In business, you need to stay one step ahead of the competition or risk being pushed to the curb. Aspiring startups pop up every week, gaining traction with investors and audiences. To keep up with them, business owners need to adapt to new market challenges quickly and flexibly. One thing SMBs cannot ignore is digitization. It comes in various forms, and implementing even one cutting edge solution is often enough to attract new business and keep the company going for years. Today, we’ll cover three forms digitization can take for fast results.
Thriving Online Presence
If you still believe that taking your business online is a luxury, not a necessity, think again. Regardless of your niche and audience, building an online presence is a must. Whether you decide to create a Facebook page, an Instagram portfolio, or develop a beautiful website, it’s a step in the right direction. Although, in the long run, you’re likely to need it all: an online store, social media pages, Amazon merchant account, and more.
Using free website building tools might be the cheapest option, but it’s a time-consuming and often frustrating task for non-technical specialists. Instead, you can hire a professional team to build and design your online store, both its client-facing and admin sides. The latter is often the most challenging and profit-inducing aspect that needs extra attention. Moreover, having an IT team on call is invaluable for instances when you need the site updated, improved, or debugged.
Customer Relationship Management System
Personalized offers are slowly taking over the market, as more millennials are willing to pay extra for custom solutions. As this trend snowballs, it will soon be impossible to keep the business going without treating every customer to individual approach and personalized recommendations. Amazon has been capitalizing on this for years, but there’s still time to get on board. All you need is a well-crafted customer relationship management (CRM) system.
With dozens of respectable out of the box CRMs available, you can have your pick. Still, most hold an assortment of useless features, and scaling the system can become untenable if your sales team comprises more than ten people. Alternatively, you can get an outsourcing team to build a custom CRM system that fits your business needs, generates actionable reports, and does not require months of training.
Internal Processes Digitization
According to the post Paul Belogour: Digitize Your Business Before the Competition, there are many ways to take your business from analog to digital, and internal optimization is among the most efficient ways to cut losses and increase profits. Aside from setting up a CRM, automating routine tasks can save uncountable work hours and free up employees for more creative and crucial tasks, such as devising business strategy, building customer trust, or improving brand reputation.
Possible internal automation approaches include:
- A custom internal instant messaging application for seamless communication
- Project or team management software for assigning tasks and tracking progress
- Automated bookkeeping software to accelerate accounting and prevent mistakes
- Cloud-based document sharing and editing software to speed up collaboration
Digitization might seem a frightening concept, but it has already permeated the business world. You cannot afford to ignore it any longer, but you can choose your preferred digitization strategy and define the first steps. Once you get on the right track, the positive changes to your business will follow.