Want to Become a Smarter Marketer? Try These Three Analytics & Business Intelligence Tools

Want to Become a Smarter Marketer? Try These Three Analytics & Business Intelligence Tools

Want to Become a Smarter Marketer? Try These Three Analytics & Business Intelligence Tools

&Marketing, and marketing, outsourced marketing strategy

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Now more than ever, marketers have a wealth of tools and data designed to help us not only understand our audience better, but uncover where that audience is living online and what they are actively searching for. This knowledge is vital for marketing strategies designed to meet overall business goals.

Yet, with all this information on-hand and all the tools available to mine that data, many companies today are just revising marketing efforts made popular in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s; which relied on broadly plastering your message or creative assets to as many people as possible and see what sticks.

While you might generate some leads and back into your business goals with this approach, you’ll likely just be wasting time and money when you could be working smarter, not harder.

However, with all of the tools and data out there, it can be overwhelming or down right impossible to even know where to begin and how to leverage all of these glorious resources. Therefore, we’re going to help you find the elusive needle in the hay sack and show you three tools &Marketing leverages to save time, stop guessing, and still generate big results for our clients (and ourselves).

3 Analytics & Business Intelligence Tools to Help You Become a Smarter Marketer

What is it?: Get measurable results from online marketing. Do SEO, content marketing, competitor research, PPC and social media marketing from just one platform. Data is good. Strategy is better. SEMRush gives you both. SEMRush knows a lot about your market and website. It gives you access to the world’s largest database of 20 billion keywords, 310 million ads, and 17 billion URLs crawled per day (“crawled” is a little jargon that means discovering and indexing content) .

But you get more than just numbers. SEMRush analyzes the data for you and gives you instant recommendations on SEO, content marketing and advertising that can help you improve your online visibility in days.

What it’s good for: SEMRush is great for obtaining a full listing of organic keywords that you and your competitors rank for, as well as an idea of how much traffic those terms bring to your site. SEMRush also breaks down competitors’ PPC efforts and acquisition sources. Additionally, SEMRush has recently rolled out a new feature that breaks down keyword intent, which will help you understand the gaps in your content. Lastly, SEMRush does a great job of auditing your website to identify SEO errors and challenges.

How we use it: &Marketing uses SEMRush to back up our organic data, analyze competitors organic and paid search presence research, as well as technical SEO website audits.

An example of a SEMRush Search

What is it?: Google SERP (Search Engine Results Page) tracking for anyone! With large-scale rank tracking and SERP analytics, you’re always the first with the answer to what’s happening on the SERPs. Not only will you be able to generate and monitor organic results, you’ll be able to uncover unknown competitors, content topics, related terms, and more!

What it’s good for: GetStat, founded by Moz, is an excellent tool to track keywords you currently rank for and to generate high level insights on the domains that are ranking for them and all of their related searches…at scale. Imagine having to look up 100 keywords and determining how many related searches there are for each one, how many questions people are asking about each one, and what the top 20 domains that are ranking for each one. GetStat gives you all of that data at scale.

How we use it: GetStat is a great tool to track and monitor keywords we’re looking to target. Additionally, GetStat allows us to generate reports, at scale, of the Top 20 listings, all of the People Also Ask questions (that little box on the first page of Google that tells you what else people are asking about a search query), all of the related searches, and all of the SERP features for ALL tracked keywords.

An example of a Top 20 Dashboard report from GetStat

What is it?: Audience Research. Solved. Forget expensive surveys or inaccurate, manual research. SparkToro finds the websites your customers visit, social accounts they follow, hashtags they use, and more — so you can actually get to know your target audience and do marketing that works.

Over 1,100 marketing agencies, content teams, PR leaders, and market researchers use SparkToro.

What it’s good for: SparkToro is an excellent resource for audience research. Simply type in a phrase that users have in their profile or commonly use, or a website they frequently visit. Then you’re able to uncover demographic information about people who fit that profile, websites they visit, podcasts they listen to, social accounts they follow, and press accounts they trust.

