Want to discover the top digital tools for business on the market, what they do, and try the ones that are best for you and your business?
Since their conception, both small businesses and corporate conglomerates alike have taken advantage of digital tools. Regardless of what industry you and your company function in, there is certain to be that shining, perfect digital tool out there just waiting to be utilized.
If you’ve yet to take advantage of these digital technologies, there’s no need to fear. Let this list serve as the perfect guide to determining what digital tools for business you should consider implementing.
What Exactly Are Digital Tools?
Digital tools are online tools or software applications that are meant to streamline optimized functions that, without the tools, would take a significant amount of time. These tasks are often mundane things that don’t require a lot of focus or creativity but do require a time commitment that could be better spent on more pressing matters.
As these tools have evolved, they’ve grown to encompass a large number of functionalities. In times past, they’ve only been able to accomplish a small number of duties. Now, with the ever-changing development of innovative digital tools, the range of tasks that these business tools can perform has grown increasingly expansive.
Later in the article, we’ll recommend to you a variety of these digital tools that have been separated by category. For now, let’s look at a list of said categories to give you a broader idea of just how all-encompassing these tools can be. Digital tools can help business owners with:
- Social Media
- Productivity
- Design
- E-Commerce Platforms
- SEO
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- Content Creation
- Storage
- Finance
- Communication
- Sales
- Data Analytics
Why Would A Business Owner Need Digital Tools?
The answer to this question is both complex and very simple. The fact is, these tools provide a way to ease processes that were previously incredibly tedious, all the while improving the results of those processes. Here are some of the more specific benefits of these tools:
- When small businesses use digital tools, they are able to accomplish the tasks of a much larger team even if they’re still growing. Small business owners can also save time and money through the use of these tools because there are plenty of free options on the market.
- Human error is something that is incredibly prevalent, especially when an employee is split between so many different kinds of tasks. With the use of these tools, the potential for human error is essentially eliminated, and thus the tasks can be completed with peace of mind.
- Internal and external communication is vastly improved when using a digital tool. Instead of communicating in ways that have become outdated and clogged such as via email or text message, communication tools allow for your team to have everything they need organized in one location.
Not to mention, this is just the tip of the iceberg. In the next section, we’ll be breaking down a list of twenty-two categorized digital tools, complete with the specific reasons why they’re so uniquely essential in completing their respective functions.
Categorized Up-and-Coming Digital Tools
Becoming a staple for both enterprises and small business owners, it’s time to dive into some of the most popular and relevant digital tools on the market. Depending on what kind of business you operate, some of these tools might be either entirely useless or exceptionally life-changing. Take a look, and see for yourself the ways in which these tools can change the way you run your business operations.
Social Media Management
Bitly
No one likes to spend their time looking at or clicking on long, ugly links! Bitly is a digital tool that provides link management and URL-shortening services, which are more necessary than you might have considered before. It allows businesses to create shorter, customized links that are easier to share and track. By using Bitly, businesses can do things like monitor click-through rates, analyze data on link engagement, and gain insights into their marketing campaigns.
This tool enables businesses to:
- Optimize their online presence
- Improve the effectiveness of their digital marketing efforts
- Make data-driven decisions to enhance their overall marketing strategies
Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a tool that aids businesses in the development of their social media accounts, including all of the features necessary to handle any and all social media channels effectively. Social media management is something that is incredibly time-consuming, so this kind of automation can prove to make a world of difference.
These features include:
- Enabling users to upload, publish, and schedule posts
- Engage with a company’s audience and analyze the performance metrics of posts
- Monitor any brand mentions across a variety of social media platforms
Productivity Tools
Toggl
Toggl is a popular digital tool designed for time tracking and productivity management. It offers a simple and intuitive interface that allows users to easily track their time spent on different tasks and projects. With Toggl, individuals and teams can gain valuable insights into their productivity patterns and optimize their workflow.
Toggl also provides detailed reports and visualizations, making it easier for users to analyze their time allocation and make informed decisions to improve efficiency and achieve their productivity goals!
