The right ones turn repetitive tasks into one-click shortcuts and cut down on the constant tab-switching that wrecks your focus. The problem? With hundreds of thousands of options in the Chrome Web Store, many of them aren’t worth your time.

That’s why we narrowed it down to 17 must-have Chrome extensions for marketers that help you work faster and create better content. We vetted each one to ensure it’s active, well-rated (3.7 stars or higher), and genuinely valuable for the day-to-day work of content marketing.

1. Evernote Web Clipper — 4.7 stars

Best for: Saving research and inspiration without losing track

As a content marketer, you’re always stumbling across ideas worth saving: articles, images, even full web pages. Evernote Web Clipper lets you capture them in one click and organize everything with tags, highlights, and AI-assisted notes. It’s your digital swipe file, keeping research and inspiration close at hand whenever you need it.

2. Todoist — 4.7 stars

Best for: Managing editorial calendars and marketing to-dos

Content marketing never happens in a straight line. You’ve got campaigns, deadlines, and a dozen side tasks competing for attention. Todoist keeps it all organized with color-coded lists, reminders, and AI-powered scheduling so you never miss a beat. It’s your all-in-one task manager for staying on top of projects across every device.

3. CoSchedule — 4.7 stars

Best for: Keeping your publishing schedule consistent

Staying consistent with content is one of the hardest parts of marketing. The CoSchedule extension lets you drop posts straight into your content calendar, shuffle your schedule when plans change, and even test headlines with AI insights. It’s a simple way to keep campaigns on track and content flowing smoothly from your browser.

4. Grammarly — 4.5 stars

Best for: Polishing copy before it goes live

Nothing kills credibility faster than sloppy writing. Grammarly’s extension goes way beyond spellcheck, giving you AI-powered tone adjustments, clarity improvements, and consistency checks. Whether it’s a blog post, ad copy, or a quick social update, Grammarly helps you make sure everything you publish is clear, professional, and ready to impress.

5. Loom — 4.6 stars

Best for: Explaining ideas faster than email ever could

Explaining feedback over email often creates more confusion than clarity. Loom lets you record quick videos and screen shares to walk teammates through your ideas, then share a link instantly. It even generates AI-powered transcripts and summaries, so everyone stays aligned. It’s perfect for async collaboration, creative direction, and faster feedback on drafts.

6. Bitly — 3.7 stars

Best for: Tracking link performance

Links are the backbone of every campaign, but long, messy URLs don’t inspire clicks. With Bitly, you can shorten and brand links in one click and track how they perform across channels. It’s an easy way to clean up your content and get quick insights into what’s driving engagement.

7. HubSpot Sales Tracker — 4.4 stars

Best for: Seeing which content resonates

Publishing content is one thing; seeing if it’s working is another. HubSpot’s Chrome extension sends you instant alerts when emails are opened, so you know what’s getting traction, right from your Gmail inbox. It’s a simple way to see which subject lines and content spark interest, so you can double down on what works.

8. Majestic Backlink Analyzer — 4.1 stars

Best for: Auditing backlinks quickly

Backlinks fuel SEO, but digging through reports takes time. Majestic Backlink Analyzer puts backlink data right in your browser, showing you profiles, anchor text, and link counts instantly. Whether you’re auditing your own site or sizing up competitors, it’s one of the best Chrome extensions for gauging authority without breaking your flow.

9. LastPass  — 4.3 stars

Best for: Managing multiple logins

Between analytics, publishing tools, and client platforms, marketers handle a ridiculous number of logins. LastPass remembers them for you and autofills credentials securely, so you don’t waste time hunting passwords. It’s peace of mind for your whole team — and one less thing standing between you and your content marketing efforts.

10. Keywords Everywhere — 4.5 stars

Best for: Quick keyword research

Strong content starts with smart keyword planning, and Keywords Everywhere puts the data right where you search. See volume, CPC, and competition inside Google, YouTube, and more. It’s an essential tool for content ideation, helping you uncover opportunities and plan SEO-driven campaigns without switching between platforms.

11. GrowthBar — 4.6 stars

Best for: AI-powered content outlines

If you want to create content that ranks, GrowthBar brings SEO insights straight into your browser. Research keywords, analyze competitors, and generate outlines or even first drafts in minutes. With optimization scores, readability checks, and keyword suggestions as you write, it helps you publish SEO-friendly content faster.

12. Workona — 4.7 stars

Best for: Organizing tabs by project

Managing multiple campaigns often means drowning in tabs. Workona organizes everything into dedicated workspaces, so you can keep project links, resources, and cloud docs in one place. It autosaves tabs, syncs across devices, and even lets you share spaces with teammates, making it one of the best free Chrome extensions for marketers.

13. OneTab — 4.5 stars

Best for: Reducing browser clutter

Too many open tabs can slow everything down. OneTab collapses them into a single, organized list to free up memory and reduce distractions. You can group, restore, or share tabs when needed, making it a simple way to keep research and campaign resources under control without overloading your browser.

14. Adobe Acrobat — 4.4 stars

Best for: Editing and sharing PDFs

Reviewing PDFs is part of the job, and the Adobe Acrobat Chrome extension makes it seamless. Beyond viewing, you can annotate, sign, and fill forms directly in Chrome. It also converts webpages to PDFs and integrates with cloud storage, making feedback loops and document workflows faster and less clunky.

15. Zoom — 3.9 stars

Best for: Scheduling meetings in seconds

Managing calls doesn’t have to mean juggling apps. The Zoom extension integrates with Google Calendar so you can create or join meetings without leaving your browser. It auto-generates links, syncs details, and lets you set passcodes or waiting rooms, making it easy to connect with one click.

16. Otter.ai — 4.1 stars

Best for: Automatic meeting notes

Manual note-taking is a distraction during calls. Otter.ai’s assistant, OtterPilot, joins your Google Meet or Zoom sessions to record, transcribe, and create summaries with action items. You can even capture audio from browser videos, turning conversations and content into organized, searchable notes you can use later.

17. Hunter.io — 4.7 stars

Best for: Finding outreach contacts fast

Promoting content means more than hitting publish. You need the right connections to get eyes on your work. Hunter.io makes that easier by pulling verified email addresses from any website, so you can quickly build lists for outreach, partnerships, or link building. It’s a straightforward way to extend your reach without wasting hours hunting down contacts.

Work Smarter With the Right Chrome Extensions

There you have it — 17 Chrome extensions for marketers that will actually reduce busy work and keep you focused on what matters: creating better content.

If you want to take your marketing support to the next level, ClearVoice has you covered. Our content creation services and expert team can help fuel your brand’s success. Connect with a content specialist today to get started.

The post 17 Essential Chrome Extensions Every Marketer Should Use appeared first on ClearVoice.

The right marketing WordPress plugins make it easier.

Below, you’ll find our top picks — from content to SEO plugins — that will simplify your days and improve your results. Each one has at least four stars and is regularly updated to help you manage, optimize, and grow your site.

1. OneSignal: Best plugin for browser-based notifications

Rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars

Keep ’em coming back for more. OneSignal allows you to show notification opt-ins when people visit your website. This useful tool promotes engagement, improves conversion, and helps retain and build trust with your users.

Visitors to your site can opt in for desktop or phone push notifications, giving them instant access to your content as it is created. Your users will never forget you with frequent notifications, even after they’ve left your website.

Key features

• Segment by behavior, language, or custom attributes
• Smooth UX = better retention
• Real-time analytics on opens, clicks, and conversions
• Reliable support when you need it
• Allows for A/B testing

2. Yoast: Best SEO plugin to improve your website content

Rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars

Optimizing your website for traditional SEO, from metadata to relevant keywords, remains an essential part of any marketer’s job. As one of the best SEO plugins for WordPress, Yoast is a must-have tool throughout the content creation process.

Yoast helps you naturally include primary and secondary keywords without stuffing. The plugin will also remind you to add meta descriptions, title tags, and image alt text, and guide you on keyword usage for each element. The built-in guidance of Yoast is what makes this tool so helpful.

Key features

• Updated every two weeks
• Available in 58+ languages
• AI tools in Premium plans
• Free to install
• Real-time writing feedback
• Integrates with WooCommerce and other CMS

3. Smush Image Optimization: Best image loading & optimization plugin

Rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars

To keep your site fast, you need to optimize, resize, convert, and compress images — and Smush Image Optimization makes that process effortless. Smush automatically compresses images to the optimal size, removing unnecessary data while maintaining sharpness and high quality on your site.

With this marketing plugin, your pages will load faster on both mobile and desktop, so your users get a better user experience (and you never have to worry about manually resizing and compressing images again).

Key features

• Bulk optimization
• Lossless image compression
• Pro version benefits
• Incorrect image size detection
• No monthly limits
• Backup and restore
• 8x faster image processing

4. Schema: Best plugin for creating standout search results

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Want your content to stand out in search results? Schema helps you add structured data to your pages so search engines better understand your content — and, when eligible, display rich results (also called rich snippets). These enhanced search listings can showcase features such as ratings, prices, events, recipes, videos, and more, making your pages more visually appealing and informative.

The result: higher visibility, better click-through rates (CTR), and stronger SEO performance. The Schema SEO plugin integrates seamlessly with WordPress and works with Google, Bing, Yahoo, and even Facebook to deliver richer previews that attract the right audience.

Key features

• Yoast SEO compatible
• Easy implementation
• Supports multiple schema types
• Validation with Google Structured Data Tool
• Lightweight and fast

5. Brevo: Best AI plugin for customer communication flows

Rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars

The Brevo plugin is a tool that helps your marketing team improve omnichannel communication with your target audience. It’s built to promote and distribute content through email, SMS, WhatsApp, and chat. Brevo makes it simple to segment your audience, trigger email campaigns, and track performance, allowing you to learn more about what your audience loves — from newsletters and blog posts to gated content.

With deep WooCommerce integration, GDPR compliance, and reliable deliverability, this marketing plugin combines campaign management, automation, and customer data into a single platform. The benefits include greater content reach and understanding, allowing you to target and craft content that generates traffic, engagement, and results.

Key features

• Manage and track email, SMS, WhatsApp, push, and ads
• Customizable forms and gamified popups
• Advanced list management and segmentation
• Marketing automation with visual workflow builder
• E-commerce integration
• Real-time performance analytics

6. Everest Forms: Best full-featured WordPress form-builder plugin

Rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars

Everest Forms is a handy content plugin for WordPress that lets you create custom forms for contact, surveys, quizzes, applications, and even payments without coding or design skills.

