These days there’s no shortage of digital tools that businesses can use in order to improve and streamline day-to-day operations. But with so many options to choose from, it can be hard to identify which tools are really worth the investment.
Keep reading to learn about six tools that you’ll want to bring into your business so that you can reach the next level of success.
1. Social Media Management Application
Chances are that you’ve already embraced social media marketing as your go-to for increasing brand reach and recognition, and chances are that you know just how time-consuming it is to manage each of these platforms. Instead of spending hours each day creating posts and keeping track of comments, use a social media management app.
With a social media manager, you can spend a lot less time on Facebook and Instagram and instead focus your time on other business operations. These applications automate a lot of the manual work that comes with social media, including creating posts, keeping track of comments, and identifying trending hashtags for your content.
Other tools such as Twiends allow you to connect with different people that could be interested in the things you talk about on your profile. Tools like this can help you to grow your profile on different social media networks, something that normally requires a huge investment of time from businesses.
By using a social media management app, you can schedule posts to be published weeks in advance and have a central location to see all of the comments from your followers. While you’re at it, you may also want to look into a social listening platform.
2. Inventory Management Software
No matter the kind of products that you offer, one of the keys to running a successful business is being able to meet consumer demand. This means ensuring that you always have the right products in stock in order to fulfill orders. As your business grows and conducts more sales, you’ll find that manual inventory management is time consuming. It’s also prone to errors that can be quite costly.
To reach the next level of success, say goodbye to pencils and spreadsheets and hello inventory management software. This type of software is an effective tool that makes keeping track of your stock easier than ever.
With the right software, you can have peace of mind that your stock levels are always healthy. Inventory management software also offers other time-saving features such as:
- Auto-refills on product stock that is getting low
- Real-time stock metrics
- Using product SKUs and barcodes
When your inventory is in check, your whole business is in check. Staying on top of stock levels means higher customer satisfaction and a positive reputation that will serve you well in attracting new potential customers.
3. Email Marketing Solution
Social media marketing definitely holds the top spot for the most effective marketing campaign, but email marketing still has its place. With an email marketing service, you can use pre-built sign up forms in order to gather information from subscribers, to include their name and email address. This makes building your email list a breeze.
You can also use this kind of service to spread the word about your business, such as sharing that a new product is dropping soon or that your brand has partnered with a well-known industry leader. Email marketing also allows you to stay in constant contact with your customers by sending newsletters or coupon savings.
4. File Sharing Application
Cloud-based file sharing applications are more popular than ever before. The days of hard copies and overly-stuffed file cabinets are gone with the wind! With a file-sharing application, your team can collaborate on documents from anywhere at any time.
The ability to work on a white paper, slide deck, or project proposal as a team is a huge time saver. It also makes it easier for everyone to provide their input and edits so that the final product is a team creation.
Having a file-sharing application is also beneficial when sharing documents outside of your company. From sending spreadsheets to your financial planner or sharing files with a potential investor, being able to send and receive files on the fly is a must-have.
5. Team Collaboration Application
Even if your team sits in the same office space, collaboration isn’t always as high as it should be. This is because most of the time, employees are glued to their screens reading emails, creating documents, or conducting research. This is where an online team collaboration platform can be a huge benefit.
Collaboration is the heart of a healthy workforce. You want your teams to talk and bounce ideas off of each other. With a team collaboration platform, you don’t have to worry about clogged inboxes or disruptive desk drive-bys. Instead, employees can hop into the chat room and collaborate at their leisure.
6. Video Conferencing System
There are all sorts of ways to communicate, but depending on the situation, some options are better than others. Email and other text-based methods get the job done, but they’re often viewed as being best for informal communication.
If you want to make long-term connections with prospects and clients, it’s important to have a video conferencing solution that enables face-to-face communication. These days there are all sorts of free and low-cost options that allow you to video chat, share screens, and even collaboration on files.
With video-conferencing, it’s much easier to connect to the people that will ultimately help to drive the direction and success of your company.
Conclusion
There are all sorts of must-have tools that your business should have in order to continue to be successful and to grow. Invest in a few of these tools to improve collaboration, inventory management, and even the ability to make business connections.
