It’s hard to be marketing savvy in a world where the internet and social media are changing all the time. But today I thought I would share the 10 essential tools that you should not work without.
Photos/Images:
- Canva – I love canva for the fact that it’s premade themes are gorgeous – and work across multiple platforms. You can find a premade instagram image that looks the same as a twitter banner, or Facebook header. Canva is great for people trying to create a brand without having to hire a branding specialist. It’s also fairly easy to figure out.
- Picmonkey – is great for making collages, adding filters and doing basic editing. Picture to big? Easy fix. Need to crop it? Easy fix. Picmonkey is very user friendly.
- Creative market – Images are how most people receive content now. If your images are lacking your message is going to be harder to get out. If you need stock images the creative market is a great place to start. They are often original, and you can search for exactly what you need.
Social media
- Meet edgar – Not enough time for social media? No problem. Schedule your posts ahead of time. Block out two hours and schedule all of your posts for the next two weeks. You’ll be so happy you did. And you won’t have to wonder every day if you did your social media work.
Building your email list:
- Manycontacts – You see the blue bar at the top of the screen asking for your email? That’s many contacts. SUPER easy to install on wordpress and you’d be stunned how many sign ups you’ll get from it. It’s unobtrusive and you can change the colors and wording easily.
- Popupally – Is a wordpress plugin that allows you to make pop ups on your website asking for email addresses. You can change the time it pops up – ie. wait 30 seconds or 2 minutes for it to pop up, the colors, what it says etc. It’s very user friendly, and it remembers ip addresses so you can make it so it will only show up once every 7 days you visit the site (or however many you chose).
Tracking Traffic:
- Google analytics – Knowing where your traffic is coming from is oh so important. Maybe your instagram is driving most of your traffic, but you’ll never know unless you’re looking at your analytics. Maybe your Facebook isn’t driving any trafffic and needs a boost, again you need to look at your analytics to know.
- Bit.ly – Is a link shortener. It’s great for creating specific links. Maybe you’re doing a campaign that isn’t digital but you want to know if it’s reaching people make your link bit.ly/campaignname and see how many people are acting based on your campaign.
Other:
- Moocards – Moocards is PHENOMENAL for business cards, they create stunning designs. But they aren’t just great for that. Looking to do a postcard campaign (these can actually be really great) – their post card designs are amazing, need thank you cards for donors? Look no further.
- Mailchimp – Mailchimp is who I use to send out all of my newsletters. The biggest reason I chose them over someone like constant contact ie a) price b) usability. I find mailchimp very user friendly and because the prices are so low if you have a small list – it’s easy to bite the bullet and get an account that does everything including drip emails.