Category: Tech

If you are the owner of a small business, then you have probably struggled with creating an online presence that gets noticed. In your continual attempts for growth, you may feel that you and your small team are stretched pretty thin, and you don’t have the time or the resources to spend on working on your online presence. However, having a professional appearance online in this digital age is a necessity for any growing business (especially when there are many recruitment tools like browser extensions that can show all your online presence in one file), and luckily there are many tools available to you that can help you build the online presence that will drive more customers to your site. No matter what your budget is, with these simple tools your small business will begin to look like a giant company powerhouse.

However, before we get started, first you have to create a plan for the growth of your brand. Set goals and intentions. Write down your aims and objectives. Strategize ways to achieve these goals. If your goals are broad, break them down into smaller goals that are easily achievable. For example, if you want to increase views on your blogs by 40% then break that goal down into intentional steps, such as:

• I will write a blog post every day.
• I will interact with other blogs under the same umbrella.
• I will review products on my blog for free. Etc.

Each of these small steps will eventually lead back to your ultimate goal of getting more page views. This is also a great way to track small progress, so you don’t lose sight of the big picture.
Now, onto the available tools that will assist in fortifying your online presence with greater professionalism.

Time Management Tools

There are several affordable tools available that can help you manage your time and projects.
Calendly is an excellent scheduling app that you can send to your clients when trying to schedule a phone call. It will send your client time frames that work for your business, and they choose the block of time that coincides with their schedule.

Toggl tracks your work time logged on a project. Toggl can help with scheduling and precise invoicing. You can even check your work report to see when you or your employees were most productive.

Slack is the tool you should be using if you have a team of remote workers. You can keep all of your projects and pitches in one place and create a message board between workers so that you can stay on top of projects together.

CRM Software

CRM stands for customer relationship management. You can find CRM software by several software companies, including SalesForce, Microsoft Dynamics, InfusionSoft, and Insightly. This software is designed to help your small business by building trust and loyalty between the business and customers. This is done by managing your calendar and to-do lists, tracking leads, managing data, managing contacts, and assessing the value of your marketing techniques.

Intuit QuickBooks

QuickBooks is a great accounting software to track income and expenses. There are different packages that you can choose from at Intuit QuickBooks, including three different small business plans and a freelancer plan. The plans differ slightly in what they offer but even the most low-cost basic plan can help you manage tax deductions, organize your receipts, create invoices that you can track and cash from your software, and you will also be able to run necessary expense sheets.

Recruit The Right Talent

There is a way to recruit the best candidates for your small business, in the same manner, a large company recruits their talent. Plum is a tool to help enterprises to match the right employee to available positions. Plum has created application surveys to examine the workplace psychology of prospective employees and divides these people up into the areas that they would be best suited for which will help you trim down potential matches to the people best suited for the job. It will also let the prospective employees know where they stand in the hiring process so you won’t be bothered by several follow up emails.

Global Call Forwarding

Since you’re already here you may know a bit about the virtual phone company, but in case you weren’t sure how the company could help your business create a professional presence, here are a few things that Global Call Forwarding can do to make your business presence more attractive:

• Provide virtual local or toll free numbers, including vanity numbers
• The ability to use extension numbers so your customers will be directed to the office they need right away
• Record calls for later analyzation
• Call transfer services
• An account management page where all of your phone records and data is stored in one convenient place

Any business no matter how small can have the ability to look like a substantial professional corporation. If you want your business to attract more customers and make more sales, then apply these tools to achieve a professional online presence so you can begin to see results.

As your company expands its reach to international countries and different time zones it may become harder to keep your company operating as one. Many companies expand to different countries around the globe, and even smaller companies will expand their reach to other countries because of the profitability and ease thanks to the developing technology. To keep your company growing, here are a few tools that can help companies in their international expansion efforts, or to maintain greater control with employees across the world.

Virtual Phone Systems

Virtual telephone systems are the best way to stay in contact with your sister businesses overseas, as well as your consumers overseas. The virtual phone system makes it possible for international employees to work together and more efficiently. It’s also a great tool to use for customer service. Virtual telephone providers often provide a variety of features that allow employees to manage their relationships with customers with greater ease.

