5 Free Brand Logo Tools For Your Company

If you want your business to succeed, you’ll need to pay close attention to your brand strategy. And that strategy starts with a free brand logo.

A strong brand creates instant recognition in the marketplace, especially amongst your customers.

It also builds loyalty and shows you share your customer’s values. Do this right, and both your customers and your competitors will always remember you.

If you’re yet to define and build your brand, this guide can show you where to start.

One of the best ways to leave a positive and lasting (visual) imprint of your brand is to create a unique brand logo.

Getting your brand logo professionally designed can be expensive.

Look at 99Designs research. They found that a professionally-designed logo can cost you anywhere from $400 up to $2500+, with the quality varying depending on the actual cost.

That sounds pricey, right?

You could take it upon yourself to design your logo from scratch by investing time in learning graphic design.

I could even show you where to find some free fonts you could use.

Or, I could show you how to design a free brand logo for your company with minimal effort on your part.

You see, gone are the days when your only option was to get a graphic designer to create your logo. They usually came with a hefty price tag.

Now, you can use online resources to design and create your very own brand logo for free.

And you can literally do it within a few minutes.

Some of these companies will even allow you to download your logo without having to invest any money.

In this article, I’ll walk you through five ways to create a free brand logo for your company in just minutes.

1. Free Logo Design

Free Logo Design is a free brand logo creator that allows you to create a brand logo of your own and incorporate it into your business.

You can do this in a few simple steps:

Select an existing logo template.
Use the editor to move and scale your text or image.
Download your logo.
Display your logo everywhere.

First of all, you’ll need to go to the homepage and enter your company name, as shown.

You should notice right off the bat that Free Logo Design gives you several design options as you type.

These images are too generic. You’ll want to be more specific.

So, pick a category from the drop-down menu and click “Start.”

For the “new” Kissmetrics brand logo, I’ll pick “Business & Consulting.”

Once you’ve clicked “Get Started,” it will bring you to the design page where a pop-up platform will display auto-generated logo templates from existing images.

You’ll see some containing your company’s name.

In the “Business & Consulting” category, the software generated 90 designs, with a maximum of 15 per page.

For the next step, go through all of the designs and find a logo that you think will:

Visually look good
Define your brand
Be remembered by your customers
Fit your brand strategy

Once satisfied with your decision, select the desired logo, and click “Add.”

From there, it will take you to the logo editor, where you may notice that the text and graphics are overlapping or jumbled up.

Each part of the graphic is an individual element, but the text is grouped as one.

This is your default logo.

You could leave it as it is, but, quite frankly, it won’t look great.

In this case, I’d like to move the text under the graphic and center it.

Select the text and drag it into position.

Once the text is aligned and looks pleasing to the eye, I’ll select all elements and move back to the center of the screen.

To do so, click and drag the cursor over the elements you want to move.

This creates a selection box of all elements that you can move (or rotate if required). A properties box that shows each element individually will also appear.

If you need to edit these elements, you can do so under the “Actions” toolbar.

An element’s colors can be edited, moved, flipped, and rotated.

You can also edit the color, alignment/curve, and font style of the text if you’re not quite happy with it.

Or you can add an extra logo, icon, shape, or more text from the options on the right.

Add an extra element or edit logo color if required.

Sometimes you can get stuck tweaking your design, potentially for hours.

For the “new” Kissmetrics brand logo, the goal is to create a completed logo design in only a few minutes.

And that’s all that’s needed. I’m happy with the design.

Now, with the design complete, it’s time to download your new brand logo. You can easily do this by clicking “Save” at the top-right corner of the screen.

Free Logo Design will then prepare your logo for download. Once ready, it will give you the following options:

Click “Download” and enter your name and email address.

The finished logo will now be sent to you, free of charge.

Although the free PNG file is of a low-resolution, it’s ideal for website use and email signatures.

Even the high-resolution download is reasonably priced. Currently, at $39, this includes a PDF, EPS, and vector SVG file.

This is a steal compared to the prices I mentioned earlier for a professional design, and it’s very cost-effective for a bootstrapping business startup.

Whether you’re a bootstrapping startup or not, realizing your brand’s importance can play a major role in your business’s success.

By equipping your company with a new brand logo, you’ll be one step closer to achieving this success.

2. Logomakr

Another free resource with a hands-on approach is Logomakr.

With Logomakr, you can instantly make a brand logo for your company.

Most of these free online logo makers use similar concepts when designing and editing. They use existing templates on a user-friendly design platform.

To create your design with Logomakr:

Go to their homepage, and it will greet you with an instructional video. This will quickly run through the simple process of using their platform to design a logo.

It also presents you with the following design advice to consider:

Make your logo clean and simple.
Make sure your logo is 100% original.
Make sure you’re able to copyright your own logo.
Make sure the logo fits the style of your industry.
Make sure your final logo images are in vector format.

With your concept in mind, you’ll need to pick a graphic for your logo.

Next, search the million or more graphics in Logomakr’s database by using the search bar at the top left of your screen.

For my design, I’ll search “kiss.”

The database should then give hundreds of free-use images to choose from (for that particular search word).

Scroll through the results and select the image you’d like to use.

You’ll then return to the editing page, where you’ve multiple options to edit your design.

You can add text, shapes, paint, scale, move, or change your graphic color.

For this example, I’ll scale up the graphic to be larger. That way, it’ll stand out more.

Next, you’ll need to add your company name. Using the “add text” function, I’ll add “kissmetrics.”

Once you’ve added the text, you’ll notice two drop-down menus at the top of the screen.

One is for the font category, and the other is for the font style.

Select the font style or category that you think will have the best visual impact on your design.

You can play around with the text and the scales of the elements (text, image, or shapes) so they sit proportionate to each other.

Once you’re satisfied, consider the colors you’ll use in the final design and how that ties in with your branding strategy’s overall color scheme.

At Kissmetrics, I’m partial to the color blue.

You can change the color in three steps:

Select the elements you wish to change.
Click on “Change Color” in the tools section.
Pick the color you want in the top-right corner.

Once done, you’re ready to save and download a copy. Do this by clicking on “Save Logo” at the top right corner of your screen.

This will then bring you to your final set of options, depending on the logo’s use.

To opt for the free version, you’ll need to download and give credit to Logomakr.

For this design, I’ll click on “Download And Agree To Give Credit.”

Again, to download a higher-res image than the one provided for free, you’ll need to pay a premium. In this case, it’s $19.

With the high-res image, you’ll be able to use it on banners, company clothing, and for printing purposes.

If you’ve followed the simple steps above, you should now have a free brand logo that you can use as many times as you like.

You can do all of that in under 5 minutes, too.

3. Canva

Next on the list of software that offers free downloads is Canva.

If you’re not familiar with Canva, it’s simple design software that is quite popular with graphic designers and bloggers to create high-quality images like infographics and featured images.

Its popularity is due to its simplistic drag-and-drop design tools and a huge collection of photos, graphics, and fonts.

With the easy-to-use platform, you can create your brand logo in five easy steps:

Go to Canva’s Online Logo Maker and create an account.

Once you’re done, click on the “Start Designing A Custom Logo.”

The first thing you’ll want to do is select “Elements” from the toolbar and decide on a category. For this design, I’ll use an image from “Icons.”

A library of multiple icons will then appear. Scroll through them until you find an image you can use. Then, select it.

Some elements have the word “free” beside them. These are free-use graphics that you can use in your logo design.

Now that you have the main graphic for your logo, select the element, and change the color.

Remember: always keep your branding theme in mind. So, once again, I’ll use blue.

Next, you’ll want to add your company name by selecting the “Text” tool from the toolbar. Similar to “Elements,” you have a library of templates to choose from.

Scroll through to find a text that will fit your brand, keeping in mind the “free-use” templates.

Find your favorite and click on it. I’ll use “Blue Wood.”

You’ll notice that the text will center on top of the logo element. Click on it and drag it to where you want it.

Move both text and element so that they align with the center of the design template.

Once satisfied, it’s time to edit the text.

Click on and select the small text above “Blue Wood.” Delete this text.

Click on and select the text “Blue Wood” and replace it with your company name, “kissmetrics.”

Next, edit the text’s color and size by selecting the text and using the text toolbar at the top of your screen.

You also have the option to change the font style using the drop-down menu.

Your logo should now be ready to download. Click the “Download” button at the top right of the screen.

You’ll be given different file types to select for download.

The file types available are JPG, PNG, PDF standard, and PDF print. For the Kissmetrics logo, I’ll choose PDF standard.

Once downloaded, you’ll be able to view your new brand logo in a PDF reader.

Canva doesn’t yet support exporting logos in a vector format.

For higher-res graphics, you should make your logo as large as possible and download the PDF print version.

