When you run a small business, your top concern is how the business performs in its income-producing core activities to a standard that keeps consumers engaged and loyal. Day-to-day operations take up your time and energy, but have you considered how technology can be used to transform your business? Taking advantage of technological innovations is one way to boost productivity, sales, and brand reputation.
Cloud-based IT Solution
If you haven’t already migrated your business’ IT to the cloud, you are missing a golden opportunity to streamline and reduce running costs. Here are some of the benefits from being on the cloud:
- Increased flexibility: if your business needs fluctuate, the cloud offers a scalable IT solution. Operational flexibility is a key feature of cloud-based working, and employees are equipped to work remotely with access to the same technologies that they have in the office. Research has shown that remote workers are more productive.
- Automatic software updates: servers are off premises and software updates are applied across the cloud infrastructure rather than individual computers. Users are automatically using the latest versions of software and security, so maintenance issues are avoided.
- Disaster recovery: in the event of an IT failure, the business is at risk. The cloud automatically backs up the system without the need for expensive third-party disaster recovery expertise to recover documents.
- Increased collaboration: when employees are able to co-author, edit, and share documents from anywhere, efficiency and productivity is
Marketing Automation
Digital marketing techniques such as SEO, search engine, and social media marketing have transformed the influence of business marketing campaigns. Multichannel campaigns and the ability to personalize communication boosts customer engagement and consumer conversions.
Businesses are able to target their target audience in a way that resonates with the consumer, bringing the product or services to them, rather than the consumer having to find the product. Digital marketing also provides a greater insight into consumer habits and provides metrics that can be used to shape future marketing efforts. Companies such as digitalmarkgroup.com can demonstrate the level of data that is available. This means that marketing is data driven rather than emotionally-led, which results in a heightened ROI and also an enhanced used experience.
Responsive Website Design
A website is typically the first point of contact that a consumer has with a business. With 52.4% of global internet traffic being accessed via mobile devices, it is imperative that the website design is responsive to access from a large selection of devices so that it can provide the optimal user experience.
For a business wishing to enhance its digital presence, easy reading and navigation is critical and has become one the ways that Google grades websites in the search engines results pages. Failing to address this issue will affect your ranking position and ability to be found by consumers.
There is always a cost involved by introducing new technologies into your business; however, the examples above provide a healthy return on investment, and have the power to transform the success of your business. The question on your lips should not be ‘why should I introduce new technology to my business’, rather it should be ‘when can I’, and the answer to that question is today.
