Good morning and welcome to the Monday morning marketing podcast, I'm Esther.
And I'm Melanie.
And today we're talking about top tools we can't live without. What's your number one, Melanie, what tool can you not live without in your business?
It's actually a relatively new tool to me because I didn't really need it, to be honest, up until about a year ago,
you didn't need it or you didn't think you needed it?
Well, no, I didn't. I don't think I actually needed it. But now it is Google Calendar. It is my walking brain.
Yeah. Yeah, mine too. If it's not in the calendar, it doesn't happen. Pretty much does not happen. And even though we're both iOS users, we're both iPhone users. It would still be Google Calendar rather than, you know, any of the other ones that I would have. And the notifications that arrive are brilliant.
It's easier isn't? I can give access to my husband so he can see what's going on as well. And you and I, we've got our calendars coordinated for this podcast attached to our business profile as well. So we can see when things mix up between the Monday morning marketing podcast and our current businesses.
Yeah, yeah. So it keeps us it keeps us on track. And it also for me, it integrates with my online booking system so that people can slot into where I have spaces rather than going. "Are you free at that time?" "No, I'm not. Are you free at this time?" "No, I'm not." So it just helps with the whole coordination of that. But that is a good part of Google Drive and the whole system of Google Drive is just necessary.
Yeah, we're not we're not being sponsored, by the way, by Google or any of the tools we're mentioning today.
No, definitely not. But if they would like to reach out, you know, we're always open to to talk to people. But yeah, Google Drive, you can fill in the information and then you don't even have to email it across to anybody. They automatically get the updates on it. They automatically, you know, if you have them added to that, whether it's a doc, a spreadsheet, a PowerPoint, any of those, it's just magic.
Now, you did make a point in there of an appointment system. Would that be one of your absolute desired apps and tools?
Oh, yes. I have it set up with Calendar Hero. There are other ones out there like Calendly and Acuity. That's the other one that I keep forgetting. But yeah, we have it set up with Calendar Hero and it's great that just it becomes automated that they click a link, choose a time, you get notified, they get a reminder, it all flows. It's just a matter of getting it set up and then it's just automated.
Yeah. So mine is actually attached as well to Google Calendar. So as well as people's birthdays, you know each other's actual calendars as well for the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. But the other one I could genuinely not live without, and I use it surprisingly often is the bitly link.
Oh really.
Yeah. I used to bitly a lot.
OK, so what do you use it for. What's it good for.
Well, I use it mostly for the Monday morning marketing podcast because it's a ridiculously long URL on Anchor or Spotify.
It really is.
I've been using it for years, my blogs or any articles I've shared and Irish tech news. And it's just a way of measuring, you know, who's opened it, where and what countries and which platforms that they've actually discovered the world that they've opened as well. Was it on Twitter, on Facebook and Instagram. And especially just a free version is being massively useful.
And do you find that even more useful than going into your Google analytics and your Twitter analytics and Facebook and all the other analytics,
It's just faster. But, you know, it's I guess is what I've got used to as well. There'll be other ones that people are absolutely, completely and totally used to as well, and it's no bother to them. So what would be your next most popular app or tool?
The one that I use daily and I use it constantly because it's where we have our team, all the tasks that we have to do with you and I with the Monday morning marketing podcast, all the topics that we have coming up is Infinity. Yeah. So it's it's like Trello, Asana, those tools money.com
We should use Monday.com shouldn't we that would make more sense!
Well, they should sponsor us.
Yeah. Monday.com - sponsor us.
But it's it's great. You can have it in a kanban board. You can have it in a calendar format. You can change all the different formats and you can have it all. All your information in the one place you can put in your links, your images, your videos, everything in that one place, and it's just brilliant and you can set up different boards so you can access.
So you've got a really large Infinity board, but I'm only one part of it because it's only for the Monday morning marketing podcast. But any projects that you run either in Northern Ireland or overseas, you've got separate boards for those as well. So it really is a whopping great big product.
Yeah. And we can add other people to it. So if we have a client that is wanting to go through, you know, what has to be done, what is being done, what has been reviewed and what is finished, then they can be added to those boards as well and they can see how the progress is going through for, say, web design or, you know, anything that we're doing for them.
Very similar to what Ellie, do you remember we did that podcast with Ellie Clogher a while back the VA and she was telling us she uses a similar platform for the same sort of thing for clients or for partners.
Yeah, yeah. I think that was Trello that she's using. So what else?
Well, same sort of thing. I use Slack for my colleagues at Irish Tech News. That would be a team channel, if you like. But Missing lettr is an absolute gift. Thanks to Joanne Sweeney. She mentioned it years ago in a podcast, believe it or not, and also sounds interesting. Check out that capability. And within a couple of weeks I was signed up. It's an absolutely essential tool for anybody who blogs on a regular basis and wants to share content on a regular basis. It does it for you. You can schedule a month, six weeks, three months or even up to a whole year. You have to fill out the content if you're using something like a podcast. But if you've got blogging, it will take excerpts from your blog and any images that you're sharing as well and will do it for you. You just have to go over it and make sure it's all making sense.
Yeah, and you put us onto that as well. It was because of you that we started using it and now they have a curate section as well, that you can pull information over from other people and use that and share it out to your audience as well. Just going back, you mentioned Slack there for our team chats. We would use Lark and with Lark. Yeah, it's great to it's you can also have with Lark, you can have video calls, you can have a calendar inside Lark, you can attach your Google calendar.
So how do you spell Lark?
L-A-R-K Yeah. So it's really good. And again you can have the different chats with different people, you can have a full group chat and it's really, really good as well. And well that one's free. And I know Slack's free up to a certain point.
