Top 7 tools that could improve your business

We age, technology develops, and people adapt. All three facts are a homage to the constant nature of change. We can’t pause time, and trying to ignore it only brings failure.

Hence, businesses and individuals alike embrace change to increase their likelihood of success. This article explores business tools worth exploring to embrace modern business management and make success more likely than not.

7 Online Tools Popularly Used By Businesses

Proxy servers

A proxy server is an intermediary that operates between a device and the destination server online. These servers alter and obscure the IP addresses of the device, thus allowing its users to browse anonymously. Here are the benefits of proxies:

• Anonymity. As stated above, proxies allow their users to browse anonymously. They do so by rerouting user requests through an IP address in another location. Hence, they give the impression that the traffic originates from the IP address of the proxy.
• By-passing geo-restrictions. As a result of their ability to spoof locations, proxies can help users access content outside of those allowed in their location.

Below are scenarios where web proxies may prove useful:

• Web scraping. Proxy servers facilitate web scraping by helping individual researchers or businesses access the relevant data. Rotating proxies associated with paid proxy servers is particularly useful in avoiding IP bans that may result from scraping.
• Online gaming. Real-time gaming requires a reliable connection, and dedicated proxies can provide this.

Project Management Software

Project management is all about streamlining and organizing tasks for increased productivity. As such, this type of software facilitates effective collaboration, communication, and resource allocation. Some of the specific benefits are

• Centralized communication. Communication in many small groups can lead to scattered email threads, which impair collaboration. Project management software provides a central medium for operations and task-related correspondence.
• Task-tracking. Along with the central communication, the software also makes monitoring progress across official tasks easy.

The benefits of project management lend itself well to various scenarios. Here are some potential use cases:

• Planning for large teams. A business operation that is complex in scope requires input from many different professionals. Project management software would help plan, allocate, and monitor every team member’s tasks.
• Resource sharing. Regardless of industry, project management software is also useful for sharing resources in real-time. Such a medium reduces accusations of bias and promotes teamwork.

Customer relationship management (CRM) software

Customer satisfaction is central to the success of any enterprise. As a result, customer relationship management software aims to help businesses understand their customers and interact with them seamlessly. Below are some of the advantages of this business tool:

• Aggregation and organization of customer data. The tool helps businesses organize the data collected from clients. As such, they present a comprehensive and structured picture of the customer base to relevant teams within the organization.
• Support of targeted ads. Targeted ads thrive on data; customer relationship management software helps organize data. The latter can inform the former, and together, they could boost the product’s market performance.

Here are some use cases showing how businesses employ the software:

• Professionals in advertising and marketing use organized data from the software to design their sales funnels.
• Improved customer support. Even after the purchase, the customer journey is not over. There is still customer support and feedback. By consulting data on preferences, history, etc, businesses can personalize their customer support to bolster consumer loyalty.

Cloud storage services

The world is leaning ever so slightly away from traditional workers and work hours. With the rise of remote workers, hybrid workers, and flexible hours comes a need for newer resource allocation methods. One such solution has been cloud storage. Cloud storage reduces the need for hardware and facilitates access to resources from any location. Here are the benefits of using these services in a business:

• Enhanced collaboration. It expands the collaborative capacity of the workforce. In other words, collaboration between employees can now progress beyond those present on-site. In fact, employees from two different countries or continents can simultaneously work on the same document.
• Convenient accessibility and backup. Cloud computing and storage means real-time access to resources regardless of location. However, they also help facilitate automatic backup, thus protecting data integrity.

Cloud storage services are of more importance in certain situations than others. Here are some such instances:

• Remote and hybrid work. Workers in different locations can collaborate on a task seamlessly. The rise of cloud storage and computing has also put more wind into the sails of the freelance or gig economy. The cloud-shared resources can be more secure with paid proxy servers controlling access.

Email marketing tools

Despite the risks associated with internet use, the world is so interconnected that everyone is looking for opportunities. Unfortunately, there isn’t any physical relationship to leverage. That leaves businesses and professionals resorting to emails to gain traction. Businesses launch email campaigns, and professionals cold email potential clients for partnerships. In either task, email marketing tools are very handy. Here are some of the benefits of these tools:

• Automation. Email marketing tools can automate some repetitive tasks. Examples of such repetitive tasks are follow-up emails, replies, etc.
• Email analytics. A reliable email management tool can also help businesses assess the performance of their campaigns. As such, companies can see who opens their emails, how they interact with them, etc.

Benefits aside, below are some specific ways that businesses use email marketing tools:

• Conducting A/B testing. A company employing an email campaign can use the tools to compare two different campaigns. The results of such a comparison indicate potential areas that are worth optimizing.
• Lead management and nurturing. Businesses can use automated email sequences to manage generated leads. As such, they can progressively nurture undecided individuals into actual patronage.

Social media management platforms

Thanks to global digitalization, social media has become an important aspect of marketing strategies. Therefore, companies now invest a lot in online branding and tools to that effect. An investment in social media management platforms can yield the following benefits:

• Post scheduling. A reliable social media management tool can allow businesses to plan their posts on time. Consequently, they can time their posts for optimal viewership, engagement, and reach.
• Tracking social media sentiments. Businesses can also use management tools to track mentions of their brands and consumer feedback on social media. When combined with paid proxy servers, they can collate sentiments across many regions and locations.

Specifically, a business can use the above benefits to improve the following:

• Customer engagement. Well-timed posts that are in tune with current discussions can positively impact engagement numbers.
• Awareness. Overall, an effective social media management tool and strategy could increase awareness of brands and products.

Accounting tools

Numbers are important to a business. They indicate health, performance, regulatory compliance, etc. As such, companies can scarcely afford to miscompute or misrepresent their numbers. They use accounting tools for this reason. Here are the benefits of accounting tools:

• Accurate tracking of finances. Accounting tools can provide a comprehensive view of company financials and even facilitate the computing of certain metrics in some cases.
• Regulatory compliance. The accuracy of these tools also makes it easier to satisfy regulatory requirements if all is well with a business’s numbers.

Here are some of the core use cases of accounting software in businesses: 

• Invoicing. Businesses and professionals can largely digitalize the creation and sending of invoices to clients.
• Reporting. Certain financial software can help create comprehensive breakdowns of the financial situation of a business for reporting purposes.

Conclusion

The age of paper-pushing and completely manual tasks is over. Nowadays, companies digitalize activities and automate them where possible. It leaves more time for irreplaceable human activities like planning, critical thinking, and creativity. If you are still living in the past age of business management, consider the above tools and step into the future.