10 Apps and E-tools to Kickstart Your Business

Starting an online business can be both exciting and stressful. Whether you build an online website with games like Ghost Sliders or an eCommerce shop for home decoration, it takes a lot of hard work to get the business running. And inevitably, most of the work at the beginning has to be done by you, the company’s founder, personally. But luckily, there are plenty of tools for online businesses that make the process easier. Here are our top apps and digital tools that help your business grow faster and become successful. Check them out.

1. Hootsuite to Manage Your Social Media Accounts

It’s absolutely normal for businesses to have accounts on several social media platforms. But managing all the profiles posting regular new content, and analyzing the results, can become tricky. Enter Hootsuite. This invaluable tool handles all the different social media profiles conveniently in one place and schedules messages across the platforms. You can also use it to measure the performance of your marketing campaigns.

2. Skype for Virtual Meetings

Although Zoom calls have become increasingly popular during the coronavirus pandemic, Skype remains a popular choice. This software allows you to video call any person with an Internet connection, no matter where they are on the planet. There can be up to 25 people on one call, which means that a small business can easily hold their pandemic-time staff meetings with Skype. And if you need to send out files, photos, or videos, you can do it via Skype’s chat window.

3. Flickr for Some Visual Inspiration

Whether you need to design a new website or find a new look for your office, the photos of Flickr give you all the inspiration. It’s also the perfect platform to share images of your business with the world. You can use Flickr to build photo stories about the making-of process of your products. It’s an excellent way to build brand transparency, make people trust your company, and buy more from you.

4. Customer Relationship Management Software (CRM)

How do you keep track of the relationships between your leads and your company? As your business gets bigger, it gets increasingly difficult to manage the growing client base. CRM software like Hubspot will help you out. It enables you to:

• Manage questions from clients.
• Track the process of turning your leads into customers.
• Hand out tasks to your employees.
• Get an overview of all communication with the clients and new leads.
• Analyze the leads.

So if you’ve been doing all of this on an Excel table, it’s time to upgrade to more sophisticated software, like Hubspot, and make your life easier. They offer a free version of the software that has plenty of functions to get you introduced to the world of CRM. Trust us: in time, it will become an indispensable tool that helps you grow the business efficiently and successfully.

5. SEMrush – Every Online Business Needs A Keyword Research Tool

Ranking high on Google’s search results is vital to every single business these days. When people are looking for a product or service to solve a problem, they’ll most likely first turn to Google. And appearing on the first page (preferably among the first three results) ensures that your website will get clicked. So how do you achieve that? By regularly publishing content that features the keywords people are searching in your niche. And the keyword research tool helps you find the right keywords.

SEMrush is very useful to get an overview of which keywords work for your competitors. Using the keywords that everyone else in your niche uses to get traffic should be the basis of your content marketing strategy. That’s how you grow your business.

6. Shopify – a Platform for Your Store

Selling services and products online requires a website for your store. And Shopify is perhaps the most trusted and popular platform right now. If you’re serious about your eCommerce venture, we’d recommend you give Shopify a try. It’s very beginner-friendly. And as your business grows, Shopify’s useful add-ons make scaling simple. Plus, they’ve got a responsive community of experts to answer any of your questions along the way.

7. Growth hacking With BuzzSumo

Whether your site sells home-made bakeries or hands out a casino online bonus on an Internet gambling site, your goal is the same. It’s to increase the number of visitors and get them to sign up for your mailing list. One of the best tools that help you do this is the BuzzSumo software. It allows you to find trending content on specific topics. You can even search the content based on location, date published, etc. The gathered information gives you clues on the direction to take your posts to ensure maximum engagement.

8. Mailchimp for effective Email Marketing

Look, email marketing remains a powerful way to reach your target audience. And setting up an email campaign is made super easy with tools like Mailchimp. It enables you to send out a large number of mails automatically, at set times. That way, you can always stay in touch with people on your mailing list, reach them at the most convenient times, and keep them updated on everything that’s happening.

9. Dropbox for Simple File Sharing

Dropbox is a cloud-based software that enables you to store and share all your hard work securely. Plus, it creates backups of your precious files automatically. That means you can simply restore the deleted files if something should happen to them. You can also roll the file back to any previous save points. Nothing would be worse for any business than suddenly losing valuable files. With Dropbox, you can feel safe at all times. All you need to access your files is an Internet connection.

10. Find Freelancers on Upwork

It’s better to leave some areas of business (like the bookkeeping) for the professionals. But small businesses can not afford to hire too many full-time employees. That’s where freelancers on Upwork come to play. You can pick the most suitable experts based on the reviews and ratings on their profiles. And the best part is that you only pay after the work gets completed.

Conclusion

Use the helpful apps and tools from this article to take some of the workloads from your shoulders, create better content, and increase overall productivity. Then you’ll have more time to deal with the most vital CEO tasks like strategizing and building your brand image. The result will be faster business growth and more chances to succeed. What could be better?

Have you started an online business recently? Which apps helped you the most? Leave your recommendations in the comments.