It’s great for capturing newsletter signups, lead data, and customer feedback right on your site. Use the insights you gather to understand your audience and publish higher-converting content.

Key features

• Mobile-responsive
• File and image uploads for easy input
• Customizable fonts, colors, and layouts
• Spam protection with CAPTCHA and Akismet
• Wide integrations with 30+ platforms

7. Blog2Social: Best social media marketing plugin

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Blog2Social lets you automate social media promotion directly from WordPress, saving you time and effort. With just a few clicks, you can create, customize, schedule, and share content across social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Instagram, Pinterest, and more.

It’s especially helpful for cross-promoting blog posts, videos, and evergreen content at the ideal times for each platform. This content marketing plugin lets you customize hashtags, images, captions, and post formats for each network to maximize engagement and maintain brand consistency.

Key features

• Auto-post to 20+ networks
• Built-in social media calendar
• Custom hashtags, mentions, images, GIFs, and emojis
• Share and schedule video posts
• Track performance with UTM links
• Optimize social meta tags

8. Related Posts for WordPress: Best plugin to boost engagement

Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars

The Related Posts plugin improves user experience and SEO by strengthening your internal linking. It scans your content and automatically links to relevant related posts, helping reduce bounce rates and keep visitors engaged, all without slowing down your site.

Smart links are based on your content structure, with priority given to your most important pages. Plus, you stay in control: customize links, add widgets, or use shortcodes for flexible placement.

Key features

• One-click setup
• Smart AI matching
• Full manual control
• Cross-post type support
• Shortcode ready
• Widget support

9. Nelio A/B Testing: Best AI-enhanced testing plugin

Rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars

Nelio A/B Testing makes it easy to test and optimize almost anything on your WordPress site — from headlines and CTAs to landing pages, product pages, and even menus. The built-in AI suggests what to test and provides ready-made templates, allowing you to launch experiments faster.

Heatmaps and detailed reports show exactly where visitors click, scroll, and drop off, so you get clear insights for improving conversions and user experience. It also integrates seamlessly with popular page builders, allowing you to run tests without breaking your design or slowing down your site.

Key features

• AI testing suggestions and templates for faster setup
• Test pages, posts, products, menus, CSS, or JavaScript
• Scans your entire site, historical test data, sales stats, and even Google Analytics insights
• Easy-to-understand results for goal-setting
• GDPR-compliant for privacy

10. Super Progressive Web Apps: Best mobile app plugin for WordPress sites

Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars

The Super Progressive Web Apps (SPWA) WordPress plugin allows you to turn your website into a “mobile app” that is accessible from the home screen of a mobile device — without having to edit your code.

SPWA is a WordPress plugin that prompts your site visitors to save your website to their home screen as an app. Users can revisit your site by launching the app directly from their smartphone’s home screen, and then use the interface to interact with your website.

You also have the option to cache your site pages on their mobile phone, allowing them to revisit your pages even when they’re offline. Sites with a heavy content focus will find that this plugin is the go-to tool for increasing repeat site traffic.

Key features

• Translated into 13 languages
• Regular updates
• Fast loading times
• Easy website-to-app transition
• User-friendly interface
• Offline page access
• Customizable splash screen

Power Your Content Strategy With Marketing WordPress Plugins

The right marketing WordPress plugins don’t just make your life easier — they help you work smarter, improve user experience, and get more ROI from every piece of content.

And if you want to take things even further, ClearVoice can help. Our content experts can handle everything from strategy and creation to optimization and editing. Connect with a content specialist today to learn more.

The post The 10 Best Marketing WordPress Plugins for Content Success appeared first on ClearVoice.

The challenge? Finding the right one to use. Try googling the term “link shorteners,” and you’ll find yourself staring at millions of hits.

But don’t despair. We made your job easier by examining the best link shorteners, explaining their purpose, and weighing their advantages and disadvantages so you can make the right choice for your team.

Why link shorteners?

Because many URL links are long-winded.

Put another way, quality content consists of well-thought-out, well-designed, and well-written information that

solves a reader’s problem, answers their questions, and looks clean and organized.

Longer, wordier blog post and article URLs are necessary for SEO purposes. But those lengthy URLs can also generate a host of problems when shared in emails, on websites, or through social media. Short links are also viewed as more trustworthy and less “spammy.”

Enter link shortener tools, which can help you clean up those lengthy, alphanumeric web addresses. More advanced link management platforms also provide link tracking, QR code generators, and branded links.

Let’s take a closer look at four of the higher-rated URL shorteners.

1. Bitly: Ranked 4.7 out of 5 stars

Bitly tends to be the first tool marketing experts think of in their search for an ideal URL shortener. Around since 2008, Bitly is super-easy to use and provides marketers with many features.

Pros: Bitly quickly allows you to create custom and encrypted short links, redirect links, and review data and analytics based on clicks and organic shares. It also integrates well with other tools and apps, such as social media and digital marketing dashboards, including HubSpot and Marketo. Additionally, the link platform successfully partners with Google Analytics and Marketo Engage, which is part of Adobe.

Cons: Bitly’s free plan is somewhat anemic. It allows you five short links, two QR codes, and access to only two custom landing pages a month. Some users find even the higher-price tiers limiting, requiring other tools to generate more insights.

Best for: Small to medium-sized businesses and smaller marketing teams that require powerful analytics along with link shortening abilities. If you need something more robust, like link management, data and analytics, or more, a paid plan is necessary.

Pricing plans:

• Core: $10 a month for 100 links
• Growth: $29 a month for 500 links
• Premium: $199 a month for 3,000 links
• Custom/Enterprise: Bitly offers a customized plan complete with advanced analytics, integrations, and security. Contact the company for a quote.

2. TinyURL: Ranked 4.5 out of 5 stars

Similar to Bitly, TinyURL has been around for a couple of decades. However, this link shortener platform isn’t a Bitly alternative. Rather, TinyURL is well-regarded for its simplicity, quickness, ease of use, and short learning curve.

Pros: Here’s how easy TinyURL is to use: Visit the website, enter your long link into the indicated box, and click the “Shorten URL” button. That’s it. You can also create custom links without an account (though creating an account helps you keep track of your full link history). If you need more, like browser extensions or a preview of custom links, TinyURL’s paid plans offer those features.

Cons: TinyURL offers limited tools, even with its payment plans. Collaboration features are limited, the platform doesn’t provide a basic user interface, and it offers limited analytics and tracking. Furthermore, TinyURL doesn’t link directly with other marketing platforms and requires a manual process to do so.

Best for: This no-frills tool is perfect for individual users or small businesses that require link-shortening simplicity.

Pricing:

• Free: 30 branded links, with a link shortener limit of 100 (must open an account to take advantage)
• Pro: $9.99 a month for 500 links with unlimited trackable clicks and 10,000 branded links
• Bulk 100K: $99 a month for 100,000 links and up to 100,000 clicks
• Enterprise: If you need more custom solutions and customer support, TinyURL provides tailor-made plans that offer more features. Contact TinyURL support for more information.

3. Rebrandly: Ranked 4.48 stars out of 5

The aptly named Rebrandly has a great reputation for its branded links and other powerful features, giving you a high level of control over your company’s image, SEO, and marketing efforts.

Pros: Rebrandly offers integration with Urchin Tracking Module (UTM), allowing you to track your digital campaign’s effectiveness. This URL shortener platform provides custom domains to assist with link branding, while comprehensive link analytics generate valuable information about click-throughs, audience engagement, conversions, and more. An added plus is that Rebrandly works well with several marketing platforms and partners nicely with Google Analytics, Zapier, and various social media platforms.

Cons: Many of Rebrandly’s more robust features are restricted to higher-priced plans. Some users have also complained about a l

ack of reporting features, while others cite a poor user interface and customer service issues.

Best for: Teams requiring custom, branded links and marketing platform integration to increase their visibility and image.

Pricing:

• Free: 10 links, 10 QR codes, and one custom domain per month
• Essentials: $13 for 250 links, 250 QR codes, and two custom domains per month
• Professional: $32 for 1,500 links, 1,500 QR codes, and three custom domains per month
• Growth: $99 for 3,500 links, 3,500 QR codes, and 10 custom domains per month
• Enterprise: If you require dedicated support, additional links, unlimited domains, and other advanced options, Rebrandly can customize a program tailored to your needs.

4. Short.io: Ranked 4.2 stars out of 5

Short.io is a multipurpose URL shortener noted for simplifying links while boosting brand recognition. The software is also applauded for its dynamic tracking abilities and superior domain customization.

Pros: Short.io offers multiple features, including custom short links, API accessibility (a must for developers), in-depth analytics, and collaboration tools. The platform provides you with plenty of data, including location, audience engagement, devices used, and clicks and shares. Another benefit is that Short.io plays nicely with other software, like Google Analytics, Zapier, and Slack.

Cons: Short.io requires a complicated setup and a difficult learning curve, especially for those who haven’t used link shortener platforms before. Despite its robust features, poor ease-of-use dragged down Short.io’s ranking. Some users also complain about slow loading times when filtering link searches and a lack of customizable features compared with other platforms.

Best for: Developers and marketing teams looking for advanced targeting analytics and in-depth data.

Pricing:

• Free: 1,000 branded links and five custom domains per month
• Hobby: $5 for 2,500 branded links and seven custom domains per month
• Pro: $18 for unlimited branded links and 10 custom domains per month
• Team: $48 for unlimited branded links and 50 custom domains per month
• Enterprise: $148 for unlimited branded links and custom domains per month

All paid tiers offer free trials.

Selecting the Best Link Shortener

Finding the right link shorteners depends on your content team’s needs. TinyURL is a straightforward tool, while its cousins Bitly, Rebrandly, and Short.io provide robust features to aid with marketing and branding. When researching link management tools, consider ease of setup, required data needs, QR code requirements, and needed integrations with other platforms.

In addition to link shorteners, high-quality content and data-driven SEO strategies help drive audience engagement and search engine page rankings. ClearVoice’s group of experienced, proven content producers, editors, and strategists can help enhance your brand, increase domain authority, and generate quality leads for conversions. Get in touch to learn more about how ClearVoice can be a viable partner in your marketing strategies.

The post Best Link Shorteners Reviewed: Bitly vs. TinyURL vs. BL.INK appeared first on ClearVoice.

