Your business probably has fingers in a lot of proverbial marketing pies: social media, paid advertising and email, to name a few. To make the best use of your resources, you need to understand the effectiveness of each. How do you collect and compare quantifiable marketing data? By using analytics.

What’s the Benefit?

While some people may assume that analytics is only valuable when your business needs help, these tools can be useful to companies in any situation. They do show you where you need improvement, but they can also show what your business is doing well. Basically, these tools help you learn from your own history.

How Much Time Should You Dedicate?

Once you have your chosen tools up and running, you only need to dedicate a small portion of time to analysis. Thirty minutes a day should do, with one or two additional hours set aside each week for a more in-depth review.

Setting up your tools is another story. Many are tied to your social media accounts and require some customization. Each tool may require three or four hours to configure. However, once you’re done, they’ll only need occasional upkeep.

What Are Some Free Tools You Can Use?

Many social media platforms and other websites offer free tools to users. Here are a few basics that every business should use:

What Do More Expensive Tools Offer?

Although you may be satisfied with free tools, you should know that purchased tools have more to offer than a big price tag. You generally get access to a larger amount of data that’s more comprehensive. In some cases, it’s even filtered to make it easier for you to find relevant information.

Is It Really Worth Buying Tools?

Only you can really answer this question. If your business is doubling down on its digital marketing and wants the most efficient approach, it should definitely invest in the best tools. Generally, that means paying for the software.

Do You Really Need Multiple Tools?

Unfortunately, yes. Each tool addresses a different aspect of marketing:

  • Campaign research
  • Email marketing
  • Web analytics
  • Content marketing
  • Monitoring

If you want to incorporate all these strategies into your campaign (and you should), you’re going to need multiple tools.

With the right software, you can identify your business’s strengths and weaknesses as they relate to marketing. You can then use this information to steer your campaign in the right direction.