30+ Must Have Tools For Any Digital Marketer

Online marketing involves knowing a good amount about a whole lot of things; it’s sort of a jack-of-all-trades type of business. It requires the marketer or business owner to have a whole toolbox full of handy things to help them promote their content, improve website traffic, increase conversions, and more.
To help digital marketers save time and fill their toolbox with everything they need, we’ve rounded up thirty must-have online marketing tools for small and big businesses alike. This list includes links to tools from important aspects of digital marketing, such as SEO, social media marketing, content marketing, and analytics. Some of the tools are complex and involved, some are pretty basic. Some of the tools are free, some are not, and some are a bit of both.
Whichever aspect of digital marketing you need the most assistance with, check out the list and you’re bound to find the tool you’ve been missing.

SEO Tools

 1. Google Suggest

Cost: FREE
Google Suggest is an absolute must-have online marketing tool when it comes to finding keywords or content topic ideas. These suggestions can vary by search history, region, and language, but they all come from how people actually use the search engine. So, rather than offering suggestions worded in a way that is best for robots, they word them in a way that is best for people actually conducting the searches.
For example, type in the phrase “pet food coupons” and Google suggests:
1.   Pet food coupons online
2.   Pet food coupons printable
3.   Pet food coupons 2016
4.   Pet food coupons Canada
Try it with just “pet food coupon” and Google offers:
1.  Pet food coupon
2.  Pet food coupon deals
3.  Pet food coupon code
4.  Pet food coupons printable
These are all genuine searches conducted by other people, ranked by popularity. If there are lots of people doing searches for “pet food coupons” and then go type “pet food coupons printable”, that can help make “pet food coupons printable” appears as an autocomplete suggestion.

2. Anchor Text Over Optimization Tool

Cost: FREE
This online marketing tool functions exactly like it sounds, and is a must-have if you’re worried about Google penalties. The Anchor Text Over Optimization Tool allows the user to search for and identify any over-optimized anchor text links on external sites. This is good, because these types of links tend to look unnatural to Google and can end up getting flagged. The tool also lets the user send in a change request directly to the site webmasters.

3. Domain Hunter Plus

Cost: FREE

The Domain Hunter Plus is a free Chrome plugin that lets the user scan the page for any dead links and available domains. It can crawl hundreds of links on just one page, and provides error status codes to make your diagnostic process easier, and even lets the user export results in .csv format.

4. Ubersuggest

Cost: FREE

Ubersuggest is a super handy tool that lets you quickly find a whole batch of new keywords you wouldn’t normally find when using the common Google Keyword Planner (which is still a great tool!). They also have a free KeywordEverywhere extension for both Chrome and Firefox.

5. KeywordTool.io

Cost: Basic is FREE, but the Pro version has several plans, ranging from $48/month to $88/month.
KeywordTool.io is a free online marketing tool lets you get up to 750+ long-tail keyword suggestions for each search term you enter. They’re based on Google searches and the language you select. This tool is a great way to increase your content marketing, especially if you’re trying to drive more people to your website. By using this tool, you get insight into what they are searching for on Google and what they are looking to buy. You can create product offers or content that directly reflects these trends (using these keywords!), which would draw more people to your website.

6. Website Grader

Cost: FREE
Website Grader is a free online marketing tool that scans and grades your site, and then sends the results to you in an email. It evaluates your site based on key metrics like performance, SEO, security, and mobile optimization. If you’re trying to improve your site, boost your SEO, and increase your website traffic, this is a must-use tool.

7. Website SEO Score Checker

Cost: FREE
Its name may be long, but the Website SEO Score Checker tool from Small SEO Tools is easy to use. Just enter in your domain or a website’s URL, check the box to let them know you’re a real person, and then click on “Check SEO” to get a full report. If you’re trying to figure out what you need to improve in order to grow your online presence, this online marketing tool is a must-have.

8. Keyword Density Analyzer

Cost: FREE
The Keyword Density Analyzer from SEOBook lets you find the most commonly used keywords and phrases on any given page. If you’re trying to include enough keywords to boost your content’s SEO, but don’t want to overdo it, this tool is a must-have. It’s also great for learning from your competitor’s, and getting an idea of what keywords they’re ranking for.

