digital marketing tools mar 2016

8/19/2019 Digital Marketing Tools Mar 2016

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DIGITALMARKETING TOOLS

HOW TO

GET YOUR

FIRST 1000FOLLOWERS

ON PINTEREST

SPECIAL:

Digital Marketing Tools Magazine | Issue 33 | March 2016

99 ONLINEMARKETING TOOLS

YOU WON’T BE ABLE

TO LIVE WITHOUT

USINGFOR MASTERFULCONTENT MARKETING

N 2016TWITTER

ANALYTICS:HE ONLY GUIDEOU’LL EVER NEED

9 WAYS TO CONVERT

SOCIAL MEDIAFANS/FOLLOWERS

TO REAL LEADS

DIGITALMARKETING

RENDS THAT WILLDISRUPT YOUR

BUSINESS

CONTENT

STRATEGY

PRACTICES

HAT WILL MAKE YOU

A BETTERCONTENT

MARKETER

3

TOP 10

MARKETING

TIPS WHEN YOU

HAVE NO

BUDGET


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© Digital Marketing Tools Magazine 2016

Nick Nicholls

theDigitalFactor.net

2850 Shoreline Trail

Suite 56

Rockwall, TX 75032

Website: http://digitalmarketingtools.com

Email: [email protected]

Design and Layout by Lise-Mari Coetzee

www.coetzeepublishing.com



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4/954Digital Marketing Tools Magazine

Contents

05 EDITORS THOUGHTS

07 COVER STORY 99 Online Marketing Tools You Won’t Be Able to Live Without

by Larry Kim

FEATURE STORIES

35 3 CONTENT STRATEGY PRACTICESThat Will Make You a Better Content Marketer

by Joe Pulizzi

39 5 DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDSThat Will Disrupt Your Businessby Jeff Bullas

47 TWITTER ANALYTICS; THE ONLYGuide You’ll Ever Needby Ian Cleary

62 USING LINKEDIN FOR Masterful Content Marketing in 2016by Brian Honigman

75 TOP 10 FACEBOOK MARKETINGTips When You Have NO Budgetby Kim Garst

79 9 WAYS TO CONVERTSocial Media Fans/Followers To Real Leads

by Melonie Dodaro

RESOURCES & REVIEWS

83 CONTRIBUTOR BIO’S

93 DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLSHow to Get Your First 1000 Followers on Pinterest



Editor’s Thoughts

Welcome to Digital Marketing Tools!

Thank you to everyone who clicked thelink below and took my quick survey. Yousaid you wanted more Social Media Toolsand Content Marketing Tips.

My goal is to bring you the latest digitalmarketing tools, practical step-by-stepguides and ‘how-to’ blueprints from thebest digital, social and content marketingmasters on the planet!

That said, here are the latest marketingstrategies, Content Marketing tools andSocial Media blueprints from today’s topdigital marketing professionals. 99 ONLINE MARKETING TOOLS YOUWON’T BE ABLE TO LIVE WITHOUT

3 CONTENT STRATEGY PRACTICES

THAT WILL MAKE YOU A BETTER CON- TENT MARKETER

5 DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS THATWILL DISRUPT YOUR BUSINESS

TWITTER ANALYTICS: THE ONLY GUIDE YOU’LL EVER NEED

USING LINKEDIN FOR MASTERFULCONTENT MARKETING IN 2016

TOP 10 FACEBOOK MARKETING TIPSWHEN YOU HAVE NO BUDGET

9 WAYS TO CONVERT SOCIAL MEDIAFANS/FOLLOWERS TO REAL LEADS

SPECIAL: HOW TO GET YOUR FIRST1000 FOLLOWERS ON PINTEREST

Please connect with our contributors andtell me what you think!

Nick Editor-in-Chief


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by Dan Shewan

In this post, we’ll be rounding up our top 99 online marketing tools. In this list is

(almost!) every tool you’ll ever need to master (almost!) every aspect of a digital

marketing campaign, from PPC and SEO to social to content and email marketing.

Some tools are very specic, whereas others offer robust, diverse functionality. Some

are free, others are not. Either way, you can check out the whole list, or skip to the sec-tion you’re most interested in:

• PPC Tools

• SEO Tools

• Social Media Tools

• Content Marketing Tools

• Analytics and Conversion Rate Optimization Tools

99 Online Marketing ToolsCover Story

You Won’t Be Able to Live Without



PPC Tools

1. AdWords Editor

If you work on large campaigns or multiple campaigns in Google AdWords on a regular

basis, you’ll need AdWords Editor.

The recently redesigned interface makes working in AdWords Editor much easier, and

the new suite of tools has almost everything a PPC marketer needs for bulk editing.

Essential.

Cost: FREE

2. Keyword Planner

Google’s Keyword Planner is a similarly essential tool. Although you need an AdWords

account to use it, the Keyword Planner isn’t just for PPC; it can help identify a wide

range of keywords and associated data for uses in your AdWords campaigns as well

as content marketing and SEO.

Cost: FREE



3. Bing Ads Editor

With Bing Ads becoming an increasingly popular PPC platform, the Bing Ads Editor is

your all-in-one companion for managing your Bing Ads campaigns.

Cost: FREE

4. AdWords Scripts

Many PPC marketers have discovered the power and exibility of AdWords Scripts

to help them automate tasks that would otherwise eat into their precious time. If you

haven’t checked them out, maybe it’s time to give them a try!

Cost: FREE

5. AdWords

Performance

Grader

WordStream’s AdWords

Performance Grader (which we

recently improved!) performs

a thorough PPC audit of your

AdWords account in 60 seconds

or less, completely free. See

what you’re doing right, and

where you could improve, and

see a greater return on your

AdWords investment.

Cost: FREE

6. Bing Ads Intelligence

Although Bing Ads has intentionally made its experience as similar to AdWords as

possible to help advertisers make the transition or run complementary campaigns,

one area Bing excels in is its reporting functionality. The Bing Ads Intelligence suite of

tools offers some remarkable reporting, so if you’re serious about Bing Ads, be sure to

explore Bing Ads Intelligence.

Cost: FREE



7. Bing Ads Grader

Like WordStream’s AdWords Performance Grader, but want to see how your Bing Ads

account is doing? No problem. The WordStream Bing Ads Performance Grader will

evaluate the strength of your Bing Ads account and provide step-by-step advice on

how to improve.

Cost: FREE

8. PPC Keyword Wrapper

SEO Book’s Keyword Wrapper offers a great deal of value to PPC marketers. Simply

enter one or more keywords, then “wrap” them into groups according to match types

such as broad, phrase, and exact – or all three!

Cost: FREE

9. Google Trends

Search trend data can be incredibly valuable to PPC marketers – so you can adjust

campaigns to match seasonal demand – and Google Trends is one of the best free

sources of this information out there.

Cost: FREE

10. Phrase Builder

Need a ton of related keyword ideas in a hurry? Phrase Builder is a great tool for

quickly generating related keyword lists based on your input criteria. Useful for building

large lists of keywords.

Cost : FREE

11. Analysis Toolpak for Excel

Personally, I barely use Excel’s core functionality on any given day, but for power users,

the Analysis Toolpak for Excel adds a whole bunch of additional features that are useful

for PPC marketers hoping to wring even more out of their Excel workow. Learn how

to install it here, then check out what it can do here.

Cost: FREE



12. Soovle

Similar to Google Suggest – but with a lot more data – Soovle lets you see autocomplete

suggestions instantly from not just Google, but several other sites including Wikipedia,

Amazon, and YouTube. Very handy, but it’s worth noting that Google plans to cut off

access to the autocomplete API in the near future, meaning Soovle will only be able toprovide results for other search engines when this happens.

