Business Digital Starter Kit

WordPress is software designed for everyone, emphasizing accessibility, performance, security, and ease of use. They believe great software should work with minimum set up, so you can focus on sharing your story, product, or services freely. The basic WordPress software is simple and predictable so you can easily get started. It also offers powerful features for growth and success.

WordPress believes in democratizing publishing and the freedoms that come with open source. Supporting this idea is a large community of people collaborating on and contributing to this project. The WordPress community is welcoming and inclusive. The contributors’ passion drives the success of WordPress which, in turn, helps you reach your goals.

There are many advantages to using GSuite for your company email. Whether it’s a sole-proprietor, small business, or large enterprise. Features include (courtesy of HubSpot):

Gmail

Gmail is the G Suite email software. It was released in 2004 and now has over 1 billion users worldwide.

With a G Suite plan, businesses enjoy 30GB of storage space, custom company email addresses (yourname@company.com), unlimited Google Group email addresses, 24/7 phone and email support, and compatible add-ons available through the G Suite Marketplace.

Drive

Google Drive is the G Suite cloud storage platform and was launched in 2012. Drive manages all of your company’s content and supports collaboration across your entire organization. It also allows you to view various file formats so you don’t have to download additional software to your devices.

Depending on the G Suite plan, businesses enjoy 30GB, 1TB, or unlimited storage per user and audit and reporting insights for Drive content.

Docs, Sheets, and Slides

Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides are the G Suite word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation programs, respectively. They were added to the platform in 2006.

These programs allow real-time collaboration, save changes automatically, and track revision history. Users can insert comments, suggest edits, communicate through a built-in chat, and create templates for future use.

Forms

Google Forms is the G Suite web form and survey tool. Also launched in 2006, Forms shares many of the same features as Docs, Sheets, and Slides, such as automatic saving, real-time collaboration, and template creation. To collect data through Forms, users can personalize surveys or quizzes, send respondents the URL, and review the data (that’s automatically collected in Sheets).

Calendar

Google Calendar is the G Suite online calendar. It was launched in 2006 and integrates with Gmail to manage schedules, appointments, meetings, and tasks (via Google Tasks).

With a G Suite plan, businesses enjoy smart scheduling (where employees can see open windows of time on coworkers’ calendars), calendars for Google Groups, calendars for meeting rooms and shared resources, public calendars so customers can view company events, and easy migration from external calendars (e.g. iCal, Outlook, or Exchange).

Sites

Google Sites is the G Suite website builder. It was added to the platform in 2008 and allows users to create websites with little to no coding knowledge or design skills. Landing page and project websites can be created using pre-made templates and published internally or publicly.

Hangouts

Google Hangouts is the G Suite communication and messaging tool. Originally launched in 2006 as Google Talk, Hangouts supports text, voice and video conversations (for up to 25 participants) and can be used between desktop and mobile devices. It’s also a common alternative to Slack.

With a G Suite plan, businesses enjoy a seamless integration with Calendar, screen sharing for participants, auto focus and intelligent muting features, public livestreams automatically saved in YouTube, and custom administrative controls.

Keep

Google Keep is the G Suite note-taking tool. The newest addition to the G Suite platform, Keep can be used to create, organize, and share memos, lists, images and voice notes across multiple devices. It’s available as a Chrome download and mobile application.

Email marketing is still the best way to reach out to existing and prospective customers/clients, and aid in growing your business.

First, we pick an Email Service Provider (ESP), that best suits your needs. There are a number of companies to choose from, and a few of them offer free packages, which is great, especially when you’re starting out.

The advantage to using an ESP is deliverability and trust. Spam filters and algorithms are increasingly stringent and restrictive. ESP’s use highly trusted domains and IP addresses so that your message has the best chance of reaching inboxes.

There are also a great number of features available to give your subscribers the best possible experience, including list cleaning, automation, landing pages and more.

I’ve worked with many companies, but MailChimp and Sendinblue are my favorites. Below is an explanation of their free plans:

MailChimp

Our Free plan is ideal for beginners who want to grow their audience and create campaigns while testing out some of Mailchimp’s tools and features. It includes all the basics you need to start marketing.

The Free plan includes up to 2,000 contacts and 10,000 sends per month, with a daily send limit of 2,000.

Here are a few of the features the Free plan offers.

• 1 audience (list)
• 1 seat, with Owner permissions (account user)
• A limited selection of basic, featured, and themed email templates
• Single email automations
• Basic reporting
• You can also try out marketing tools like postcards, landing pages, and Facebook/Instagram ads. Additional fees may apply.

If you exceed the 2,000 contact limit in your Free plan, a hold is placed on sending live email campaigns or test emails until you upgrade to a paid plan or reduce your contact count. You’ll still be able to work on your campaigns and templates, and collect and import new contacts.

sendinblue

• Up to 300 emails per day
• Unlimited contacts

The importance of social media in business is growing at warp speed. With more and more people joining social media sites and using them regularly/efficiently, the social media industry is bound to become bigger in the coming years. It’s booming like never before.

No, the social media wave isn’t ending anytime soon. And your business should take advantage of it if you want it to survive.

With such amazing growth, every business today needs to leverage proper social media channels in the best possible way. Not because it’s the “in thing”, and not because it sounds simple, but because their target audience is hanging around the popular social networks. And they’re engaging with their favorite brands and connecting with them on different levels.

By giving your business brand the social media touch, you not only generate more business but also connect with your customers better and serve them on a higher level. It actually makes your digital marketing easier.