How we use it: We use SparkToro for audience research on our key decision makers. This tool helps us find commonalities in demographics and information consumption across multiple decision makers and helps us form strategies to best reach those audiences.

An example of a SparkToro Search

Data That Helps Uncover Effective Marketing Strategies

These are just a few of the tools we use when we perform a comprehensive Business Intelligence project. The best thing about these tools is that they allow us to export data that can be aligned with one another in data visualization programs like Power BI or Tableau. Once we have all of our data, we can develop dashboards within Power BI or Tableau, that allow us to easily navigate it and help us uncover powerful insights. No more messy excel files and pivot tables and VLookUps. Just clean, easy to read dashboards with data sets that can interact with one another and be easily mined. These insights inform the creation of a successful marketing roadmap so we know the exact steps to take to help our unique clients reach their business goals.

Example of an eCommerce Dashboard

Interested in learning more about our Business Intelligence and Analytics practice and how it can help drive your business and marketing strategy? Check out our Business Intelligence eBook to understand how this powerful process can grow your business.

About the Author

Marketing Director Paul Ferguson helps clients develop fully integrated marketing solutions that make impressions and drive results. Whether it be design-oriented campaigns or digital market execution, Paul skillfully creates strategies to effectively reach client’s desired audiences. Follow Paul on LinkedIn.

About &Marketing

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

Are you facing challenges of your own in generating leads and meeting your business’ growth goals?

We’d love to learn more about your challenges and how a coordinated marketing approach might help take your organization to the next level.

What is SEO? Search Engine Optimization Made Easy

What is SEO? Search Engine Optimization Made Easy

What is SEO? Search Engine Optimization Made Easy

&Marketing, and marketing, outsourced marketing strategy

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When you first start to think about dipping your toes into SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, in order to enhance your marketing strategy—the pool may seem deep and daunting. You may be asking yourself, “Where do I even start?” Generally speaking, you need to start by understanding how search engines work and why they are so important to growing your business.

Search engines like Google and Bing rank your site against competitors and various other sites, offering you a tremendous opportunity to improve your brand’s awareness and ability to be found for keywords that relate to your brand. Without a solid SEO strategy, it will be difficult for your ideal customer to find you when they’re looking for help with the solution to the problem your product or service solves for them.

We have put together a list of ways to improve your Google rankings with little effort. But first let’s start with the basics, like what is SEO?

What is SEO?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, stands for the process of optimizing your company’s website to improve rankings and awareness through search engine sites (most often Google). Due to a large market of people constantly searching for terms across the internet, SEO is essential for your brand to be uncovered by visitors through keyword searches that may or may not be directly related to your brand name.

Further, SEO is a low cost strategy that can produce amazing results for your business. By optimizing your content for search engines, you can ensure your target audience is always able to find you through an organic search. The higher you rank, the more traffic you’re likely to generate to your website. You can save lots of your marketing dollars by not having to pay Google to show your brand on the first page of Google in the search results for the terms that matter to your business.

Here’s How to Improve SEO

Ultimately, SEO optimization is neither a one-and-done activity nor a quick fix. In addition to the time it takes to manually update for SEO best practices, it also requires ongoing monitoring. Keep in mind that improvements take time to register with search engines. We typically instruct clients that it takes 8-12 weeks for SEO changes to come to fruition.

Step 1: Connect Your Site to Search Console

Search Console is a free, highly important tool provided by Google. Specifically, Search Console is your way of telling Google to index your site, thereby improving your search rankings as Google is able to verify the pages directly.

Within the Search Console dashboard, you can review site issues that may be affecting your company’s ability to rank higher on Google. We highly recommend that you review your Search Console Core Web Vitals report to see what URLs may be performing poorly and hampering your site’s rankings.