Even with a variety of different marketing channels and mediums today, including social media and SMS marketing, email is still one of the most popular ways for marketers to reach their audiences and customers. However, email marketing itself as a medium has changed. It has evolved from “old school” batch email sends to smaller, segmented, personalized, and trigger sends.

Regardless of whether you stick with one type of email marketing method or use them interchangeably, depending on your audience, sector, or goal for sending the email in the first place, there’s an email marketing tool for that.

The 3 Best Email Marketing Tools

Email marketing tools allow you to send professional emails using pre-designed templates, track and analyze clicks and opens, and easily create drip campaigns. Here are some top email marketing tools to best support your efforts.

1. Mailchimp

An iconic tool in the world of email marketing, Mailchimp is almost always included in the consideration set for small- to medium-sized businesses looking for an email-sending tool. If you’re looking for an easy tool to set up targeted and triggered email campaigns, Mailchimp just became your new best friend.

As you might guess, Mailchimp offers a wide range of functionality that allows marketers and businesses to send big-batch emails as well as a number of classic email triggers, providing a level of agility and best-of-both-worlds.

Mailchimp is also a great option for new, small agencies, marketing teams, or freelancers just getting started with email marketing. It is easy to set up, get off the ground, and get teams off and running with their email marketing.

The best part? Marketers and businesses can take advantage of sending different types of emails and all the functionality needed to do so, but for a fraction of the cost. You can schedule mass and smaller targeted emails based on different lists and audience segments. Mailchimp allows you to get super granular with your audience segments, allowing flexibility for both email marketing approaches.

2. HubSpot

HubSpot offers a ton of features and functionality to support all things email marketing. From building out large, automated email nurture workflows, to sending one-time big-batch email sends, right down to tracking email activity, HubSpot continues to be a leader in marketing automation.

In fact, largely known for its highly robust sales and marketing platforms, HubSpot was the first to offer a plugin for Gmail. This email plugin allows users to track and log emails, receive desktop notifications, and capture all email activity in HubSpot’s CRM.

Regarding setting up automated email triggers, HubSpot offers guides with different types of templates and examples to help even email marketing novices set up an awesome automated campaign.

The best part? After building out your automated email workflow and trigger criteria, you can track all email activity, such as opens, clicks, and responses, right in the HubSpot dashboard, and in real time. Furthermore, all activity is stored in your HubSpot CRM for you to review later.

To access any email activity or history recorded with a specific contact, simply log into your HubSpot dashboard, navigate to “Contacts,” and search for the contact’s first or last name. The individual’s contact card will show all the recorded activity, such as email opens, clicks, responses, etc.

3. Keap

Keap is another powerful email marketing tool that has existed for some time. Marketers and businesses love Keap for its long list of user-friendly features and the ability to streamline email marketing workflows with ease.

Like the other tools mentioned above, Keap allows users to send big-batch emails and set email triggers to send emails when a user completes an activity, task, or event. Completing these events can trigger a follow-up email send or even an automated SMS message to the user.

Determining Which Tool to Select

Regardless of your preferred email marketing method — big-batch emails, targeted and triggered emails, or a blend of the two — we highly recommend using an email marketing tool that supports both.

BONUS: At the risk of making things more complicated than they need to be, we’d like to recommend you explore one additional email platform: Sendy. We didn’t include this in the list above because Sendy requires a little more technical know-how; it’s an email platform software package you must install on your own server.

While getting started with Sendy is a bit more difficult, it can save you a lot of money and potentially be used as a white-label tool for marketing agencies. Sendy costs a one-time $69 fee for the software, and then an ongoing payment with Amazon for their email-sending service. Using Amazon’s SES platform to send emails costs only a few dollars a month for 10,000 subscribers, compared to MailChimp’s $79 (current pricing — this fluctuates a lot over time).

Different Types of Email Marketing

Now that we’ve looked at the best email marketing tools, let’s talk about the different types of email marketing available to you. As mentioned briefly above, email marketing has changed, multiplying into different types and methods.

For example, big-batch, mass email sends are still used as often as smaller, targeted sends. Choosing the best method depends on the audience sector and the marketer’s goal for each email send.

Let’s first take a deeper dive into the different types of email marketing approaches, how they work, and some best use cases.

Big-batch email sends

Big-batch email sends are what you might imagine: marketing messages sent to a large list of recipients at once by a company, business, or brand. This could include 10 recipients and up to 10,000 all at one time.

Some examples of big-batch emails include:

• Email newsletters
• Informational emails (such as memos or important updates)
• Random one-off emails

The goal of this type of email transmission is to get a message out to a large group of people or recipients at the same time.

Pros:

The biggest advantage of sending big-batch emails is that you can target one message to one large group of people, and all at one time. With the right tool, this email marketing approach is often quick and easy to set up, schedule, send, and pull results. You can then track the performance of your mass email send all at once to get a feel for what worked and what didn’t, rather than try and pin down, decipher, and analyze the results from smaller, segmented groups of email sends.

The biggest advantage here? Reaching a large audience all at one time.

Cons:

Although convenient and efficient, big-batch email sends might be hurting your business. Big-batch email sends are also classified as “old school,” and may not necessarily be the best way to approach your audience, especially if the goal of your email send is to nurture prospects or get them to buy into a subscription or product demo.

Smaller, targeted, and triggered email sends

Conversely, this email marketing approach targets smaller groups of recipients, often segmented according to specific criteria, such as geographic location, age group, interests, professional titles, and more.

Email marketing triggers aim to send a specific message that applies to that particular group or segment. This targeted approach is often more personalized and speaks to the recipient group’s specific needs, interests, or pain points to solve a problem, and provide a solution or recommendation.

Furthermore, with the power and advancement of AI today, email triggers are becoming more efficient. Now, you can set an email trigger to send an email based on a user’s or recipient’s behavior, such as clicking a link in a previous email, or visiting your website or app.

According to the Blueshift 2023 Cross-Channel Marketing Report, triggered email sends result in a 600 percent higher conversion rate than batch sends.

Pros:

There are many advantages to setting email triggers to send smaller and more targeted emails. In addition to providing your audience with a better user experience with a personalized message that actually “speaks” to them, triggered emails also provide far better results.

In fact, when compared with big-batch email sends trigger emails are a whopping 497 percent more effective in terms of higher click rates.

Cons:

Although targeted email triggers are much more effective, it can be time-consuming to ensure your email lists are segmented properly, create content or email copy for every different message and email send, and to also set up multiple email triggers per targeted group of recipients (depending on your nurture flows, of course).

Additionally, because email triggers rely on technology and automation, this requires using a specific tool to ensure this happens when it’s supposed to happen, and every time. Without the right tool, this can get complicated.

Yes, targeted email sends might require more planning, prep work, advanced technology, and overall effort, but the results are well worth their weight in gold.

Whichever tool you choose, make sure it adheres to the CAN-SPAM Act and other email rules and guidelines to keep your sender score high.

Final Thoughts

Now that we’ve reviewed the best email marketing tools, let’s talk about copy. ClearVoice’s expert freelancers can write persuasive promotional emails and engaging email newsletters for your business that will help you attract and retain customers year-round. Talk to a content specialist today to get started — we offer fully managed content creation services so you can focus on other areas of your business.

The post Email Marketing Tools Roundup: From Big-Batch to Targeted Transmissions appeared first on ClearVoice.

However, despite the concerns, risks, and worries shared by many traditional executives and leaders, remote work is… well… working.

In fact, a recent survey from the National Bureau of Economic Research shows that the remote workforce has nearly quadrupled to include 50 percent of U.S. workers. The truth is that remote work has opened up the door to a world of career possibilities. It creates jobs, sparks new business growth, and even shifts roles that drive more value to the organization and customer base.

The rise of the marketing technologist

Before we get too deep into this article, let’s first explain what the role of the marketing technologist is, and why it’s more important than ever in teamlancing models today.

According to an article published by the Harvard Business Review, marketing is quickly becoming a top technology-dependent business function. This means that technology and digital transformation are huge parts of this role.

A marketing technologist is also known as CMT, and wears many “hats,” which includes the following:

• Marketing strategist
• Technology leader
• Change agent
• Creative director
• A liaison between marketing and IT

The marketing technologist’s goal is to align marketing technology with overarching, high-level business goals, set the marketing vision, and also assist in developing new digital business models to accelerate the company’s competitive advantage.

This role also involves working with other departments and team members for content creation, pinpointing the right target audiences, and accurately tracking and analyzing crucial data related to KPIs, metrics, and high-level OKRs.

The rise of teamlancing

So, what is teamlancing? A teamlancing model is one that involves recruiting, allocating, and collaborating with a team of freelancers, each with their own individual skillset, specialty, and experience level to work on and deliver a project.

There are two ways to approach building a teamlancing model:

1. Individuals. Individual freelancers can work with a pool of different networked teams or freelancers, serving a different role in each, for any number of clients. In this approach, individuals “pitch” themselves as an individual expert. Individuals can also source various freelancers themselves to work on a project.
2. Teams. A team of freelancers can “pitch” their combined skillset and experience to clients, offering a varied skillset. This allows clients to maximize a team of specialized creative resources that are the right fit for the project.

Here are some primary benefits of teamlancing:

• Pulls together varied roles, specialties, and skillsets
• Builds comprehensive martech stack
• Involves creative collaboration with others to work on a project or toward an overarching goal.

Teamlancing goes far beyond simply filling a role or tasks and executing on it; it allows individuals to contribute creatively and collaborate with others in multiple, cross-functional disciplines — and remote work brings this all together to make it possible.

5 ways remote work facilitates teamlancing

So what does the marketing technologist role have to do with remote work? How does remote work facilitate and necessitate teamlancing models? Let’s put the two together.

As mentioned briefly above, the shift to remote work has made the marketing technologist role even more important, particularly in teamlancing models, and here are some reasons why:

1. Sparks new opportunities and job growth

Amidst a global crisis, the job market has found ways to adapt, innovate, and grow. Although remote work sparked a radical change in the way many workforces operated, it also opened the door for many new opportunities for many professionals through social media, word-of-mouth, and even freelance marketplaces.

2. Facilitates the talent hunt

The teamlancing model not only helps create new jobs for freelancers and independent professionals, but it also makes it easier for professionals to find jobs. The marketing technologist also has access to a large pool of talented, experienced, skilled professionals that have a lot to offer and contribute to a project or goal, regardless of geography. This means that marketing technologists are able to recruit and tap into other skilled and talented resources much easier and without limits.

