With the explosion of new channels and technologies, marketers often struggle to keep up with what’s trending and what tools are effective in the various markets they serve.
In an effort to make marketing a bit more enjoyable and gain some insight into best practices, we decided to put together a complete guide on selecting and implementing an online marketing map. This information covers everything from deciding what software is needed, to creating a content schedule, to analyzing performance and adjusting strategies as necessary.
Get To The Point
The first step to creating an effective online marketing map is understanding what it is and how it works. Simply put, an online marketing map is a map that allows marketers to track and analyze the performance of various digital marketing activities, such as ads, emails, or social media posts. These activities are known as marketing channels or media channels and can be measured using different types of metrics, such as clicks, orders, or sales.
Essentially, an online marketing map allows users to gain insight into their digital marketing strategy and ensure that their efforts are spent in the most effective ways possible. It can also be used to measure the performance of particular marketing channels and adjust strategies as necessary.
The Advantages Of Having An Online Marketing Map
There are several advantages to having an online marketing map. One of the primary advantages is the ability to track the performance of your various digital marketing channels simultaneously. You may be familiar with the phrase, “a picture paints a thousand words,” and this is certainly true when referring to digital marketing. Simply put, the capability to track the performance of multiple channels allows you to draw more comprehensive conclusions about the success of your strategy and the effectiveness of your chosen tactics. This, in turn, can be used to determine the next steps of your digital marketing campaign.
Additionally, having a single source for all of your marketing data makes it much easier to understand how each strategy, tactic, and channel is performing relative to the others. This can be incredibly useful when attempting to establish a clear and cohesive strategy, as well as when identifying areas for improvement. Furthermore, the ability to accurately measure the performance of your different marketing channels can help you determine the degree to which each one is contributing to your overall success.
The Disadvantages Of Having An Online Marketing Map
Although having an online marketing map has several advantages, it also has a couple of disadvantages. One of the primary disadvantages is that the success of your strategy depends entirely on the quality of the data that you enter into the system. The more accurate and up-to-date the information, the better the results you will undoubtedly achieve. It is, however, quite a tedious process to enter this data manually, especially if you’ve never done so before. This is why so many marketing systems are focused on collecting and cleaning data automatically, so you can focus on using the information to make better informed decisions.
Another disadvantage, which is similar to the one mentioned above, is that the quality of the data varies between platforms, so it’s quite an essential that you find a system that can provide you with accurate and up-to-date information, regardless of whether you’re using Google Analytics, HubSpot, or any other software.
Who Should Avoid This Technology
It’s a common question when deciding whether or not to invest in new marketing technology: who should use this technology and who should avoid it? There are several individuals, depending on the stage in life and how much they value their time, that should avoid using this technology.
In case you’re new to marketing, you should generally avoid using this technology. Time is one of the most valuable commodities that you have, so you should be trying to use as little of it as possible to accomplish your goals. In case you’re an experienced marketer, you should absolutely consider using this technology to aid you in your work. That being said, you need to ensure that you have the right people using the product and that the people using it are trained in its proper use.
When To Use This Technology
Nowadays, this technology is indispensable for any marketer or business owner, regardless of whether or not they are using digital marketing to promote their products. This technology allows for continuous analysis of the performance of your different marketing channels and enables you to make more informed decisions regarding your strategy and the future of your business.
As we established above, the success of your strategy depends on how well you can measure the performance of your different channels. This is where having a competent and experienced marketing team comes in handy. With numerous individuals tasked with the responsibility to continually analyze and understand the performance of their chosen channels, you can be sure that the data will be kept up to date and accurate.
The fact is that measuring the performance of your different marketing channels is not a simple task, so investing in a tool that can make the process less tedious is certainly worthwhile. These tools can also be extremely useful in identifying previously hidden patterns and identifying the best times to deploy particular strategies and tactics.
The Best Option For You
As we mentioned above, the success of your strategy depends on how well you can measure the performance of your different marketing channels. Once you’ve determined the type of tool that you’ll need to use, the next step is to determine how much you should invest in it. This, of course, depends on several factors, including the size of your team and the amount of time you have to devote to market analysis. Additionally, how much you value your time is quite important, since you’ll need to consider whether or not it’s worth the investment to have this tool perform certain tasks, such as data collection or analysis.
To conclude this section, let’s take a quick look at the different types of marketing technologies that you might consider, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each one.
Google Analytics
Probably, the most popular and widely used tool for tracking website traffic and analyzing the performance of online marketing campaigns is Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a free tool hosted by Google and provides webmasters with detailed analytics regarding the performance of their websites.
The primary advantage of having a site monitored by Google Analytics is the ability to track the performance of your different campaigns, as well as the content on your site, across various platforms, such as mobile devices and desktop computers. With Google Analytics, you can create multiple profiles, which allow you to track the activity of multiple consumer segments and compare the results of your various marketing campaigns. You can also set up automated emails to send to customers, regarding their site activity, and allow you to follow up with prospective buyers who haven’t made a purchase yet.
The major disadvantage of Google Analytics is that, much like the other tools discussed below, it requires a significant amount of data to be entered manually, which can be quite a tedious process. This is why, in most cases, the data is entered by specialists who have specific knowledge of the industry. Furthermore, as mentioned above, it requires a significant amount of space on your server to maintain. This can be a problem for those who don’t have dedicated servers or large amounts of free server space.
Drupal
Drupal is another free and open-source tool, similar to Google Analytics, which provides webmasters with detailed statistics regarding the performance of their websites. Drupal is a content management system (CMS) that provides users with the capability to create and maintain websites and online stores, as well as engage with their audience through blogs and other content.
Drupal was originally developed with the purpose of easing the burden placed on webmasters by having a CMS that could be easily managed and updated by non-specialists. This, of course, depends on the type of user you have accessing your site and whether or not you have the time to devote to maintaining it. Much like Google Analytics, the data that is collected using Drupal is used to analyze traffic and evaluate the performance of your different campaigns, as well as the content on your site.
Drupal is, generally speaking, a better option than Google Analytics for smaller businesses and individuals who don’t have a large enough server and who value their time more than they value the technology. This is because, much like the other tools discussed below, Drupal needs a bit of training to ensure that you use it effectively. Additionally, unlike Google Analytics, which is completely free, you will have to purchase a license to use Drupal.