Further, you can tie back your SEO Results to Google Analytics in order to better understand how visitors are engaging with your site following an organic search click. In case of eCommerce or tracking form submissions through Google Goals, you are able to receive insight into what keywords and pages are driving the most conversions on your site.

Step 2: Add Keywords to Your Page Titles, Descriptions, URL, and On-Page Content

There are three important areas where you must incorporate the keyword you wish to target and rank better for in organic searches. In doing so, you are letting search engines know what your page is about and the answers you have to help address the visitor’s search.

  1. Page Title: The Page Title shows up in searches as the blue header text. Search Engines utilize this data to rank pages and it is often helpful to address top-related questions or create an actionable statement in the page title.
  2. Page Description: Similar to the page title, the page description appears in search results as the small text underneath the title. Search Engines display more content in the page description, giving you prime opportunity to write copy that catches the attention of internet users.
  3. URL: Every page on the internet (outside of the home page) has a URL slug following the domain name. This blog’s URL is “/what-is-seo”. It is highly recommended to make this URL contain the keyword as Search Engines will use the URL to determine rankings. Note: Do not change URL unless absolutely necessary or your page will take time to recover lost rankings from a switched URL.

Step 3: Research and Target Highly Searched Keywords for New Content

As mentioned, SEO is not a one and done strategy. New content is imperative to continue to rank well on search engines and indicates that your site is still relevant and maintained. Creating new content is the most time-intensive part of a good SEO strategy, and there are a lot of places to start.

Most often, SEO strategies recommend targeting highly searched keywords. Using free tools, like UberSuggest, you can research how often keywords are being searched and the types of sites that frequently appear in the top rankings for that keyword.

An easy way to get started is by choosing keywords related to your business and answering commonly asked questions about those keywords. For example, if you sell business consulting services, consider writing an article about what business consulting is. In doing so, you will begin to rank well for highly searched keywords and generate brand awareness.

Step 4: Utilize SERP Features, such as People Also Ask (PAA)

What are SERP Features? SERP stands for Search Engine Results Page and the features indicate the different types of results that Google displays. The most common SERP features include the map pack (i.e. when you are trying to find food near you), People Also Ask (a list of common questions and expandable answers), and the answer box (where search engines display a paragraph that may answer the search query).

SERP Features indicate opportunity in the market to rank well and “bypass” the competition to the first page of search results. In order to bypass, you must optimize your content for the search engine so that information is read and displayed correctly. For example, phrasing your blog to answer a question, like we have done above, tells the search engine that we have an answer for a frequently asked question.

Bonus Tip: Work with 3rd Party Sites, like Capterra or CIO.com, to Obtain Backlink Traffic

In some cases, ranking well for keywords may be very difficult. Big sites, like Wikipedia, Capterra or CIO.com, may own the top rankings in search results for keywords with a major market with little opportunity for brands to gain awareness through their own site. When this happens, consider the phrase “If you can’t beat them, join them.”

A popular strategy for SEO is to partner with these sites and garner backlinks back to your site. For example, sites like Capterra, who review the competitive market, offer opportunities to display your company’s information and in some cases, advertise. By partnering with these sites, you are able to grab traffic through visitors utilizing 3rd party sites to learn more about the companies that offer services they are looking for.

Through site optimizations and strategic content marketing, you can optimize your site for SEO in order to improve your rankings on major search engines. Though it takes time for results to produce, it is a low cost and effective strategy in order to gain brand awareness. Good luck! If you need support starting out or improving your SEO strategy, reach out to us and an expert from our team can discuss specific business needs with you.

P.S. An effective content strategy is critical to strong SEO. Download our complimentary eBook to learn how to create content that will actually attract and convert new customers for your business.

We also recently held a webinar with an expert panel where we discuss how you can develop a marketing strategy that directly aligns with your business goals. You can watch the replay here

Want to talk to someone on our team about how you can put all of these ideas into practice? Just fill out the form below.

