These days, start-up businesses abound. With little capital and a lot of determination and hard work, aspiring young entrepreneurs can start a small project and eventually make it grow into a huge business.
Fledgling companies have to rely on heavy marketing since they’re still unknown to the general public. Digital marketing, especially, is one of the keys to reach out to a technology-dependent generation of customers. If you don’t have a lot of money to spare, you probably won’t be as bold in your business moves. You may stick to tried-and-tested methods, preferably ones that don’t require you to shell out big bucks.
The good news, though, is that the internet is rife with free online Business tools you can use to make your business thrive. Take a look at some of them.
4 Best Business Tools for Starting a Business
Photo Editor
A company’s fonts and logo are not just mere decorations. They are an extension of the brand image and visually represent the company’s values and vision. As that is the case, a reliable photo editor such as Canva can help you create marketing materials that potential customers will surely remember.
The process of building the brand image is tedious and requires lots of experimentation. In that case, creating a memorable visual brand will help them.
Effective visual branding boosts the company image in the sense that customers are loyal to brands that can trigger a positive response or an emotional connection in them. The packaging and the fancy logo may not be the ultimate yardstick of a good business, but you surely can’t discount the fact that a memorable brand logo leaves a good impression on customers.
When you do start making your logo and packaging, don’t forget to read about the basic design rules and the functionality of your packaging. Design elements in marketing materials need to be arranged in a cohesive manner, as marketing materials should correctly represent the brand image.
Project Management Apps
In a business, whether it’s small or big, you have so many things to take care of, and it won’t be enough if you simply commit every detail to memory. You need a project-management app that can help you assign projects and tasks. This is important especially when you need to update clients on the project’s progress.
Trello is a great tool you can use to manage projects. The best thing about it is it’s free and easy to use. Its interface fits any type of screen, but that’s not the only thing that makes Trello amazing, though.
Trello is inspired by the Japanese concept of kanban, which emphasizes the important sequences in a process, thereby reducing the likelihood of wasting time and resources. In the Trello app, projects are represented by whiteboards, and tasks are represented by sticky notes or cards.
With Trello, you can create checklists and deadlines and upload file attachments. Every team member can access the cards or even edit them, and you won’t have to worry about overwrites. Changes are automatically updated even when you’re using another device.
Page-Performance Checker
A study finds that an online customer’s buying habits are affected by how fast a page loads. Because the digital age is all about speed, a page-performance checker like Google PageSpeed Insights should come in handy. This tool allows you to test how fast your website loads, whether on mobile or on desktop.
After you type the URl of your website, Insights will give you information on the following areas: your website’s speed index, compressed transfer, total load time, image compression, the caching of static content, how long it takes to receive the first byte from your website, and the presence of a CDN. From there, you you will know which areas need improvement and can start working on optimizing the performance of your website.
Analytics Tools
Analytics measures how effective your marketing campaigns are. In the world of digital marketing, the numbers tell a compelling story. They can give you an idea of what customers like, where these people are from, which pages they frequent, and how long they stay on these pages. Your analytics tool can also give you data on backlinks, social-media engagements, and organic search, among others.
Read Also: How to Utilize Technology for your Startup Success
An analytics tool such as Google Analytics can help you convert these opportunities and engagements into successful transactions. It tracks how much and how long the customer engages your website and which pages customers frequently visit. That being said, you can change or improve your marketing strategies based on data you’ve gathered from your analytics tool.
If you are selling clothes online, stocking up on beautiful clothes is not enough to draw customers. You can put together a lookbook, which can show customers how your products can be put together as an entire outfit. That way, you are not only presenting your products aesthetically, but also making clothing choices easier for customers.
Thought to Ponder
Don’t forget to consider new trends and laws like passing a drug test which will remain mandatory in most institutions. So better be ready for the little things you might need in the future.
The thought of investing so much money, time, and effort, no matter the scale of your business, may be daunting. After all, business trends and customer demands change every now and then and without warning. It’s all a risk, but if you have the right tools and you can use them well, you can make your business venture successful.
Photo URL: https://www.pexels.com/photo/business-close-up-commerce-computer-266176/
