How Can Technology Enable a Business to Grow?

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Here at BTS we know business technology is essential. It not only improves communication in the workplace but also between customers and clients. Tech and software can fine tune processes and make them much faster, it can improve the way that customer relationships are managed and our ability to connect with customers full stop.

Tech allows startups and small businesses to scale up using certain software and apps. Certain tech solutions can ensure better brand exposure to the market, meaning they are crucial for emerging or small brands to find their place in a noisy marketplace.

There are loads of possibilities when it comes to the potential advantages of tech helping your small business to grow. Here we explore just a few.

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What Do Small Businesses Need From Tech?

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Connection

Use tech in your small business to connect with clients, customers and suppliers. Communicating digitally is both fast and incredibly affordable; this applies both to UK and international communication.

As small business owners, tech communication advancements have removed the walls that used to make doing overseas business nearly impossible in the early days after starting out. Fast forward to 2022 and collaborating with someone who lives in America is as simple as connecting to a VC.

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Marketing

Using tech for digital marketing campaigns has the potential to offer fast results and unique testing environments. More importantly, it can offer higher returns on marketing spend than some traditional forms of advertising. This makes digital marketing much more accessible to startups and small businesses.

One of the reasons online marketing appeals to smaller businesses is that unlike print, radio, or other forms of advertising, costs can be much lower as well as the fact that you don’t have to wait until the campaign is over to review results. Faster learning equals faster growth opportunities.

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Productivity

Boost productivity in your small business by making the most of the technology available to you. Customise processes and workflows to be faster and more streamlined. Enable automation of manual tasks and increase employee engagement and collaboration.

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Remote Working

Evolution in business has taken some massive strides in the wake of COVID-19. Despite the benefits that come with remote working, from lower overhead costs and a wider scope for which to find talent, remote work has its downsides. Use tech to try and ensure a smooth remote or hybrid working environment in your small business that embraces working from home and overcomes its challenges.

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Best Tech For Small Businesses

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Website

Website builders and online website designers make the process of designing and launching a website simple. Having a website for your business is essential. Whatever your industry, product or service a well designed website provides a sense of credibility and further establishes your brand.

A website gives you the opportunity to reach more customers and build a long lasting online relationship with them. If you haven't got the budget for a web design agency or freelance web designer to build your website (as this often requires a budget of at least £3000) then there are hundreds of online website builders that allow you to do the job yourself.

We have tried and tested site builders to give you clear and honest reviews of the best available on the market today. Our recommended web builders make great websites, are easy to use and are free to try.

Design Tools

In the past, small businesses have often been unable to utilise the potential of regular content creation as design agencies and freelancers have been expensive, specialist services well outside their budgets.

Since 2010, several companies have sought to give these small businesses a way to create video advertisements and other media to promote their brands without breaking the bank.  

The three biggest players in this market are InVideo, Promo and Canva. All three provide outstanding video editing suites, but Canva also offers a range of extra facilities to make other types of media like posters, logos and business cards.

Read our impartial overview of these platforms; what they do, how they work and how using their platforms could benefit your business.

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Email Marketing Tools

Email marketing tools can help a business to communicate to customers or leads and grow. Online email marketing platforms can aid businesses in creating attractive emails and newsletters that their potential customers will want to read, while targeting these emails to the relevant audiences within their mailing list.

Not only this, but these email marketing tools typically have measures in place to ensure the highest deliverability and provides you with the option to test different emails so that you can learn which are most effective at earning opens and clicks via A/B testing.

Additionally, the reporting and analytics offered as a feature of some these email marketing services allows you to see which subscribers are interested in what, so that you can target your email subscribers with emails, newsletters and promotions that are relevant to them. With this information, you can avoid clogging up your subscribers’ inboxes with emails that will never be opened, pertaining to products that those customers will never buy.

There are a number of things you need to consider when you go to pick an email marketing platform, especially considering the extensive range of options available online, which all seem to offer a similar array of features. Have a read of our impartial email marketing platform review to find the best software for your small business.
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Productivity Software

Productivity platforms are vital for businesses aiming to streamline their operations. Businesses worldwide rely on software to modernise their day to day operations. In an ideal world we would all have an army of project managers, the reality is that it would cost a small fortune to do so.

But the good news for small business owners is that thanks to tech innovation, you don’t need a business full of productivity experts to stay productive.

Google and Microsoft's services come with each company’s preexisting products like Docs or Word. In contrast, Monday.com and Airtable only offer cloud-based services.  

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Read our review of the best productivity software for startups and small businesses, perfectly summarising the differences between each software and offers some guidance on the benefits of each.

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There are many ways tech can help a small business to grow. From boosting productivity to providing better customer service to enjoying seamless collaboration with your workforce or clients, there are so many options for the tech savvy entrepreneur.

As long as small business owners are willing to read, learn and try new tech, they have the opportunity to grow, scale and accomplish their goals.

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If you found this article useful, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and have a read of our other blogs; aimed at supporting startups and small businesses!