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We know that sometimes when you see a list of tools it can become daunting because you have been told many times over that you NEED everything to be successful. We are here to tell you, that you don't need everything, but we can tell you exactly where to start, and what tools you should look at investing in first.
This list is going to be broken down into a few parts:
What we use: We are going to touch on every tool we use from the list, and how it fits into our business and why we love it.
What you need to get started: We are going to explain the exact products that you need ASAP and the ones that can wait.
The average monthly cost of each tool: We are going to give you a breakdown, so you can make an informed decision on what you can. and cannot wait to invest in.
Sound good?
Great, let's get started!
We know that sometimes when you see a list of tools it can become daunting because you have been told many times over that you NEED everything to be successful. We are here to tell you, that you don't need everything, but we can tell you exactly where to start, and what tools you should look at investing in first.
This list is going to be broken down into a few parts:
What we use: We are going to touch on every tool we use from the list, and how it fits into our business and why we love it.
What you need to get started: We are going to explain the exact products that you need ASAP and the ones that can wait.
The average monthly cost of each tool: We are going to give you a breakdown, so you can make an informed decision on what you can. and cannot wait to invest in.
Sound good?
Great, let's get started!
We use Canva to help us design our guides. We love everything about Canva for design. One of the biggest ‘pros' is that you can upload your brand colors, logo and any other brand elements and easily be able to drag and drop to create brand consistency.
Once our guide is looking good, we need a spot to easily store it, where we can link to and our people can easily download it. For this, we have chosen to use Amazon S3 Storage.
While it is possible to just upload to your current WP site in the media files, I find that S3 is more reliable should something happen to your website. Storing your assets in a few locations is recommended, so we also keep them in Dropbox as well.
We link to all of our files in S3 because should we ever need to change something in a PDF, S3 makes it really simple to update the document, without breaking the link in places where we have shared it. All you have to do is make sure the file name is the exact same, and when you upload to S3 it will automatically update
In the past, we have tried a few other systems, but when you start to look at the value of what you get with Infusionsoft versus the other systems, Infusionsoft just can't be beaten.
The reason we like Infusionsoft so much is because of the ability to allow your contact to choose their own adventure. With each open, click and interaction, it tells a story of your leads journey. You can customize this and not send the lead marketing emails if it doesn't make sense for their journey.
This means that everything that you send to your contact will make sense to them, and they won't feel like just another number. They will feel that you are truly connecting with them.
Because we love to create on-demand webinars, we love to use Everwebinar. In the past, we have had a few issues with Everwebinar, but nothing major. Generally, it has been really reliable for us so we are continuing to use it. We love the tracking and the simple set up. The only thing that we don't like is that the branding is limited.
Webinar Jam is the live version of Everwebinar. It allows you to host a live webinar with the same ease as Everwebinar. The best part is that when you host live versions of your webinar and you have a really good recording, you can flip it over to Everwebinar to create on-demand training and use that to increase your sales and lead generation.
If you want to do both live and evergreen webinars, I would suggest buying this bundle package. You can get both of them so that no matter what, you're covered for all your webinar needs. I personally love Webinar Jam for hosting live webinars, and then I take the live version, along with the comments from real live attendees, and making it evergreen with EverWebinar. I do this because LIVE webinars always convert better and with the click of a button and a few adjustments you can make it evergreen and it simulates a live webinar. If you're interested I have included a link below to a webinar where you can get the special rate on the bundle package, check it out by clicking the button below!
For our sales pages, we build them on our WordPress site, using the Divi theme. This allows us to use products like Access Ally to trigger action automation through our Infusionsoft account. The pages are really simple to design and with a little copywriting they convert really well.
If you can't tell by now, a large portion of our business is housed in our Infusionsoft account. This is because we want to make sure that we are keeping our business simple and cost-effective. We build out all of our order forms in Infusionsoft because it is our preferred method of payment. By running all of our transactions through Infusionsoft we can track sales and this allows for better automation.
When someone purchases the team can be alerted, the contact can be automatically removed from the pitch sequence, and the welcome package is automatically sent. All without a person on our team doing anything.
We use SamCart integrated with Infusionsoft for our order forms. We love the advanced stats so we can truly gauge the success of our business, from a monetary standpoint!