3. Drives business agility and creativity

The teamlancing model itself is very agile. Freelance teams have the ability and flexibility to work their own schedules yet still rely on the social and creative support of other team members. This is a huge step up from working in traditional, siloed and isolated work environments.

Additionally, remote work environments also drive more business agility. Technology also allows freelance teams to position operations differently, fill specific skills gaps according to client and project needs, and also further embrace digital transformation.

This also allows marketing technologists and teams to keep up with topic trends, news, and shifts in the market easier. The marketing technologist can take an agile approach to content creation projects, for example. Implementing an agile workflow helps to increase the velocity and productivity of content creation activities, which allows marketers to deliver more content faster and more consistently.

And speaking of technology, this brings us to our next point…

4. Access to tech and talent

As briefly mentioned above, teamlancing business models and marketing technologists gain more access to talent and tech in remote work settings as they are no longer limited to the four walls of a traditional physical office setting.

Additionally, going beyond the remote work infrastructure itself, many teamlancing businesses have transformed the ways in which they deliver services to customers, such as via video conferencing and augmented reality.

5. Creates a culture of collaboration

The beauty of remote work is that it can be done from “virtually” anywhere. However, the true success of remote work is highly dependent on communication and collaboration. Many freelance teams rely on a variety of tech tools to streamline their operations and communication, such as Slack, Zoom, Dropbox, and Google Suite, just to name a few.

Furthermore, communication is important for building trust in remote team settings and also accountability. Therefore, the marketing technologist can hold regular virtual team meetings and check-ins for fostering communication, building trust, and ensuring accountability. Regardless of team members’ geographic locations, establishing primary connecting within the team and with the marketing technologist is critical for success.

For example, some freelance teams follow a communication plan that involves everyone sharing or publishing a Friday update on the top priorities and accomplishments for the week. Then, the team works together to outline a plan for the upcoming week. This is a great example of stellar team communication, project planning, and establishing accountability and transparency — and all without micromanaging.

Marketing technologists in teamlancing take action

All in all, the benefits of teamlancing are plentiful. Teamlancing encourages more professionalism, agility, accountability, and therefore provides higher-quality, productive, and more fulfilling work. Teamlancing models are iterative and can encourage creativity. They also allow marketers and marketing technologists to constantly create and experiment with new ideas, allowing businesses to deliver while also learning what worked and what didn’t in their experiments.

Because a large part of a marketing technologist’s role is to review and analyze data and strategize, this is a crucial role for helping to understand how teamlancing works and how to grow and scale the model.

Finally, one can clearly see how remote work can help facilitate creative teamlancing models and also make the marketing technologist role that much more important.

The post How Remote Working Is Changing the Marketing Technologist’s Role in Teamlancing appeared first on ClearVoice.

However, over the years, Google changed the rules of the SEO game, forcing companies and marketers to be more strategic about their SEO efforts. Additionally, marketing leadership has also lost sight of the importance of a strong SEO approach. As a result, many have adopted somewhat of a distorted view of how long it takes for a good SEO strategy to drive desired results.

The top 3 myths of traditional SEO approaches

Here are the top three myths to many marketing leadership approaches related to beliefs about SEO:

1. We should see results quickly.
2. The “SEO team” handles all our SEO well.
3. With the rise of social media, SEO will naturally happen and doesn’t need as much focus as it once did.

Let’s address and debunk them one at a time.

1. We should see results quickly.

There is a huge misconception that good SEO practices will boost results quickly. Most content marketers and SEO experts roll their eyes at this statement and would agree that marketing leaders are in serious denial when it comes to accepting how long a solid SEO strategy actually takes.

When asked “how long will SEO take?” (and to avoid answering this with “it depends…”), the cold, hard truth is that seeing results from an effective SEO strategy can take up to a year. The top three elements that determine how long SEO takes include the following:

• Competition — of course, the more competing webpages your company or brand is up against, the longer it will take for SEO. This is also industry-specific.
• The presence and number of inbound links — specifically the number of high-quality links to your website. The rate at which more websites link back to your site also matters.
• The content itself — it’s safe to say that most content marketers know that publishing high-quality content does wonders for SEO. Content that is value-driven and that solves a reader’s or visitor’s problem is considered top-performing content that ranks.

2. The “SEO Team” handles all our SEO well.

Sure, your SEO team might be following the strategy your company had mapped out. However, if your strategy doesn’t follow best SEO practices (such as the items mentioned above), then your SEO is only going to be as successful as the strategy in place that your SEO team is following. So, if that strategy incorporates some poor or outdated policies, then you are setting your SEO team up to fail.

The user experience

Additionally, the SEO team might understand how your company ranks against the competition, but it’s also important for them to understand the user’s experience with your website.

Not every SEO team is equipped with the proper knowledge and skillset to assess a website for UX. Therefore, depending on the nature of your agency or company, and your SEO team’s skillsets, you may need to recruit a UX expert to navigate your website and recommend improvements that will allow users to find and land on your site, and find the content that they are looking for.

SEO teams + non-SEO teams

Operations are another key element in the overall success of an SEO strategy, yet it is one that is often overlooked. SEO teams need to rely on or work closely with non-SEO teams to make optimization a success. This should be treated like a “partnership” in order to make a truly positive impact on SEO.

Furthermore, developing processes that foster the best practices, policies, and systems that are all designed to govern how SEO is handled and implemented (including change management) matters in the overall effectiveness of an SEO strategy.

Establish a governance process

It’s important for marketing leaders and experts to have a high-level view into the organization’s content processes. With multiple content contributors, it’s important to develop a governance process to review content, provide feedback, and ensure that it is in line with the organization’s tone, voice, values, and mission. This also ensures that all messaging and content creation efforts are consistent across the board.

3. With the rise of social media, SEO will naturally happen and doesn’t need as much focus as it once did.

The role of social media in an SEO strategy has been a debate for years. Some experts claim that social media has no impact on SEO rankings, whereas others believe that social media posting and presence can boost rankings.

In 2018, Hootsuite tested the SEO results of articles, both with and without social promotion, and discovered that posts with top social shares received an average 22 percent increase in engagement and rankings.

Here are some quick key findings:

• Links in social posts may or may not have an impact on SEO.
• Social profiles do have an impact on search results. (In fact, social media profiles often appear in the top search results for brands and key thought leaders or influencers.)
• In addition to using Google and Bing, users also search social media channels to search for keywords, products, and brands.

How to achieve long-term SEO success

So, now that we have debunked some of the common myths and flaws in SEO strategies, how do teams and companies achieve long-term SEO success? In addition to the tips and tactics mentioned above, agencies and companies can contribute to SEO differently by taking more of a team-centric approach.

Here are some examples:

• “Smarketing” — The concept of sales and marketing alignment (still commonly referred to as “smarketing”) is crucial. Sales helps Marketing to understand which terms, questions, and topics are discussed on calls and in emails with leads, prospects, and potential customers. These insights can help marketers improve targeting efforts.
• Customer support — Similar to Sales, Customer Support is focused more on customers’ pain points and the challenges they face. This can also help marketers determine what content to produce in order to address these issues.
• Executives — Executives are key stakeholders that need to feel like they are influencing the SEO strategy. This level of influence will ensure their buy-in over the long-term. They may also provide some helpful, high-level insights that can be leveraged in content and campaigns.

In addition to recognizing these key stakeholders and their crucial roles in an effective SEO strategy, they can also play a role in content creation. Furthermore, by forming an integrated network of professionals that span the organization and all contribute to content operations, the organization is not only able to leverage in-house resources for effective content ideation and creation, but also creating content that effectively meets stakeholder needs.

Mission-driven SEO: the humanistic approach

In addition to the notes above, we are also seeing a shift away from the tactical SEO approach to more of a humanistic approach. SEO is becoming more “mission-driven,” which means that Google is placing more emphasis on brands that are more empathetic to customers’ needs and challenges, and how the brand’s mission and values play a role in solving customers’ concerns.

Human-centered marketing is in, and mission-driven SEO is playing a huge role in it. This model fosters relationship-building between companies and customers to develop loyalty and trust. Furthermore, this approach to SEO and marketing goes above and beyond simply scheduling meetings, meeting customers’ needs, or closing deals; rather, this type of marketing ensures that the brand’s voice, values, and mission directly impact the customer.

Expanding beyond the SEO team

All in all, the overall effectiveness of an SEO strategy involves taking a completely different approach to SEO in the first place. More than ever, SEO involves more of a team-centered focus that comes from all areas of the organization. All parts of the organization are responsible for the effectiveness of an SEO strategy.

The post 3 Common SEO Misconceptions (and How to Achieve Long-Term Success) appeared first on ClearVoice.

Well, that was the goal…

For any professional who has worked inside an agency, he or she has likely witnessed a similar power struggle between the art director and copywriters. In the last several years, this two-way relationship has expanded into a “triumvirate,” which now includes a marketing technologist.

These three professionals need to work together to ensure their campaigns are well built, target the right audiences, and can be tracked and analyzed, all while providing the best bang for the buck.

In this article, we will briefly discuss the evolution of the creative marketing agency triumvirate, how the three can best join forces for the best outcomes, and some key martech tools to use.

The evolution of the creative agency triumvirate

Before the digital age, traditional creative agencies had two primary roles: the art director (ideation and imagery) and a copywriter (words). The two worked closely together on creative direction and final output. Traditional creative agencies typically followed linear production models, working on only a few pieces of content at a time. However, through the decades, it became clear that the traditional linear content production process was time-consuming and expensive.

As the digital production landscape came into view, the introduction of technology also shaped the buyer journey and behavior patterns. As a result, this had a direct impact on how creative agencies produce content, how much content, how they market that content and get it in front of the right target audiences. This quickly became a highly complex and seemingly impossible feat for agencies, especially since most art directors and copywriters were not technologists or strategists. Furthermore, many creative agencies became overwhelmed with technology. They spent more time trying to learn and implement technology than actually creating content.

Enter the marketing technologist…

The rise of the marketing technologist

Fast forward to present day, and most, if not all, marketing agencies have made the shift to digital. In fact, according to an article published by The Harvard Business Review, marketing is becoming the most technology-dependent business function. As a result, the majority of agencies have evolved from the traditional two-person agency model to a “triumvirate,” which includes the art director, copywriter, and now a marketing technologist.