9. SimilarWeb

Cost: Trial is FREE, plans are not.
SimilarWeb lets you compare two websites side-by-side. This is great for gaining insight about competitors, and figuring out how you can step up your SEO game.

10. Browseo

Cost: FREE
Browseo lets you see your website in the same way a search engine would. It’s helpful when you want to see the hierarchy you’ve assigned to certain elements of your site, even if you weren’t aware of it. You can also get insight into your website and that of your competitors.

Social Media Tools

11. Hootsuite

Cost: FREE for limited use, but they have plans that start at $9.99/month.

Hootsuite is one of the most popular and widely used online marketing tools for social media management. It has virtually every function you could possibly need, all presented within an easy-to-use format.

12. TweetDeck

Cost: FREE
If you’re going to focus your social media marketing efforts on Twitter, TweetDeck is a definite must-have tool to store in your proverbial toolbox. It makes it easy to see everything at once, manage multiple accounts at once, follow certain tags, check your notifications, and post new Tweets.

13. Buffer

Cost: Limited use is FREE, but plans start at $10/month and go up to $399/month
Buffer makes it easy to share any article/post/webpage you’re currently reading. You can also schedule your own content to be shared across your connected social media accounts.

14. Paper.li

Cost: Basic plan is FREE
Paper.li lets you share content from your own site, or that of others within your industry, and then publishes it in the format of an online newspaper. This is a great way to get your content seen by a new audience, as well as get it in front of others within your target audience.

15. Bitly

Cost: FREE
Honestly, what would a social media tools section be without Bitly? This link shortening tool is incredible useful for posting updates on Twitter, and saves on character space. It also just makes your update look less cluttered!

Content Marketing Tools

16. Prezi

Cost: Plans start at $4.99/month
Prezi lets you create a slideshow presentation that isn’t yawn-inducing. It’s easy to use, and has plenty of templates to choose from. It makes it easy to share information in a visual way, rather than just relying on written content.

17. Blog Topic Generator

Cost: FREE
This content marketing tool does just what it says it will do – it generates topics when you’re stuck in a blog post rut. The Blog Topic Generator is easy to use, and has some great topic ideas.

18. CoSchedule

Cost: Plans start at $60/month
CoSchedule is a must-have online marketing tool that makes it easy to schedule your content across various social media platforms. It also has a handy Headline Analyzer to help you measure how effective your headline is.

19. SlideShare

Cost: FREE
SlideShare functions a lot like a social network for presentations. It’s a great way to put together content for webinars, lectures, and conferences. You create the presentation, and then share it with your audience.

20. Social Studio FX

Cost: $49 One Time ($99 Optional Template Upgrade Available)

Social Studio FX is a simple yet powerful way to make your graphics for your social media and advertising. Easy to use point and click interface, combined with a ton of images and templates, it’s a powerful and highly recommended. Also a best seller of Snaptactix!

21. PicMonkey

Cost: Basic plan is FREE
PicMonkey is a great tool for creating or editing images and website/blog graphics. It’s easy to use, and they have different themes and special fonts and graphics available for different occasions, holidays, and needs.

22. Quora

Cost: FREE
It may not be the first site that comes to mind when talking about online marketing tools, but Quora can be a gold mine for content marketing. You can answer questions others may have, and then link to relevant pages on your site. You can showcase your industry authority by offering expert advice or solutions, and you can drive traffic to your site with blog posts and links.

23. Google Alerts

Cost: FREE
As simple as it is, Google Alerts is one of the best online marketing tools to have when it comes to your content marketing. It lets you keep up on the latest trends and happenings within your industry, providing you with an immediate look into what’s going on. Your brand will be up-to-date on all of the latest information, as it’s published, and able to create or share relevant content.

24. Evernote

Cost: Basic plan is FREE, other plans are $34.99/yr and $69.99/yr
If you tend to have multiple folders with bits of research or notes scattered about your computer, Evernote is a must-have online marketing tool. This lets you save practically anything you find online into a completely personalized folder arrangement that syncs across all of your devices.

