Every successful craftsperson relies on certain tools and skillsets to get the job done right, and digital marketing is no exception. New technology is being released at such a fast pace that just keeping up with the latest processes and techniques is practically a full time job in itself. Taking advantage of every time and labor-saving tool and resource available offers the best chance for the digital marketer to stay effective and competitive.

Along with the various software tools and resources, an important component of a well-stocked digital marketer’s toolbox is a skillset covering the basic technologies and processes of digital marketing. Assuming that you’re fairly well-grounded in the basics of traditional marketing disciplines, let’s move forward into the digital marketing era.

SEO and Offer Conversion Tools

• Google Keyword Planner – This free tool is widely used to help generate keyword ideas as well as to obtain estimates of search traffic volume.
• Open Site Explorer – Provides detailed analytics of inbound link profiles for your own sites and for those of your competitors. OSE allows you to analyze link sources and diversity, and provides a quality score for each link as well.
• Google Webmaster Tools – This suite of free tools gives you a valuable insight into how Google views your website, and provides details on the number of impressions you are getting from the search results, as well as how many of those are actually clicking-through to your website.
• Google Analytics – is a companion to the Webmaster Tools, and provides detailed information about your website’s traffic, including how visitors found your site and which of your pages are the most popular.
• Unbounce – enables you to conduct your own A/B testing to determine the most effective landing page.

Research and Market Intelligence Tools

• Google Trends – acts as your long-range sensors, providing information on breaking trends and new ideas that are shaping the habits and opinions of your prospective customers.
• Google Consumer Surveys – offers an inexpensive alternative to high-priced market research, and you don’t even need your own database of customers to survey.
• Talk Walker – is a free tool that sends you an email notification whenever your preset terms are mentioned online. You can monitor your online reputation, track your competitor’s activities, and stay on top of breaking developments in your industry or niche.
• Firefox – is a free web browser that also offers a number of plug-ins and add-ons that come in handy with web design and SEO analysis.

The Basic Digital Marketing Skillset Tools

In its simplest form, digital marketing is the application of new technologies to the traditional marketing framework of communicating with the target audience and optimizing product, price, and distribution strategies. At a minimum, these new technologies require a working understanding of their impact on your overall digital marketing campaigns and should include. Website design principles, including site content writing and basic call-to-action techniques.

SEO and conversion principles, including an understanding of basic keyword research, on-site SEO optimization techniques, content marketing, and current backlinking techniques.

• Reputation management and marketing techniques.
• Social media techniques and best practices.
• Video marketing techniques.
• Mobile marketing techniques, including SMS (text message) marketing.