As the world becomes increasingly digital, small business owners, entrepreneurs, and professionals must understand the importance of digital transformation for small businesses. A digital transformation can help small businesses increase efficiency, become more competitive, and reach new audiences. It is essential to have the right tools to be successful in this process. This blog post will discuss the ten must-have tools for a successful digital transformation for small businesses.
Full disclaimer: I use these tools regularly, and some links are affiliate links.
1) Freshbooks
Freshbooks is an incredibly powerful and user-friendly accounting software program designed to simplify the bookkeeping process for small businesses. It is used by entrepreneurs, freelancers, small business owners, and large enterprises alike. This cloud-based platform is available on any device and features an intuitive dashboard and easy-to-navigate screens. Freshbooks helps you manage your income, expenses, and invoices in one place and can generate accurate financial reports in just a few clicks. With automatic time tracking and billing options, Freshbooks can save you time and money. It also has features like project tracking and client management to help keep your business organized. Whether you are just starting out or have been in business for years, Freshbooks can help you streamline your accounting processes and improve your bottom line.
2) Hubspot
We at MFSB are proud partners with Hubspot. HubSpot is a CRM platform providing businesses with the software, integrations, and resources they need to easily connect their marketing, sales, content management, and customer service operations. With HubSpot, businesses can wrangle disconnected data, lasso leads, and leave the competition in the dust.
HubSpot offers five individual products within its platform: Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, CMS Hub, and Operations Hub. These products help businesses manage their leads, track customer interactions and satisfaction, optimize for search engines, grow blog traffic, and more. With over 167,000 customers in over 120 countries, HubSpot is a leader in digital transformation.
To get started with HubSpot, users can utilize free tools or upgrade to premium software to get even more value. Plus, the HubSpot CRM is free for life. This means users can access all the features they need to manage leads and customers without a cost.
3) Dropbox
Dropbox is a powerful tool for digital transformation that allows users to store files up to 2 TB each and sync at light speed. It allows users to preview nearly 200 file types, so it’s easy to find the file you need. Plus, Dropbox offers 2,000 GB of storage between 6 people, so you don’t have to worry about running out of space. On top of that, each family plan member gets their own private Dropbox account for less than the price of two Plus plans.
4) Paypal
PayPal is a secure, convenient way to send and receive money worldwide. With PayPal, you can pay for goods and services nearly anywhere you shop or even pay later with features like Pay in 4. You can also support causes that matter to you, like COVID-19 relief or environmental conservation. Plus, you can earn points on eligible purchases when you shop with PayPal, which you can then redeem for cash back or save up for later.
Getting started with PayPal is easy – all you need is an account. With PayPal, you can buy what you love now and pay later with no interest if paid in full in 6 months on purchases of $99 or more. Plus, if you have a PayPal Cashback Mastercard®, you’ll get 2% cash back on all eligible purchases right away. Plus, the PayPal Honey shopping extension adds extra savings to your cart at checkout.
If you’re looking for other payment options, check out Stripe and Square.
5) Zoom
Zoom is the go-to tool for businesses of all sizes wanting to consolidate communications, connect people, and collaborate better. As a leader in the Magic Quadrant for UCaaS, Worldwide, Zoom enables teams to bring their people together, reimagine workspaces, engage new audiences, and delight customers. It helps businesses increase sales productivity, shorten deal cycles, and improve revenue predictability. Zoom has been used to deliver the greatest racing on earth to more fans, and it connects influential business leaders and entrepreneurs to build back better.
Businesses trust Zoom because it is loved by people, top-rated on review sites, and a recognized leader in unified communications. Plus, with our discount code, you can get 25% off your first three months of service with Zoom. Take advantage of this amazing offer and use Zoom to make the most out of your business communications today!
6) WordPress
WordPress is one of the most popular website and content management systems on the internet today, and for good reason. With WordPress hosting, you can get next-level performance for your website. WordPress offers beautiful themes and patterns, unlimited pages, unlimited users, a time machine for post edits, built-in newsletters and RSS, brute-force protection, smart redirects, online forever, visitor stats, spam protection with Akismet, unlimited shares in social media, site activity log, and the ability to install plugins and themes. Plus, WordPress is the leading CMS on the internet today, with over 63% market share compared to other CMS websites. It’s no wonder that WordPress has become the go-to choice for so many people looking to create a website or blog.
