The first months and years of your start-up will likely be wrought with ups and downs. Youve probably prepared for some level of inconsistency, but theres a way to make sure you make the best decisions at every step. Whether []
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Ways to Gather Start-Up Analytics (And Use Them)
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Written by Stephen Moyers, SPINX Digital
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Editors note: I would like to extend a heartfelt apology to those of you who experienced difficulties streaming portions of todays special live Web clinic. Were working to identify the problem, determine why it effected some of you but not others and prevent it from happening again in the future. In the meantime, the video replay is now available!
This is Ken Bowen, reporting live from the Bellagio hotel in beautiful Las Vegas for MarketingSherpa Summit 2016. For over a decade, Email Summit has been one of the most exciting weeks of the year for email marketing practitioners.
This year, just when you think youve got it all figured out, weve gone and changed the rules.
Instead of just email, weve expanded our focus to also include content marketing, social media, mobile and data.
As Managing Editor of MarketingExperiments, MarketingSherpas sister site, Ive had the privilege of working closely with all nine presenters on the Digital & Data track over the last several months. These marketing leaders are on the bleeding edge of disciplines like behavioral economics, account based-marketing, audience and demand generation, individualized marketing, customer satisfaction quantification and even data-driven direct mail.
Its been a wild couple of months leading up to the event full of late nights at the office, jamming brainstorming sessions into every break and those crazy evenings where you shoot out of bed at 3:00 a.m. with the perfect slide idea. The exclamation point came yesterday, when a modest flight from our home base in Jacksonville, Florida to Las Vegas managed to turn into a 22-hour Homeric epic that played out like a mix of The Terminal and Home Alone.
And Ive loved every minute of it.
After spending months getting to learn from and know some of the brightest, most forward-thinking minds in digital marketing, when I popped out of bed this morning and saw this view out the window, it felt like Christmas morning in the desert, knowing that we would soon get the chance to share these great case studies and stories with our readers.
We hope to bring you details and video of each presentation in the coming weeks, but for now, lets take a look at how Mike Loveridge, Head of Digital Test and Learn, Humana, and his team leveraged iterative testing and captured big gains.
Iterative Testing
Were trying to change customer perception from were a big bad insurance company thats trying to take your money and deny your claims to we want to be your health partner for life, Mike Loveridge said to the overflow crowd in the Da Vinci ballroom.
Our goal is to improve customers health by 20% by 2020, he added.
One way to shift that perception is by testing your messaging.
[Testing radical redesign] is impractical, Mike said. Testing complete new versus complete old was a nightmare.
Instead, Humana starting testing iteratively, with an end goal of testing the former old funnel versus the complete new funnel, optimized step-by-step, to see if sum of the parts equals the whole. Mike referred to this as Humanas Super Test strategy.
During the presentation, Mike walked us through several of these iterative tests. Were excited to share the full video with you soon, but in the meantime, lets take a look at three of the upper-funnel banner tests that Mike presented.
Test #1: Banner redesign
For this banner test which Mike jokingly referred to as Winter grandma versus Summer Clint Eastwood lookalike the team at Humana wanted to test whether the messaging being used on the rotating banner of its homepage was too complex for customers.
You really have to simplify when you only have six seconds, Mike said.
In addition to the change in imagery, the headline was better tailored to users position in the customer journey (upper funnel), the copy was simplified and the CTA was given more visual punch.
The result?
A 433% increase in clickthrough into Humanas marketing funnel. By serving customers with what they want, when they need it, in an accessible way, banner performance skyrocketed.
Test #2: GEO personalization
In this test, the Humana team tested geo personalization, which serves unique pages, ads, etc. based on user location.
Take a couple, put them in a background thats fairly generic, it could be anywhere in the world, Mike said in reference to the Control tested in this experiment. Then take that couple, and put them in front of the Statue of Liberty or the Golden Gate Bridge.
