There is much more to running a business than just having a great idea and some capable people to materialize it. You need to remove the overhead hassles of running a company by delineating some tasks to machines. You need to free up the knowledge workers from the mundane and the repetitive so that they can focus their imagination and their energies toward creating value.
In this post, we will talk about tools and technologies that will help you streamline various business processes be it customer relationship management, marketing efforts, payroll management, or general accountancy.
It is of paramount importance for any business to have the right set of tools in place to enhance productivity, that is the whole point of the continuous evolution of technology. Here are some of the best tools and software you should not miss.
Link-Assistant
Link Assistant is a powerful one-stop SEO software, it is one of the primary competitors of SEMrush, if that gives you a perspective.
You know that you have to do something to get your business on the front page for a number of keywords. You have tried optimizing your website and putting out content regularly, but it doesn’t always work, does it? Link Assistant can help you direct this process in the right direction. It allows you to find the keywords that are easy to target and yet are not irrelevant to your business. It tells you how your backlinks are performing, it’s pretty decent for competitor analysis too.
Key features include
- Rank monitoring
- Site auditor
- Backlink checker
- Link management
Link Assistant comes for a price of $299 per year. It also has a free version which you can try to get a feel.
Shift4Shop
A one-stop destination for everything you need to get your eCommerce business up and running – that is Shift4Shop for you. It is a suite that includes a website builder, CRM tools, and marketing agency project management software. You can get your website running and start selling without any amount of coding. The templates are customizable to your preference.
The CRM capabilities help you manage leads and contacts and the marketing capabilities help you automate various marketing functions. Moreover, you get an inbuilt payment gateway system.
The key features include
- Website builder
- Shopping cart
- In built payment system
- Marketing tools
The tool comes for $29 per month. That is not much for the amount of functionality you are getting here.
MailBird
If you read a lot of emails, communicate with multiple teams regularly, and stay accountable for managing workflows, MailBird is an absolute gift for you. When an email management tool has over 2 million active users and isn’t Gmail, you know they are doing something right.
It unifies emails from multiple accounts – that’s a modern solution for a moder problem. Moreover, it integrates with tools like Whatsapp, Asana, Facebook, and Twitter, which means you can monitor these channels without having to toggle between five different tabs.
The best part is the Speed Reader feature that uses advanced algorithms to highlight words and sentences that are important. It helps you read at least 3 times faster.
Key features include
- Unlimited accounts
- Integrated applications
- Speed reading
This awesome tool from the future comes for $3.25 per month.
Referral Candy
That’s a funny name for a software application, isn’t it. Let’s find out if it’s at all fun. You know how referral marketing works, right? You reward your customers if they refer your product or services to their friends and acquaintances.
With Referral Candy, you can easily customize referral campaigns and integrate them with your eCommerce stores based on Shopify, WooCommerce, Volution, Magento, etc. If you want more control over the campaigns the tool allows your developers to take over.
The key features include
- Integration with online stores
- Sales insights
- Referral tracking
- Embedded sign-up forms.
Referral Candy comes at a price of $49 per month.
Refrens
The best thing about refrens is that you can create unlimited invoices without paying a single penny. By using a free online invoice creator like Refrens, you can focus on expanding your business and saving time and effort.
Key Features:
- You can create professional invoices instantly without having to re-enter data.
- The invoice format can be customized to include more relevant information and columns.
- Get notified when an invoice is opened by sending it via email.
- Never miss a payment again with recurring invoices. The perfect solution for billing every week, every month, or every year.
- Make your brand stand out with personalized invoices.
Pricing:
$0 per month (free), $7 per month (premium), $20 per month (premium plus)
Jotform Apps
Jotform Apps is a no-code app builder that helps you create fully customizable apps for your business for free. You can add forms, widgets, products, and your branding to one app that can be downloaded onto any smartphone, tablet, or computer.
Jotform offers an easy-to-use drag-and-drop form builder along with many free templates you can use to create the app that suits your taste and needs perfectly. With Jotform Online Store Builder, you can start selling online in minutes and collect payments via the various widgets offered.
With Jotform Apps, anyone can build an app to suit their needs. Whether you are starting a small business, getting feedback from customers, or creating a company portal, Jotform Apps has all the features you need.
Key features include:
- Apps on any device
- Drag-and-drop interface
- Ready-made templates
- Embeddable on any website
- Various app widgets and payment integrations
- Powerful online forms
Pricing:
Jotform Apps offers a free plan with all the features available. The available dynamic pricing plans are Bronze: $34 per month, Silver: $39 per month, Gold: $99 per month, and Enterprise: Custom.
Bottomline
This list is not exhaustive by any means, there are more tools that you can try and diverse functionalities that you can explore. Nevertheless, these tools will help you build a solid foundation for your online business.