Digital Technology for Small Business Growth - Allied Financial Corporation

Rapid advances in technology are opening new and effective opportunities for business growth.

More and more, small businesses are tapping into the technology resources that were once only available to large businesses. Technology provides competitive advantages to small businesses to allow them to compete worldwide.

At the heart of technology is innovation—innovation that empowers businesses and helps them rise above competitors. However, it is important to create strategies to optimize the usage of technology for these to be effective for your business.

Let’s dive into ways you can use technology to your business’s advantage.

Tap into the Power of the Cloud

Everyone has heard of the ‘Cloud.’ But not everyone fully understands how to use it advantageously. Cloud is a global network of online servers that allows you to carry out several business activities over the Internet. Most of us are already using the cloud to conduct our personal online transactions. In fact, you are using the cloud to read this article. The primary appeal of the cloud lies with the fact that you can manage your business operations from anywhere, any device, and at any time with free-to-inexpensive online business tools. Here are a few.

File Sharing and Storage: Google Drive/Google Docs is a Web-based office software and file sharing/storage system. Google Drive is free for up to 15GB of storage. A small fee applies if more storage is required.

Productivity: Evernote is a powerful, free cross-device note-taking app. Any flash of inspiration can be saved in Evernote. Just create a notebook and save notes in it. With numerous features, you can share your folder, add file attachments, set reminders, and even record voice memos.

Team and Project Management: Asana is a web-based project management system. It lets you collaborate without email. Users can create and assign tasks to themselves or other team members. All members can have access to the tasks and can comment or update their progress.

Check out this extensive list of online business tools to find the ones that will benefit your company.

There are endless benefits to shifting your business to the cloud. It allows employees to work from any location where internet access is available. Remote teams can share files, work together, and manage from multiple locations simultaneously. Cloud storage provides additional backups minimizing the chance of losing important data. It’s also less expensive to use Cloud storage than traditional, redundant backups systems.

With so many businesses migrating to the cloud, it has evolved to accommodate business requirements and to provide additional security for sensitive information.

Harness the Potential of Social Media

The number of social media users worldwide in 2022 is 3.96 billion. That’s up 4.8% from 2021. The number of mobile phone users worldwide in 2021 is 7.1 billion. That’s where your business traffic is. Social media lets you tap into new customers.

The first step is to increase your visibility by building a compelling social media presence for your business. The next step is to create marketing campaigns across multiple social media platforms.

Marketing Campaigns Should:

Promote your services and products
Provide personalized offers and deals to your consumers based on their online behavior
Engage your customers through various activities like quizzes, contests etc.
Enable buying and contact options directly from social media platforms
Gather customer feedback

Because most social media users access social media platforms through their smartphones and mobile devices, ensure that your website’s design is mobile friendly to provide a positive experience for your visitors. For more information on ways to use social media, check out Using Social Media for B2B Lead generation.

Track of Your Progress

Once you take the dive into technology advances for your small business, then it’s time to track your progress. Analytical tracking lets you see what works and what doesn’t; lets you know which networks to focus on; lets you see where leads/customers come from; and lets you set, meet, and exceed goals.

Many business productivity applications are available in the market that can track progress during each stage of attaining a goal. Social media platforms provide insights into traffic and engagements. Google Analytics/Google Search Console provide data and insights on traffic to your site, and the customer’s journey to your business.

Technology for small business growth is booming. It is important to be aware of the latest tools and trends that will benefit your business and invest in the right tech-implementation techniques to optimize your benefits.

The goal of Allied Financial is to help you grow your business and to assist you with financing while you grow.