Digital Marketing Toolbox

Here is a collection of some of the tools and techniques I have come across for monitoring and managing your online presence, from technical statistics to sentiment analysis.

A disproportionate amount of these tools are from Google, so let’s hope they’re not evil.

I will probably add to this post as I find other interesting links and software.

If you have any suggestions of useful sites to add, please comment and I’ll add them to the list.

All of these tools and sources are free to some degree, unless otherwise stated.

Marketing Research

iReach Insights – marketing research company

amas – internet strategy and market research agency

Adwords Keyword Tool – free keyword research tool from Google Adwords

Planning

Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) – guidelines and standards for creating online advertising campaigns

Adplanner – ad planning tool from Google

Social Media Overview

Tools which give you a broad overview or ‘dashboard’ of several social media channels at a glance:

Hootsuite – manage multiple profiles and keep track of when your brand is mentioned

Tweetdeck – just for twitter

Social insights from Google analytics – view social interaction in the context of your website

thinkUp – an open source tool for analysing your social media presence

Schedule posts and content

Write posts and updates in advance and schedule them for release at required intervals:

BufferApp – write posts in advance and schedule them to be published at chosen times

Facebook Scheduling – schedule Facebook updates

WordPress schedule posts – learn how to schedule a post for later publication

Sentiment Analysis

Analyse the overall sentiment or emotions behind posts made about your brand:

Sentiment140 – Twitter sentiment tool

Website performance and statistics

Track your website’s ranking and how it is performing technically:

Alexa – website ranking tool

Google Analytics – powerful, free tool for website traffic and usage statistics

Stat My Web – website ranking, monetary value and other details

Trackalyse – subscription service which allows you to analyse Facebook Page engagement and benchmark your performance against competitors.

Monitor brand mentions

View when your brand is mentioned online:

Social Mention – real time social media activity and brand mentions

Google Alerts – email alerts set for keywords or phrases

Google Blog Search – find out if people mention you in blogs

Offline tools

One of the most useful tools in measuring and planning your online presence is spreadsheet software. Use Libre Office, free and open source office productivity suite, to create the following spreadsheets:

  • List the URLs, usernames, social media platform and what that platform is used for so that you can keep your message focused and appropriate for each online channel you use.
  • Use a template like this one to plan your posts and content across social media and your website.

Places to find more information:

Mashable: http://mashable.com/social-media/

Social Media Examiner: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/

20 free social media monitoring tools: http://smallbiztrends.com/2012/09/20-free-social-media-monitoring-tools.html

2 thoughts on “Digital Marketing Toolbox

  1. Reply
    Elaine McCarthy - December 29, 2012

    Hi Claire, That’s a great list to have. Another tool that is good is trackalyse.com. It’s an Irish company that has developed a Social Media insight tool allowing companies to benchmark their performance against competitors. It’s based mainly on Facebook at the moment but I think they are branching out to cover other social media formats also.

    1. Reply
      Claire Regan - January 4, 2013

      Thanks Elaine, it’s great to include some home-grown tools. I’ll add it to the list.

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