15 of the Best Free Google Tools Digital Marketers Should Be Using

By Matt Royse
Director, Marketing Communications
Forsythe Technology








Google is more than just the most popular search engine.

In addition to searching Google for what you need, Google has tons of products and offers a lot of tools.

If you are a digital marketer, Google is a highly valuable resource. A lot of Google tools are free where you can access them with just one login or account.

As a marketer, you should take advantage of free Google tools to improve your digital marketing efforts and take your efforts to the next level.

There a lot of ways you can use Google to boost your digital marketing performance. Maybe you have used a couple of these tools but there a lot of them you may not be aware of.

Whether you are trying to improve your website performance, find a new digital marketing job, increase your conversion rates, tweak your user experience on desktop and/or mobile, manage your personal brand and your organization’s brand, learn more about your clients and prospects, create content based on trending keywords, prevent spam and abuse on your website, Google has a lot of tools to help you.

Here are 15 hand-picked Google tools that all digital marketers should be using. These are some of the best tools that Google offers.

1. Google Page Speed

Google Page Speed is a helpful tool to make sure your web pages are fast on all devices, either on desktop or mobile. Just enter your URL of your websites, Google analyzes it and you get action items for desktop and mobile versions of your websites.

It will give you recommendations about possible optimizations and optimizations that you already have made. It will give you a score and rating for mobile and desktop.

Once you see your score, you can see what categories you need to improve. Once you get a baseline of where you stand, you know where you need to concentrate on. Learn how to achieve a 100 out of 100.

2. Google Mobile-Friendly Test

More and more people are accessing the web on their mobile devices so designing your website(s) so it is mobile optimized is important for a great user experience on the diverse types of mobile devices.

This tool can show you how a visitor uses your webpages on a mobile device. You enter your URL and see how your page scores. Learn how to use mobile optimization as a competitive advantage.

3. Google AdWords

Google AdWords is pay-per-click (PPC) digital marketing for your brand. When people search for answers, your ads will show and you only pay when they click on your ad. There are options for display ads, YouTube video ads, text-based search ads or in-app mobile ads.

When you link Google AdWords to Google Analytics, you are able to see ad and site performance in Google Analytics, take advantage of enhanced Google remarketing capabilities and get richer data in Google Analytics.

With Google AdWords, you can test your ads and message to find out what is working and what is not working so you can make changes to see if they work better. Make sure you take advantage of these 4 actionable Google AdWords tips.

4. Google AdWords Keyword Planner

With Google AdWords Keyword Planner, you stay on top of keyword trends to refine your Google AdWords campaigns and make sure your content matches relevant keywords.

In this planner, you can discover new keywords, conduct keyword research and choose better keywords.

Google AdWords Keyword Planner helps you see how often keywords are searched, how the volume changes over time and how competitive keywords are so you can pick keywords that are less competitive so you can rank higher. Learn how to use Google AdWords Keyword Planner.

5. Google Analytics

Google Analytics provides your brand with the digital analytics tools so you can track, report and analyze website traffic.

This data will help you better understand your clients and prospects and provide a better user experience, produce better content and produce strong results from all digital touchpoints.

Google Analytics can help you focus your marketing efforts on your most profitable marketing channels. Find out the 10 reasons you should use Google Analytics.

6. Google Search Console

Google Search Console, formerly known as Google Webmaster Central and Google Webmaster Tools, helps you monitor website performance in the Google search index.

Google Search Console provides you with a collection of tools and resources such as which pages on your websites are the most popular, you can find and fix website errors, build and submit a sitemap and create a robots.txt file.

Google Search Console is useful in finding out information such as how many people are visiting your website and how they are finding it and whether more people are visiting your websites via mobile or desktop. Learn the three ways you can use search query data in Google Search Console.

7. Google Trends

Google Trends helps you see the latest trends, data, and visualizations. It shows you how often a search term is entered in Google to the search volume in your country or various regions of the world.

You can find out what is trending in your country or near you. You can explore topics and see how keywords compare to each other. And you can see how keywords develop in popularity over time. Learn how to use Google Trends for search engine optimization (SEO).

8. Google TAG Manager

Google Tag Manager helps digital marketers and outside agencies make tag management simple and easy. It helps you place, update and manage code snippets or tags in one place and integrates into existing systems.

