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Manage Social Media Like a Boss with Only 3 Tools (and all for Under $50/month)

As a boutique marketing agency owner, I’ve seen firsthand how important it is to stay organized, efficient, and within budget. That’s why I’ve tried and tested countless online tools to find the most cost-effective options that deliver exceptional results. In this post, I’m sharing my top three affordable online tools that arguably could be your only toolset for complete social media or content management – and all for under $50 a month!

Canva – The Ultimate Design Tool

Canva isn’t exactly unknown – in fact by now, your mom has probably heard of Canva. But the hype is warranted. If you’re looking for an online design tool that delivers professional-grade graphics without needing a design degree, Canva is your answer. This incredible tool is packed with features that allow you to create visually stunning designs, even if you have no design experience. From social media graphics to email headers, Canva’s templates, and drag-and-drop interface make it easy to create beautiful designs that will captivate your audience.

With Canva, you can customize your designs with your brand’s colors, fonts, and logos, making it an essential tool for maintaining brand consistency across all your marketing materials.

Why I love it:

I am a trained Graphic Designer and know all industry-leading software like the back of my hand. But sometimes less is more, and when trying to get content out the door, Canva is the “work smarter, not harder” option for me. I love that you can pre-enter multiple brand guides and easily switch between them. I love how easy it is to access stock photography, design, elements, etc. Plus, the pricing for this tool starts at FREE. Though if you can afford it, the paid plans (starting at $16.99 CAD) offer so many additional features it’s definitely worth it.

Plann That – The Social Media Scheduling Tool

If you’re still manually scheduling your social media posts, you’re wasting valuable time that could be better spent on other tasks. That’s where Plann That comes in. This incredible social media scheduling tool allows you to plan and schedule your posts in advance, saving you time and helping you stay on top of your social media game. Plann That even integrates directly with Canva from within the platform.

Plann That offers a user-friendly interface that allows you to drag and drop your posts, add captions, and hashtags, and even plan your Instagram feed visually. Plus, with Plann That, you’ll never miss a post or forget to engage with your followers again.

Why I love it:

I really like the aesthetic of Plann That. Sure, there are loads of other scheduling software that do the same thing. But as a designer working in Plann That is a delight on the eyes. It’s also not bloated with a bunch of functionality you probably don’t need. But the features that it does offer are super helpful. I love the Strategy feature where you can add your Client’s themes and develop a content strategy. I love how you can visually see how your feeds will look so you can plan aesthetically (this is important to me). And finally, I love the hashtag feature – where you can search for or create hashtag sets that can easily be added to your posts. Plann That starts at $15/month – so if you are just starting out, this is a great cost-effective option.

Dashthis – The Reporting Tool You Need

As a marketing agency, you must be able to provide your clients with detailed and accurate reports demonstrating your services’ value. This is where Dashthis comes in. This online reporting tool allows you to create custom reports that integrate all your marketing data into one place. With Dashthis, you can easily create reports highlighting your successes and showing your clients how their investment is paying off.

Dashthis integrates with all the major marketing platforms like Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, and more, making it easy to gather all your data in one place. Plus, with its intuitive drag-and-drop interface, you can create custom reports in minutes, saving you time and helping you deliver exceptional value to your clients.

Why I love it:

I think Dashthis flies under the radar for most marketers, but it’s a super powerful tool. One of the features I really like about Dashthis is the ability to make year-over-year comparisons. As many of our clients are located in Whistler, it is more important to compare this December to last December rather than month-over-month comparisons, which are the standard (and limitation) for most reporting software. Also, it offers the ability to create custom client dashboards that you can link directly to, making it easy to share with Clients. It’s not as robust as some analytic and reporting software out there – but for the average client, it will be more than enough. Starting at $33/month, Dashthis is a great low-risk option for newbies.

In Conclusion

Canva, Plann That, and Dashthis combined offer a pretty solid and complete toolset for those looking to manage social media or content in general – and are perfect for small business owners, solopreneurs, social media managers, or consultants who are just starting out or don’t have much capital to invest in fancy-pants software. These tools will help you stay organized and efficient and deliver exceptional results to your clients without breaking the bank. Your monthly investment could be as low as $50 per month at the starting prices for each. So, do you need to spend hundreds of dollars monthly on social media management tools to do a great job? No, absolutely not. Of course, those fancy tools do have some serious perks – but unless you are managing several higher-profile clients, the bloat probably isn’t worth the buck.

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The impact of AI on digital marketing in 2023
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The Impact of AI on Digital Marketing

AI is quickly becoming one of the most powerful tools in the digital marketing world, and its use for content development is becoming increasingly popular. AI analyzes existing content, generates new content, and optimizes content for search engine rankings. In this blog post, we’ll explore how AI is used for content development and how it can impact digital marketing.