Cost: FREE

13. Convertable

One of the biggest challenges in lead generation campaigns is learning enough about

your leads to qualify them. Convertable makes this easier, offering much more data

than traditional forms allow, providing you with data on everything from the browser

they used and their operating system to the trafc source and the keywords theyentered, as you can see in the screenshot below:

Cost: FREE



14. UberSuggest

One of the most popular third-party tools for PPC marketers, UberSuggest works

similarly to other suggestion-based tools, but also offers robust foreign language

support and some other nifty functionality. Again, when Google sunsets access to the

autocomplete API, this tool might disappear, but for now, it’s worth checking out.

Cost: FREE

15. SplitTester

Calculating the CTR of two different ads is easy – predicting how they’ll perform over the

long term is much harder without running a lengthy A/B test. Perry Marshall’s SplitTester

tool allows you to enter numerical CTR data to predict the ongoing performance of the

two ads. Great for estimating statistical signicance if you don’t have enough time for

a full A/B test.

Cost: FREE

16. WordStream

Landing Page

Grader

Strong landing pages areessential to the success ofany PPC campaign, andWordStream’s free LandingPage Grader will showyou how you can improveyour landing pages witha detailed, personalizedreport.

Cost: FREE

17. Keyword Competitor

Nothing like a little armchair industrial espionage to get your campaigns off on the rightfoot, eh? Keyword Competitor lets you check out what keywords your competitors areusing, as well as how well they’re performing. Sly!

Cost: 30-day free trial; plans starting at $29/month



18. iSpionage

While we’re on the topic of espionage, give iSpionage a try (see what I did there?). This

handy tool also lets you get the lowdown on what other businesses in your space are

up to, allowing you to make informed decisions about your own campaigns.

Cost: Plans starting at $59/month

19. SEMrush

You can never have too much competitive analysis, and the SEMrush suite of tools

is denitely one of the best out there. Search for detailed keyword data by domain or

keyword, and see what everyone else is up to.

Cost: Plans starting at $69.95/month

20. SpyFu

SpyFu is another competitive analysis tool, but it offers some really cool features other

tools lack, such as the ability to download CSV les of competitor keywords and

reporting export functionality. It also has a really nice interface with plenty of important



information easily available at a glance.

21. KeywordSpy

Another keyword research tool that can help you gain a valuable edge over thecompetition. KeywordSpy offers the data you’d expect from such a tool, as well as ad

copy and keyword combination information, AdWords spend data for entire sites, and

other cool information that can help PPC marketers.


22. WhatRunsWhere

WhatRunsWhere is a powerful tool that offers a wide range of data on display advertisingcampaigns. Covering 150,000 display advertisers across more than 90 ad networks

in 15 countries, WhatRunsWhere is essential for companies hoping to get ahead in

(display) advertising.


23. The Search Monitor

Of all the competitive intelligence tools we’ve looked at so far, The Search Monitor is

one of the most useful. PPC marketers can use The Search Monitor to examine data

on sponsored listings and PLAs across nine ad networks and 1,200 industry verticals,

and also offers a ton of geotargeting and custom audience functionality. Well worth

checking out.




24. AdGooroo

One thing we hear time and again about our own tools is how valuable the benchmark

performance data is, and that’s one area where AdGooroo shines. As well as the

usual ad spend estimate modeling and other tools, AdGooroo also lets you look atsnapshots of specic brands in your vertical – very interesting if you’re looking to adjust

your PPC strategy.Cost: Call for a demo and pricing

25. Typo Generator

If you’re targeting exact match types in your campaigns, give Typo Generator a shot.Google does offer variation matching within AdWords, but this tool is still useful for thehyper-control-freak PPCers out there.

Cost: FREE

26. Keyword Niche Finder

Our nal PPC tool is WordStream’s own Keyword Niche Finder. This free tool lets

you nd keyword niches (as in, pre-organized keyword groups), which can be very

useful when thinking about how to structure your campaigns. It’s pretty handy for SEOpurposes, too.



Cost: FREE

SEO Tools

27. Google Suggest

Google Suggest is invaluable when

you need keyword and content

ideas. You might not have given

much thought to how Google’s

autocomplete functionality can help

you, but with powerful modiers

and other tricks, there’s more to it

than meets the eye.

Cost: FREE

28. Ahrefs

For SEOs, Ahrefs is a must. This tool offers a wide range of functionality that every SEO

will nd useful, from link prole data to content referral information. Essential.

Cost: Freemium plan for newbies; pro plans start at $79/month



29. Majestic

With more backlink data than you can shake a proverbial stick at, Majestic remains the

go-to for many SEOs. This robust tool (which offers its own API for working with your

own data sets) is extraordinarily powerful.

Cost: Plans start at $49.99/month

30. Compete

Ever wanted to know how much trafc your favorite blogs really get? Well, now you

can. Compete offers estimated trafc data based on a range of metrics, and you canplot your results against primary and secondary metrics to customize your reports.

Very handy.

Cost: Offers some free tools; pro plans start at $249/month

31. DeepCrawl

Migrating to a new site is a worrisome time for any SEO. With DeepCrawl, you cantest the impact of changes in a safe environment before pushing them to a live server,among many other awesome tools. DeepCrawl lets you check your redirects, ensure

your hreang tags are applied correctly, review canonicalized pages, and more.

Cost: Plans start at $80/month

32. Anchor Text Over Optimization Tool

Does exactly what it says on the tin. The Anchor Text Over Optimization Tool lets you

search for and identify over-optimized anchor text links (which can look unnatural to

Google) on external sites, and also allows you to submit change requests directly to

site webmasters. If you’re worried about Google penalties, give it a try.

Cost: FREE

33. SEO Title Tag 3.0

Optimizing your title tags has never been easier. The SEO Title Tag 3.0 plugin lets you

effortlessly optimize title tags in minutes.

Cost: FREE



34. Domain Hunter Plus

This free Chrome plugin lets you quickly check for broken links without leaving your

browser. Domain Hunter Plus can crawl hundreds of links on a single page, provides

error status codes for easy diagnosis, and lets you export results in .csv format. Very

cool.

Cost: FREE

35. Keyword Map

Wordtracker’s Keyword Map is a handy tool for SEOs looking to build keyword maps

for website architecture.


36. MozLocal

Moz is every SEO’s best friend, and having acquired GetListed in 2012, it’s no surprise

that Moz is one of the best tools for local SEOs out there. MozLocal helps local

businesses rank competitively in the search engines, making smaller sites as visible as

possible.

Cost: $84/year



37. Google SERP Snippet Optimization Tool

It may not look pretty, but this Google SERP Snippet Optimization Tool is actually pretty

handy. It lets you mock up SERP snippets and URLs quickly and easily so you can see

ahead of time what your content will look like in the search results. It also offers several

display options, such as bold text, dates, and rich snippets.

Cost: FREE

38. Internet Marketing Ninjas SEO Tools

Our friends at Internet Marketing Ninjas offer several free SEO tools that might help

you with your technical SEO work. Tools available include a broken link checker, an

image and link analyzer, an on-page optimization tool, and a Greasemonkey add-on

that helps you nd URLs from search results.

Cost: FREE

39. Linkstant

Wondering where your new links are coming from and just can’t wait for a search

engine report or your Analytics logs to catch up? Then check out Linkstant (as in links

+ instant), a link checking tool that offers immediate results.


40. MozCast

Keeping up with changesto Google’s algorithmscan be hard work, whichis why MozCast makes

it easy and fun. MozCastcompares Googlealgorithm updates to theweather, providing at-a-glance updates of howmuch the algos havechanged over the past

day or week.

Cost: FREE



41. Rank Checker for Firefox

No surprises with this tool. Rank Checker for Firefox is a free, open source add-on for

Mozilla’s browser that lets you quickly check your rankings without handing all your

data over to a third party.

