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My Marketing Rolodex... What tools are you using

by danielsteven
11 replies
Hey There!

Below are tools that I use in my business (mostly everyday) that allow everything to run smoothly.

Would love to hear your thoughts as well as some tools you use that you'd like to share...

I'm sure I missed something but for the most part this is what I got...

Aweber.com- Aweber is the autoresponder of choice. There are definitely other options out there, but when it comes to deliverability/bounce rate.. nothing has compared to Aweber in my mind. You don't want to have to worry about a business owner receiving your email!

Hostgator.com- Hostgator is the best web hosting company that I've come across. I've gone through many, and when it comes to quality/being user friendly... nothing compares. Plus, when working with contractors (outsourcers).. you want a platform that they are comfortable with and I've never once received a complaint or question about how to use it!

GotoWebinar.com- They are the most reliable when it comes to hosting webinars! They aren't necessarily the cheapest but when it comes to quality, they're the best. They make it easy to record/host your webinar. IF you AREN'T using webinars in your business for client acquistion, YOU MUST! Webinars are EXTREMELY effective and with ONE presentation you can reach up to 1,000 business owners. Do you know how much time it would take/gas money to go out on 1,000 meetings? About 3 a day for 7days a week for an entire YEAR! A NO Brainer in my mind! Webinars also allow you to be the obvious choice/expert when your prospect is ready to move forward... how many of your competitors do you think are taking the time to educate their prospect first? I'd bet less than 1%! Definitely something to consider....

Spypig.com - This is a free tool that allows you to spy on your prospect. NOT Literally, but if you've ever sent out a proposal and wondered if your prospect received it.. this tool is great. You simply attach a small (white/blank) image that the recipient can't see, into the email, and you will receive a notification when the email is opened! Pretty cool, and you don't have to wonder if the intended recipient received it. If you noticed they haven't opened it for a couple days, you can go ahead and follow up with them... WITHOUT coming off desperate!

Google Analytics - I use this for my own sites and also for my clients sites... It's important to know where the majority of your traffic is coming. If you aren't tracking, you can't scale up accordingly!

Odesk.com- This may be the most important aspect of my Rolodex. You can only do so much by yourself. The majority of your time should be spent focusing on acquiring clients... all fulfillment should be outsourced to trusted Contractors. If you want to learn how to hire a trusted Contractor.. watch the video HERE.

Screen-O-Matic.com- Have you ever wondered how some people can record what's on their screen? This is a great cheap/free tool to use. All you need is a cheap headset that you can get at your local radioshack and you'll be good to go!

Fiverr.com- Need something done quickly and real cheap? Fiverr has plenty of talented contractors that will do work for $5! Just make sure that you are working with someone that has numerous positive reviews!

EasyPLR.com- If you want to give out a solid Report about any given topic, this is the place to go! You can use this to entice signups into your autoresponder or you can give out these reports to your prospects!

Paypal.com- This is generally the route I go for "recurring" billing. If I have a client that is set to pay me monthly for a given service, I DON'T/REFUSE to chase them down for the check. I'll accept checks for one time payments but not for Monthly Retainers.

Voices.com- Creating a video and you need a professional voice over? Voices .com is the industry leader for voice talent.

Dropbox- One of the easiest ways to store, sync, and share files online. A lot of my clients share their files with me via Dropbox and it's super convenient.

Evernote- This is one of my personal favorites when it comes to productivity. Allows you to take notes, save url's, web clips, files, images and entire webpages.

KeywordSpy- Find out what keywords your competitors are using! I use this for my own sites as well as clients sites.

WhosMailingWhat.com - Want to run a successful Direct Mail Campaign? This is a library of direct mail data that you can learn from... AWESOME Resource!

XERO.com- Great online accounting software!

Freshbooks.com - want to send professional invoices? Freshbooks is great, and allows you to "test" them out.

Echosign.com- Sometimes you won't have to meet with a client to have a contract signed. They'll be ready to go right away but you need an easy way to have a contract signed... Echosign.com is easy to use and it eliminates having to scan, send, then have your client sign, then scan, then send back the contract.. make sense?