More specifically, the banner featuring the Golden Gate bridge, as pictured above, was served to site users located in Californias Bay Area. And, as youd expect, the banner featuring the Statue of Liberty was delivered to New York.
The result?
A 31% increase in clickthrough.
But this wasnt the biggest surprise.
Mike and the Humana team found that geo-personalization not only increased clickthrough, but also increased overall conversion through the funnel.
For this next banner test, Mike told the audience, we simplified the title, bumped up the font size and made the supporting text even simpler. There was a lot of green on the page, so we made the button plum; it really stood out.
The Humana team also changed the scrolling navigation counter (bottom right corner, above) from plum to grey, so that it wasnt competing for attention with the CTA.
The result?
The Treatment outperformed the Control by 192% in clickthrough to the next step in the funnel.
Providing further clarity to the customer, both visually and via text, resulted in a massive boost in banner performance.
Key Takeaway
Later in the presentation, Mike also shared some deeper funnel tests, and spoke in-depth about the necessity of communicating the value of testing both top-down and bottom-up in order to gain buy-in within an organization.
But if theres one thing that Mike wants marketers to take away, its the sheer power of iterative testing.
Iterative testing gives you more results on a more frequent basis, he said. And theyre easier to understand.
Mike is just one of the 30+ speakers who will have presented by the time the sun sets on MarketingSherpa Summit 2016 tomorrow evening.
To read about (and see) more of these incredible stories from our fellow marketers, stay tuned here at MarketingExperiments, and also at our sister site MarketingSherpa.
In the meantime, its been an honor getting to meet so many of you here in Las Vegas and to hear about your own customer-first marketing success stories.
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As content marketing professionals, most of us would consider SEO a highly technical domain. Best leave that to the real nerds, right? Wrong. Google, Bing and all the other search engines have significantly altered their algorithms in the pastfew years. And these changes continue to favor the highest quality content, often rewarding smart content marketers with first position rankings.
With a bit of SEO sweet sauce, your content marketing sandwich will taste much better to search engines, and users too.Below, I will explore 4 major themes from TopRank Marketing CEO,Lee Oddens recent Content2Conversion talk on SEO for Content Marketers, including:
Lets start by getting one thing straight about optimization. As content marketers, we shouldnt be optimizing our content for search engines. As Lee often points out, Google doesnt pay the bills. Your buyers pay the bills. Therefore, optimize for users, not search engines.
Old SEO rules would have you stuffing websites with keywords, creating thousands of new pages, tagging YouTube videos with every keyword you can get your hands on, and hoping something sticks. We give you permission to stop doing most, if not all of those things.
So, how are most content marketers utilizing SEO in 2016? And more importantly, does SEO even matter anymore? Yes it matters. But content marketers and even many SEOs are failing to take advantage of recent algorithm changes. So, heres a snapshot from the front lines of the industry on what most content marketers actually dowith SEO:
The problem with the list above is it looks a lot like 2010. Things have changed, and you should too.
At TopRank Marketing, we get asked about tools all the time. With all the tools, plugins and software available, its easy to believe that SEO is an automated function. Its not. In fact, as Googles algorithms become more complicated, it can be increasingly difficult to optimize your content.
According to the most recent LinkedIn data, SEO and SEM ranks 4th among top skills companies seek (below).
What this research doesnt uncover is content marketers and SEOs are adopting an increasingly hybrid skillset. This is largely due to the fact that search engines now require higher quality content and a variety of content types, in order for content efforts to be most effective.
Starting in 2013, an algorithm update was rolled out from Google, dubbed Hummingbird. This algorithm completely replaced the original Google algorithm, fundamentally changing the nature of how search engines crawl and rank web content. All you need to know is content quality, a variety of content types, and social media are all more important than ever.
