Business owners have a myriad things to do – and each task needs to be done well. Which is why digital tools for business come as a boon for both small and big enterprise owners. There are various tools that assist in the various facets of your business. Take a look at some that can be invaluable to you now and in the coming year.
1. File sharing and storage
Google Drive
This is Google’s cloud storage platform featuring Google Docs and Sheets. It’s a great office tool that makes file creation, sharing, and collaboration in real-time possible from across the world. Google Drive helps you reduce the number of emails and back and forth while having your shared document in 1 place only. And the best thing is, that it is incredibly simple to use and extremely convenient.
2. Team and project management
Asana
If you’re looking for a tool that will keep your team informed and updated about your projects, then Asana is among the best. While every team has the liberty to use the tool a little differently, Asana, in general, helps you create a project, organize it and assign tasks with timelines, streamline a schedule and share status updates. You can even take your learnings from a project and create an improved template for the next.
3. Communication
Slack
Communication within your team is of paramount importance, which is why you require software that is easy-to-use and allows data sharing. Slack is one of the best tools for business communication. This is because it is integrated with all major project management tools, as well as office management, sales, productivity, developer and design tools. It enables you to be constantly aware of all facets of your digital marketing campaign. In fact, it is perfect to use on the go.
Skype
This has been in use for a long while, but its features ensure that it will remain valuable to businesses in the coming years too. Skype is a great communication tool to keep in touch with team members, talk and collaborate whenever required, even on the go. Apart from the HD video calling for which it is renowned, you can also set live subtitles for your international clients, share your screen, record your calls, and even use it to call landlines and mobile phones around the globe.
4. Website essentials
WordPress
Content management systems (CMS) need to meet various needs and goals. We have found WordPress to be flexible and seamlessly handle all kinds of content, while also supporting content creation. Unlike other CMS options, WordPress is free and is constantly updated and improved, keeping it in tune with changing user needs and evolving internet culture.
Keyword Planner
You already know that SEO is vital to your digital marketing. The Keyword Planner from Google can help you get your SEO in order. You can research keywords for a new campaign or for your website, as well as obtain historical statistics and traffic forecasts. This data can guide your decisions on bids and budgets as well as determining keywords that could help increase your rankings on search results.
Google Analytics
This is one of the best free digital tools for business, to help you understand your customers. Google Analytics enables you to analyze your business data and evaluate the performance of your content, marketing, products and more. Thus, you can fine-tune your future strategies. Also, the insights offered will help you reach the right customers.
Google Search Console
This is a free service from Google that helps you optimize your website for search engines. It helps you monitor your website’s search traffic, measure its performance and troubleshoot your website’s presence in the Google search results. The Google Search Console assesses whether Google can discover and crawl your website. In the case of indexing issues, it can fix them and request re-indexing of updated content
Yoast for SEO
Yoast is a popular WordPress plugin that helps make your website as search engine-friendly as possible. It’s a free tool that features SEO solutions for automating and optimizing almost every aspect of your site. From the point of view of content, Yoast provides SEO analysis and readability analysis to help you write SEO-friendly text that is engaging for your readers. Yoast also includes options for linking to your social media accounts. It can generate an XML sitemap that’s ready for indexing, and also update it as and when changes are made to the content and structure of the website.
5. Productivity
Momentum
This is an extension for Chrome that allows you to maintain a to-do list and displays it on every new browser window that you open. It’s a great reminder for what to be focused on. Momentum also allows for search and inspires you with a different quote and a beautiful picture every day.
6. E-mail marketing
MailChimp
Email is a powerful means of driving ROI, so, your email marketing campaigns need to be on point. It’s all about personalization today, and MailChimp helps you engage your users with tailored emails received at the right time. The best thing is, it’s easy to use, so you can create, design and send beautiful, effective, and branded emails to your audiences. MailChimp is a paid tool, however, beyond 2,000 contacts and 10,000 emails per month. Study their Essential, Standard and Premium Plans to see what best fits your business requirement and your budget.
7. Design
Canva
This tool helps you sketch a well-defined wireframe for your website, laying the foundation for a beautiful design. With Canva’s easy-to-use interface, collection of drag-and-drop widgets and development tools, putting together a clean, effective wireframe is a piece of cake.
Typorama
You could have zero design skills and still create complex graphics on your iPhone and iPad through Typorama. You’ll have 40 different typographic styles to choose from, professional photo filters and adjustment settings, cool tools to customize your designs, and sizing and sharing options. PicLab is a great alternative for Android. The images for your social media can be great, and created in seconds.
8. Calendar
Calendly
Your time is precious, and Calendly, an automated scheduling software, helps you save precious moments. It works seamlessly with the most common business apps and securely integrates with your calendar. You can also embed your Calendly link on your website. You can go for the basic free version, or upgrade to unlock more features.
Doodle
Similarly, Doodle helps organize calls across time-zones and sort through individual schedules with finesse. You can get the people you need on a call in just 2 simple steps. You could start with the free trial and upgrade to the plan that best suits your business.
9. Daily deals for business tools
Appsumo
Would you believe you can buy amazing business tools at affordable prices – even at 50 – 90% off – to grow and scale your business? Do! Appsumo offers insane SaaS deals delivered straight to your inbox, that can help you as a business owner, save time and money.
10. News
This content discovery platform curates quality articles, videos, podcasts and more every day for people world-over. Flipboard is great for the information you want to receive, the ideas you want to share, and lets you spend time on what interests you. Download the app for free.
Medium
What brings together a community of thinkers and doers inspiring a massive audience with their ideas? Medium, of course! As a business owner, you can take advantage of great blog content to repurpose and update yours, in order to keep it relevant for your audiences.
The digital tools for business you use depend on the objectives of your digital marketing campaigns and the needs of your venture. The ones we’ve listed can assist you with almost every requirement and make life a little easier. And equally important, as you move relentlessly from one task to the next, remember to pause and take a moment for yourself. (Yes, there are apps for that too!) Calm, a meditation and relaxation aid, and 7-Minute Workout, a fitness app are great choices.
At Them You & Me, we strive to demystify digital marketing. If you need help with your digital marketing campaigns or would like us to recommend more digital tools for your business, give us a call.
To know more about what we do and the digital marketing services we offer, please visit our website.