25. Twitter Chats

Cost: FREE
Now, Twitter may be a social media site and tool, but the Twitter chats serve as a great resource for your content marketing. You get into discussions with other industry experts and brands, get a feel for what’s trending right now, and find out what the hot issues are. It also helps you see what your prospects are currently interested in, what they’re struggling with, and what solutions they are looking for. It gives you a focus for your content, and provides an excellent way of demonstrating your brand’s value.

26. Pixel Studio FX

Cost: $67 (one time only!)

Pixel Studio FX is a user-friendly web app makes it easy to create eCovers for your online marketing business. It also includes an Enterprise/Commercial license for free, so you can sell these designs as your own and still keep 100% of the profits.

Analytics Tools

27. Google Analytics

Cost: FREE, but premium plans are available
The biggest name in analytics, Google Analytics has everything you could possibly need to track the effectiveness of your website content, campaigns, and other types of marketing collateral. You can see how many people access your site, where they come from, how long they spend on each page, how many pages into your site they venture, and more. It’s a complex online marketing tool, but designed in a way that makes it extremely user-friendly.

28. ClickTale

Cost: Free demo, priced plans
ClickTale is a handy online marketing tool that provides video recordings of real user sessions. This lets you go through and see what people clicked on, what they didn’t, and what they interacted with the most.

29. SubjectLine

Cost: FREE

If your subject line isn’t compelling enough, your subscribers or other recipients probably won’t bother to open them. So, how do you know whether or not your subject line is enticing? SubjectLine is an easy-to-use online marketing tool that will analyze your subject line and tell you where to improve.

30. Formisimo

Cost: FREE trial (7 days), plans range from $50/mo to $180/mo or POA/mo
Formisimo picks up where other analytics tools leave off. They can tell you which pages were visited, where your visitors came from, and what they did on your site. What they can’t tell you is why your visitors left without converting to customers or subscribers. This online marketing tool can tell you exactly that.

31. Piwik

Cost: FREE, but you must download it and host it on your own server
Piwik offers a lot of the same features other analytics tools do, including visitor maps, keyword search, and session tracking. However, this tool takes things one step further by offering a mobile app and unlimited data storage. The setup is pretty complicated, and the program is a bit involved, but the dashboard can be customized to fit your preferences and needs.

32. ClickPerfect

Cost: FREE for 30 days, $19/month after

ClickPerfect is custom software was built from the ground up, designed as an easy-to-use click tracking click targeting platform. This tool lets you mask/cloak links and track their clicks in real time. Tracking every click on your site can help you maximize your audience reach and revenue, making this tool an absolute must-have.
Choose an online marketing tool from each section to try out.
Oh and don’t forget to like this article and share with your fellow digital marketer.
If you found a new tool from our TOP 30 list to help in your marketing efforts, I’m sure they will too!
Make sure you let us know which tools you use and which ones you plan to get in the comment section BELOW!

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How to Use a Facebook Contest to Promote Your Business

FACEBOOK has emerged as one of the most influential social networks in the world.  It has also become a platform for companies to increase their reach and promote their business. However, one of the most highly interactive ways to do so on Facebook is also one of the most under-used: a contest.

Contests provide a great opportunity for businesses to generate a buzz, and increase brand recognition. Here, we will outline the process of hosting a contest on Facebook to promote your business.

Step 1. Preparation

Using a contest requires preparation, but first and foremost, you should review Facebook guidelines for organizing a promotion. Knowing the rules and guidelines set forth by Facebook will allow your contest to be completely legitimate. This is vital to your success so we recommend you read the guidelines in their entirety. To summarize, any promotion on Facebook (such as a contest or sweepstake) must contain:

• Official rules
• Terms and eligibility requirements
• A complete release of Facebook by each entrant or participant

Once you are familiar with Facebook’s rules, spend some time researching other contests that have been successful. Explore feedback, review what participants have said about previous contests and take note of which contest posts had the highest engagement.  This will help you establish some best practices for organizing a Facebook contest, and be informed about current contest trends.

