Essential Tools for Digital Marketing Agencies
U.S. businesses are expected to spend more than $100 billion per year on digital marketing services by the end of 2019, according to Statista. Whether it’s paid search advertising, email, social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) or content marketing, these services allow businesses to target high-quality prospects with promotional material. If you run a digital marketing agency, consider the following tools to streamline your operations and increase the quality of your services.
Keyword Research Tool
Many digital marketing services can benefit from proper keyword research. By investing in a keyword research tool, you can provide better services for your agency’s clients. If a client wants you to optimize his or her AdWords campaign, a keyword research tool can help uncover high-converting, low-cost keywords. You can also use a keyword research tool to find short- and long-tail keywords for clients’ SEO campaigns. Moz’s Keyword Explorer is one of the industry’s leading keyword research tools. Among other things, it reveals keyword search volume, the difficulty of ranking, opportunity, potential, and importance. Alternatively, you can use AdWords Keyword Planner, which is a free keyword research tool available to AdWords advertisers.
Project Management Software
Trying to juggle dozens of clients simultaneously, each of which has purchased different services, can be difficult, to say the least. If you forget a deadline, the client may take his or her money to a different digital marketing agency. To keep clients satisfied, use project management software to track orders. Basecamp is a popular choice because of its versatility and user-friendly interface. It allows you to create to-do lists, chat with coworkers or clients, post updates on client orders, create a schedule and more.
CRM
Every digital marketing agency needs a customer relationship management (CRM) solution. While the specifications vary depending on the particular product, all CRM solutions are designed to help businesses manage their prospects and customers. Using a CRM allows you to store customer information, set up an email campaign, track leads, manage customer support inquiries and automate sales. It provides a single interface through which you can perform all these tasks, eliminating the need for multiple products.
Google Analytics
Originally launched in 2005, Google Analytics is a versatile website analytics service offered by its namesake company. Although there are other website analytics tools available, Google Analytics is simply unmatched in its level of detail, making it an essential tool that all digital marketing agencies should use. You can easily install Google Analytics on your clients’ websites to collect data on traffic, visitor interactions, search rankings and overall performance.
Email Marketing
Don’t underestimate the importance of an email marketing tool. You can use email marketing to automate follow-up emails with clients and send your clients’ prospects promotional messages. Even if your current email service allows you to easily create and send emails, a dedicated email marketing software or service will streamline the process.
File-Sharing Service or App
As the owner of a digital marketing agency, you’ll probably find yourself sending and receiving files on a regular basis. A client may request that you redesign his or her website, for instance. And once you’ve completed the new design, you must send it to the client. Unfortunately, most email services limit the amount of data you can send in a message. Gmail and Yahoo have a 25MB limit on emails while Microsoft Outlook uses a 20MB limit. Therefore, it’s recommended that you use a file-sharing service or app to send large files.
Now that know which tools are essential for your digital marketing business, go ahead and download them. It may take some trial and error to understand how they work, but it’s well worth the investment of your time and energy.