DISQUS

Duct Tape Marketing: Automation, the small business marketer’s friend

  • Koka · 1 year ago
    nice thoughtful post with some useful links to automation tools. thanks
  • Troy Bengford · 1 year ago
    We use OfficeAutopilot for tracking who's on our website and integrating email, direct mail, and phone follow up systems. It's incredible what you can do with this system.. and we checked around.

    We looked at Vtrenz which is similar, but complicated and much more expensive. The other option was Infusion, but we werent excited about the $5k license fee. And OfficeAutopilot.com does the same and more (though without shopping card integration, which we didn't care about).

    It's also integrated with Outlook, which our salespeople love.

    We also use and love Basecamp for project management.

    Thanks for the great blog,

    Troy
  • Adam Blitzer · 1 year ago
    That is definitely a great list of apps that help small businesses market and sell more effectively. At Pardot we use Basecamp for project management with our clients and have gotten a great response. 27Signals did a great job of not over-engineering the product and produced a lightweight web app that has essentially no learning curve.

    We also make heavy use of our own system (Prospect Insight) for marketing automation but there are plenty of great options available. It is definitely an exciting time for the SMB.
  • Donny · 1 year ago
    Jott has been a great tool for our Company. Being able to "jott" someone a quick note or to remind yourself of something with a quick Jott has been a tremendous asset.

    Thanks John.

    Donny Vaughn
    1429Creative.com
    Solutions Director
  • Duane Davis · 1 year ago
    John,

    Great resources. I use and recommend Basecamp, in fact I endorse the whole suite of resources from the 37Signals team. TextExpander is also a great tools for all disciplines.

    Two thirds of the list I'd never heard of until now.

    Thanks
  • Andrew Wyatt · 1 year ago
    Know the companies, who are visiting our website and what they are looking for.
    Getting leads from our website by identifying the company name and follow up in the CRM. The CRM is being fed with the data from the website visits, generating interest with sales. Giving a ongoing monitoring of the lead qualification.
    LEADSExplorer
  • Jim Durbin · 1 year ago
    John,

    I noticed you didn't have mobile marketing on that list.

    If I may add it - I'm working with a client that allows self-service automation of your mobile marketing program. You can run your own texting and mobile messaging, manage your opt-in list, and it's a monthly fee to do as much as you want.

    http://store.blastmarketing.com
  • JMoss · 1 year ago
    Great post...I linked it to our Chattanooga Business blog and posted some of our favs as well.

    www.businesschatt.com
  • Daniel McGonagle @ http://dani · 1 year ago
    Hey, great list there...

    I wasn't aware of some of those resources, thanks.

    Another one you might want to include is http://automatedlinkbuilding.com since it's automated and is definitely a service needed by all web site owners that want traffic.

    Thanks,

    Dan
  • Shama Hyder · 1 year ago
    I also really like http://www.WinWeb.com. Free accounting software for small businesses.
  • Sarah · 1 year ago
    OfficeAutopilot sounds good. We're looking for an budget-friendly contact/email list aggregator. Would love to know if something exists that can track sales numbers, too.

    I give Basecamp a 6 out of 10. There were some frustrating elements of that product. We are trying eSupport right now.

    http://insidesmb.blogspot.com/
  • Jeff Mask · 1 year ago
    ahhh - marketing automation. just the sound of that gives me goosebumps. THAT is the key to small business success
  • Nan Palmero · 1 year ago
    Great list, thank you! Another option outside of textexpander is to add items to your autocorrect, be it Outlook, Word, Entourage, etc. So you enter a short cut, such as YW and it changes it to you're welcome. Also, Google Sites provides the opportunity to EASILY build company intranets, work together on projects and use different Google apps throughout their company. Check it out here: http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/users/site...
  • Alex B. Worth · 1 year ago
    You know when talking about the Small Business Automation, one of the things I've recently discovered is having a virtual Assistant. Like having your own virtual staff, I got some amazing tips about it from David Ledoux's interview with Frank Kern's Virtual Assistant on his blog at:

    Alex
  • Donny · 1 year ago
    automation/outsourcing is definitely worth it if you can afford to do it. thanks for the link list you provided, i have not come across some of those sites and will check them out!
  • Jason Kort · 1 year ago
    For companies that have already made the investment in a CRM like Salesforce.com, Netsuite, etc. I recommend checking out the SoftVu marketing automation platform. SoftVu integrates with existing on demand CRMs and provides more enhanced features like the ability to trigger rich media communications with real time view notifications.
  • Randy Vaughn · 1 year ago
    Hey my other Marketing Twin, Donny, said the same thing I sware I was going to say (that's a twin thing). But I have now become addicted to JOTT. I have a thousand brainstorms or action items or "oughta-look-into-that!" ideas pop into my head all day long. So now, I can simply type in 55 on my speed dial on my Cell wherever I'm at and then JOTT myself the idea. JOTT sends me an email with that idea transcribed from my voice. It's great to get the idea out of my idea, but now I don't have to keep up with scrap pieces of paper with all these notes. I love it.
    Randy Vaughn
    Marketing Coach & Creative Director, www.1429creative.com
    www.MarketingTwins.com
  • ocstandard · 1 year ago
    Godaddy has a nice email blast tool for beginners. It has alot of useful functions. You can creat pretty nice emails and moniter them from the dashboard.
  • Lori Feldman · 1 year ago
    I've used Swiftpage for 4 years and love it. Last year one of my email newsletters resulted in a 6-figure sale from an EXISTING client who didn't know I "did that." Of course, I didn't know he "needed that." Relevant, targeted E-marketing really works, and I'm thrilled that Swiftpage Email is about to release an AUTOMATED drip marketing program. I believe it will be the first time in marketing history that automating the critical business function of sales follow up will be within reach for any size business, no matter what their budget. (Full disclosure: I not only use Swiftpage, I'm one of their resellers. But I believe in "eating my own dogfood" so the rave is warranted.)