8 Crucial Digital Tools Your Business Needs! (The ULTIMATE Tech Stack!)

Successful businesses use a wide range of digital tools and with many tools available to choose from and new tools being released on a regular basis you would be forgiven for being a little overwhelmed when deciding on what product may best suit your needs. So what tools are best and where do you start? Well we have done the hard work for you and have put together a tech list which will hopefully answer these questions! The following digital tools will not only help you to develop your business effectively and increase your social presence but will also save you time, money and possibly your sanity!

1. Project Management Tools

Before you start anything you need to think about a strategy for your business! Project Management Tools assist you with this and will help you organise and manage your business, various projects/tasks and staff efficiently, allowing groups of people to communicate effectively. Our top 3 are:

• Asana.com

• Trello

• Monday.com

We recommend Asana as a great starting option, its basic plan is free and has a very small learning curve and an awesome “user friendly” interface. There is another solution with a free starter plan called Clickup which might be worth a look at if you have time. Monday.com is more suited to agencies and a little on the pricey side.

2. Calendar Tools

Integratable and shared Calendar tools are essential for some businesses to function and are the perfect solution to automatically booking external client appointments/meetings and sending reminders. Calendar tools typically include the time, day, week, month and year of the meeting but some allow much more advanced details. Here are our top 3 customer appointment setting calendar tools:

• Calendly

• Acuity

• Google Calendar

Our vote goes towards Google Calendar as it's a very powerful, free, feature rich multiple user access option and integrates well with many other products and tools such as Chatbots. More on that later in future blogs! ;-)

3. Communication Tools

Whether you are meeting with your internal staff or partners or meeting online with your clients, communication in any business is key! Sometimes it needs more than just a phone call, especially if it is a conversation between multiple people. Here are 3 top communication tools:

• Zoom

• Skype

• WhatsApp

We personally love Zoom and WhatsApp, both of these solutions have awesome features and are pretty reliable! Everything you need for a productive, non stressful online meet up! BONUS TIP- If you've not installed WhatsApp onto your desktop then you need to! Its a game changer!! Do it now, thank us later!

4. Social Media Scheduling Tools

Social media platforms are one of the most popular and powerful ways for businesses to connect with audiences. They will help you to drive traffic to websites and landing pages, generate more sales leads and develop online audiences.

Social Media scheduling tools help you successfully post concurrently across a number of social media platforms, there are many tools available such as:

• Buffer.com

• Later.com

• SocialBee

• Bulk.ly

• SocialPilot

• Hootsuite

• Studiorifics

• And trust us the list really does go on!

Prices for social media scheduling tools really do vary and some are positioned more for agencies rather than individuals or small businesses but we would recommend something like Later.com if you are just starting out as it has a great free plan and Buffer.com if you are a small business.

We also like Studiorifics as it offers a great product for an affordable one time only payment.

If you just want to schedule Facebook posts then Facebook has their own very useful tool

FB Creator Studio. Sometimes the best things in life are free!

5. Content Creating Tools

Apart from the design of your website and social media platforms, valuable, engaging content is up there as one of the most important factors to consider. Sounds simple? Its not always! You have to consider rich, unique content and it can be hard work!

Fear not though as there are some pretty useful content creating tools out there that can assist you with this process, here are a few common ones with a couple of little gems thrown in for good measure:

• Canva

• Animoto

• Reevio

• Unscreen

• Invideo

• Picsnippets

We would recommend Canva as a great starting option, it offers a free option and is sooo easy to use. You can create some really effective image and video content. There are so many more amazing creative solutions and platforms out there to help you with your content and next week we'll be diving into these products much deeper so stay tuned if you need help with your creative content!

6. Email Campaign Tools

An email marketing tool is a critical and effective tool for businesses to have, even more so is an email list of hot customers!

With an effective email tool you can send regular email campaigns with updates on new products, sale items or just information to constantly keep your audience aware of your brand, products and services. There are many email services out there, to many to list below, but here are a few we like and suggest using with ConvertKit being our favourite:

• Convert Kit

• Mailchimp

• Mailerlite

7. Landing Page Software

As a business, if you are looking to gain more leads and sales online then a landing page and landing page software is something you definitely need! You can then create custom landing pages with your own branding, images and videos promoting your products or services.

You will also want to include a signup form that gets those all important emails! Here are some of our top recommendations :

• Leadpages

• Carrd

• Get Response

• Instapage

• Unbounce

• WIX

• Squarespace

We personally like Carrd as its simple and free but if you want a more feature rich, paid service we recommend Get Response. If you already run your website on a platform such as WIX or Squarespace then you can easily create an additional page within your site and use it as a landing page.

8. Sales Funnel

The SALES FUNNEL!!! A sales funnel is the term used for when you gain a potential customer and you push them through a process that results in them making a purchase from you. An effective landing page is a critical part of that sales funnel.

Sales funnels are commonly used for businesses that offer services, courses or digital products and when executed correctly they can enable you to convert potential customers into buyers in no time but beware, these tools are not for the faint hearted and will not suit every business so proceed with caution when going down the route of implementing a full blown digital funnel solution.

The below digital sales funnel tools offer landing pages and much much more. Here are some of the main players in the marketing place:

• Click Funnels

• Kartra

• Drop Funnels

• Groove Funnels

• Get Response

These solutions WILL take time to set up and you do need to have a product or solution that solves a problem coupled with a good offer. It also helps if you have a good grasp of digital marketing as a whole and are not afraid to get a little technical at times (Otherwise you are best to outsource this kind of work!). All that aside, the time and effort spent on a sales funnel process can be very rewarding when done correctly.

We would recommend GetResponse as a cost effective starting point for implementing a sales funnel. If you like the look and sound of these products but want more help and advice then feel free to talk to us further about how we can assist you with applying them to your business and setting them up.

Final Thoughts

Here are some other additional useful digital tools you might want to consider using in your business that we LOVE.

● Toggl​ - A project timekeeping tool

● Loom - Screen recording solution

● Manychat​ - An awesome Chatbot service

● GoCardless​ - A digital payment method

● Prove Source​ - Adds social proof notifications to a website or online store to boost conversions and sales.

● SurveyMonkey​ - Get effective feedback from customers on your products or services.

If you liked this article, watch out next week for our Crucial Creative Content Tools Your Business Needs! blog where we focus on more of the creative side of the best imagery and video production tools for your business. #MarketingAdvice#digitaltools#Projectmanagement #Digitalsolutions #Salesfunnels #Emailplatforms#marketingtips#Chatbots#SocialMedia#WISEDigitalMarketing#WISEBlog