The research phase of a digital marketing strategy is vital to ensure your campaigns reach the right audience, at the right time and deliver a return on investment. It is at this stage that you find out key information about your target audience and market such as demographics, social and economic information, browser habits and social media engagement. Having your research qualified by real data will help inform the later stages of your digital marketing strategy.  In this post, I will outline ten resources that will help inform your digital marketing strategy.

Let’s get started.

1. Interview Your Customers

Start off by interviewing your customers. You can interview them face to face, over the phone or use customer feedback software like Survey Monkey.  

3. Comscore

Comscore is an American analytics company that provides data and analytics reports about the marketplace. If you are looking for data about mobile phone usage, social media users, video engagement and any other digital technology metric, you can find it here. Comscore reports cover most sectors and countries globally.

3. Nielsen Reports

Nielsen provide reports on global marketplaces and consumer behaviour.

4. Social bakers

Social Baker provides in-depth data on social media usage across the world. Find out the latest statistics for social media channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

5. Government Reports

Official reports from the government may hold some key information that can be used to inform your digital marketing strategy. For international digital marketing strategies, review the reports provided by Enterprise Ireland.

6. Google Trends

Google Trends can help you identify trending keywords and seasonal spikes in consumer demand.

The screenshot above shows the sudden jump in searches in Google SERPs for face masks due to the coronavirus.

7. Statista

Statista provides in depth market and consumer data information. The database contains over 1 million+ statistics & facts for 170 industries from 50 countries. The reports can help you develop market entry strategies and learn more about your target audience.

8. Google Keyword Planner

At the heart of every SEO and content marketing strategy is keyword research. The Google Keyword Planner Tool helps you build a target keyword list for your digital marketing strategy.

Top tip: Use Ubersuggest to generate keyword ideas.

9. SEM Rush

SEM Rush is an invaluable platform for analysing your website traffic and conducting competitor research. From organic traffic and keyword to paid advertising, SEM Rush will provide you with a wealth of data to help inform your digital marketing strategy.

10. CRM and Social Media Customer Data

Customer data from your CRM will help you build personas that detail your ideal customers. Deep dive into your customers behavioral and demographic profiles by analysing data available from social media channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.