Small businesses are often the most innovative and entrepreneurial companies in their industries, but they need the right tools to get their ideas off the ground.
Here are some of the most essential online tools small businesses can’t do without:
Lead Management Software
Lead management software is a critical part of your lead generation process. It allows you to manage your leads and track their progress, while also providing insight into the quality of those leads.
Most lead management software includes features such as:
Lead scoring and prioritization tools.
These allow you to assign different metrics to different types of leads (e.g., low-quality leads, potential customers, and inbound inquiries) so that you can prioritize them appropriately.
Lead conversion tracking tools.
These allow you to track how many of your leads convert into paying customers. This can help you determine which campaigns are working best for your business and what kind of messaging is most effective for getting your audience to take action on your website or app.
Customer data integration tools.
These help you integrate third-party customer data into the software so that it’s easy for you to extract information from all sources (e.g., credit card companies, social media platforms).
Ecommerce Software
A great eCommerce platform is essential for any shop that wants to grow. This software allows you to build an online store and manage customers’ accounts. It also helps you track your sales and keep an eye on inventory levels.
Web Hosting
A good web host will ensure that your site is accessible from anywhere in the world, even if it’s on a small device or mobile phone. It will also provide security with HTTPS, which encrypts data traffic so that it cannot be read by hackers.
Social Media Management Software
Social media management software allows you to use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter in order to promote your business and engage with customers as well as potential customers. You can also use this tool to create ads that target specific audiences based on demographics or interests.
Google Drive
If you’re a small business owner, you know that marketing is a big part of running a successful company. But tracking your marketing campaigns is time-consuming and difficult. Google Drive makes it easy to create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations from anywhere in the world. You can also access them from any device with an internet connection. This means you can easily track your marketing efforts from home or at the office and present them at meetings or conferences without having to lug around heavy binders or laptops every time you need to show something off.
Gmail
Gmail is a free email service that provides an efficient way to send and receive emails on multiple devices. You can use it as an email service provider (ESP) if you want to route all of your clients’ emails through one location until they sign up for an account with you or one of your competitors.
Google Calendar
This is one of the most popular web apps among small business owners because it allows you to create multiple calendars in your account and share them with anyone you want to. If you’re looking for something more personal, you can also set up a calendar just for yourself and invite people over at different times.
Dropbox
Dropbox is a cloud storage service that lets users store and access files from anywhere — perfect for small businesses that need to share files between employees or across departments within the company. Plus, it’s free up to 2GB of space with an annual fee after that.
Evernote
Evernote is arguably one of the best note-taking apps around, letting users create notes on virtually anything: text documents, PDFs, web pages — even handwritten notes! And if you’re not satisfied with just being able to take notes in Evernote (and there’s nothing wrong with this), they have some premium features like voice dictation.