Cost: FREE

42. Schema Creator

Schema can be an excellent addition to your site, but to the uninitiated, it’s not exactly

easy to get started. That’s what makes Raven’s Schema Creator such a powerful tool.

Start generating schema microdata for your site in minutes.

Cost: FREE

43. Seer SEO Toolbox

If you’re new to SEO or just want a simpler suite of tools to help you with your technical

SEO work, check out Seer Interactive’s SEO Toolbox. Made with marketers, not

technologists, in mind, this “toolbox” allows you to pull SEO data from multiple sources

into one place.

Cost: FREE and open source

44. SEO Tools for Excel

Just like their PPC counterparts, SEOs almost certainly use Excel as part of their

workow. Why not make it more useful by adding SEO Tools for Excel? This software

adds a range of SEO-centric functionality to Excel, making it easier to get more done

in Excel.

Cost: FREE with newsletter signup

45. SEOgadget Tools

Similar to SEO Tools for Excel, SEOgadget Tools extends the functionality of Excel to

make it a more useful tool for SEOs.

Cost: FREE



46. Similar Page Checker

Having too much duplicate content on your site is a search engine no-no. Similar Page

Checker is a free web-based tool that runs comparisons of your pages to a second

page, highlighting areas of similarity that could get you in trouble with Google.

Cost: FREE

47. URI Valet

Need to check your server headers? Then use URI Valet, a free tool that allows you to

check server headers according to a range of parameters, including by protocol and

user agent.

Cost: FREE

48. Xenu’s Link Sleuth

This old-school tool Xenu’s Link Sleuth gets the job done and then some. Use this tool

to nd broken links on your site quickly and easily as well as to easily get a full list of

all your indexed pages.

Cost: FREE

49. MozBar

Yet another awesome

free tool from our pals at

Moz. The MozBar browser

extension lets you perform

a range of SEO tasks from

your browser, including

keyword ranking dataanalysis, schema validation,

and SEO metric reporting.

Cost: FREE



50. The Alexa Toolbar for Chrome

Alexa is one of the most trusted web metrics sites online, and with the Alexa Toolbar for

Chrome, you can see at-a-glance information about the site you’re currently browsing,

including trafc rankings, inbound links, and user reviews.

Cost: FREE

51. Mozscape API

Sometimes there’s just no substitute for rolling your sleeves up and working with the

raw data yourself. If this sounds like your approach to SEO, you’re probably already

using the Mozscape API – but if not, check it out right now.

Cost: Limited free plan, paid plans start at $50/month

52. Open Site Explorer

Seriously, when it comes to SEO tools, nobody does it better than Moz. Open Site

Explorer is invaluable not just to SEOs, but digital marketers of all stripes. If you haven’t

used it yet, you’re missing out.

Cost: FREE

53. Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Offering an in-depth SEO audit of more than 30 metrics, Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider

tool is one of the most comprehensive technical SEO analysis tools out there.

Cost: FREE

Social Media Tools54. Hootsuite

Few social media management tools are as well-known or widely used as Hootsuite.

This fully featured platform offers all the social media management functionality you

could ever need, which is probably why it’s so popular.

Cost: Free for limited use; pro plans start at $9.99/month



55. TweetDeck

If you only want to focus on Twitter, TweetDeck will soon become your new best friend.

Don’t waste time wrestling with the Twitter.com interface – get all the functionality

Twitter should have built in the rst place with TweetDeck.

Cost: FREE

56. Buffer

Yes, other social media tools offer scheduling functionality, but Buffer is among thesimplest and most elegant platforms for managing social media accounts. Bonuspoints to the Buffer team for running one of the best blogs in the business.

Cost: Free for limited use; pro plans start at $10/month

57. IFTTT

Although not a social media tool in the strictest sense, IFTTT (short for If This, Then That) lets you connect the apps you use on a regular basis and create logic-driven

workows for automating routine tasks. An interesting way to create social media

updates and dozens of other nifty uses.

Cost: FREE



58. BuzzSumo

Another app that falls into several categories, BuzzSumo is just pure awesomeness.

Find out which content is being shared across which networks and by who. Brilliant.


59. SocialOomph

Social media management platform SocialOomph does a little bit of everything – post

scheduling, keyword tracking, draft management, multiple account connectivity, and

mentions/retweet monitoring. I haven’t used it myself, but a lot of digital marketers

recommend it.

Cost: Free for limited use; pro plans start at $6.97 per two-week period

60. Tweepi

Another great Twitter management tool Tweepi makes it easy to get your Twitter account

under control. See who’s not following you back (and unfollow en masse), clean up

your follower list, and even force undesirable accounts to unfollow you.


61. Save Publishing

A very nifty tool, Save Publishing

lets you quickly identify passages

of 140 characters on any web

page, making it easy to nd –

and tweet – quotes and quick

takeaways from your content

and other sources.

Cost: FREE

62. SocialFlow

SocialFlow doesn’t manage your

accounts or make it easier to

handle everyday social media management, but it does analyze millions of data points



to determine the precise moments when to publish on social to create maximumvisibility and engagement with your content.


63. LikeAlyzerDon’t let the awkward name fool you – LikeAlyzer is really cool. This tool evaluatesthe strength of your Facebook page to give you additional insight into areas you canimprove when engaging with followers and fans on Facebook.

Cost: FREE

64. Sprout Social

Sprout Social makes it easy to keep on top of your social media management. Offersagency-specic tools as well as functionality to handle social customer service (very

important).


65. Social Bro

I haven’t used this platform myself, but terrible name notwithstanding, SocialBro seems

to offer some useful Twitter management features. Free plans are available if you fancy

giving it a try for yourself.




66. Crowdbooster

Social media analytics platform Crowdbooster offers some nice-looking reporting

features, export functionality, as well as the scheduling and general-purpose

management functions you’d expect from a social media tool.


67. Happy Cyborg

What if you could entrust your Twitter account to a machine? This isn’t dystopian

science ction but a reality thanks to Happy Cyborg, a fun tool that’s still in beta. Happy

Cyborg assumes control of your Twitter handle and behaves as you would based on

common responses to Twitter interactions. Probably not recommended for corporate

accounts, but it could be ideal for busy entrepreneurs who nd themselves tweetingthe same stuff frequently.

Cost: FREE

68. Openr

Openr is a really nifty tool that lets you add a call to action to anything you post on

social media, allowing you to harness the power of social’s reach and make it even

easier for your audience to take action.


69. Bitly

Where would Twitter be without Bitly? The original link shortening tool is still highly useful

as a standalone tool, even after Twitter incorporated Bit.ly functionality into TweetDeck.

Cost: FREE

70. Mediatoolkit

Keeping track of what people are saying about you online is crucial for effective brand

management, and Mediatoolkit makes it easy.




71. Everypost

Social management tool

Everypost does, of course,

offer scheduling and

publishing functionality, butits greatest strength is its

very cool content curation

tools. Curate content from

virtually anywhere, then

publish across your social

accounts. Very cool.

Cost: Free for limited use;

pro plans start at $9.99/

month

72. Discover.ly

Chrome extension Discover.ly lets you explore relationships with inuential people

on social media. It provides additional information about people, including previously

unconnected accounts, such as a person’s Facebook or LinkedIn proles from their

Gmail account, and helps you form stronger relationships with industry power users.

Cost: FREE

Content Marketing Tools

73. Prezi

Let’s be honest – most slideshow presentations suck, but Prezi helps you make

presentations people will actually want to watch.

Cost: $59/year

74. Powtoon

Powtoon lets you create animated elements for your slideshows quickly and easily,

bringing a touch of nesse that most PowerPoints lack.




75. Blog Topic Generator

Stuck for ideas on what to blog about? Then try HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator,

which does pretty much exactly what you’d expect it to do.

