Many businesses don’t operate in the conventional office setting. Whether you run a landscape gardening business or a bricklaying company, modern tech and software still matter. Many people who work with their hands don’t feel comfortable embracing computer technology too much. That’s a mistake, though. There are many reasons and strategies for how to become tech-savvy with the latest software and technology hacks to grow your business.
How to become tech-savvy: Ways software and technology can grow business
Continuously developing your business is essential to its long term survival and growth, however, many factors can constrain and hinder your efforts such as your available budget for marketing and product development, your expertise and skills of your team, and time. When added on top of regular day to day operational duties, the task of growing your business can seem an even more exhausting and challenging experience.
That being said, nowadays there are even more opportunities for businesses to develop and grow due to the advent of computers, electronics, the Internet and social media for which developers have created a variety of useful software and technology solutions and tools to help entrepreneurs and managers grow a business.
There are several benefits to integrating software and IT systems into a business including:
- Greater flexibility in decision making due to real-time data that is more relevant to business operations
- Increased collaboration and coordination between team members
- Access to more sales channels
- Improved customer service that is more personalized and reliable as customer relationships can be digitally managed
- Cost savings
- Better record-keeping practices
- Smaller storage space is required for documents
- Automation of many tasks
- Increased productivity as tasks can be completed faster and more effectively
To help business owners or managers who are looking for how to become tech-savvy to grow their business and make the most of the advantages and opportunities provided by technological advances, here are some useful software hacks, recommendations and tips for how to become tech-savvy.
Use Software to Broadcast Digital Signage
Digital signage is often seen in the form of electronic signs, advertising boards or screens found in a range of highly visible locations with a steady flow of people such as airports, bars, high streets, restaurants and stores. Digital advertising screens are considered a modern version of traditional posters or billboards.
However, when compared it has significant advantages as advertising content can be curated, managed and synchronized to multiple screens using digital signage software on a single program controlled by the business. Additionally, many software packages come with cloud-based solutions for easy management of screens in different locations.
Automate Email Marketing
Using email automation software, businesses can create emails featuring content that is relevant to their target customers and deliver them at the right time without having to email each person individually. To help you target customers you can link the analytics tool on your website to your email marketing platform which allows you to select potential customers for a product or service based on their previous interactions with your brand, products they already bought from you, and their behavior and preferences.
This information can then be used to create content that is tailored to customers specific experiences and wants. Email automation provides businesses with several benefits including:
- The ability to personalize messages to customers and send them tailored content
- Increased staff productivity as less time is wasted
- Greater customer retention rates
Target Potential Customers With Facebook Ads
When setting up Facebook pixel you can use the Custom Audience tool in conjunction with tracking data from your website to deliver Facebook adverts to people who have already visited your website. It is common for customers to visit your web pages multiple times before deciding to make a purchase and delivering targeted Facebook ads to them often leads to a better conversion rate as you can repeat your message and build trust with your target audience.
Using Facebook’s Core Audience tool you can define a custom criterion for who and where ads are delivered to. Target audiences can be adjusted based on age, behavior, education, gender, interests, connections and location.
Build a Strong Social Media Presence
In today’s world, social media marketing should be at the center of any business’s strategy for growth as it is the most efficient and cost-effective method to reaching many potential customers quickly as well as targeting specific audiences.
There are of course several well-known social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram that provide marketing tools for businesses that regularly deliver content to their target audience. Delivering the right content to the right audience regularly is likely to increase sales for many reasons including:
- More traffic to your website; social media means you can reach more potential customers and direct them to your website using links in your contact details and content
- Better conversion rates; due to the ease of posting a range of content such as blog posts, comments, images and videos businesses can have greater opportunities to make a positive impression and lead potential customers to their website
- Improved customer satisfaction; social media tools allow marketers to tailor content to viewers and engage with them through personalized messages and comments
- Increased brand authority and awareness; regularly posting content and interacting with customers about new products, relevant news and their opinions helps to build a reputation for credibility and trust in a brand
- Marketplace insights; most social media platforms have tools that monitor activity on your business pages and once you have built a large enough following you can use analytics to give you information about your customers’ behavior and interests
Optimize Your Website For Search Engines
Many customers search for and find the information or products they want using search engines, especially Google which uses bots to rank websites depending on keywords that are present in their content. When a website ranks higher on searches it will generate more web visits.
To get your website ranking well on search engines you will have to develop and implement a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy for both on and off your web pages. SEO involves making alterations to your web design so it is user friendly and creating content that includes keywords potential customers are going to search for.
Use Google Ads
Google provides two options for paid advertisements that offer a good return, these are Google Ads and Google AdSense. If you want your website to rank higher in search results then it is possible to use Google Ads whereas Google AdSense will place your advertisements on other websites that are relevant to your niche.
Utilizing software and technology is vital to scaling up a business as it is essential to digital marketing that enables brands to reach large numbers of customers and interact with them instantly. To help businesses quickly implement effective digital marketing there are a few useful tips including using digital signage software, social media advertising and search engine optimization.
In summary
When you use software and technology to your business’s advantage, you can ensure that the things you do are done quicker. This is a pretty big deal, and you shouldn’t underestimate how important this can be when it comes to running your business successfully. If you understand how to become tech-savvy and can speed things up via this, your business will instantly become more efficient. This can only be a good thing for you.
You will manage to get more done and waste a lot less time on the job. In the long-term, you will save money and make your business operate in a much more positive and profitable way.