Expert tip: Optimize research by seeking out competitors in your niche. Targeting preparation by investigating your competition will help maximize results.

Finally, establish a method for hosting the contest. While a Facebook page may be used for this purpose, you may find a hosting app to be more suitable. Hosting apps often feature contest management tools, quantifiable insight and reporting components, branding capabilities and more. Fandom Marketing recently published a top 10 list of the Best Social Media Contest Apps, which is a great reference to get you started.

Expert Tip: Contests may be administered on Fan Pages, Business Pages or within apps on Facebook. Personal Profiles may not be used for sponsored promotions.

Designed by Freepik

Step 2. Planning

Once you have finished preliminary research and preparation, move onto planning your specific contest. Every social media marketing strategy needs a solid plan, but not every marketer knows where to start. If this is your first Facebook contest, here are some important things to keep in mind:

• Budget – Will your contest require hosting, traffic/advertising? How much will be spent on prizes?
• Promotion – How will participants learn about your contest? Ads, Emails, Social Media Posts, Etc.
• Contest Length – What are the start & end dates? What is the length of time allowed for entries? When are winners announced?
• Entry method – How do participants join? What information is required to do so?
• Participants – Who can participate? Amount of entries allowed (total, and per person)?
• Prizes – What are they? What value do they bring?
• Winners – Number of winners? How they are determined?
• Legal Documents – Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, Etc.
• Goals – What quantifiable results do you want to achieve? What is your baseline for success?
• Tools – Does your hosting app cover the basics? Do you need other solutions to track statistics and measure goal achievement?

Each of these components will be important when it comes time to take action. Be sure you set yourself up for success and plan accordingly.

Expert tip: Planning sets the stage for your entire promotion, and can make or break your contest. Don’t skimp on time or effort with this step!

Step 3. Take Action

With a defined plan, you are ready to take action. Begin by implementing the contest strategies outlined during the planning phase.

Compile your prizes, sign up for your hosting app, and create the content needed for your contest. For example, if your advertising plan centered around using your email list to reach previous customers, design an effective series of messages that will help you reach these subscribers and urge them to participate.

Then, up your engagement! Since Facebook is a social network oriented towards user interaction and social relationships, connect with participants.

The end goal here is to promote your business, right?  So, take this time to really interact with Facebook users who are interested in your contest. Use the research compiled during your preparation phase and post some targeted and highly engaging updates.

Expert tip: Engagement matters! Ask questions. Answer questions. Like. Share. Post pictures and spread the word about your contest. 

Step 4. Monitor

Planning and hosting a Facebook contest is great for promotion but don’t stop there! We also recommend that you closely monitor performance metrics.

By carefully monitoring your contest, you have the opportunity to notice if an ad doesn’t convert, if a link is broken, if a follower posted an inappropriate comment or anything else that could be having a negative effect on your promotion.

Observing statistics during your contest allows you to recognize issues and, more importantly, adjust accordingly. For example, if paid advertising for the contest is not resulting in conversions – quickly pause your campaign, revamp your ad to increase the click-through-rate and encourage more Facebook users to join your contest.

Crisis (and wasted funds) averted.

Step 5: Analyze

You set out to host a contest, so once the contest is over and prizes have been awarded, you’re done, right?

Well, kudos on the follow through, but since the real goal was to promote your business your work is still not quite finished: The final stage of organizing a Facebook contest involves analyzing the results.

Analysis is important because it helps you determine:

• If you met your planned goals
• What worked and what did not
• If this type of promotion is worth repeating

The best way to analyze your results? Compare the before and after.

Use trackable links and other marketing tools to compile data and make comparisons based on standard metrics. If you chose an application for hosting, this is a great opportunity to review the data, and analyze the efficiency of your Facebook contest. The more information you gather before, during and after the contest, the better.  When it comes to analysis, you want to have a well rounded set of data to reference and draw conclusions from. This information will help you set standards for future marketing efforts.

Wrapping It Up

Facebook contests can be a viable marketing strategy to generate results for your business. A successful contest goes beyond just having participants and giving away prizes; requiring preparation, planning, action, monitoring and analysis. These steps offer a guide to building a contest that will promote your business to a larger audience and with real, tangible results.

