Which SME Digital Marketing Tools Are Absolutely Vital When It Comes To Growing Your Small Business?
I have been running my business growth consultancy since 2003, and one thing I have found when it comes to digital marketing is that it is so much easier and more successful when you have the right tools.
All of the tools on this page I use in my own business and in my client businesses – to help them grow more quickly.
This page contains some affiliate links meaning I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase:- this is at no additional cost to you and in many cases, as you see, I offer extra free assistance to get you started in the form of usually paid for start up guides or extra benefits when buying through my link.
1. Fill Your Diary With Prospects Eager To Buy Your Services
If you are a consultant, coach, expert or trainer, you must have a system in place for your ideal prospects to book into your diary to discover more about how you can help them.
If you run a Marketing DNA Nurture Now business, again, you need a system for your prospects to book in to your diary.
I have shown many of my clients how to use this, from landscape gardeners to chartered tax advisers, personal trainers to lawyers.
It works a treat.
There are two main ways it can work in practice:
- Someone visits your website after your usual hours. For most of your competitors, this means they visit the website, take a look and vow to come back later… but they never do. Not for you, though. Oh no! You have live chat, managed for you by real human beings based in the UK from 8am to 10pm, so your visitor engages with them, then when they suggest a call the following morning, your visitor says yes please, your outsourced live chat operator books them in using this software and you turn up to a prospect ready to talk about how you can help! Perfect. Or….
- You are a consultant, trainer, expert, coach or similar, so for you you understand that your business grows by having an email list that grows (see later). You email your list regularly and your secret weapon is at the end of each email to offer your readership a chance to book in with you to discover more about how you can help them. They click a link and then this software schedules them into your diary at one of your pre-approved times. Because it syncs with your work calendar of choice (Outlook, Apple, Google) you don’t have to worry about any conflict appointments.
This software works a treat and is a vital digital marketing tool for my business and many of my clients.
It integrates with Zoom to automatically set up new calls, and sends reminders and follow up emails for you to ensure that people attend each call.
Click here to see more about Acuity:>>
Interested in having the done for you live chat on your website?
Most of the businesses that take the two week FREE TRIAL of this UK service, where your live chats with real prospects are handled by UK based operators not chatbots (no business should pass their prospects over to a robot) from 8am to 10pm, or 24 hours if you choose, generate more enquiries for their services than they did before adding it.
When you couple that with the process I outlined above for booking appointments for you, it is a solid gold winner.
If you would like me to introduce you to this fantastic live chat service so that you can take their free two week trial and see how well it works yourself, click here to email me:>>
2. Digital Marketing Tool 2 – Helps To Get You To The Top Of Google
If you are serious about getting to the top of Google more frequently, using content marketing to answer questions your ideal clients type into Google when looking for your services, then internal links are a vital part of that process.
But adding them manually is a time consuming task.
First, you have to scan your new content find opportunities to link to other articles you have already written, linking to them through your targeted keywords, then, harder still, you have to scan your entire site to find opportunities to link back to your new content through its targeted keywords.
This can take hours.
It doesn’t have to, though.
Using LinkWhisper, it does all of the work for you.
Here is a video showing you precisely how I use it:
Select the links you want to add, press ADD LINKS and you are done.
Internal link building just became a whole lot easier!
Click here to see LinkWhisper:>>
3. Creating Custom Images For SEO Blogs & Articles
Another key part of getting to the top of Google is to ensure that every new piece of content you add to your website must have a custom image with its own alt tags and title tags.
Most people don’t go to this level of trouble, which is a big mistake…. HUGE.
I can only think the reason is that they think it will take too long or be too expensive to create custom images.
It isn’t.
A few dollars a month in fact.
If you see any custom images on this page, they were used creating this software.
Click here to view the custom image creation software:>>
If you decide to purchase it, email me and I will show you how I create custom images in around a minute.
4. Running A DNA Nurture Business – Consultants/Coaches/Experts/Authors/Trainers
If you run a business that does not sell instantly, such as my own, you will know that clients don’t wake up one morning and scream from the top of their lungs:
“Today I am going to buy me a business growth consultant!”
Nope, sadly they do not.
Instead, they head off to research around your topic of expertise.
For me, that means they start searching how they can grow their business.
When the system works perfectly, their Google search results features my website in the top 10 of Google, they click through to my website where they find my ‘item of value’, my free book, explaining precisely what they need to do to grow their business.
They download it in exchange for their email address, and read my beautifully designed ebook.
If they like what they read, they receive emails from me every week, then on one of the weeks, they book themselves into my diary using the software in (1.) above and away we go.
The trouble is, if you are not a graphic designer (I most certainly am not) how do you design the cover of your ebook software and make a beautiful PDF book to send to them?
Until a few years ago, I used to have to pay someone to do each book, but not only did that cost money, it also took a long time.
Success loves speed so that didn’t sit well with me, which is why I was delighted to find this software that does all of the design work for me.
Now I can create a new downloadable ‘item of value’ in minutes as there are lots of templates included, and then with the press of another button a 3D book cover is created.
Perfect!
It is British software too, which is nice, although it comes with a dollar price tag as that is the bigger market, but don’t let that put you off!