Airtable
Airtable is a versatile and collaborative digital tool that combines the functionality of a spreadsheet with the power of a database. It allows users to organize and manage various types of data in a flexible and visually appealing manner, even having an incredibly convenient drag-and-drop interface. Project management has never been simpler with Airtable, and it has certainly made a name for itself among team collaboration tools.
Design Tools
Canva
Imagine all of the capabilities of the Adobe Suites, with none of the high costs or necessary design skills. Canva has an incredible range of features, and can even intuitively create designs for you with its AI. The perfect choice for design beginners and non-professionals, it’s an excellent way to create everything from social media content to custom logos. As an added bonus, it’s also quite cost-effective. In addition to its premium plan, you can also opt for a free service version at no cost to the user.
Pixabay
Pixabay is a digital platform that provides a vast collection of high-quality and royalty-free images, illustrations, and vector graphics. Its diverse range of creative assets is contributed by a global community of photographers and artists. In Pixabay, users can access and download any of these stunning visuals for personal or commercial use, without the need for any attributions. The platform’s easy-to-use search functionality and extensive library make it a valuable resource for anyone in need of visually appealing and professional-grade imagery.
E-commerce Platforms
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is incredibly useful for businesses to create and manage powerful e-commerce websites, and it’s widely recognized for good reason! It is a flexible and customizable platform built as a plugin for WordPress, which makes it particularly accessible and very friendly to new users. Using WooCommerce businesses can easily accomplish every step of the e-commerce process.
Its extensive number of extensions and integrations allows businesses to tailor their e-commerce websites to meet their specific needs, which helps to create far-improved shopping experiences for their customers.
Shopify
If you’re searching for a tool that helps businesses build and manage their very own e-commerce stores with ease, look no further than Shopify. This tool has more features than you could ever want in such a platform. And the best part is that you don’t even need to be tech savvy to utilize it fully.
Shopify delivers a large selection of apps and integrations that allow businesses to enhance their online stores and streamline operations. With its reliable hosting, scalability, and built-in SEO features, Shopify is a trusted choice for businesses of all sizes. So, whether you’re an established or a small business owner, Shopify will provide you with the tools you need for your e-commerce experience to be successful.
SEO Tools
Ahrefs
Ahrefs prides itself on being an all-in-one toolset for any and all of your SEO needs. Unlike other digital tools, Ahrefs has been established for over ten years, and according to their website, 67% of SEO professionals use Ahrefs’ Domain Rating as their SEO metric of choice!
Ahrefs is a paid tool, but they have plenty of financing options that are suitable for businesses lying within several budget ranges. With data visualization and tools that range from full site audits to analyses of the competition, Ahrefs is a highly commendable choice for your go-to SEO tool.
Yoast
Yoast SEO isn’t a standalone tool, but rather an incredibly useful and sophisticated WordPress plugin. When you use Yoast, your WordPress posts and pages can be easily and rapidly analyzed for SEO value. If a certain page is lacking, the software will let you know what keywords should be added, and what words you might need to remove.
This is ideal if you aren’t worried about SEO content on multiple sites or platforms, and rather want to put all of your attention and investment into your website. If you’re on the fence about it, they also provide a free version for those who aren’t quite ready to make the financial commitment.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Tools
HubSpot
HubSpot is a multi-faceted CRM software that has specialized versions for sales, service, and marketing automation. It has a free plan, but its truly useful features can be accessed through a range of customized resources. Here are some of its most popular features, to name a few.
- Marketing: Lead generation, automated campaigns, thorough analytics
- Sales: Meeting scheduling, calendar integration, payment tools
- Service: Customer feedback, knowledge database, tickets
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is one of those digital marketing tools that has been tried, tested, and proved to be indispensable in any marketing strategy. Email marketing is more prevalent than it’s ever been, but no one wants to fumble their way through the creation of lists and groups and individual messages, not when there’s a perfectly good tool to get the job done for them!
The software includes several free plan options, including a more expensive version that allows users to blast emails out to up to 10,000 contacts in one go. When it comes to converting new customers at scale, this email marketing tool will prove much more useful than other apps.