But dont take it from us. Here are what some much smarter folks have to say about how SEO fits into their overall marketing in 2016:
SEO is a foundational element of digital marketing Alison Herzog, Director Global Social Business & Digital Strategy, Dell
As long as theres Google, SEO will be a staple in digital marketing. Barbara Feinberg, Senior Product Marketing, McKesson
The first step to understanding your buyers is to accept that they are self-directed. Theyll go to Google, social media, their LinkedIn network, friends, or pick up the phone and ask for a reference long before they contact you, or consume any of your content. Understanding the nature of B2B self-directed buyers is crucial to the success of any SEO efforts tied to your content marketing.
And in 2016, all of your potential customers are self-directed. According to Pardot, 70% of the buyers journey is complete before a buyer ever reaches out to sales. Which is why developing fruitful relationships between your marketing and sales department is fundamental to the success of your content marketing.
A common mistake among B2B marketers is someone from sales will reach out to a self-directed buyer, completely unaware that this buyer may have already started their journey. The sales professional (or targeted content in many cases) often treats them like they know nothing, or misses the delivers the wrong message to the prospect, based on where they are at in their journey. Say goodbye to that lead!
Take a cue from Gartner, who has done some fascinating research on this topic. They uncovered that more than 60% of all buyers indicated they prefer a self-driven informational search at the exploration, evaluation, and engagement phase of their purchase cycle (see below).
The bottom line is your customer wants to be in the drivers seat. They dont want a sales pitch. They want information. They dont want your opinion. They want a third-party opinion of your product or service. They want information from Google, Bing, YouTube, industry reports, and third-party validations.
Think about things from their point of view. They dont know who to trust, what to believe, or who is trying to screw them over.So, what are your options? Be the best answer. Be a conduit for the information. Curate your third-party verifications, peer reviews, social media posts and other relevant content.
So at this point, you might be asking yourself, What does this have to do with SEO and content? Fair question. Searc engine queries are an explicit indication of intent. And tapping into the needs, intentions, and desires of your search audience will give you a solid map for the length, type, and style of content you must produce to meet your B2B audiences needs.
So, weve covered the state of SEO in 2016, weve accepted that our buyers are self-directed, and now we just need to create all that killer content that will make them fall in love with our brand. No pressure, right? Lets start by examining the following marketing funnel. Its a solid example of what NOT to do.
Instead of creating more useless content and barraging your leads with information, you should try to be the best answer in search engine results. Why? Because, by 2020 the world will have nearly 50 billion internet-connected devices. In addition, a full 90% of the worlds information has been created in the last 2 years alone. The bottom line is your prospects are overwhelmed.
Before you can create content for your buyers, youll need to understand where search engines fit into your buyers journey. Start by talking to your customers. Ask them how they found out about you. Ask them what made them want to work with you, or buy your product. If your buyers are socially active, run a Twitter poll. If necessary, conduct some research to find out more about your audience. Most importantly, find out what types of content they are looking for via search engines, and where this fits in their journey.
Consider how many steps are on the following sample buyers journey, and how search engines and social media feed into nearly every step:
Granted, this list is a bit aggressive. Nonetheless, it illustrates the potential complexity of your buyers purchase process, and where search engines come in and out of the process.
Maybe you look at the list above and you think, Yeah I already know all that. Great. Maybe youve already identified the B2B content marketing tactic necessary to communicate with folks at different stages of their journey. Again, thats awesome. But, are these tactics integrated?
Lee often emphasizes the fact that content marketing efforts are rarely integrated. We find the most challenging aspect of content marketing is to plan for the ecosystem. Not just an infographic, or a one-off whitepaper, or a blog post. Rather, how do all of these channels and systems integrate? Thats where you really begin to be the best answer for your B2B audience. Consider the following chart, which displays the most common B2B content marketing tactics:
On the surface, it looks like B2B marketers are using a variety of tactics. But when you consider that 65% of B2B buyers think vendors should, Curb their sales messaging, you start to wonder if this chart represents an over-usage of a variety of channels to barrage buyers with sales messaging.