Don’t worry; with a PNG file, you’ll be able to add your logo to your website.

Another quick, simple, and free way to create a brand logo for your company.

4. GraphicSprings

GraphicSprings is software that allows you to use their platform to design and create a logo for free.

To begin your design, go to their logo design page and enter your company name.

Next, add an image from the database by selecting “Choose Your Graphic” from the side toolbar, left of the screen.

A sub-search bar will pop-up under your last selection, with a list of categories underneath.

If you know the graphic you’d like to add, enter it into the search bar.

GraphicSprings have included an “Internet” category, which is quite fitting, so I’ll use that.

Click the category you want, and a database containing stock images or graphics will appear.

(Just like the previous software).

Can you spot a common theme yet?

This simple concept works across each platform, eliminating the need to “reinvent the wheel.”

Search through the results, and once you see an image that you’d like to use, select it.

After choosing a graphic, the software will create your design and take you to the editing page. Once you’re there, it will prompt you to select the elements for editing.

Click on the text to edit it. It will allow you to change the font style, size, and format. You can also add some cool effects like stroke, shadow, or glow.

For simplicity, I’ll leave it as it is.

The options for editing are also basic. You have the ability to change the color and add some effects.

Canva will break the graphic into different elements (similar to Free Logo Design), so you can edit each piece individually.

I’ll stick with the color theme of blue, but I’ll keep the two-tone effect.

Next, select each element and change the colors accordingly.

Once the editing is complete and you’re satisfied with the design, click “Download Your Logo” at the bottom right of the editing page.

It will take you to the payment page, where you can buy the high-resolution image for as low as $19.99.

To access the vector files with the ability to edit after you purchase it, you’ll need to pay for the standard package, which costs $39.99.

With this option, you’ll have the ability to make aftermarket changes to your logo whenever you please.

5. Designimo

Designimo also requires payment once the design is complete, but you can use the design tools for free to create the graphic for your logo.

They previously offered a low-res free download, but they now produce high-res images only.

Designimo is similar to Free Logo Design and GraphicSprings in that you enter the name of your company into the search bar and select a category that fits your needs.

It’ll then auto-generate multiple graphics using a huge database of existing designs.

Again, the level of editing is basic, but the results are solid.

It also follows the simple process that Free Logo Design uses:

Select
Edit
Download
Display

For a quick video tutorial to help you use the platform, check out how it works here.

To ensure your design goes as smoothly as possible, I’ll walk you through the process below.

First, go to the homepage, add your company name, and click “Create Logo Now.”

Then, select a category from the drop-down menu, ranging from “Alphabetic Text” to “Travel & Hotel.”

For this example, I will use the category “Alphabetic Text.”

Designimo will provide you with numerous individual designs under each category.

While the other categories use existing graphics made up of symbols, the “Alphabetic Text” generates logos in the shape of the letter selected (hence the name).

It also files them alphabetically.

For the Kissmetrics logo, I’ll select the letter “K,” and go through the results. Each letter has multiple pages of designs, so navigate through them.

Once you’ve found the one you’d like to proceed with, select the graphic.

You’ll then land on the editing page, equipped with basic design and editing tools. Using the tools available, you can:

Increase/decrease element size
Rotate graphics left/right
Flip vertical/horizontal
Change text size and font style to suit
Apply opacity to an element (i.e., make see-through)
Easily move elements by clicking and dragging

For this alphabetical logo, I’ll be a little creative and use the symbol shaped as “K” and use it to start the company name, “Kissmetrics.”

By deleting the “k” from the text, I now have a completely different and unique looking logo.

Edit the text size or font style, if required.

The default font is OK, so I’ll leave it as it is.

Next, change the colors to match your theme.

If you’re happy with the design, your new brand logo should now be ready to download. Click on “Download Now” or “Save For Future” (if you’d like to come back and work on it).

First, you’ll need to register your details and sign up for an account to download your image.

You’ll then be brought to an order confirmation page, to confirm and proceed to checkout.

Pay and download.

The cost for a high-res image, including PNG, JPG, and EPS Vector files, is $29.95.

Although not free, the brand logo you can create and download using this software is a high-quality graphic at a relatively low price.

Conclusion

When it comes to starting a new business, the tasks on your to-do list, along with the costs of setting everything up, can be overwhelming.

But creating a brand logo for your company doesn’t have to be.

Branding should be the core of your company’s marketing strategy.

Your brand should tell a story, and part of that story is your logo.

Being an expert in graphic design or outsourcing to a professional was once the norm (and it still is for many brands).

But now, the Internet is full of innovative people with new ideas and free software that can help new businesses reduce their startup costs.

With user-friendly tools, it’s possible to create a free brand logo for your company in minutes.

These platforms also help prevent you from being paralyzed by options.

Previously, you may have been up all night studying “how-to-design” videos on YouTube.

Now you don’t have to.

These platforms do most of the designing for you and, and they’ll even give you some quick tutorials. All you have to bring to the table is a good idea and an eye for a visually-pleasing design.

With your brand’s color and theme in mind, pick the software that is easiest for you and get started designing a free brand logo today.

In terms of user-friendliness, design results, or cost, which free brand logo software would you recommend?

The post 5 Free Brand Logo Tools For Your Company appeared first on Neil Patel.

The 11 Best Dropshipping Tools

Dropshipping is a popular method for building an e-commerce empire. The challenge is, there are tons of people out there trying to do the same thing. So, how do you get a competitive edge? By using dropshipping tools to get the most out of your dropshipping business.

This post covers the basics of dropshipping and the 11 best dropshipping tools to maximize this fulfillment method’s benefits while minimizing the drawbacks.

What is Dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a fulfillment method that allows e-commerce stores to sell products without storing or maintaining stock.

Using the dropshipping model, your store markets a third-party’s (a wholesaler or manufacturer) products. When someone places an order from your site, you buy the product from a third-party, who then sends the product directly to your customer.

You don’t have to worry about logistics, and the difference between the price you sell at and the price you buy at is your profit.

This model is popular (in fact, 23% of online sales are fulfilled through dropshipping) because it allows e-commerce businesses to focus on what they do best, marketing and selling products without worrying about logistic issues.

What are the Benefits of Dropshipping?

One of the major benefits of dropshipping is starting an e-commerce store with low start-up costs. You can create the framework for a great online store with relatively little investment.

The issue is, you’ve still got to invest in and warehouse stock — unless you use dropshipping.

Dropshipping limits startup costs while allowing e-commerce stores to offer a wide range of items to customers.

By working with a third party, you can quickly set up your online store and tap into a wide selection of high-quality products from suppliers around the world.

The benefits of this are:

Low overhead costs: No need to pay for stock, warehousing, or employees to fulfill orders
A wider selection of products: Choose from an endless list of suppliers.
Expanded shipping capabilities: You’re working with businesses with years of experience shipping items around the world.
Easy to scale: You don’t have to worry about stock. No matter how many orders you have coming in, you’re always able to fulfill them.
Focus on your strengths: Concentrate on where your competitive advantage is – making sales.
Location independence: Your stock doesn’t tie you down because you don’t own any.

These benefits sound pretty great, right?

As you might expect, there are also some drawbacks to dropshipping. The most apparent negative to dropshipping is lower profit margins. Companies that buy in bulk can save money, but buying one item at a time can be more costly.

Although you’re in control of your pricing (you can lower and raise prices as you like), you’ll have to keep your prices in line with your competition. And, because there are few barriers to starting an e-commerce business with a dropshipping model, there’s lots of competition out there.

Here are some challenges to consider with dropshipping:

Customization and branding: You’re selling someone else’s products, so it can be harder to develop a strong brand.
You’re reliant on a third-party: If they mess up, then in your customer’s eyes, you’ve messed up.
Understanding costs: If you’re working with lots of different suppliers, it can be complicated to work out your profit margins when shipping is factored in.

Whether dropshipping is an effective strategy will depend on your business needs. If you’re ready to take on the stiff competition and aren’t reliant on branding to sell your products, then dropshipping could be a viable option.

What Dropshipping Tools Should I Use?

As you can see, there are plenty of benefits to using dropshipping as your fulfillment method, but there are some drawbacks as well.

These dropshipping tools can help you run a successful dropshipping business.

Shopify

Shopify is the biggest e-commerce platform out there, and it’s one of the quickest and easiest ways to get your store up and running.

Shopify isn’t so much a dropshipping tool as the starting point for creating your store, so it’s important to feel comfortable with it. To ensure Shopify is right for your business, you can test out a 14-day free trial.

Once you’ve decided to build your store on Shopify, you have the following pricing options:

Basic Shopify – $29/mo
Shopify – $79/mo
Advanced Shopify – $299/mo

You will still have to pay for your website hosting (here are some recommendations) which can be factored into Shopify’s price.

