Technology in our small and medium-sized businesses is constantly changing. Finding the newest, greatest solutions that will lead to development, marketing and customer engagement activities is critical to our success. Technology can be the best way to create advantage over competitors using mobile, computer and internet solutions.
Numerous technology wizards provide advice on how your business might be benefit from new, fast-evolving technologies that could supercharge your business, regardless of its size.
In this issue, Shane Ketterman of Rewired Digital says that in order to stay afloat in the internet economy (yes, even right here in Central Oregon) you need insights. You need to be informed better about the money you spend on marketing. You need to understand the online behaviors of potential and current customers. You need to know that you are probably leaving a lot of money on the table each day by not having a deeper understanding of the acquisition, behaviors and outcomes of your digital world. Read his full report on page 25.
From Michael Evans on Forbes.com we found these five strategies that are also useful:
Use the Internet to Finance Your Business
With the passage of the JOBS Act in 2012 and the development of crowdfunding, selling small amounts of equity to many investors over the internet has become a real option. The JOBS Act legislation allows for a wider pool of small investors with fewer restrictions than under previous security laws. While the JOBS Act awaits implementation, hybrid models, such as Mosaic Inc., are working within existing securities laws to enable the public to invest directly in clean energy projects.
Embrace Social Media / Expand Your Sales
Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are the most obvious social media vehicles for business. Adopting an effective social media strategy can rapidly enhance a company’s branding and visibility, helping you interact with your audience around a direct message or offer and drive traffic to your website — as long as its content and design make it worth driving traffic to.
Companies need a social media strategy and focus, not just to supplement current sales efforts but as the primary vehicle for all sales activity. Connect your social media strategy to your print and other electronic media. Identify the online platforms and communities where your potential customers spend time. The next step is to create a strategy to engage with their interests and offer them useful, compelling content and interaction they can’t get elsewhere.
Adopt New Technologies to Streamline Your Business
By now, most private businesses have adopted technology — they use financial systems such as QuickBooks and have created user-friendly websites, online catalogs and call centers and they have streamlined inventory management. But there are other evolving uses of technology that large businesses are adopting which are adaptable to small businesses including real-time, on-demand video for marketing and product promotion, online customer relationship management (CRM) and customer care to re-personalize their customers’ experience and tablet-based systems for employees to provide instant, one-to-one responses to customers’ needs.
Take Your Business into the Cloud
The cloud — delivering hardware and software services via a network — represents the most significant technology paradigm shift for private companies. The cloud offers incredibly cheap storage and a range of shrink-wrapped solutions that can reduce a small business’s capital investment in technology.
Spend the Money to Create a Mobile App
It is not an overstatement to say that the world is going mobile. Mobile applications on smartphones do more than download music or provide maps and directions. Your customers are using their cell phones to do business all the time. Well-designed apps can get your name in front of your customer every time they use their cell phone.
A lot of apps are really just low-value junior websites that might get used once a year and are poorly suited to the limited real estate of a phone screen. High-value apps are the ones people will use every day. For example, an app that links them to coupons, sales or help with services you offer or provides them real-time information valuable to how they run their business. Think special offers for your products and services or just news that they can use.
Perhaps the most telling technology is the advancement in mobile solutions which support you in the field and on the floor.
While desktop computers and laptops show no signs of disappearing, mobile devices are quickly coming to dominate the business world. Mobile technology is no longer optional for running a successful business. In fact, CPC Strategy reports that 96 percent of businesses use wireless technology and two-thirds of small businesses say they couldn’t survive without it. Here is a look at the latest in mobile tech and how it is being used across various industries to drive sales:
Connectivity in the Field
In industries such as manufacturing and installations, employees need to possess easy-to-use and portable testing and payment systems. Tablet devices can aid in these processes by giving employees the ability to create proposals, dispatch service specialists and accept payments. Being able to ring up a proposed purchase on the spot and immediately get the installation moving means more sales and happier customers.
Customer Service on the Floor
Technology can be just as powerful in the hands of your customers as it is in the hands of your employees. Many businesses have seen the potential that tablets have to create a simple and highly-interactive experience for customers.
Giving customers a hands-on app to explore everything you have to offer doesn’t just engage them, it analyzes their choices as well. Many apps of this nature allow you to analyze what your customers are clicking on and what they are buying in real time. This can help you adjust your offerings to improve sales and focus on what your customers want from you.
Mobile devices on the sales floor can make your employees better sales people as well. A tablet is a sleek and professional device that can give anyone access to an encyclopedia of data, allowing each and every sales person to be an expert on the most minute details of your offerings.
Finally, mobile devices on the sales floor can keep your entire team on the same page by integrating chat and notification systems. Are you out of stock on an item? Your entire staff can know instantly when they are all connected via a smartphone or tablet device, even if they are in different cities.
By folding these key technology-based strategies into your business system and your conversations with the market, you will be able to generate increased sales and reduce your costs.