The role of the marketing technologist includes responsibilities such as:

• Managing the digital transformation. As companies, especially creative agencies, recognize the need to move internal processes and external-facing campaigns to digital, the marketing technologist plays a central role in ensuring the efficacy of this transition.
• Manages the martech stack. To ensure the agency has the right tools that are unique and not overly redundant (creating more work), the technologist closely oversees the martech stack.
• Collaborate with the art director and copywriter. Teamlancing requires close collaboration between all creative experts and the marketing technologist works closely with others while also recommending the technology that can assist better collaboration.
• Tell a story with data. Creative agencies often manage data from client campaigns, and the technologist must have a firm understanding of the data and know how to use it to tell a story and improve future campaigns.

The marketing technologist, also known as CMT, is a marketing executive role that sits at the center of digital transformation. This role serves as part strategist, technology leader, change agents, creative director, and a liaison between marketing and IT. The marketing technologist’s goal is to align marketing technology with overarching, high-level business goals, set the marketing vision, and also assist in developing new digital business models to accelerate the company’s competitive advantage.

The marketing technologist works with the art director and copywriter on the specific mediums in which to create and publish content, how to pinpoint and target the right audiences, and how to accurately track and analyze crucial data related to KPIs, metrics, and high-level OKRs.

The marketing technologist also works with the art director and copywriters to collect and analyze data to help them understand content conversion rates, how to create content that “speaks” to different audiences, and which content pieces are resonating best with those audiences, and more.

Creative agency triumvirate collaboration

Taking an agile approach to content creation

In an effort to keep up with topic trends, news, and shifts in the market, many creative agencies now take an agile approach to content creation. Implementing agile workflows helps to increase the velocity and productivity of content creation activities, which allows agencies to deliver more content to more clients and brands faster and also more consistently.

In addition, the agile methodology is iterative and encourages creativity. It allows agencies to constantly create and experiment with new ideas, allowing the agency to deliver while simultaneously learning from their experiments and increase understanding as the process grows and scales.

How the triumvirate fits into the teamlancing model

The triumvirate also fits into teamlancing models. In fact, the role of the marketing technologist fulfills that “specialized” skill set that often rounds out most teamlance models.

Creative agencies can also leverage their triumvirate models and “pitch” the agency by focusing on a specialized skill set, and how certain aspects of that skillset can add value to a client’s project and brand.

For example, the triumvirate model can be “pitched” to prospective clients in such a way that allows the client access to an art director, team of copywriters, and a marketing technologist. Clients see the benefits of having access to all the right creative resources to help them create content without the added cost of time, materials, and resources of hiring or managing in-house.

In addition to having a solid triumvirate structure in place, creative teamlancing agencies can provide brands with deliverables in a matter of days rather than weeks or months, and without all the risks or overhead.

Martech stack access

Creative agency triumvirate or freelance teams can also leverage various online tools to evaluate what martech clients may already be using, or even supplement their martech stacks with tools that agencies use. This provides both agency and client teams with access to more tools and is also a cost-effective approach to leveraging the right tools for the project.

Additionally, with the majority of companies, businesses, and teams now working remotely, leveraging the right tools that enable communication is more important than ever. Not only does this help teams work together more efficiently — regardless of where they physically are located in the world — but it also drives more value to clients.

The prevalence of technology: optimizing the marketing tech stack

Technology has also come a long way in supporting various content creation platforms. With the many platforms available today, marketers can produce more content faster, cheaper, and at scale.

In the last decade, many creative agencies have adopted multiple tools and technologies into their martech stacks in order to build the technology environment they need to support their initiatives and goals. In fact, at the time of this writing, the technology landscape today has over 8,000 tools.

However, with the ever-evolving martech landscape and the thousands of SaaS and tech solutions available on the market today — not to mention the vast array of tools — it’s easy to see why marketers, agencies, and businesses get overwhelmed. As a result, many end up falling victim to “shiny object syndrome.” Additionally, by introducing too many tools, this makes processes and projects more complex.

Some of the categories of martech tools the marketing technologist often manages include:

• Advertising management
• Customer experience
• Content management
• Marketing collaboration
• Social media management
• Data warehousing
• CRM/sales

Marketers often select tools simply for the availability of shiny, new features, not necessarily for successful marketing technology planning and implementation to meet their needs. A marketing technologist can help optimize marketing tech stacks to avoid tool overlap and deduplication. It also helps keep databases clean and accurate, better leverage team alignment and cohesion, and optimize software budgets.

6 tools to empower the creative agency triumvirate

There are several must-have tools that creative agency triumvirate teams can use to collaborate more efficiently and work together toward a common goal.

1. ContentStudio

ContentStudio is a great tool for researching top trends and creating viral content. In today’s fast-paced market, it is crucial for creative agencies to use tools that enable them to increase the odds of creating viral content dramatically.

ContentStudio supports the entire triumvirate. It is a great research tool for creative and art directors as well as copywriters, and it also provides data on content that has already gone viral. It also allows users to research data related to keywords, trending topics, and also what other influencers and competitors are up to, which is a marketing technologist’s dream come true.

Once teams see what content is viral, it can help spark creative ideas for coming up with new content to create and share.

2. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a highly robust keyword research tool, which is a must-have for any creative agency triumvirate. In fact, a good marketing technologist will immediately be able to recommend a keyword research tool and ensure one is in their ever-growing tech stack.

Ahrefs is a popular keyword research tool that allows users to research keywords to use for organic search, the keywords they currently rank for, competitors’ keywords, and which keywords to leverage in the future. Using a tool to identify keywords that are valuable to any business or agency, and can help ensure creative agencies are maximizing the effectiveness of their content.

3. Slack

Slack is one of the easiest and best ways to keep teams connected, especially in a day and age when most teams are distributed or remote. As a result, more and more agencies and businesses are adopting  Slack for daily communication and collaboration. Additionally, there are more helpful and valuable functionalities available, such as creating multiple channels; sending, sharing, and “pinning” files to specific channels to make them more easily accessible; and even third-party integrations with other apps and tools.

For example, creative agency teams can set up a Slack channel per client or project, invite team members, share relevant files and assets, and even integrate a third-party project management tool to help track key tasks, projects, and milestone due dates.

Slack is also free to download and use (for up to 10,000 messages).

4. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft has come along way to compete with the many collaborative tools used by businesses across the globe today. A tool in the Microsoft 365 suite, Microsoft Teams is an interactive chat feature that allows teams to communicate with one another via instant messaging, video conferencing, screen sharing, file sharing, and more.

Microsoft Teams allows creative directors, copywriters, and marketing technologists to meet and collaborate effectively. With the ease of chatting, setting up meetings, and file sharing, triumvirate teams can stay up-to-date on projects and priorities all in a shared workspace that hosts collaboration, chats, and calls all in a centralized location — and in real-time.

5. Whatagraph

The creative agency triumvirate can’t very well be a functional triumvirate without a key tool: data and analytics that show results. Whatagraph is a tool specifically designed for reporting. Whether teams need reporting for internal purposes or for clients, accurate data and reports are essential to success. And with a data and analytics tool built by marketers for marketers, Whatagraph has the power to do both.

Whatagraph allows marketers to provide reports with the necessary KPIs and metrics that clients and executives want to see, including the most effective marketing mediums and channels. Users can also schedule automated reporting delivery, either via email or on-screen. Furthermore, Whatagraph boasts saving agencies an average of one to five hours per week (per client) on collecting data and reporting.

6. Loom

Any marketer knows that video is in today. Many companies and businesses rely on marketers and creative agencies with a team of content creators to help build a cohesive and effective video marketing plan. Loom is a super-easy and free tool to use for recording videos. Loom allows users to quickly record screencasts, videos, and more.

In addition to recording great videos, Loom can also be used as a collaborative tool to record and share instructional videos that explain how to perform a task, or provide feedback to a team member. Loom also has a browser extension available that users can download and install, allowing them to record a video in seconds.

How the creative agency triumvirate can take action

Creative agency triumvirates don’t have to subject themselves to “power struggles.” By taking action in securing the right tools they need to collaborate and do their jobs easily and more effectively, creative agencies are in a better position to further expand their capabilities and productivity.

Taking the time to audit your current tech stack and adopt the right tools to fit your creative agency’s needs will help you to maximize your martech stacks well as allow your software budget to go that much further.

The post Where Does Martech Fit in the Creative Agency Triumvirate? appeared first on ClearVoice.

To white-label marketing tools that make your agency look bigger and more professional than the competition, look for marketing solutions that allow you to fully brand the tool as your own, from visual appearance down to domain; to manage billing and support; to keep your team and client collaboration branded; and to send emails from your own domain.

I’ve worked with dozens of brands, and many of them wouldn’t have felt as comfortable working with me if they had known how small of a shop I was running — just myself and a few other contractors. For example, while working with one of the largest office supply stores in the USA, I managed a $6 million annual paid search budget for a new product line they were launching. They had a team of six people on their side dedicated to this new product. On my side, there were only two of us. And yet, we gained their confidence through hard work and a fair amount of looking bigger than we actually were.

The biggest component of looking bigger than you actually are is by doing a better job than the larger agencies could do. Part of this is hard work and smarts, but a large component comes down to the marketing technology you’re leveraging.

In fact, recently when I was speaking at the Information Development World conference on the topic of chatbot content development, several individuals from large companies (names like IBM, Microsoft, and Amazon) came up to me after the presentation and voiced concerns that their large organizations struggle because they aren’t leveraging the right marketing technologies. When stacked up against large companies, your small agency can truly shine, showing that you are more nimble and flexible in your offerings. If you’ve got a few white label marketing products, or a content creation partner such as ClearVoice’s Partner Program, you will be able to win more business from boosting the apparent size of your company while offering more services to your end client.

There are so many great marketing tools out there that have white label functionality. Marketing agencies of all sizes can use these to make themselves more professional, responsive, and accurate in their work.

What does “white label” mean?

At the risk of being presumptuous, it’s important to clarify what a “white label” marketing solution is.

The term “white label” has its origin at a time when physical products, such as vinyl records, were sent in white packaging that allowed for the retailers to put on their own trade dress and sell as their own. Despite their comeback, I’m guessing that you’re not selling vinyl records. In our current usage, a white label product has come to mean one that is produced with the intention of being relabeled by the customer-facing party (the retailer).