Scarcity does sell, but being authentic sells more 🙂
When we do use scarcity in our offers we always use Deadline Funnel. It integrates really well with Infusionsoft and all of the other tools we have mentioned and because it tracks using cookies, you know that you are safe to state a deadline, and you know that Deadline Funnel will not let you down!
When writing copy for emails or sales pages we always write everything out in Google Docs. We do this so that we can share it among our team members as well as being able to access it from any device. The best part is, it's totally free!
If you sell any sort of digital course or membership course, you need to be using Access Ally. This WordPress plugin is probably our favorite over here at Flow Automation.
Not only can you control access based on what products customers have bought, but you can also show them all the courses they are missing out on – thus creating an opportunity to cross-sell.
Access Ally is the best plugin that I have found the syncs with Infusionsoft to completely run a membership site and all of the day-to-day ins and outs. It's truly been a lifesaver!
With Access Ally you also get Progress Ally. It's a tool that can add gamification to your member's site, as well as the ability to track progress and customize the user experience.
We use Pretty Links Pro to create and track all of the unique links that we use.
We use this free service to create a team spreadsheet, so that everyone has access to all of the unique links, so that our team members can always easily grab the correct link for where they are posting.
It isn't the most automated way to track stats, but it's what is working for us, and it's free. The majority of the main stats that we want to track are pulled in Infusionsoft using reports and then placed on the dashboard of our user accounts. So at a quick glance, we can see the pulse of our business. However, these stats need to saved somewhere else as well, so for this, we use Google Sheets. We have a template with all of our markers on it, and then once a month we get a team member to go pull all the stats we need. There we can better track trends and make note of what was happening in the business to reflect those numbers that we are seeing.
This was just mentioned above, but it should be noted that this is key in our tracking. This allows us to get the most current and up to date reporting when we want to see immediately how things are working and where people are in each funnel.
The main reason that we use schedule once is that it is the best system for integrations with Infusionsoft. Over 80% of our business is in Infusionsoft, so naturally, we want something that works for us and our main systems.
Schedule once allows us to track bookings, tag contacts and create new contact records, automatically. We can schedule reminder emails, as well as give people the option to reschedule if they miss a call, or need to move it. It really takes the stress out of call management & bookings.
It also syncs with Google Calendar, which is another system that we rely on for call booking.
We use the paid version of Paypal to process our recurring payments in our Infusionsoft account. This acts like any normal credit card terminal and charges fees that are similar to almost everything else that is out there on the market. The main reason why we use Paypal is that we get our money really quickly. Generally within 2 days of the transaction.
This is essentially Infusionsoft's version of PayPal. You can accept payment fro credit cards and the fees are similar to PayPal. The one thing that we like about Infusionsoft payments, that PayPal can't do automatically is that you can automatically set up a payment frequency. For our business model, we have a few products that we have all payments going through Infusionsoft payments, and then from there we collect that income every week on Monday. It is deposited in our bank by Wednesday when we do all of our business banking. This makes it feel like a steady paycheck is coming in, and then we can better budget for business expenses.
This is what we use to make sure that we are showing up and sharing content, every single day. Even on the days when we step out of the office, we know that our blog posts, promotions and helpful information will be shared with our tribe!
If you're interested, click here to sign up!
This is what we use to make sure that we are using and posting to content to various social media channels. There's even a neat feature that takes our podcasts and turns them into YouTube videos so that you can gain traction on two platforms at once!
If you're interested, click here to sign up!
Obviously, our first recommendation is going to be Infusionsoft because it can really do much of the things that you will need to get started, and it will also grow the most with you as you get more steps put together.
With their new pricing structure, you can get everything that I mentioned above starting at $159/month. That covers your landing pages, sales pages, order forms, CRM, payment processor and stats reporting.
If you are already using a few different services to do everything I mentioned above, add them up and see if you could be actually saving time and money by making the switch.
Now, we understand that there is a learning curve to using Infusionsoft, we have that covered too. We provide tons of free resources to help you get started with your account and make sure that you are utilizing the features you need to get started. We cover the more advanced training in the Flow Academy, but the basics are available on our vlog.
We also understand that Infusionsoft charges a hefty startup fee between $500 and $1500. But the good thing is that Infusionsoft charges that, not us! Flow Automation is a Certified Partner with Infusionsoft, and we waive that fee, and give you access to our training vault, when you sign up with us. You will have everything that you need to get moving in the right direction, fast!
If you're interested, click here to book a call and get started.
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