These features can also help with better training. At Global Call Forwarding, one feature that can be very useful is Call Recording. This feature can be used to inspect each call and analyze whether each sales team is following the same protocol. It can also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of each call for future reference. After successful use of this tool, it will be easier for your international teams to remain consistent. Whether they are in America, England, or India. To follow up on other details, simply look to the Account Management feature that is also featured at Global Call Forwarding.

Virtual Phone Numbers for Your International Team

Using virtual phone numbers will reduce challenges and allow your international teams to create relationships with their local customers. This should be the #1 goal of each of your international teams. Finding new customers and keeping them is the reason you expanded your business in the first place. If your customer service call center operates in India, you can still use local area codes from places all over the world using a virtual phone system. For example, your Indian customer service reps can place a call using a local area code to San Francisco in America. And that’s yet another important tip: you should always be using local area codes for your customer service calls. A customer in San Francisco is unlikely to answer a call from India, but much more likely to answer one with an area code from the San Francisco area. Not only because an India number might be foreign to them, they will probably also associate the number with extra fees.

Advanced IVR and PBX

When you have remote workers all over the world, an advanced IVR / PBX allows each worker to work from different parts of the world without being left out of important updates or team calls.

The IVR can be programmed to connect your teams by creating a welcome message followed by important announcements. This can all be done with your company phone system and does not require any extra hardware. Each phone system carries necessary information, such as accounts and contacts, that each international team needs to know. They can access this important information at any time, which is essential since they will all be working in different time zones.

The IVR system can be used to create a private telephone network that only you and your employees can use. They will each have their own extension that can be accessed by other employees. Using your own private system within the virtual phone system you already have will lower your operating costs, as well.

If you allow your employees to work remotely in different countries, it is likely they will be more productive than if they were to have to report to an office. Keeping your team together through a virtual phone system will create a great working experience throughout the globe. It might seem like the teams would feel disconnected, but having the ability to contact your international team’s number through an easy-to-use virtual phone system will actually help each team work together more effectively.

For your company, expanding should be a goal. However, expansion can become quite tricky if it is not handled well. Communication becomes key to the expansion of international territories.

Using a virtual call system to keep your various teams connected will allow each team to work more efficiently separately and remotely while maintaining an overall synergy for your overarching business.

Telecommuting jobs have become a quickly growing trend amongst businesses. Remote workers are being hired in droves and even people you see around the office are choosing to work from home multiple days a week. The change seems to have staying power, too. Allowing workers to stay at home has increased employee productivity. This may have something to do with cutting out time otherwise spent commuting, and distractions like coworkers and the water cooler. Because of this flexibility and ease of working at home or around the corner at a favorite coffee spot, workers have escaped the mundane feeling of having to come into an office each day. Perhaps it is the freedom that is boosting creativity.

Working from home has become possible because of the introduction of cloud technology. Cloud technology can take many forms, one of which is telephony. If you work from home you might already use a softphone; if you do not you might want to consider getting one. There are several benefits to using a virtual phone and not just because it helps to keep your professional life separate from your personal life.

It’s Inexpensive

If you’re not already using a virtual phone system because you think it might be too expensive, it should be reassuring to know that there are virtually no up-front costs and because everything works through cloud servers, they cut out the cost of hardware and IT services. They also won’t take up any space in your house because it’s virtual.

You’ll Be More Productive

Using a virtual phone system means you can use your own device to access phone calls and messages from anywhere. Your cellular phone, your tablet, your home computer, or a traveling laptop are all possibilities. Anywhere you go, you’re connected to your business if you want to be. You can even convert audio files to fax documents or email messages if you need to. You can also make use of other tools that enable remote working such as online content and project management systems, chats, etc.

It’s More Professional

Your home phone will not be displayed on a caller’s ID so they will never know that you are working from your home and not an office. Also, you can create a professional voicemail message for when you are away from your connected devices. There are also many professional options that are available when you opt for a virtual phone system. These options include being able to transfer calls, put people on hold to music, and automatically forwarding calls over to other people within your field to take calls when you are away.

Your Virtual Phone System Is Prepared To Grow With Your Business

Extensions can be added all the time. It doesn’t matter how fast your business grows, a virtual phone system is ready to take on your needs, as needed.

There’s No Cost To Call Internationally

Virtual phone numbers get to bypass the heavy costs associated with long-distance calling. Simply purchase an area code in any country that you need and you can make as many calls as you need without incurring the charges. Plus, your customers will never have to pay outrageous international fees which will, in turn, build a customer’s trust in your company.