For marketing professionals and agencies, a white label solution is one that was created by a third party and then licensed by you for your own brand’s use. You put your brand on the marketing solution and claim it as your own. It helps you better manage the numerous elements of marketing so that you can do better work, and look good at the same time. In short, white label marketing tools are a great way to scale your business without hiring a lot of extra personnel or committing additional revenue toward marketing products.

But white labeling for marketers is not only limited to marketing tools; there are also firms, such as ClearVoice with its partner program, that offer white label content creation for agencies trying to scale their businesses. With white label content creation, the teamlancing talent provider is poised to help agencies expand their content offerings with white glove, fully managed content creation.

Avoid the “build it yourself” trap

Extra budget that isn’t already dedicated to a product doesn’t come often, but I have had several clients who have just come into money (usually due to a new investment round) that decided they would like to put that money toward building their own marketing tools.

I’ve also worked with a few successful agencies who have wanted to branch out and create their own marketing tools in order to diversify their revenue streams. While I think diversifying revenue streams is important to the long-term viability of a business, one must take this approach carefully, balancing the buy or build decision with a careful evaluation of the pros and cons of such.

Pros and cons of building your own martech tools

Here are several positive benefits of building your own tools:

• You own the code which means you can also sell it to other agencies or firms for a diversified income stream.
• You can more precisely and delicately integrate it with other tools in your martech stack.
• If it lacks a feature you really need, you can prioritize that for the next build iteration.

Here are a few negatives of building your own tools:

• You may lose focus on your current business because you have to worry about its development, cost, and maintenance.
• Other agencies or martech providers may have already created it, and so spending your time on it would be a waste of effort.
• You’ll likely find yourself diverting resources to develop the missing feature, instead of focusing on your key value-adding business.

Pros and cons of buying an already existing white label tool

Here are several advantages of buying an already existing tool:

• The implementation of the tool is generally faster. Unlike building software which sometimes takes a few months or even years, getting a pre-built solution up and running should be possible in days or weeks.
• The upfront cost is lower than building the tool.
• Business owners can focus on a more important part of the business since providers tend to handle the training, maintenance, and hosting of their software.

Here are some negatives of buying an existing white label marketing agency solution:

• You are more reliant on the solution vendor; If the tool is lacking a feature that you need you’ve got to ask for it and hope it makes it into their list of priorities.
• You may decrease your competitive advantage you hold over competitors if you buy vs. build, as your competitors are likely using the same pre-built tools you are.

For most of my clients, I recommend that they use white label marketing software. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Anna-Liisa Goggs shared this fantastic insight on Entrepreneur Magazine, “If your business needs to manage operational processes online, such as e-commerce transactions, customer or community management, membership schemes or others, check first if there are white label platforms out there already providing what you need. Don’t reinvent the wheel, and partner with the best-in-class providers that can help scale your business faster.”

Markup potential with white labeling marketing solutions

One key characteristic of white label solutions is that if you have just one or two clients that are using the solution, you’ll already be “in the money.” This is due to the fact that these solutions are affordable, and you can mark up the service or solution to a rate that you and your client both think is fair.

For example, let’s say you have a client who needs an email-sending platform. Instead of sending them to a solution like MailChimp, where they’ll pay $75/month for 5,000 subscribers, you can set them up with a Sendy installation on an Amazon server. Sendy is a one-time cost of $59, and then an ongoing Amazon email server subscription for the 5,000 subscribers would be only $1 a month. If you agree to manage their email server (easy), then you could charge $50/month, saving your client $25/month and helping cover your bottom line with a $48/month income.

Setting up a white label email solution, like Sendy, on an Amazon server may sound like you’ll need a degree in computer science. However, after five relatively simple steps and about an hour dedicated to following the Sendy installation guide, your software will be up and running.

5 things to look for in a white label marketing solution

Depending on what kind of white label marketing solution you are thinking of using, there are generally five things you should evaluate before making your purchase decision.

1. Sub-domain vs. your own domain

Often times, when you find a tool that looks ready for white label use, you go into the setup and find that the solution will be hosted on their domain name. For these services, it’ll normally ask you for your company name, and then it will append your company name, as a sub-domain, to the front end of their domain name.

For example, if McDonald’s was offering a Big Mac consulting service, and your agency is ABC Corp, the website address your users would navigate to would be https://abccorp.mcdonalds.com. See how that way of doing it is no good? It’s obvious you’re using another company to provide your service. Instead, the more robust white label solutions continue to host the tool on their own servers but will direct their service through a sub-domain on your own main website. In the case of ABC Corp offering Big Mac consulting, perhaps the web address would be https://bm.abccorp.com.

2. Visual appearance

In addition to providing you with an extra, high-quality service you can offer to your clients, the best white label marketing solutions also allow you to do it in style! If the solution is truly white label, you will at least be able to put your own logo on the web portal for the software, and/or the reports the software generates. Most of the best solutions out there will also allow you to pick your company colors and potentially even a custom font.

MySiteAuditor, as you can see in the below image of one of their reports, allows you to customize the logo and the colors on SEO audits that the software provides to agency clients.

3. Email sending

Many marketing solutions allow you to send regular email reports via their interface. This is especially important when you’re running a marketing agency, because it can ensure your clients are kept up-to-speed on the progress of their campaigns and projects, without you having to manually create and send reports.

However, if you’re going to be using a marketing tool that will be sending emails directly to your clients, ensure you have the option of setting up SPF and DKIM in the server settings. If you don’t have DKIM turned on, then emails you send may show a “via weirddomainname.com” next to the sender line inside of Gmail and many other email clients.

For example, the below email screenshot shows how this would look. Setting up SPF and DKIM is a little bit complicated, and will require access to the registrar where you have your domain name registered. Just be sure to ask the white label marketing solution provider about this, and they can tell you how to set it up.

Source: pepipost.com

4. Self-managed billing and support

As mentioned earlier, one of the big advantages of white label marketing solutions is that you can mark up the service as you see fit. This generally means that you handle all billing and support, but it doesn’t always. There are some white label solution providers that insist on sending bills to your clients, and/or offering product support directly to your clients. When you see this, it usually means that instead of an actual white label provider they are more of an affiliate program.

While billing and providing support to your clients can be a burden, it’s one of the important aspects of providing a white labeled service. It not only ensures your clients aren’t seeing the man behind the curtain but also ensures the man behind the curtain isn’t going to try and steal your client.

5. Supports teamlancing

As agency marketers know, managing sophisticated campaigns requires a team that often includes external freelancers. To better manage the team and collaborate more effectively, you should find a white label solution that also supports teamlancing. What is teamlancing in an agency context? Teamlancing for agencies is when some or all of the team members on a given project are freelancers that collaborate in a closely networked manner towards the achievement of a common goal.

Specific platform functionality you should expect from your teamlancing enabled agency white label solution include:

• Central collaboration — the solution should allow for you, your internal and external team members, and your clients to all talk in one place, increasing the efficiency of messaging, getting progress updates and managing approvals.
• Consolidated client management — look for a solution that enables you to manage all your client campaigns, permission levels, user access controls, payments, and publishing in one central location.
• Streamlining features — no matter the reason for using the white label solution, whether it be creating content or launching campaign advertisements, ensure the solution supports a streamlined process whereby all members of the team have access to what they need, from integrated personas, pitching tools, brand guidelines, and approver workflows, to keep your teamlanced efficiencies up.

What are the best white label marketing tools?

Now that we’ve covered several best practices you should use when rolling out your own marketing white label solutions, you’re probably wondering about what kinds of white labeled marketing tools are out there.

White labeled solutions vary, including digital marketing tools, SEO tools, website design platforms and reporting engines. There are a number of vendors that have created high-quality services, for affordable rates, that you can easily white label as your own.

In another #MartechMonday post I introduced several of these white label-ready solutions that you and your marketing agency can use to improve your product offerings and make your company look better.

As a quick teaser, here are a few of the white label marketing tools I covered:

• White label marketing automation software. Did you know that good marketing automation software, such as Hubspot or Marketo, will cost a medium-sized business at least $15,000 annually? And that is if you skimp for their entry packages and don’t have a very large audience size you want to email. In the other post, I show you a white label, open-source, practically free marketing automation tool you can set up for your clients.
• White label conversion rate optimization software. Paying attention to the speed of a website, and optimizing forms and other website elements, is something businesses are generally concerned with. In the other post, I cover a white label ready tool that will help you offer conversion rate optimization without building it yourself.
• And I’ve covered five other white label solutions as well…

Grow your agency faster:

• Partner With ClearVoice to Get Managed Content Creation for Your Clients
• Tap Into the Power of Teamlancing to Rapidly Scale Content

The post How to White Label Marketing Tools for Your Agency Use appeared first on ClearVoice.

Today, marketers are seeing the benefits of creating and sharing interactive content. However, many marketers are under the impression that they need an in-house developer or designer to help design, build, and develop an engaging experience.

The truth is, there are a number of tools available on the web today that do just that. In this article, we will share the top nine interactive content tools that are easy to use.

What is interactive content?

Before we dive into our list of tools, let’s briefly look at what interactive content is and why it works so well.

The internet is saturated with information, media, and content. As a result, marketers are creating content faster than ever before. In fact, according to SnapApp, an interactive content tool, 70 percent of marketers claim that they are creating more content than they were a year ago.

Not only has this led to information overload, but it has also made the web highly competitive, ultimately making it even more difficult to stand out and capture the attention of your audience. As a result, the appeal of interactive content has skyrocketed.

Interactive content can be created in a variety of formats. The most common are quizzes, polls, surveys, maps, web games, and other visuals. And when used in emails, interactive content can help increase open rates and click-through rates by up to 300 percent! It goes without saying that those content marketers who do not consider interactive content in their strategies not only risk getting left behind but also miss the opportunity to really capture the attention of their users and audience.

An example of interactive marketing content

To help you get an idea of what interactive content is and how it can be used to drive leads for your company, let’s take a look at this interactive Tesla automobile savings calculator built by Outgrow (the last tool we highlight below). With this sleek calculator, a consumer can click through a few questions and determine how much money they will save by purchasing a Tesla vehicle over the life of their purchase.

After answering a few questions that are poised to make me fall in love with the vehicle options available to me, the results are shown in an interactive graphic depicting the different areas I could save money (tax, maintenance fees, etc.). And before showing me the results, the interactive experience asks me for my contact details so that they can “conveniently” send me the results.

