Just in time for the holidays, the S7 team is sharing more of our favorite Tools of the Trade. Here are a few that we can’t go without. We hope you something that’s useful for you.
EMV Headline Analyzer: This free tool is great for anyone writing headlines or email subject lines. Enter your headline and the site will analyze its emotional pull, giving you a score of 0-100%, and tell you what emotion(s) your headline may appeal to.
feedly: This is one of my new favorites. I subscribe to a number of blogs, and find it increasingly difficult to keep up with them. I often end up deleting instead of reading, in an attempt to control my inbox, and I have missed some gems because of it. Feedly is the answer for me, and several others on our team. It allows me to organize my subscriptions by category (Marketing, Cooking, Art, etc.), and quickly scan headlines for those that catch my attention. (See how that headline analyzer tool can come in handy?) It even lets you bump certain blogs up to “must read” status.
Google Trends: Use this tool to see what people are searching for on Google. Choose your search terms and define the region you’re interested in, and see what kinds of questions are being asked in your industry, or in your customers’ industries. This information can help you with your keyword and SEO strategies, and your content development.
Forecast: Our whole team uses this one. Part of the Harvest toolkit, Forecast lets you look across your entire team and all projects in one dashboard, so you can see what people are working on and for how long, who has room in their schedule, and who is overwhelmed and may need help. Forecast also integrates with Basecamp, another one of our favorite tools for keeping projects and communication organized and on track.
Canva: I just recently discovered this one, and I’m looking forward to exploring it more. Canva is a free tool that helps people who are not graphic designers (me) create infographics and imagery for social media or blog posts. It is important to keep with your organization’s branding, of course, but including purposeful images in your posts is proven to increase engagement. Important! Make sure your images are optimized for quick load time. (Check out Canva’s tips for image formatting.)
Coffitivity: If music is too much, and silence is too little, Coffitivity may be “just right” for you.
Some other more classic tools that make our list of favorites are the AP Stylebook, Micron pens, and of course, the ever-faithful Sharpie. How about you? What are some of your favorite tools to use in your daily work? Let us know in the comments!
