My top 5 go-to apps are actually things I’ve been using for quite some time: Basecamp, Freshbooks, SpyFu, Hootsuite and a combination of Skype, Viber and Google Chat. I’m a creature of habit, so don’t like changing things unless it’s necessary. I’m of the mindset that I’m not going to start fixing things that aren’t broken.
Basecamp is like a godsend for me, because I have a high volume of content that I have to produce daily, and the platform allows me to keep track of which projects are completed, which projects are about to be delivered and most importantly, which projects are overdue. It’s also an efficient and quick mode of communication for my entire content marketing team, and I can load projects months in advance, make changes very easily and set reminders and alerts for future projects. It’s a terrific tool that I highly recommend.
Freshbooks is wonderful for all my accounting needs. It’s a cloud-based software that I found useful for invoicing and keeping track of my expenses, and they even offer a free 30-day trial for new users. It’s fantastic for small business owners.
I use SpyFu to do my keyword research, which is super important when I’m creating SEO content (this is a biggie for many of the clients we serve). First, it really helps me avoid keyword stuffing, which Google hates and downgrades sites that employ this tactic. Second, SpyFu helps me research what keywords in my industry are being searched for the most, which also helps me create variations of those keywords to distinguish my business from that of my competitors. Lastly, SpyFu tells me what my competition is using as its keywords, and one other thing I love is that it finds the most profitable keywords on the market that I’m not using. It’s the primary tool I use in my SEO strategy.
Because social media engagement is key to digital marketing, I use Hootsuite for all my social media marketing, from social media posts to analytics about whether my content is engaging with my target audience.
Finally, communication is a huge part of my business, because the bulk of my business is done remotely, so I use Skype, Google Chat and Viber to talk to clients and contractors on a daily basis. There’s nothing you can’t do on these mobile platforms now, especially if you’re on the go for most of the day but still need to be reachable to your clients at all times.
About the Author
Tabitha Jean Naylor is a free content writer with over 8 years of experience crafting everything from ad copy and articles to white papers and case studies. Her intimate knowledge of how sales and marketing go hand-in-hand has resulted in a variety of successful campaigns for start-ups through publicly traded companies, including Adobe and Microsoft. Ms. Naylor holds a dual bachelor degree in Political Science and International Business from West Virginia University, where she graduated magna cum laude.
