It’s amazing how software and online tools can streamline business processes, increasing productivity and providing your customers/clients with a better service.
If you don’t rely on any applications as a company, then you are missing a trick. Here are just some of the most useful tools that you will find online.
Boomerang
If you send out hundreds of emails during the week, there aren’t enough excel sheets in the world to keep you on top of your outreach. Boomerang simplifies this drastically, by sending back your sent emails to you, if there has been no reply. You can then contact your recipient again, using a follow-up canned response.
Harvest Time/Trello
An ideal way to track how long it’s taking you to complete tasks is through a time management tool, such as Harvest Time or Trello. Here, you can pinpoint processes that need streamlining, by looking over your monthly time spend and assessing waste. It’s also a useful tool for reporting to clients how long you have spent on their account.
Buzzsumo
Fantastic for any business that deals with content, Buzzsumo is a great place to find inspiration, from some of the most popular pieces of content in the world. Buzzsumo allows you to search for headlines and articles, with the use of keywords, and will bring you back the most shared text. This is also broken down over multiple social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter. This used to be entirely free, but they have recently monetised it.
Followerwonk
An amazing way to find blogs, one of Followerwonk’s many functions is the ability to search through Twitter bios for keywords, bringing you back a huge list of whatever you are looking for. For example, if you wanted to find business sites, you would simply search for anyone who had that written in their Twitter bio, and click through to their website. It’s easy to transfer this information to an excel sheet too.
Dell Internet Security
Dell’s Unified Threat Management will protect you from cyber-attacks and keep your business safe, while you work online. When it comes to internet security, it’s always best to sign up with a trusted brand that offers the best package for you. Don’t just choose the cheapest option that you can find – you will come to regret it eventually.
Skype
Even the most established businesses use Skype to contact their associates. In an international world, where it’s not always possible to board a plane and see your clients, Skype makes it easy to have meetings with colleagues or customers abroad.
Also, if you’re happy to let some of your employees work from home, Skype is a fantastic way to drag them into meetings and check that they are doing okay. It’s much clearer than an email exchange.
Do you use any software or tools that have saved you a lot of time and effort in your business? Let us know your favourites below!