If you’d like to get some ideas for creative and interactive content you can create to help fill out your marketing quiver, Outgrow provides examples by industry, whether it be automobile, skincare, or hospitality.

P.S. In case you were wondering… with how little I’m driving during this pandemic, the calculator tells me I’d lose a chunk of change if I purchased a Tesla.

9 interactive content marketing tools to try

Now that you understand more about what interactive marketing content is and why it works so well, here are the top nine tools that are worth trying.

1. Typeform

This is a popular interactive content tool used by many marketers. Typeform allows users to easily build forms designed to collect customer feedback, contact details and information, quizzes, surveys and more. Typeform also offers a template gallery for users to easily build forms and other types of interactive content in minutes.

As discussed in this head-to-head product review where I review Google Forms, SurveyMonkey, and Typeform, Typeform is a great product that provides a beautiful interface for your potential customers to engage with. Additionally, as a sign that Typeform is continually being developed and improved upon, in the recent past, the developers added in integration to famously helpful martech tools such as Zapier, Hubspot, Slack, and a slew of others.

2. MindMeister

If you work within a highly collaborative team or conduct many online presentations for customers, then using an online mindmap tool just might be a great addition to your toolbox.

MindMeister allows users to instantly and easily create mind maps for brainstorming, developing marketing funnels and processes, and conducting presentations. Team members and clients can also participate in brainstorming sessions and add elements in real-time. MindMeister can also be integrated with Google, which allows users to easily add mindmaps to any document or slide deck. Enhancing your productivity one step further, MindMeister also now offers a dedicated project management tool called MeisterTask, which enables you to put your brainstormed/mind mapped plans into action.

MindMeister is available for free for your first three creations, which is a great opportunity to see if you like it. If you enjoy using it, then you will eventually need to upgrade to a paid subscription.

3. Beacon

If you want to boost your content for lead generation purposes, then be sure to check out Beacon. Beacon is a great tool to create vivid, attractive, and professional content for lead gen purposes in a matter of minutes.

Not sure where to start? Beacon offers a number of templates to choose from, or you can use the template builder to build interactive marketing content that is on-brand. You can also easily share your content on social media. Beacon can also be integrated with other content marketing tools, such as WordPress, Mailchimp, Aweber, Zapier, and HubSpot. These integrations, and Beacon’s other lead generation features also help business owners improve their conversion rates.

4. LeadQuizzes

One of the most popular types of interactive content today is a quiz. Users love taking and sharing quizzes. LeadQuizzes is a tool that you can use to create and build quizzes to share with your audience on your website or via social.

LeadQuizzes offers a number of features, such as custom forms, designs, and logic to build a truly interactive and personalized experience for users. LeadQuizzes also now boasts a URL-redirection feature which further enables businesses to generate their own leads.

LeadQuizzes can also easily be integrated with other tools. You can embed quizzes easily in email, share on social media, or use HubSpot to track analytics and leads.

5. Pinpoll

Similar to quizzes, users love taking polls and voting on a particular personality trait, product, TV character, service, or another topic. If sharing polls with your target audience is part of your content marketing strategy, then check out Pinpoll. They have dozens of samples you can choose from to help you get started, and their features (even in the free version) make this my favorite online poll creation app.

After creating a poll, you can easily share it on social media or embed it on a page on your website.

While it may seem burdensome, with CCPA and GDPR (and another acronym-infused regulations that will likely follow), ensuring your data collecting interactive marketing tools are compliant with consumer privacy measures is more important than ever. Pinpoll understands this and is one of the first tools to have made itself 100 percent GDPR compliant.

6. Mapme

If you are targeting a local audience, or have products or services based around travel, then using a creative map tool will certainly give your brand a competitive edge. In steps Mapme, which allows you to create maps based on your audiences’ interests and then layer in additional written and video content for an awe-inspiring customer experience. Mapme also offers superb mobile compatibility which will help you reach more clients on their preferred devices.

As you can see in this example, showcasing several of the most beautiful cathedrals in the world, your highlighted location can include photos, videos, and 360-degree tours. Best of all, these can be built with no coding skills, and then shared by embedding them on your website or sharing on social. If you prefer to roll up your sleeves and get into the code, they’ve recently added the ability to get into the CSS and do some of your own advanced styling customizations. Mapme also plays well with Wix, WordPress, Weebly, and Squarespace.

7. Videoly

Videoly is a great tool for e-commerce businesses that want to enhance their product listings with videos, but don’t have the resources to create fresh videos for each product. Videoly can also help marketers find user-generated content, in a video format, that is already ideal for the product you are selling.

After Videoly finds videos through an automated algorithm that may fit your product, they then manually watch each video to ensure it is about the right product, doesn’t promote other retailers, and contains positive messages. The videos are easy to embed on your site, as you’ll update your e-commerce theme with a single script, whereby Videoly will automatically place the videos for you. Of course, you can (and should) further curate the videos by checking them yourself and opting for them to stay or be removed from that given product page. Observing the coverage and performance of these videos is something that should also concern the discerning marketer, and Videoly offers functionality for you to monitor these videos, helping you decide if they should be replaced for better-performing content.

8. Ceros

If you are just looking for ways to enhance or spruce up your existing content, then check out Ceros. Ceros allows you to create and add highly interactive content to your existing content inventory. It provides you with a wealth of interactive elements and options to add to your ebooks, infographics, webpage banners, blogs, and so on. With an eye for design, and the desire to improve its user experience, Ceros recently added in better animations and a new mantra for creating content more easily: Copy. Paste. Done.

Ceros offers many different creative elements, features, and visuals designed to enhance any type of content, and it is easy to use. Ceros also integrates with other martech tools such as Marketo and ChartBlocks.

9. Outgrow

To round out our list of nine tools that can help you create interactive marketing content, I bring you a martech tool that is perhaps the most comprehensive of the nine. Outgrow boasts the functionality to help marketers easily create interactive components as simple as forms and surveys, to those as complex as quizzes and chatbots. The rich offerings it provides can help any marketer, no matter their coding or tech chops, spin out interactive content that will help earn high-quality leads.

Suppose you are thinking of adding a calculator to your site. Outgrow is a great martech tool that makes the creation and embedding of calculators a breeze. In the unlikely scenario that you run into snags building out your calculator, Outgrow is known for great customer service via online chat.

One of Outgrow’s features that I am most impressed by is the ability to dynamically show graphs and charts based on the users’ input to your interactive content tool (i.e. calculator or quiz), in formats such as line charts, tables, and polar charts. The Outgrow tool can also handle complex formulas for calculating and displaying more advanced outputs.

Create a more engaged audience

All in all, yes, content marketing has changed drastically within the last decade, but content is still king. In fact, 93 percent of B2B companies believe that content marketing increases and attracts more leads than traditional marketing methods, and 70 percent of marketers are actively involved in the creation of content for their company. Today, the most effective type of content is interactive.

Regardless of your industry or niche, or whether you are B2B or B2C, the primary goal of your marketing strategy and business should be to boost lead generation, connect and nurture leads, grow your audience, and close new customers. You can achieve all of these with the right interactive marketing content. And with the right partner. At ClearVoice, our managed content creation and expert creators can take your content creation to the next level. Talk to us today to see how.

The post 9 Tools to Help You Create Interactive Marketing Content appeared first on ClearVoice.

In fact, studies show that the freelance gig economy is growing three times faster than the traditional workforce in the United States. Furthermore, it is estimated that the percentage of workers in the United States participating in the gig economy will increase to 43 percent in 2020.

Additionally, more and more companies and enterprises are working with freelancers to “outsource” many of their operations, namely marketing, design, and content creation as there are a number of cost benefits to this approach.

As the gig model continues to shift and evolve, “outsourcing” has also shifted to what is now known as teamlancing. The concept of teamlancing itself has been around for years, but it is becoming easier, more accessible, and the preferred working model for both freelancers and companies.

However, outsourcing and teamlancing aren’t without their challenges, specifically related to technology and “software creep,” and how it can hinder productivity.

Teamlancing explained

Although we briefly defined teamlancing above, we will go into a little more detail in this section. Teamlancing involves collaborating with a team of freelancers to work on and deliver a project, an element of a project, or work together toward a goal on behalf of a paying client.

The teamlancing model can be structured in two ways:

1. Individuals. Individual freelancers work with various other freelance or networked teams and clients on a project or to deliver a specific task. Individuals can also source other freelancers themselves for a particular task or project.

2. Teams. A team of freelancers can work with an individual freelance producer or “manager” or with a team of freelancers. This allows them to not only maximize the agility of operations with a team of specialized creative resources but also collaborate on a creative level to deliver higher-quality work. After all, two (or three or four) heads are better than one.

Outsourcing vs. teamlancing: how do they differ?

According to HubSpot, two out of three businesses outsource at least some portion of their marketing. However, this isn’t nearly as effective as it could be. Why? Most businesses aren’t taking the teamlancing approach. The reason for this is because most businesses don’t understand or aren’t aware of how teamlancing is different from outsourcing, the benefits of teamlancing, or how to make it happen.

Although both teamlancing and outsourcing share similar contractors, such as they both involve leveraging external resources to perform a specific task, function, or produce a deliverable, teamlancing looks a little different. Teamlancing operates on a higher level, involving creative input and collaboration rather than simply focusing on executing a particular role or function. If built correctly, teamlancing can boost productivity and scale.

To break it down, outsourcing and teamlancing are different in two primary ways: outsourcing focuses on execution whereas teamlancing focuses on creative collaboration.

Here are some key characteristics of teamlancing and outsourcing:

Teamlancing goes far beyond simply filling a role or tasks and executing on it; it allows individuals to contribute and collaborate with others in multiple, cross-functional disciplines who have a vested interest in achieving goals and working together.

4 benefits of teamlancing to businesses

Many marketing teams adopt the teamlancing model and pitch this model to clients. Because marketing typically involves a specialized skill set — content writing, design, web and technical knowledge, data and analytics, marketing automation, and so on — many freelance teams use this to their advantage and provide clients and brands with access to a pool of resources rather than recruiting individuals.

This saves clients and brands the added costs of time, materials, and resources of hiring or managing in-house.