Skype.com- This is a must in my business to make sure my contractors are staying on task!

Fireshot- This is a firefox plugin that allows you to take a screenshot of the entire screen.

AmazonS3- This is for making sure you don't run into any bandwith problems.

Thoughts?... and let me know what tools are ESSENTIAL in your business!
#marketing #rolodex #tools
  • Profile picture of the author Gatsby
    Nice list and commentary.

    For anyone who wants to try out whether they can do a power point or keynote presentation and have it work in there sales model, but never did it before and you don't want to pay for web meetings, try Mikogo. I found that a few years ago, because I needed something to work on Linux along with my PC and Mac. So many years later, I notice there are a ton more of these free versions, but I have used that one and know it works.

    I have experience and education as a project manager, and I use those above all other things; I also do most of my stuff on a Macintosh. I like to use MS Project, as that is what I used in school and previous jobs. But for the Mac, I just discovered Merlin Project Manager which is just as good.

    I mention those, because I notice a lot of people are calling basecamp and the like a "project manager" and they are helpful, but not actually a project manager - they facilitate project management. They are actually task managers.

    However, if anyone wants to avoid paying for basecamp, I know a similar solution. projectfork. You have to install this inside a joomla system. But its all free, and then works the same as basecamp. You can invite workers, assign tasks, upload files etc. All the things you need to manage tasks and processes with outsourcers. And of course, if you have a cpanel/fantastico host, installing joomla and projectfork takes about 30 minutes.

    I love dropbox, but I really like what Google drive has done with "Docs", which localizes your files a little more like dropbox did. Still won't get rid of my dropbox account, but its nearly full.

    Echosign and others are probably great, I am using hellofax, and it is integrated into my chrome and google accounts.

    Along with Skype, I am using dialectic which dials any phone number in my CRM, address book or anywhere a number is on my screen. I can also switch it over to my mobile phone and it keeps a call log for me.
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    • Profile picture of the author danielsteven
      Originally Posted by Gatsby View Post

      Nice list and commentary.

      For anyone who wants to try out whether they can do a power point or keynote presentation and have it work in there sales model, but never did it before and you don't want to pay for web meetings, try Mikogo. I found that a few years ago, because I needed something to work on Linux along with my PC and Mac. So many years later, I notice there are a ton more of these free versions, but I have used that one and know it works.

      I have experience and education as a project manager, and I use those above all other things; I also do most of my stuff on a Macintosh. I like to use MS Project, as that is what I used in school and previous jobs. But for the Mac, I just discovered Merlin Project Manager which is just as good.

      I mention those, because I notice a lot of people are calling basecamp and the like a "project manager" and they are helpful, but not actually a project manager - they facilitate project management. They are actually task managers.

      However, if anyone wants to avoid paying for basecamp, I know a similar solution. projectfork. You have to install this inside a joomla system. But its all free, and then works the same as basecamp. You can invite workers, assign tasks, upload files etc. All the things you need to manage tasks and processes with outsourcers. And of course, if you have a cpanel/fantastico host, installing joomla and projectfork takes about 30 minutes.

      I love dropbox, but I really like what Google drive has done with "Docs", which localizes your files a little more like dropbox did. Still won't get rid of my dropbox account, but its nearly full.

      Echosign and others are probably great, I am using hellofax, and it is integrated into my chrome and google accounts.

      Along with Skype, I am using dialectic which dials any phone number in my CRM, address book or anywhere a number is on my screen. I can also switch it over to my mobile phone and it keeps a call log for me.
      Awesome Gatsby, thanks for the share. I'm going to have to look at hellofax.

      Originally Posted by Todd Pedersen View Post

      Thanks for the time to put together the list. I had not heard of Echosign. That could be a real time saver. With the new age of video, Amazon S3 is a nobrainer.

