From productive apps to mail-inspired playlists, we’ve reviewed our most beloved marketing tools of the year:
Organizational
Trello: Interactive boards and cards allow users to organize tasks, track projects and collaborate with other members in a fun and easy way. Midwest jumped on the Trello bandwagon a few months ago, and it’s been a great experience so far! Team members have created boards to help organize projects and tasks, allowing others to not only collaborate with them but also have a deeper understanding of the hard work each of us does every day.
Sortd: A free Google Chrome extension that turns your Gmail inbox into Trello-like cards, allowing you to prioritize emails, create tasks, set deadlines, add notes, and more. Once you download it, you’ll be hooked!
Crowdfire:For businesses that only have one or two social media profiles, platforms such as Hootsuite may seem expensive and unnecessary. We found scheduling our social media posts through Crowdfire to be fun and easy, with great predictions on when to post based on when our followers are online. One of the best things about Crowdfire (aside from their fun interface) is their friendly bot, who reminds you to complete your daily tasks and even finds suggestions for what to post.
LSI Keyword Generator: SEO is always top-of-mind when creating new content for our site. When writing about the mailing and print industry, however, it becomes hard to predict good keywords that others may be using in searches for similar content. The LSI Keyword Generator tool is a bookmark-worthy tool for any marketer — simply enter in a keyword of interest, and the tool will generate similar LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) long-tail keywords to incorporate into your content and metadata for increased organic traffic.
Wizy.io Form Workflow Add-On: Between content writing, graphics, proofreading, printing, and mailing coordination, it can quickly become difficult to keep track of what needs to be done to complete a project on time. We love this free Chrome extension, which creates a workflow approval process using Google Forms. By tracking approvals and moving project coordination away from dreaded email chains, our project turnaround time has greatly improved!
Fun
Google Earth View: Turning everyday functions, such as opening a new tab in Google Chrome, into something beautiful is what makes this extension a marketing team favorite! From the Mohave desert to a farming town in Idaho, these gorgeous Google Earth satellite shots help us to appreciate the beauty of our world as we sit at our desks (and sometimes inspire future travel destinations).
Art of the Title:Do you get goosebumps each time you watch the opening sequence to Stranger Things or wonder who came up with the idea for the Guardians of the Galaxy intro? You’re not alone! This site digs deep into the creative process behind some of the best movie and TV show title sequences, which are truly art forms of their own. It’s a great excuse for a mini-mental break or a way to get your own creative juices flowing.
Emergency Compliment: Whether you spilled coffee on your white shirt or just woke up on the wrong side of the bed, we all have days when it’s hard to get out of a negative funk. Randomly generating these hilarious emergency compliments is the perfect way to turn your frown upside down!
YouTube – Download Gary’s Music to Mail By Playlist! We use YouTube in many ways at Midwest – to watch helpful webinars, refresh ourselves on a Photoshop function, cheer ourselves up with kitten videos, and start our Mondays on a motivational note. Sometimes, we even have fun with what we add on our own YouTube channel! We've put together a list of our favorite mail-themed songs for your listening (and mailing) pleasure in our Music to Mail By playlist.
Creative
Unsplash: One of our favorite sites for free, high-resolution stock photos, with a beautiful interface to boot! Unsplash has helped us produce engaging graphics for our marketing purposes, all without spending a dime.
BeFunky:Thanks to this free browser-based collage maker and photo editor, we are able to edit images in a pinch when we don’t have access to Photoshop. The program is easy to use, with plenty of options for filters, borders and image touch-ups.
Canva: Having templates for social media posts, flyers, infographics, and posters at our fingertips makes Canva a beloved site for many marketers! We have utilized Canva’s poster templates for the past few months to promote employee luncheons and events around the office – we love the option to download as print-ready PDFs with crop and bleed marks!
Flaticon: You never know when you’ll need to find a series of icons to make infographics, presentations or banner advertisements pop. Flaticon is our go-to for free, vector-based icons in just about every category imaginable.
There is an abundance of resources out there for marketers and these are only a few of them. Read about our other favorite marketing tools here.
