Business Tools Archives - Page 5 of 5

Okay, I’ll confess, this post is a bit off the beaten track. My friend and former colleague, Kat Von Rohr, gave me the idea for this post. She mentioned that she did a Google search for “Leadpages copywriter” and my listing as a Leadpages Conversion Marketing Certified Professional came up on the first page.

Yeah, that’s pretty cool.

At last check, I am one of two people on that list who use the word “copy” in their title, and the only person who uses the word “copywriter.” I guess that explains that. Thanks, Google.

For those of you who may not know, I come by the title of “Leadpages copywriter” legitimately. I used to work for Leadpages, as a copywriter. I’m now going to rave about why I love Leadpages and why you should be using it in your own business.

Yes, this is a crass, commercial blog post, but I get to do those every once in a while.

So, here are the 5 top reasons (in my humble opinion) that all of you should be using Leadpages as one of your primary online business tools.

1. Thank You Pages

I know it seems silly to start with what is normally the end of a lead or sales funnel, but I probably make more Thank You pages than any other type of landing page.

Why?

Because I use them for every content upgrade I put on my blog. If you’ve ever downloaded a checklist or a cheat sheet from one of my blog posts, you’ve seen my Thank You pages. They look like this:

Honestly, this is very similar to how the original template looks. I think I added my logo, changed the text, removed one of the “speaker” sections and added my own picture and comment.

But now that I’ve got it set up, I duplicate it every time I need a new Thank You page, change the text and social media links, and I’m done. I attach it to the Leadbox for the week’s content upgrade, and it’s ready to go. (Don’t worry, I’ll rave about Leadboxes further down in this post.)

Thank You pages are useful, because they can lead to another action, even after someone has opted into your email list or made a purchase. The Thank You page above encourages my subscribers to share my blog posts with their friends, which helps grow my list.

By the way, if you click on the content upgrade at the end of this post, you’ll see the newest Thank You page in my collection.

2. Leadpages Makes It Easier to Write Your Copy

This is true. Leadpages wants you to be successful. They’ve made it easier for you to write good copy, even if you’re not a trained, persuasive copywriter, like me.

The great thing about Leadpages templates is, you know exactly how much copy you need for any given space. You don’t have to stick to the amount of text in the template. But generally speaking, you have a pretty good idea of how much copy to add, because every template is already optimized for conversion.

By the way, this idea was given to me by the fabulous (and aforementioned) Kat Von Rohr.

Every Leadpages template comes complete with some form of advertising copy. (I wrote several of these when I was there, so I know it’s good copy.) Even if you have no earthly idea what to write, you can find a template that is designed for your industry and customize what is there to your business.

I don’t recommend using the Leadpages template copy verbatim, that’s bad for SEO and will ultimately reflect poorly on your business. But you can look at what is in the template and craft your own message around that.

For those of you who are copywriters, having these templates can be very freeing. You can delete whatever is there and insert your own text, or you can adapt and improve the text to your needs.

3. Create Your Own Website

Yes, you can build a website entirely out of Leadpages templates. I’ve done it. As an example, here’s the Home page for my music website:

I am not a designer or a developer. I learned HTML when rocks were new, and I’m not very good at it. But I managed to build this website, despite that fact. I’ve done it for other businesses as well.

Leadpages templates are incredibly versatile. You can turn sections on and off in the Standard builder. The Drag-and-Drop builder lets you move sections around to customize the look. You can change images, colors, logos, add sections, whatever you want to do.

There are several template sets that go together to create category and detail pages. There are also templates that can work as one long website. So, if you’ve been frustrated by the fact that you need a new website and you don’t want to pay a huge amount of money to build one, use Leadpages templates.

There are several ways to get your new pages onto your website, including the Leadpages WordPress plugin and exporting the HTML.

4. Automatic Lead Magnet Delivery

A lot of email service providers (ESPs) let you upload your lead magnet to their system and deliver it as part of your automation sequence. But if you use a free version of these ESPs, or your ESP doesn’t offer this service, how do you get your Lead Magnet to the people who requested it?

Leadpages lets you upload your lead magnet to their system and they will deliver it automatically, as soon as someone opts into your email list. You can customize the email and add links to your website, sales landing page, or wherever you want to send people next.