Whatever your goals, Shopify has a plan to suit your business needs and allows you to make the most of their customer support and a wide range of helpful plugins.

Oberlo

Oberlo is a Shopify app that links you to a large market of suppliers, allowing you to choose from a huge range of products and sync them to your website in seconds.

Their free starter package allows you to sell up to 500 products a month, so it’s an ideal way to dip your toe into dropshipping.

If you see good results, you can upgrade to the basic package for $29.90 a month, allowing you to sell more products and benefit from enhanced order tracking.

You can also choose the pro package for $79.90 a month, which allows you up to 30,000 sales.

WooCommerce

If you already have a website that runs on WordPress, or you want a cheaper alternative to Shopify, then try WooCommerce. It’s a free plugin that can turn your WordPress website into an e-commerce store.

WordPress powers around 35% of the web, so you know you’re in safe hands with this platform, and the WooCommerce plugin allows you to give it powerful e-commerce capabilities.

Spocket

Already have an e-commerce store set up? Spocket is one of the best dropshipping tools to connect you with suppliers from around the world.

Spocket integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, BigCommerce, and AliScraper. It offers a free trial which allows you to view their catalog, but to truly benefit from this tool, you need one of the paid plans:

Starter: Sell up to 25 unique products – $24/month
Pro: Sell up to 250 unique products – $49/mo
Empire: Sell up to 1,000 unique products – $99/mo

With many suppliers based in the US and Europe, Spocket is an excellent dropshipping tool for stores that value fast, easy fulfillment.

AutoDS

AutoDS is an all-in-one dropshipping tool for e-commerce stores that plugs into both Shopify and eBay. With AutoDS, you can automate processes like stock monitoring, optimizing pricing, updating tracking numbers, collecting social proof, and much more.

This dropshipping tool takes a lot of the busy work out of running your store and gives you more time to focus on boosting your sales.

One of the great things about AutoDS is they offer a vast range of packages designed to suit your business. They start at $6.33 a month for basic stores but can accommodate stores with up to 100,000 products.

Dropified

Dropified connects you with suppliers and automates your dropshipping processes. With integrations for e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, GrooveKart, and CommerceHQ, it aims to give you all the dropshipping tools you need to run a successful business.

With lots of helpful automation, Dropified is ideal for sellers looking to develop their custom brand. They offer two distinct pricing structures:

Import: $14/mo
Private Label On-Demand: $168/mo

This dropshipping tool price might seem costly, but the ability to use private labels helps you overcome one of the most significant drawbacks of dropshipping – difficulty establishing your brand.

SaleHoo

SaleHoo is a directory of wholesale companies and a great dropshipping tool for market research. Their annual plan gives you full access to the directory for $67, or you can choose a lifetime plan for $127. Those prices make it an affordable tool to research the market and find the best suppliers.

There’s also the option to upgrade to full automation, and you can get lifetime access to the SaleHoo education program for $47.

Zapier

With so many apps helping you run your business, you might be wondering how to coordinate them all. The answer is Zapier.

Zapier automates workflows across different apps, which reduces manual work. For example, when you receive an order on Shopify, Zapier can instruct MailChimp to add that customer to your monthly newsletter and create an invoice through Invoice Ninja.

With a free lifetime plan that allows you to create 5 “zaps,” Zapier is one of those dropshipping tools you’ve got to try. If you find it significantly streamlines your store, then there are many plans to choose from.

AliDropship

AliDropship connects you to suppliers. However, there’s one big difference — with AliDropship there are no monthly fees. Instead, you make a one-time payment of $89 for a lifetime subscription.

You can also have AliDropship create you a website for a one-time price of $299, making it a viable alternative to Shopify. You will have to pay for your monthly hosting, but this option is about as quick and easy as it comes in terms of getting started with dropshipping.

For sellers looking for a fast, convenient way to get into dropshipping, AliDropship is an ideal option.

Google Analytics

While many of the dropshipping tools on this list offer important insights about customers and traffic, some of the most important metrics can be found in your Google Analytics dashboard. All the data you need to know about your store is in your analytics for free.

There’s no need to pay for extra website analytics if you know how to make the most of Google Analytics, and this is the reason why it’s one of the most powerful dropshipping tools.

Track your visitors, understand where your traffic comes from, what content works well, and how to boost your store’s all-round performance by making use of the data that’s available to you.

Chili-Hunter

If you’re dropshipping through eBay, then Chili-Hunter is a handy market research tool. Use it to discover new trends, find the most profitable items to sell, and get insight into your store’s performance and your competitors.

This dropshipping tool provides vital information to maximize your profits, and the best part is it comes in one simple plan.

You can choose either a monthly membership for $39.99 per month or a yearly membership for $16.66/mo.

With Chilli-Hunter, you can find the best products to dropship and boost your business’s performance in seconds.

Conclusion

One of the biggest challenges with dropshipping is maintaining workable margins. To do this, you need your e-commerce store to be as streamline as possible so you can adapt to changing markets and build up a large volume of sales.

To scale your business, look for ways to automate areas such as marketing, order processing, and product selection. This is where dropshipping tools come in handy.

While you will need to pay the monthly subscription fees for the right dropshipping tools, the return on investment can be immense.

How do you use dropshipping tools to give your store the edge?

The post The 11 Best Dropshipping Tools appeared first on Neil Patel.

3 Key Reasons to Use Augmented Intelligence Tools in Digital Marketing

Do terms like “AI” and “machine learning” make you think of robots and science fiction?

These technologies are being used everywhere, and the age of AI is already in full swing.

AI and technology offer a solution to inefficiency. Deloitte has shown that 83 percent of early adopters of AI and cognitive technologies achieved either “moderate” or “substantial” benefits.

AI is somewhat part of augmented intelligence tools’ technology, but how is it used in marketing right now?

What is Augmented Intelligence?

Gartner defines “augmented intelligence” as “a human-centric partnership model of people and artificial intelligence working together to enhance cognitive performance.”

What that means is that augmented intelligence isn’t just about creating super smart machines. It’s about creating technology that can help you and your brain do things better.

Augmented intelligence is sometimes also called intelligence automation (IA).

How is Augmented Intelligence Different From Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

Artificial intelligence is all about computers making decisions. But augmented intelligence is about you making better decisions, with the help of a computer.

Let’s dive into some specific examples so we can see how this works:

Artificial Intelligence Examples

Artificial intelligence operates on its own, without help from humans.

That might make you think of autonomous killer robots, but the reality is usually a little less exciting.

Ever used a grammar checker tool? Lots of those use AI to give you more sophisticated grammar recommendations.

Even Google Docs uses an AI grammar checker. Google’s engineers train the model using correct sentences. It’s then able to predict whether sentences are correct or incorrect on its own, without needing to be programmed with every single grammar rule.

Know where else Google uses AI? In its search engine algorithms.

Updates like RankBrain and BERT have brought AI to the search engine, and SEOs have needed to update their strategies accordingly with AI SEO.

Augmented Intelligence Examples

Now that we’ve seen how AI is used, how is augmented intelligence used? How are its applications different from AI?

Augmented intelligence is a pretty general term. You can use it to talk about basically any machine that helps humans enhance their capabilities and make better decisions, even something as simple as a compass or telescope.

But in practice, augmented intelligence is usually used to talk about automated systems that need direction or input from humans to function. Augmented reality tools, like Google Glass, are just one example.

Augmented intelligence can be used in a bunch of different fields. It can support financial professionals in making regulatory decisions, or help health care professionals make medical decisions.

The augmented intelligence tool gives recommendations, and then the human makes the final call. Feedback from humans helps the tool to learn and grow continuously.

Why would you want to use augmented intelligence when you could use “true AI?” Well, augmented intelligence allows us to do more with the technology we currently have, without needing to wait for AI to advance.

It also adds a human element to the decision-making process, which can be helpful for complying with regulation in some industries. Plus, with augmented intelligence, we can take advantage of new technologies while also continuing to use human talent.

But the best thing about augmented intelligence? When humans and machines work together, they can achieve better results than one or the other working alone.

For example, an experiment by a team from a Harvard Medical School hospital at the Camelyon Grand Challenge showed that an algorithm could accurately detect breast cancer 92% of the time, while a human pathologist accurately detected it 96% of the time. When the pathologist worked together with the algorithm, the results were accurate 99% of the time.

Overall, augmented intelligence is just a different philosophy that can help us get the most from AI, without needing really sophisticated capabilities.

How Can Augmented Intelligence Help Your Business?

The truth is, augmented intelligence can do huge things for your company.

