Free Resources for the Digital Marketer's Toolkit

Digital marketing plays a critical role in a company or brand’s digital presence. Marketers are charged with not only positioning a brand, but also building authenticity and credibility. In an ever-changing digital landscape, the Internet is full of free data and resources at the disposal of marketers. With this in mind, we have compiled a list of useful resources to add to your digital marketing toolkit!

Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project

The Pew Research Center provides useful statistics and reports regarding the evolving nature of the Internet. The 15-20 pieces of research produced each year are based on nationwide surveys and qualitative research.

• Social Media Update 2013

• Social Networking Fact Sheet

U.S. Small Business Administration

The U.S. SBA is an independent agency of the federal government that assists small businesses and works to strengthen the nation’s economy. They provide free data to better understand your target market and current economic conditions. 

• Understand Your Market and Economic Conditions

  • General Business Data and Statistics

  • Demographics – People and Population

  • Consumer Statistics

  • Economic Indicators

  • Employment Statistics

  • Income and Earnings

  • Money and Interest Rates

  • Production and Sales Statistics

  • Trade Statistics

   

   

   

Buffer

Buffer is a social media management tool with a blog about “productivity, life hacks, writing, user experience, customer happiness and business.” Its bloggers are regularly creating content to improve a marketer’s day-to-day efforts and strategy development.

• A Guide to High Quality Social Media Sharing: What, When, How to Share

• The Complete Beginner’s Guide to SEO

• 10 Awesome Infographics to Guide your Marketing Plan for 2014

• The Marketer’s Guide to Google Analytics: Numbers that Drive Action

Hubspot

As a “pioneer in inbound marketing,” Hubspot is a marketing software platform used to generate traffic, leads, and sales. In addition to paid services, they provide an expansive library of free marketing tools including templates, user guides, ebooks, webinars, and worksheets.

• Marketing Grader: Evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing efforts through a comprehensive look at blogging, social media, SEO, lead generation, mobile marketing, and competitive benchmarking

• All The Marketing Statistics You Need: Get extensive stats about SEO, blogging, social media, lead generation, lead management, email marketing, marketing automation, and analytics

• Tools & Templates to Execute Your Marketing: Managing & Organizing Google AdWords Campaigns, Blog Editorial Calendar, The Social Media Publishing Schedule, and many more

• Content to Learn Marketing: Critical Social Media Updates & How to React in 2014, How to Create the Perfect LinkedIn Company Page, Getting Started With A/B Testing, How to Report on Inbound Marketing Results, and many more

Social Media Today

Social Media Today includes a network of over 1,800 bloggers with expertise in business, marketing, and social media content. In addition to their blog, they offer free webinars, e-books, and moderated Tweet chats regarding the digital age.

• Marketing: Advertising, Analytics, Branding, Content, Graphic Content, Metrics, and ROI

• Networks: Facebook, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn, New Features, Pinterest, Platforms, and Twitter

• Best Practices: Behavior, Blogging, Community Management, Education, Enterprise, Jobs, Journalism, Listening, Non-Profits, Research, and Strategy

• Social Customer: Social Government, Social Startups, Customer Service, CRM, Reputation Management, Sales

• Infographics

• Webinars & Reports

Business 2 Community

Business 2 Community provides an open community where over 4,000 expert contributors share industry-specific news, trends, and personal experiences. The topics include: marketing, blogging, branding, public relations, technology, social media, and many more.

• Big Data Survey: What Are the Trends? [Infographic]

• Social Media Marketing Trends for 2014

• Content Marketing Forecast for 2014 [Infographic]

• Easy Online Marketing Strategies that Work

Mashable

Mashable provides news, information, and resources covering digital culture, social media, and technology. They are a leading source in news relevant to: 

• Social Media: Keep up-to-date with everything social media: Facebook, Google+, How To, Twitter, and YouTube

• Tech: Apps and Software, Dev & Design, Gadgets, and Mobile

• Business: Advertising, Jobs, Marketing, Media, Small Business, and Startups

Vocus

Vocus provides cloud-based marketing and public relations software to acquire and maintain customers, as well as improve and measure marketing effectiveness. They provide free white papers & guides, as well as a marketing blog and webinars & events.

• White Papers & Guides:  State of the Media Report 2014; 15 Ideas to Grow with Digital Marketing; How to Measure Social Media, Where It’s At: The Local Marketing Guide, and many more

• Marketing 101 Blog: Five Ways to Update Your PR Strategy for 2014, Branding Rule Follow Your Heart Then Data, and many more

• Webinars & Events: Demand Success 2014, State of the Media Report 2014, Brand With a Visual Hammer, Mobile 2014: What you need to know, and many more

Adobe Marketo 

Adobe Marketo provides marketing automation software for email, social, analytics, lead management, and more. In addition, they provide free resources such as guides, cheat sheets, and detailed reports to add to your marketing toolkit.

• Tips for the Social Marketer Cheat Sheets: Facebook, Twitter,Pinterest and Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn, Blogging

• 50 Tried and True Social Insights from Real Marketers

• The Marketing Measurement Cheat Sheet

• Marketo Blog: Topics include marketing automation, social media, content marketing, email marketing, modern marketing, and more

Google

Google in and of itself is a powerful tool for marketers. The following resources are free and accessible to assist in building effective and target campaigns.

• Google AdWords Keyword Planner: Learn how and what customers are looking for in their keyword searches. This tool allows you to search for new keyword or ad group ideas to build new Search Network campaigns or expand existing ones.

• Google Analytics: Better understand your audience it order to analyze and improve the user experience and tailor your marketing activities.

• Google Trends: Explore Google trending search topics.

• Google Alerts: Receive email updates of the latest Google results regarding your business.

Bing

Bing provides marketers even more resources to better understand search patterns and best digital practices. The following resources are free and useful to fulfilling marketing objectives.

• Keyword Research Tool: Understand what content to create by researching various keywords relevant to your business and marketing objectives.

• SEO Analyzer: Bing’s SEO Analyzer utilizes 15 SEO best practices to scan any URL, test it against the best practices, and generate a detailed report.