Is your business using the best digital tools in 2020?
30% of small business owners say that keeping up with advances in technology is a major concern. Yet technology can boost savings, increase productivity increased, and manage growth.
Here are 5 areas where digital tools can help your small business.
1. Business Management Tools
Time Tracking
Be proactive and schedule your day using time tracking software.
Websites such as Toggl manage daily tasks like meetings and responding to emails. Alerts remind you when you’re going over time constraints and tasks can be billed at the end of the month.
Password Manager
Tired of keeping sticky notes with passwords scribbled on?
Password managers gather all your passwords into one digital safe. A single password fills in your business credit card details or shipping address.
Sites like LastPass suggest complex passwords that you won’t have to remember. And many are free!
2. Web Tools
Google Webmaster
Your business website needs to be listed in Google. But how well does your site rank?
Google Webmaster offers free technological tools for business websites.
The Search Console enables you to track search performance and access webmaster resources. For site issues, there are support documentation and testing tools.
Website Analytics
Google Analytics gives global statistics about your website visitors. From geo-location to how they discovered your site, this free tool is essential for every SMB.
For a detailed summary on your website try SEMRush.com. It shows traffic trends and how well your website is performing. Oh, and it’s free too!
3. Marketing Digital Tools
Marketing Network Affiliates
Increase sales and brand awareness by using online marketing networks such as MaxBounty.
You determine an action, like Facebook page sign-ups, and only pay if that action occurs. Marketing spend is limited to what gets results – essential for any small business with a budget.
Affiliates are vetted and everything is tracked to ensure the are genuine. You can monitor the success of your campaigns to maximize your ROI.
Organized Marketing
Bringing together your marketing promotions and sales meetings is a snap with these business tools.
Coschedule.com organizes your marketing calendar into one accessible app. See what meetings are cost-effective and which you can neglect. You can also integrate the calendar into your WordPress website to schedule blog posts.
4. Team Communication
Collaboration
The back-and-forth era of emails is now replaced by instant messaging.
Popular tools like Slack allow small business teams to collaborate online. Projects can be categorized and searched. New employees can be added and get up-to-speed quickly.
Cheaper alternatives such as nTask start from $2.99 per month per user.
Video Conferencing
Most of us use Skype for personal video calls but so do businesses. WhatsApp is the most downloaded app in the world but did you know it also offers video conferencing?
Change your business practices. Use these free digital tools to your advantage.
5. All-In-One Business Tools
Small business technology needs are diverse and all-in-one packages give you the flexibility to manage them.
Netsuite is Oracle’s one-stop-shop for any size of business. It brings together project management, finance, inventory, planning – everything you need.
Costs correlate to the size of your company. They offer Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) apps. These netsuite price options let you start at a base then add modules as you grow.
Make Technology Work for You
This year, research digital tools for business that can help you on a daily basis. Revisit how you communicate and collaborate using the latest technology.
Savings can be made and revenues increased if you make them work for you.
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