There are tons of different ways to use augmented intelligence. There’s probably an IA application out there that can help you streamline and improve every single area of your business.

Here’s an example: Augmented intelligence can help you sell things online.

Think about the last time you thought about buying something online. What were some reasons you might have hesitated before making a purchase?

You might not want to lay out money for certain items before trying them out in person. Furniture, glasses, clothes are examples of products users want to see how they look up close before you buy.

Enter augmented intelligence. With augmented reality (AR) applications, your customers can “try on” things virtually. Even if they’d prefer to shop from home, they can still get a feel for your merchandise.

Want to know how this works in practice? Check out some of the companies using augmented reality to sell furniture (Wayfair), glasses (EyeBuyDirect), and makeup (MAC Cosmetics).

Glasses virtual try on screenshot augmented intelligence 1

To use the virtual try-on tools, you can upload a photo or open your webcam, and the tool will show you what the product looks like in real life.

But sales isn’t the only area where augmented intelligence can help your business.

Want to make your product safer? Car companies are already using augmented reality to help drivers spot dangers on the road and avoid looking down at their phones.

Want to thrill your customers with a cool new feature? Google did that when they introduced internet searchers to AR animals.

You can improve your customer service with augmented intelligence, too. Chatbots can help answer some more straightforward customer questions, freeing up more time for your human staff. IA can also help support your customer service reps when they need more information to help customers.

Finally, just like with sales, product, and customer service, augmented intelligence tools can take your marketing efforts to the next level.

Here are three crucial reasons why you should use augmented intelligence tools to supercharge your marketing.

Augmented Intelligence Creates Positive Customer Experiences

If you use augmented intelligence to create an extra cool or innovative product, your marketing will basically be halfway done for you. An awesome customer experience pretty much markets itself. Just look at all the videos people have made about Google’s AR animals:

video suggest augmented intelligence | 3 Key Reasons to Use Augmented Intelligence Tools in Digital Marketing

Check out all these articles people have written about Wayfair’s augmented reality feature for furniture:

SERP augmented intelligence | 3 Key Reasons to Use Augmented Intelligence Tools in Digital Marketing

If you make something interesting enough, you might end up getting lots of new backlinks and traffic without even trying.

Besides creating new product features, you can also improve your customer experience with augmented intelligence in other ways.

For instance, customers are more likely to be satisfied if they can get their questions answered faster with technology like automated chatbots, as mentioned above.

You can also use augmented intelligence to help personalize the customer experience. An example of this would be user recommendations. You’ve probably seen these on YouTube on the right-hand side:

youtube suggest augmented intelligence | 3 Key Reasons to Use Augmented Intelligence Tools in Digital Marketing

And on Amazon as suggested product examples:

amazon suggest augmented intelligence | 3 Key Reasons to Use Augmented Intelligence Tools in Digital Marketing

These websites use algorithms to make recommendations based on the videos you’ve already watched or products you’ve already shown interest in. When you click on a recommendation, you’re sending a signal to the algorithm that the recommendation was relevant.

Recommendations help you offer a better experience by helping your customers find things they might be interested in. They are also a way to convince customers to stay on your website for longer.

Augmented Intelligence Can Reduce Busywork

Another major reason why companies are interested in automation is that it saves time. According to WorkMarket’s 2020 In(Sight) Report, over half of employees think they could save 240 hours every year through automation.

IA can help your marketing department save time in lots of different ways. If you’re currently using data for strategic planning, augmented intelligence tools can help.

You can use these tools to help clean data sets, forecast future trends with predictive modeling, or even keep an eye on competitors, social trends, and customer feedback. This can help you create more effective marketing plans more quickly.

If you decide to use augmented intelligence in your marketing, you won’t be alone. According to a Forrester report, 46% of respondents say that marketing and sales teams are leading AI adoption.

It’s no wonder marketers are excited to adopt this technology. Hubspot found that using AI software cut the time one agency spent on reporting by 97 percent.

Augmented Intelligence Can Help Write Content

Here’s another way that augmented intelligence can help with your marketing: It can help you write better content, faster.

If you’re a marketer, you know that writing quality content takes serious time and effort.

A survey by Orbit Media Studios states that the average blog post takes almost four hours to write. That’s actually a 63% increase over 2014, when the average blog post took just under 2.5 hours.

If you’re wondering why the writing time has gone up so much, it’s because Google’s algorithm updates have started to favor long-form content.

Besides the actual writing, researching, adding photos, and publishing also take up lots of time, not to mention content planning and S EO.

Augmented intelligence can helpfully write text, but it can’t add much research, facts, or emotions to it.

AI’s writing style can be a little different from what we’re used to, so it needs human polishing.

AI text augmented intelligence | 3 Key Reasons to Use Augmented Intelligence Tools in Digital Marketing

That’s an excerpt from an article written by an AI, published in The Guardian.

As you can see, AI can write sentences, but you might need to edit or adjust them to fit your content needs.

Even if you don’t want a robot to write your articles, you can still use augmented intelligence tools to help you in your writing. Spelling and grammar checkers, like Grammarly, are a good example of this.

Augmented intelligence can also help you create better content by coming up with more relevant topics for your audience.

If you’re using augmented intelligence for data collection and analytics, you can use the knowledge you gain from that to help you write more data-driven, personalized content.

If you want to do a content audit to review the content that’s already on your website, augmented intelligence can help with that, too.

Augmented Intelligence is Becoming the Norm

It looks like AI, and automation in general, are here to stay. McKinsey predicts that “half of today’s work activities could be automated by 2055.”

With “AI’s adoption increasing year-on-year,” marketing departments are leading the charge.

Augmented intelligence offers the perfect approach to AI, because it’s all about pairing AI’s strengths with human strengths.

Conclusion

As a marketer, you’re all about staying ahead of the competition.

To do that, you’ll need to have the best tools, including artificial intelligence.

However, a lot of people are skeptical about AI. In fact, research by PwC shows that 67% of CEOs think AI and automation will have a negative impact on trust in their industry over the next five years.

With augmented intelligence tools, you don’t have to rely on AI alone. Instead, you can use AI’s strengths and human strengths together to get better results.

If you’ve already started using augmented intelligence in your marketing, or if you’re thinking about using it soon, tell us about your experience in the comments.

The post 3 Key Reasons to Use Augmented Intelligence Tools in Digital Marketing appeared first on Neil Patel.

7 Instagram Analytics Tools to Grow Your Audience

Instagram is known mostly for engagement. But how do you track it? Let’s cover some Instagram analytic tools you need to be using. Here’s the deal: People love interacting with brands and other individuals. Without engagement, social media doesn’t exist, and engagement matters more on Instagram than most other platforms. In fact, Instagram’s engagement has …

The post 7 Instagram Analytics Tools to Grow Your Audience first appeared on Online Web Store Site.

7 Instagram Analytics Tools to Grow Your Audience

Instagram is known mostly for engagement. But how do you track it? Let’s cover some Instagram analytic tools you need to be using.

Here’s the deal: People love interacting with brands and other individuals. Without engagement, social media doesn’t exist, and engagement matters more on Instagram than most other platforms.

In fact, Instagram’s engagement has been measured anywhere from four to twelve times that of other social channels.

So while you can sell on Instagram, this channel is better known for its benefits at the top of your sales funnel.

The problem with that is your marketing efforts don’t always link back to sales.

That means you’ll have to develop other ways to measure performance to justify all of the time and money spent on Instagram.

So, how do you do it? Luckily, there are a few tools that can help.

I’m going to show you some of the best Instagram analytics tools and why they are worth your time.

1. Owlmetrics

Owlmetrics is basically a one-stop-shop for all things Instagram analytics.

This Instagram analytics tool tracks all of your Instagram account’s key data points, such as follower growth, engagement, hashtag activity, competitor accounts, and click-through rates, while giving you real-time insights in an easy-to-use dashboard.

But that’s not all it can do. It offers a wealth of data beyond Instagram Insights’ underwhelming offerings.

When it comes to tracking engagement, everybody knows that it’s the details that matter.

You’ll get insights on things like the most engaging photo and video filters, top tags by interactions, the best time to post, posts that have received the most engagement, sources of the most engagement, and so much more.

Plus, you’ll be able to keep close tabs on your hashtag performance. Hashtag usage is critical to a good Instagram strategy, so you’ll need to keep a close eye on how they’re benefiting (or hurting) your brand.

Altogether, their insights generate a goldmine of information for content strategizing. You’ll get daily data regarding your post engagement rates, top posts by engagement rate, and the best-performing types of posts.

With these real-time details at your disposal, you have all the information you need to post dynamite content every day.

You’ll also know exactly where your followers are spending the most time through click rates. You can find your total clicks, average clicks per post, and your clicks change rate.