Over to you! Take a minute to post comments or share any ideas you have about Facebook contests. Have you used them before? What worked, and what didn’t?

We’d love to hear from you!

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The Art & Science of a Successful Modern Marketer

It is no simple task for a business to be successful at marketing today.

Marketers no longer have the luxury of specialization. In order to compete and thrive, they need a wide variety of skills – skills that incorporate both creativity from the right hemisphere of the brain and analytical thinking from the left hemisphere.

In short, today’s successful marketer must be both artist and scientist, because what works in marketing is both an art and a science.

Salesforce created a fantastic infographic that breaks down todays modern marketer. Here are eight key skills they identified, in greater detail (four artistic and four analytical) that every modern marketer must develop to ensure they adapt and flourish in today’s rapidly evolving world of marketing.

The Modern Marketer

Source: The Modern Marketer: Part Artist, Part Scientist [INFOGRAPHIC]

Part Artist

Written Content

Writing as a skill has become vital for modern marketers.

Content marketing, often in the form of written articles, is now a big component in many brand’s sales funnels. It plays a very important role in how brands are able to be found (through search engines or social media platforms) and then build relationships with their target market. This written content helps their market to know, like and trust them, which is a necessary step before most people will consider a purchase.

Whether or not you are naturally skilled at writing, you can develop this skill with practice. Good research and topic knowledge is vital. It also pays to have one or more good editors review your work to ensure that your content is professional.

Here are nine essential qualities when creating quality content.

Visual Assets

Content marketing is not just written content. It also includes a much broader scope that includes visual assets like video, images, graphics, memes and infographics (like the one in this article).

People love visual content. It is quickly consumed and easily shared.

It has the ability to connect emotionally and covey an entire story, in seconds.

Modern marketers need to be comfortable creating (or at the very least curating) visual marketing that will appeal to their target market.

Great tools for creating your own visual content (that I often use) include apps such as Adobe Spark Post and Canva.

Social Media

The power of social media is that it is often the best place to locate and or build relationships with your target market.

Let’s be honest… most people own a mobile device that travels with them everywhere they go and the chances are very good that that your target market uses one or more social media platform on their device.

You need to know which platforms those are and how to use them efficiently and effectively to reach and engage with your prospects and clients.

Social media can be an amazing marketing tool – if you know how to use it properly. Anyone who has spent any time on social media knows just how easy it is to lose precious time in the time vacuum that is social media. That is having clearly defined goals for social media, understanding what platforms you need to be using and how to use them effectively in the time you have is SO IMPORTANT.

Learn how to create your own social media strategy and action plan.

Email Marketing

Despite what you may have heard, email marketing is not dead. Far from it.

It is still a very important asset and tool of successful marketers.

Let me give you one extremely good reason for this:

You OWN your email list.

I will say it again. You own and control your email list – unlike social media platforms where you are at the mercy of their constant changes. You could literally build up an entire audience on a social media platform and lose access to them with one sudden change to the platform. This happened in the not so distant past on Facebook, when they adopted their business model to a ‘pay to play’ model.

Those that created and maintained their email list were not as hard hit as those who didn’t, as they still had access to their audience through their email list.

Don’t let all your hard work building an audience go to waste. Besides, email is far superior in terms of actual conversion.

Part Scientist

Performance Tracking

While creating content, using social media and incorporating email marketing is absolutely essential to successful marketing, not everything you do will be equally successful. Some of the things you do, when you take time and cost into account, will produce a poor ROI (return on investment).

By tracking the performance of all of your activities and campaigns, you can identify the low ROI activities and either modify them to produce better results or eliminate them and replace them with activities that produce a higher ROI.

Your time and money are far too precious to waste on costly or ineffective marketing methods.

Here are 14 tools to track key performance indicators for your business.

Operations

Usually, the larger the company, the more complicated the running or overseeing of the marketing operations will be. Whether you are a part of a large marketing department or a small business owner, it is likely you will need to understand and work within the strategy created and budget allotted for marketing.