Certain styles, flavors and tactics make sense in each potential customer touch-point. A LinkedIn connection message should not feel like an auto-generated corporate email. Likewise, an infographic shouldnt contain so much text that your buyers want to barf. Most of all, use common sense. Without further ado, the following is a checklist of tactics that will ensure you are the best, most integrated answer for your buyers in your content marketing and SEO efforts:
If you need TopRank Marketings helpto become the best answer for your customers, contact us today for a free consultation.
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Analytics. Its at the heart of every conversion optimization strategy and online business decision we make. But some studies are showing an ever-increasing gap between the information key-decision makers want, and the actionable insights needed to drive business forward. The question then becomes, where are we now, and what can be done about this great divide? Lets take a closer look:
According to a survey done by The CMO Survey and Duke Universitys Fuqua School of Business, even at this time last year, spending on marketing analytics was down even failing to meet the CMOs own predictions. Although their share of spending on marketing analytics was forecast to increase over the next three years, the trend was still lower than anticipated:
Marketing budgets spent on analytics fell from its projected amount year after year
In fact, looking deeper into the survey, its easy to see how CMOs could come to a decision like this. The percentage of projects using marketing analytics has gone down since 2012. Year after year, progress has shown to be rather tepid, which begs the question: are CMOs just not understanding the value of the information being provided? Or are analytics really not worth spending on?
The answer is neither. A study done by the MIT Sloan Management Review in collaboration with the SAS Institute showed that CMOs, global executives and senior management clearly want more use of analytics:
Two-thirds of executives reporting in the survey admitted to relying more on management experience than what the data showed, and a slim minority reported frequently having all the data they needed to make insightful business decisions. Is it a knee-jerk reaction to rely on ones experience even if it flies directly in the face of what the data shows?
The study showed some interesting points that may have contributed to this feeling of lukewarm analytics reception:
Its Not The Data its What You Do With It Than Counts
As many as 75% of respondents acknowledged that their access to useful, actionable data had increased, and their ability to capture and leverage that data is improving although slowly.
Whats more telling, is that only one in eight of the respondents were deemed to be analytical innovators a term, according to the report, that was given to those employees who were part of an analytical culture fostered by their senior management. This culture highly prized data and insights derived from it, and were more strategic about their use of the intelligence they gathered.
One in eight. Let that sink in for a minute.
Only one in eight people have enough confidence to say that their company thrives on a culture where making strategic, data-driven choices is encouraged. Where gleaning insights from that data is a top priority.
And its not a case of analytics data not being worthwhile, either. A Marketo sponsored report on the future of online marketing showed that investment in actionable data is a smart decision that will power successful businesses well into the next five years and beyond.
As you can see, marketing analytics found itself squarely in third place, only behind social media and mobile marketing respectively. CMOs and other key decision makers know that marketing analytics are valuable. So its not a lack of investment because they cant see the relevance.
So weve narrowed down that the cause of the gap isnt a lack of CMO knowledge or understanding, and despite prior questionable performance, spending still remains at an even level despite wanting more investment.
The cause of the gap is a lack of relevant, actionable, easily obtainable data data that can be leveraged across all major channels to provide the kind of insights the CMOs and their analytics team need to bolster sales, build customer relationships and increase customer acquisition. Theres no shortage of information. All of this big data is being collected, compiled and dropped into the laps of key decision makers to try and make sense of it.
Analytical orientation is even being noted as one of the key skills for todays CMOs to possess with creativity taking a backseat:
So how do we build a bridge between the numbers and information were collecting, and the business-propelling strategies that stem from it?
This is where management experience that aforementioned knee jerk reaction to data, comes into play. Try as we might to wring measurable, impactful details on our customers from the information we collect, theres just too much interference and noise clogging up the connection. A lot of useless chatter clouding our vision and hindering our ability to move forward.
The bridge that crosses the analytics gap isnt going to be built by digging our heels into the digital mud and going deeper into the numbers. Its going to be built on the value of the customer experience.