Of course, the tool shows you these ultra-useful numbers in easily readable graphs, so if you’re not a numbers person, you’ll still be able to see areas of change.

As you can see from these visuals, there’s no shortage of details for your clicks. You’ll see clicks by language, clicks by browser, clicks that are referred from another source, and clicks by location.

All of this contributes to gaining a better, more complete view of your audience.

And since you need an excellent connection with your audience if you want to make it on Instagram, the Owlmetrics audience insights can help you achieve just that.

It gives you all the details regarding your followers, including their age, gender, language, city of origin, and other basic demographics that paint a clearer picture of your audience to help you form better posts.

You also get definitive numbers that help you set and track goals for follower growth. You’ll see your total followers and the growth of total followers.

There’s also info about the followers you’ve gained and lost, with insights into your top gained followers and top lost followers. This will help you better curate your content to keep your existing followers and attract even more.

One of the most beloved Owlmetrics’ features is its competitor tracking. You can learn a great deal about executing a quality Instagram marketing strategy by spying on the strengths and weaknesses of multiple competitive Instagram accounts.

As you can see, it gives you a detailed overview of the Instagram insights for competitors you choose in numbers and graph form.

These insights are updated in real-time, so you’re getting the most accurate numbers for high-performing businesses to compare to your own.

To top it all off, you can schedule exports of any data to CSV, PPTX, and PDF for easier reporting, not to mention it integrates seamlessly into Slack so all your team members can be on the same page.

Your Instagram insights are clear, detailed, collaborative, and always in real-time.

2. Iconosquare

There’s going to be some analytics overlap in a few of these tools.

Iconosquare kicks off by helping you understand how your posting frequency relates to or drives either new followers or lost ones daily.

Iconosquare also gives you a Buffer-like tool to manage how you post across several different accounts at one time.

That makes it a perfect tool for freelancers or agencies that want to save time when managing multiple clients (or even multiple departments within the same company) from the same dashboard.

Iconosquare will even show you comments and interactions on each post so you can keep the conversation going without ever leaving.

But that’s not even the best part.

My favorite Iconosquare feature is that they offer a library of awesome content that you can pull from at the ready.

You can quickly search the media library and grab beautiful, high-resolution images to use within seconds.

Iconosquare also features an editorial calendar view so that you can schedule posts out ahead of time. It’s easier to manage social media when you plan out content in advance.

Next, you can use it to search for influencers who might help you get the word out about new campaigns and posts.

It will even let you compare influencers based on their own follower and engagement metrics, so you know what you’re dealing with before reaching out to them.

All of this sounds great, right?

But we haven’t even touched on their Instagram analytics yet.

You can measure tags and mentions and get access to in-depth engagement insights.

You can also see how your individual hashtags are performing, view the best days and times to post, and benchmark your engagement rates against the competition.

Iconosquare has a 14-day, no credit-card-required free trial. Play around with the analytics before you commit to it with your cash.

3. Sprout Social

Sprout Social is similar to Iconosquare in that it combines Instagram analytics with content creation and management tools. They also have a powerful Instagram analytics platform.

It has a fully-featured editorial calendar for scheduling new content across multiple social account platforms (including Twitter and Facebook).

Sprout Social is perfect for larger organizations with rigid guidelines, too, because it has a centralized media library to manage with built-in editing tools.

When a piece of content is ready, you can use the push notification tool to update the person responsible for taking the next step (like moving it from draft to preview and from scheduled to published).

Sprout’s tool set includes a social CRM that will funnel conversations into a central ‘smart’ inbox. Gaining access to this feature can help you boost conversions over time.

You can also dive deeper into individual hashtag performance or even locations that have been geotagged. Pay careful attention to how your performance compares across each.

Then you can compile all of this insight into “presentation-ready” reports that can be exported or downloaded by clients and bosses alike.

You can also take a spin with the free trial to preview all of these features before paying a single cent.

4. Keyhole

Each Instagram analytics tool we’ve looked at so far will give you daily reporting features. You need those metrics to track your progress.

However, Keyhole prides itself on giving customers real-time feedback. For example, you can drop in a specific hashtag, keyword, or account to see what trends are starting to emerge.

Keyhole will also help you figure out which of your own internal trends provide the best results, giving you at-a-glance data into what activities are driving the most follower growth over time.

You can also create a feed that will automatically track your competitor’s Instagram accounts to see what’s working for them versus what’s not (then capitalizing on the former while avoiding the latter).

Plus, you can save time by selecting a few predefined KPIs to track. Keyhole will automatically report on those, organizing your data into an easy-to-read dashboard that you can share with team members.

5. SquareLovin

SquareLovin (spelled like McLovin) combines both aggregate data (like overall views and follower counts) with individual metrics on each post (by ‘scoring’ the overall engagement).

One of my favorite features, though, is the deep dive it gives you into the best-performing times to post.

Like some of the Instagram analytics tools on this list, Keyhole tells you the best time frames for posting based on metrics. However, this tool also explicitly lets you know when you shouldn’t post. This data can be just as valuable, especially if you’re posting all the time.

You might want to constantly test a few of the ‘best’ times to improve performance. However, this way, you’ll always know exactly what hours of the day to avoid like the plague.

6. Minter.io

Many of the Instagram analytics tools already featured give you information about how your Instagram account or your individual posts perform based on your specific KPIs.

Minter.io takes the next step by providing tactical insight into the content decisions you’re making.

For example, this tool can help you figure out which photo filter performs best among your audience based on a comparison of multiple metrics. Instead of using a single piece of data to decide which filters to use, compare several data points.

I also love how this tool can break down your post engagement into performance rates.

Here’s what I mean.

If you see that you have 1, 10, or even 100 comments on a post, you’re probably pleased with yourself. But when you stop to think about it, there’s not a lot of actionable insight to draw from comment numbers alone.

Let’s say one account has 100 followers, and another has 1,000 followers. Each account gets 10 comments on a single day.

Now, which one is performing better?

The first one, right? That’s because it’s getting a 10% engagement rate on that post instead of only a 1% engagement rate. That makes a huge difference at the end of the day!

Minter.io helps you track these performance metrics over time and create benchmarks to see if your audience’s quality is growing as quickly as the quantity.

All social platforms use internal algorithms to determine how many of your posts will be seen by your audience.

That means that, if your engagement is low, the social network might artificially ‘restrict’ how many of your own followers end up seeing your content on a given day.

That’s why we constantly talk about the importance of engagement in social media.

Minter.io will also help you pinpoint big players who are already part of your audience. It’s a great way to identify potential influencers who might amplify your brand message.

For example, followers are split down into several different ‘buckets,’ including:

Mass Follower
Potentially Normal
Normal
Popular
Influencer

Finally, this Instagram analytics tool also gives you insight into how active your followers are on the platform.

For example, you can see how many posts each of your followers push live each day so that you can mimic the frequency you know your followers are comfortable with.

If you’re only posting twice a day, but the bulk of your audience posts four times per day, you can easily start increasing your posting frequency without fearing any backlash from your community.

7. SocialRank

SocialRank provides detailed audience metrics for both Instagram and Twitter.

Many of the other Instagram analytics tools listed above focus on hard data or your posts’ individual performance metrics.

SocialRank will do some of that, but it’s more concerned with identifying follower patterns so that you can better tailor your content updates to your audience.

That means it will provide details like the most popular words used in your followers’ bios and posts. You can even see the most popular emojis among your target market.

Let’s say you’re trying to find certain types of people, like bloggers or influencers. You can search prospects’ bios based on keywords.

You might also use it for local marketing. Filter your target users by location so you can reach out to potential candidates for local live events and other engagements.

Follower filters help you narrow down the audience into small segments based on some criteria, including the number followers they might have, specific companies, gender, and any combination of those.

Once you pull up a segment, you can then rank or prioritize these people based on their own engagement with you or their own popularity (by follower count).

These filters come in handy when you’re trying to pull precise lists of followers.

For example, let’s say you’re opening a new location in a new city (or simply just visiting a new area for an upcoming conference).

You can overlay these filters together to find people who’re using certain hashtags (such as #craftbeer) and located within a specific city (like San Diego).

Then you can pull these follower lists into an Excel or PDF document for easy sharing with your team.

It’s incredibly powerful but not among the cheaper options listed here. I’d recommend using it for larger influencer or PR campaigns. It works best when you need deep audience insight to build buzz around your latest launch.

Conclusion

Social media is fairly simple at the end of the day.

First, you need to understand what your audience wants and is looking for. Second, you need to give it to them consistently.

In reality, it’s a lot tougher than it sounds.

But not if you’re using the right Instagram analytics tools to tell you what your audience is already interested in, talking about publicly, and reacting online.

