5 Digital Must-Haves for New Businesses
It can be a challenge to run a business, especially if you’re a start-up going toe-to-toe with more established companies. However, thanks to technology, even small enterprises have access to various tools that can help them optimize operations and churn bigger profits.
In particular, digital technologies can be a great ally towards growth and success. It can even be argued that businesses that refuse to go digital will be left behind by their competitors.
To avoid this situation, here are just a few must-have digital tools for new businesses (and even old hats, too!):
A Website
In this age of social media, you might think that a website is unnecessary. However, the opposite is actually true. A significant majority of modern consumers still believe that having a website makes a business more credible.
You own everything on your website, whereas you’re “renting” your social media profile from platforms like Facebook and Twitter. This means that in the event that those social media giants close (which is highly unlikely but not impossible), your content could be lost forever.
With a website, you have full control over all your content and are not beholden to other shareholders. You also have full access to all your data all the time. Paired with a piece of analytics software, you can derive plenty of valuable insights from your website which can be used to improve your business.
Last but not the least, having a website greatly helps with your visibility. With the help of search engine optimization or SEO (which will be discussed below), it’s easier to showcase your business and attract new customers.
SEO
As previously mentioned, your website must have good SEO so you can showcase your business properly. The internet is a big place and you’ll easily get lost in the rabble if you don’t apply SEO techniques. You can do these by yourself, but it’s better to work with a trusted SEO company to get the best results.
To put it simply, SEO ensures that your website “matches” the search terms or keywords you want to rank in on Google and other search engines. This can be done in a variety of ways, such as creating relevant content and optimizing your website’s structure. Backlinks from third-party websites can also help increase your credibility in the eyes of search engines.
With increased visibility, your website will have more visitors who will look around, enquire, and purchase your products or services.
Social Media
As mentioned earlier, today is the age of social media. There are millions of users in New Zealand alone, which means you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities if you don’t have a social media presence.
Facebook is certainly one of the best platforms to be in, by the sheer number of users alone. Twitter is also good if you want short, quick bursts of updates, while Instagram is perfect for product showcases. Whichever site you choose, just make sure that you study and understand how best to engage with your customers.
If you decide on multiple platforms, then you should also consider a social media management tool. This way, you have a central headquarters where you can monitor your timelines, schedule posts, download data, and more.
Project Management Tools
It can be difficult to keep track of several projects all at once. This is particularly true if your business has a work-from-home arrangement or if you have multiple teams handling one assignment.
This is why using a project management platform is a must. With such a tool, it’s easy to keep track of everything—including files and comments—from start to finish. You can also mark each milestone to know how close (or far) you are to completing a project.
You may also want to consider a file-sharing or cloud storage platform, especially if you often need to work with large files.
Video Conferencing Tools
Nowadays, remote work is the norm. This can make meetings a little tricky, whether it’s with your own team, clients, prospective partners, or maybe job applicants. The good thing is that with video conferencing tools, you can easily circumvent this issue.
Aside from meetings, you can also use video conferencing tools for collaboration. You can also host different activities through these apps, which can be good for breaking up the monotony of working from home.
There are many more digital tools available for all kinds of businesses, such as email marketing tools, content creation software, and customer service apps. These can help you boost your marketing efforts, as well as optimize your operations.
All of these can come later, however. Make sure to invest in the above-mentioned tools first to help establish your presence and credibility. From here, you’ll have a solid digital foundation that you can build on for your success.
