If you’re running a business, there will be a litany of administration and management tasks that can take up most of your time if you’re not careful. Of course, you can hire people to do them for you, but the ongoing costs alone should dissuade you from that (without even thinking about the onboarding costs and even finding the right employees). No, there is only one solution: software. Here are some of the best.
Publishing
If you need an online presence (which almost all companies need), you will need to publish your website and your content. If you don’t know why you need to publish content, you are likely unfamiliar with the new laws of the world wide web. Content has become one of the most important things for a website; it attracts and keeps users and customers, has a crucial role in the conversion funnel and is also a do-it-or-die SEO necessity.
You will likely need a content-management tool and here are three big ones to choose from: Drupal, WordPress and Joomla. All are good, but WordPress is massive. It manages the content for 1/6 of the whole internet.
Project Management
In the modern business climate, it is highly likely that all your team won’t be working in the same location. Even if they are, the distractions of social media and the countless streams of information filtering into their heads can make confusion common and efficiency less-prevalent. Project management tools help with this, allowing all your employees to check what they need to be doing, who they need to work with, and what they need to report. Many of these can be free apps like Slack, but there are tools like Trello and Kanban Tool that are popular, too.
Data and Business Intelligence
Data is the new oil and you need to know how to use it. Data by itself doesn’t give you the insights that make it valuable. You need business intelligence tools to help you interpret data and use big data for its intended purpose to drive your growth and create major value. You need to make data-driven decisions to excel, so business intelligence tools are essential. There are many to choose from, but this guide for choosing business intelligence software is an excellent place to start.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
About 20 years ago, CRM was pitted to be the most important business tool available. Although others are equally important, the value that CRM software can deliver should not be overlooked. CRM software looks to manage every step of your customer relationship, from measuring how well leads are being operationalized to how often you should send a follow-up email to increase the likelihood that your customers will return.
CRM software also serves as a customer database and you can combine it with big data to tailor marketing strategies so that they are appropriate for every situation. The giant in CRM software is Salesforce, but some people feel it needs a re-do. There are lighter and more modern CRM software options that you can rely upon, dependent on your individual needs (e.g. Streak is a free tool that gives you CRM from the comfort of your Gmail).