Instagram is a powerful marketing tool to reach new audiences, increase your brand visibility, and deepen relationships with the people you already know.

Unfortunately, you can’t always track those things back to new Goal completions inside Google Analytics.

They’re ‘soft’ goals used to move people along your sales funnel instead of ‘hard’ goals that result in a new lead or sale.

That doesn’t mean they’re any less important. It simply means that you need to look for different ways to measure progress and results.

While Instagram’s built-in analytics are helpful, the Instagram analytics tools listed here go far beyond those metrics. You’ll be able to quickly identify your target customers, figure out what they’re interested in, and learn how to better serve them with new stuff.

After all, that’s what Instagram analytics tools are for, anyway. Not long, in-depth reporting that takes you hours to compile. You’re often better off with quick insights so that you can take action, update your marketing campaign, and grow faster.

What are your favorite Instagram analytics tools to track metrics?

The post 7 Instagram Analytics Tools to Grow Your Audience appeared first on Neil Patel.

Best Agile Project Management Tools

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.

Running an agile team effectively is nearly impossible without the right software.

But agile project management tools can make your life much easier. It’s the best way to collaborate with your team, manage changing tasks, and keep track of various projects at scale.

In addition to the managerial perks of agile project management software, your entire team will benefit as well. These tools will make it easier for everyone to work efficiently, communicate, and meet deadlines.

Recognizing you need to invest in agile project management software is only half of the battle. Finding the right software for your business and team is a different story entirely—which is why I created this guide.

After extensive research and testing, I narrowed down the top five agile project management tools available on the market today.

The Top 5 Options For Agile Project Management Tools

How to Choose the Best Agile Project Management Tools For You

There are certain factors that must be evaluated as you’re shopping around and assessing different tools. By following the buying guide I’ve outlined below, you’ll know exactly what to look for and what’s important in an agile project management solution.

Agile Framework Preferences

The very first thing you need to consider is the agile framework you plan to use. For those of you who are already familiar with the concepts of agile management, you probably have a preferred methodology.

Do you want to use Scrum or Kanban? Lean? Crystal? Are you using agile framework variations such as Scrumban?

Depending on the answer, you’ll be able to find an agile tool that specializes in your preferred framework. It’s worth noting that not every agile project management software supports all agile management frameworks. So make sure the options you’re considering offer the methodology you need to implement.

Collaboration Features

Team collaboration is a crucial component of agile management. You want to make sure the software you’re considering comes out-of-the-box with collaboration tools.

Most solutions should come standard with features like team tagging, comments, file sharing, and other basic tools. Some software will have more advanced features, depending on your project type, industry, and team needs.

Team Size

Just because an agile project management tool offers collaboration features, don’t assume that the tool will be robust enough for your specific team.

There are solutions on the market made for small teams with a handful of users. Those won’t be ideal for businesses that have multiple teams, hundreds of users, and multiple projects across several departments.

It should be relatively easy to determine if the tool in question is built to scale. If not, you can always express those concerns with the sales team during a free trial or demo.

Project Type

The complexity of your projects will also play a significant factor in choosing the best software for your team.

For example, software development teams and internal IT departments typically have more advanced needs since these projects have a higher level of complexity. In these cases, you should avoid beginner tools and look for industry-specific solutions tailored toward your project needs.

On the flip side, managers and teams who are just starting out with agile project management should be seeking basic solutions to manage simple projects.

Reporting

The best agile project management software will provide you with detailed reports and advanced analytics about your projects.

You can use these dashboards as a way to learn more about your team’s productivity, find out if the project will be completed on time, and if you’re staying on budget. As a project manager, this information is crucial to the big-picture operation of your business.

Usability

The usability of an agile management tool is often overlooked during the evaluation process. But it’s definitely something that needs to be taken into consideration.

What is your technical experience? How tech-savvy is your team?

If you choose a rigid solution that’s tough to use, it can do more harm than good. So you need to find a balance between a tool that’s robust enough to handle your project complexity while still easy for your team to navigate. This is another reason why you should always take advantage of free trials and demos as you’re narrowing down different options.

The Different Types of Agile Project Management Tools

Not every agile project management tool is the same. Before we dive into the reviews and recommendations, I want to quickly explain the different options.

The easiest way to segment these tools is based on the agile frameworks that they offer. It’s also worth noting that some solutions will fall into more than one of these categories below.

Scrum

Scrum is one of the most popular agile frameworks because it can be used for such a wide range of projects. Over the years, Scrum has gained popularity because of its simplicity, easy implementation process, and proven productivity boost.

With Scrum, the project manager will work closely with the team in terms of identifying and prioritizing functionality in the backlog. This backlog will contain whatever tasks must be accomplished to deliver the final product.

Kanban

Kanban is the most popular visual workflow management methodology. Kanban boards make it easier for agile teams to manage various tasks in the project life cycle.

Similar to Scrum, Kanban is built to help teams collaborate with high efficiency.

The basic principles of Kanban include visual workflow automation, limited WIP (work in progress), and enhanced workflows. This process helps promote continuous collaboration and ongoing learning for agile teams.

Lean

It’s common for software development teams to leverage the lean agile methodology. This iterative framework is highly flexible and doesn’t have rigid rules or guidelines.

The main principles of lean management include team empowerment, enhanced learning, eliminating waste, delivering tasks as soon as possible, making decisions as late as possible, and seeing the big picture.

Individuals and small teams will have more decision-making authority, as opposed to a hierarchical flow. Lean management also helps ensure that the entire team is productive for the longest amount of time.

Crystal

The Crystal agile methodology is another popular software development framework. It’s lightweight and typically comprised of a family of agile processes. These include Crystal Orange, Crystal Clear, Crystal Yellow, and others.

Each individual framework has its own unique rules and characteristics based on factors like project priority, team size, and more.

Crystal puts emphasis on the interaction between the processes and people involved in a project. Some of the key principles of Crystal include simplicity, teamwork, collaboration, and the ability to improve processes. It promotes high user engagement while removing distractions and bureaucracies.

Other Types of Agile Project Management

There are lots of other agile frameworks out there. When you consider the variations and combinations of some, this number is in the dozens.

Other popular types include LeSS (large scale Scrum), SAFe (scaled agile framework), feature driven development (FDD), extreme programming (XP), dynamic systems development method (DSDM), Scrumban, adaptive software development (ASD), agile-agile hybrid, and FAST agile. The list goes on and on.

#1 – Forecast Review — The Best Collaboration Features

Forecast is an all-in-one project management and resource management solution. It’s built for project-driven companies that want to empower teams, automate operations, and unite all projects into a single tool.

With Forecast, you can automate tasks for project planning, resource allocation, and more. The software is powered by AI technology to help simplify monotonous tasks.

Here are some of the top reasons and why Forecast ranks so high on my list:

Keep the big picture in mind with real-time operational visibility
Analyze decisions and financial health of projects
Admins can set different permission levels for each user (clients, collaborators, etc.)
Simple and organized backlog of project tasks
Easy to plan sprints and track progress
Automatically get notified about key updates in your workflow
Continuous and fast delivery of products and tasks

Overall, Forecast has everything agile teams need to improve communication. Create and assign task cards, file sharing, dependencies, subtasks, comments, and priority lists are just a handful of examples.

It’s a popular choice for agencies, consultants, and software teams. Forecast also has solutions for project accounting and business intelligence. The software seamlessly integrates with other popular tools that your team is using.

Forecast’s AI will learn from your previous projects and suggest the number of hours that should be allocated to similar tasks.

Plans start at $29 per seat per month (with a minimum of 10 seats). Try it free for 14 days; no credit card required.

#2 – Monday Review — The Best For Agile Beginners

Monday.com has quickly become one of the most popular agile project management tools on the market today. It’s trusted by 100,000+ organizations worldwide, including some big names like Coca-Cola, Adobe, Hulu, and the Discovery Channel.

This is a great choice if you’re new to agile management and need a solution for basic projects.

It’s one of the easiest ways to plan, track, and deliver team projects from a single workspace. Here are some of the other reasons why I like Monday so much:

Deploy in minutes with hundreds of customizable templates
Integrates with tools like Slack, HubSpot, G Suite, LinkedIn, Teams, and more
Automate repetitive tasks to save time and avoid human error
Visual data with Kanban boards, timelines, maps, calendars, and more
24/7 customer support with a 10-minute average response time
Track the progress of your projects and make data-driven decisions
Set project goals and empower stakeholders

Monday.com makes it easy for teams to collaborate. You’ll benefit from features like file sharing, task assignments, task priorities, visual boards, and other ways to see what everyone is doing at a glance.

