Digital marketing is any marketing activity done in an online setting. From blogs to social media and even email marketing, it all falls under the umbrella of digital marketing. However, to be successful, you need various digital marketing tools at your disposal.
Digital marketing tools include programs to help with
- Search Engine Optimization
- Social Media Marketing
- Lead Capture and Landing Pages
- Email Marketing
Let’s look at how these tools can help and some of the more popular platforms.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is essential for being found on any search engine. However, to be effective at SEO, you must have search engine optimization tools in your digital marketing toolbox.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console helps you monitor and maintain your website’s Google presence. The console’s tools allow you to know how Google sees your site and work to improve you’re standing.
The onboard tools allow you to confirm Google can find your site. If Google can’t see your website, the search engine can’t crawl and index it. It will also help you fix your site’s indexing problems and have Google re-index your site.
Google Search Console will alert you when there are issues with spam or other problems. Additionally, the program shows which sites link to your website.
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is another SEO tool that you should consider. Their keyword ideas generator is simple to use. Start by entering a keyword and select search. Then, the program finds and suggests long-tail versions.
Among the suggestions offered, you can filter by related, suggested, prepositions, comparisons, and questions. These filters can help you find a group of keywords to help build your site’s SEO. In addition, some of these keywords can help you develop related content for later use.
Ubersuggest is not all about the keyword idea generator. You can also dig down and look at the keyword overview, get accurate data about the essential info, and the keyword’s search volume has been trending over the last 12 months.
This service can also perform a site audit. It will tell you about your organic monthly traffic, organic keywords, backlinks, and on-page SEO score. In addition, you can see your critical errors and some recommendations for fixing the problems to boost your SEO score.
SEMRush
Like Ubersuggest, SEMRush is a popular tool that helps you do keyword research, optimize your Google Ad campaign, and analyze competitors. However, one thing that put SEMRush on the map was its organic research feature.
The organic research feature allows you to put a competitor’s website into the program and access data that can help you benchmark your site against your competitor. You gain information on traffic analytics, organic keyword searches and page positions, and traffic costs.
SEMRush also offers a PPC tool that allows you to run your SEO campaigns. For example, you can use the information to see what your competition bids on most often and the exact ads they are running on the terms. In addition, the keyword gap function can help you learn what your competitors rank for and how some of those terms may help you rank.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is an excellent way to get your company out and in front of potential customers. However, social media requires you to post frequently to make the most impact. Therefore, it’s helpful to use a social media marketing scheduler to reduce time.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is one of the more common social media management tools at your disposal. This program helps you save time by managing your social media platforms in one place. In addition, it can make it easier for you to build brand awareness and analyze your social media results.
With Hootsuite, you can create and publish posts from within the Hootsuite account. You can also publish videos or Pinterest pins. In addition, you can pre-plan your social media posts based on your content calendar.
In addition to creating posts in advance, you also monitor all your social accounts in one place. By making streams, you can monitor keywords, topics, mentions, brand mentions, hashtags, and competitors.
Buffer
Buffer is a different social scheduling platform geared towards individuals and businesses alike. This platform allows you to manage social media content on one dashboard, much like Hootsuite.
In Buffer, you can create and schedule posts for your social media platforms. You can schedule multiple posts in advance and have them automatically post to your company’s social media accounts. However, the number of accounts you can connect and how many posts you can preset depends on what type of Buffer version you have.
In Buffer, you can see your social media analytics for the different social media accounts you have attached. It is a newer feature that may not be available on all accounts now. However, you can see a line graph overview of how many people your posts reached and how many likes and interactions you received.
Social Sprout
Social Sprout is a social media management suite that allows you to draft, schedule, and publish content for all your social media accounts. In addition, like its competitor, Hootsuite, you can monitor mentions and keywords from your Social Sprout dashboard.
The calendar allows you to see your schedule weekly or monthly. In addition, you can narrow the calendar to view specific social media profiles, post types, or tags. You can also use the calendar to see the number of posts you have scheduled for the next three weeks.
The intelligent inbox allows you to monitor all message times across different platforms. For example, you can manage post comments, ad comments, regular mentions, story mentions, direct messages, and media tags.
