Today’s marketing resources are unlimited—so how do you know which ones are worth using and which take more money (and time to learn) than they’re worth? Our Bend OR and Santa Barbara CA digital marketing agency strategists have compiled a list of the top tools of digital marketing agencies so you can see how we work from the inside.
Best SEO Strategy Tool: Tie! Google Keyword Planner and Moz
Keyword research is what keeps a brand relevant online—the first page of Google gets 75% of all traffic for any given search phrase. Our SEO team uses these apps in tandem to generate keyword strategies, Google AdWords key phrases, and anything else that requires analytical SEO strategies.
Moz Pro
Moz Pro is a comprehensive SEO software suite equipped with multiple functionalities in one web-based tool. Its strongest tools are the Open Site Explorer and Keyword Explorer, which our team uses to address core SEO issues. The platform aids in keyword research and management, ongoing search position monitoring, site crawling, and building comprehensive reports.
While Moz has many strengths, it’s not right for everyone. The user experience can be frustrating, and the program takes awhile to learn. But, used correctly, it can be an effective tool for building SEO strategies.
Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner (and other great planning tools) helps users generate keyword ideas to get campaigns rolling. By searching words and phrases related to a product or services, the Keyword Planner can help find the most relevant keywords available. The Keyword Planner helps our team get suggested bid estimates and see how search volume for a keyword changes over time. That way we can stay on top of trends and predict which keywords will fare well for each brand we work with and those which are likely to drop off. .
Best Social Media App: Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a well-known social media suite that helps manage basic social needs for SMB marketers and businesses. It allows for one user and 10 social profiles. The suite lets you connect your LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Google+ profiles. That way, you can keep up with what’s happening on a number of different profiles at once. It’s also a great way to communicate with your audience and publish posts without having to jump between various social platforms.
Best Workflow Management App for Digital Marketing Agencies: Asana
Asana is a team collaboration tool that helps with workflow management, task management, and more. The app helps you determine who will do a task and when, who will work on the next related task, what your teammate needs to know to get their work done, and when their work is completed.
While it can take some time to get things set up, we’ve found Asana to be worth the work in the long run. With project task lists, subtasks, collaborations, conversations, and more, it’s a Type A employee’s dream.
Best Grammar Editor: Tie! Grammarly and Hemingway
While no existing app is able to replace a professional proofreader or editor, they sure speed up the process. We’ve found both of these writing apps invaluable to our SEO writing and blogging processes for different reasons.
Grammarly Premium
We can all agree that typos and grammatical errors are, at best, embarrassing, and, at worst, unprofessional. That’s why Grammarly was built. The premium app helps writers identify more grammatical errors than a traditional built-in grammar checker such as the ones in Google Docs, Word, and Pages.
It also provides writers with detailed information about every error. That way, you know how to avoid doing it again in the future, from confused prepositions to common writing mistakes like misplaced apostrophes. Grammarly also supports multiple document styles, so it will warn you if a specific turn of phrase is too formal for your blog or too informal for your academic paper.
Hemingway
Reminiscent of the writer himself, the Hemingway writing app is simple and uncluttered. Everything the app accomplishes is explained in neat text on one screen. What begins as a clean word processor expands to an in-depth editing panel. It displays the readability level, reading time, word count, and much more. Contrary to what you might expect, a lower reading level is important for SEO value.
Similarly, Ernest Hemingway’s most popular works have been placed by analysts at a 4th to 6th grade reading level. If more people can understand your writing, then more people will read it. The app also highlights your adverbs, use of passive voice, phrases or words with easier alternatives, and hard to read sentences so you can better analyze and edit your own writing.
At Savy, we pride ourselves on keeping up-to-date with the top tools of the best digital marketing agencies so our clients can focus on doing what they love. That’s why our favorite tools of the trade are always growing and changing, just like we are. What apps and tools are your favorites? Which have you found save the most time or provide the best ROI? We’re all in ears.