No Spam Callers

Your virtual phone system is equipped with PBX which can help you keep track of your phone calls. It also sorts out blacklisted callers so you won’t have to worry about spam making its way into your business.

You Can Switch Over To The Right Department

If you get a phone call that you are not prepared to deal with, you can easily transfer the call to the person who is equipped to deal with certain phone calls. For example, if you work in sales and the person who has reached you is trying to reach someone in customer service, it is very easy to transfer them to the correct place. At the same time, if you are dealing with an unruly customer, you can quickly transfer them to a member of your management team.

If you don’t already have a virtual phone system for your company, it may be time to try one out. It is an affordable and professional way to grow and manage your business from home.

Obtaining a vanity toll free number is a smart move for your business and paves the way for many more opportunities. The ease of remembering a vanity number offers a business the chance to expand its branding and advertising efforts using only a highly versatile phone number. It’s like adding just one extra level of cushioning to a facet you already need and use. A vanity number can be extremely beneficial in advertising campaigns that utilize visual media such as commercials, flyers, and billboards.

Toll Free Numbers: Ideal for Billboard Advertisements

When companies use their vanity numbers in advertising and marketing campaigns, they have the ability to increase response rates and lead generation is known to increase substantially. If you decide that you are going to market your company using visual advertising on billboards and magazines, this study found that there was an 84% improvement in consumer recall rates when a vanity number was featured at the forefront. Displaying a toll free number on a billboard is a smart move for businesses because there is an immediate spike in calls because of how simple they are to remember for customers. Unforgettable vanity 800 numbers and easy to remember toll free numbers are also perfect for boosting your company’s bottom line because your customers know exactly why they’re calling 1-800-PLUMBER. Also, at that desperate moment, they need a plumber, 1-800-PLUMBER is impossible to forget. A vanity number asserts your company as the industry leader, offering customers the invaluable benefit of instant recall.

Not only are vanity 800 numbers unforgettable to your customers, they provide results. If you have a vanity 800 number, it is important that you showcase it widely. In addition, 800 numbers are toll free and the customer knows that when they call a toll free number it will be completely free for them, which encourages them to place more calls.

Billboards Get Noticed

Many attorneys use 1-800 numbers in their billboards to attract clients to their practice. Advertising with a toll free number on a billboard can be beneficial for many companies, not just attorneys.

Displaying your toll free number prominently on a billboard in front of the right location and the right audience can bring in many new clients. Billboards on popular local highways that thousands of people commute through each day is the ideal location for your billboard campaign. Contacting an advertising agency to create the best message for your brand is the next step after you have found your perfect billboard location. Make sure that your slogan is catchy, easy to read, and includes your company’s toll free number prominently. Once you have your perfect billboard displayed prominently in front of your target audience you can sit back and wait for the calls to start rolling in, as your marketing team tracks the new generation of income.

Invest in Advertising and Watch Your Numbers Grow

The price of a billboard varies from city to city. In rural areas, it can be as low as $250 compared to as much as $14,000 in New York City. A sizable amount of your business’ budget should be allocated for advertising needs, and a billboard is an affordable way to reach a broader audience. The use of a prominent 800 number will increase the response rate. Of course, it is quite hard to monitor billboard conversions. It is possible that a million people will see your billboard, but if you are an attorney and someone remembers your number from the ad and they do not have a legal situation that needs to be handled at the present time, they may call you months later.

To make certain that you can accurately calculate your ROI from billboard conversions there are certain steps that you can take. For instance, if the toll free number displayed on your billboard is only being advertised from the billboard, then you can peruse your phone records to monitor the increase in call rates since the time the billboard went up.

The next step is to ask every single caller how they heard about your firm. All businesses should ask this question at some point in a conversation with a customer as it is an easy way to track your current marketing strategies. If all of your calls are coming from your billboard advertisements and you receive zero phone calls from the people you targeted with door hangers, you can easily cut that marketing effort from your budget.

Advertising with toll free numbers on billboards is a powerful marketing tool that will yield amazing, and often proven results. Multiple studies have confirmed that companies who utilize their toll free number in media displays for advertising see high increases in response rate. If you already have a toll free number, a billboard campaign is a great next step towards growing your business.