The perception of marketing is going to shift. While anaytics are still going to be useful, crunching numbers will only get us so far. Key drivers are going to be more experience-based rather than data-based. Things like:
As you can see, these are intangible things that analytics simply cannot measure. But analytics can tell us which channels open the door to drive these types of experiences. So its not about choosing sides analytics or customer experience but leveraging both in such a way that they form a continuous cycle of clear insights that forge a path for the next sales cycle and beyond.
Do you feel theres an analytics gap within your own company or department? How are you taking steps to remedy it? Or do you think that the data has a greater role to play we just havent crafted the right kinds of tools to get the kinds of insights we need just yet? Share your thoughts and perspective with us in the comments below!
About the Author: Sherice Jacob helps business owners improve website design and increase conversion rates through compelling copywriting, user-friendly design and smart analytics analysis. Learn more at iElectrify.com and download your free web copy tune-up and conversion checklist today!
You may have mastered every trick in the book to drive millions of viewers to your YouTube channel. If so, it's great that you have people watching your video.
However, that shouldn't be your only concern. Don't make the mistake of thinking that virality is your goal. Your goal is to engage your audience and keep them coming back for more.
When creating your videos, always remember that you are addressing people, not robots. You must make an emotional connection with your viewers.
According to a study by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the average time a user spends on a website is only 20 seconds.
The study also reported that the average attention span of a human being, in 2015, was 8.25 seconds, which is even less than that of a goldfish!
This means that people lose interest fast if what they see is boring. Hence, you need to hook your viewers within the first 10 seconds of your video.
So, where does engagement begin and where does it end?
The longer a video drags on the lower its retention rate. Short videos, under 1 minute, enjoy 80% viewer retention. Videos that are 2-3 minutes long receive 60% retention. But, videos that are 5-10 minutes long have only about 50% retention halfway through.
People watch videos for a variety of reasons. Most people (70%) are looking for educational content, such as DIY tips and tricks and tutorials. Some people (67%) visit YouTube for reviews of products they are interested in buying. And, some people (53%) turn to videos for inspiration or entertainment.
A further breakdown of shoppers looking for product reviews shows that:
The bottom line is: Engagement is important for good conversion rates. So, let's examine 5 ways to increase YouTube channel engagement. These methods will help you to not only attract a wider and more diverse viewership, but also retain customers and generate leads.
About the Author: Subrat Kar is the CEO and Co-founder of Vidooly, a YouTube analytics tool for content creators, multi-channel networks, and brands. Before Vidooly, he worked with E-Commerce companies like Jabong and IndiaMart as a product manager. Recognized as one of the most promising young entrepreneurs in India, he is an active participant in entrepreneurial initiatives and forums across India. Connect with him @subratkar.
Posted by Dr-Pete
For the past couple of months, Google has been testing SERPs with 4 ads at the top of the page (previously, the top ad block had 1-3 ads), leading to a ton of speculation in the PPC community. Across the MozCast data set, 4 ads accounted for only about 1% of SERPs with top ads (which matches testing protocol, historically). Then, as of yesterday, this happened:
Over the past 2 weeks, we've seen a gradual increase, but on the morning of February 18, the percentage of top ads blocks displaying 4 ads jumped to 18.9% (it's 19.3% as of this morning). Of the 5,986 page-1 SERPs in our tracking data that displayed top ads this morning, here's how the ad count currently breaks down:
As you can see, 4-ad blocks have overtaken 2-ad blocks and now account for almost one-fifth of all top ad blocks. Keep in mind that this situation is highly dynamic and will continue to change over time. At the 19% level, though, it's unlikely that this is still in testing.
The 4-ad blocks look the same as other, recent top ad blocks, with the exception of the fourth listing. Here's one for "used cars," localized to the Chicago area:
Here's another example, from an equally competitive search, "laptops":
As you can see, the ads continue to carry rich features, including site-links and location enhancements. Other examples of high-volume searches that showed 4 top ads in this morning's data include:
Please note that our data set tends toward commercial queries, so it's likely that our percentages of occurrence are higher than the total population of searches.