Cost: FREE

76. Content Idea Generator

Similar to HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator, Portent’s Content Idea Generator helps you

quickly come up with ideas for new content projects simply by plugging in a general

topic.

Cost: FREE

77. Trello

Trello is a godsend for large or distributed content teams working to a shared editorial

calendar by simplifying the editorial workow process into nice easy boards. Seriously,

check it out.




78. Feedly

Many a marketer mourned the loss of Google Reader (RIP), but Feedly is just as good

– if not better. Stay on top of the day’s news and must-read content with this awesome

RSS app.

Cost: Free for personal use; pro plans start at $5.41/month

79. CoSchedule

Another scheduling/editorial calendar tool, CoSchedule also offers some nifty free

content tools like its Headline Analyzer. Well worth a look for small teams.


80. After the Deadline

Not all content teams can afford the luxury of hiring a dedicated copyeditor, which is

what makes After the Deadline so awesome. This free Chrome plugin checks your

grammar, spelling, and everything else you need to keep an eye on before hitting

“Publish.”

Cost: FREE

81. Polar

Adding interactive elements like online polls can be a great way to make your content

more engaging. Polar makes adding polls to your content a snap, and it has a really

intuitive interface, so you don’t need mad coding skills to get started.

Cost: FREE

82. SlideShare

For marketers who do a lot of conference presentations or webinars, SlideShare is the

other social network. Create awesome slide decks, then share them on SlideShare

with your audience – simple.

Cost: FREE



83. PlaceIt

Ever wanted to put screenshots of your product into stock imagery, but lack Photoshop

skills? Now you can with PlaceIt, an easy way to customize images with your own

branding and product stills. It also features video integration, which looks awesome.

Cost: FREE

84. Canva

Canva lets you create stylish, striking visuals for social media posts and content projectswith an effortless drag-and-drop interface. You can upload your own assets to work

with (for free), or pay a small fee to use Canva’s own library of visual materials.


85. Share As Image

A really nifty tool for content marketers, Share As Image lets you add text to any imageon the web for fast, easy social sharing of visual content. Just be sure to get permissionto use images you nd online before including them in your campaigns.


86. Piktochart

Long gone are the days when you needed to hire an expensive graphic design specialist

to create beautiful infographics. Piktochart is an awesome free tool that lets you start

designing infographics, presentations and more in minutes. Well worth bookmarking.

Cost: FREE



87. Tableau Public

Incorporating data visualization into your content projects is a near-guaranteed way

to make them stickier and really pop when it comes to illustrating complex topics.

Tableau Public is an amazingly powerful, completely free data visualization tool that lets

you create incredible interactive visualizations. Amazing.

Cost: FREE

88. The Readability Test Tool

Nailing the style and tone of your content is crucial. To check if your latest post is a little

on the wordy side, check out The Readability Test Tool, which evaluates web pages

according to the Flesch Kincaid Reading Scale.

Cost: FREE

89. Quora

It might not seem like a content marketing tool, but Quora can be invaluable for

crowdsourcing answers to your questions. Many content marketers use Quora to nd

quotes, explain complex topics, and other ways to make their content more accessible.

Cost: FREE



90. OmmWriter

Hate drafting in Word? Need to eliminate distractions while you’re blogging? Then give

OmmWriter a try. This minimalist writing environment strips away everything between

you and that all-important rst draft, giving you the time and space to get more done.

Cost: FREE

91. Evernote

Personally, I favor the hundreds-of-bookmarks-organized-into-folders approach to

research, but if this sounds like too much hassle, give Evernote a try. This powerful

free app lets you save virtually anything you nd online to a personalized folder system

synced across all your devices – awesome.

Cost: FREE

Analytics and Optimization Tools

92. Google Analytics

The granddaddy of analytics tools, Google Analytics offers everything you need to

track the effectiveness of your campaigns and monitor the performance of your site.



For such a complex tool, Google Analytics is surprisingly user-friendly.

Cost: FREE (but they do offer premium plans)

93. CrazyEgg

Heatmaps are immensely useful tools to see how your visitors are really interacting with

your site, and nobody does heatmaps better than CrazyEgg.

A heatmap showing audience eye movement and points of interest on a web page.


94. ClickTaleClickTale lets you review video recordings of real website visitor sessions, revealing

their mouse movements, what they click, and most importantly, where you’re losing

them.




95. SubjectLine

Worried your email subject lines aren’tas compelling as they could be? Thentest them to see how they measure up

with SubjectLine. For example, I enteredthe subject line “Want to get more out ofyour PPC campaigns?” which gave methe score and breakdown below:

Cost: FREE

96. MixPanel

MixPanel is a powerful analytics tool that lets you work with large datasets without

writing a single line of SQL code. It also boasts a clean, intuitive interface, makingadvanced analytics analysis easier than ever.


97. Formisimo

Analytics tools are all well and good, but nding out why visitors abandon web forms

and checkouts is hard using traditional platforms. That’s what makes Formisimo such

a valuable tool for digital marketers. Find out exactly what visitors are doing – or notdoing – with your web forms.


98. Visual Website Optimizer

Another A/B testing and optimization tool, Visual Website Optimizer (or VWO) isremarkably easy to use. Dive in and get started with testing virtually immediately.


99. FiveSecondTest

In-depth A/B tests are all well and good, but sometimes, a person’s gut reaction towhat they see immediately upon landing on your page can yield surprising insights.

That’s the idea behind FiveSecondTest, a testing platform that shows you what peoplesee within ve seconds of arriving on your page – and what they miss.

Cost: Based on a credit system



My recent revelation: When I

write, my audience is always

top of mind. However, when

I look across all of CMI’s websites and

channels, I worry that we’re not providing

an exceptional experience for our com-

munity at all points. For instance, we may

have answers to people’s questions, but

can people nd what they need? Is every

point in their experience a good one?

While I continue to rene my content mar-

keting skills, I also am turning more of my

attention to content strategy.

Don’t get me wrong: I believe in the power

of (good) content marketing. I believe that

marketers must create and promote con-

tent that educates. But, if we truly are to

put customers at the center of our mar-

keting – and get the most possible value

from our efforts – we need to look beyond

conversions and measurements and ap-

ply the kind of strategic thinking that can

transform our organizations’ content into

well-managed business assets.

Content marketers have a lot to learn from

content strategists. Here are the strate-

gy-related topics I will be prioritizing over

the coming months. These topics aren’t

traditionally considered part of content

marketing, but we need to consider them

if we want our content – and the experi-

ences it offers – to be as exceptional as

possible.

3 Content Strategy Practices

by Michele Linn

That Will Make You a Better Content Marketer

35Digital Marketing Tools Magazine



Have a plan to manage

your content after it is

published

I’m guessing you have a plan to publish and promote your content, but do youhave a plan for what you’ll do with all that

content once it’s out there? Do you want

it to exist indenitely? If not, when will it be

deleted and by whom? As for the content

you want to keep, how do you envision

it serving as an ongoing asset? In other

words, how will it be kept current and rel-evant? How will it be reused over time,across various deliverables, and through-out your organization’s departments?

Consider every page on your website asa potential landing page. You don’t want

people entering where your best foot is

not forward – where information is redun-

dant, outdated, or trivial (ROT).

Consider this story Gerry McGovern toldat Confab. When Columbia College in

Chicago drastically reduced the number

of pages on its website – 36,000 to 944 –

student inquiries rose from 477 per month

to 855. Think of it! They deleted 35,000

web pages, and the response rate dou-

bled. Why? Chances are visitors now are

entering the website on pages that arecurrent, relevant, and organized.

As we heard often at the Intelligent Con-tent Conference, content needs to bemanaged as a product, not a project. In

short, you need a plan to manage all ofthe content after it’s published, which ispart of digital governance.

Something to try: Track the pages thatget the most trafc on your website, andmake a plan for their governance.