About the Author

Marketing Manager Dexter Burgess takes the lead on implementing new tactics and promoting change through data-driven strategies. Dex works hard at client relations through consistent communication and positive feedback, never settling until the customer is understood and happy. 

About &Marketing

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

Are you facing challenges of your own in generating leads and meeting your business’ growth goals?

We’d love to learn more about your challenges and how a coordinated marketing approach might help take your organization to the next level.

Our Top Four Social Media Tips for 2022

Our Top Four Social Media Tips for 2022

Our Top Four Social Media Tips for 2022

&Marketing, and marketing, outsourced marketing strategy

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Concerns over privacy dominated social media in 2021, making these all-important platforms feel more complicated than ever. Given the landscape, it is tough to know where to begin planning for 2022. Thankfully, we’ve done a deep dive into what the experts predict for the coming year and updated our annual Social Media Playbook to share the top 2022 social media tips all in one place. In it, you’ll find a run down of each social media platform ranked in order of importance. You’ll also find highlights from 2021 along with what to expect for 2022.

2022 Social Media Tips to Help You Know Where to Focus

1. Sell, but make it social.

Leads generated from LinkedIn have proven to be substantial and well worth the investment. The problem? Buyers are getting more sophisticated and don’t want to feel like they are being sold to or spammed. This means marketers will need to walk the fine line between promoting their business and engaging with their audience and industry peers in an authentic, meaningful way. Not an easy task, but absolutely essential when it comes to using LinkedIn as a selling tool.

2. Influencers are still…influential. 

Influencers will continue to dominate, especially on image and video-heavy platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Brands that utilize these platforms should absolutely consider using influencers to up their 2022 game. Why? Because the fact remains—when it comes to deciding whether to make a purchase, people trust what other people say about a product or service more than they trust what a brand says. While brands should still communicate directly with its audiences on social media, having a trusted third-party back up a brand’s claims is a powerful way to convert leads to sales.

3. Purpose driven campaigns will dominate.

There is no way around it-—the world changed dramatically over the past few years and with it, so have people’s expectations for how a brand should behave. In 2022, people will expect their favorites to support social causes they care about. This can create choppy waters to navigate, but the payoff is worth it. Cause marketing lends itself to strong audience engagement. And strong audience engagement lends itself to brand loyalty.

4. Video continues to rise to the top.

On almost all platforms, video appears to be taking the lead role. Platforms are investing in new ways to create and post small, snackable videos like Facebook and Instagram reels or YouTube Shorts. Even LinkedIn is rumored to be adding short-form video to its platform. It’s no secret platforms reward videos by making them higher in their algorithms, therefore more likely to show up in your audience’s feed. If you want your content to be seen and engaged with (which obviously you do), opting for video will give you a leg up.

Plan Your 2022 Social Media with Confidence

In a time when uncertainty reigns, knowing what to expect can make it feel impossible to plan with confidence. While there will certainly be surprises in store for what social media will bring us in 2022, it’s important to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s changing. Staying attuned to what the experts are predicting can help marketers come up with a winning strategy. Download the 2022 Social Media Playbook to get ahead of the curve, or fill out the form below to talk through your social media strategy with one of our experts.

We also recently held a webinar with an expert panel where we discuss how you can develop a marketing strategy that directly aligns with your business goals. You can watch the replay here

Want to talk to someone on our team about how you can put all of these ideas into practice? Just fill out the form below.

About the Ann Ehinger

Marketing Manager Ann Ehinger serves as the link between clients and creative to drive projects that deliver results. With over a decade of experience working in the nonprofit, technology, and agency space, Ann is adept at managing a project from idea to completion while navigating all the ups and downs that pop up in between.

About &Marketing

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

Are you facing challenges of your own in generating leads and meeting your business’ growth goals?

We’d love to learn more about your challenges and how a coordinated marketing approach might help take your organization to the next level.