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5 Tech Tools That Help Prospective Clients Find You

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One thing entrepreneurs never have enough of is time.

A lack of time is often cited as a reason why some small business owners aren’t consistent with their marketing efforts.

I can’t give you any “magical” tips on pulling time out of thin air, but I can share with you 5 tools that will help you market your business more consistently, more successful and help you to increase your profits:

  1. Figuring out what to write about: If a perpetual case of writer’s block is keeping you from regularly reaching out to your audience, check out Social Crawlytics.This FREE web-based tool helps you identify your competitors most shared content online. With a few clicks you can find out what they are talking about and where they are promoting it so you can join the conversation with your own perspective.

  2. Creating images to support your content:  90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000X faster in the brain than text. (Sources: 3M Corporation and Zabisco)That means you need to include images in your email newsletter, blog posts and with all of your social media updates. Enter Canva.com. This web-based service offers you the ability to create custom graphics without hiring a designer.Simply select a template, modify the text, and then publish the image in the format you want.

  3. Building simple web-pages: To build your own tribe of pre-qualified leads that you can develop a relationship with and market to again and again, you need to have an easy way to capture the name and email address of the folks who visit your website.But you have ZERO design skills you say? No problem! Lead Pages offers you proven templates that are plug and play! You drop in your content, configure your email service provider and you are up and running in a matter of minutes with a stylish, highly functional, mobile-responsive web presence that makes you money.

  4. Building your presence on Facebook: If your target market is actively looking for the products and services you sell on Facebook you need to be active there too. It’s not just a matter of collecting friends and fans, you need to convert these connections to email subscribers that you can stay in touch with over time to build the all important know, like and trust factor.Using content you already have on your computer, you can launch a simple Social Campaign in 20 minutes or less to attract new likes AND new prospects. The first time we launched this we attracted 46 new email subscribers in just a couple of days with minimal promotion! Try it for FREE!

  5. Update your blog on the go: If you’re like me, you often find inspiration for content you want to share with your audience while you’re out and about.Instead of letting your good ideas fall to the wayside, the next time you are struck with a brilliant idea, stop what you’re doing and take 5 minutes to start a blog post using your smartphone (or tablet) and the FREE WordPress app (iOs or Android).You can finish the post once you get back to your desk or publish it right there from you mobile device! You can also edit text, upload new images, respond to comments and more. Keep this app handy and use those extra minutes you have between appointments to share useful content with your audience and create a sales opportunity.

No matter what form of marketing you use to grow your business, for best results you MUST be consistent in your efforts. Following through and being consistent is more important than the strategy itself, the words you use or what your website looks like.

Clearly, those elements of your marketing are important, but it’s far too easy to get caught up in the minutia of what you need to do, which can distract you from actually getting it done. Make your marketing easier on yourself and get better results by leveraging technology to do your work for you. You’ll be rewarded with a better reputation, more opportunities and more revenue than you could ever imagine.

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Comments

    • Sydni Craig-Hart says

      Oh nice! I think you’ll really love the social media marketing tools Constant Contact offers. They’re SO great for turning your social media connections into actual leads.

      Are there any other tools you recommend or enjoy using to help attract ideal clients?

  5. Shavonne Pounders says

    I am also using MailChimp right now, but I do love the way I am able to run sweepstakes through ConstantContact; however MailChimp is free. Pagemondo is another good site to use to help build great content, posts, and covers. I am currently using a trial of HubSpot software as well to see how I like it. Right now I am just learning about a lot of different platforms and apps to see which ones works best for my needs and are user friendly.

  6. Danielle Amory says

    Good points, and many small business owners are using them. What many don’t have is a strategy that measures the effectiveness of using them nor a well thought out plan that answers the #1 question every business from Microsoft to Granny’s Quilts asks: Why are we doing this? Just because competitors are on Facebook or have a blog, may not be the right solution for every business.

    • Sydni Craig-Hart says

      Hi Danielle,

      Thanks so much for your message! I completely agree. A lot of small business owners find themselves in a perpetual state of overwhelm because they are trying to do WAY to much to grow their business. Being strategic, focusing on just 2-3 key marketing tactics and doing them consistently is all that is needed to enjoy a profitable and successful business.

      Warm regards,
      Sydni

  7. Sarah Arrow says

    Canva is currently my number one graphics creation tool, I just love it.
    I’ve never heard of Social Crawlytics but it sounds like a really useful tool for when your struggling to create content. I’m gonna have to check it out.
    Thanks for sharing!

  9. Amy Kinnaird says

    Hmmm. I don’t use any of these tools! But I want to check out Canva and Social Campaign. I’m going to share with my VA and see if these are right for my business. I’m a big picmonkey fan and want to see the difference between it and canva… I appreciate the idea of the Android WP app and may give it a whirl. Who knows? That might make blogging more spontaneous and faster!

    Thanks for sharing these tools.

  11. Mindy Crary says

    Wow, right off the bat, Canva looks amazing! I use Picmonkey right now, so I’ll have to experiment. I am on Campaign Monitor for my email campaigns, so I’ll have to see if they have a social campaign like Constant Contact (HATED the graphics when I used to use them). With competitor tracking, I am always challenged by the question, who ARE my actual competitors online??? :o)

    • Sydni Craig-Hart says

      Thanks for the note Mindy! I’ve used Campaign Monitor for certain clients and always had a good experience with them.

      I know what you mean about the graphics at Constant Contact. I stopped using them years ago and that one reason why. They have gotten better though.

      The Social Campaigns product is completely separate from the Email Marketing. It’s incredibly user friendly and the graphics look really good. It’s GREAT for converting your fans and friends on Facebook to email subscribers that you can develop a real relationship with and ultimately sell to. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

  12. Jennifer Bourn says

    Thrilled to see you have so many great resources listed here, but even more excited you have lead pages listed. That is a great tool for the do-it-yourselfer!

    And THANK YOU for not including OptimizePress (ick!)

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