To nd your high-trafc pages, open

Google Analytics for your site, and go

to Behavior > Site Content > All Pages.(If you publish a blog, ignore the newer

posts, which are likely getting trafc be-cause they are recent.)

After you identify the high-trafc pages,

review them for accuracy and currency.While I’ve done this sporadically in thepast, I recently asked Jodi Harris, CMI’sdirector of curation, to review all of our

high-trafc pages and then develop aplan for how we want to manage them.

We list those pages in Trello and trackwhich ones have been updated andwhich we want to update next. We also

have a checklist for each page or post to

check for this.



Consider the tone across

all of your content

I’m guessing you have the tone you want

your editorial content to have naileddown, but do you have a plan on what

tone your content should have across

your site? Does your audience read one

tone on your blog and in your e-books,

then get hit with corporate speak on the

rest of your website?

It’s time to start thinking about your tone

and style across all of your content. Yes,

this is a mammoth challenge, as differ-ent people own different content and

you only have so much control, but think

about the impact it has when you start to

think about all of your content as support-

ing the customer experience.

Something to try: Look at your website

from the perspective of a new visitor. Is

it approachable? Is it clear how you helppeople or do you sound like the competi-tion? Would you want to read this?

If you don’t love what you see, study

brands that have exceptional tone. For in-stance, I’m a big fan of MailChimp’s tone

and style guide – and its content across

the board.

Bookmark the brands whose tone youadmire and study them – and start to

update your pages to have the tone you

desire. (HINT: Focus on the high-trafc

pages you’ve identied.)

Design your website so

users can find what they

need

Sure, you create a lot of content, but can

your readers nd what is going to help

them?

If your site is like many, people are stum-

bling across what’s recent – or the top

pages that get the bulk of your trafc.

(Are you seeing the importance of thesepages?)



What can you do to help the right person

get the right content at the right place, at

the right time, in the right format, in the

right language, on the right device? This

is the kind of thing content marketers are

aspiring to do, but to get there we needthe help of content strategists – or at least

strategic thinking. As Rahel Anne Bailie

explains:

‘‘The reason people hire content strate-

gists is that people can’t nd anything.’’

I have studied the website for This Ameri-

can Life, as it excels at providing an ex-

perience that helps readers or listeners

nd the “right” content or discover some-

thing they didn’t even know they wanted.

Learn more with Put Users at the Center

of Your Content Strategy: A Look at This

American Life.

Something to try: One of the keys to nd-

ability is having the right categories/tax-

onomy in place. In two recent articles,

Marcia Riefer Johnston, managing editor

for Intelligent Content, explains what se-

mantic categories are and why marketersshould care, and follows up with some

specics on how to use semantic catego-

ries for your blog.

Where we go from here

I am not suggesting that you become an

expert on all of these practices, but ratherI encourage you to start learning about

these things – and nd the right content

strategist to help if you are struggling in

any of these places.

I’d love to hear from you: Are you consid-

ering these types of things in your content

marketing plan? If so, how are you mak-

ing progress? If not, what’s stopping you?



5 Digital Marketing Trends

by Je Bullas

Y ou have been running your

business for a long time. Life

is good. Sales are holding up.

The admin processes and technology

systems are nailed. You have your eye

on your competitors and the industry.

The business model is stable.

Or is it?

A small start-up starts selling direct online to your customers. From London….

A potential competitor doesn’t do distribution like you do. They go straight to your end

customer….

This digital disintermediation model is only going to get worse…if you are a traditional

business.

The frog thought things were cool when it jumped into that pot and was just chilling.

The water was a pleasant swimming temperature. Did a few laps.

But someone had started a small re.

A raging digital fire

It was only few years ago and the web, technology and business started changingfaster than ever before. Social media was ignored by most except the teenagers and

the early adopters.

Facebook was frivolous.

Mobiles were for the corporate chiefs and senior executives. The devices were nick -

named “Crack Berries”

That Will Disrupt Your Business



Apple brought out the iPod, iTunes

and the iPhone. Vinyl died and busi-

nesses disappeared.

A digital re had started.

Those little icons downloaded to your

smartphone hide powerful technol-

ogy and new business models.

Apps are now redening business….

Uber’s app has the taxi monopolies

and authorities running scared. But

their business model is not just abouttechnology…. it is much more about

building a trust network and adding

more value.

Here is a quick comparison between

a taxi in DC and UberX

Source: Districtsource.com

On demand apps are pushing into many industries. Is yours next?

Capture the data

Facebook captured almost every intimate detail from your relationship status, to brandpreference, gender, location and much more.

It collected the data and now they sell it back to us.

Granular data will give you the power to do what seems to be “one to one” marketing.When visiting websites are you seeing the same banner ad popping up. It’s no coinci-dence. You have been targeted!

Here are some digital marketing trends that will disrupt your business, whether you aredisrupting yourself or you are being disrupted.

Don’t ignore them.



1. Digital marketing automation platforms

The splintering of media has made marketing at scale a nightmare. There is..

More media..

More digital channels…

More social networks…

Yes, there is lot of moving parts. But there is a solution.

Technology….

Marketing used to be a creative pursuit. That has changed. It is much more. You need

a digital marketing platform. A new approach called “marketing automation“.

The race is on to own the platform. The players?…many. Hubspot, Ontraport, Infu-sionsoft. Then you have Social Sprout, Marketo and Hootsuite. The list is growing…

fast

The marketing automation raceIt doesn’t matter whether you are a…

content marketer..

social media marketer..

blogger who wants to scale and monetize their platform..



or just a digital marketer…

You will need a marketing platform sooner rather than later.

This scramble for the high ground and platform domination is coming from start-ups

and the established Enterprise technology giants.

It is a challenge for big and small. But the the complexity increases at the big end of

town.

To manage marketing at scale in a digital world requires a new breed of marketer. The

data scientist. Previously they were kept in a cave and tossed scraps.

Now they will be your secret Ninja weapon.

2. Big data for personalization and identifyinginfluencers

As the web exploded, the tools to manage and measure the noise and information

were non-existent. We cobbled together software, technology and amateurs. You

need professionals. And you need to capture the data.

Data is going to be your secret weap-

on.

Knowing more about your customer

than they know about themselves is

marketing power. Natural language

processing will identify inuencers,

customer preferences and content

that works and is viral. There is an-

other aspect to this.

Identifying influencers

Identifying global inuencers in your

industry or niche is starting to gomainstream.

I was surprised the other day to nd

that technology that sifts through 6million web properties per day over



90 days had identied me as the “#1 content marketing inuencer”. This technology

big data engine called “ScribbleLiveInsights ” has been developed over 10 years at

Cornell University. It provides insights into what is inuence in a digital world.

Apparently inuence is not based on my amazing smile or good looks but “data”.

Platforms such as BuzzSumo, Appinions and Simply Measured are all using data tohelp you calculate your next marketing move. It also includes identifying and creating

great content.

Personalization

Enterprise platforms like Teradata allow companies with 10 million customers like the

Qantas Frequent Flyer Loyalty program to dissect the data. Then they target them with

an email or even that print piece in the snail mail that is relevant and personal.

Expect the smaller end of town to use data more effectively to produce powerful mar-

keting results. Let’s look at an example.

When someone registers for a LinkedIn Webinar. Then they are maybe in the market

for a LinkedIn course, lead generation or other relevant training. It should be tagged by

your marketing system and used for future targeted campaigns.

But it’s not the data that is important…

It’s what you do with the data…

3. Paid social media advertising

When Facebook wound back its organic reach the game changed.

Building likes wasn’t as important anymore. But using its paid and very targeted ad-

vertising data now is.

We are moving on from just chasing uffy likes.

