People love to share their experiences online. If you’ve ever browsed the comments on a YouTube video, you’ll know that many users are more than happy to give their opinions and advice. This trait makes social media platforms like YouTube very useful for online marketers. You can use these platforms to monitor your online marketing efforts and find out what’s working and what needs to be changed.

The fact that people love to connect with others online means that marketers can harness this behavior to their advantage. We found six tools that help you follow the marketing activities of your competitors as well as measure and analyze the results of your own marketing efforts.

1. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is the world’s #1 web analysis platform because it’s the most popular tool among marketers and business owners. Its success can be attributed to its ease of use, as well as its numerous features.

Google Analytics can help you track visitor behavior on your website. You’ll be able to see how and when people interact with your content, whether they read an article or watched a video. With this information, you can determine how effective your marketing strategies are and what needs to be changed to achieve better results.

One of Google Analytics’ most useful features is the ability to segment the results of your website traffic. For example, you may want to highlight the activities of your current customers in order to get more out of them. Or you can use the tool to find out which articles/videos resonated with your audience the most. This feature helps you understand what your visitors want and need, as well as find and connect with these individuals throughout your organization.

2. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is the world’s #2 social media management platform, mainly used by brands and businesses to schedule and execute content on multiple platforms.

Similar to Google Analytics, Hootsuite simplifies the process of using social media to connect with and engage with customers. This browser-based tool allows you to manage and schedule tweets on your behalf, as well as engage with your audience through various interaction tools.

Unlike other tools on this list, Hootsuite is geared toward customers rather than online marketers. This means that you can use this tool to find and engage with potential customers rather than follow and track the activity of competitors.

3. Raven

Raven is the #3 tool on this list because it’s specifically designed for SEOs (search engine optimization) professionals. However, this tool’s value to marketing professionals is significant enough to make it worth mentioning.

What is SEO? Well, search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving a website’s ranking on search engines (such as Google and Bing). To do this, an SEO will track and analyze the performance of their web pages, based on key performance indicators (KPIs) such as engagement and conversion.

To properly use Raven, you’ll need to have a working knowledge of SEO. Once you do, you can start creating keyword lists, analyzing organic search results, and measuring the success of your SEO strategies.

Raven is a specialized tool that can help you optimize your website’s content and performance for the organic search results. However, since it’s designed for SEOs, it can also be very helpful to online marketers who want to understand the effectiveness of their paid search (PPC) campaigns.

4. Salesforce

If you’re looking for a tool to track the effectiveness of your PPC (pay per click) advertising campaigns, then Salesforce is the tool for you. This CRM (customer relationship management) platform allows you to create detailed reports on the performance of your ad campaigns.

What’s great about Salesforce is that it provides you with all the data you need, arranged in a user-friendly interface. For example, you can use this tool to track the performance of your ad campaigns, identify the keywords that are driving traffic, and find out how many conversions you’re getting from each group of keywords.

5. Vero

Vero is the #5 tool on this list because it’s designed to help marketing professionals become more efficient. This tool automates the process of measuring, analyzing, and reporting on the results of your online marketing efforts.

Marketers must be mindful of the various platforms they use, as Vero allows you to manage all your accounts from one place. This tool can help you track the results of your ad campaigns on all the major social media platforms, as well as analyze the performance of your entire website.

6. HubSpot

HubSpot is the world’s #6 tool because it’s designed for customers rather than digital marketers. However, HubSpot’s customer base is growing rapidly, and this tool is worth mentioning for those who want to engage with potential customers rather than just follow the activities of online marketers.

HubSpot is a sophisticated marketing platform built for businesses of all sizes. This CRM (customer relationship management) tool simplifies the process of creating marketing campaigns, analyzing their results, and optimizing for the next campaign. With HubSpot, even beginners can become effective marketers.

Since HubSpot is geared toward customers rather than digital marketers, you can use this tool to find and engage with potential customers rather than follow and track the activity of competitors.

Why Should You Track Competitors?

Now that you have a basic understanding of the different tools available to online marketers, you might be wondering why these tools exist in the first place. The answer is quite simple: to learn from others’ successes and failures, and to improve your own game.

To begin with, tracking your competitors is very useful because it helps you identify what works and what doesn’t. You’ll see lots of articles and videos telling you not to imitate others’ behavior, but they forget to mention a very crucial fact: successful marketing is built on the foundation of imitating others’ actions and incorporating their strategies.

Tracking your competitors can also help you find the weaknesses in your own game and determine what you should be working on to improve your results. This type of analysis will expose you to new ideas and strategies that you can incorporate into your own game plan. Plus, learning from the experiences of others can be very inspiring, helping you achieve greater things in the future.

So, as you can see, there are many benefits to tracking your competitors. You should consider this important fact, before you decide to not imitate your competitors’ strategies.

How to Start?

Now that you know the importance of tracking your competitors, you might be wondering how to begin. The answer is quite simple: pick one of the tools discussed above, and get to work.

Each tool on this list has a different approach to collecting and presenting data, so you’ll need to find the one that suits you best. Remember, this is an initial exploration process, so take your time finding the ideal solution for you.

Once you do, implement this solution, and continue to monitor and improve your marketing results.