by Firefly Partners • 07.20.2020
One of the greatest things about marketing today is the wonderful array of options. You can send messages in more ways, shapes, and forms than ever, thanks to technology. Like my favorite comic book characters once stated, “With great power comes great responsibility.” (Thanks, Uncle Ben), if you are reading this you might be thinking: With great technology options, can come great dizziness. There are so many things a marketer can do, it can feel like a never-ending ride on the merry-go-round. Thanks, technology.
But when it comes to great digital strategy, I like to think about with great knowledge, comes great empowerment.
To help you get your bearings, here are six tools that will help you market like the boss you know you can be. Each one has affordable monthly or annual fees and is user friendly. Learn these six tools, and your marketing efforts will begin working together for impressive impact.
#1 Grammarly: Write like a boss.
Great content falls flat if words are missing, misspelled, or incorrect. If you aren’t ready to invest in a professional writer, check out Grammarly. It’s like having an in-house proofreader! You can craft content directly in the Grammarly platform to correct errors and get tips on writing style and voice. It works on any content: papers, blogs, social media captions, and more. And Grammarly’s Chrome plugin makes it easy to catch mistakes on your WordPress blog post before you hit that publish button! Get your words perfectly polished and earn that A+ for grammar—and impact.
#2 Canva: Design like a boss.
If I could date a piece of software, I would serve Canva breakfast in bed at least three days a week. Seriously. It’s that good—a real life-changer for designing quick graphics for our image-driven market. In the past, blog images and email banners were the output of Photoshop or InDesign… and the professional designers that knew how to use the tools. But now Canva does about 80% of the work for me. I simply refine the last 20% to match my brand’s look, feel, and personality. Using this tool for one-touch pieces frees up more money for professionals to design the long-lasting ones.
#3 Fiverr: Outsource like a boss.
The world is going freelance, and Fiverr is where they find their gigs. Businesses large and small can fill workplace needs for everything from copywriting to graphic design, illustration to ebooks (think annual report), podcast production to video production, and more. You can pretty much outsource anything but your barista to someone on Fiverr. Registration is free—just create your profile and start browsing the catalog to find a specific service or seller. Find your perfect match and place an order to set the terms and get your project D.O.N.E.
#4 Filmora: Cut video like a boss.
Video is the key to grabbing attention in the market. Social platforms report consistently high watch rates for video. Most businesses, however, do not have the luxury of adding a full-time videographer to the team. Enter Filmora. This video editing tool is easy to learn and use—and you don’t have to be a pro video editor to do it. You’ll love Filmora’s interface for cutting, trimming, and transitioning. All your viewers will see is high-quality video that delivers the best of your brand in a professional package.
#5 Zubtitle: Caption video like a boss.
Once you’ve created the perfect video, you’ll want your viewers to see it and take in the message. That’s where Zubtitle comes in. It automatically adds headlines and transcribed captions onto the video—which is essential. Because all those people who view video posts more so than read plain text posts? Those same people watch most of their video without sound. Zubtitle bridges the gap. Simply upload your finished video, review the titles and captions, choose the font and color palette that matches your brand… and viola! Your video will get not only be seen but heard, with or without the sound. One other perk: Zubtitle resizes your video to the proper dimensions for each social platform all at once.
#6 Lumen5: Micro-content like a boss.
The best marketers make the most of the content they create. They take an event and write an article about it. They take a blog post and rework it for social. And with Lumen5, you can take any piece of existing content and create a video of it. Same message, just automatically packaged as a custom video created from Lumen5’s media library of photos, video clips, and audio files. You can also select colors and fonts and even upload your logo. This tool gets the most out of your content creation.