To a certain point. Yeah. You know, it doesn't we don't need massive chats. No. So my next favourite app or tool would be Canva. It's the cheapest and most productive way to make imagery using a template, template based platform that's even free. But I'll be honest with you, the paid for is actually worth doing. Last checked, it was around just over one hundred euro, but obviously with different versions, different pricings overseas. And honestly, it's totally changed my productivity by using the pro version of Canva. And I just like the fact that you can also share folders, you can open up other people's shared folders, you know, that have made public access. You can add teams again to the pro version. And these days you can even schedule directly from Canva and present. You can present a full blown online presentation directly from Canva as well, which is a great add on.
Wow. And another thing, just as you mentioned, Canva there, another platform that is you're able to share from Canva is with Agorapulse.
Yes, that's right. That's recent. Well, there's a couple of months back now, but it's a relatively recent update. And previously you'd have to create your product to create your imagery and then you put it into your laptop or your phone and then share it from there. But now you can actually do it inside Agorapulse as well, which is yet another tool that we use. But we have to be honest here. We we would definitely be using it because we're both brand ambassadors.
Yes. But it is amazing if they do recommend that you can use if you can use that, you can use it at night. So we've used with. Talked about the fun stuff we've talked about, like fun software, like for communicating, for designing and stuff. What about the boring invoices and finance ones?
There's so many
There really are.
And it really depend on what your time and ability and connectivity, because if you've got an e-commerce website, there are some that are better than others. So that will help with stock taking and ordering and purchasing and that sort of stuff. But I don't have that, so I didn't have an e-commerce website to that extent anyway. So I have Bullet HQ, which is available over here, as is available pretty much globally. But you have to have a look at the pricing packages it does cost. It's not free, but I would consider myself numerically dyslexic. So I need something that is kind of gentle and allows for stupid and guides you through it,
guide you through it.
Totally. Bullet HQ and Bullet HQ Help. Again we're not sponsored by them guys, but Bullet HQ Help are really good. So I've got to say I would I've been using them for years now. There have been others that have cropped up, that people suggested, but I'm loath to kind of change now.
We used to use we have WaveApps, but they are focussing more on just North America, Canada and USA. So if you're in that vicinity, definitely check out WaveApps and we've had to move across to Deskera. So because, well, with WaveApps used to be able to just put the invoice in, connect it up to your stripe account and people could have paid you directly by their debit or credit card without having any international bank transfers and things like that. But now they are focussing only on the North American industry. So for Europe, they have taken away that option of people paying by card. So we moved. Yeah, I know. It was really. And I loved it. It was really, really easy. And I could have given access to my accountant and everything. It was super handy. But so we're in the process of changing over. And it is it is one of those things that once you get the right software, just stick with it, stick with it
Until they change the boundary lines anyway.
Yeah, but it's it's one of those things that if you're you know, if you get to a software early enough and you pay, you know, you're paying say that the smallest amount or you're paying, you know, sort of they call it grandfathering where you are one of the founders of, or the founding users of these softwares. Then usually they never increase your price, or not much. But you still get all the add ons and all the additions and everything that they are, you know, working on in the background. And you can help format those as well by saying, "Oh, we'd really like to see this in it" and they'll take you into consideration. Whereas some of these bigger guys that have been around for years and years and years and have taken over the market, they're not as open to suggestions as to what can be added to the app or the software.
You just reminded me of something, actually. So I'm going to move away from the boring apps just briefly, because it was one tool that you reminded me of, because I got there very early on at the very beginning, certainly within the first year or two. And that's Post Planner. Such a great tool. I don't massively like change, I'll be honest with you. And the change that they made to the way it's displayed on your laptop is vast. It looks like there's loads of little footballs over your screen now. It is taken some change, you know, for me to learn to adapt to it. But you'd still be my go to tool for finding content that's relevant, current, that's kind of hip, really, you know, kind of hip content. My God, I'm so old! And but it is, again, a paid for tool. But I wouldn't be without Post Planner. It's something I always budget for every year.
Exactly. If if it's a tool or a piece of software that will be useful for you to grow your business, it is worth every penny.
So if it can save your time. Yes. Or if can save you money, then it's worth doing. I do appreciate that not everybody who's listening will have the budget for these at the moment. But definitely look at the pricing structures now and it'll give you an idea of what you can afford maybe this time next year.
Yeah, and definitely think of it more as an investment rather than an expense, because you don't want to have to be changing platforms and changing software every couple of years. It does get a bit messy. Just on a closing note, then, Melanie. For long distance telephone calls, would you use Zoom or would you use something else?
Honestly, I'm so "zoomed out",, I just couldn't fathom doing it. And this morning, actually, I was doing a Google Meet and it feels so foreign for me to do a Google Meet. So I tend to use WhatsApp because that helps me with international calls. So over the last couple of weeks, I've spoken to Germany, I've spoken to the US a couple of times and the UK quite a few times. And it's just really, really handy. And you got the WhatsApp business. So it still looks like an official channel of your brand and it saves you bomb.
Yeah. Yeah, that's. Well, where can we go from there?
Well, I think we've done what we said we were trying to do is give people a few ideas. I mean, these are tools that we have picked up and used over the years. There's lots and lots of others. And these are what suits us. So these may not necessarily suit you. Do give them a look. And for some of them, myself and Esther do have affiliate links. So you're welcome to contact us and see what affiliate links we have available and we can arrange for demos and instruction on several of them as well. So if you find yourself stuck on any of them, do let us know. But yeah, we were just trying to be helpful. We're trying to give back because, you know, an awful lot of people have given their time over the years to help us set up our business. And that's all we want to do. We just want to help you guys
Exactly like Melanie says, if you do have any questions, do reach out to us. You can find us in all our social media platforms and on our website, the Monday morning marketing.com. Have a good day, guys. Talk to you soon.
Bye.