Now re-targeting and Facebook custom audiences allows you to get a good return

on your advertising dollars. Facebook is now dominating the social media advertising

budget. It’s on target to hit over $14 billion in advertising revenue in 2015.

It is now becoming a serious rival to Google.



Return on investment

But what it means is that if you are spending $10 on an “Ad” you better be sure it is

making money not losing dollars. So measurement of ROI is gaining serious attention.

Google+ tried to disrupt Facebook’s social network domination but failed.

Twitter has it’s place in paid but it doesn’t have Facebook’s discrete data. It is moreabout creating top of the funnel brand awareness, driving trafc, breaking news and

powering viral content.

Don’t ignore this trend.

Targeted social advertising on desktop and mobile is here to stay and some of your

competitors are already using it..

4. Mobile assets and advertising

We knew sort of knew how important mobile was. But as the second screen has be-

come the rst screen we are scrambling to adapt.

The growth of mobile advertising is stratospheric.

Here are the predictions by emarketer.com on where mobile is heading compared to

desktop.



5 Digital

Marketing

trends - 1

Some more perspective on

the scale of where this is

heading.

73% of Facebook’s $14

billion this year comes just

from mobile advertising….

that is over $10.2 billion

from mobile alone.

Facebook also has barely

tapped mobile advertis-

ing on its 1 billion users on

WhatsApp, Instagram and

Messenger platforms.

Look for that to change

over the next few years.

So what is important here?

Making mobile a priority in your marketing and media focus.

What you will also need to consider is that mobile requires a different approach in how

you create your digital assets and use the screen to display media and calls to action.

With mobile less is more. What are you wanting them to achieve?

Read..

View a video..

Capture an email…

Contact you..



Maybe those four are enough for mobile. You cannot do everything on mobile that you

can do on a desktop. You need to focus on what is the most important and proritize.

5. Visual media

We have been watching it for a few years now but images, photos, embedded video

in social networks and now streaming video (Meerkat and Periscope) is changing the

engagement landscape.

This has happened because of the rapid rise of mobiles with cameras that are fast

rivalling professional Digital SLR’s.

How important is visual content?

I grabbed this chart off my “Simply Measured” tool the other day that measures themetrics for social media networks. It shows an increase of 59% more engagement

when a tweet includes an image.

This trend will only continue to consolidate as more people move to mobile as their

primary screen as developing countries purchase smartphones. India is predicted to

have more mobiles than the USA in the next couple of years.

Over to you

So what marketing automation platforms are you considering? Is mobile on your ra-

dar? Are you already personalizing advertising and using Facebook’s targeted Ads?



Looking for a reference guide that

will give you information on eve-

rything you need to know about

Twitter analytics?

You’ve got it…

Before we start, thinkabout the following…

How much time do you waste on Twitter?

(too much!!)

When was the last time you analyzed

your tweets to gure out what works

and what doesn’t work?

When was the last time you analyzed

your audience to make sure you are

attracting the right people?

What happens when trafc from Twitter arrives to your website? What actions do they

take?

The Essential Analytics to Monitor on Twitter

1. Audience Engagement: Is your audience interacting with your

content?

If you are sharing content, you want your audience to favorite it, retweet it, reply to it,

click on a link, watch it (you can embed videos) etc.

by Ian Cleary

TWITTER ANALYTICS:

The Only Guide You’ll Ever Need



When 140 characters just won’t cut it, gifs are helping us express ourselves:

http://t.co/wIWjJQnY1Apic.twitter.com/medoHGVfHX

— Hootsuite (@hootsuite) July 25, 2015

If they are not engaging with your content then you either have the wrong content orthe wrong audience.

You start off by guring out if they are engaging with your content and if this engagement

is moving in the right direction. (As you analyze results and make improvements, you

should see engagement going up.)

When engagement is going up, you can then start drilling down to gure out what type

of content is helping with this.

What type of engagement do you want?

If you get people to your site then you can get them to take action.

• Replies – People are looking to engage with you. You share something interesting

and they reply.

• Mentions – This is an endorsement of your brand and/or content. As more people

mention you, there is natural amplication of your brand without you being involved,

which is great! A lot more people will see mentions than replies!

• Favorites – By clicking on a favorite button, people engage with your content but it’s

a light form of engagement. If you look at the tweet, you can see it was favorited,

but content is not shared to more people because of this. Not everyone wants

to comment on your tweets but favorites still gives an indicator that they like your

content.

2. Tweet Impressions:How many people have seen your

tweets?

Impressions are when someone gets to see your tweet.

They may not have interacted with it, but they got a chance to see it.



I know that engagement is much more important but, if people don’t get a chance to

see your tweet, then they can’t engage with it!

When you view impressions, you may start spotting trends such as higher impressions

at certain times of the day.

That doesn’t mean to say that you don’t schedule tweets when there are low impressions,

because this may attract an audience you won’t reach at another part of the day.

But… you may want to send more tweets at the time when there are higher impressions.

3. Audience Profile: Do you have a relevant audience?

It’s great to get engagement, but are the people who are engaging relevant to your

target market? Who are you attracting as followers? You want people who:

a) Are aligned to the target market you are trying to attract

b) Have a relevant audience for your content. When they share your content, you want

some of their audience to be interested enough to check you out!

c) Are inuential. Not all of your followers are going to be inuential, but you’ll want totarget a group of inuential users who will help amplify your content.

d) Are customers, subscribers etc – When you already have a relationship with a

community on other platforms, you need to convince them to follow you to Twitter or

other places. These are people who have already shown an interest in your content.

4. Audience Size and Potential Reach: What is your

follower count and potential reach?

It’s not all about followers but, if you are attracting a relevant audience and they are

engaging with your content, then of course you will want more followers! Are they

trending upwards? What is the predicted growth levels based on current trends?

How can you escalate this even quicker, to get better reach?



It’s great to see your follower count going up but, if they all have 10 followers each,

then it’s not much value to you.

So, you’ll also want to look at the total follower count of each of your followers and

divide that by the number of followers to get the average number of followers per

follower!

5. Audience Response Rate: What is your response rate

to your followers?

You may also want to monitor how responsive you are to your followers. If they are

engaging with you and you’re not engaging back, you’ll reduce engagement from

them and they could lose interest.

To measure response rate, you could add up all the replies you send and divide it by

the total mentions minus retweets.

A retweet will include a mention but that’s not a reply!

6. Hashtag Analytics: What’s the reach of the hashtag

you promote?

You may want to track analytics related to a specic hashtag.

For example….

a) Campaign – Imagine if you implemented a campaign to promote a conference. You

can use one of the hashtag-tracking tools to nd out the number of people mentioned/

reached using this hashtag.

b) Twitter chat – Twitter chats are conversations around a particular topic at a predened

time using a hashtag. You may want to track the reach of a Twitter chat you are a

guest on, or the reach of a Twitter chat you are hosting. Here’s an example of a Twitter

chat from Postplanner called ‘Viralchat’.

As Brian was a guest, he was promoting this to his audience, which helps to bring in a

new audience to the Twitter chat.



7. Web Traffic: How many visitors to your site or others

If people click on a link and arrive on your website, this is free trafc that you can

convert.

If people click links back to content you promote from other websites, this is still good.

It shows you are providing them with valuable content and it also generates goodwill

with the other sites. You send them trafc and you’ll get trafc from them

When you do generate trafc to your own website what happens that trafc?

Do they leave pretty soon after arriving or do they stay around and buy your products/ services or sign up to your email list?

You may be taking people from Twitter to a blog post. On the blog post, you might

have an ’email subscribe’ option so you can track visitors who arrive from Twitter to

become email subscribers.

…or you may have a landing page that gets people to download a freebie or even buy

a product.

Optional Extra – Download Actions: Product

downloads using the App card

This is only relevant if you’ve got a mobile app and you’re using Twitter to allow people to

download it. Twitter implemented Twitter Cards a couple of years ago, which expands

on the information displayed within a tweet.



