Since many of our followers and community have found our other blog posts regarding tools we use very helpful, I wanted to share 6 invaluable, yet underrated startup tools our team uses day-to-day. These are tools that I keep tabs open everyday to analyze/respond and how I use them. Without further adieu, here they are and how to best use them:

1) Google Analytics

While I know this is very popular, I still think GA is underrated because many people do not take advantage of the things you can do with it or build on top of it. We built many custom segments and hooked up tons of event triggers on GA to obsessively understand how our customers are using our product, where they are dropping off, what the engagement level is like, and where we get our leads from.

I admit that I was very intimidated by GA before and there is a steep learning curve. But I cannot emphasize how beneficial this has been to our business because of the additional segments/event triggers we’ve added. If you don’t know how, ask your developers to delve deeper into it. Data is your best friend in a startup, and GA is a free gift for you to succeed.

2) Trello

If you work with a team (remotely or together), it is inevitable you will have to-do lists. Gone are the days of emailing each other and passing around memos. Enter Trello: a simple app that helps everyone on your team collaborate better. I recommend Trello because it is very flexible and offers teams an effective way to communicate what they are doing, when they are going to do it by, and what the progress of the task is. If you’ve ever wondered what your partner was working on, you and your team needs to hop onto Trello and use it.

If you’re interested in learning effective ways to use Trello, read here.

3) Olark

When you see someone on your site through Google Analytics, the things that usually come to your mind are 1) How did they find us and 2) How do I convert them to become a user/customer. This is where Olark comes in. Olark is a simple chat plugin that allows you to chat in real-time with any visitors on your site. It syncs right to your Google Chat so you can chat with them right inside your Gmail.

Here’s how I use it. Anytime I see someone new land on our site, I immediately greet them with a nice hello and offer any help if they have any questions. The funny thing is many people will think it is a robot talking with them, so I try to personalize the greeting message as much as possible. With Olark, I’ve learned HOW our customers found us, WHY they are interested in our product, and WHAT I can do to convert them into paid customers. Sometimes all it takes is one hello and a friendly, human conversation to make a quick sale online.

4) Qualaroo

It’s a common mistake to think that your website is perfect once you’re personally satisfied with it. I was certainly a victim to that, and ever since I found Qualaroo, I’ve changed that mentality. Qualaroo is a simple survey plugin that allows you to ask any type of survey question on any page of your site. This is particularly useful if you don’t know whether your About page tells enough, your Pricing page is too expensive, or even why customers are canceling their accounts.

It’s all very customizable with the type of questions you want to ask and triggers to display the survey to your users. This has been one of the key drivers in finding out what pricing we should charge to convert more of our customers—lifesaver!

5) UserVoice

Ever thought about what features your customers want next? Instead of bickering with your team on what features are important or getting stressed on which one to focus on, let your customers tell you themselves through UserVoice. Uservoice is another small widget you can put on your site that allows users to tell you what they would love to see built (and let people vote on it too!)

We’ve made most of our feature building dependent on what feedback comes through UserVoice. Whenever our team discusses what needs to be built and why, I pull up our UserVoice account and show them hard evidence of what people are requesting and ready to pay for. Nothing better than tangible feedback to guide your product roadmap.

6) Rapportive

This blog post here, which has been viewed thousands of times, says it all. Can’t stress enough how Rapportive has helped me find the right people to contact and close deals as a result. Most underrated tool that has so much potential.

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Do you use any of these startup tools and find them useful as we do? What other startup tools (underrated or not) do you use for your business? Share them below and would love to get some recommendations from you!