We’ve curated a list of the best tools and resources for social media, advertising and sales funnels that we can recommend for your small business.
Disclaimer: some of the links below are affiliate links, and we may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you purchase one of them with this link. Please know that we only recommend these tools because we know and love them and have used them in our business. Full details can be found on this disclosure page.
For Social Media Scheduling
Tailwind
Tailwind is our #1 Instagram and Pinterest tool for scheduling, reporting and promotions. It has a free option if you want to sign up and try it, and it’s been a key tool that we’ve used to grow our own social media accounts.
Crowdfire
Crowdfire is one of the best value schedulers on the market, and great if you are promoting across multiple platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. It’s content curation features makes it easy for you to keep your feed fresh with viral posts, and also gives you the opportunity to get your content shared by other marketers if they love the look of it, and go viral!
Sked Social
If you are 100% dedicated to Instagram as your social media channel of choice, Sked Social is the one to opt for. It’s scheduling features are designed specifically for the platform.
For Building A Sales Funnel
Clickfunnels
Clickfunnels is an amazing marketing platform that will give you the tools you need to build any type of sales funnel for your business. The beauty of this is that you can actually run a completely viable and profitable online business from Clickfunnels, without the need to even launch a website. They have a two-week free trial, but because it’s so feature-rich I’d recommend signing up to their funnel training first so you can really make the most of the platform.
Unbounce
Unbounce is one of the best value landing page tools on the market and has every feature you could ask for when it comes to developing beautiful looking optin pages. Since funnel platforms are probably one of the biggest investments you’ll make in your business, it’s definitely worth signing up for their 2-week free trial.
For Boosting Online Sales
Proof
Proof can have a big positive impact on sales. You might have actually seen this tool before, as it’s a little pop up that appears on sales pages showing you other people around the globe who recently purchased it. Since social proof is such a critical factor in securing any online sale, it’s a no-brainer in terms of an investment for your business.
Samcart
Samcart is an amazing platform for boosting sales, using smart technology to bring fence-sitters back to the sales page and converting them. Sign up to this free masterclass from the Samcart team for a real-life demo in how a 1-page website using their platform can dramatically transform sales for a small business.
For Growing An Email List
OptinMonster
Optin Monster is our #1 recommendation for list building as our own list growth doubled within 3 months of switching to this tool! It has so many fantastic features including content upgrades, popups, exit intent and full screen overlays that it should be your first port of call if you’re in that frustrating position of getting decent website traffic but not getting the list growth you anticipated (they also have their Optinmonster university with tons of online training to help you make the most of their features).
Hellobar
Hellobar is a really simple little bar that you can add to the top of your website to capture signups. If you have only just set up your website and want a quick and easy way to start building your email list, this is a really good choice and very easy to set up if you aren’t technical.
ConvertKit
Convertkit is our preferred email autoresponder, and one of the reasons we love it is because you can tag everyone who signs up to your email list, and tailor your marketing and promotional messages accordingly. This is vital if you are in a business that has more than one type of customer avatar and really want to laser-target your promotions to your audience.
For Social Media And Graphics Design
Graphics Design Udemy Course
Udemy has absolutely hundreds of training courses on using graphics design, but if you want something that’s for non-designers to just show you the ropes then this is the one we’d recommend.
Kimi Kinsey
Kimi Kinsey is a fantastic designer and she has a brilliant training course on how to use fonts to create professional graphics for your website and for social media. You might not think you need to know that much about typography, but after taking the course you’ll realize just how big a role it plays in making your designs look beautiful and professional!
Depositphotos
Depositphotos is our favorite source for low-priced stock photography, and we’ll always recommend you use paid stock photos over free (if you can afford it) as it’ll give your social media posts a far better chance of going viral (if you do need free stock photos, see our ultimate list of free stock photo websites here).
Canva
Canva is a free and easy graphics tool that I use almost daily for my business, and if you haven’t done so already, sign up for an account. It doesn’t have the depth of features that more sophisticated design tools might have, but for those of us who are running a business and aren’t professional designers, it’s got everything you’ll need.
For Social Media Promotions
Shortstack
Shortstack is the tool for running an Instagram competition so if you plan on that type of promotion in the near future, make sure to sign up for their free trial.
Publicfast
Publicfast has a great database of social media influencers and should be your first choice before running any influencer marketing campaign (if you want to know how to use Instagram influencers to grow your online business, take a look at our guide here).
For Outsourcing
Fiverr Professional Services
Fiverr has many high-quality professionals offering competitively priced packages – offering everything from design, copywriting, to tech support, that it’s a vital resource to any business startup. We have used Fiverr many times for things like website tech support and have always had a 5-star experience from every single professional we’ve dealt with.
Fantastic Marketing Training
One Funnel Away Challenge (from Clickfunnels)
One Funnel Away Challenge has such high-quality funnel training that you’d be crazy to miss out on it if you really want to use funnels to grow your business. We’d buy it just for the added 30-day challenge bonus – it has so many invaluable tips from top experts in lots of different niches (these top marketers are giving the “what if” scenario “if you lost everything tomorrow and had to start from scratch, what would you do?” and some of the strategies they share are incredibly useful to know)