Essential Small Business Apps You Can’t Afford to Miss

Slowly but surely, small businesses are leveraging apps to automate tasks.

If you consider that operating a small business is such a big deal, especially in this data-driven era, you can no longer ignore mobile apps.

You should set big goals for your business, and work towards achieving them. According to Small Biz Trends, “72% of small/mid-size businesses expect their revenue to increase 10% from 2015 – 2016.

To fully be in control of your business, you need to know enough about social media and SEO, and how mobile apps can help you reach more audience through these channels.

Any small business has the potential to thrive. It all depends on the people managing it. It’s no longer about starting a business with big capital – but managing what you already have.

There’s a good chance that your business is well on its way to the top, where you can build self-sustaining system that runs your business on autopilot – generating sales and revenue at the backend.

No matter the business model, as long as you leverage the internet to drive leads and customers, you need to step up your game – through mobile apps.

If you’re looking to automate your business, you need mobile apps. A survey by Aberdeen Group shows that automating your digital marketing platform boost your conversions rate by 53%.

In fact, a quarter of all B2B Fortune 500 companies are already using marketing automation, along with 76% of the world’s largest SaaS companies.

Looking at the chart below, you’ll see the three most effective sources you can use to generate leads. Each of these channels can be automated using mobile apps to achieve better results – handsfree.

I put together these 25 powerful small business apps to help you navigate your way in this competitive marketing era, acquire new leads and engage existing customers – as well as create more brand awareness via mobile channel.

The first small business app to earn our number #1 spot is…

 

1. Expensify

Expensify is an attractive one-click expense reports app for small businesses.

The good thing about it is that the reports are real-time, which means that you can rely on it. If you’re looking for an intelligent app to automate your expenses in real-time, Expensify should come to mind.

Do you know the cost of your digital marketing campaigns?

The only way you can have an idea of the cost is by keeping records of your expenses.

Take a look at a scenario: The PR or social media firm that you work for as an employee nominated you to attend a workshop and represent the firm, probably somewhere really far.

On your return, you’re expected to present a detailed report of your expenses. And note, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a chartered accountant or not, you report needs to be clear to your Boss.

I can imagine how overwhelming it would be when you don’t have a detailed report of what transpired at the workshop.

You need to know, not only what you spend on as a small business, but the estimations associated with putting together: a social media project, mobile marketing campaign, as the case may be.

To reach more audience, as a digital marketer, you must know the cost implications of every tactics you may want to implement, the time it takes, at what pace, and more.

And you can have all these details listed out in a single dashboard, but with the right app.

 

2. LocalVox

Are you visible online?

Your digital marketing success depends solely on your visibility.

The best visibility to have in addition to being active on social media networks is organic search visibility. See, about 87% of consumers find business using search engines.

Yes, we can view LocalVox as an app, because of the specific tasks that you can do with it, but it goes beyond that.

LocalVox is a digital marketing company that provides online marketing solutions for local businesses that fall into these categories:

• Small businesses
• Multi-location & Franchises
• Featured industries

If you want local consumers (e.g., in Las Vegas) to find your business, you need to optimize for geo-specific keywords.

Let’s assume you’re a web developer based in Los Angeles, here are a few geo-specific keywords to optimize your web pages with:

• Los angeles web developer
• Best web developer in LA
• LA web designers blog
• Where to find web developers in Los Angeles

And so on…

Your business can only thrive online when you’re seen and heard by the right people.

Invesp estimated that if you’re not leveraging available social media, search, and mobile channels in your marketing, you’re likely to miss out on more than 85% of ideal customers who need your services.

As a digital marketing solution, LocalVox can help you in these areas to optimize your content and reach more audience.

It’s high time you keep control of your brand, while increasing your revenue and building a reputation that puts your business at an advantage over your competitors. LocalVox can help.

 

3. TweetDeck.com

Why use TweetDeck?

Well, a recent survey by MediaBistro found that if you use Twitter to promote your content and engage your followers, you can increase your business’ growth by 67%.

Here are more benefits of using Twitter:

It’s often said that the life of an animal is in the blood. In the same vein, the life of any digital marketing business is in the use of social media channels.

Twitter is a reliable channel. It’s integrated into TweetDeck to help you manage your accounts and achieve more. With this small business app, you’ll be promoting your business on Twitter like a pro.

A pro knows how to turn ugly moments into best moments. In the midst of the distractions on social media, trust TweetDeck to pull you through.

 

4. Majestic

Majestic is your marketing search engine and backlinks checker tool.

