Our Top Tools as Industry Experts

by platform81 | April 20, 2023 |
7 minutes read

As an industry-leading digital marketing agency, we are often asked about the tools we use to create successful campaigns and deliver beautiful websites for our clients. With so many options available in the digital landscape, it can be overwhelming to determine which tools are necessary.

With the digital world constantly evolving, it’s essential to stay up-to-date with the latest technologies and tools to stand out. In this article, we share our top tools across all departments in our agency and how we use them to help our clients achieve their business goals.

Web Development

Advanced Custom Fields

One key tool our Web Department uses when developing sites is a plugin called Advanced Custom Fields or ACF. ACF allows sites to be easily customisable for ourselves and for clients. It allows them to create input fields on the admin area of WordPress for posts, pages, products and more. Then once they have created these input fields, they can add the necessary code allowing them to pull the content from the admin side of WordPress to the front end of the website that users see.

This means that content can be changed freely by anyone, including our clients, allowing them to have more autonomy in managing their site and its content. Not only that but ACF allows them to create content blocks. Content blocks are set templates of content, allowing users to control the content shown on the site but also the structure of the pages. This further expands the control clients have on their sites.

Alfred

Additionally, our Web team uses an app called Alfred. Alfred is an award-winning app for macOS which boosts efficiency with hotkeys, keywords, text expansion and more. Alfreds Powerpacks allows developers to create custom workflows to stop repetitive tasks and boost productivity. An example custom workflow the developers use is setting up a new project, which automates the setup of our usual tech stack and local environment.

Another tool our Web team uses for development is GIT versioning control which is essential for them to operate efficiently. The main benefit of GIT versioning control is it allows developers to track changes to source code over time, allowing them to easily revert to previous versions if necessary. This ensures that the project remains organised and that code changes can be tracked and audited. Secondly, it provides a platform for team members to collaborate on a project. This makes it easy to share code and track changes made by different team members. This allows for seamless collaboration and faster development cycles.

Furthermore, it allows developers to create separate branches for different features or versions of a project. This enables developers to work on different features or versions of a project without interfering with each other. Once the features are ready, they can be merged into the main branch.

PPC (Pay Per Click)

Call Tracking

Call tracking software helps our PPC Manager discover where phone call leads have come from. This software is very beneficial when running PPC campaigns. It allows our PPC team to see down to keyword level what is generating leads and what is not. With call tracking, PPC advertisers can measure phone call conversions by helping advertisers identify which ads are generating phone leads, and which ones are not. They can use this information to optimise ad copy, keywords, and targeting to improve the overall performance of their PPC campaign.

Secondly, call tracking can improve ROI. By knowing which campaigns and keywords are driving phone leads, PPC managers can focus their budget and resources on the most effective campaigns, resulting in better ROI. Call tracking software also provides information about the quality of phone leads generated by a particular ad or campaign, including the duration of the call, call recordings, and other data. This information can be used to improve the customer experience and to identify areas where customer service can be improved.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a powerful tool for our SEO executives to improve their search engine optimisation efforts in several ways. Here are some of the ways in which Google Analytics can help SEO executives. Google Analytics provides insights into which keywords are driving the most traffic to your website. It also shows which pages are performing the best for those keywords. This information helps our team optimise content and focus on the keywords that are most relevant to their target audience.

Additionally, Google Analytics helps SEO executives understand where their website traffic is coming from, including search engines, social media, and other websites. This information can help them focus their efforts on the channels that are driving the most traffic to their site. It also provides insights into how users are interacting with our client’s websites, including which pages they are visiting, how long they are staying on your site, and which pages they are exiting from. This information can help SEO executives optimise their websites for user experience and improve their website’s conversion rate.

Ahrefs

Another powerful SEO tool that our team uses daily is Ahrefs. Ahrefs provides a range of keyword research tools including keyword explorer. Key word explorer helps identify relevant and high-volume keywords for their content. It also offers a comprehensive backlink analysis tool that helps our SEO executives identify the quality and quantity of backlinks to our client’s websites. This information can helps develop effective link-building strategies to improve their website’s search engine rankings. Lastly, Ahrefs provides content analysis tools that aid in identifying which pieces of content are performing well, and which ones need improvement. This information helps optimise content strategies for better search engine rankings and user engagement.

Promo Republic is one of the most used tools in our social media team. Social Media Scheduling is the main use of Promo Republic although it has many other features. It allows our social media team to schedule our client’s social media posts in advance, saving time and ensuring that their content is posted at optimal times for their target audience. This helps with time management as creating and scheduling content for many clients at once can be a large task. However, with this tool, we are able so to schedule content efficiently.

Promo Republic also provides detailed analytics on social media performance, including engagement rates, follower growth, and post-performance. This information is very helpful when it comes to reporting as our social team can use this data to present back to our clients and optimise the social strategy. This leads to improved engagement and growth.

Although not a tool, SocialMediaToday is an extremely useful website for our social team. It helps our team by providing relevant and up-to-date information on social media trends, best practices, and industry news. Additionally, the website features a range of articles, and expert opinions on marketing, advertising, analytics, and strategy, among other topics. Using this information allows us to stay informed about the latest social media developments, learn from industry leaders and gain insights on how to improve our social media efforts.

Furthermore, the website offers various resources, such as webinars, whitepapers, and eBooks. All of this helps us expand our knowledge and skills to further excel in our client’s social strategies. These resources provide practical tips, case studies, and in-depth analysis that help develop effective social media strategies, measure success, and optimise campaigns.

Conclusion

In conclusion, our tools play a crucial role in the success of our work. They help us to streamline our processes, increase efficiency, and deliver exceptional results for our clients. However, it’s essential to remember that our tools are only as good as the people using them. Therefore, it’s vital to continuously upskill and stay up to date with the latest technologies and advancements in our field. By doing so, we can ensure that we are maximising the potential of our tools. Not forgetting to ensure we are delivering the best possible outcomes for our clients. Ultimately, the combination of expertise and the right tools can help us to overcome any challenge and achieve our goals.