It’s a popular choice for remote work, marketing, creative teams, HR, sales, and more. While Monday does have tools for software development, IT, and construction projects, it’s definitely better for simple projects.

Plans start at just $8 per seat per month (with a minimum of three seats). You can try Monday.com free for 14 days with an unlimited number of users; no credit card required.

#3 – Mavenlink Review — Best For Agile Management at Scale

Mavenlink is another all-in-one solution for project management and resource management. It’s a modern way for teams to collaborate from anywhere, which is perfect for remote work.

In addition to improving your team’s productivity on the operational end, Mavenlink provides deep insights into the financial performance of your projects and business as well.

Some of the top features, benefits, and noteworthy highlights of Mavenlink include:

Rich insights for data-driven business decisions in real-time
Flexible way to manage resources and project tasks
Real-time automation tools
See all projects at a glance with complete project portfolio view
Easy to assess the health and status of specific projects or portfolio of projects
Reusable templates to replicate success
Consistently deliver projects on-time
Improve project performance
Extend workspace with popular integrations (Salesforce, Xero, Slack, HubSpot, etc.)

Mavenlink is great for larger teams that need to manage projects across multiple departments. This works fine if you’re just using it for a handful of projects. But it works just as well if you have a project portfolio of 500+.

For small teams and enterprises alike, Mavenlink has a plan for everyone. Rates aren’t available online, so you’ll need to contact their sales team for more information.

Try Mavenlink free for ten days.

#4 – Jira Review — Best Agile Project Management Tool For Development Teams

Jira by Atlassian is a bit unique compared to some of the other tools on our list. This agile project management software is built specifically for software development projects.

With Jira, software teams of all sizes can plan, track, and release exceptional products.

Let’s take a closer look at Jira’s top highlights for agile management:

Plan sprints, create user stories, and distribute tasks for software teams
Prioritize complete team’s work in context with full visibility for everyone
Real-time visual data reporting
Choose a pre-built workflow or create your own custom solutions
Integrate with hundred of developer tools out of the box
Connect software team’s work to your product roadmap
Scrum boards, Kanban boards, roadmaps and agile reporting

Jira is arguably the safest project management tool on the market today in terms of data encryption and compliance. It integrates with 3,000+ apps in the Atlassian marketplace as well.

Software teams, look no further—Jira is the best option agile project management tool for you.

The tool is free for up to ten users. Paid plans start at just $7 per user per month. Try it free for seven days.

#5 – VivifyScrum Review — Best All-in-One Agile Management Tool

VivifyScrum is a versatile agile management solution. It’s trusted by small teams and large organizations alike.

Regardless of your team size and project complexity, this tool can help manage everything from a single platform.

Here are some of the top reasons why you should consider VivifyScrum:

Unlimited Scrum boards, unlimited Kanban boards, and unlimited items
Custom boards with built-in team collaboration tools
Built-in features for invoicing clients and tracking payments
Time tracking and team management features
Create custom workflows with agile boards
Reporting and analytics with burndown charts, Scrum metrics, and more

The software comes with mobile apps, API access, file storage, unlimited integrations, unlimited active sprints, and so much more.

VivifyScrum starts at $10 per month for small teams. Contact the sales team for more information on Enterprise pricing. Regardless of your team size and project management needs, you can try VivifyScrum free for 14 days.

Summary

The only way to effectively manage an agile team is with the right project management tool. Which agile project management software is the best?

It depends on what you’re looking for. Factors like project type, team size, and other considerations must be evaluated for you to make an informed decision.

Follow my methodology and recommendations described in this guide to find the best agile project management tools for your unique situation.

The post Best Agile Project Management Tools appeared first on Neil Patel.

Lumi (YC W15) is hiring Product Designers to design tools for sustainable packaging

Article URL: https://www.lumi.com/jobs/lead-product-designer Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24661706 Points: 1 # Comments: 0 The post Lumi (YC W15) is hiring Product Designers to design tools for sustainable packaging appeared first on ROI Credit Builders. The post Lumi (YC W15) is hiring Product Designers to design tools for sustainable packaging appeared first on Automation For Your Email marketing … Continue reading Lumi (YC W15) is hiring Product Designers to design tools for sustainable packaging

25 Online Marketing Tools For Small Business

All businesses, irrespective of their sector, can significantly benefit from digital marketing. It allows you to cost-efficiently reach clients, places your brand in the right circles, and positions your business in the same standing as your peers. Moreover, digital marketing platforms – such as your website or Facebook page – can also double up as …

The SEO Tool Kit: 11 Tools That’ll Save You Time

When I first got into the world of SEO, you could literally optimize your site for any term and rank at the top of Google within a month or two.

But of course, that was ages ago.

Now with Google’s ever-evolving algorithm, it takes more time and effort to get results.

But what happens if you don’t have the luxury of time? Or you don’t have the financial resources to put in the effort that is truly needed.

What should you do?

Just forget about SEO?

Of course not. Today, I want to call out 11 tools that will help you get an edge over your competition. But unlike most lists, I am going to get very specific on the feature I want you to use within each tool to make your life easier and help you get results faster with less effort.

Let’s dive right in.

Tool #1: Ubersuggest Projects

You probably already know about Ubersuggest, but do you really have time to spend hours and hours each week to do your SEO?

Chances are you don’t.

So how do you improve your traffic with the least amount of effort?

You set up a project in Ubersuggest.

As you can see, it shows your SEO traffic over time. It will let you know if your rankings are going up or down, your link growth, and your SEO issues.

With so many things going on in marketing, you don’t have time to manually check your rankings or if things are going up or down or even what you need to fix.

Ubersuggest will do it for you all automatically and even notify you of what needs to happen through email. That way you don’t have to constantly check your SEO. Ubersuggest will do it all automatically.

More so, you’ll get notified of what you need to focus on each week to maximize your traffic.

All you have do is head to the dashboard and click on “Add Your First Project.”

It’s as simple as adding in your URL.

Then select the locations you do business in and want traffic from.

Then add in the keywords you currently rank for or want to go after.

And of course, set up your traffic preferences.

And then you’ll be good to go.

Then when things go great, you’ll be notified. And when things are going wrong, you’ll also be notified. Ubersuggest will even tell you what to fix.

That way you get the maximum results in the least amount of time.

Tool #2: Google Analytics Alerts

You have Google Analytics set up on your site, but how often do you log in?

And when you do log in, do you know what to focus on or what to look at?

And if you do, do you know what to do with that data?

Google Analytics is a great tool, but you don’t want to waste hours and hours looking at reports. Instead, you want to spend your time doing and getting results.

But if you set up alerts in Google Analytics, you can save tons of time.

If you watch from the 6:33 mark, it will show you how to set up alerts. I added the whole video as it will teach you how to set up Google Analytics in general in case you don’t have goal tracking set in place.

Once you set up alerts, you’ll again get notified when anything good or bad happens. I usually have alerts set up for only when things go bad, so I know when I need to focus on fixing my marketing.

Tool #3: Trello

You’re probably thinking how the heck is Trello a marketing tool. It really isn’t, but it is a good project management tool.

And with your SEO, you may have a team helping you out and Trello will help streamline the process, make you more efficient, and get your results faster.

I keep my Trello board simple by breaking it into 3 sections.

To do – what needs to be done over time.
Prioritized – what I need to be done now (tasks at the top are the most important)
Done – tasks that need to be double-checked to ensure they were done right.

It’s that simple. That way you don’t have to micromanage your team.

Some people have more complex Trello boards, but something simple like I have works too.

If you want to create a Trello board for your content marketing, assuming you want to write lots of content (such as 10 posts a week), this process works well.

The columns I use for content writers are:

Topics – this is where writers add topics they want to write about.
Outline review – writers submit their outline before they write for approval.
Draft – writers submit their rough draft.
Draft review – editors review each draft.
Uploaded, prepared, and ready to review – this is where the editor adds the post to your CMS (like WordPress).
Scheduled – this is where you schedule the content to go live.
Done – the content is now live.

We’ve found it effective if you are managing dozens of writers at once.

Tool #4: Content Decay Tool

Can you guess how many articles I write each week?

Seriously, that’s it. 1 article a week which is roughly 4 to 5 per month (depending on how many weeks in the month).

And can you guess how many articles my team and I update each week?

21.

That’s roughly 90 a month.

Just think about it… why would I have a team of 3 people updating 90 articles per month when I only write 1 a week.

It’s because updating old content is an easier way to get more SEO traffic than it is to create new content.

But what content should you update?

The content decay tool will tell you that.

It breaks down in order which articles you should update first, second, third… based on what will generate you the most traffic.

