Introduction

One of my favorite questions on Quora is “What are the best productivity tools for entrepreneurs?”  Along those lines, I’d like to share some of my favorite Sales and Marketing Productivity tools that I’m using in 2018.

1. Website/Blog – WordPress

I often get slack about being a SharePoint-focused consultancy and using an open-source platform.  But, as any real small business owner knows, the cobbler’s children have no shoes.  I can’t say enough good things about WordPress – I love the plugins available (look for another top X list from me on this in the future), the theming is awesome, and I’ve been able to do almost everything I need just as a power user.

2. Social – Hootsuite

My two favorite things – are the ability to plan out my quarter by scheduling out updates and the ability to push blog updates to our various social channels.  There are hundreds of tools for managing social; Hootsuite is my favorite.

3. Email Marketing – MailChimp

I’m new to MailChimp, but I really like what I see so far.  I’m using Groups and Segments to refine how I reach out to people.  It’s got plenty of integrations with many of the products I use today.

4. SEO – Yoast

This has been my go-to for making sure the content on our website is showing up in organic searches on Google.  Great company, plugin, resources, and training.

5. Website Performance / Scalability – Cloudflare

Must have for any website that needs to be performant and secure.

6. Webinars – GoToWebinar

The best.  Along with GoToMeeting.

7. CRM – Salesforce

This is the most expensive tool in my tool belt.  But, you can take it from my cold, dead hands if you ever think of switching me to something else.

8. Productivity – Microsoft 365

I don’t know why anyone would use anything else.  From my core productivity tool (Outlook) to the killer new Office for the iPad apps, there’s so much to love here.  We’ve migrated from Jive to Yammer and we’ve moved our internal files from Dropbox to OneDrive.  Our business includes helping companies move to Microsoft 365 and building Office Apps – we couldn’t be more excited about the innovation coming from Microsoft recently.

9. Social Network – LinkedIn

The most important place to connect –  follow ThreeWill at https://www.linkedin.com/company/threewill.

10. Website Chat – SnapEngage

I love that I’m able to target different messages based on which page the website visitor is viewing.

What Would You Add to This List?

I’d love to hear your additions in the comments.  I imagine I’ll be updating this list in the future – I hope my sharing helps you find a good tool to add to your toolbox.