      Danielsteven, would you say Gotowebinar is your biggest moneymaker?
      Webinars the last 4 months or so have been our biggest moneymaker... they just make sense lol

      We just needed to figure out how to consistently have a significant amount of attendees to make them worthwhile.
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  • Profile picture of the author Todd Pedersen
    Echosign.com- Sometimes you won’t have to meet with a client to have a contract signed. They’ll be ready to go right away but you need an easy way to have a contract signed… Echosign.com is easy to use and it eliminates having to scan, send, then have your client sign, then scan, then send back the contract.. make sense?
    Thanks for the time to put together the list. I had not heard of Echosign. That could be a real time saver. With the new age of video, Amazon S3 is a nobrainer.

    Danielsteven, would you say Gotowebinar is your biggest moneymaker?
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  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    You covered a lot of things... nice post.

    Aweber, I'm not crazy about because I like to do a lot of prospecting with emails as well as many other methods, and I like to mass mail. Mailchimp has awesome delivery rates, probably one of the best in the industry.... the only difference is they don't like affiliate marketers, and certain offers.

    Hostgator, I absolutely agree with. How do you think the whole thing with EIG is going to play out? Think they will still be top notch? I had a few support issues lately that were all resolved in the same manner as they always are... everything seems fine so far, but EIG is notorious for ruining good models, with the exception being blue host.

    I second evernote...

    Never tried xero, will need to check that out... I like waveaccounting, it's free and has invoicing included. Awesome tool.

    whosmailingwhat, I'll def need to check out... sounds cool.

    Toggl is a must for me.... time tracking and analyzing efficiency.

    Collabtive for project management... I also use a mixture of zoho and vitger for my leads. I have over 100K leads in my VTiger... but needed something a bit easier to manage my current actual accounts and contacts so I went to Zoho for that, which is a much cleaner, but more limited CRM.
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    • Profile picture of the author danielsteven
      Originally Posted by iAmNameLess View Post

      You covered a lot of things... nice post.

      Aweber, I'm not crazy about because I like to do a lot of prospecting with emails as well as many other methods, and I like to mass mail. Mailchimp has awesome delivery rates, probably one of the best in the industry.... the only difference is they don't like affiliate marketers, and certain offers.

      Hostgator, I absolutely agree with. How do you think the whole thing with EIG is going to play out? Think they will still be top notch? I had a few support issues lately that were all resolved in the same manner as they always are... everything seems fine so far, but EIG is notorious for ruining good models, with the exception being blue host.

      I second evernote...

      Never tried xero, will need to check that out... I like waveaccounting, it's free and has invoicing included. Awesome tool.

      whosmailingwhat, I'll def need to check out... sounds cool.

      Toggl is a must for me.... time tracking and analyzing efficiency.

      Collabtive for project management... I also use a mixture of zoho and vitger for my leads. I have over 100K leads in my VTiger... but needed something a bit easier to manage my current actual accounts and contacts so I went to Zoho for that, which is a much cleaner, but more limited CRM.
      You know, I haven't ever had an issue with hostgator... anytime I have an issue it's handled right away, I'm not too worried about any changes (at least I hope not because they have always been AWESOME to me) ...

      I'll have to checkout waveaccounting..

      I've set a few clients up with "Mailchimp" but I personally have never swayed from Aweber so that was just my biased (ignorant if you will) opinion.

      Thanks for the feedback though!
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  • Profile picture of the author micksss
    Very helpful list! I prefer StatCounter over Google Analytics. But using both gives you tons of valuable information.
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  • Profile picture of the author Joint Venture Capital
    great list!
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  • Profile picture of the author Joint Venture Capital
    Can mailchimp be used for real estate homes for sale marketing?
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  • Profile picture of the author jessiem
    Great list! I also use Dropbox and Skype but I’d rather pick Time Doctor if you want to track your billable work time as we have proven its worth in our company. Hope to get links from those apps you endorsed and hopefully we can use them in the future. Thanks again for the sharing.
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  • Profile picture of the author mcconnon12
    Signnow.com is a nice one for electronic documents and I really like Salesforce to keep me organized and to see what my employees are doing.
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    • Profile picture of the author digichik
      I prefer payment by check, but I do get clients who want to pay by credit card, for those clients I use Square. I have it in my bag for every appointment.

      I have no excuse for not getting paid.
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