Tools Every Marketer Should Have in Their Toolbox
A marketer is only as great as their toolbox. In today’s ever changing digital landscape, knowing when, where, and how to use these certain tools is essential. Having a robust toolbox means staying up-to-date on competitor knowledge, while also keeping your eyes on the ground for up and coming trends. Because the marketing tactics that worked last year — or even last month — may not work again.
Building your marketing toolbox takes more time than going to the local hardware store. However, just like your dad or grandad’s trusty, tried-and-true toolbox, yours should be stocked over time. You’ll pick up different tactics as you learn and grow in your career. Gradually, some tools may be disregarded and eventually thrown out or replaced. That’s all part of the process and is inevitable as technology advances and adapts.
No matter what your current toolbox looks like, there is always room for improvement. Keep reading to discover a list that all marketers should have at the ready. These three tools will help you do your job better and stand out from the pack.
1. Competitor Analysis
If you think about your competition, you may be able to rattle off a few key details. You may know what their mission is and what they stand for. You may also know who they engage with and how they reach their target audience. However, you may not know the nitty gritty details of their site, including their SEO strategies and their content creation gameplan.
Wouldn’t it be great to be a fly on the wall of your competition’s internal meetings? Well, you can get to know the inside scoop with competitive content analysis. This is a way to see your competitor’s strengths and understand their weaknesses. Although you can analyze other sites yourself, this can be a lengthy, arduous task to undertake. Fortunately, there are platforms available that will do the analysis work for you and provide the data in an easy-to-understand format.
The main benefit of competitive content analysis is to understand what your competitors are doing so you can either match or exceed their standard. For example, if they’re publishing a certain number of videos that are well received by their audience, you may want to follow suit. A competitive content analysis can help you compare how many videos, photos, and links each piece of content should have. The process will allow you to see what gaps your content can fill as well. You’ll be one step ahead of the game and better able to reach and engage your intended audience.
2. Organizational Tool
Staying organized is crucial for marketers, especially for those days when you’re multitasking and trying to stay above water. In a single workday, you may be working on proactive pitches, monitoring social campaigns, and promoting articles. With such a lengthy to-do list, it can be extremely beneficial to set up an organizational tool to keep you and your team level headed!
By taking care of the mundane tasks, organizational tools allow you to be more strategic with your time. You’ll end up spending fewer hours on admin work and more time on creative thinking. These tools also help you collaborate with teammates whether they are sitting a few cubicles away from you or across the globe. This is particularly important in today’s remote and hybrid workforce era.
There are numerous organizational tools and planners available today, each of which have their own strengths. Some can be quite simple, while others may have more advanced options such as delegating tasks to others. Take some time looking at your options before diving headfirst into a single platform. This tool is going to be as fundamental as your hammer, so you’ll want something that you are comfortable with.
3. Reporting Tool
Being a great marketer means getting familiar with data — even if you aren’t mathematically inclined. You need to be able to understand how past campaigns went and how to improve upon them for next time. This means pulling individual data points, such as click through rate and time spent, and analyzing them appropriately. Knowing what kind of content your audience is most likely to engage with will lead to better ROIs, or return on investments, down the road.
You may wonder why you need to rely so heavily on data if you already have a good sense of what your audience likes. Well, it’s all a matter of really knowing them and meeting them where they are in their user journey. It also means you can back up your decisions with data rather than going by mere instinct.
There are numerous reporting tools available to marketers today. Some may provide you with a daily report or synopsis of various data metrics. Others may create customized reporting dashboards for you to share internally or externally depending on the scenario. Try to demo different reporting tools before committing to ensure you understand how it works and that it captures everything you and your team needs.
Takeaways
Marketers need to be flexible and able to work on their toes. Having a toolbox that will automate your tasks means you can be more strategic with your marketing tactics. The tools mentioned above should assist in your workload, allowing you to think bigger and collaborate more effectively. If you ever find that a tool is holding you back, swap it out. Your toolbox needs to be able to handle the job at hand, and you never want to feel weighed down by one that isn’t up to par.
