10 Best Small Business Tools to Drive Growth in 2022
Growing a small business can be challenging and has become even more difficult because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The hardest part of growing a small business is driving new customers to your business. As a small business owner, how can you market your products or service with limited resources? The answer is using tools. FeedbackClarity brought you the ten best and most affordable marketing tools you can use to be more profitable.
1. Be a Creative Designer With Canva
Have you ever wanted to create beautiful graphics for your business but couldn’t because you don’t know how to use graphic design software? You or an entry-level marketer can use Canva to create various graphics, including flyers, website banners, presentations, e-books, social media banners, etc.
Canva is a simple drag-and-drop graphic design platform. One does not need to possess graphic design skills to get started with Canva. So, how do you use Canva?
Step 1: Go to Canva.com and Create an Account
Canva offers a free account to its users, but the features are limited in the free plan.
Step 2: Search and Select a Template
Canva offers different types of ready-to-use graphic templates. All you need to do is just browse the templates, select what you want to create, and start designing your first graphic!
Step 3: Edit the Template to Fit Your Needs
Canva’s editor allows users to add text, graphics, animations, etc., all from its resources repository. In addition, it provides nearly infinite customization options to create any kind of graphics. The platform also allows professionals to create designs from scratch.
2. Send Newsletters With Moonsend
A newsletter is a great way to keep your customers engaged and informed about what’s happening in your business. The technical challenges of creating and sending newsletters discourage small business owners from trying it. With Moonsend, one doesn’t need to worry about building complex newsletter processes.
How does Moonsend work?
Moonsend is a DIY email marketing platform. You would only need an email and subscription plan to start using it. The tool offers several features such as cold email campaigns, monthly newsletters, email sequences, and a built-in database to store and grow your subscribers.
Since we are talking about Moonsend as a platform to run and manage newsletters, the two features that caught our attention are its newsletter template library and email scheduling/automation options.
Moonsend’s email editor lets you build beautiful and engaging newsletters without design or HTML knowledge. You need to drag and drop resources such as images, text, and CTAs, and arrange them neatly.
How much does Moonsend cost?
Moon isn’t a free tool. It only offers a 30-day free trial with limited features. On a positive note, their pricing is affordable. Moonsend only costs $9 if your customers (subscribers) are less than 500 and $16 if 1000. The company charges its customers based on the subscriber count. The basic plan works well for most small businesses.
3. Replace Excel With Zoho CRM
Are you still using Excel or Google Sheets to manage your business’s customer data? While spreadsheets are great calculators, they are not very efficient when working as databases. As a result, SMB owners lose the 360-degree view of their customers.
Many small business owners, especially those who are not tech-savvy, tend to think that CRMs are complex. A CRM is no longer the difficult or an expensive tool it used to be. Most CRMs of the modern-day are cloud-based and have an easy-to-use interface.
What is Zoho CRM?
Zoho makes web-based business apps such as CRM, support desk, live chat, surveys, forms, etc. It offers an array of tools for small businesses at an affordable price. We listed Zoho over other popular CRM tools because of its free and low-priced subscription plans.
How Much Does Zoho CRM Cost?
Zoho offers an entirely free CRM that is ideal for beginners. The free plan is perfect for home businesses. SMBs can explore paid plans beginning from $7 a month. The company also offers a complete business suite, which it calls, CRM Plus.
4. Manage Your Team and Projects Better With Asana
Asana is one of the best project management and productivity tools available. Any small business with a team that requires continuous project management can use Asana. With Asana, you can control your company, team, and overall productivity.
Asana allows you to break down your projects into trackable tasks. The tasks, then, can be assigned to a respective employee with a due date. As a business owner, you can easily track all the tasks within multiple projects and track progress or bottlenecks.
We picked Asana as our favorite project management app because it is not only feature-rich but also free. Asana’s free plan works perfectly well for most small businesses and startups. Their paid plans start from $10.99 a month and are ideal for growing companies. Here is how you can get started with Asana.
Step 1: Create an Asana Account
Go to Asana.com and create a free account with your business email.
Step 2: Create Your First Team
Asana allows you to create teams and projects. A team can be a function such as marketing, sales, and support, or it can just be one whole company. You can create projects and nest them under teams.
Click on the Teams link in the navigation menu on the left and enter the details. Invite your employees or contractors to be a part of your team by entering their email addresses.
Step 3: Create Your First Project
The concept of teams and projects in Asana can be confusing for beginners. A team is a group of people categorized by their skills or function; for example, marketing can be a team. On the other hand, a project can be a set of tasks within a team. A classic example of a Project within marketing can be social media or search engine optimization.
Click on the + icon on the top right corner of the website and select the Project option. Select a template, enter the details, and click the submit button to create the first project.
Step 4: Create the First Task
Go to your preferred project using the navigation menu on the left. Click on the Add Task button from there. Enter the task details such as task name, description, deadline, assignee, etc., and click on the submit button. Add more tasks as needed and keep tracking them for progress.
5. Automate Social Media With HootSuite
We all know the importance of social media in today’s world. It not only influences your business but also drives new customers. Unfortunately, building a solid presence on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc., can consume a lot of time. If you don’t have the resources to manage social media, the best is to use an automation tool like HootSuite.
What is HootSuite?
HootSuite is a social media management tool that enables businesses to connect their social media accounts to one centralized dashboard and manage the accounts from there. It eventually allows you to schedule your social media posts ahead of time and all at once.