You can send just about any file type, including Word documents, PDFs, images, ZIP files and MP3s. If you’re sending something like an entire course, with video, audio and document files, it’s probably better for your lead magnet to be a PDF with links to these items. (FYI, this is what Leadpages does for their courses.)

This feature saves me a lot of time and dithering when it comes to sending my lead magnets. I just upload the file, write my email and click “save.” They send the lead magnet every time someone enters an email address in one of my Leadboxes.

Speaking of which, I saved the best reason for last…

5. Leadboxes

A Leadbox is the Leadpages proprietary, 2-step opt-in form. They’re built into every landing page template. You can also make stand-alone Leadboxes and add them to any web page you have control of. (I’ve even added them to LinkedIn Pulse articles.)

I use Leadboxes every time I offer a content upgrade. In fact, if you look below, you’ll see a bright red button. If you click on it, that’s your example of a Leadbox. It’s a very simple, attractive opt-in form.

You can connect a Leadbox with a text link (like that), use a pre-generated button, like the one below, or link it to the image of your choice. Put these anywhere on a web page, and you’re ready to collect names, email addresses and anything other information you want to gather.

You can customize your image and headline, as well as your form fields. If you can add the form field in your ESP, you can add it to a Leadbox. Leadpages integrates with several different ESPs and CRMs, so you’ll have plenty of options.

Since we’re talking about Leadboxes, I recommend you click on the button below (or one of the links above) to download my current lead magnet, “The Top 5 Reasons to Use Leadpages for Your Business.” I’ll also send you a free email course on how to build your mailing list. You don’t need a Leadpages account to use this course, but it sure will help.

No, Really, You Should Get a Leadpages Account for Your Business

As I mentioned above, I am a Leadpages copywriter. I use my Leadpages account at least 3-4 times a week for myself and for clients. If you don’t want to get your own account, but want me to create landing pages for you, I’m happy to do that. Contact me and we can discuss what you need.

If you are a copywriter and want to be able to make landing pages for yourself and for clients quickly and easily, get a Leadpages account.

If you run your own business and want to grow your email list, build an easy website and promote your products and services, get a Leadpages account.

If you work for a company that wants to do anything listed above, talk to your boss about getting a Leadpages account.

If you’re worried about committing to Leadpages, they offer a 30-day, money back, no questions asked guarantee. Try it for 30 days. If you don’t like it, they’ll give you a full refund.

I’ll Give You an Extra Incentive to Get Your Own Leadpages Account

Yes, I’m pushing Leadpages hard. Yes, I am an affiliate, so I will benefit if you click on any of the Leadpages links in this post. But I wouldn’t recommend this service if I didn’t believe in it. I do. I know it will help you grow your business, because it’s helped me grow mine.

So, here’s a little extra incentive to get, and use, your own account.

Purchase your Leadpages annual account by clicking on one of the links on this page, between now and May 1^st, then send me your purchase confirmation receipt. I’ll review the first 3 landing pages or Leadboxes you make. Or, if you build a website, I’ll review up to 5 pages.

I am a trained persuasive copywriter, a Leadpages Conversion Marketing Certified Professional and I used to work for the company. I know what I’m talking about, and I can help you succeed with your marketing.

By the way, Leadpages used to offer reviews as one of their incentives, but they don’t anymore. If you sign up for an account through me, you’ll get a valuable service that the company no longer offers.

Get your Leadpages annual account now to start building your list and growing your company.

One of the biggest hurdles to overcome when running your own business is finding the time to do all the stuff that it takes to run your business. The day-to-day work can be overwhelming.

Fortunately, there are a lot of companies that create business tools to make it easier for us small business owners to do what we love.

Here are three of the business tools I use every day.

Timely

Keeping track of how much time I spend on any given project has always been an issue for me. I’d vaguely observe what time it was when I started and vaguely estimate how much time I’d spent when I was done. Not terribly efficient.

Enter Timely.

I looked at, and tried, a few different time tracking apps before I settled on Timely as one of my regular business tools. I like it because it is sleek, easy to use and gives me exactly what I need to keep track of time spent on each project, but doesn’t pile on a bunch of extra stuff I’ll never use, or that I already have through other apps and programs.

Timely lets me track my working hours by project and client. I can bill different projects at different rates, if I need to. I can also set a certain amount of money or a specific amount of time for a project, and Timely will tell me when I’ve gone over that amount, and by how much.

