8 Bitesize Digital Quick Wins

Digital marketing is no longer the new kid on the block, yet few have even mastered the basics. There’s a perception that it’s complicated and expensive, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. That’s why we’ve put together 8 cheap and cheerful quick wins in digital marketing to help you with the basics – with handy links if you want to find out more.

No. 1. LinkedIn Website Demographics

How much does it cost? Free

In a nutshell: Provides top level data on the people who visit your website. This means it can be used for lead generation and audience insights. Particularly good for B2B. The data that it provides is:

• • • • Job title
      • Industry
      • Job seniority
      • Job function
      • Company
      • Company size
      • Location
      • Country

Delve Deeper:

• Find out how to add it here: https://www.linkedin.com/help/lms/answer/83551
• More info on what it provides here: http://www.netimperative.com/2017/08/linkedin-expands-analytics-tools-website-demographics/

No. 2. Followerwonk

How much does it cost? Free (with a number of costed premium options)

In a nutshell: One to make sure you spell carefully – followerwonk allows you to track and sort followers, and analyse your competitors’ Twitter accounts and followers. It also allows you to find influencers in specific areas of interest. If, for instance, you’re looking to promote to audiences with an interest in football, you can partner with a fantasy football blogger who has hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter to promote your product/service.

Delve deeper:

• https://moz.com/followerwonk/
• This is a great guide to get you started: https://9clouds.com/blog/find-and-connect-with-new-influencers-in-your-niche-with-followerwonk/

No. 3. Hootsuite

How much does it cost? Free for basic (management of 3 social networks)

In a nutshell: Hootsuite’s main feature allows you to schedule your social media posts in one place -allowing you to keep your social media presence active without it becoming a hassle. Additional features include monitoring of streams, Twitter lists, contest set ups, analytics and making sure sign-off is required before tweets go live.

Delve deeper:

• For a good overview: https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-hootsuite-3486042
• Check some of the insider tips from the Hootsuite blog: https://blog.hootsuite.com/hootsuite-hacks/

No. 4. Social Media Advertising

How much does it cost? Depends – but you can see results with minimal investment

In a nutshell: This allows you to get your offering or content in front of new audiences and it’s not as expensive or difficult to do as you may think. With Facebook advertising in particular you can spend very little and still see results. There are a number of simple ways to target people – by interests, using an email list to create lookalike audiences, tracking people who have been on your website and retargeting them, and so on. Social advertising does not guarantee success – it needs care as well as testing and optimisation. While it can be somewhat time intensive to get right initially, it can be a powerful tool if done properly.

Delve deeper:

• This is a great guide to get you started on Facebook advertising :https://blog.bufferapp.com/facebook-ads-guide

No. 5. Social Media Tracking Pixels

How much does it cost? Free

In a nutshell: These are small snippets of code from social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.) that are placed in the header of the site. They allow you to track people who have hit your website and retarget them with content/deals as well as create lookalike audiences based on website demographics for ad campaigns. All the main social media sites have this available and Google Tag Manager allows you to manage them on your site all in one place.

Delve deeper:

• https://www.liveandsocial.com/blog/social-advertising-tracking-pixel/

 No. 6. Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) Tracking codes

How much does it cost? Free

In a nutshell: UTMs are simple pieces of code that can be added to a URL which tells you, by appearing in Google Analytics, where searchers come from and what campaign sent them there. This allows you to track how a blog post, piece of work or advertising campaign is performing without having to set up a separate landing page for each.

Delve deeper:

• Set up a UTM tracking code here: https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/campaign-url-builder/
• For how it works and best practice on how to use it check here: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-are-utm-tracking-codes-ht

No. 7. Google Data Studio

How much does it cost? Free

In a nutshell: Allows you to integrate all of your paid and organic data into one central place with a user friendly interface. Previously, for reporting, you would have to laboriously download Google Analytics data into an excel spreadsheet and integrate with other data sources to create charts and diagrams. Data Studio allows you to pull in any data that’s on Google Sheets meaning that you don’t have to have separate social media and google analytics data.

Delve deeper:

• Check out this article with simple tips on how to set yourself up: http://online-metrics.com/google-data-studio/

No. 8. Yoast SEO

How much does it cost? Free (with a costed premium version)

If you have a WordPress website Yoast SEO is a great tool for basic SEO such as titles and meta descriptions, alt text (image labelling) and key words. Make sure you get your developer to add this rather than doing it yourself in case anything goes wrong (should take only a few minutes of their time).

Delve deeper:

• Find out more on Yoast SEO here: https://moz.com/blog/using-yoast-seo-for-wordpress