier!
Google Analytics
Imagine if there was a tool that could track your website traffic: how many users, where they’re coming from, what they’re doing on your site… Wouldn’t that be great?!
Of course, Google Analytics isn’t a new tool by any means. However, a lot of companies don’t get the most out of it. We utilize this tool daily to analyze everything on your website. Not only are we thankful for it, but we frankly couldn’t live without it.
Google Ads Keyword Planner
We’ll stick with Google because, believe it or not, the company knows what it’s doing when it comes to digital marketing and advertising. Even though it says “Google Ads,” this tool is perfect for both paid strategies and organic SEO.
The tool shares a ton of useful keyword information, including search volume, competition levels, estimated Cost-Per-Click (CPC) bids, and even how the search volume is trending. Google also suggests relevant keywords and displays comparative data so choosing your keywords is as easy as possible. You can target specific locations to see how much traction a keyword gets in that area.
Once you have your list of keywords compiled, you can use the forecasting tool to help project a campaign’s success – before you even launch it!
Facebook Creative Hub
With the holidays quickly approaching, you’re sure to see more and more ads on Facebook. A good percentage of those ads – if they’re done correctly – are first mocked up in the Facebook Creative Hub. This is a tool within the Facebook Ads Manager portal where users can upload creative, test out new ads, and more without actively launching them.
It’s really simple to use and allows us to preview how certain creative looks on both desktop and mobile devices. Plus, once we’re satisfied with the ad’s layout, we can click a button to launch directly within a campaign.
Buffer
Our digital team manages social media for a lot of different clients. Rather than signing into one client’s Facebook page to post, then a different client’s Twitter, and a third client’s LinkedIn, Buffer makes it simple. Each client has a portal where we connect their individual social accounts. From Buffer, we can post and manage all of their accounts in one place.
Buffer also allows us to schedule posts in advance. Not only that, but Buffer analyzes each platform and suggests the best time to post in order to get the most engagement. The tool has a robust reporting feature that tracks engagement, account growth, and more.
Basecamp
And finally, what if there was a tool that could keep an entire agency on the same page? A tool that could keep people connected remotely while plugging away on those countless campaigns and projects?
We are definitely thankful for Basecamp. It’s a project management tool that simplifies communication across different departments throughout the agency. It uses a tiered hierarchy structure which makes finding projects, messages, and more very easy.
We organize our Basecamp by client. Then, each individual project gets its own page. Within that page, we can post files, share messages, assign to-dos to team members, and more.
A tool is only as strong as the people who use it (and use it correctly). Investing in expensive marketing and advertising tools is silly if your employees aren’t properly trained and able to use it to the fullest extent.
One problem we consistently see is that companies have a vast arsenal of tools at their disposal that aren’t being utilized properly. It doesn’t make sense to employ all these tools (especially if you’re paying for them on a monthly or yearly subscription basis) if you aren’t getting the most out of them.
Our team strives to be the most knowledgeable users for each of these marketing tools. We consistently talk with reps, sit through webinars, and even attend hands-on training to ensure we’re getting the most out of our investment. That way, we can use these tools to provide unbeatable services to our partners – which makes them pretty darn thankful for us.