Google Tag Manager can help you speed up the development of your website by deploying code/tags quickly without relying on a developer, make code/tag updates easily, work with outside agencies by using one account to manage multiple codes/tags, and cut and paste multiple tags on a single website. Find out the 10 reasons you start using Google Tag Manager.

9. Google Forms

Like SurveyMonkey, Google Forms can help you easily create and analyze surveys for free. With Google Forms, you can use your own photo or logo, choose the look and feel, including picking curated themes so you can set the tone of your surveys that match your branding guidelines and style guide.

Google Forms provides you with questions options such as multiple choice or drop-downs. You can add images and YouTube videos and show questions based on answers.

Google Forms provides real-time responses and charts. You can data with you by viewing it in Google Sheets. Discover five reasons why you should Google Forms.

10. Google reCAPTCHA

reCAPTCHA protects your website from spam and abuse while letting real people pass quickly without being annoying of typing in a word or figuring out what an image is. As Google says: reCAPTCHA is “tough on bots but easy on humans.”

ReCAPTCHA uses its advanced risk analysis engine to stay ahead of spam and abuse fighting trends and keep automated software from engaging in abusive activities on your websites. According to Google reCAPTCHA website, the advantage is its advanced security, ease of use and creates value. Find out how Google can tell if you are not a robot with just one click.

11. Google My Business

Google My Business is a tool for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence in Google, including Google Search and Google Maps. By verifying and editing your business information, you can ensure your listing appears right and attract the right customers. You can add photos of your business and office locations, update the hours you are open and respond to reviews.

Google My Business is important in boosting your search visibility, showing up in local search results and making sure Google has your correct information about your business and your different office or retail locations.

Google My Business is critical to setting up locations extensions in Google AdWords. Location extensions in Google AdWords show your address, provides a map to your location and provides the distance to your local business.

Learn why Google My Business is so important for local SEO and how to optimize your Google My Business listings.

12. Google Alerts

Google Alerts provide you with email updates on the latest and relevant Google search engine results on a topic you care about. It monitors web pages, media articles, blogs and even scientific research. Basically, anything that is on the web.

Depending on your needs, you can choose between “only the best results” or “everything” and how often you want to get the emails (daily or weekly). It is helpful to find out what is being said online about your personal brand, your company’s brand and your company’s products and services.

Google Alerts is a wonderful way to keep track of trends, interesting topics and anything that is new on the web. Learn the five reasons you should be using Google Alerts.

13. Google for Jobs

Searching for the right job can take time. It is a full-time job to find a good full-time job. Keeping up-to-date with the latest jobs can be challenging. Now you can stay in the loop on jobs near you with a simple Google search.

Just search “[type of job” near me” in Google and you will find something like this on your mobile device:

If you type of “marketing jobs near me” on your desktop, you get something this:

Google is working with organizations such as LinkedIn, Monster, CareerBuilder, Glassdoor and Facebook to provide you with a comprehensive listing of jobs.

Google is also publishing open documentation for all jobs providers, from third-party platforms to direct employers on how to make their job openings more discoverable in Google Search with this new tool. Companies just need to add structure data to the job posting web pages. Learn how to use Google for Jobs.

14. YouTube Trends Dashboard

YouTube Trends Dashboard helps you tap into YouTube and see what is trending such as the latest music videos, movie trailers, and comedy clips.

With YouTube Trends Dashboard, You can find out what is trending today and what is trending this week. It also highlights a YouTube creator on the rise. If you haven’t already, you should create YouTube channel for you or your brand.

15. Google Chrome

Google Chrome is a fast, free web browser for your desktop computer or mobile device.

What is nice about Chrome is it supports a wide variety of extensions such as Hootlet, Grammarly, StumbleUpon, Google Page Analytics, and Moz Rank to name a few. You may want to check out these 41 Chrome Extensions.

To learn more, please visit: https://knowledgeenthusiast.com/2017/08/21/15-best-free-google-tools-digital-marketers-should-be-using/

Matthew Royse is the director of marketing communications for Forsythe Technology, one of the largest independent IT integrators in North America. He has more than 15 years of experience in marketing and communications, working in many different industries, including financial services, technology, media and entertainment.

At Forsythe Technology, Matthew oversees all content marketing and social media initiatives internally and externally, across multiple platforms and formats to drive sales, engagement, retention, leads and positive behavior with clients, partners, analysts and employees.