How good is your ranking on search engines?

No doubt, you’ll generate a lot of traffic if your web pages rank on the first page of Google, for related search queries. The traffic in turn translates into increased sales, loyal customers, and brand ambassadors.

You can also use Majestic to conduct competitive analysis. This way, you’re able to k

now which keywords your competitors are ranking for, and how where they’re getting their backlinks from.

All you’ve to do is enter your competitor’s domain name into the search box. Then click on the search icon at the right side:

Next, you’ll see your competitor’s backlinks, trust flow & citation flow, and so much more.

There are several ways to rank highly in Google first page.

MostAlthough, there are other alternatives to Majestic. But what I like so much about this small business search tool is how it groups backlinks types.

Feature	Majestic	Other Alternatives
Backlink Grouping	Groups backlinks types effectively	Varies by tool

This is really priceless, especially when you’re aiming to build more educational and governmental backlinks.

11. Buffer

Most small businesses waste ample time managing their social media accounts?

If you’re one of them, it’s time to make a U-turn. Rather than managing multiple accounts manually, you can use Buffer – a social tool that provides a smarter way to share your best content on social media.

Manual Management	Using Buffer
Log into each social media account separately (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn).	Manage all accounts from a single platform.
Spend more time due to distractions and manual posting.	Save time with scheduled posts and reduced distractions.
Risk of getting sidetracked by interesting content.	Focus on content sharing without unnecessary interruptions.

When it comes to social media, your next biggest challenge is scheduling and sharing content, at the right time, across your different social media channels.

You’re probably going to spend more time than necessary, if you choose to share content on Facebook and Twitter manually.

Imagine the time it can take to first log into your Facebook account, then Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.

Worse, you might get into your account and bump into an interesting image that you may consider checking out.

From there, another fancy quote gets your attention, before you suddenly recognize your purpose of logging into your account.

All of these unnecessary distractions can be taken care of by Buffer. Buffer is your one-shot solution to save time sharing content across multiple social media channels – on both desktop and mobile channels.

19. Skype for Business

How do you reach more people outside your city, state or country?

Yes, you can send emails, put a call across, but nothing beats a face-to-face communication.

Dan Brutto, the President of UPS International suggests trading beyond the local shores, on observing that about 95% of the world’s consumers are located beyond the United States borders.

In the same vein, you can expand your reach as a small business marketer, no matter the location of their target audience.

Skype for Business allows you to collaborate with anyone on any device. You can make calls, host online meetings, and do much more.

Feature	Skype for Business	Traditional Communication
Communication Type	Face-to-face, calls, online meetings	Emails, phone calls
Global Reach	Yes, collaborate with anyone worldwide	Limited to phone and email reach
Device Compatibility	Any device	Dependent on phone or computer

For a small business, the challenge of managing a team at one end of the globe, when you’re domiciled at the other end is now a tale of the past.

With Skype for Business and its rich features, you can communicate with your team, clients, and fans anywhere in the world.

With its instant messaging, voice-over IP, and video conferencing, Skype for Business is integrated and compatible with a host of other apps.

In addition to this, it functions via whiteboard documents, which enables team members to share texts.

Also, with Powerpoint documents, polling lists, desktop sharing, and more.

24. Tune.com

Do you want to drive more traffic, build engagement with customers, and discover opportunities to make more money with your mobile apps?

If yes, then you need Tune.

As a small business owner/marketer, you can make more money and impact with Tune.

The future of your small business depends on how you leverage social media and mobile technology.

As you embrace mobile apps marketing, you need to understand your customers.

Tune will track them for you.

There are opportunities to grow your small business, and increase mobile apps engagement.

Don’t be deceived, you need a robust mobile apps analytics tool like Tune to run your small business.

Sure, your your growth may be from mobile ads or organic search – but irrespective of the source, Tune analytic tool will track them all in a single dashboard.

Feature	Description
Marketing Channel Measurement	Measure the value of each marketing channel you employ (e.g., social, search).
Authentic Reports	Get authentic reports right on your dashboard.
Campaign Reports	Easily gather all your marketing campaign reports in one place.

You must know that a lot of people using mobile devices are just visitors. According to Localytics, about 4% of them become into qualified leads.

The good news is that with Tune, you can set up the right campaigns to re-engage these casual mobile visitors into customers.

Depending on the size of your market, but 4% of out 100% is small. Hence, the need to track your mobile apps performance and optimize your small business campaigns accordingly.

Tune improves your decision making process, by allow you gain better understanding of your customers and collect more sales data.

Frequently Asked Questions