How Technology is Helping Businesses Reach Their Full Potential
Businesses are relying on technology more than ever, see how technology can help your business reach its full potential during these challenging times.
They say the secret to business success is hard work. While this might be true, it doesn’t mean you and your colleagues have to do all the hard work yourselves. By finding the right technology and software to do some of the day-to-day tasks, you will give yourself more opportunities to consider changes that will improve your profit margins. Here are a few pieces of technology that can help take the strain off your business.
Market yourselves online
Whatever line of business you’re in, more customers almost always leads to more revenue and more profits. The only problem is that advertising your business can take a lot of valuable time and resources, and it might not always lead to a sale. Instead of investing in television commercials that are often ignored or flyers that can be thrown straight in the bin, consider investing in digital advertising instead.
Advances in technology have created a number of new ways for you to advertise your business. Instead of just having a dull image and text printed onto a billboard, you can now display audio and video on digital billboards across the world. You could even advertise to people living on the other side of the world thanks to the internet. Nearly all of the world’s most read websites, including the Daily Mail and Buzzfeed, allow businesses big and small to buy advertising space on their pages. Just like digital billboards, these can include video and audio and communicate a lot more information in a small amount of time than a traditional print advert.
As well as advertisements, consider spending some of your marketing budget on sponsoring digital productions. Podcasts have become hugely popular over recent years and are a great way of getting a message across to your target audience. For a surprisingly small price, you could find your audience’s favorite podcast star talking about your product or service during their next episode.
You could even hire a YouTube star to collaborate on a sponsored video demonstrating your product or service. Instagram is also a great place to advertise your product. One photo of a celebrity with a product has been known to make the website sell out of stock in minutes.
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Keep track of contracts digitally
Once you’ve secured a new customer, it’s just as important to make sure you keep them happy while getting the most out of the transaction. They’ll want to make sure they’re getting what they paid for and you’ll want to make sure that you get paid for it. If you’re providing a service to a number of different customers, you might find that each contract is slightly different. The level of service, the period of time the contract lasts for, or even the amount of money the contract is bringing in can vastly differ. You will also find that contracts are ending or are up for renewal at completely different times from each other.
If you’re running your business using traditional paper contracts, it’s almost inevitable that one will be misplaced and end up costing your business money. That’s why it’s so important to use technology to keep track of all your different contracts. Even the smallest of businesses should consider using contract lifecycle management systems to keep track of their contracts. This software can act as a virtual search engine, allowing you to find contracts by expiry date or other different factors. As they are stored on a protected server or cloud system, these documents will also be more secure and less at risk of being lost or destroyed.
As well as providing a good storage solution for your documents, these systems can also automatically track contracts. Systems like the one provided by Contract Works carefully monitor contracts for milestone dates, compliance, and any other important parameters. This will help you comply with the requirements outlined in each contract as well as alerting you to when a contract is about to expire, giving you time to renegotiate a new deal with your customer.
Become more social with your customers
Many people think that technology is getting rid of the personal relationship between customer and business owners. Some people will always choose to use their local retailer rather than a big store like Amazon so they can seek the advice of the person behind the counter to help them choose what product to buy.
While the internet allows you to communicate with people across a large distance, it doesn’t mean there has to be a large gap when it comes to customer service. In fact, technology can give customers more ways of getting in touch with you 24 hours a day, seven days a week, rather than a helpline that is only open a few hours every day. It also removes the need for customers to wait in a queue, instead allowing them to leave a query and wait for a reply. Whether it’s an online form on your website, or a specially created Twitter account to deal with complaints and queries, make sure there’s a way that customers can get in touch with you at any time.
Whether you run a fashion brand that delivers worldwide, or a small local restaurant that can only seat a few tables at a time, social media can be a hugely important tool in promoting your product. As well as dealing with queries, social media platforms can help create repeat trade with your customers. Persuade customers or even potential customers to follow your social media accounts, whether that’s by offering exclusive discount codes or invitations to buy new products before anybody else.
You could even persuade your existing followers to share your posts with their friends, offering to enter them into a prize draw if they do so. Once they are following your social media accounts, make sure they are regularly updated with the latest high-quality images and descriptions of your best products and services, with direct links to purchase those products.
