How using tools can help your business to work smarter

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are facing increasing pressures to do more with less. From rising operational costs to increasing customer expectations, businesses are facing challenges from all angles. That’s where digital tools can come in, helping to transform the way your business works.

Whether you’re looking to improve team collaboration, enhance customer relationships or streamline ways of working, the right business tools can help.

Why SMEs need digital tools

There are various types of digital business tools, helping businesses with everything from customer relationship management to marketing. But while they all offer different features and functions, they all help small businesses to streamline their workloads and become more efficient.

If your team currently spends hours each week manually updating spreadsheets, for example, then automated data entry can drastically reduce the amount of time needed, as well as reducing the risk of errors.

Similarly, cloud-based collaboration allows multiple employees to work on the same document at the same time, with changes synchronised. That avoids version conflicts and reduces the back-and-forth emails that slow down project completion. Add to that the fact that team members can collaborate in real-time regardless of their location, and you can see how digital tools can increase productivity.

Types of small business tools

There are digital tools to help with virtually every task, for every type of business. Whether you need to reduce the amount of time spent on repetitive manual tasks, improve collaboration or boost your marketing, there are tools that can help.

Improve teamwork with collaboration tools

Collaboration tools for business do what they say on the tin: Make it easier for team members to work together, regardless of where they’re located. It’s quite a broad category, with several different types of collaboration tools to suit every need.

• Communication tools facilitate real-time communication and facilitate faster decision making, making them a great choice for agile teams. Most collaboration tools, like Slack and Microsoft Teams, have both web and app-based options, meaning team members can access them from anywhere, even if they’re on the go.

• File sharing tools make it easier to share files and make sure that everyone has access to the latest versions of documents. Cloud-based platforms like Google Drive, Dropbox and SharePoint allow teams to store, organise, collaborate and share files in real time, reducing the confusion of long email chains with attachments

• Project management tools enable teams to successfully plan, track and execute projects more efficiently. Platforms like Trello, Asana and Monday.com offer features like visual project timelines, task assignments and progress tracking, meaning that everyone knows what’s due when and who needs to do it.

• Visual collaboration tools like Miro and Figma offer digital whiteboards, mind mapping and design collaboration that allows teams to do remote brainstorming sessions and work collaboratively on designs.

Streamline daily operations with productivity tools

Many small businesses spend a lot of time on manual tasks, but productivity tools can help to automate these, as well as streamlining workflows to help improve efficiency. As well as automating routine tasks, many productivity tools also provide insights into how your team’s time is being spent, helping you to make better informed decisions going forward.

Again, productivity tools cover several functions including task management, scheduling and calendar management, workflow automation and accounting. Some of the most commonly used tools include:

• Zapier, which connects different apps and automate repetitive workflows in just a few clicks

• Trello, which offers visual project management

• Accounting tools like QuickBooks for financial management and invoicing

• Calendly for automated appointment scheduling and booking

• Toggl, which allows team members to track time and gives insights on productivity

• Microsoft Copilot, an AI assistant that’s integrated into Microsoft 365 products to help you spend less time on manual tasks like drafting emails, summarising meeting notes, and creating presentations from existing notes

• Notion, an all-in-one workspace that combines notes, databases, and project management

Grow your audience with marketing tools

Marketing tools for small businesses offer a great way to help SMEs reach and engage their target audience, ensuring that everything is in one place and reducing the amount of manual work that you might have done for previous marketing efforts. These tools typically offer a range of features, including content creation, audience targeting, campaign management and performance analytics.

Some popular marketing tools for SMEs include:

• Mailchimp, for email marketing campaigns

• Hootsuite, for managing social media across multiple accounts and platforms

• Google Analytics, which gives metrics about website performance for deep insights and performance tracking

• Canva, which allows businesses to create marketing materials without any design expertise

• SEMrush for keyword research, competitor analysis and performance monitoring

While all of these tools offer different features, they all support your marketing efforts through better campaign management and improved targeting, and detailed analytics that show you what’s working and what isn’t. That means you can make quick adjustments based on real-time data, as well as helping to shape future campaigns.

Read our article on how to make web analytics work better for your business.

Manage customer relationships with CRM tools

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools like Salesforce and HubSpot centralise all of your customer interactions and data into one place, giving you a comprehensive overview of how what each customer’s journey with your business looks like. These tools track everything from initial contact to ongoing communication, which means that you can offer more personalised service, build strategic relationships and close leads faster.

Because these tools offer everything in one place, they’re much more streamlined than using multiple spreadsheets and systems to track customer information and interactions. Most modern CRM tools for small business also offer analytics, which can help you to identify trends in customer behaviour, as well as identifying opportunities for cross-selling and upselling.

Work smarter with AI tools

There’s an AI tool for everything, from content creation to the automation of administration tasks. Some of the most common AI tools for business include:

• Chatbots like Intercom and Zendesk AI for customer service automation, reducing the amount of time and effort needed from staff members

• Content creation tools like ChatGPT and Jasper, which can help you to create marketing materials

• AI assistants like Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini, which can help you to draft emails, create reports, and brainstorm ideas

• Voice assistants like Alexa for Business, which are great for things like scheduling meetings and managing to-do lists

AI tools are particularly beneficial for businesses that want to automate repetitive, manual tasks, streamline their workflows, or need to handle large volumes of customer queries.

Making the switch to digital tools

Thinking about incorporating digital tools into the way you work? Here are our top tips for making the switch smoothly:

• Start small: Don’t attempt to change all of your tools and workflows at once. Instead, identify one or two areas where digital tools can provide immediate, measurable benefits and introduce those. This allows your team to become comfortable with the new way of working, while showing the value of digital tools.

• Involve team members in choosing tools: Work with your team to identify which areas are taking up a lot of their time. This can be a great starting point for which tools are most needed, with features that solve the daily challenges they face. Getting them involved early can also help to reduce the amount of resistance to new technologies.

• Training and support: Be sure to offer training for your team members. Even intuitive tools require some level of learning and familiarisation, and proper training can help to make sure your team is using your new tool to its full capabilities.

• Integration: Make sure that your new tools can integrate with any existing tools and systems, and that you can preserve any historical data if needed. If your tools can’t be integrated, then it may end up creating more manual work, reducing efficiency rather than improving it.

Work smarter with digital tools

Digital tools can be a great way of improving efficiencies, increasing productivity and building better relationships with your customers. And as your business grows, your digital tool stack may need to evolve and grow also, to meet new opportunities and challenges that you face.