The App Card allows you to have a ‘download now’ button to allow people to download

your app, so you’ll want to track this.



7 Twitter Analytic Tools to Help Monitor Your

Twitter Activity

1. Twitter platform analytics (free Twitter analytics)

Twitter provides a Twitter analytics dashboard within the platform, which provides

useful data.

You’ll get a selection of high-level stats, such as:

• Follower growth

• Prole of followers

• Engagement rate

• Link clicks.

Price: Free.

Action: Read this post on Twitter analytics.

2. Simply Measured

Simply Measured provides a very comprehensive social media analytics platform,

which includes Twitter. Some of the functionality includes:

• Prole analysis

• Competitive analysis and benchmarking

• Customer-service effectiveness.



All reports are really nicely designed and the data is exportable to Excel. The following

is an example of the report you can get, showing you the level of Twitter engagement,

reach and actions from the tweets you have sent.

An example of the visual reports provided

Price: Starting price is $500 per month.

3. Quintly

Quintly displays data in a customizable dashboard. You can select from a range of

customized dashboards related to Twitter. It provides:

• Competitive benchmarking

• Smart reporting – if you change your dashboards, the reports are automatically

updated

• Inuencer identication – nd the inuencers you should be engaging with

• Customized dashboard – customize according to your needs

• Export all content for further analysis.

Price: Starts at $129 per month with 14-day trial on all packages.

4. RivalIQ

RivalIQ is a competitive landscape tool. You set up all the competitors you want to

track and then monitor your analytics in relation to your competitors.



This is a great way of getting a snapshot, on a weekly basis, of how you are performing

against your peers… and you can then set targets to do better! Some of the functionalityincludes:

• Compare engagement

• Compare follower growth/decline count

• Compare activity – how many tweets everyone is sending on a daily basis?

• Identify the best content shared by you or competitors

• Mentions – the volume of mentions and who is doing the mentioning!

Price: Starts at $199 per month.

5. Locowise

Locowise provides simple-to-understand graphical reporting that shows you how you

are doing.

It provides information such as:

• Engagement

• Fan growth and predicted fan growth

• Individual tweet analytics.

Price: Starts at $120 per month.

6. Tweet Binder

Tweet Binder provides detailed analytics on a particular hashtag, such as:

• Reach/impressions

• More engaged users

• Key inuencers.



Price: Basic free report, then price starts at $45 per report or $245 per monthly report.

7. Crowdfire

Crowdre is an excellent tool for managing and growing your followers. Here are 2

excellent features:

• Copy followers – You enter in the name of a competitor and it will show you the

more active followers for the competitor.

• Keyword follow – Enter in a keywords and it will come back with a list of relevant

accounts to follow.

There is a good free version and price starts at $10 per month.

Tactics to Improve Results

Now that you’ve done all your analytics, it’s time to improve your results.

1. Build your followers with ManageFlitter

To build followers, you need to provide great content and engage with your existing

followers.

But…

… to build followers quickly, you need to actively go out and nd them.

One of the best ways to do this is to sign up to ManageFlitter and use the Power mode.

This allows you to run advanced lters on ManageFlitter to identify the most relevantpeople to follow. Then, you hand the task over to the ManageFlitter team to follow a

group of these people on a daily basis.

An example of a lter is:

• Twitter follower analytics – you follow them but they don’t follow you, and vice versa

• They have at least 100 people following them



• They have mentioned a keyword within their prole

• They are active on Twitter

• They have a good follower/following ratio.

Set and forget. You can even save the lter.

You can’t follow thousands of people every day, so you specify a much lower number

and ManageFlitter will follow these every day.

You can also unfollow people who are not following you back.

Price: You need a Pro or Business ManageFlitter account, then the price of the manual

following of users is $5 per 1000 actions.

2. Share more content that works!

When you go through your analytics, you’ll nd that certain types of content works

better than other types. Do more of this! Have a look at how this content is structured.

Are you asking a question? Do you spark curiosity? Did you have good images?

For example, we increased engagement by over 50% by making sure that the majority

of our tweets have images associated with them, and we improved the text of our

updates.

A lot of our updates are blog posts and just taking the lazy approach and using the title

of the post doesn’t work as well as posing a more interesting question.

Case Study: Hootsuite Increases Engagement by over

180% in 2 months

I recently read an article about how Hootsuite increased engagement by 180% in two

months. Here are the tactics that worked for them:

a) Analyze the audience to make sure you know what they want – Sharing the

content they want is going to work better!



b) Share compelling images – they also tried sharing animated GIFs and that worked

really well.

Know anyone that is a social media lover? Show them this list of movies: http://t.co/

fsnOweTThS pic.twitter.com/EnyanLgaLV — Hootsuite (@hootsuite) July 26, 2015

c) Rene your copy over and over again – we found this to be extremely important.

What’s going to catch people’s attention? You need to come up with something

compelling.

d) Double down on content that works – use your analytics!

e) Show a little personality – Hootsuite found that a bit of sass/humor in the copy

worked well.

3. Use Twitter Cards

Twitter Cards are additional information you provide to Twitter when you or someone

else shares content from your website or other websites.

Here are a couple of examples:

a) Someone shares your blog post – instead of just sharing the title, you can tell Twitterabout the image you have, include a description of the post etc. This means that a lot

more space is taken up in a Twitter listing so it’s more likely that people will see it.

You are more likely to get engagement when you have Twitter cards



b) You upload your presentation to SlideShare. SlideShare has Twitter cards enabled

so people can browse through the slides directly within the tweet.

Action: Read this post on Twitter Cards.

4. Build friends with Influencers

Your inuencer friends will help spread your content to a new audience and also expand

your audience.

But…

You need to think about how to build relationships, long term.

You can look for people to connect with, using one of the tools above, or you can use

a tool such as Klear, which categorizes people on Twitter into over 40,000 categories.

So, you need a process and a tool.

Here’s our process for it:

Action: Read this post to

understand the process.

5. Use other engagementstrategies

As well as posting your normal,

day-to-day content, you may

look at other ways of improving

engagement. For example:

a) Twitter chats – we

mentioned running a Twitter

chat or engaging with existing

Twitter chats. Both help to

increase followers, reach and

engagement.



If Twitter is an important platform for you then it’s hard to avoid Twitter chats!

b) Hashtags – use hashtags selectively in tweets to help increase their reach. One of

the best ways of using hashtags is when you are at a conference, or when a conference

is on and you are not attending!

Include the conference’s hashtag and provide relevant information to the attendees of

the conference.

c) Use a marketing automation platform designed for Twitter that allows you to

automate tweets.

I know what you’re thinking… but…

If you are very careful about how you target and space out your messages, it can

increase engagement and trafc to your website.

One of the platforms that supports this is Insightpool.

This strategy was deployed by Jay Baer and his team and they got very good results.

Summary Twitter is very time consuming. If you are spending time on it, you need to get results.

The best way of getting results is through analytics. We quite often ignore analytics but

that is certainly not wise.

What are you going to implement from this article?


61/95

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Using LinkedIn for Masterful

by Brian Honigman

Content Marketing in 2016

K

eeping with my recent end-of-year theme of refreshing well-received past posts,

I’ve decided to provide a follow up for last year’s highly successful post 8 Waysto Better Market Yourself on LinkedIn in 2015.

2015 has been a breakout year for LinkedIn, both as a social network and (more im-

portantly) as a content hub and distribution platform.

As of Q3 2015, LinkedIn had over 400 million active users and 37% year-over-year

growth. Much of this growth is being fueled by LinkedIn’s doubling down on content

hosting and distribution.

In an ever-crowded content marketing landscape, nding new avenues to reach con-

sumers and build your audience is a high priority, and LinkedIn represents an under-

used (yet highly promising) opportunity to drive the quality visibility and engagement

you’re looking for.

