SEMrush is an all-in-one tool suite for improving online visibility. Our tools and reports the following digital marketing services:

• SEO (search engine optimization)
• PPC (pay-per-click advertising)
• Keyword Research
• Competitive Analysis
• Social Media Marketing
• Public Relations
• Content Marketing
• and more!

We often use this tool in our DMTG Training classes. A common question is, “Do we get access?”

Since SEMRush is an industry standard tool (often at the top of best tool lists) and since we use it here every day, we’ve negotiated with SEMRush and they’ve become the newest tool partner with us (and now you!).

All grads are now able to receive 25% off any annual (paid annually) plan. And that’s not all — your exclusive paid subscription through the DMTG partnership also gets you (free) 1-on-1 SEMRush Toolbox Training directly with SEMRush.

But, you don’t necessary have to commit right away (and the tool isn’t required for your success, it’s there for those who want to run their own analyses, create branded SEO audit reports, and so much more). SEMRush is willing to give all DMTG grads a FREE 2-week trial to try it out.

What Google Analytics Does for Marketers & Business Owners: An Introduction

Google analytics is a service that is provided by Google and it reports and tracks website traffic. It is a freemium service. It operates within the Google marketing platform. The service has been operational since the year 2005. There are many good things that Google analytics help marketers achieve. These include:

Getting to know customers

Google analytics gives marketers an opportunity to get to know their customers in a much deeper way. You can use tools that will help you analyze all the data that your business needs all in one place. When you understand the app and site users well, you will be able to evaluate how the marketing content you are giving performs. You can also evaluate the performance of the products.

Building a complete picture

With Google Analytics, you can understand how the people using the app and site are consuming the content provided. With such information, you can tell what is working for you and what is not. You can also see exactly how the audience is interacting with your app and site and what role is played by each channel. This is done by viewing dashboards and reports that are quite robust. It is even possible to connect the systems that can measure points of sale, CRM and all other kinds of touch points. This offers a complete view to the marketers.

Getting insights from Google

Google has got very unique capabilities that help you to discover new things from the data that you already have. Such insights include things like who is likely to convert and who has a high potential for revenue.

When you have these insights, you can now turn them into results. The analytics are built in a way that they work with the products of the publisher and also Google’s advertising so that you get to reach the right audience. You can then connect analytics with Ad manager, Adsense, Google Ads, and display and video 360. With the analytics data that you already have, you can now create new lists that you can use to re-market. Accessing them becomes much easier with the tools available.

Use the data to your advantage

With Google analytics, you are in a position to make a quick analysis of the data. The user interface is very easy to use and you get reports that can be shared. You can process data and then share it in huge amounts within a very short while. You can also use configuration APIs to allow things to be flexible and totally programmatic. There is also technical support that is inbuilt and it delivers data that is accurate and secure across all the apps and sites that are connected to you while you still control all of them.

There are lots of ways in which analytics can help you convert your data into acumens. Getting a deeper understanding of these ways helps you get so much more from it. When you understand your audience, you can work on different things to make their experience more fulfilling and meaningful. When you uncover the details of your data, you can tap into the greatest modeling capabilities. With analytics, you get a chance to visualize, organize, and access your data in a way that meets all the needs of your business.

Integrations

Analytics are created in a way that it is able to work quite seamlessly with partner products and Google solutions. This means that you end up saving so much time and this in itself increases efficiency to a great extent.

Penetration

Google analytics stands as the greatest service on web analytics available on the internet today. It provides SKD that allows one to gather the usage of data from android and its apps. Since it is integrated with other resources, one is able to review different online campaigns by simply tracking the conversions and landing page quality. The goals can include file downloads, viewing a page, generating leads and even sales. The approach used by Google analytics shows a dashboard kind of data which is of a higher level even for casual users.
With analytics, you can easily identify any pages that perform poorly using techniques like funnel visualization. You can also identify exactly where your visitors are coming from and who is referring them. You get to see their position geographically speaking and how much time they spend on your website. There are other advanced features that include custom visitor segmentation. E-commerce reporting can actually help you to track all sales activities as well as performance. Such reports show metrics that relate to commerce, including revenue and on site transactions.