Depending on the size of the company and your position, you may be required to create and or run the marketing operations, which can include tasks such as creating a marketing plan and budget, managing and tracking spending at a detailed level and managing project collaboration and execution.

Analytics

While tracking the performance of your activities is crucial, you need to be able to make sense of the data you collect.

Thankfully there are a number of analytics tools that can help you do this. These range from event based tools like KissMetrics (behavioral analytics) to traffic oriented tools like Google Analytics (a free and widely used website analytics tool), to search engine analytics tools like Google search console (also free and lets you analyze your organic search traffic), to marketing dashboard tools like Cyfe (an all-in-one dashboard) and many others.

While some of these tools are, free or have free versions, the paid tools can be worth the investment to ensure that what you are doing is working or producing the results you want.

Campaign Performance

Campaign performance looks deeply into the ROI of each marketing campaign you run.

Simply explained, ROI is how much revenue you get back for each $1 you spend. A positive ROI means that you are making more than you spend and a negative ROI means you are losing money on your marketing campaign.

To properly track and analyze your campaign performance you will need to determine the channels you are going to track (email, paid, social, organic search, referral, direct, etc.) and the metrics you want to measure (lead conversion, individual visitors, click through rate, bounce rate, social media effectiveness, email opening, etc.). Again, you can do this with a number of tools, which range in features and cost.

Wrapping Up

The modern marketer needs to possess a wide range of skills in order to adeptly navigate today’s quickly and ever changing world of marketing. Thankfully there are many tools, apps and various software, which can assist you to competently create content and engage your market, all the while tracking, measuring and analyzing the results of those efforts. This will allow you to make informed decisions to improve your results in the future.

What challenges have you encountered as a modern marketer? Is there a particular tool that you couldn’t live without? Let me know in the comments below.

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Dominate Social Media With 3 Killer Metrics

DO YOU remember when metrics were all about hard data? You looked at spreadsheets that contained inbound searches, conversions, and other numbers, then used those numbers to determine how well your campaign was performing. That wasn’t a lot of fun, but at the time, it was effective.

Luckily, social media has managed to move metrics beyond hard data. You already know that you need to pay attention to “Likes,” referral traffic, and other common social media metrics. What you may not realize is that there are other important metrics that brands often forget about.

These metrics go beyond “Likes” – they let you see what is really going on with your customer base and stay on top of your social media presence. Now you have the opportunity to gauge how people feel about you – allowing you to see the people behind the numbers.

Suddenly, you see “Joe” and “Sue” instead of “Customer X” and “Customer Y.”

Brand Sentiment

Brand sentiment is one of the best ways to find out what Joe, Sue, and the gang have to say.

First, though, let’s take a closer look at this metric.

Brand sentiment refers to the emotion that people display when they mention your brand. Most people are emotional on social media, so with brand sentiment, you can measure happiness, annoyance, excitement, anger and more to get a better idea of how people view your company.

In fact, studies have shown that messages online could influence emotions offline, allowing you to really tap into a positive emotional state and link that – in a productive way – to your brand.

This emotional aspect goes beyond simply looking at mentions, and gives you insight into how people truly feel when they interact with you, or are exposed to your content on social media.

Measuring Brand Sentiment & Using the Results

As much as you may want to make your least favorite employee measure every social media mention, there is a better way to assess brand sentiment.

Social Mention is one of the best tools out there. Type the name of your brand into the site’s search bar and you will get sentiment statistics across various networks. You will see the number of positive, neutral, and negative mentions and get a sentiment ratio.

Hootsuite Insights is another great option. You can get a report for overall sentiment and then break it down by location, gender, and language. That way, you can determine whether your sentiment is solid across the board or if you have weak spots that you need to address.

You’ll need to gauge your brand sentiment on a daily basis, checking for any positive or negative changes. If you notice a drop in sentiment, you should determine what caused the decline.

A drop may have to do with something in your industry, or it may be brand specific. Either way, you need to address the problem so your brand sentiment doesn’t continue to slide.

This is obviously going to take some trial and error, but if you catch the issue quickly by monitoring your results, you’ll be in much better shape.

