Building Your Toolbox
It’s said that a worker is only as good as their tools, and from the dawn of tools up until now this has remained true. Luckily we live in the digital era where we have access to an unlimited variety of software, thus making our toolbox quite capable. With such an array of digital aid, the opportunities are endless and the means of reaching our goals have become more streamlined than ever before. This is true for just about every industry, as well as personal endeavors, even down to controlling one’s “smart” home now thanks to the Internet of Things. That said, I’d like to focus specifically on, of course, building your digital marketing toolbox.
Because your business is driven by the tools you use, it’s well worth the time to research the cult favorites and learn your way around them. Lucky for you, I’ve already put in the time and I’m eager to provide a guide so that you can start utilizing these tools too. Without further ado, here are my top 10 favorite digital marketing tools for both pros and amateurs alike.
Active Campaign is my top pick for CRM and email marketing. With this powerful platform you can easily see what’s in your pipeline, build an effective and automated sales funnel, track engagement, and organize contacts.
Canva makes graphic creation a piece of cake, and I have yet to find any software that compares. Whether you want to make a social media post, a logo, a presentation, an animated video, company documents… you name it, Canva will make you feel like an expert.
Asana is the only way my team stays so organized. This project management tool allows for seamless organization, goal tracking, and task management, all on an interface that is a dream to use both visually and functionally. By creating projects, assigning tasks, and setting due dates and priority levels, there is never any confusion about what needs to get done, by whom, and by when. Switching back and forth between email, Slack, and our other platforms used to leave me worried that things might fall through the cracks, so I was relieved when I found Asana.
SmarterQueue is an easy-to-use social media scheduling platform that allows streamlined posting to Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and Pinterest. The analytics feature is also super handy; afterall what’s the point of posting if you’re not gaining insights and making adjustments along the way? This app is my go-to because it is the only tool I’ve found that allows us to develop evergreen content and automatically add it back to the queue once it’s been posted! By spending less time on content creation and scheduling, we’re able focus our attention towards the bottom of a sales funnel. Plus, in my opinion it’s the best scheduling app for working across all the social platforms, while some others are just geared towards one or two.
Not only does Calendly make scheduling easy, but I’ve found that it greatly increases the number of consultations I am able to schedule! I’m able to link to my Calendly page from my social media, in my email footer and on my website, so my prospective clients can sign up for a consultation without thinking twice. It syncs to my calendar so there’s never double-booking, and I even have a secret, hidden event link which I only send out to people who are allowed to book me after hours. I used to have so many mis-ups trying to convert different time-zones, but now Calendly just figures it all out for me. Calendly’s automated process saves time and confusion for all involved, it’s helped me get a foot in the door with cold prospects, and it’s made my life a heck of a lot easier.
SquareSpace is one that I’m sure you’ve heard of as it’s become one of the most popular website-building tools out there. With ease of use, clean graphics, and logical templates, this is my favorite way to create websites for myself and clients alike. While I wouldn’t suggest it for every business out there (there are certainly some industries for which this would not be my recommendation), I’ll tell you why I love it so much. The first reason is that it’s user-friendly. I always prefer to set up a client with a tool that they can use themselves, rather than relying on a service provider to maintain it in the long run.
According to Sprout Social, 85% of Facebook videos are watched with the sound off. AutoCap is great for adding captions to videos for social media and email campaigns. As covered in a previous blog, Being the Face of Your Brand, it’s super important to put yourself out there, and equally as important to add subtitles so your multitasking audience can still get the message.
Teleprompter App is another tool I like to use when I’m filming videos for social media, because it allows me to read a script without looking or sounding too scripted. Just type in your script, set the speed and start filming!
Ninjalitics is a budget-friendly Instagram analytics tool, providing insights for your business profile as well as your clients’ profiles.
WhataGraph is a more comprehensive, cross-platform analytics tool, good for larger agencies with a bigger budget. If you report on a lot of accounts, you will feel so relieved to have this process automated from Facebook to Instagram to Google Analytics to email marketing to Shopify and more, all in one place!
Whether you have in-house marketing or you prefer to hire-out, it’s still very valuable to be familiar with the top tools of the trade. Once you come to know and love these platforms, it’s likely that, like me, your natural desire to promote them will kick in. While of course this benefits the people who adopt the tools, as well as the software companies themselves, it also benefits you. By advocating for the tools you truly love, you can also be setting up a passive income stream for affiliate marketing with those companies and earning commission on sales by providing affiliate links. Now that’s a win-win-win! For a full list of our affiliates, click here.