From Data, to Stories, with Love

By Debleena Majumdar
Co-Founder
Kahaniyah, Corporate and Educational Institutes 







“Maybe stories are just data with a soul.” said Brené Brown. Do you agree?

The year was 1854. London had been reeling under the outbreak of cholera and Doctor Charles Snow was one of the tireless doctors treating an endless stream of patients even as he found himself asking questions about the real reason behind the spread of the disease. His hypothesis was that cholera could spread through contaminated water. The common perception at that time was the cholera spread through air. But as Dr. Snow mapped out cases of cholera on the map of London (each black dot in the chart below is an incident of cholera in what is believed to be an early usage of a histogram on a map), he found the cases converging around one street, Broad Street. Investigations showed that that street indeed had a septic water tank which led to a large outbreak. One single chart conveyed what years of research had been trying to.

Was it data or was it a story?

The drama of data:

Many of us in the world of Analytics got introduced to the concept of data storytelling with this powerful video on population growth and climate change by Hans Rosling:

Using rapidly shifting bubble charts, he tells a powerful data story. A text-book introduction to the power of visualization of data. So much so that a lot of people now talk of data stories as just visualization. But can visualization alone tell the story?

My hypothesis - Hans Rosling and Charles Snow not only used data and visualization, but actually used stories that lie lurking beneath the data to get to that powerful visual. The visual was the output but without the story it had no insight. So can stories uncover insights?

Let’s look at at two examples to understand the journey from data to story-based insights more clearly.

Spotlight on Spotify:

The data: Spotify kicked off its largest-ever global campaign with a major, data-driven outdoor push in which it bade goodbye to 2016 with the sign-off, "Thanks 2016, it's been weird." Rolled out across more than 10 markets, it used hyperlocal data to create messages which are personalized and rang true with what people felt and listened, when the the world around them kept showing more signs of weirdness.

The story based insight: Spotify CMO, Seth Farbman, is reported to have said that the idea for this data-driven campaign originated with 2015's end-of-year "Year in Music" campaign, as data from listeners in different geographical areas provided some interesting insights. "That led to the idea of reflecting culture via listener behaviour."

"There has been some debate about whether big data is muting creativity in marketing, but we have turned that on its head," he added. "For us, data inspires and gives an insight into the emotion that people are expressing."

The result: With the campaign rolled out in November 2016, the real results will only be measured later. From early reviews, most people loved the creativity and the humor displayed in the ads. But there were a few questions around the moral code of data stories and concerns as to whether the personal data that the customers trusted Spotify with when they signed up was compromised in any way in developing ads like this.

No words to say the Last Words:

The data: Indian Association of Palliative Care (IAPC) wanted to raise awareness about the lack of palliative (end-of-life) care that patients receive, robbing them, often, of dignity, at death. According to their studies, only one in 100 patients get access to any sort of palliative care with the result that most last words are heard, not by family, but by nurses. They had conducted interviews with over 200 retired and working nurses across India and had data and facts on this issue.

The story based insight: For Praful Akali, Founder & Managing Director of Medulla Healthcare Communications, the agency which conceptualized and created the awareness campaign for IAPC, the data was disturbing. It was a story that needed to be told to raise awareness about the importance of palliative care. But the true insight came from the words the nurses spoke, the real stories behind the data. And that insight led team Medulla to create the video #last words – the last words of dying patients, which were meant for family members, but instead, often heard by nurses and medical staff, when they passed away. Palliative care aims to change this type of end-of-life care, as the video describes, giving patients “every possible comfort during their last days, including letting them spend time with loved ones.” Imagine if Medulla just created an infographic that charted out all the data. Would it tell the story, so powerfully? They went beyond the data to the story to get the real insights.

The result: Not only has the video gone viral, sparking over 100 million conversations on social media while sending a powerful message on end-of-life care; at the Cannes Lions 2016, Medulla was awarded as the Healthcare Agency of the Year with "Last Words" bagging two gold medals. No wonder then that in Brand Equity’s “Best & Bekaar Advertising of 2016” it topped the list of Best Ads of 2016. For a small firm with limited budget that works in the area of Healthcare Advertising, which is not supposed to lend itself to very creative marketing, the results speak volumes about the power of the story based insight.

Not just in marketing but across all business functions; stories have the power to lead the journey from data to insights. And just like any narrative story arc, the insights-based-story too needs to have all the elements of a good story - the character, the conflict, the resolution and the authentic voice of the storyteller. Only then can insights shine.