1. Higher-quality output and productivity

Because of its collaborative nature and focus, teamlancing encourages more professionalism, higher-quality output, more accountability, and more fulfilling work. This is because the team of freelancers can rely on the social and creative support of a team, rather than working in a siloed, isolated environment.

2. Faster delivery times

Furthermore, teamlancing can execute and turn over deliverables to businesses and brands in a matter of days or weeks, rather than weeks or months, and without significantly increasing risks. In fact, the increase in deliverables quality often increases to match the delivery times, as there is less time wasted in between steps due to better project handoffs between team members and a higher focus on the immediacy of the project.

3. Reduced overhead

Most freelance teams are also self-managing and rely on one another rather than the client. This means the client or hiring manager saves a ton of time and effort on recruiting, interviewing, and hiring resources to work in-house.

4. Access to technology

Depending on the freelance team or individual freelancer, they likely already have access to the right tools, apps, software, and technology to get the job done. In a company where all labor is internalized, launching a project in a new area of expertise requires time to shop around and acquire the right tools and software for the job, whereas teamlancing professionals often already have this box checked.

For example, many freelancers and freelance teams likely already have communication tools, project management tools, and marketing automation tools set up and ready to go, which decreases the amount of time and effort clients and businesses need to spend.

The challenges of outsourcing vs. teamlancing

Of course, the traditional outsourcing model is far from perfect. Many companies have had poor experiences with outsourcing.

The primary challenges of outsourcing include the following:

• Mismanaged project requirements or client expectations
• Lack of project control
• Lack of decision-making abilities
• Organizational cultural differences and language barriers
• Confidentiality and security
• Disjointed communication
• “Software creep”

Detecting and diminishing “software creep”

You may have heard of “feature creep” in regard to software or product development, but what exactly do we mean by “software creep”? Software creep involves the introduction of too many tools or technologies into a project due to different departments or divisions in a company bringing their own preferred technology and tools to the project table. This only heightens the risk for errors, and also decreases productivity.

As a result, many businesses have turned away from outsourcing. However, freelancers can combat the risks by working together with the teamlancing group to identify the best tools and sticking with those across different projects. This will not only reduce “software creep,” but it will also reduce persistent learning curves from learning how to use new tools.

2 teamlancing suites and solutions

Having individual tools for managing teamlancing projects is often the norm, but whether you’re installing new marketing automation software or launching a new campaign, you’ll likely want a full suite solution that manages many parts of the project and simplifies the number of software tools you need. For this, there are several excellent suites available today that can be leveraged when pursuing a teamlancing approach.

Here are two options to consider:

1. Citrix

Citrix Systems, the global digital workspace leader, provides software and necessary technical capabilities to enable flexible work arrangements. Their solution is designed to deliver a secure remote infrastructure to help boost efficiency and productivity. This is becoming more and more important as companies shift to remote work and securing on-demand talent.

2. ClearVoice

If you are launching a big marketing campaign you should look no further than yours truly: ClearVoice. ClearVoice is a content marketing platform and talent network that has become the prime teamlancing solution for major projects and campaigns, such as content projects, creative assets, and developing strategic campaign initiatives with specific KPIs. ClearVoice also allows brands to build consistent content for long-term growth and also accelerate and scale businesses.

8 tools for building a highly productive teamlancing firm

It’s no secret that the digital age has provided us with an endless sea of technologies that help boost productivity and get more done faster and easier. With the right tools, we can produce more and faster than ever before, streamline tasks and workflows, and help make our jobs easier.

So, what tools do you need to start building your own teamlancing firm? The tools that will serve the most value to freelancers in actual team formation will facilitate communication and project and task management to boost productivity.

However, as we mentioned above, whenever new teams adopt new software or begin working with new clients, there’s always the risk for “software creep.” “Software creep” risks can also be further accentuated by bringing on individual, ad hoc freelancers. The best way to combat these risks is to form a team of freelancers and implement the right software early on.

In this section, we will call out some cost-effective and easy-to-use project management, task management, and team collaboration tools that you can get started with immediately.

1. Zoho Calendar

When working with a team of freelancers, it’s important to have a shared calendar. The Zoho Calendar app will keep everyone abreast of team meetings, client meetings, holidays, project and task due dates, vacations, and more. A good calendar app empowers teams to spend less time on the logistics of time management and more time on getting projects done.

2. Toggl

Toggl is a super-easy time-tracking app. It allows freelance producers or managers to oversee remote teams, assess workloads, and ensure productive and effective work remote work environments. Team members can use the web-based time-tracker or download and install the app right on their desktop. Toggl also easily integrates with most billing software, such as QuickBooks.

3. Airtable

You can’t very well manage projects without a project management tool. A good project management tool goes above and beyond mapping out timelines and tracking tasks and due dates. It also serves as a centralized hub for all important information related to projects.

Airtable is a great option, primarily because it can be built and structured in a variety of ways that best suit teams. It can serve as an interactive, real-time spreadsheet, or a complete project plan. Airtable allows users to build their projects in list formats, visual Kanban boards, Gantt chart timelines, and more.

4. Trello

Trello is another basic project management tool to consider. Many marketing and creative teams use Trello to help keep track of who is working on what, individual tasks, and when each task or deliverable is due. It can also be set up in minutes.

For larger or more advanced teams or complex projects, Trello does offer various add-ons, such as additional boards, seats, calendar apps, and Gantt chart timelines.

5. Slack

We are always surprised to discover how many remote teams still rely on email for project correspondence. This is always a huge sticking point as it is the exact point where teamlancers fall apart. Project communication and collaboration should never rely on email. Use a messaging app to stay in contact.

Slack is one of the most popular communication tools today across individuals, teams, small businesses, and even enterprises. Teams rely on Slack for daily communication and collaboration, and allows users to set up multiple channels, send and share files, set automated reminders, and even integrate with other tools, including Trello, Airtable, Google Calendar, Gmail, and pretty much any other app you can think of.

6. Zoom

If you are already working remotely, then you are likely already using Zoom on a daily basis. We can tell you from our own experience that we spend at least half our days on Zoom calls. Zoom allows users to schedule meetings, video chat, record calls, screen share, chat, and invite an unlimited number of participants. It’s becoming a must-have in today’s remote-work world.

7. Google Drive and Docs

Again, you may already be familiar with Google’s masterful suite of collaborative tools, including Google Drive and Docs. Google Drive is bundled with the popular G Suite product, which allows users to store and share files, documents, and assets in the cloud. Google Docs supports the most popular file types, such as word processing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations or slide decks.

Google Docs is interactive, intuitive, easy-to-use, and is great for collaborating with other team members. Team members can access a Google Doc at any time, make updates or edits, and those edits are made in real-time. No emailing documents or spreadsheets as attachments. No losing files. No updating multiple file versions.

In addition to providing G Suite users with a great deal of storage, Google Drive and Google Docs are the perfect tools and solutions for remote teams or enterprise of any size.

8. Zapier

If you want to streamline tedious, repetitive tasks and operations and avoid “software creep,” then meet your new best friend: Zapier. Zapier is a tool that allows users to build automations between thousands of popular tools, apps, and software. It is free to use (up to a certain number of zaps), and users can build automations in minutes. (No developer or coding needed!)

Zapier not only helps freelancers and teams put their tasks on autopilot, but it also allows them to keep projects and teams organized and scale. Zapier can also perform basic marketing automation functions, such as setting up and running ads on Facebook or Google, creating new contacts in Mailchimp from forms, share social media posts in Slack once they are published, or even track Eventbrite signups in a Google Sheet. The possibilities are truly endless.

How to select the right teamlancing software

By selecting software that will be the best fit for your freelance team, you can mitigate the risks of “software creep.” But how do you know if you are picking the right software?

Here are some factors to consider:

Team collaboration

As a remote team, you can’t afford to skimp on communication. In fact, communication becomes even more important with remote teams, especially when working across different regions, time zones, and cultures. Any software that makes it easy to collaborate and communicate should be a top priority.

Streamline disparate processes

If you can use a tool that will help automate, streamline, or improve the efficiency of your workflows, then it’s probably worth giving it a try.

This is a giant challenge for marketers because they are constantly trying to get everything done without blowing their budgets. However, by streamlining processes, you not only get more done, but you are in a better position to scale in the number of assets you produce or the number of channels you need to publish content on.

Organize key project elements

A good project or task management tool should make it extremely easy to organize key project elements into a single dashboard. The easier and more intuitive that freelancer producers or managers can make it for teams to find what they are looking for, the more agile and productive they can be.

All in all, selecting the right tools to add to your tech stack in your teamlancing business will take a little time and research, as each one has its own strengths and weaknesses. However, what makes the best tools — well, the best — and the most powerful for freelance teams is they are easy, intuitive, and flexible. This might sound like a no brainer, but the easier the tool is, the more likely team members will adopt and use it consistently, preventing “software creep” before it even starts.

Finally, the right software should allow teams to be as agile as possible.

Ditch the distributed contractor mindset

All in all, the gig economy and the remote workforce isn’t slowing down or going away anytime soon. The number of Americans and companies based in the United States that are shifting to outsourcing or teamlancing models, and allowing workers to work remotely is only increasing, especially after the COVID-19 outbreak. Therefore, individual freelancers and freelance teams need to have the right talent and tools in place in order to build a successful teamlancing model that will stand the test of time.

In today’s digital age, it can be incredibly easy to get carried away with trying and using a multitude of tools, apps, software, and technologies. It’s incredibly tempting to try the latest, greatest, and shiniest new tool. However, introducing more tools and apps than what you realistically need only complicates workflows rather than simplifies them, which then leads to “software creep.”

The best tools will be the ones that make jobs easier, not harder; increase collaboration and communication rather than hinder it; boost productivity rather than slowing down progress due to learning curves; organize and manage project and task information rather than silo it.

If you want to build your teamlancing model with the right software that allows you to continue creating content, building websites or marketing automation campaigns, then stick with the tools that allow you to do all that, but better and faster.

Furthermore, if you work with the same clients and team members to deliver the same type of work over and over, not only will you and your teamlancers become experts at your crafts, but you will also become more acclimated to the technology you use, thereby increasing efficiency and building synergies with team members and clients that just work.

Although outsourcing has its challenges and many companies are leery, teamlancing really is a different experience. Teamlancing allows for more creative collaboration, specialized services, higher-quality and more valuable work, and a better experience overall.

The post How to Rein In Distributed Contractors With Teamlancing and Software appeared first on ClearVoice.