Real time analytics have been around for a couple of years and they enable you to see who is viewing your site at a particular time. It also comes with the website optimizer which is referred to as Google analytics content experiments. With the analysis available on Google analytics, you are in a position to understand how some component groups behave. When you have a marketing strategy that is successful, then you will benefit greatly as a marketer.

Technology

Google analytics has page tags referred to as tracking codes. This is a code that the owner of the website needs to add to their pages. These codes run in the browser as the client browses and if they have Java script enabled and then the data belonging to the visitor is collected and sent to the collection server provided by Google. It is the tracking code that loads a JavaScript file from the servers and then sets some variables connected to the users’ account number.

Google analytics on mobile

There is the mobile package from Google analytics that can be used on the mobile websites. The package has different server tracking codes which make use of ASP.NET, Java server pages, PHP, and Perl for language. There are also many programs included to filter ads as well as extensions. This means that some users cannot be tracked and therefore data collection is obscured. This is one of the limitations that you could face. There are many privacy networks that can be used to mask the location of a user, thereby giving geographical data that is incorrect.

Every brand needs a video marketing strategy. This is an idea that has been around for a long time. The only difference today is how important this has become. You need video marketing on every channel and platform, and it is not just about an overall plan anymore. Videos need to be playing a central role in the campaign and outreach efforts.

Video has made an entry in a major way and there is no end in sight as of now. There is a great need for everyone to optimize their content as this is the smartest thing today in this day and age. If you do not use content optimization hand in hand with optimization on YouTube, then you are missing out on a lot of things.

Today, more and more people will prefer videos as compared to email newsletters, especially when the videos are about the brands that they support. Videos are more popular than social images too. Videos are also easy to remember when compared to images and texts that can be forgotten within a short time.

Video production has become quite accessible to marketing teams. You can create any kind of video you want very easily. The production equipment is also quite cost-effective than was the case in the past. You can even use your own smartphone to shoot a 4K video without compromising the quality. For the social videos, when it is simple and raw, it comes across as being authentic and this is all that matters to your customers.

Types of digital marketing videos that you can create

Before you start creating a video, you will have to determine the kind of video you want to make. There are some options available and each is handled differently. Some of the videos that you can create include:

• • Demo videos: these are used to showcase how a product works. This could be done by taking the audience on a software tour and how it is used. It can also be about how a product is unboxed and tested before use.
  • Brand videos: these are usually distributed as part of a larger campaign. They show the level of the company’s mission, vision as well as its services and products. The main aim here is to come up with videos that create awareness about the company and make an attempt to attract an audience.
  • Event videos: your company could be hosting a discussion, a conference, a fundraiser or any other event. It is important to come up with a highlight reel. Making interesting releases, presentation and interviews will capture the minds of many.
  • Expert interviews: getting some thought leaders or experts to conduct interviews in front of the camera is an amazing way to build authority and trust in your audience. You need to track down influencers within your own industry or even someone with a contrary view and then let your audience view them.
  • Educational videos: these videos can be used to teach the audience new things or add to the functional knowledge that they already have. This is the best way to help them understand your business better and also the solutions that you offer.
  • Explainer videos: these videos help the audience to understand the reasons as to why they need the product or service that you are offering. Many of these videos focus on the buyer persona, especially in dealing with a given problem. This person ends up overcoming the issue at hand by adopting the solution offered by the business.
  • Animated videos: animated videos can be an amazing way to format concepts that are hard to grasp. These are usually concepts that need very strong visuals or a product or service that cannot be touched.
  • Customer testimonial and case study videos: prospects only need to know that their problems will be solved by your product. One of the best ways to showcase the products and build customer trust is to come up with case study videos featuring your loyal and happy customers. These are the best advocates. You need to get the customer to talk about the challenges they faced and how exactly you helped them to meet any goals and solve the issues.
  • Live videos: live videos are an amazing way of giving viewers a kind of behind the scenes look at the company. You can stream live presentations and interviews as well and then encourage people who are watching to comment with their own questions or opinions.
  • Virtual reality and 360-degree videos: with the 360-degree option, the viewers can see all directions by simply scrolling to see it in a different perspective. This style is best for letting the viewer’s to experience an event or a location like exploring with scientist and so on. Virtual reality allows the viewers to control and navigate their own experience. The videos are usually viewed using different devices like the Google cardboard or Oculus Rift.
  • Augmented reality videos: this is a style where a digital layer is added to what is being watched. For example, you can point the camera to the living room and see how an addition such as a couch, could look in a particular space.
  • Personalized messages: recorded videos are a very creative way of continuing with a conversation and getting someone’s attention, especially when a response has not been received through email or any other communication channel. You can make a recap video about a meeting or a video where personalized recommendations are given using different tools. These are videos that can be a great delight for prospects and they can encourage them to purchase.

