It’s an exciting new age for small businesses. There’s a wealth of affordable technology on the market designed to help draw customers to your website, simplify the transacting of business, and keep those transactions safe and secure. If you’re a small business owner, you know that your success depends on being smart with every single investment. That makes it all the more important to find tech advances that can transform your business into a desirable, safe, and convenient way for your customers to shop.
There’s little doubt that data security technology is one of the most important tech investments you can make. It involves nothing less than gaining the confidence of your clientele and the protection of customers’ sensitive financial information. Small businesses that don’t secure themselves and their customers run the risk of being branded as irresponsible companies concerned only with maximizing profit by skimping on important technology. If you think data crime couldn’t happen to you, ask Target, Yahoo, and JP Morgan Chase — big companies that thought they had properly secured very sensitive data and information.
Emphasize Mobility
Giving customers a responsive and engaging website is a must these days, but it’s still not enough. In fact, you also have to ensure that your site is mobile-friendly because more than 50 percent of web traffic comes from smartphones, which means your small business must be savvy about mobile technology, including websites, payment apps, and any details that make it easy for a mobile device to interact with your online storefront/website. Many content management systems provide mobile-compatible technology that businesses can use to construct customized websites that look great but don’t cost an arm and a leg.
A Dynamic Website
Small businesses need to attract, impress and retain clients in order to succeed. Winning people over means you need a dynamic and captivating website. One of the best investments you’ll make is to hire a brilliant freelance JavaScript developer. As Upwork explains, skilled JS developers are fluent in different back-end technologies and have plenty of experience with build tools like Bower and Grunt. An effective application of JavaScript can make your website really pop. What’s more, your site will be much more mobile-friendly, which is an essential factor in pulling in customers who prefer to use their mobile devices to shop. JavaScript will keep customers coming back for a great shopping experience.
Marketing Automation
Integrating your marketing outreach activities with your company’s technology is one of the most efficient ways to promote small businesses. Customer relationship management software allows you to communicate with customers and grow relationships without a lot of wasteful effort and, even better, without spending needlessly on tactics that might or might not work.
As a small business owner, it’s important to maximize every investment you make in your company, and that’s where marketing automation can help. It’s a smart technology that makes it easy to reach the right prospects at the right time, as well as provide customers with what they want based on their purchase history and shopping habits. Chatbots and automated social media marketing are good examples of affordable, technologically advanced marketing tools.
Tech-Based Team Collaboration
If you have a large team to manage or an entirely virtual workforce, a team collaboration tool can help you work more efficiently and effectively. Collaboration tools combine communication and project management and reduce the likelihood that an important task will fall through the cracks. Sococo, for example, is a powerful online collaboration platform for meeting, messaging, and coordinating work, and Adobe Connect is a great way to hold interactive virtual meetings that can even be played back if someone missed something important.
Small businesses are under a lot of pressure to make the right decision at every turn. That’s very hard to do, but there are technology resources that can make everyone productive and position your company for success — and there are many that won’t stress your budget.
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