Plus, once you get the hang of it and start taking the right action to get things back on track – your public perception will be back on the upswing. Let’s face it – Brand Sentiment is really like a popularity contest, and you always want to come in first!

Customer Response Rates

Brand sentiment is just one piece of the puzzle. Put another piece in by measuring your customer response rates.

According to a social media industry report by Sprout Social, 43 percent of the messages people send to brands on social networks require a response. That is a huge increase from the 15 percent that required a response in Quarter 3 of 2013.

Unfortunately, a lot of brands haven’t made the adjustment to this change. They either don’t check their social media inboxes on a regular basis, or check them but treat the platform the same way they treat email. They will get to it when they get to it. It might be a day, or it might be a week.

If you find yourself getting lazy about responses, it could cost you some customers. While you might want to wait until tomorrow, it’s a good idea to take action today.

If you fail to message people back in the timeframe they want, you can expect to experience a fall out. Sixty percent of people say they dish out some type of negative consequence when they don’t receive a timely response, including telling their friends and family, escalating the concern, or buying less from the company in the future.

So, without adequate follow up, you could be setting yourself up for a negative – and public – response from over HALF of the customers who reach out to you!

Let’s look at how to avoid that, shall we?

Measuring Response Rates & Using the Results

Use an analytics tool like Sprout Social to track response rates and streamline replies. Once you have your rates in hand, work on improving them to really optimize your customer relations.

Need some hard quantifiers to get started? Aim to keep your response rate within an hour or two to really maintain customer happiness.

According to Search Engine Watch, 65 percent of Twitter users expect a response within two hours when they send a message to a brand. The percentage goes up when people send complaints to brands. In fact, 72 percent of people expect the brand to message them back within an hour when they submit a complaint.

You can always get faster, whether you need to hire a team dedicated to responding to messages or provide around-the-clock service.

Share of Voice

So far, you have looked at metrics that focus on your brand. Now, it’s time to switch gears and look at a metric that focuses on your competitors.

You need to see how you stack up against the competition, which is why the share of voice metric is critical.

Share of voice (SOV) refers to the number of mentions your brand receives when compared to the number of mentions that your competition receives. For example, if brands within your industry receive 100 mentions, and you end up with 50 of those mentions, your SOV is 50 percent. That is fantastic and really shows the influence of your brand within your target group AND niche.

On the other hand, if you only have 5 mentions, your share is at 5 percent. That means you need to roll up your sleeves and get to work to improve it.

Share of voice is about more than just dominating the conversation. It can also help you increase your market share. According to the Nielsen Company, if your share of voice is larger than your share of market, your market share will grow. The research company states that if your SOV is 10 points higher than your share of the market, your market share will grow half a percent. The percentage continues to go up as your SOV increases.

Measuring Share of Voice & Using the Results

Analytics programs make measuring your share of voice a snap. You can compare keywords to see which brand is dominating the market. You just need to run a report comparing the keywords to determine how you fare against the competition.

For some quick tips on breaking down your own personal results, be sure you have a Social Mention search ready to go, and then take a look at this quick article on creating a Share of Voice Report by Convince & Convert.

This quick analysis will really help you know where you stand. This is a great – and useful – way of levelling the playing field, simply by being in-the-know.

From there, you can up your game, and increase your SOV accordingly. Simply spend some time looking at what your top competition is doing, and take some notes about where you can improve:

• Does your competition have consistently active viewers due to really engaging posts?
• Is their content upbeat and positive, increasing their brand sentiment?
• Do they reply quickly to customer mentions, which results in a great customer response rate?

See how quickly each of these killer metrics become interwoven, and how they are all so important?

Coming Full Circle

When it comes to analytics, a lot of the most important metrics get ignored. But, being aware of the impact certain stats can have – and how they influence each other – may really help you hone in on the best marketing plan for your social media efforts.

Brand sentiment, response rate and share of voice can each provide a snapshot of how your strategy resonates with your viewers. All together, they become a powerful assessment of your overall performance and reputation on social media.

Get started now: add these analytics to your marketing strategy so you can improve your customer experience and your bottom line.

While you’re at it, take a quick look at these ways to boost your social media efficiency and really up your social media game!

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