With HootSuite, you no longer need to log in to your social media accounts individually. Besides scheduler, HootSuite has a range of features such as streams, trends, brand monitor, etc., to up the social media game.
What Is HootSuite Pricing?
HootSuite has a free plan that supports up to three social networks. The free plan will work perfectly fine for most small businesses and startups. HootSuite’s paid plans start at $49 per month. The paid plan supports 10+ social media networks and provides sophisticated features. ‘
How to Use HootSuite
Getting started with HootSuite is very easy. Create a free account and add up to three social media profiles of your choice. Then, schedule your posts using HootSuite’s built-in social media scheduler. HootSuite will automatically share the saved posts at the scheduled time.
6. Analyze Customer Behaviour Visually With Hotjar
Hotjar is a handy marketing tool that enables web admins and business owners to see how customers are interacting with your website. The tracking tool records visitor sessions and saves them as videos. You can watch the videos to see visitors’ behavior and make changes to the website accordingly for better conversions.
How to Use Hotjar?
First of all, create a free Hotjar account. Hotjar provides a tracking code that needs to be placed in the header section of your website. Then, take your website manager’s help and install the code. Upon successful installation of the code, Hotjar begins recording website sessions. Go to your Hotjar account and browse those videos. Besides videos, Hotjar also provides heatmaps.
How Much Does Hotjar Cost?
Hotjar provides a forever-free account ideal for most home and small businesses. It records up to 35 sessions per day or 1050 sessions per month. The free plan offers unlimited heatmaps. Paid plans start at $31 a month for growing businesses.
7. Use Ubersuggest to Find Business Keywords
Do you know what keywords your potential customers use in search engines like Google to discover businesses like yours? Search engine optimization has long been a most revered marketing channel. Websites optimized well for search engines generate a lot of leads on revenue. However, on the downside, SEO can be an expensive affair. If you want to purchase an affordable SEO tool, it must be UberSuggest.
What Is Ubersuggest?
Ubersuggest is a complete SEO suite that offers business owners and SEO professionals the to find the right keywords, track search engine rankings, and audit websites for quality. Ubersuggest started as a free tool providing SEO keywords insights but eventually transformed into a full-service SEO app.
How Much Does Ubersuggest Cost?
Ubersuggest offers a free plan with limited features and functionality. Paid subscription plans with better features start at $12 an hour. Ubersuggest is an excellent and affordable alternative to some premium SEO products like SEMRush or Ahrefs.
8. Write Error-Free Content With Grammarly
Grammarly is perhaps the finest online grammar checker tool ever made. It can help everyone, not just writers. The tool is available as a web app, browser extension, and mobile app. It can detect and correct basic to advanced grammar mistakes on the fly. Whether you are writing a blog post or a business proposal, Grammarly ensures that it’s free from plagiarism and grammar errors.
How to Use Grammarly?
Create an account and subscribe to a Grammarly plan. Grammarly does provide a free version but with limited features. Use Grammarly’s editor by logging into your account from a desktop browser. You can also install the Grammarly Chrome extension for editing documents online. Grammarly also offers a Microsoft Word integration for Windows users.
What Is Grammarly’s Pricing?
Grammarly provides a forever-free account that checks spelling, grammar, and punctuation. The free version is ideal for day-to-day tasks such as writing emails. However, if you need Grammarly to edit documents, a paid plan works amazingly well. Grammarly subscription plans are pretty affordable and offer complete value for money. A quick tip: Create your free account and wait for a couple of days until Grammarly sends you 40% off on its yearly subscription.
9. Simplify Invoicing and Accounts Receivable With Freshbooks
Send professional-looking invoices and manage your accounts receivable effectively with Freshbooks. If you are still using traditional invoicing methods, it’s high time you switch to Freshbooks. The accounting software, specifically built for small business owners, offers a range of features besides invoicing. The cloud-based account suite is easy to use and affordable.
How to Use Freshbooks?
Even though Freshworks has a simple UI, you still need some time to get used to it. Firstly, create a Freshbooks account. Note that Freshbooks offers a free trial to test the platform and learn the basics. The immediate steps involve importing your customer data and setting up online payments. We recommend you go through this resource to understand the Freshbooks basics better.
What Is Freshbooks’s Pricing?
Freshbooks is very affordable, and their plans begin at $6 an hour. Plus and Premium plans, which cost $10 and $20 a month, respectively, are ideal for most small business accounting needs. Freshbooks is known for deep discounts on their plans, so keep an eye out for such offers. The best place to find Freshbooks discounts is their website itself.
10. Let AI Do the Writing With Copy.ai
Copy.ai is one of the most popular AI content writing tools available. The app, powered by artificial intelligence, generates different forms of content like articles, website copy, email content, etc., based on the short description you provide. Copy.ai is known for producing original and readable content. It’s perfect for small businesses or marketing teams that lack a dedicated copywriter.
How Does Copy.ai Work?
Create an account with Copy.ai. The AI content generation app offers a free trial with limited text output. The free trial has enough credits to test your business category. Once logged into your account, select the type of copy you want to generate, such as product description, blogs, headlines, ad copies, blog intros, etc. Then, describe what content you want in a couple of sentences, and let Copy.ai do the magic for you!
What Are Copy.ai Plans?
At $35 a month, Copy.ai is a bit expensive than many other tools listed in this article. However, it is worth every penny if your small business relies heavily on digital marketing. The paid upgrade offers unlimited credits and allows you or your marketing team to generate as much content as wanted.