Along with this change, we've seen another shift - right-hand column ads seem to be moving to other positions. This is a 30-day graph for the occurrence of right-hand ads and bottom ads in our data set:
The same day that the 4-ad blocks jumped, there was a substantial drop in right-column ad blocks and corresponding increasing in bottom ad blocks. Rumors are flying that AdWords reps are confirming this change to some clients, but confirmation is still in progress as of this writing.
We can only speculate at this point, but there are a couple of changes that have been coming for a while. First, Google has made a public and measurable move toward mobile-first design. Since mobile doesn't support the right-hand column, Google may be trying to standardize the advertising ecosystem across devices.
Second, many new right-hand elements have popped up in the last couple of years, including Knowledge Panels and paid shopping blocks (PLAs). These entities push right-hand column ads down, sometimes even below the fold. At the same time, Knowledge Panels have begun to integrate with niche advertising in verticals including hotels, movies, music, and even some consumer electronics and other products.
This is a volatile situation and the numbers are likely to change over the coming days and weeks. I'll try to update this post with any major changes.
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Albert Einstein once said:
"Genius is the ability to focus on one particular thing for a long time without losing concentration."
But I'm sure you'll agree, it's easy to get distracted online.
Sure, you might sit down to work with a plan. But then you open your email or visit Facebook and - all of a sudden - 30 minutes has disappeared.
At times, it's difficult to avoid this.
But there are some great tools and extensions that can help you zone in and get better results.
When I'm searching for productivity tools like these, I want to know that it does one of four things:
That's the whole idea of tools right? If I'm going to add a new tool to my collection, it has to help me be better at my job in some concrete way.
So today, I've gathered together a collection of my favorite tools and extensions that can help you achieve these four goals.
Many of these are tried, true and tested - products that still stack up as the best options out there. But I've also included a few new ones that I've recently discovered and added to my own workflow process.
Think about your daily routine and pick and choose the best tools and extensions to help improve your outcomes.
Begin with any of the following tools, and get ready for a super productive 2016.
Tools
For great trusty file storage, sharing, and management, you really can't go wrong with Dropbox. The best feature is the ability to sync your files with members on your team and collaborate in real time.
If you're looking for another option, Box is a suitable alternative. It offers 10 GB of free storage, while Dropbox offers 2 GB. You can increase your storage on Dropbox by referring friends. If you're a Linux user, you'll have to choose Dropbox as Box does not currently offer a desktop program for Linux.
This shouldn't come as a huge surprise, but Google's huge range of free tools - including Google Drive and Google Calendar - are still great for getting your workflow organized.
Use the calendar to organize and time block your schedule. Create multiple calendars that you can share with your team. And send both email and popup reminders to ensure you and your team remember key deadlines. Then, create and store all your spreadsheets and documents in Google Drive and share them with your team. If you manage a remote team like I do, this is a great way to keep everybody on the same page.
Images are just as important as written content, and Canva (now with 6.3 million users) provides an easy drag and drop platform for creating professional images and presentations - allowing you to let your creativity shine.
Giphy is the Google of Gif search, with tools to create your own. Use the handy gif maker to drag and drop your video files (or just enter the video url) and Giphy will create a convenient slideshow for you that you can caption and share. Add some fun into your posts, emails, tweets or pins by adding a short animated gif.
If you aren't already using this chat tool, make it a priority to get your team on it in 2016.
Integrate Slack with all of your favorite apps and tools like Google Hangouts, Trello, GitHub, Giphy, etc. Not only does the app offer the standard chat and direct messaging features, you can break projects, topics or teams out into individual channels, share files and coordinate all your notifications within a central, searchable place.
