Creating a digital marketing plan can be intimidating. There is no shortage of new products and strategies to follow. The internet represents the global marketplace now, and competition is fierce. On top of that, trends change year to year, so what worked before is likely already replaced by the next big thing. What you really need is some good advice and a short list of tools to help you get going.
- Canva.com: Canva is a drag and drop graphics program that eliminates the massive learning curve of some of the more famous platforms, like Photoshop and Illustrator. Their site boasts, it only takes 23 seconds to learn it. This program gives you access to millions of images, free filters, fonts, and Icons. The advantage is that you can produce designer quality graphics on your own enabling you to have full control of the imagery of your site.
- SimilarWeb: SimilarWebis an online intelligence tool that provides you with information about your competitor’s, or any other website. Providing you with a treasure trove of information that you can utilise to make decisions about your own digital marketing plan. Examples of information you can compile are the websites reach, and ranking, social engagement. The site compiles data about traffic, referring sites, and many other useful metrics.
- Survey Monkey: Simply put, this is a paid service that will help you generate surveys to analyse a wide range of concerns, to help make better decisions and build brand loyalty. You can also use it in house, to analyse employee satisfaction and give you a better approach to recruitment and expansion. You can create surveys for any situation to build a base of real statistical information.
- Google Analytics: and its sibling Google Trends are two powerful sources of analytical information for you to track the specifics of your customers experience on your site. And, to predict or to get on board with trends that are occurring, in real time. If you have a digital marketing company, that is a Google Premier Partner, they will have specialists that can take this data and really make it sing. But even for the sole entrepreneur, these sites are packed with information very specific to your site.
- Hootsuite: Hootsuite is a social media management tool that gives you the ability to post across multiple social media platforms. You can use it for scheduled posting, posting to multiple profiles, and targeted messaging. It also has built in analytics to track the performance of your interactions. Social media is an important part of any digital marketing campaign.
- Mailchimp: Mailchimp Is a platform that works with your email. Mail chimp gives you valuable tools to create attractive and effective email marketing campaigns that can be customized and fine-tuned, with a wide or specific audience. You can use Mailchimp with gmail or your own company email accounts.
This is a basic bundle of web marketing tools; but they should be enough to cover most of your needs. Becoming proficient at each one will take you some time, but in the end, you will have powerful control and understanding of your digital marketing plan.