To help you glean the ner points of the platform I’ve tracked down ten of my favorite

LinkedIn experts (and in digital marketing as a whole) and asked them to answer one

deceptively simple question:



‘‘What’s one way brands can better master content marketing on LinkedIn in 2016?’’

Below are their insightful, actionable and engaging answers.

Ritika Puri: Leverage LinkedIn as a Distribution

Platform

Ritika Puri is a content strategist and co-founder of Storyhackers. Her recommenda-

tion not only highlights some interesting, often overlooked LinkedIn features, but also

shows how they can be used to strengthen your networking connections.

According to Ritika, “Over the last few years, marketers have found it harder and hard-

er to drive web trafc to their content. In 2016, the task of reaching (and converting)

new audience will be–you guessed it–even more challenging.”

The remedy to the ever-increasing difculty of grabbing people’s attention is “up-and-

coming distribution hubs and content ecosystems.”

LinkedIn, is exactly the kind of platform that suits the evolving needs of content mar-

keters and the increasing diffusion of consumer attention. Not only is LinkedIn home to

a highly qualied and sophisticated audience, but it presents “lots of opportunities to

connect, engage, and re-engage with audiences based on [your audience’s] interests.”

This post will highlight many of these unique opportunities, but Ritika’s answer is very

important because it calls attention to the fact that these opportunities exist in the rst

place.

Follow Ritika

Twitter | LinkedIn


64/95



Rebekah Radice: Be Dynamic and Consistent

Rebekah Radice is currently the CMO of Post Planner and has an incredible track-

record as an independent consultant for social and content strategy as well.

Her advice centers around identifying the core high-level approach that brands should

take when they are attempting to establish a presence on LinkedIn.

Simply put “viewing LinkedIn as a static site to house yet another company prole is a

mistake.” Rebekah notes just how common this problem is and then offers advice on

how to x the issue.

“Whether it’s networking, recruiting or schmoozing that brings you to LinkedIn, content

is the connector that will create those opportunities for you.”

The core of LinkedIn’s new direction is their rapidly expanding Pulse publishing plat-

form. Rebekah urges marketers to treat this new avenue for content delivery very seri-

ously.

“Stay top of mind by consistently sharing relevant content to your LinkedIn page and

taking advantage of expanded reach through LinkedIn Pulse. And don’t forget to cross-

promote within your LinkedIn Groups and via your personal prole.”

Follow Rebekah

Twitter | LinkedIn



Aaron Lee: Learn from the Best on LinkedIn

Aaron Lee holds the colorful title of “Grand Master of Customer Delight” at Post Plan-

ner and also self-publishes social insights on his excellent blog AskAaronLee.com.

His advice can best be summarized by one of my favorite Pablo Picasso quotes “good

artists imitate, great artists steal.”

Aaron points to a recent report published by LinkedIn proling the ten most successful

brands on the platform.

Aaron’s advice is to take the lead from the biggest brands and then usefully extract two

core insights.

Tip 1: Have employees share and post your content: Your employees are your biggest

advocates. Get them to help your brand in your content marketing efforts on Linkedin.

99% of the top global brands had employees share to their networks.

Tip 2: Update your company page regularly: According to Linkedin, 99% of top brands

post an average of 12.6 updates per week on their Company Page.”

Can’t get more actionable and straightforward than that.

Follow Aaron

Twitter | LinkedIn



Sabel Harris: Leverage Employee Connections

Sabel Harris is currently the Director of Demand Generation at Contactually and has

previously worked at several big digital players such as TrackMaven and General As-

sembly.

Sabel’s advice directs our attention to an incredibly unrealized avenue for LinkedIn in-

uence – your employees and coworkers.

After all, LinkedIn is nothing but a network of professionals, and particularly well-con-

nected individuals within your organization can help maximize the prole of your or-

ganization as a whole.

“One of the great things about LinkedIn now is that anyone can publish on it’s platform

and you can use this to your advantage.” This aspect of LinkedIn enables companies

to leverage the connections of individual employees and open themselves up to en-

tirely new audiences.

If you already have a strong sense of what your audience wants then “See who hasthe most connections and then combine it with a topic your audience wants to read.”

If you do this, “you’ll have a lethal and powerful content marketing post.”

Follow Sabel

Twitter | LinkedIn



Anita Newton: Focus on Quality Content

Anita Newton is the VP of Marketing at one of the leading digital advertising companies

in video and social, Adknowledge. She has worked in the sales and marketing indus-tries for 20 years and has had an illustrious career to say the least.

Anita gets right to the point in diagnosing the key challenge marketers will face on

LinkedIn in 2016. Namely, that as more marketers ock to the platform, it will become

more and more “cluttered with every kind of content imaginable – good, bad (and yes)

the ugly.”

To get noticed and stay top of mind she admonishes brands to “skip the click bait,

and opt for substance.” She importantly reminds us that “it is better to have a piece ofquality content read by few readers than a puff piece ready by many.”

The next logical question is how to self-evaluate your own content, to see if it’s truly

worth pursuing. She provides a three-step checklist:

1. Will this make my members of my network smarter?

2. Is this a positive reection of my personal brand?

3. Would I be proud to have my (boss, mentor, recruiter) read this article?

If after performing this exercise you honestly “answered ‘yes’ to all three questions

post and publish!”

Follow Anita

Twitter | LinkedIn

(Disclosure: Adknowledge is a Honigman Media client.)



Dave Kerpen: Embrace Long-Form Publishing

Dave Kerpen is a stalwart within the world of digital marketing and is the founder and

CEO of Likeable Local.

Dave’s advice is something that I have publicly espoused on this blog many times –

repurposing content is key.

Since there is so much content out there, and so much of it goes unnoticed, brands

can’t expect to post a piece of content once just “hoping it’ll go viral.”

“In 2016, brands can better master content marketing on LinkedIn by realizing that,

just like on Facebook and Twitter, most content on LinkedIn goes unnoticed. In order

to have even your best content get seen, consider reusing it, posting at least 10 times

on different days and times and with different creative and copy.”

Beyond persistent and tailored promotional strategy, Dave also urges brands to recy-

cle content by repurposing it into various forms of content. For example “turning a blog

post into a webinar into an ebook, for example.”

The beauty of doing this is highlighted perfectly in the last line of his answer: “One piece

of great content can turn into a huge opportunity, as long as you reuse and recycle.”

Follow Dave

Twitter | LinkedIn



Peg Fitzpatrick: Get Visual With Your Content

Peg Fitzpatrick has an outsized reputation as a social media consultant and has mostrecently generated a ton of positive attention after co-authoring the book The Art of

Social Media with the famed Guy Kawasaki.

In much the same way that Dave Kerpen’s comments mirrored previous posts of mine,

Peg Fitzpatrick’s answer also serves to reinforce an idea I have championed passion-

ately on this site. This idea is that in order for content to reach it’s maximum potential,

it must be accompanied by strong visuals.

Peg notes something that should be common sense to most marketers, but is clearlynot the case for many: “blog articles need to be tested to see what it looks like when

the content is shared.”

I nd this to be a particularly insightful comment in regards to LinkedIn, where many

people are not constructing the content natively for sharing and many company up-

dates have images that are formatted strangely or incorrectly.

LinkedIn is a professional platform, but even professionals are going to be swayed by

quality visuals if they are accompanied by substantive content.

Peg’s answer serves to remind content marketers (on any platform) that “if people

won’t look good sharing your content to their audience, they won’t share it.”

Follow Peg

Twitter | LinkedIn



Dennis Shiao: Promote Aggressively, Listen Intently

Dennis Shiao is the Director of Content Marketing at DNN and a contributor a

digital marketing tools mar 2016

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