Google Analytics should be the first tool you install on your site. Setup your dashboard to show you the most important data you want to see every time you log in, like your traffic or bounce rate. And for anyone running online campaigns, Google Analytics shows you which converts the best.
If you've got some stats, but you want to go beyond what Google Analytics can do to optimize your marketing efforts and put them on hyperdrive, then Kissmetrics is the answer.
Not only does the tool streamline your reports in an easy to understand format, it'll help you determine what's working and what's not with your marketing campaigns so you can zone in and increase both conversions and performance.
Monitor your SEO, local marketing, and content with Moz's powerful SEO data metrics. Get deep keyword insight and link management tools like link analysis. Figure out how to get more info on inbound links and link quality.
Improve your own workflow - or the workflow of your team - with this easy to use task management platform. Sound like Trello? It is, except Breeze offers more features like time tracking, reporting and a completed task analysis.
Whether you need help managing clients with ease or organizing a virtual team - big or small - so that you're all working on the same page, Basecamp will help you get things done. Basecamp offers pricing options ranging from free to $29 on up to $3,000 depending on how many camps you want to set up.
Running regular surveys is a great way to understand your audience and discover exactly what it is they want to buy.
To get the answers you need, check out Survey Monkey, which offers a free service that includes up to 10 questions and pro paid options for more in-depth analysis.
If you want a social media management tool you can put on autopilot, this one is the answer.
Edgar stocks up your social media library into buckets like business posts, quotes or anything else you want. Create a posting schedule and tell Edgar what you want, like post a quote every day at 10 a.m. or animated gifs at 2:30 a.m. on Wednesdays. When Edgar is done, he'll dip back to your buckets and fish out posts from the bottom of your pile and keep the schedule going.
Image marketing is hot, and Viraltag helps to supercharge it with image cloning and scheduling tools across social media platforms. There's also a handy Canva integration add some text and graphics to their endless library of stock photos before you schedule and send to Pinterest.
Analyze what content is performing the best across the web by topic or by competitor so that you can create content that's just as great.
You can also use this tool to assess who the key influencers are in a market so that you can connect, get shared, and supercharge your content marketing.
Feedly keeps everything hyper-organized by transforming your favorite news and social media sites into pocket-sized cards. Load them up when you're ready to get the latest marketing news.
Use templates to create professional, high quality sales pages and squeeze pages that'll drive more sales and subscribers for your business. Easily install Leadpages to your Facebook tab to create a lead-generating ad machine.
Discover where your market is and find new people to follow by searching Tagboard's collection of hashtags. Type in your competitor's favorite hashtag to see what they're up to, or easily monitor your own favorites to create a campaign around it.
Scoop.it is a must-have content curation technology that connects to your social networks and blog to help make sourcing and sharing great content as easy a possible. Scoop.it turns everyone into a publisher with its mashup of content tool meets social network platform. Select your topics to make boards, add some keywords and "re-scoop" content from others.
Get powerful insights to track and improve all your email communications. See who opens your messages, who clicks on links, what pages they visit, and view their personal profiles - all from your inbox. Stop guessing if your client ever got your last proposal or who that new guy on the email chain is.
The Pareto principle - otherwise known as the 80/20 rule - proves that a mere 20% of our time yields the best results, while the other 80% is often wasted.
Keeping a time log is a great way to increase productivity and focus on the 20% that matters. Here's how I use Toggl to measure the ROI of my content marketing. When you can track exactly where you spend your time, you can discover where to put the majority of your attention.
Using your computer late at night? It could be affecting your sleep (and thus, your health). f.lux aims to fix this problem. The software will automatically adjust the color of your computer screen at night. So, when you turn on your computer at night you aren't blinded by a bright screen. It's available for Mac, Windows, Linux, and iPhone and iPad.
Sitting at your computer all day? Look into downloading Healthier. It will remind you every 40 minutes to do a set exercise. Customize your break times and intervals to fit your work patterns. Currently only available on OS X.