Because I typically bill by the project, this helps me determine how much I ‘really’ made per hour when I go over my allotted time or budget. It’s good for helping me estimate future projects and noting if the number of hours for the project need to change.

I can also look at reports on what I’ve done. This helps me keep track of the project and what I need to do next. I can also export the report in Excel or as a PDF, to send to clients.

Timely integrates with several apps, including Google Calendar, Trello, GitHub, Asana and Office 365. Timely will automatically enter the time I spent on work appointments. This is great if I forget to start the timer once I’m on a call, or at a meeting.

Timely also has great customer support. Any time I have an issue or I’m confused by something, they’re always quick to respond with useful information or to help me fix the problem.

Timely offers a free plan, but it limits the number of projects you can have running at a given time. It also allows for multiple users, depending on the plan you choose.

Timely is keeping me on track, by tracking the amount of time I spend on each project. It’s fantastic. Learn more about Timely here.

Calendly

Setting appointments is one of my least favorite time-wasters. I hate sending emails back and forth with, “Can you meet at 2:30 on Thursday?” Only to hear back that Thursday won’t work, but how about next Monday.

To avoid all of this, I use Calendly. It’s a fantastic scheduling app that integrates with my Google Calendar. I just send someone a Calendly link for the appropriate type of appointment, they go to the app, choose a time we’re both available, and book the appointment.

We’re both sent a calendar invite, which goes right into my calendar, so I don’t forget. I can schedule reminder emails to go to the person who booked the appointment, so they don’t forget either. They can cancel the appointment from the reminder emails if something comes up, and Calendly prompts them to reschedule immediately.

On my end, I can send different appointment types of varying lengths, with buffer times on either end to make sure I don’t overlap appointments. I can control the times clients can schedule appointments, and I can block off certain days if I know I’ll be unavailable.

It’s a pretty slick system.

Calendly integrates with several apps and programs, including Drip, Salesforce and Zapier. They also have an API key and webhooks available for those who are more proficient at programming than I am.

Calendly does offer a free account, but your appointments will have Calendly branding on them. It’s not terribly intrusive. If you only have one event type (one type and length of appointment you need scheduled) it’s a great free scheduling solution.

If you have multiple event types, like I do, want to send appointment reminders and integrate with other apps, you’ll have to go with a paid account. The Premium account is $10 a month or $96 a year, per user.

Calendly has made my life a lot easier when it comes to scheduling appointments with clients and I recommend it highly. Learn more about Calendly here.

Quickbooks Online

I’ve used Quickbooks to handle my billing for years. Before that, (back in the dark ages) I used Excel spreadsheets. Not a fun game, I don’t recommend it unless you’re really good at Excel spreadsheets. I’m not.

Life in general has moved online. So has Quickbooks. It’s a fairly simple system to use, especially if you’ve used Quickbooks in the past.

I can create and email invoices to clients from the desktop interface. I enter a client’s contact information and Quickbooks sets up the email for me, then sends it when I’m ready. I can create recurring invoices and send them monthly to my retainer clients. They go out automatically, so I don’t have to think about them.

I have control over how the invoices look, including adding my logo, changing colors and specifying which columns and fields appear on the invoice. It’s very similar to designing an invoice in the desktop version of Quickbooks.

I can also accept payment via Quickbooks. I had to sign up for this service, and there are fees. It’s 50 cents per direct deposit and 3.5% of a credit card payment. But it’s worth it to have clients pay directly from their invoices.

All of my business bank account transactions are downloaded into Quickbooks, so I can manage everything in one place. The download interface is easy to use, though it took me a few times to get used to using it. Quickbooks automatically enters any payments made through its system into my checking register, as well as the fees it takes for letting me use that system.

Quickbooks offers a free 30-day trial. I pay about $16 a month for the version I use. There are several different versions, depending on the size of your business, number of users, etc.

Using Quickbooks online has made my billing and accounting much easier. Learn more about Quickbooks here.

What Productivity Business Tools Do You Recommend?

I hope this round-up of business tools to increase your productivity helps. I’ll keep doing these posts as I have more tools to pass along. Meanwhile, what business tools do you use? I’d love to hear about them. Perhaps I’ll end up adopting them myself, and mentioning them in one of my future posts.

My Top 5 Reasons Why I Love Leadpages and Use It Every Week as a Copywriter