The two tools you need to market your small business online
When I speak for Google, people ask me the same two questions all the time.
Those questions are:
How can I make my small business look more professional?
What’s the most affordable way to manage marketing for my business?
This article introduces you to the two tools that every small business owner needs to use. The good news? Together, you can pay around $50 per month to manage all the marketing for your brand, even if you don’t have a website yet. These will help you with:
A professional email address tied to your domain name
Collecting contact information and email addresses from your social media and/or website visitors
Sending special promotional emails to your prospects and customers
Saving time with automated emails to your contacts
Managing your social media marketing tools
Setting up ads on Google and Facebook
These small business marketing tools are Google Workspace and Constant Contact
I use both of these tools almost every day. I’ve used Workspace since 2017. I’ve used Constant Contact since 2008. I believe in these tools so much I’m now an affiliate for them. That means if you buy one of these tools through me, I get a small commission at no additional cost to you. Best of all, if you buy through me, you’ll have direct access to both Google Workspace personal support and Constant Contact’s fantastic customer support. As you probably know, most software tools don’t have great support.
Must-Have Small Business Tool #1 | Google Workspace
Make your small business look professional
With Workspace, you will get a professional email address. This address will use your business’s domain name (ex. info@yourdomain.com). If you do nothing else to build your business, having a professional email address is a must. This is true for every industry, regardless of your products or services. If you want sales, you need to look professional.
Having an email address with @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, @outlook.com, or something similar immediately brands you as a “dabbler” or as someone too small to be taken seriously. Your audience won’t trust you.
Don’t think a “business-like” address such as “PuppyTrainingByPat@gmail.com” is good enough. You’ll still look unprofessional. You’ll look small-time, uncommitted, and unprofessional.
Workspace accounts start at as little as $6 per month; less than your favorite fluffy coffee drink.
If you already have a domain, you can connect it to your Workplace account so you have the email address that matches your website. (You don’t even need a website, just the domain.)
What’s a domain? That is an online address such as www.yourbusinessname.com. That is where people can find your site (if you have one.)
If you don’t already have a domain, you can purchase one through Google as you set up your Workspace account. Their prices are consistent with most other sources. They typically start at $12 per year.
When you pay for a Workspace account, you also get something fantastic: Google support! But there’s a catch with that. You want to buy Workspace directly through Google (which is where my links take you).
Don’t buy Google Workspace through a different organization such as Wix, Shopify, or even Constant Contact.
Here’s why: If you buy Workspace through one of those brands, and try to get help from Google, Google will tell you that you need to go to that brand for support.
I originally bought my Workspace Account through Wix. Then I had a question about it. Google wouldn’t help me. They told me to get with Wix. Wix didn’t know how to help me. Even worse, when I moved my website away from Wix, I was still tied to them through Workspace.
When I finally figured out how to disconnect my account from Wix, I was freaking out worried that I’d lose my emails, my documents, etc. (I didn’t lose anything.)
Trust me. Just buy your Workspace account directly from Google. You’ll avoid headaches down the road. You can check it out at this link.
Must-Have Small Business Tool #2 | Constant Contact Plus
The all-in-one tool to market your business
Constant Contact is a complete marketing solution that helps small businesses reach new customers and grow their businesses. With Constant Contact, creating beautiful emails in minutes is simple. You can track who opens and clicks on your emails, and automate your email marketing so you can focus on other parts of your business.
You may be tempted to wait until you have collected more email addresses. Constant Contact has a variety of tools that make it easy for you to gather email addresses from people you find on social media, in person, on YouTube, or anywhere else that you promote your company.
But Constant Contact is more than email. A lot more.
Constant Contact has two plans: Core and Plus.
Get the Plus account. That has all the features you need for as little as $45 per month. The price is depending on the number of contacts you have in your account.
Constant Contact Plus account includes everything you need to build a complete online marketing program, connect with customers and market your business in email and social media.
Here’s a list of the most helpful features of Constant Contact Plus:
Create beautiful, personalized emails using hundreds of templates
Send your emails to all of your list, or just parts of your overall list
Automatically resend emails to people who didn’t open them the first time.
Automatically send personalized birthday or anniversary emails
Create forms to collect email addresses from people who visit your website and social media platforms
Integrate with Facebook, Instagram, and Google Ads.
Sync with your website to promote your physical and/or digital products through your emails.
Send reminder emails to people who put your products in their shopping cart, but didn’t buy the products
Create, schedule, and launch posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and/or LinkedIn all at the same time
Access to a stock image library
Create a marketing calendar
Generate surveys
Free, unlimited telephone and chat customer support
A free kickoff call with a Constant Contact marketing advisor is available to everyone who buys a Plus account
How to get started with your Small Business Marketing
Here’re the steps to get your small business marketing to the place it needs to be.
Just so you know, both of these tools offer free trials. This post assumes you are committed to developing your business. I show you how to set up your full account, so you can get started right away.
(My viewpoint is if someone isn’t willing to commit $50 a month to their business, they don’t have a business. They have a hobby and don’t intend to make any money with it.)
How to set up your Google Workspace Account
First, click here to go to Google Workspace. You’ll see a big blue “Get started” button and the different price tiers. (Note: prices here are accurate at the time this post was written, but prices may change.)
Google defaults to recommending the $12 a month (per person) Business Standard plan. In Workspace Business Standard, you can record your Google Meet video meetings. And you get more storage in Google Drive.
