Oh my gosh.  Asana has absolutely changes our lives at Waiting on Martha, Inc.  I honestly don’t know how we functioned without this project management tool.  If you’re part of a small business, no matter if you’re a 2-person team or crew of 10+ people, you need to be using Asana.

First, this project management dashboard lets users keep track of work on separate teams.  We separate our teams based on different arenas. Since we have the shoppe, the blog, The Well Code and more pillars of work, we keep those projects visible to only those who they pertain to. 

We then create projects within each team, with corresponding tasks within each project.  Projects and tasks can be visible to only me, or I can assign others on the team to “follow” their progress and updates too. It’s all highly customizable, and it’s actually all a bit FUN to create and structure!  To-do list lovers, this is your tool. 

Maybe my favorite features about Asana is the actionable conversations within each task.  Sometimes I need to ping MKR with a quick question or request before completing something on my plate.  I’m able to keep this in a conversation within the task, with necessary files and attachments included too.  Game-changer.

We can also keep track of our results and progress a lot easier in Asana. This is especially important for us in quarterly initiatives, blog partnership ROI reporting, etc. and eliminates our inbox overflow tenfold. #thankgoodness

P.S. Asana has a GREAT app for work on-the-go, too. 

Google Calendar is a free online calendar that is the easiest way for us to keep track of our editorial content for the blog, upcoming in-store events and promotions for the shoppe, any team members’ appointments, brand partnership calls, etc.

We have 3 different calendars (Editorial for the Blog, Shoppe work schedule for employees, and WOM All for meetings, appointments, events, birthdays, etc.) that different team members have access to.  And each separate calendar is color-coded up the wazoo, and we use this simple everyday tool in tandem with Asana.  We’ve realized how visually based we are as a team, and we appreciate the ease of access of Google Calendar for all of our scheduling needs. 

Planoly is incredibly helpful for visually planning Instagram content.  We love this tool since we take our Instagram “grids” and the flow of images very seriously. Since Instagram can really become a time-suck, it’s nice to upload pre-planned content ahead of time to allow for more time in the present.

Planoly also works for Instagram Stories, a somewhat recent update that proves my point that you should revisit apps you may or may not have used in the past.  Anyway, if you have the “Swipe Up” option on your Instagram business account for Instagram Stories, you’ll know that it also is time-consuming to upload links with images on the go.  Planoly cuts down on the time it takes to get these posts up by allowing you to add the hyperlink with the image in the dashboard.  

Ahalogy maximizes our Pinterest strategy, which is incredibly important to us as Pinterest continues to be our #1 traffic referrer to the blog.  We’re able to schedule pins for optimal posting times through the dashboard, using helpful “lift” words in our captions that Ahalogy recommends to boost our searchable content.  We can pin directly from the dashboard, and we can use a convenient bookmark widget to pull images from specific posts. 

This tool has proven to be a promising way to tackle ongoing Pinterest initiatives without taking up too much valuable time. 

Being an approved content publisher in Ahalogy has been a fruitful component of our editorial strategy, too.  We can partner with brands on sponsored content and use Ahalogy’s impressive content analysis and data tracking to make it a successful, mutually beneficial collaboration. 

We’ve used this editorial marketing calendar for years now.  It’s linked directly to our blog via WordPress, and it allows for us to schedule Facebook and Twitter posts at triple or quadruple the speed than we could manually on each platform.  We’re able to promote current content as well as archive old content very efficiently.  

It’s also a great at-a-glance tool for us to keep track of editorial content that’s coming down the pipeline. And lastly, we’re able to see helpful insights and analytics about social shares from our original blog content (including Pinterest, too).

This tool works really well for small businesses like ours; we have several logins that let a few of us work in it simultaneously.  There are also great plans designed for professional marketing teams and agencies.  Beyond our standard editorial calendar and social sharing, there are many, many more features available at different price levels, including a social automation tool that uses data-driven intelligence to reshare your best messages to every major social network, workflow management that could be used in place of another dashboard, integrations with Evernote, Google Docs, Google Analytics and more.

Seriously, this tool is a game-changer!

Shopify is an ecommerce platform that’s perfect for your business, whether you sell online, through social media, in-store or even out of the trunk of your car.  It features an incredibly easy platform to navigate, and it allows many of our team members to access our shoppe products, revenue insights and point-of-sale technology in an instant at our new brick & mortar store. The integration is one less thing we have to worry about, which is great. 

Shopify Support and the Shopify blog are also amazing.  The Shopify blog also offers countless resources that help us evolve our business strategy and grow every day.  I highly recommend checking it out! 

MailChimp is the world’s largest marketing automation platform, and for good reason.  It’s very, very simple to navigate, and it offers everyone from small ecommerce shops to big online retailers a chance to reach their customers and grow their business.  

MailChimp utilizes an easy “drag-and-drop” functionality that allows us to upload .jpg or .gif files and a hyperlink for direct traffic referrals back to the blog, shoppe and links around the web.  

And with the paid feature, you can automate optimal sending times, which is nice if you’re every wondering what time is really the best for open and click through rates. There are also many opportunities to segment your lists and strategically send customized messages.