Here is a quick list of 18 of my favorite tools and platforms that we used to grow Beard Club to $10M in revenue in our first year!
Not all of these tools will be a fit for your organization depending on the size (and what you are likely already using anyways), but I guarantee there are at least a couple hidden gems for you in this list:
Gsuite – G-Suite is by far the best way to organize your entire business. I recommend creating multiple folders within google drive to organize everything in your business from content, to operations, fulfilment, advertising and more. You can also easily share and collaborate on documents of various types with your entire team and run your email from Gmail. G-Suite makes everything easy and connected. I personally have never liked Dropbox for storage and wouldn’t recommend it because you will end up using Google docs anyways.
Google Analytics – GA gives you absolutely incredible reporting tools to gauge your acquisition effectiveness at the best price points in the industry. It has its limitations, but Google is really an incredible resource for enough information to scale your business without having to spend a considerable amount on analytics platforms. Most people are already familiar with Google Analytics but they have made a lot of great improvements recently to offer amazing reporting tools for entrepreneurs at an insane bargain!
PressRush – This is a very unique service where you can gain access to a massive database of journalists and reporters, and actually contact them directly through the platform. It still requires a level of finesse to get replies, but if you have a great pitch, PressRush lets you deliver it.
Slack – If you aren’t already using it, Slack is an absolute necessity for team communication and organization. The amount of integrations that are available for Slack make it an absolutely unreal tool for storing and organizing all team communications and information. I won’t work on a team unless we have slack in place.
Referralcandy – Referral Candy is a great platform for creating a customer referral program as well as running an influencer marketing or affiliate marketing program. It is not the most robust of the platforms out there, however the value you get for the cost is absolutely unreal. I would recommend starting here if you are contemplating testing out these acquisition strategies for your business.
Clickfunnels – This is an incredible software for creating landing pages, lead magnets, and much much more. Clickfunnels is an amazing tool that can save you a lot of time and money in setting up funnels that work. You can even bypass your whole website and run your business from here. The training that comes along with the software is also second to none.
Contest Domination – this is a great tool for running competitions that drive engagement, capture emails, and amplify your social media influence. There are multiple ways to make use of the platform, and we have done extremely well by running a variety of contests with Contest Domination
Active Campaign – Active Campaign is the service that i use for Retention Hacks. It is a CRM and ESP all in one for a really great price. I would highly suggest you sign up for a free trial and check them out, they are my favorite ESP!
Mailchimp – Mailchimp is probably one of the most user friendly email service providers out there. The sheer simplicity and reliability of the platform makes it a great choice for any organization in the earlier phases of their business.
Leadpages – leadpages is very similar to Clickfunnels, but has some different features and sometimes simpler integration capabilities to other systems. We use Leadpages to make all of our landing pages with The Beard Club, but I have used Clickfunnels with other launches.
Buffer – Buffer is a social media management tool that lets you organize, manage, pre-schedule and post content on multiple social media accounts. It also has tons of features where you can monitor and manage your social media mentions, comments, etc and also check in on valuable social media metrics and data
Baremetrics – If you have a subscription business, baremetrics is an incredible tool for giving you easy access to vital metrics like MRR, LTV, Churn, and dozens of other important subscription metrics.
Zapier – this is an incredible tool that essentially helps you connect everything with everything else. It is a powerful automation tool that serves as a connection platform for making thousands of amazing tools work properly with one another.
Looker – This is an incredible tool for business intelligence and decision making purposes. It is one of the best business data solutions on the market, and I would highly recommend looking into how it can help your business make great decisions.
Upwork – When you need just about anything done, Upwork is an incredible marketplace of people willing to do whatever it is. We have found some epic contractors through Upwork, and I still routinely use it whenever I need help with something in a pinch. Just be careful in your selection process and remember to look at the ratings of contractors and you will be fine!
Fiverr – Similar to Upwork, Fiverr is a great resource for finding writers, graphic designers, developers, videographers and more. It’s an epic platform that can save you a LOT of money. You will likely have to sort through and seriously vette a number of job applicants before you find the right person as a word of caution…lots of lower tier freelancers on there, but worth a search!
Zoom: This is probably my favorite video conferencing app out of any on the market. The call quality and simplicity make it my clear choice for calls and meetings with remote teams or with partners and vendors.