Click here to see the ebook creation software:>>
5. How Do You Keep In Touch With Your Ideal Prospects Until They Are Ready To Buy From You?
If you have followed me above so far, here is your marketing strategy:
- You have carried out some website marketing so your website regularly appears at the top of Google.
- If your visitor engages with your live chat operator, they book them in for a call with you the following day.
- If your visitor isn’t quite ready for live chat as they are more in research mode, they see your free ebook, looking lovely as you have used the softeware in (3.) above to create it, so they download it.
- But how do you get the ebook emailed to them? You need some automated email marketing software, do you now?
This is the tool we come to now.
It is the tool without which I doubt I would still be in business, as aside from referrals and recommendations, a lot of my new clients come from my email list.
Many clients are on my email list for months or years before they ask about working with me, as the time has to be right for them.
If I did not email them every week, my business would probably be about 1/3rd of its current size!
I use this software so much, that if you decide to buy it from the link below, just email me and I will send you my step by step set up guide, usually only available for my More Clients Academy members.
Click here to see my email marketing software of choice:>>
6. How To Grow Your Email List Faster
The email marketing software above is the software that I use to actually send my emails to my prospects, but to increase the amount of people signing up for your ‘Items of value’ from your website you need a visually enticing tool that has added bells and whistles and that integrates with your email marketing software.
This software allows you to create exit intent pop ups (that appear as your visitor goes to leave your website before taking action to get in touch with you), corner slide ins that appear after a fixed time, plus the usual pop ups to use when someone clicks an image or content on your website.
I use it extensively across my website and would not be without it as no coach, consultant, expert or trainer should be.
I know from testing that if you just use the forms provided by your email marketing software, you will miss out on probably 50% of your potential downloads AT LEAST, so if you would like more email subscribers, you need this too!
Click here to see this in action:>>
7. Recording ‘How to’ and ‘Training’ Videos
If you provide training for your clients or a membership website with training videos for your audience, you need software that records your screen and audio but also allows you to take screen grabs for training purposes.
I must use this on average once or twice a day, for:
- Showing a client or a prospect how to improve their website, Google Ads or SEO marketing.
- Showing my More Clients Academy members how to follow my training for PPC, SEO or website conversions.
- Showing my team how to follow new processes.
- Adding training videos to my website for SEO purposes.
This software works straight out of the box, is really easy to edit and I couldn’t be without it.
I recommend clients use it to prepare staff training videos which can form a valuable training resource so that when new staff come into their business the training is ready and waiting for them to watch.
The other use is to record videos to be used across your website. You can either record yourself on camera, or you can record the screen and do a short presentation/powerpoint.
Click here to view the software:>>
8. Need A Website Developer, Graphic Designer, Software Help Or Any Other Marketing Help?
Website designer let you down?
Want to find someone to create a logo without paying through the nose?
Need help designing a new logo?
Need help with any marketing project at all?
Do you want to have people who can help you bidding to help you, rather than you chase around trying to find them?
You need Upwork.
It is like a dating site, but instead matches people with business owners looking to hire their services.
You post a job and people apply to do that job for you and best of all, you can see their previous work reviews to ensure they are a good fit, AND you can pay them in instalments (milestones) as they complete each part of a job.
This makes finding a service provider to help you with all aspects of growing your business simple!
Click here to view Upwork and post a job!
9. Your Lightning Fast Website!
Usain Bolt
Michael Jordan
Alan Wells (showing my age – you too or drawn a blank on that one)?
Buzz Lightyear…..
And now a new one to add to the list: Nitropack!
This makes your website lightning fast.
The good news is that if your traffic is below 5,000 sessions per month, it is free!
After that, up to 50,000 sessions, which should cover most websites, it is $17 per month.
I am paying that as I have seen my mobile speeds rise from 50-70/100 to 90/100 and desktop to 99/100 from early 90’s.
Fast sites dramatically improve client user experience, and please Google, so I am all in on that front, and my advice to you is that you should be too.
If you are under 5,000 sessions per month, this is how you can access the free version (follow the instructions to the letter or you will be pushed towards the paid version):
- Test your website speed so you know your starting point here (what gets measured, gets better): https://pagespeed.web.dev/
- Make a note of your Mobile speed and Desktop speed (you can toggle between the two once the speed test has finished running).
- Click here to go to Nitro Pack:>>
- Click “Get Started” top right of the page.
- Scroll down past the three priced options until you see the “Or check us in action with Free Plan”. If you are over 5,000 sessions, you can start with the free plan then pay to upgrade once you see how effective this plugin is (it will work until you hit 5,000 sessions after you install it, so remember to go back to the Plugin settings and sign up for a paid account before you go past 5,000 sessions).
- Click that link and follow the instructions.
- Once signed up, login to your website.
- From the left menu select plugins / add new.
- In the search box type in NitroPack.
- Select install when you see it on the page.
- Wait for it to install, then press Activate.
- If it doesn’t automatically redirect you, head to Plugins, find Nitropack then click Settings.
- Follow the instructions to connect the NitroPack plugin on your website to the account that you have just created.
- In the settings, turn on Cache Warm Up and HTML compression for the best results.
- Wait a day or so for it to do its magic, then test your speed again.
Zooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
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