Whether you’re starting a business, pivoting to digital, or making a career change, making the leap into digital marketing can be overwhelming. There are so many things to learn and everything seems just as important as the other. In an effort to simplify the beginning stages, we’ve compiled a list of some of the digital marketing resources we’ve found useful as well as tools we recommend you check out.
Digital Marketing Tools
Photoshop
Starting out in digital marketing, everyone should have a basic understanding of how Photoshop works and how to use it for simple tasks. If you’re on the more creative side of digital marketing, such as content creation, you will probably need to develop a deeper understanding of this tool.
Canva
On the other hand, if you are not in content creation, you could use Canva instead of Photoshop. It’s very user friendly, does many of the same things, and might be the tool for you if you have little to no design experience.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is great for viewing your website traffic information. If you ever need a general overview of how your site is doing, this is the perfect tool. Anyone who is working on a website should have a basic understanding of Google Analytics.
Wistia
Video is one of the best online marketing tools, especially in the era of COVID-19. Anyone can do it, but it’s important for anyone putting video out to know the basics of a video software. With 3 different plans depending on your level of video involvement, Wistia makes it easy for you to use video in a way that works best for you.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is one of the best tools out there for digital marketers and SEOs. Keyword research, site auditing, and exploring competitors’ sites are just a few of the basics Ahrefs offers. If you’re joining the digital marketing world, Ahrefs is a great place to start and get some basic knowledge, as well as get a feel for any website at a glance.
Answer the Public
Answer the Public shows any and all questions asked on Google. If you’re looking to do some in-depth keyword research, this is the tool for you. Think of it as the suggested “People Also Search For” function of Google, but all in one place.
Surfer SEO
Surfer SEO is a great tool that helps with content creation and writing for SEO. What do the top ranking posts look like for this keyword? What other keywords are they using in the articles? How long is the average post? Is it formatted like a listicle or conversation? What sort of questions does the post answer? Using Surfer answers all these questions for our writers and explains what we’re looking for in the post.
Buffer
Buffer is a social media management tool that is incredibly useful for anyone on the social side of the digital marketing spectrum. Buffer makes it easy to manage all your accounts in one place and create campaigns to use across social platforms.
Search Console
If you need an in-depth look at the pages on your site, Search Console is the way to go. See your top pages, their overall traffic and impressions, and the keywords they are most often showing up on the SERP for.
Useful Marketing Articles:
https://backlinko.com/keyword-research
Keyword research is a very important part of SEO, creating content, and just general digital marketing because it helps you to understand what people are actually searching for. This article will walk you through the basics of keyword research.
https://ahrefs.com/blog/outreach/
If you work for any type of business, digital or otherwise, chances are you will be doing some outreach. This article gives great tips on how to cut out the templates, sound like a real person, and get noticed in a sea of outreach emails. And who knows? Maybe you’ll even get what you’re asking for!
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/local-seo/optimize-google-my-business/#close
If you’re doing digital marketing for ANY company, it is incredibly important to thoroughly fill out your Google My Business. It is the simplest way to establish yourself online as a real business, and the process is mostly just filling out information you should already know about your business. This article walks you through how to optimize your Google My Business profile.
Getting Backlinks – https://hookagency.com/backlink/
No matter what type of digital marketing you do, backlinks are important for all websites. Here is a good article about the basics of backlinking, how they can help your site and business in the long run, and how to properly conduct backlink outreach.
SEO Basics – https://hookagency.com/seo-basics/
If you’re looking for an in-depth basic guide to SEO, this is it. This article includes the three biggest keys to SEO and the most important three things to get started with.
Youtube SEO – https://backlinko.com/how-to-rank-youtube-videos
If you’re using video for your marketing, it is important to have a basic understanding of Youtube SEO. This article goes very in-depth on Youtube SEO, and Brian Dean is very skilled at what he does.
https://cxl.com/blog/thank-you-page/
A thank you page is very important when it comes to conversion- this article does a great job of giving simple ways to get the most out of your thank you page and hopefully improve your conversion rates.
https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo
This is another great guide to the basics of SEO. Moz is a big site with high authority in the SEO world. This guide begins with the foundation of SEO and walks through each of the aspects, in a very thorough way.
https://backlinko.com/seo-this-year
A 2020- specific guide to SEO, this article walks you through what Google expects of your site and which things are producing measurable results this year. This is an important guide as SEO is ever-changing, which means that some guides created even a year or two ago may already starting to become outdated.
Courses / Channels:
Surfside PPC YouTube Channel
These videos are a great resource for learning anything from the basics of SEO to PPC and display ads. They take you step-by-step and are usually less than an hour long. Since they’re on YouTube, they’re free and you can access them from anywhere!
Udemy SEO Training Course
Udemy is a well-renowned course academy in the SEO world. This course takes you in depth on basic vocabulary and strategy of SEO and some of the tools that will help you get started.
Hubspot Digital Marketing Courses
The Hubspot digital marketing courses are a fantastic resource for anyone just getting started in digital marketing, as well as anyone expanding their education into other areas of digital marketing. They have so many courses to choose from in all areas of marketing, and you will be sure to learn some new skills or develop some knowledge that will help you in your digital marketing work.
Digital Marketing Resources
These resources will help you develop a surface-level, basic understanding of most aspects of digital marketing. There are so many different resources out there that it’s important to continue learning and developing your knowledge and skills as you grow further into your career!
When you specialize in one segment of digital marketing, it’s easy to only focus on that topic. With that being said, remember that all aspects of digital marketing work together to create a lasting and effective digital marketing strategy for your business.