First and foremost, AI can analyze existing content and determine where it can be improved. This is done through natural language processing. It uses AI to understand the scope and identify how it can be improved, from grammar and spelling to more complex analysis, such as keyword optimization. This analysis can help marketers ensure their content is of the highest quality and is optimized for search engine rankings.

AI can also be used to generate new content. AI-driven bots, such as chatbots and virtual assistants, can create unique, engaging content for websites, social media, and other platforms. These bots can understand natural language and generate content tailored to users’ needs. For example, a virtual assistant could generate FAQs based on customer questions and provide relevant information.

Finally, AI can be used to optimize content for search engine rankings. AI-driven tools such as Google Rankbrain can analyze existing content and suggest changes that can improve its search engine rankings. This can help marketers ensure their content is seen by the right audience and drives more organic traffic to their website.

Overall, AI is revolutionizing how we create content, and its use for content development is becoming increasingly popular. AI can help marketers analyze existing content, generate new content, and optimize content for search engine rankings. This can help marketers ensure their content is of the highest quality and is seen by the right audience. AI is quickly becoming a powerful tool in digital marketing, and its use for content development will only grow in the future.

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Productivity Apps To Get Things Done

Productivity is personal. Whether you’re looking for a way to take better notes or track your hours at work, it’s time to take advantage of technology to do more in less time. You don’t have to look any further than your computer or smartphone to make simple and easy improvements for both in the office and at home.

Here are five apps that increase productivity in your everyday life:

1. Hive

How we use it: Project management

Why we love it: Hive’s productivity platform is one of the best project management tools on the market. Team members can check their to-do lists, communicate with one another in real-time, collaborate on schedules, share files, and check up on the latest project progress. When synced with Hive’s desktop and web applications, the mobile app provides yet another way to improve work ethic and productivity throughout the day.

Cost: Free to download. Hive Teams begins at $12/month per user.
Hive Solo is free forever for up to 2 users.

Download For: iOs, Android / Desktop

 

2. Todoist

How we use it: A time-management app that’s a great choice for small teams

Why we love it: Todoist is a simple task manager app that allows you to record and group tasks together based on projects. Todoist provides functionality in time management and to-do lists, with an element of project management. Despite its multiple features and uses, the tool remains easy to use. This makes collaborating with teams over multiple projects a breeze, and for us, visual learners; shows deliverables at a glance.

Cost: Free for the basic version (limited projects)
Premium version is $3.99 monthly or $35.99 annually

Download For: iOS, Android, Mac / Windows Desktop

 

3. Google Docs

How we use it: Collaborating on documents

Why we love it: Google Docs is one of the best tools for sharing documents and collaborating in real-time. This online word processor eliminates the need to save and send files back and forth when writing and editing a document. Depending on your settings, projects can be shared inside and outside of your organization. Google Sheets has similar benefits, such as the ability to import CSV into Google Sheets, which lets you keep all of your documents in one online hub.

Cost: Free

Download For: iOS / Android

 

4. Sprout Social

How we use it: Social Scheduling

Why we love it: Sprout Social is a comprehensive tool that lets companies schedule posts and campaigns across all of their social channels. View all the planned posts in a single comprehensive calendar, which is extremely helpful for aligning your campaigns, organizing your social media channels, and seeing the bigger picture. This format allows for easy communication between channels in the inbox, as well as access to post analytics.

Cost: Free 30 day trial.
The professional plan starts at $89 per month for 5 accounts managed by one login. Prices go up from there.

Download For: iOS / Android

 

5. Last Pass

Now it’s time to give your customer a name and a face. This might be strange, but it will help crystalize the idea of the ‘human’ you will later create content and other marketing materials for. Browse through stock images and see if you can find a picture to associate with him. Do not use images of actual people, find AI-generated images of faces for privacy purposes. Try browsing https://generated.photos/ for ideas.

How we use it: Storing and managing passwords

Why we love it: How much time do you waste every day manually signing into various accounts and searching for forgotten passwords? Last Pass is a password management app that stores all of your digital passwords in one place, making it easy to log into all of your various accounts while also keeping your digital information secure. Last Pass uses a browser extension to keep information secure on your computer, and their mobile app is a life-saver for people who are constantly on the move.

Cost: Last Pass has a free plan, but it does not include syncing across all devices.
Premium plans start at $3/month for personal use and $4/month for business teams.

Download for: Browser extension / iOS / Android

 

If productivity and marketing strategies have left you scratching your head, contact us for a free one-hour consultation. We are even more productive in person! Let Cloud 9 take your project to the next level!

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