I use the $6 a month Google Workspace Business Starter plan. After five years, I recently had an alert that I was getting close to meeting my storage maximum.
The biggest storage hog turned out to be my past emails. So I bit the bullet and deleted my sent emails from 2017 to 2020. I kept the emails that were in my inbox. That freed up a lot of storage and (so far) my world hasn’t crumbled.
Start with The Google Workspace Business Starter plan unless your business model includes doing a lot of video calls and recording them. If that’s the case, you may want the Business Starter package. The additional $6 per month is a much better bargain than paying for Zoom or a similar tool.
Google walks you through the process of setting up your account. It isn’t complicated. You’ll enter your business name, then your personal contact information.
After that, Google will ask if your business already has a domain. (That’s your www.yourbusinessname.com). If you’ve already purchased one from either Google or some other place like GoDaddy, enter it here.
If you don’t have one, it will show you how you can purchase one through Google.
Google Workspace continues to walk you through the process of setting up your domain and then getting your email address. Once you are set up, you’ll have access to the full suite of Google business tools including:
Mail
Docs
Sheets
Slides
Drive (this is where you store your files)
Images
Meet (for video calls)
Forms
Contacts (and Contact groups)
And more
How to set up your Constant Contact Plus Account
First, click here to go to Constant Contact. At the time of this writing, they are offering a savings of 30% off for three months. If you see that, take action right away! The savings don’t last forever.
You’ll see a big orange “See all plans” button. Click that.
That will take you to the price and details for Constant Contact Core and Plus. At the time of this writing, Core starts at $9.99 USD and Plus starts at $45 USD. If you are paying with a different currency, there is a little dropdown icon right above the Plus column.
Click the blue “choose plan” button in the Plus options.
Constant Contact will walk you through the process of setting up your account. Once you are set up, you’ll have full access to all of the Plus features I mentioned earlier in this post.
How to create an email in Constant Contact
Here are some tips and ideas for creating content that works well for users like you. You don’t need to be an advanced marketer to create an email that is relevant, will engage your prospects, and sell your product or service.
Stick with a template.
The service provides you with hundreds of templates. You don’t need to recreate the wheel. You can always customize the template to match how your brand your company.
If you don’t even want to worry about customizing your template, the platform can create a custom template for you.
Be brief
You don’t need to create a novel or a blog post. Your email should be one page or less, ideally less than 300 words. You want your message to be short.
In your first email, you can establish your presence, mention an example of your services or mention your resources. Content is important. But don’t overwhelm people with too much content.
If you have more content or resources you want to share, that’s a sign that you are halfway to creating your second email.
Engage your readers
Your content should always have some type of call to action. It doesn’t have to be related to sales. But you do want people to do something.
Visit your site
Watch one of your videos
Visit you on the web
Share your content with a friend
Connect with your social media presence
Join a video call you are hosting on the web
These are all activities that will get people into your sales funnel. Also, you’ll get some great data that lets you know who took these actions.
That way, when you become even more experienced, you can use this data to target different people with different messages. You won’t have to search your brain for ideas. It will all be in the data in the software.
Recap of the two tools you need to market your small business online
Must-Have Small Business Tool #1 | Google Workspace
Workspace is a must-have tool to establish a professional presence for your business. Starting at $6 per month, every business should have this.
How to set up your Google Workspace Account
Click here to start the process of setting up your account.
Must-Have Small Business Tool #2 | Constant Contact Plus
Constant Contact is a complete marketing solution that helps small businesses reach new customers and grow their businesses. With Constant Contact, creating beautiful emails in minutes is simple. You can track who opens and clicks on your emails, and automate your email marketing so you can focus on other parts of your business.
How to set up your Constant Contact Plus Account
Click here to set up your Constant Contact account. Be sure to select the Plus option to get all the features mentioned above.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Google suite (Gsuite) and workspace?
It’s essentially the same. Google rebranded the tool a few years ago.
I’ve been using my personal email address for business. Do I really need to get a new one?
That depends. If you want to present yourself as a legitimate business, you need a professional email address. If you are focused more on a hobby and don’t care if you make money, your personal email address is probably fine.
Can I get a business email address for my intern (or employee, or helper?)
Yes. With Workspace, you can get additional email addresses for other people associated with your business. If you aren’t sure if the people who help you now are there for the long term, consider getting “role” email addresses.
Those are addresses like: Supprt@yourbusiness.com or Hello@yourbusiness.com. That way, if the current person leaves, you can transfer their email to their replacement.
Can I get a free trial for these tools?
They both offer free trials. The links in this article will allow you to get a free trial, too. Just be sure you don’t set up a free trial, then ignore it. Delaying setting up a paid account will delay your success.
How many contacts should I have before I start using Constant Contact?
Constant Contact is designed for people with very small email lists, as well as people with very large ones. Your account includes a variety of tools you can use to collect email addresses. If you don’t start collecting email addresses now, you’ll regret that in the future. Today’s casual contact could become next week’s customer–as long as you connect with them.
Online sign-up forms for the web as well as social media marketing
Sign-up links to include in your one-to-one emails
You can even use their “text to join” feature that gives people the chance to sign up for your email list via text message
How much time does email marketing take?
Setting up your account takes just a few minutes. If you focus, emails can be created in 15-30 minutes. But like anything, if you overthink the process, it will take longer.
How can I get help getting started with Constant Contact?
When you start a new account, you can request a free Kickoff call. That call is with a corporate email marketing advisor. That person will walk you through your new account and answer your questions.
