Top five websites

http://www.moo.com
A business card is something you shouldn’t be without. MOO’s clever print service allows you to create unforgettable cards. The service is perfect for the arts, it’s simple to use and flexible so you can get really creative with images and text. It’s also a cheap way to make a variety of cards as you can mix different images in your order, which would be hugely expensive otherwise. It’s easy to change the image to reflect a new project.

http://www.constantcontact.com
Keeping customers up to date with blog articles, product developments and latest offers is essential. I’m not a techie person and don’t have a lot of time to spend creating professional email marketing and newsletters. Constant Contact offers a huge selection of design templates ready to adapt to your own style or brand. The site stores your contacts so that the emails are addressed personally and you can schedule messages to go on a set date. The beauty of this service is that I can get the writing done any time and the messages go out on a working day rather than right there and then.

http://www.huddle.net
I work with a number of partner arts organisations, which means I have a lot of member financial training projects to keep track of. I have used the Internet for a while to manage projects that occur across two or more organisations, and have recently moved to this site because it’s an easy, cheap tool. You can invite people to join you in a single project space without having to bother with document uploads, drop boxes and dealing with a number of different intranets and passwords.

http://www.tactilecrm.com
Although we are a small business, there are a number of staff in contact with customers. In order to keep track of all the conversations and make sure everyone has a full picture we need a central place to store a record for each customer. Tactile is a customer relationship management (CRM) tool based online so it can be accessed from anywhere, at any time. We have adapted it to suit our requirements to track training, support calls and subscriptions.

http://www.facebook.com
Things are changing at Facebook and it is now becoming more useful to me as a marketing tool. With the importance of word of mouth, it is vital to give customers a community where they can quickly share ideas and invite others to join. Facebook is direct and easy to manage. The adverts are a new feature I’m trying out as an affordable way test new messages. I think it’s important that our target audience sees things in several places and the adverts help to repeat a message.