Research is critical to making the right decisions in your marketing strategy. The following tools can help you create content that will increase brand awareness, increase conversions and sales, and build relationships with your customers.
- Google Trends
Ideal for: Growth marketing, trend forecasting
Cost: Free
Free tools like Google Trends are a great help in the content creation process. By typing a keyword in Google Trends you will be able to know how it has been trending over time: if it has increased, decreased or remained the same. In addition, you can segment by country, date, category or web search and compare how two terms evolve.
Functions:
Data is displayed visually in graphs or maps and is easy to understand
You can download the data to visualize it in spreadsheets, presentations or to share it on social networks.
Recommends other queries or topics related to your search
Disadvantages:
Does not provide total search volume
Does not integrate well with other Google products
No data based on demographics or a specific city
- SparkToro
Ideal for: Audience insights
Cost: Limited free plan and paid plan starting at $38/month
SparkToro is a keyword and topic search tool that gives you insight into your audience and their interests, letting you know what they are talking about, what they pay attention to and what they are searching for.
With SparkToro you can see the social networks people follow, the hashtags they use and the platforms they consume. You can also review audience demographics and learn about untapped niche markets.
Functions:
Shows where to invest your time and money to generate the most impact.
Great starting point for newbies to learn about the audience and how to connect with them
Paid plans are more affordable than some competitors like BuzzSumo
Disadvantages:
Free plan only gives you 5 searches per month and limited data access
Does not offer the same features as some competitors
Demographic data is only available for the paid option
Filtering tools can’t be used together, only separately
- AnswerthePublic
Ideal for: Social listening, growth marketing, trend forecasting.
Cost: Limited free plan and paid plan from $79 per month
AnswerthePublic gives you insights into what your audience is asking and searching for so you can create content that meets these needs. Use the detailed results as a guide to further connect with your audience. Search for a keyword in AnswerthePublic and it will show you the most common questions, comparisons and what questions people are asking about that topic.
Functions:
You can download the data to perform your analysis
Has an interactive interface with different view options
You can hide suggestions that are not relevant
Disadvantages:
Limit of 3 searches per day in the free plan.
Does not provide a large number of keywords
- BuzzSumo
Ideal for: Trend forecasting, competitor analysis, brand management.
Cost: Free plan for 30 days and paid plan from $99 per month
BuzzSumo analyzes content from across the web so you can create valuable content for your customers. Like SparkToro, BuzzSumo provides in-depth analysis of your audience and their spending habits. Also, it offers competitor content analysis, access to influencer marketing tools and brand reputation management.
Features:
Offers an extensive list of features compared to some of its competitors.
Provides real-time automated alerts to track audience behavior and trends
Allows you to customize reports and dashboards so you can easily find what you need
Disadvantages:
Has a high price tag compared to competitors like SparkToro.
Keyword search results are sometimes too broad
Social media monitoring and engagement analysis is limited to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Reddit only.
These tools are easy to use. Try the one that best suits your needs, as you can test them before going for the paid plan or not depending on your budget for your marketing actions.