If you are wondering what is involved with updating content, just think of it this way:

Is there anything outdated within your post – if so, either update the outdated information and make it relevant again. If you can’t, then delete that part from your article.
Can you use media to improve the experience – do you need to embed videos, add more pictures, maybe even add an infographic? Use media to better tell your story and message.
Are you including the right keywords – a simple way to get more traffic is to integrate other popular related keywords within your article. Whatever your article is about, insert it into Ubersuggest and head to the “Keyword Ideas” report in the left-hand navigation.
Is there anything missing – try to poke holes within your content. What could you have done to make it better? What do your competitors talk about that you forgot to mention? What questions didn’t you answer that the reader might have? By asking yourself these simple questions, you’ll be able to make it better.

Tool #5: Ubersuggest Chrome Extension

If you haven’t installed the Ubersuggest Chrome extension, make sure you do so.

I’m not going to bore you with all of the features of the extension… instead, I am going to give you one thing that will save you time.

You know when you Google for information to learn more on any subject?

Chances are, sometimes you are Googling to learn something related to your space. And when you do, you’ll find that your site usually won’t be at the top of those search results.

And that’s ok.

But when you do a search, you’ll notice “monthly searches” in the Google search bar.

This shows you how often that keyword is searched.

So anytime you are looking up anything in your space, pay attention to that number. If you see a keyword with over 5,000 searches, it may be worth targeting.

And as you scroll down and start going through the sites that rank at the top, you’ll notice metrics under each site.

If you notice a web page with thousands of social shares and hundreds of links, it should reaffirm that you probably want to go after that term. And the listing that has thousands of social shares and hundreds of links is a good benchmark of a page that is high in quality and what people in your space prefer.

Ideally, you want to create something better than that one, as that is the main way you beat them over time.

Tool #6: Hello Bar

SEO is very different than paid traffic.

With paid traffic, you can drive people to a landing page with very little content, which makes it easier to generate sales or leads.

With SEO, Google prefers to rank content-rich sites.

But when someone lands on a page full of educational-based content, they are less likely to convert into a customer.

There’s a simple fix… Hello Bar.

Hello Bar has a lot of features, but I just want you to use the top bar like I do on NeilPatel.com.

And as you scroll it moves along with you.

That one little thing allows me to improve my conversion rate from my SEO traffic.

You can easily adjust what you show with a few simple clicks within Hello Bar or you can even show people different messages based on where they are coming from.

Although SEO traffic doesn’t convert as well as paid traffic, it is much cheaper in the long run and does have a better overall ROI. And that one little Hello Bar will improve your numbers.

It’s responsible for 9.4% of revenue from NeilPatel.com.

Every little bit adds up.

Tool #7: Mozcast

Google makes over 3,200 algorithm changes a year.

Are you really going to keep up to date with all of them?

If you followed the first tool and set up a project in Ubersuggest, you’ll get notified when your rankings go down.

And if you set up alerts in Google Analytics (tool number 2) you’ll also get notified when your traffic drops drastically.

What you’ll find is that it’s overwhelming to keep up with all of Google’s updates and it could be confusing to figure out what you need to fix to get your traffic back.

This report on Moz keeps track of all of the algorithm updates and gives you an overview of what has changed or what the update is about. On top of that, you’ll want to check out the Mozcast if you get a notification of ranking or traffic drops as this tool confirms if other people are also seeing changes from a Google update.

Keep in mind that Google doesn’t announce each update, hence you’ll want to cross-reference what you are seeing with the Mozcast.

That way you don’t have to spend hours researching each update.

Tool #8: Detailed

Link building is a pain. There are so many link tools like this one… but let’s not kid ourselves… you just don’t have the time to spend 10 to 20 hours a week doing link building.

So, each minute you spend, you have to make sure it counts.

There’s a tool called Detailed that breaks down the best links for every industry.

All you have to do is select an industry and a site and it shows you all of the good links that are going to your competition.

You can then focus your efforts on reaching out to those sites to get links.

Sure, you will still need to have amazing content or a good product or service in order to convince those sites to link to you, but hey, if you don’t have any of that it’s going to be hard to do well in the first place.

So, don’t waste your time trying to search for links when Detailed will give you a list of hundreds of amazing sites to get links from within your space.

Tool #9: Site Speed Audit

Speed impacts rankings.

Google doesn’t want to rank slow websites anymore.

It doesn’t matter that technology has become better and you can now purchase satellite Internet. Not every location has blazing fast Internet.

For that reason, Google has an Accelerated Mobile Pages framework that helps with mobile load time.

But that’s not enough, you also need your website to load fast.

So, go here and put in your URL.

You’ll then be taken to a report that looks like this:

What you’ll want to focus on is site speed. That Ubersuggest report pulls from Google Lighthouse.

So, send that to your developer and tell them to get you in the green mark for both mobile and desktop load times.

As your speed goes up, so will your SEO rankings and traffic over time.

Tool #10: Supermetrics

Are you tired of having your data everywhere?

Why would you want to log into four of five different apps to get your SEO and marketing data when you could log into one.

And no, I am not talking about Google Analytics. I am talking about Google Data Studio.

If you haven’t used it yet, sign up for it… it’s free.

Google Data Studio is a business intelligence tool that will show you all of your data in one place.

So how do you get all of your SEO data into Google Data Studio? You use Supermetrics.

It passes all of your SEO data from different sources into Data Studio, so you no longer have to log into multiple tools, including Google Analytics.

My favorite feature in Supermetrics is you can automate your marketing reporting, so you no longer have to create your reports manually.

Tool #11: VidIQ

Google is the most popular search engine.

But do you know what the second most popular search engine is?

It’s not Bing… it’s actually YouTube, which Google actually owns.

If you haven’t done YouTube SEO yet, you should reconsider. Just look at how much search traffic I get from YouTube each month.

This article will break down how to do YouTube SEO if you want to learn how it works.

But to make things easier, install this Chrome extension.

Whenever you perform a search on YouTube it will show you what’s popular, what keywords are being searched that are related to each video, and which tags people are using to get more SEO traffic.

I wanted to end this post with VidIQ because it’s not competitive.

See, unlike traditional SEO, it doesn’t take months to see results. YouTube SEO is the opposite in which it isn’t as competitive (yet) and you can rank at the top within 24 to 48 hours of releasing a video (seriously!).

Conclusion

They say SEO is hard and time-consuming. And I am not going to lie, you won’t get results unless you put in some effort.

But who says it has to be as time-consuming?

By using some of the tools I mentioned above you’ll save time. It really is that simple.

I know there is a lot and it can be overwhelming. So if you don’t have time to use all of the tools it is fine… just start at the top and work your way down (I put them in order based on what will save you the most time).

What other ways do you save time on your SEO?

The post The SEO Tool Kit: 11 Tools That’ll Save You Time appeared first on Neil Patel.

1. Free Logo Design

2. Logomakr

3. Canva

4. GraphicSprings

5. Designimo

Conclusion

What is Dropshipping?

What are the Benefits of Dropshipping?

What Dropshipping Tools Should I Use?

Shopify

Oberlo

WooCommerce

Spocket

AutoDS

Dropified

SaleHoo

Zapier

AliDropship

Google Analytics

Chili-Hunter

Conclusion

What is Augmented Intelligence?

How is Augmented Intelligence Different From Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

Artificial Intelligence Examples

Augmented Intelligence Examples

How Can Augmented Intelligence Help Your Business?

Augmented Intelligence Creates Positive Customer Experiences

Augmented Intelligence Can Reduce Busywork

Augmented Intelligence Can Help Write Content

Augmented Intelligence is Becoming the Norm

Conclusion

1. Owlmetrics

2. Iconosquare

3. Sprout Social

4. Keyhole

5. SquareLovin

6. Minter.io

7. SocialRank

Conclusion

The Top 5 Options For Agile Project Management Tools

How to Choose the Best Agile Project Management Tools For You

Agile Framework Preferences

Collaboration Features

Team Size

Project Type

Reporting

Usability

The Different Types of Agile Project Management Tools

Scrum

Kanban

Lean

Crystal

Other Types of Agile Project Management

#1 – Forecast Review — The Best Collaboration Features

#2 – Monday Review — The Best For Agile Beginners

#3 – Mavenlink Review — Best For Agile Management at Scale

#4 – Jira Review — Best Agile Project Management Tool For Development Teams

#5 – VivifyScrum Review — Best All-in-One Agile Management Tool

Summary

Tool #1: Ubersuggest Projects

Tool #2: Google Analytics Alerts

Tool #3: Trello

Tool #4: Content Decay Tool

Tool #5: Ubersuggest Chrome Extension

Tool #6: Hello Bar

Tool #7: Mozcast

Tool #8: Detailed

Tool #9: Site Speed Audit

Tool #10: Supermetrics

Tool #11: VidIQ

Conclusion

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