Favorite Tools List: 7 Tools for Online Business Productivity.
Many tools can help run an online business, but which ones to choose is the question. I'm excited to share seven of my favorite tools that enhance productivity, organization, and workflow. Let's explore tools for enhancing online business productivity and discuss their key features, along with tips on making the most of them. Let's dive in!
WEBSITE MANAGEMENT:
At the top of my list, I'd like to start with the website platform I prefer both as a business and as a designer: Squarespace. And that's because it's a great platform to design beautiful websites for clients and has many tools to easily expand their growing online business, as well as mine.
Squarespace: Squarespace is a versatile website-building platform that empowers you to create stunning and professional websites without any coding knowledge. Or with coding if you're knowledgeable. Its intuitive drag-and-drop editor lets you easily design and customize your online presence to match your unique brand. Squarespace has many built-in features to expand your online business as it grows. For those looking for an all-in-one website platform, Squarespace has a lot to offer.
Tip 1: Use Squarespace's integrated e-commerce features to set up a seamless online store while also being able to create and manage members' areas for online courses. There are loads of features that make running your business intuitive and streamlined.
Tip 2: There's a lot that goes into building a website; hiring a designer can help you think through and strategize your business's design and brand strategy. With a sound designer, they can support you by creating a functional site on all fronts, building a solid brand for your business that rises above your expectations.
PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS:
A few products I use regularly help me easily communicate with my clients and community. And that's Flodesk, Milanote, and Involve.me. Take a peek at how these tools improve workflow and productivity.
Flodesk: Flodesk is a powerful email marketing tool for growing your online business. Create visually stunning emails with their drag-and-drop editor, build subscriber lists, and automate email sequences to nurture leads and build lasting relationships with your audience. If you're looking for an easy-to-manage email marketing system, Flodesk is your gal. Simplify the process with this user-friendly platform and grow your email list today.
Tip: Experiment with Flodesk's beautiful email templates and customize them to align with your brand identity. Craft compelling email campaigns and workflows to start building your email list today.
Interested in Flodesk for your email marketing? Use my link here and save 50% on an annual plan today! (If you choose to use my link, I may receive a small commission from Flodesk, which comes at NO cost to you. ☺️)
Milanote: Milanote is an excellent tool for visual thinkers and creative professionals. It is a collaborative workspace, enabling you to gather inspiration, organize ideas, and plan projects. Create visual boards to collect images, videos, links, and notes, fostering a visual brainstorming process and encouraging collaboration with team members. I'll check that box if there’s an application to be obsessed with. I love how visual and dynamic it is. It’s created for creating workflows for creative projects and visually communicating processes with teams and clients.
Tip: Utilize Milanote's template library to kickstart your creative projects. From mood boards to content calendars, these pre-designed templates can save you time and help you maintain consistency in your work.
Involve.me: This interactive platform makes gorgeous and fun to build quizzes, surveys, forms, and assessments into your website or various communication channels and enhance each experience with personalized interactions. Involve.me also helps to improve workflow, organization, and communications. Forms are easy to design and share.
Tip: Use Involve.me to create engaging quizzes or surveys that align with your brand and audience interests. Encourage participation and strengthen community engagement.
UNIVERSAL TOOLS:
A few universal tools that are a must in my toolbox are Canva, Trello, Google Docs and Sheets. These tools have stood the test of time, as many people know of them or have used them at some point. Having a few universal tools available reduces the learning curve and ease of implementation.
Canva: Canva is a versatile graphic design tool that simplifies the process of creating eye-catching visuals for your online business. With its extensive library of templates, fonts, and graphics, even those without design experience can produce professional-looking graphics for social media, blog posts, presentations, and more.
Tip: Customize Canvas templates to match your brand's color scheme and style. Create branded templates for consistent visual identity across your online platforms. Also, Canva is an excellent team use tool, allowing for simplified sharing and communicating creative concepts and designs.
Trello: Trello is a popular project management tool that organizes creative projects. It uses boards, lists, and cards to help you track tasks, set deadlines, and collaborate seamlessly with your team. Visualize your workflow and progress at a glance, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.
Tip: Create different boards for different projects or stages of your creative process. Use labels and checklists to break down complex tasks into manageable steps, and leverage Trello's integration options to connect it with other tools in your workflow. And, with its mobile app, it allows you to add notes to boards on the fly easily.
Google Docs: Collaborative document editing is effortless with Google Docs and Sheets. This cloud-based tool allows you and your team to work together in real time, making it ideal for content creation, drafting blog posts, writing copy, and more. The built-in commenting and suggestion features facilitate efficient feedback and revision processes.
Tip: Use Google Docs and Sheets to allow for ease of collaboration. Assign tasks to team members and track progress directly within the document, ensuring everyone is on the same page.
Running an online business takes many tools to make everything come together seamlessly. And, if you're like me, you know the importance of having the right tools to move your business forward is essential. From streamlining your processes to boosting productivity is what the right tools can do for any business. There are many excellent tools; incorporating the right tools allows you to manage your systems and elevate your online business to the next level.
