As a business, you’re constantly looking for tools to help give you that edge above the competition.
Whether that be a tool to manage your workflow, reach more customers—or even something as basic as accounting —finding the best ones can be difficult.
That’s where we come in.
Marketing:
AdRoll – Ever go to a website only to go to a different webpage and now you are starting to see ads from that company? This is called retargeting and it makes cusomers remember you (the point of advertising) and consider coming back to your site as you look like a much larger and thoughtful company. Rather than spray and pray marketing this is targeting those who have expressed enough of an interest that they have already visited your website once but just need a little convincing to push them over the edge.
Google AdWords – Want to A/B test your messaging to see what will truly drive traffic rather than guessing? No better place to experiment that with Google AdWords. Drive new visitors to your site with paid search and a per click or CPM basis. AdWords is a great way to get word out about your service particularly if what you are offering is unique in which you do not have to pay as high of costs to bid against competitors.
HootSuite – Schedule, publish, and analyze all your social media accounts in one place. This includes Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and more so you can better engage with your social channel and improve collaboration amongst your team.
Mailchimp – An online email marketing solution to manage subscribers, send emails, and track results. The best email service we have seen for keeping in touch with existing customers. Mailchimp is easy to use, friendly, and gets the job done. The service helps you adhere to industry standards such as CANSPAM. Mailchimp also has tools for you to start capturing emails right from your site to get imported into the subscriber list.
ShipEarly – Sell more online and in-stores by partnering with retailers rather than competing online. ShipEarly integrates retailers into the checkout and provides more convenient options for consumers such as in-store pickup and ship-to-store that eliminate shipping costs and allow for same day delivery. You didn’t think we would write this without plugging ourselves did you?
Zendesk – Zendesk is a customer support and chat application that gets embedded on your website. More and more visitors want real-time interaction with the brands they are working with and may have questions but don’t want to call. 34% of millennials say they’d rather get their teeth cleaned at the dentist than call a customer service line. If you plan on capturing this segment of the market, you may want to consider a chat feature for your website.
Of course, generating website content like what we are in this post to show domain expertise is also a highly effective practice and something that should be done to attract an audience with content marketing to improve search engine rankings.
Organization and Productivity:
DropBox – Cloud storage app for business that allows you to access your files from anywhere on any device or to share with others.
Evernote – Take notes to a new level with Evernote, the productivity app that keeps your projects, ideas, and inspiration handy across all your digital devices.
QuickBooks Online – If it’s been a while since you looked at QuickBooks you should definitely check out QuickBooks online. This tool is very robust and has a very open API if you ever want to integrate all your tools seamlessly this Sexy Accounting Number nearly has it all.
Web Analytics:
Google Analytics – The gold standard for analyzing your web traffic to see how visitors are responding to your content and where your traffic is coming from. Make more intelligent marketing and business decisions based off of data rather than your gut.
Crazy Egg – To complement Google Analytics Crazy Egg provides a heat map of your website where customers are navigating to on your pages. This service lets you visualize where your users click
Communication
Slack – Be less busy and have everything in one place with this messaging app for teams. At our organization we have nearly eliminated email and have much tighter collaboration amongst our team. This tool essentially eliminates emails which can be ignored and becomes an instant messaging tool for your company so that only top priority items get addressed.
