New businesses(Startups) are like toddlers and well-stabilized businesses are grown-ups but the common and most important thing between them is an ‘ever-growing attitude’. No matter at what stage they are, growth is constant. Like humans need a regular supply of healthy food, money, family, etc to grow, businesses need to adapt and leverage advancing techs to grow.
A well-planned strategy is the core of any successful business and gratefully the internet revolution has made it easier for businesses to grow. There are so many apps and software available now that can help a business to grow exponentially but the right approach is essential.
So, here’s a step by step guide of how you can grow your business by using the best and most popular apps and software available:
For businesses to grow, knowing ‘who’ they stand for is the first step towards success. No matter you are a product-based or a service-based business, without setting a targeted audience, it won’t do any good. Randomly targeting will only exhaust your resources as well as money instead of helping you build. Here are a few apps you need to filter out the unnecessary audience:
Social media apps like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter are a good way to find the right audience for your business. Join groups, build a business page and get in touch with an audience that would be interested in your business, interact with them, share opinions and learn what they like and what they don’t( from a business perspective). Invest your time and resources in thoroughly knowing your customer behavior.
Google Forms are an easy way to know your audience better and the best thing about them is they can be easily embedded into your social media accounts. Use them to form questionnaires, discussing the customer needs, problems that they are facing, what they expect from a particular service/product and then use these forms in growing your business by prioritizing customer needs, thereby building better products/services.
Once you know your audience and have started to build a trustworthy relationship with them, it’s time to get your business online if you still haven’t done that and do the Marketing and Branding. For any business to grow, marketing is very essential. Even the top firms like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Adobe, etc still invest a considerable part of their earnings in marketing even though they are so well-established. Small, Medium and Large all enterprises need marketing and branding to grow. So here are some popular apps and software which you can use:
Wordpress: Get your business online within hours with Content Management Systems. One of the most used CMS is Wordpress.
Ubersuggest: Getting online isn’t enough, businesses need to get on the top of search results for which Organic traffic matters. Use Ubersuggest to rank your business higher organically.
Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads: Reach your target audience with ads before your competitor does.
Hubspot: Hubspot is a full software package for automating your marketing. From automated email marketing to ad management to all other inbound marketing needs, Hubspot is one of the best software to grow your business by managing your marketing needs in an organized way.
Presenting a genuine brand story to the audience is very crucial for business development. Till the time audience doesn't feel connected to your business, they won’t avail any of your offerings. Infographics, storytelling videos and content are very important to catch the attention of the audience/clients. The most popular below tools for branding are:
Canva: Canva is a popular graphic design platform that allows users to create social media graphics, presentations, and other visual content for branding.
Crello: Crello is an online designing tool to create animations and graphics for social media and the web.
Lumen5: An AI-powered video creation platform apt for creating storytelling videos for brand awareness.
SocialBee: A popular tool for automating(scheduling) your Social Media posts, blogs, and other marketing content.
For product-based businesses, growth means increasing the number of loyal customers and for service-based businesses, growth means bringing in new clients. However, in both cases, businesses need a ‘Sales pitch’ that is well-aligned with your business goal. However, using the right set of tools again comes in handy to even sell this sales pitch. Some popular tools used for increasing sales are:
LinkedIn Sales Solutions: It is a global market with over 450 million users and is undoubtedly one of the best platforms to pitch your business perspective to prospective clients.
Proposify: Proposify allows businesses to streamline proposals online setting them apart from competitors that prefer apps like MS-Word to create their proposals.
Crystal: Crystal is an AI-powered app that offers insight on anyone’s personality which helps in building sales pitch in accordance with the prospective client’s personality.
Employees are the heart of every business and their dedication and support are of the utmost importance to grow any business. To ensure employee’s dedication, businesses should focus on utilizing their ‘time’ wisely and also offer employees work satisfaction apart from paying them well. Here are some apps that can be used to offer employees a better employee experience, thereby encouraging them to perform better and contribute towards business growth:
Zoho is an online office suite that focuses on enhancing employee experience by automating unnecessary tasks like Payroll management, Invoicing, Customer Relationship Management, Performance Management, etc.
LinkedIn is a social media app unlike Facebook and Instagram since it is a platform for professionals from all around the world to connect. It can help employees in learning a lot about how businesses grow, success stories and gain new ideas to implement and help their business grow.
Learning is directly proportional to growth, be it at an individual level or an organizational level. Digital Media offers an easy way to learn and develop new skills online, thereby contributing towards both individual growth and business growth. Here are some popular apps offering both free and paid online courses:
EdX is one of the biggest Ed-tech platforms that offers university-level online courses in a wide range of disciples.
Another popular Ed-tech platform offering open online courses, specializations, and degrees that businesses can use to better shape their employees.
Technology has made human life easier. Even though many people consider that the current generation is a slave to technology, it all depends on how an individual uses it. Technology has so much to offer that many successful businesses and individuals have reached enormous heights in the professional world, owing to the technology available. They just mastered the technology to benefit themselves instead of being their slave. And you too can do the same. Above we have discussed some of the most popular apps, platforms, services that businesses commonly use to grow. Incorporate these into your business model and see your business grow.