7) Divi Builder
Divi is the most widely used premium WordPress theme in the world, according to stats from BuiltWith.com. It is a website-building framework that makes it possible to design beautiful websites without ever touching a single line of code. Divi is like Photoshop or Sketch for the web, bringing an advanced design interface to WordPress.
Divi is a completely new website-building platform that replaces the standard WordPress post editor with a vastly superior visual editor. It is customizable, allowing users to change colors, fonts, text styles, apply animations, and more. It also integrates beautifully with WooCommerce, making it easier, faster, and more enjoyable to build websites for clients.
Finally, Divi is amazingly affordable, allowing users to build unlimited websites for their clients on a single membership. With Divi, you can quickly and easily design high-quality websites that will help you stand out from the competition.
8) ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is a powerful customer experience automation platform that helps businesses create highly personalized customer experiences. It has been adopted by over 150,000 customers in 170 countries, with a 99.99% uptime guarantee. This allows companies to reach more customers and build relationships faster. ActiveCampaign also offers an incredibly useful 14-day free trial, allowing you to test its features before committing to a subscription plan. With its intuitive interface and comprehensive set of features, ActiveCampaign is the perfect tool for helping businesses succeed in the digital age.
9) Social Media (LinkedIn Newsletter)
Social media is a huge part of digital transformation, with platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram playing an important role. However, one platform that should not be overlooked is LinkedIn. It has recently added a new feature to its platform, the LinkedIn Newsletter. Click here to check out the MFSB LinkedIn Newsletter.
The LinkedIn Newsletter allows you to talk about a professional topic on a regular basis. It also makes it easy to invite all your connections or followers to subscribe. After publishing each newsletter article, push, in-app, and email notifications are sent to all subscribers. This helps your subscribers to easily discover, read, and share your newsletters.
Any LinkedIn member can subscribe to a newsletter. When a member subscribes to your newsletter, you will be able to see their name, profile photo, job title, and headline. This lets you keep track of who is reading and engaging with your content.
If you are interested in creating a LinkedIn Newsletter for your digital transformation, you should definitely check out some examples of newsletters written by LinkedIn Editors and the Top Picks newsletter curated by the News team.
Check out our LinkedIn newsletter and become a subscriber here.
10) Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a powerful tool for tracking the performance of your website and providing insights on how to improve it. It can help you identify which pages are performing well, what content is working best, who is visiting your site, and more. With its detailed reports, you can measure the effectiveness of your digital marketing campaigns and determine if they are working or not. You can also use Google Analytics to discover how visitors find your site and which keywords they use to get there. All in all, this data helps you understand the success of your website and make informed decisions that will improve it.
Google Analytics provides real-time data, so you can monitor your website’s performance as it happens. It also allows you to create custom reports with customized metrics to help you measure your goals. With its helpful features like segmentation, you can break down your data into different user groups to gain valuable insights into how different customers are interacting with your website. With Google Analytics, you’ll have all the information you need to track progress, optimize campaigns, and increase conversions.
Bonus: Grammarly
At our growing business, we use Grammarly every single day. It has become an intricate part of our content and messaging strategy. Grammarly is an AI-powered writing assistant that helps 30 million people improve their writing daily.
Grammarly provides corrections for grammar, spelling, style, and tone. It can be used across many platforms, such as Gmail, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other sites. The best part is that it’s free to use. With Grammarly, you can ensure your writing is always error-free, efficient, and professional.
Conclusion
Digital transformation is essential for small businesses to stay ahead in the ever-evolving digital world. With the right tools, you can increase efficiency, customer satisfaction, and profitability while reducing overhead costs. Freshbooks, Hubspot, Dropbox, Paypal, Zoom, WordPress, Divi Builder, ActiveCampaign, Google Analytics, and Grammarly, are all must-have tools to help you make the most of your digital transformation journey. Finally, don’t forget to use social media platforms like LinkedIn to build your brand and reach a wider audience. With these tips and tools, you’re well on your way to making your digital transformation a success.
