Krista joins me on the podcast to continue our discussion of different website tools.
Today we discuss the options for email marketing, including one of our favorite tools for building an email list, different e-commerce and cart platforms, and tools for designing lead magnets. We also chat about how to embed Instagram feeds on your website and actually what we recommend doing instead, even though I think we covered that on our last episode together.
Mailing Lists
If you’re looking to send a lead magnet or build a list, you’ll need third party software. If you’re new to lists, we recommend starting with the Super Simple Guide to Starting a Mailing List.
- Flodesk – Easy, beautiful and designed for creatives. Depending on what you need, this is typically our first recommendation.
- Kit – Markets itself as an email marketing tool for professional bloggers, but can be used by other types of businesses, too. Kit is a great tool because it’s simple, flexible, and intuitive. We are currently using Kit.
- Convertbox
- Ontraport
- Note – Mailchimp is another free and popular mailing list software, but given how limited it is, we don’t recommend it.
Cart Systems
If you’re looking to sell products on your website, these are the cart systems we recommend. For a more in-depth look at tools we recommend for selling online, check out this article.
WooCommerce – This is what we use on our website (except for our course + hosting). It’s built into our WordPress website templates that include shops because it’s flexible and robust. It’s also free but you may need to pay for plugins to do more advanced shop aspects (such as subscriptions). But even the premium plugins you need to pay for a pretty nominal.
ThriveCart – One of our favorite cart systems. It’s great if you’re a Showit user who wants a shop or if you want to sell courses and digital products. We stumbled upon it while looking for an alternative to SamCart.
Shopify Lite – Also great if you’re a Showit user who needs to sell a product or two on your website. It allows you to embed buttons on your pages.
For Creating Graphics + Lead Magnets
If you need to create graphics or lead magnet PDFs, these are our go-to resources. If you’re new to lead magnets, this post explains the entire process.
- Sketch – Affordable one-time payment, similar to Illustrator but the export options make it a bit easier to export individual elements as multiple file types (SVG, PDF, PNG, JPG).
- Adobe Illustrator – My go-to for logo design and anything that needs illustration.
- InDesign – We use Adobe InDesign to create PDFs and most print pieces.
- Canva – Free software for creating graphics. We haven’t used it but we know a lot of people really love it! It’s a great alternative to the Adobe suite.
- Google Docs / Slides – Another way to create PDFs.
Embedding an Instagram Feed
If you want to embed an Instagram feed that automatically updates on your site, we recommend the following two resources.
- Snapwidget – They have a free plan but it won’t link directly to your Instagram images unless you pay to upgrade it. Here’s a tutorial for embedding Snapwidget on your website.
- Lightwidget – $10 to upgrade it once & use on a website with an HTTPS, links directly to your IG feed. Here’s a tutorial for embedding Lightwidget on your website.
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