Content Creation Tools
Surfer SEO
Surfer SEO is perfect for conducting all of the SEO research you could possibly need, as well as telling you precisely how many keywords (and how much of each keyword) to include within each article that you create. Its systematized structure will ensure that you save valuable time, and it is a great service to help teams organize their SEO writing.
WordPress
Tried and true, WordPress is a system that probably lies at the top of mind when you think about platforms to share and create content as a business. While there are many kinds of website-building applications out there, none of them are as integration- and customization-friendly as good old WordPress. It’s a great option for those who have a bit of technical knowledge under their belt because there is essentially an unlimited number of ways to utilize this platform.
Storage
Google Drive
A cloud storage software that is easily used and attached to your Google account, using Google Drive is a great way to not only save personal and business-related photos, videos, and documents but also a quality choice for file sharing between large groups or individuals. The first 15GB of storage is even free within the software, so there’s no excuse to not give it a go in protecting and storing your important information.
LastPass
The last thing that you want to do is forget all of the important passwords that are protecting your data and accounts. Hence, the name LastPass. This tool is used to store all of your passwords, old and new, in one easily-located place. There’s no need to reset every time you forget what your password is because now you can locate it while still knowing they are comfortably stored away. Of course, just be sure to remember the password to your LastPass account!
Finance Tools
Stripe
If you need a tool that helps to accept and send payments, all the while allowing you to manage your business, you can look no further than Stripe. Millions of companies use Stripe, as it has been a long-established accounting software. Their standard payment is 2.9% per transaction, but they also have the option for custom plan creation if you contact them inquiring about that service.
FreshBooks
FreshBooks is an invoice and accounting software that is a perfect fit for small business owners who want a better way to time track, make payments, and measure expenses. It also has particularly strong mobile device compatibility, meaning you can take your FreshBooks software with you no matter where you go. If you have accounting software needs that can’t wait for a particular time and place, FreshBooks is certainly the tool for you.
Communication Tools
LiveChat
LiveChat is a help desk tool primarily focused on fostering and delivering quality customer service. It is mainly a communication tool, but as it specializes in capturing leads and generally looking to improve customer relationships, it acts as an excellent customer relationship management tool as well.
Slack
Teamwork makes the dream work, as they say. Slack is a tool that proves this to be true, allowing employee engagement to truly shine while your teams organize in a more cohesive way than they ever have before. Whether it’s for project management, general discussion, or keeping track of deadlines, Slack is the optimal communications platform for your business.
By dividing the discussions into multiple dedicated channels, things can be kept separate and streamlined. Of course, there is also the option to directly message employees when there is a specific inquiry that needs to be highlighted.
Sales Tools
Salesforce
Salesforce is a tool that combines three essential elements: CRM, data management, and AI, into one super tool that considerably lowers costs and saves time for business professionals. They have multiple GPT-based AI programs available within the tool, such as Sales GPT, Services GPT, and Marketing GPT. This combination of advanced tech in a user-friendly environment makes Salesforce such a compelling tool that many users recommend.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator
The LinkedIn Sales Navigator is an essential sales tool for businesses that heavily utilize LinkedIn. If you’re in search of customer leads, this tool will help you not only see customer insights but understand them, helping you to develop and tailor yourself to the best possible audience as your business grows. Sales Navigator is trusted by more than 80% of the Forbes Cloud 100, which is pretty indisputable evidence that they’re doing something right!
Don’t Underestimate The Power Of Digital Tools
I’m sure that this exhaustive list has honed the point quite enough, but it’s important to reiterate that the right tools can totally transform every aspect of your business process. If you haven’t utilized any of these before, you’re definitely missing out, as technology continues to update and improve with each passing day. It’s important that you and your business don’t get left behind, but instead, travel forwards with the assistance of tools like these!
It’s also imperative to note that all businesses operate differently, so it’s alright if you don’t find yourself needing every category of tools listed. Every business is different, so try out what you can to find what is best suited for your business’s unique needs!
Want to save even more time and money? Check out our Business Tools to do more, earn more, and save more with Online Success Genie.