Social Sprout allows you to monitor the content posted on platforms with specific keywords and hashtags. You can also perform reports for each forum to see how many people you engage with and what posts worked best.
Lead Capture and Landing Pages
Building your client base online is a challenge most companies face. However, you can grow your base monthly with the appropriate sales funnels and landing pages. There are digital marketing tools to help you with that task.
ClickFunnels
ClickFunnels is one of the better-known lead capture platforms on the market. It helps you design your company’s sales pages, lead capture, and event funnels to gain new customers. These accounts offer a vast library of funnel templates to choose from.
The plug-and-play funnel templates are what appeals to most businesses. Traditionally, you would have to design a web page or explain it to someone else for design and then wait for them to do the work.
In addition to sales funnels, ClickFunnels also offers share funnels that allow you to create and share a link to your funnel. With these funnels, you can share URLs of your created landing pages with your clients. You can also use them to participate in affiliate programs as well.
Hubspot Marketing Hub
Hubspot Marketing Hub also has a lead capture and landing page creator for those using their service. Their marketing hub service allows the creation of forms, landing pages, and even marketing automation to keep new leads coming in.
The landing page builder comes complete with mobile-optimized templates. These templates have been proven to convert visitors into customers and don’t take long to set up. No web-development skills are necessary.
Hubspot’s lead tracking and management tool allow you to understand the big picture of how every lead. The leads are located in a single database. You can segment and nurture contacts based on the information collected.
Act-On
A final lead capture tool is Act-On. It begins with the email editor. Again, you don’t have to know how to create an engaging email message. These are What-You-See-You-Get editors.
The Act-On system allows you to monitor who opened your emails and who didn’t. You can also see how many people interacted with your email and made it to your landing pages. Additionally, you can test dynamic content to determine what works best.
It does offer lead nurturing and data quality management. There is also an automated sales alerts and tasks feature. In addition, Act-On allows for email marketing, visitor tracking, lead scoring, SEO, and social publishing.
Email Marketing Tools
Email marketing tools are some of the more common digital marketing tools used worldwide. These programs can allow you to cultivate a list of subscribers who want to learn more about what your manufacturing business offers.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is one of the more popular email marketing programs. It offers tools to help you create and send sales emails and newsletters to your subscribers. Their subscription plans are based on how many subscribers you have.
Mailchimp offers digital marketing tool integrations to help you. It has everything you need to set up inbound campaigns, including automated campaigns, forms, and landing pages. It is a good option for businesses requiring an all-in-one CRM solution.
This service does have autoresponders, A/B testing, and transactional emails. You can segment your list to send emails only to a select group of people based on their demographics. Mailchimp has a bounce management service where hard bounces are immediately removed from your list.
Active Campaign
Like Mailchimp, Active Campaign is a platform that will help you organize and automate your email marketing. For example, you can use their drag-and-drop email builder to quickly create newsletters and other email communications using one of their 125 responsive templates.
With Active Campaign, users can choose from several different email types. For example, you can select from SMS, autoresponders, A/B testing, RSS triggered, advanced automation, and classic newsletters. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a transactional email option at this time.
Pro features include having your domain, which makes it possible to use your tracking domain, and improving your newsletter’s company branding.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact is another popular email management platform. It has a wide array of integrations to make adding your contact list simple to upload. You can either copy and paste, manually enter, or upload from a CVS, TXT, XLS, or XLSX file. Customer contact information can also be imported from a compatible customer relationship management tool like Pipedrive or HubSpot CRM.
They also have tools that allow for straight brand marketing and e-commerce-focused marketing. The Ecommerce Pro Plan is for those who want to sell online and market to potential customers. The price is based on the number of contacts with a minimum of 2,500 references.
Email marketing and e-commerce pro plans feature customizable templates that are drag and drop for customization. You can also segment your lists, offer A/B testing, and send automated emails to your subscribers.
Which Digital Marketing Tools Do Manufacturers Need?
Depending on your industrial manufacturing business, you can mix and match the different tools needed. But, for the most part, you will need some way to ensure your site is search engine optimized, formulate and capture leads, and interact with your customers. You may interact with them via social media, email, or both.
A digital marketing firm can help you use all the necessary tools to get your manufacturing company found. Contact us today to learn how we can help your business grow online.
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