What tools and platforms are you using that you have found super useful? Leave us a comment below or reach out to us on Facebook or Twitter!
Not all of these tools will be a fit for your organization depending on the size (and what you are likely already using anyways), but I guarantee there are at least a couple hidden gems for you in this list:
Gsuite – G-Suite is by far the best way to organize your entire business. I recommend creating multiple folders within google drive to organize everything in your business from content, to operations, fulfilment, advertising and more. You can also easily share and collaborate on documents of various types with your entire team and run your email from Gmail. G-Suite makes everything easy and connected. I personally have never liked Dropbox for storage and wouldn’t recommend it because you will end up using Google docs anyways.
Google Analytics – GA gives you absolutely incredible reporting tools to gauge your acquisition effectiveness at the best price points in the industry. It has its limitations, but Google is really an incredible resource for enough information to scale your business without having to spend a considerable amount on analytics platforms. Most people are already familiar with Google Analytics but they have made a lot of great improvements recently to offer amazing reporting tools for entrepreneurs at an insane bargain!
PressRush – This is a very unique service where you can gain access to a massive database of journalists and reporters, and actually contact them directly through the platform. It still requires a level of finesse to get replies, but if you have a great pitch, PressRush lets you deliver it.
Slack – If you aren’t already using it, Slack is an absolute necessity for team communication and organization. The amount of integrations that are available for Slack make it an absolutely unreal tool for storing and organizing all team communications and information. I won’t work on a team unless we have slack in place.
Referralcandy – Referral Candy is a great platform for creating a customer referral program as well as running an influencer marketing or affiliate marketing program. It is not the most robust of the platforms out there, however the value you get for the cost is absolutely unreal. I would recommend starting here if you are contemplating testing out these acquisition strategies for your business.
Clickfunnels – This is an incredible software for creating landing pages, lead magnets, and much much more. Clickfunnels is an amazing tool that can save you a lot of time and money in setting up funnels that work. You can even bypass your whole website and run your business from here. The training that comes along with the software is also second to none.
Contest Domination – this is a great tool for running competitions that drive engagement, capture emails, and amplify your social media influence. There are multiple ways to make use of the platform, and we have done extremely well by running a variety of contests with Contest Domination
Active Campaign – Active Campaign is the service that i use for Retention Hacks. It is a CRM and ESP all in one for a really great price. I would highly suggest you sign up for a free trial and check them out, they are my favorite ESP!
Mailchimp – Mailchimp is probably one of the most user friendly email service providers out there. The sheer simplicity and reliability of the platform makes it a great choice for any organization in the earlier phases of their business.
Leadpages – leadpages is very similar to Clickfunnels, but has some different features and sometimes simpler integration capabilities to other systems. We use Leadpages to make all of our landing pages with The Beard Club, but I have used Clickfunnels with other launches.
Buffer – Buffer is a social media management tool that lets you organize, manage, pre-schedule and post content on multiple social media accounts. It also has tons of features where you can monitor and manage your social media mentions, comments, etc and also check in on valuable social media metrics and data
Baremetrics – If you have a subscription business, baremetrics is an incredible tool for giving you easy access to vital metrics like MRR, LTV, Churn, and dozens of other important subscription metrics.
Zapier – this is an incredible tool that essentially helps you connect everything with everything else. It is a powerful automation tool that serves as a connection platform for making thousands of amazing tools work properly with one another.
Looker – This is an incredible tool for business intelligence and decision making purposes. It is one of the best business data solutions on the market, and I would highly recommend looking into how it can help your business make great decisions.
Upwork – When you need just about anything done, Upwork is an incredible marketplace of people willing to do whatever it is. We have found some epic contractors through Upwork, and I still routinely use it whenever I need help with something in a pinch. Just be careful in your selection process and remember to look at the ratings of contractors and you will be fine!
Fiverr – Similar to Upwork, Fiverr is a great resource for finding writers, graphic designers, developers, videographers and more. It’s an epic platform that can save you a LOT of money. You will likely have to sort through and seriously vette a number of job applicants before you find the right person as a word of caution…lots of lower tier freelancers on there, but worth a search!
Zoom: This is probably my favorite video conferencing app out of any on the market. The call quality and simplicity make it my clear choice for calls and meetings with remote teams or with partners and vendors.
What tools and platforms are you using that you have found super useful? Leave us a comment below or reach out to us on Facebook or Twitter!