Now that your app arsenal is in better shape, let's check out my favorite 16 must-have browser extensions for 2016...
Download and save content you find while browsing the web and create a personal tagging system to keep it in order - either for personal reference or for sharing on your brand's social profiles.
The great advantage of Pocket is that you can save posts as a download, allowing you to read them both online and offline. You can even email links directly to Pocket to keep everything in one place.
Buffer is an easy-to-use social media management tool. By adding the extension to your browser, you can add new tweets, shares, and pins to multiple social media accounts with the click of a button.
Adding social shares while you're browsing saves you loads of time. You can also automatically schedule updates to go out at certain times a day, or use the tool's new calendar scheduling feature for even more control.
If you aren't already familiar with it, Klout is a social media influence scorer that helps you follow the right people, as well as track your own status.
Once you have the browser extension installed, you'll be able to compare how different influencers rank on the service, as in the example below from Twitter:
Use this quick-and-easy browser extension to shorten links for social media sharing and gain added tracking metrics for your links at the same time.
Test headline variations across social platforms to see if one gets more clicks than the other. Find the optimal time to post to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn by sharing links across time zones. The analytics you'll get from bit.ly are more than just numbers - use it for actionable insights so you can improve your marketing.
Buffer integrates with Bit.ly so you can get all analytics within the Buffer app.
If you're tired of wasting time resetting passwords, this extension, which allows you to manage your passwords across the web, could be the answer for you.
Not only can it help you generate stronger passwords, it'll syncs the data you've stored across multiple browsers and devices, in addition to filling out forms.
Eliminate confusion and overload - and speed up browser performance - by reducing your opened tabs to just one tab.
Oh, and those 25 tabs you had open? Whenever you want to access them, just click the full list and find it, rather than having to open each tab individually.
RiteTag is a great social media optimizer extension that helps you instantly choose the right hashtags to add to tweets, Facebook posts and Instagram updates without having to search each platform to see which tag is performing best.
Use this handy tool to make sure you've inserted all the links correctly on your pages, and that none of your links are broken.
Go to any URL and get the cross platform stats for all social media networks using this extension. Doing so will save you time in making assessments and comparisons on social interactions.
If you've got a problem - this extension will help solve it. Firebug facilitates live debugging, editing, and monitoring of any website or blog's CSS, HTML, DOM, XHR, and JavaScript code.
This free extension works with MOZ and lets you create custom searches, compare link metrics, highlight links and keywords, quickly expose important page elements, and access other powerful SEO tools.
Close the gap between email communications and increase engagement by displaying your contacts' profiles in the sidebar of Gmail.
See their latest tweets, follow them across different platforms and leave notes for future communications - all of which can help deepen your ongoing relationship.
Not sure if Pinterest is the right fit for your business? Check again, because Pinterest is driving millions of visitors to websites across multiple niches.
If you're not using it already, create a Pinterest page and then use this extension to start adding pages and posts to your boards.
Let's all agree, Facebook can be a real time sucker.
Social Fixer allows you to filter Facebook to your preferences, removing the junk you don't need, the updates you don't like, and any other stuff that just wastes your time.
Use the tool to set up:
If you simply can't fix and filter social media, it might be time for you to add a tool that limits the amount of time you spend on these sites.
Time blocking social media is a powerful way to increase your productivity and make sure you stay on task throughout the day.
Working with responsive design? This is a handy tool you can use to make sure your content looks great across all devices.
This extension allows you to view your content at any size you like. See exactly what it looks like on iphones, tablets, ipads, and even input different full screen resolutions.
Well, there you have it - 20 awesome tools and 16 great browser extensions that will help you upscale your year in 2016.
Do you have another tool or browser extension you use to add to this list? Share your recommendations by leaving them in the comments below.
About the Author: Aaron Agius is an experienced search, content and social marketer. He has worked with some of the world's largest and most recognized brands to build their online presence. See more from Aaron at Louder Online, their Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.
