[Interested in knowing the best tools to help run your business this year? Check out my top six below].
I’m all about taking short cuts in business.
I’ve spent thousands of dollars and endured countless sleepless nights to build my business to where it is today.
So needless to say, I know what works. But more importantly, I know what doesn’t work when you’re trying to build a business.
There are tons of tools out there promising to bring you your desired results, but I’ve found that the tools below work the best for small to mid-size businesses.
EMAIL/CRM TOOLS:
PRIMARY: INFUSIONSOFT
Infusionsoft is what we personally use and it’s like the Swiss Army knife of CRMs. It can do almost anything but you need to know what that anything is and that’s where most people stumble.
Unlike Active Campaign, it does have an upfront fee when you register that covers the cost of a training (that you will need) to get you going. If you make the leap into Infusionsoft, you have to be dedicated to learning how the system works or paying someone that does.
There is no in-between.
We did both so we’ve been successful on the platform and we’ve recently become Infusionsoft Certified Partners to ensure you can have the same success. If you’re interested in getting started with Infusionsoft contact us at 1-800-479-2695 and select the option for Traffic Sales & Profit to get the ball rolling.
Click here for a demo of Infusionsoft.
ALTERNATE: ACTIVE CAMPAIGN
Email is still one of the best, if not the best way to nurture and convert leads into customers.
The major mistake many entrepreneurs make is that they have an email system that is too old, too simple or not robust enough. This is why you need a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool.
Active Campaign is my alternate CRM recommendation this year.
It’s more than capable to handle your email marketing, automation, sales stages, SMS to lead capture and a bunch of other features.
Plus, you can try it out for two weeks for free to see it in action. Click here to try out Active Campaign.
SALES FUNNELS/LANDING PAGES
PRIMARY: CLICK FUNNELS
There are tons of landing page solutions available on the market but my current favorite for this year is Click Funnels because it’s the entire funnel.
From an opt-in page, to a sales page, to order forms it’s all there. It even gives you functionality for automated webinars and a membership site. Those last two aren’t the best on the market but when you look at the suite in full it can save you from having to buy four different tools and patching them together.
It’s very visual which is good for new users and it’s easy to see your analytics up front to tell if a funnel is working or not.
Click here for a FREE 2 week trial of Click Funnels.
ALTERNATE: LEAD PAGES
Lead Pages has been around for years and has been the biggest player in the landing page space. Over the past few years they’ve definitely increased innovation to keep up with all of the new competitors in the space. But here was the knock on Lead Pages; their landing page templates looked nice and were easy to set up but almost impossible to change and configure.
Now they have a drag and drop builder so that solves the issue.
Click here to take a closer look at Lead Pages.
ALTERNATE: THRIVE THEMES
Thrive themes is a full suite of WordPress based plug-ins that help you drive conversions.
They have landing pages, lead generation, countdown timers, a new survey tool that segments leads based on answers and a few other resources.
I LOVE their lead generation plug-in Thrive Leads. I think it’s the best option on the block if you have a WordPress website. You can determine where you want to show opt-in offers very easily based on categories, pages and other options so the right people see the right lead magnet offer.
Their templates are very modern and attractive and they are constantly innovating as well and becoming a major player in the space.
Click here to see all of the Thrive Theme plugins.
Webinar Tool
PRIMARY: ZOOM
Wow! I can’t believe I’m saying this but after years of having GoToWebinar as my preferred webinar solution I’m now recommending Zoom. There are several reasons they are at least toe-to-toe with GoToWebinar and might even have the edge.
- They work! So many new solutions come out year after year and promise the world on a shoestring budget but none of it matters if they can’t deliver on core functionality.
- They cost less than GoToWebinar and price has always been a sticking point on why many people look for options outside of GoToWebinar.
- I’m giving Zoom the edge currently because you can concurrently stream your webinars live to Facebook or YouTube. This gives you additional reach and all types of possibilities that you just can’t achieve with GoToWebinar right now.
Click here to learn more about Zoom.
ALTERNATE: GOTOWEBINAR
There are tons of webinar options but my reason for using and recommending GoToWebinar is simple.
I use it because it works!
GTW actually lags behind some of the newer platforms when it comes to features but I’ve found them to be rock solid as a webinar hosting platform unlike some of the other players in this field. There’s nothing worse than presenting a full webinar then having your audio drop right when you’re going into the sale.
This has happened to me in the past but not on GTW which is one of the reasons I like them.
Click here test out GoToWebinar’s free trial.
ECOMMERCE TOOL
SHOPIFY
If you have an Ecommerce store it should be on Shopify!
I’m that sold on what they offer. They are to Ecommerce what WordPress is to blogging. Also, since they are the dominate player in the space there are a ton of integrations that can take your Shopify store to the next level.
We use them for our MarriageTees.com store and it has been an amazing experience.
Try out Shopify for 14 days with no risk and no credit card by clicking here.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOL
TEAMWORK
We use Teamwork as our in-house project management tool. It allows us to keep up to speed on internal and external projects and our clients love it.
I love it because we can track all conversations, files, tasks and other items that go into getting a project done along with the timelines and expectations that make it happen.
See TeamWork in action by clicking here.
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