So you’re ready to grow? Scaling a business is an exciting time, but it can be overwhelming, too.
The good news is that you’ve unlocked the value you bring to the marketplace and the response has been great. You’re moving onward and upward and looking for the tools that can help you scale effectively and seamlessly. As you grow, you’ll be shifting gears from working in the business to working on it. I’ve been there and, as a serial entrepreneur, I’ve come across some tools that can help you grow and ease the burden of busy work.
Zapier
Zapier can be a great tool to streamline operations and processes and cut out unnecessary busy work. It’s a productivity-boosting tool that helps automate the parts of your business that don’t need to be manual, freeing you up to focus on scaling your organization. It creates “Zaps” or connections between the tools you use every day (email, LinkedIn, Slack, etc.) and helps them work for you. Whether you have mounds of data entry or want to automate your inbox, Zapier can eliminate unnecessary tasks and free up your time.
Hatchbuck
This is an all-in-one sales and marketing tool for organizations looking to track customer preferences, automate email campaigns, use your website for lead generation and nurture existing leads. Hatchbuck allows users to automate audience segmentation, form management and drip email campaigns, all while tracking your success rate so you can adapt based on insights.
Hotjar
Hotjar is for you if you want deeper insights into your web and mobile site visitors. If your business relies heavily on your web presence, this tool can help you improve your site’s user experience through usability and conversion tests. It allows you to view visitor data and gauge audience interaction with different areas of your website via heat maps that track engagement.
BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is a great tool for businesses that do a lot of content and influencer marketing. It helps you hone in on the topics that matter most to your customer base and market and find influencers you could potentially leverage on that given topic. It’s a lean, agile way to do content marketing by quickly identifying content that resonates within a niche or industry, so that you can harness that power for your own business.
Google AdWords
To scale your business, you’re going to have to increase brand awareness and Google AdWords is a great way to do that. You can create campaigns using keywords related to your niche or market that drive customers to your website. By targeting specific audiences (by geography or keyword), you can find prospective customers online and direct them to landing pages that explain the features and benefits of your service or offering.
Leadchat
For businesses with a lean workforce, Leadchat engages with potential customers on your website (in place of an actual person) to answer questions and convert them into real customers. The service identifies qualified leads that you (or your sales team) can follow up with. It’s a great tool for outsourcing customer service, as behind the chat box is a team of conversion experts who are equipped to answer prospective customers’ questions and overcome common objections.
Wiser
For retailers who want to get smart about pricing, Wiser is an intelligence tool that monitors competitor pricing, dynamically optimizes your pricing and provides reporting to help you find your sweet spot so you can scale your business. It’s a great way to get deep insights on the competitive landscape when it comes to pricing and to making sure you’re charging what you’re worth.
ReferralCandy
A great way to scale your existing customer base to is build off of it via referrals. Rewarding loyal customers to share the word is a tried and true strategy to expanding your business. ReferralCandy makes it easy to create a referral program for your business that encourages new customers to share a referral link with friends. When they share the link, you can choose whether they earn a discount on future purchases, special time-based offers or another reward. It also provides analytics on your top referrers.
The short list here is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what’s available to help you automate tasks and scale your business. Be smart about the tools you use and the processes you automate – remember, not everything can be automated and some things are best left alone.
What are some of your favorite tools to streamline operations and cut down busy work?