Other things to note about video and video marketing

Before you begin a recording, you need to establish the purpose of the video that you are creating. All decisions point back to different actions that you want the audience to complete once the video is over. When you do not have a clear purpose, you will have to edit and reshoot the video which translates to a lot of lost time.

Come up with a clear questionnaire that will answer some unknowns and then create a superb video so that the stakeholders of the project can view it. It need not be too long, but ensure all the essentials are covered.

Know your target audiences, set your goals, choose your platform, know the due date, set the budget, and look at the creative requirements and so on. These are the things that will greatly help any video marketing campaign.

Targeting the right keywords is a fundamental part of your SEO efforts. Growing your keyword list should be a focus in your SEO. Knowing which keywords your competition is ranking for and how they are using those keywords is a great place to start with your own efforts. Fortunately, there are tools that will allow you to spy on what keywords your competitors are currently using and which keywords have worked well in the past.

SEMrush

SEMrush has a keyword tool that will allow you to spy on your competition and discover not only what keywords they are ranking for organically, but what keywords they are targeting through paid advertising as well. Since the keywords for organic search do not perform the same as keywords targeted for advertising, this is valuable information.

SEMrush gives detailed analytic information on all keywords returned in its search. There are three monthly subscription rates: Pro ($69.95), Guru ($149.95), and Business ($549.95).

SpyFu

Not only is SpyFu able to return all the keywords your competition currently ranks for and the keywords they are currently targeting in paid advertising, but they return every organic rank and ad variation for the past nine years.

Knowing what keywords your competition is currently using is very helpful, but knowing which keywords they have ranked for and targeted over the past nine years is extremely beneficial.

SpyFu offers in-depth SEO reports for your keywords as well. There are three monthly subscription rates: Basic ($79), Professional ($139), and Agency ($999).

KeywordSpy

Similar to the other two keyword tools, KeywordSpy returns a report and analysis of your competitor’s keywords and how they are ranking. But the depth of detail KeywordSpy returns is greater than the other two keyword tools.

KeywordSpy also gives useful details for pay-per-click campaigns, such as the per click cost for each keyword, how many clicks you could expect, the daily cost and other detailed statistics.

KeywordSpy has four monthly subscription rates: Research ($89.95), Tracking ($89.95), Professional ($139.95), and Agency & Enterprise ($995 and up).

Keyword research is a vital and on-going part of any SEO strategy and having the right tools in place makes any job a little easier. These three keyword tools, while subscription based, can save you even more in the time, effort, and expense of targeting the wrong keywords or underperforming keywords. These are tools that should be in your SEO tool belt.

We are the Digital Marketing Training Group. With over 75 years of combined digital marketing experience, we have been providing a recipe for success to people who want to run their own businesses in a multi-billion dollar industry that is growing year after year.