Software developments are easier to use than ever. Many of them are free and easy to find online too. You can create instant message conversations, play online games, and take online quizzes—anytime and anywhere. You can even create digital art with a few clicks of a button. With the advances in technology, there is a new digital tool almost every day. As featured in Website Builder, there are even over a million tech startups worldwide in 2020. If you are well-informed and choose to stay updated, you can optimize the free tools offered in the digital market these days for your business. To help you get started, this article will tackle the seven must-have digital tools for startups and any click and mortar business today.
The Must-Have Digital Tools for Startups
Digital tools are pieces of software that offer similar services to the ones used in the office. Some digital tools assist individuals in things like personal organization and digital strategy in sales and marketing, while others allow teams to communicate with one another. If you are looking to become more efficient, some digital tools below are great options to consider.
Video Communication Platform
Personal and human business interactions have always created a much faster and more positive response when compared to typed communications. This is why video helps in a variety of business situations. Sales, marketing, and recruiting are three big areas of business that are helped tremendously by the presence of video.
Sales
In sales, the Zoom, Skype, and Google Meet call never get old when communicating with your leads and introducing your products. The platforms enumerated above allow screen sharing which is ideal for demonstrations if you are offering digital products. Moreover, these tools also allow video conferencing which adds up to your productivity.
Marketing
For marketing campaign purposes, a video communication platform you can use is Loom. The web app also has a screen recording feature. With Loom, you can record your screen to show your product features, and you can use the video recording for your paid or organic ads.
Recruiting
Just like sales, recruiting also benefits from video communication tools such as Skype and Zoom, especially for a remote workforce setup. Panel interviews become possible with the app features.
Video communication is a great way to connect with your employees and clients, and it can add a personal touch to the way you do business. In many cases, video communication is more memorable and it can bring a higher level of emotion. The interactions are also more natural, which makes them a lot more effective. In hindsight, the move towards video communication has been prompted by technology improvements and a move towards a more virtual world.
Collaborative Whiteboard Platform
Boards for collaboration always make the office fun, alive, and full of ideas. Virtual setups don’t have to be less than the office setup this time when it comes to employee engagement. A digital collaborative board such as Lucidspark can be the solution to a dull remote workforce.
Work Management Platform
A work management platform such as Asana has features that let you manage the tasks of your team members, set deadlines, and create group chats. You can also put status updates on the tasks for the team to see. You can track the productivity of your team seamlessly using this type of app and see to it that you are executing your digital marketing strategy smoothly.
Workflow Automation Software
This type of tool would be the best digital helping hand you would not want to miss. It is the most ideal tool to pair up with Slack. This is because it can automatically sync a slack message as a task into your work management platform. You can sync it to Trello or Asana, for example. Vice versa, it allows you to sync other app activities to Slack as well.
CRM
If you are not familiar with it yet, CRM stands for customer relationship management. It’s a technology used by many firms to optimize day-to-day operations. At its most basic, Customer Relationship Management is a system that allows you to create and share information with your clients. It allows you to track data, analyze it and use it to improve your business operations. If you run a small business, then you know how difficult it is just to keep track of all of your customers. However, with a CRM, you don’t have to worry about that anymore. You are able to track all of your customers’ information, including their names and address, as well as their buying history. You can even track the items that you have sold to them.
CRMs don’t only help you with the familiar tasks such as social media content management, customer communication, and data. They also give you fresher ideas about marketing tools that will contribute to an outstanding marketing plan. When you use a CRM that’s already well-developed such as Salesforce and Hubspot, all you’d have to do is make use of all its features. Once you do, you are already taking advantage of the advancements it gives to businesses, such as the latest marketing strategies.
These software systems offer businesses many benefits and features that can help grow their customer base and increase sales. These will also help you manage everything that goes into your business.
Cash Flow App
What makes a small business succeed? Most people would say that it’s ideas, being business savvy, and of course, hard work. Although these things play a role financially, they are not the only reasons that companies stay afloat and continue to grow. Business cash flow plays a big role in determining whether a company survives a rough year or goes out of business.
Business cash flow will help you determine the difference between the cash your business earns and the cash it spends. Thus, you should not miss a cash flow app such as Moolahmore. Having a positive business cash flow is important. It makes sure that your business can meet its financial obligations and continue to be productive. You can easily achieve that by planning and tracking your next financial steps with a reliable cash flow management tool.
Graphic Design Platform
Last on this list is a graphic design platform such as Canva. What’s great about this tool is you can create creative digital marketing materials using the templates it provides. You don’t have to be a graphic designer to produce catchy visual content for your audience, especially when materials are needed at the last minute. This platform also helps increase the productivity of your graphic design team.
Conclusion
With digital transformation, technology is also advancing at a rapid rate. Thus, this has resulted in a new method of working. Digital tools have changed the way people work. Although this innovative technology can be both efficient and time-consuming, depending on how it’s used, the best startup digital tools are meant to make work easier. You or your outsourced talents would only have to familiarize these advanced tools. When you equip the must-have digital tools for startups listed above into your business executive summary, you become 10 steps ahead of your competitors. More importantly, your business becomes more productive in all its functions.