“A single death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic,” Stalin is supposed to have said. Whether we are talking about life, death or music or cola, as data storytellers, we owe it to our data, and to ourselves, to tell the right stories - which use data correctly, convey the right insight and hopefully, drive decisions and change.

Would love to hear your stories.

I use storytelling to improve business and learning outcomes through workshops and projects. If you are looking to improve your teams’ understanding of your vision, trying to implement your data-driven strategy or just trying to enhance the way you listen to or sell to your customers, email me at debleena.majumdar@gmail.com to see how storytelling can sharpen your results.

Change Agent: Scaling Account Based Marketing in a 21st Century

Presented by: Matthew Preschern
Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
HCL Technologies







SESSION ABSTRACT

A company’s brand proposition and means of customer engagement have been transformed by the shift to digital, including the tremendous influx of data and a business environment that is mobile-first and always on. Customers expect personalized, experience-driven interactions for engagements that come at micro moments and require a brand to be nimble and active in encouraging next steps. 

The key to using data to encode insights and deliver this level of customer experience can be found in account-based marketing. A well-conceptualized ABM plan when designed and executed in partnership with sales can be a strategic differentiat or and a trigger for exponential growth.

The true power of ABM lies in the programmatic choices, both in-person and in the digital space. Participants learned how the elements of an account based marketing approach can allow a powerful customer-to-brand connection and examined the ways in which account based marketing can bridge the analog and digital elements of marketing for a cohesive experience.

KEY TAKE-AWAYS

• A framework for account-based marketing
• An understanding of the elements of a successful ABM program, including customized customer experiences
• Insight on ABM as a means to trigger double-digit growth coupled with reinforced brand equity
• A guide for using the data collected to endear customers and drive brand    awareness

OVERVIEW

• Client challenges: Message clutter, lack of personalization, lack of trust in other companies
• Marketing challenges: Micro moments, individual to individual, mobile first, connect emotionally, always on, multi-channel, experience driven
• The world is moving towards more personalization in the purchasing process

Account Based Marketing: Augment business traction and be a “strategic partner” to the client, enable, up-sell and cross-sell, infuse thought leadership, and create and leverage loyalty

Key Question: How do you arm your sales team with this account based marketing information? How do you get them to allow you to get involved when sales tries to “own” the account planning process?

• Sales should own the execution of interaction with client, that’s a good thing
• Convince them to engage in a thoughtful manner while planning
• Accounts will grow if both are involved in the planning; however, relinquish power when it is time for the sales team to execute with the client

TAKE-AWAY

“Alice in Wonderland” lesson

• If you don’t know where you are going, it doesn’t matter how fast you’re running – don’t deploy everything
• Utilize best marketing tactics in concerted effort, deploy some technology, research accounts, and take your time so you know you’re making the right decision
• Don’t waste time and money because you didn’t research accounts or clients fully

IMPLEMENTATION GUIDELINES

What to consider in account selection:

• Current competition landscape
• Account maturity – right engagement ecosystem of sales, delivery and marketing
• Do you have a coach or advocate in the account you are serving?
• Business potential – wallet share versus potential wallet share
• What specific accounts are you going to target, and why should you go after those particular accounts?
• Very strategic – who are the decision makers in the other companies?
• Are you getting a large part of their wallet share – are they buying just one of your products-or more?

BEST PRACTICE

Map marketing activities into three buckets

• Demand generation
• Brand awareness
• Thought leadership
• Determine tactics and information shared in order to “move down the funnel” 
• Create a custom plan and utilize what works as you get more involved with a client
• Identify target accounts and prospects
• Identify digital channels –> optimize –> measure

ACTION ITEM

You need a framework for how you will act on each account:

• Client engagement framework
• Craft an account level campaign plan
• Measure and monitor
• Utilize both relevance charts as well as organizational charts
• Plot an ecosystem chart of key external influencers
• Create a RAG map for all stakeholders
• Craft a plan specifically to expand new/unknown decision makers and influencers
• You need to combine relationship map with account selection
• Very quantitative analysis -- you need to know hard numbers and revenuestreams to fully understand what share of the client’s wallet you are receiving (i.e. is there the potential for more?)

FINAL THOUGHT

Move slowly at first, gain traction before diving “all in.”