Top 10 Resource Sites for Digital Marketers

Getting the word out about your business can be a full-time job if you let it. For most business owners, that’s simply not an option. Luckily, there are resources and sites to help get the word out without sitting at the computer all day.

I use each of these sites every single day. Without any of them, my inbound marketing strategy would be much more difficult because of the extra work and extra time it would cost me. To clarify, the following are in no particular order.

Social Media Marketing:

1. LinkedIn

Social media is at the heart of promoting content and growing your reach. Though LinkedIn has become a bit spammy, it is important to get the most out of this professional network. By growing your reach, making new connections, promoting your own content, and engaging with the content of others is a great way to drive traffic to your site.

2. Twitter

Just like LinkedIn, only without the guise of being limited to “professionals”, Twitter allows you to engage with thought leaders, promote your own content, and make new connections. It’s also a great way to keep up to date with what your competitors are doing and current trends in your industry.

3. Hootsuite

Keeping up to date on one or two social media accounts is difficult. If you’re running multiple social media accounts for multiple clients, Hootsuite is as essential to your everyday life as eating and breathing. This allows you to add all of your social media accounts, schedule posts in advance (I plan a whole week on Monday), and track mentions, topics, and your own updates.

4. Buzzsumo

The free version is a bit limited, but if you start with a plan and don’t spend much time browsing, you can accomplish plenty within your free daily limits. Enter a domain and Buzzsumo shows you all the social media shares for that domain in a given time period. Track your successful articles and blog posts and the failures to redefine your strategy. Or, track your competitors to see what’s driving traffic to their site.

Search Results:

5. SEMRush

This site allows you to type in any domain and provides results on organic search rankings, keywords, pay-per-click ads, and backlinks. The free version has its limits, but is still extremely helpful. However, if you can afford it, the paid version is much more expansive.

6. SpyFu

Similar to SEMRush, SpyFu provides search results, keywords, pay-per-click ads, social media shares, and the origins of backlinks. I think SEMRush has a better layout and user experience, whereas SpyFu goes more in depth with keyword analysis. I almost always use both to verify results.

Link Analysis:

7. Deadlink Checker

How many dead links does your site have? Or, if you’re a digital marketing professional, how many dead links does a prospect have? How about the site of a thought leader whom you’d like to get a link from? It’s impossible to click through every link. Simply put the domain in and results can be for a single page or the entire site.

Keyword Analysis:

8. Google Trends

By allowing you to compare up to five keywords, Google Trends tracks the performance of keywords important to your business over a period of time of your choosing. With the results, it also shows trending, related keywords. For some industries, it’s also beneficial to scan the terms and topics trending on Google over the past 24 hours as well.

9. Google AdWords Keyword Planner

This is still the best keyword tool out there because shows the average monthly searches for specific keywords, the competition in ranking for those keywords, and suggested bid to rank your ad (if you choose) on the first page. It can also provide you with similar keywords on a topic, domain and phrase that you may not have missed.

Email Marketing:

10. MailChimp

This is the perfect email marketing tool. It allows you to build your own form for prospects to sign up for your newsletter, separate your leads into different lists (so you’re not sending the same email to a loyal, long-time customer and someone who just signed up), and design, send, and track analytics for your emails. 

There is nothing easy about digital marketing, especially if you’re trying to run your own business as well. Using these tools properly on a daily basis will make it that much easier. If you’re still overwhelmed though and would like a Free Consultation to develop a digital marketing strategy for your company, visit mikedobrien.com or email me at [email protected].

Michael O'Brien combines his creativity and storytelling skills with business acumen to tell your company's unique story and position your business as an authority in your industry. To get updates on inbound marketing strategies, follow him on Twitter @mikedobrien or visit his site mikedobrien.com.