By Sawaram Suthar
Managing a successful business means managing multiple things at the same time, especially for a small business since those entrepreneurs often tackle all the aspects of a business themselves. Many areas of managing a business are equally important and require equal monitoring for optimum results. In order to sustain competitiveness, it is vital to be proficient in all the functional areas like marketing, sales, operations and customer service.
There are various tools available in the market which can prove to be of great help to entrepreneurs, but it can be a daunting task to choose the most efficient tools from the wide number of tools available. Here are 11 small business tools that will help you whip your business into shape.
1. Skyward CRM
This tool engages current customers and also helps in fetching new customers. It is the best tool for marketing as it automates all the daily routine sales activities and reduces the operating time for the sales team. It helps in providing customized solutions to the customer and can also be customized for the size and needs of the company.
2. Tagove
This is a unique platform that addresses all the needs of customer. It adds live video to a business website, as well as voice and text chat. Moreover, it is equipped with screen sharing and co-browsing features that helps in boosting sales. It also tracks visitors as it captures visitor analytics which shares the details about the time spent by the visitors on a particular web page as well as time spent on the website.
3. Discoverly
Many small businesses are using social media these days to gain visibility among customers, but in order to get maximum attention and to create a good network it is important to use social data more intelligently. Discoverly layers the best of each network on others. It helps your business reach a vast audience and uses integrated marketing strategy across all platforms.
4. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a one-stop solution for managing social media. It helps manage multiple networking accounts; schedules posts at best time of the day; and provides analytics. It can also monitor the brand on Facebook and Twitter and send a notification when the keyword or the brand is mentioned by others across social media platforms. Hence, it is an ideal platform to manage all your social media activities.
5. MassPlanner
This tool helps in managing multiple social media accounts like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram while catering to a mass audience at the same time. It helps in creating relevant social media marketing strategies as it provides several platforms for multiple posts. It makes social media posting less tedious and saves time which can be used effectively.
6. Google Analytics
Google Analytics tracks and monitors website traffic. It provides analytics about website traffic or social media campaigns. Users can analyze and implement the successful marketing strategy as it identifies the images that are performing well or poorly and can make necessary changes in the campaign.
7. Evernote
Evernote enhances productivity by organizing all your tasks and managing day to day activities. It syncs well with multiple devices and is easy to use for making notes or checklists. Evernote can create a note which can be in the form of photograph, a web page, web excerpt or even a voice memo. It also allows you to share data with others as well as work together without leaving the app. It is a perfect tool for note taking, organizing and archiving.
8. Trello
This tool helps in managing work and projects in hassle-free manner. It is very efficient and user friendly as it creates the projects in the form of white boards. Trello cards need to be arranged in form of lists on white boards and multiple people can work simultaneously on the same project. It’s easy to share videos and photos, and users can also comment on tasks.
9. Asana
Asana is designed to facilitate team work as it makes it easier for teams to track work and get results. It aids in managing projects that involve multiple people by providing a workspace for every individual. Workspaces contain projects, and projects have tasks. Users can add comments, photos and notes and can even notify others regarding the completion of tasks. It makes project management easier as it tracks project from start to finish.
10. Dropbox
Dropbox offers enormous benefits to a small business because it is easy to operate and its cloud platform allows integrating the data and makes it accessible from anywhere. It allows users to share large files or videos with anyone — even those who don’t use Dropbox. It automatically saves any changes made in the shared folder and updates all users.
11. MailChimp
MailChimp is an email marketing platform that helps in creating effective email campaigns. It generates reports and can analyze the impact of the campaigns on business. It also manages the lists, has email automation features, and helps in targeting the right audience for your brand.
What small business tools do you consider essential?
