How Digital Tools Can Provide Your Business with a Competitive Edge

Technology, once considered a nice-to-have to make tasks easier, has now become a necessary component in operating a business. It drives growth, improves efficiency, reduces cost, and enhances customer engagement. Therefore, it is imperative that the right digital tools are integrated into your business plan to give you a competitive edge.

Eight different ways the right digital tools can transform your business

 1. Project Management

Project management is vital to ensure your business remains organised. Digital tools such as Trello, Asana, Toggl Track can help you plan, organise, and track business activities. These tools offer features such as task, deadline and progress tracking, helping to ensure projects run smoothly and on time. These tools can help improve team collaboration and ensure staff members are aligned with business goals.

2. Communication and Collaboration

No business is successful without effective communication. Collaboration tools such as Slack, Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams streamlines communication between staff, customers and suppliers. These tools expand communication options to include virtual meetings, document sharing, and real-time conversations, improving teamwork and ensuring all stakeholders are on the same page.

3. Establishing a Strong Online Presence

The digitally focussed consumer environment means that having an online presence is essential to ensure your business is visible and accessible. Platforms such as Google Business, Square Sites, Google Sites and Canva Websites provide a simple solution to managing your business’s online profile. This ensures that potential customers can find you quickly and easily, driving more traffic to your website and leading to higher conversion rates.

4. Simplified Booking and Payment Systems

There is nothing more frustrating than not being able to make a restaurant or workshop booking online. Incorporating platforms like Square Appointments, Calendly, Square Payments, and Stripe provides user-friendly options for online bookings and secure payments. Ensuring you have these simplified tools on your website not only makes it convenient for your customers but reduces administrative tasks and streamlines payment processes.

5. Flexibility with the cloud

Cloud technology has several benefits. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in employees wanting more flexibility to work from home and utilising cloud technology allows that to happen, while also offering improved security and automatic backup of sensitive business data. Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are just some of the tools that allow you to store, access, and securely manage business data from anywhere in the world. Cloud technology also allows your business to easily adjust to changing demands, without compromising performance, quality, or cost.

6. Creating a professional online image

Having a professional online image can help your business build trust and credibility with your customers. Tools such as Canva, Honey Book, and Signature Hound can be utilised to create professional marketing materials, business documents, and branded content. This can really enhance the visual appeal of a business and leaves a lasting impression with potential customers.

7. Improve marketing and promotional events

The key to reaching and engaging with your audience is effective, targeted marketing campaigns. Digital tools like Canva, MailerLite, MailChimp, Eventbrite, Try Booking, and Facebook Groups can assist in the creation and management of marketing campaigns, promotions and events. Features of these platforms allow businesses to design engaging content, automate email campaigns and manage event registrations, helping to reach audiences more effectively.

8. Automated Bookkeeping

Keeping track of the financial side of things can be tedious and time-consuming. Being able to automate tasks such as sending invoices, tracking expenses, and financial reporting saves a lot of time and reduces errors, allowing business owners to focus on the fun side of running their own business. Tools like Zipbooks, Gimbla, Hnry, and accounting software such as Xero, MYOB, and QuickBooks can make bookkeeping simple.

Unsure about which of these tools will work best for your business? Join us for our upcoming workshop, “Digital Tools for Business Efficiency.” This introductory session will provide you with practical insights into using these tools to enhance your operations, communication, online presence, and more. Register here.

Delivered by Business Foundations as part of the Digital Solutions program.