Gaurav Sharma — February 26, 2020 Do you know how many small businesses are operating out of the U.S.? At last count, there were 30.2 million companies with less than 500 employees (which means they are classified as “small businesses” according to the SBA Office of Advocacy). In fact, the number of small businesses is increasing all around the globe.
But why is it important to know how many small businesses are out there?
If you’re a small business owner, you’re competing with millions of other companies for a place in the sun. You can’t hope to chase your dream and get ahead of competitors if you’re caught up in the rigmarole of daily tasks.
That’s why you need tools. The right tools can eliminate busywork by automating repetitive tasks. With that taken care of, you can focus on your core business and grow.
So, let’s take a look at some of the best tools that can drive your small business growth.
Which Tools Does a Small Business Need to Grow in 2020?
What do we mean by the “right” tools?
The right tools are the ones that help you market your small business and attain your business goals. They should also match your budget.
But selecting the right tools can be a challenge for busy entrepreneurs. Who has the time or budget for a hit-and-try approach?
And you can’t exactly go by hearsay and buy what your peers are recommending since your business needs are unique. One wrong move can cost your small business dearly.
Here are 14 tools that successful small business owners are using to fulfill different purposes. They come with pocket-friendly price tags, and many offer no-obligation trial periods.
So, what are we waiting for? Let’s start rolling.
Business Contact Database Tools
Here are some tools that can help you grow your contact database.
1. AeroLeads
The sales process starts with identifying leads and compiling a contact database. AeroLeads is an email and phone number finding tool that lets you reach top-level decision-makers efficiently.
Using it, you can get up to 15 data points for each contact, including name, email, phone number, address, job title, and location. The tool is compatible with LinkedIn, HubSpot, and most CRM solutions.
2. DiscoverOrg
Another great tool for collecting contact data of C-suite prospects is DiscoverOrg. Cloud enablement of this tool lets you keep track of your leads from any device.
It identifies top targets and scores opportunities on the basis of product fit and purchase intent. You can also filter query results based on several granular parameters to find the contacts you want.
Influencer Marketing Tools
Though a new kid on the block, influencer marketing is breaking records in boosting brand awareness and driving purchase decisions. Here are some tools that can help you leverage it.
3. Fourstarzz Media
If you are looking to kick start your influencer marketing campaigns, Fourstarzz Media is the ideal tool. It is an affordable, self-service platform designed for startups and SMBs with a strong focus on nano- and micro-influencers.
This tool gives their users unlimited access to influencer profiles, influencer reports, and contact details. The in-app functionalities make it a great software solution to find, analyze, compare, and manage influencers at scale too.
4. Alltop
Alltop is an influencer marketing tool that helps you find influential bloggers. It aggregates blog posts from a wide variety of niches and all these posts are curated by their editors.
From these posts, you can check which blogs are more popular in your niche and find influential bloggers.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tools
It’s essential to do SEO for your website to grow your visibility online. Here are the best tools to help you with SEO.
5. SEMrush
SEMrush audits your existing site from an SEO perspective. It helps you track your keywords and monitors your website’s health too.
Additionally, you can conduct competitor analysis that can highlight the keywords and domain rankings of all of your competitors.
6. Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free tool that inspects websites for traffic, SEO issues, and best-performing keywords.
You can find out precisely how your website’s content ranks on Google and its performance. It also allows you to submit sitemaps for better indexing and set up email alerts for SEO-related bugs.
Social Media Marketing Tools
People spend nearly 3 hours daily on social media, and 54% of the users use it for researching products before buying.
It thus makes sense to be active on social media channels and get your brand out there.
7. Hootsuite
Hootsuite lets you craft and curate engaging social content. It also enables you to schedule your posts and monitor their performance across channels.
8. Buffer
Buffer is another platform that simplifies your social media campaigns. Using it, you can build and optimize posts for different channels from a single interface.
Scheduling posts and collaborating with your marketing team is also possible in-platform. It even lets you reply to post comments and tag team members without switching windows.
Miscellaneous Tools for Small Business Growth
Here are some other tools you can use to grow your small business:
9. Feedly for Content Marketing
Great content always sells. That’s why content marketing is used by 86% of B2C marketers. But you need to put out content that resonates with your brand values and is of interest to your audience.
For this, you can utilize content marketing tools. They can simplify content marketing for you by helping you find, curate, and distribute content.
Feedly cuts out the noise created by information overload and lets you focus on topics that are relevant. It lets you keep up with the latest trends and topics so that you can create the best content possible.
10. Mailchimp for Email Marketing
Mailchimp is an all-in-one email marketing tool that facilitates ideation, creation, scheduling, and tracking of email workflows.
You can also connect your productivity tools to the platform and get a more holistic solution. Built-in data security and GDPR compliance are other great features of this tool.
11. imperson for Chatbot Solutions
To get a competitive edge, you need to think out of the box. AI-powered chatbots and online assistants are creating disruption in improving customer experience and conversions.
Imperson is one such tool that provides turnkey chatbot solutions for websites, apps, Skype, and Facebook Messenger. The platform builds, hosts, and monitors your bots for you.
12. Google Ads for Paid Advertising
Paid ads have a loyal fanbase in the B2C domain. What better way to rank on Google than to use their indigenous tools?
Google Ads lets you set a monthly ad budget and decide the target spots. Post that, you can create your ad copy and select the target audience to get started.
13. Wistia for Video Marketing
87% of brands use videos as a marketing tool since consumers love the immersive experience that they provide. As a lead-generation tool, videos are next to none.
Why aren’t you leveraging videos to grow your business?
To get started with video creation, you can leverage Wistia. Using it, you can produce binge-worthy branded videos that keep viewers engrossed in your website.
14. Wix for Website Designing
Websites are essential for growing your business’ presence online. Using a robust tool like Wix, you can build your online store, one-page blog, or virtual portfolio.
The Wix Editor lets you create sites from scratch or by using readymade templates. The best part is that your site will be mobile-friendly and optimized for better usability.
Conclusion
Growing your business need not be a stressful process. If you know the right tools, you can accelerate your growth and derive maximum return on investment.
You can multiply your productivity exponentially and eliminate human errors to a large extent by using tools. Since most of the tools featured in this post are affordably priced, they are great for all sorts of businesses.
Are there other useful tools that you use to grow your small business? Let us know in the comments.
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