3 Startup Tech Tools I Can't Live Without

As the Vice President of Business Development for an early-stage Startup I am constantly looking for tools that can save me time. 
As Carpathia Marketing's first employee, I have to keep a lot of balls in the air. Below are the top 3 technology tools that I cannot live without. 

Crowdfire http://crowdfire.com 
I understand the importance of having a presence on social media but I simply do not have the time to dedicate more than a few hours a week to managing these accounts. Crowdfire to the rescue. At Carpathia, we focus our social channels on Twitter and LinkedIn and we've been using Crowdfire for over a year. Now that we’ve customized our Crowdfire by adding keywords, similar accounts and preferences, we can easily post compelling content across both platforms. 



Crowdfire allows us to easily find news articles, other user's posts, and great images to share with our network. Additionally, Crowdfire suggests new people for our accounts to engage with as well as highlights inactive accounts that we can unfollow.

Time Saved: 6 hours per week 

Cost: $10.61 per month



Sometimes I think Crystal knows me better than I know myself. This extension allows me to send better emails tailored to the personality of my prospects. 

When responding to inbound leads or leads that have engaged with our website, social or marketing automation I always use Crystal to send emails that are more like to get a reply. I only learned about Crystal two months ago and I am already seeing the higher response rates to my personalized emails. 

What I love about Crystal is that it also works on LinkedIn. Crystal suggests how I can best engage with the personality type I am corresponding with and shares how much confidence is behind their recommendation. Using the DISC personality methodology, Crystal suggests how to whether to be direct, expressive, accurate and a host of communication tips. 

Time Saved: Hard to say. It takes a bit more time to write a thoughtful email but I get a higher response rate. 

Cost: $49 per month



I could not live without Boomerang. It ensures that active pipelines don’t get lost amongst the every changing priorities at a Startup. Not only does it allow you to set reminders that bring important emails back to the top of your inbox at the right time, it’s helps you send better emails. 

Boomerang reminds that typing up a quick email - off the cuff - is not good enough because it won’t get a reply. It pushes me to make sure every email I send is a great one and in combination with Crystal has increased my open rates and reply rates by 17% and 8% respectively.

Not having to duplicate efforts by setting task reminders or follow-ups in our CRM saves me a lot of time and reduces my stress-level knowing I'll never drop the ball on following up with a prospect or customer. 

Time Saved: 8 hours per week

Cost: $14.99 per month 
I hope you will be able to use at least one of these amazing technology tools to save yourself time and drive your business forward. 
Please consider connecting with me on LinkedIn http://LinkedIn.com/in/leslievenetz and Happy Selling!

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