How To Use Technology To Grow Your Small Business

Faviola Publico has been in the digital marketing industry for six years and is currently an SEO Content Writer at BrandCrowd, an online logo design and branding marketplace. She specializes in branding and content marketing strategies for B2B and B2C companies. 7 minute read

Small businesses don’t have big budgets or staffing compared to other established or big-sized businesses. However, various technologies and tools can even the playing field by providing low-cost solutions that even small businesses can use. 

These tools can generate content, make editing faster, make online collaboration easier, track invoices, or automate labor-intensive tasks. They can reduce the burden on you and your staff and provide new marketing opportunities. 

This is why we have gathered some tools below that you can take advantage of to grow your small business. Read on to find out more.

What Are Tools Small Businesses Can Use?

AI Photo Editors

Creating great image content is essential for any business, as content with visuals gets 94% more views than content without. Visual content is also 40x more likely to be shared on social media. While creating and editing images can be expensive and time-consuming, its effect on growing your business can’t be ignored. This is why small businesses are now turning to AI editing tools. 

AI tools have been on the rise in various industries, and for good reason. AI tools, especially in graphic design, make editing more straightforward and faster as they can automatically do what usually takes hours of editing in just a few seconds. It also makes it easier for people with no graphic design experience to enhance their photos, as AI tools don’t need complicated settings. You can even leverage them to generate art powered by AI, which truly opens up a world of creative possibilities regardless of your skill set or time you have spare.

AI photo editor tools such as Luminar NEO, PhotoRoom, ImagenAI, and Spyne can help by automatically removing backgrounds, denoising photos, relighting images, and modifying a photo by adding various filters or effects. Small businesses can utilize these tools to lessen the time and resources spent on manually editing and use the time to focus on coming up with creative outputs instead. 

AI Video Editors

Videos are among the most effective ways to grow and engage followers, especially for small businesses. According to surveys, 92% of marketers found that videos gave them good ROI, while 66% of consumers find short-form videos the most engaging type of content on social media. 

However, despite the evidence that video marketing works, most businesses still don’t invest in them. This is mainly due to the vast amount of time and money spent making and editing videos. 

Thankfully, AI video editors are now widely available. Tools such as InVideo, Pictory, Wisecut, and Filmora Wondershare can be used to remove backgrounds, color correct or enhance videos, reduce background noise, and automatically remove pauses in the video. 

You can also use Synthesia to create videos using AI avatars and their text-to-voiceover feature. This is particularly helpful for small businesses that don’t have the resources to hire actors or rent a studio to film at. 

AI Writing Tools

If you have been online recently, you have probably heard of ChatGPT. This tool, along with other AI writing tools like Grammarly, Jasper, Copy.AI, and Rytr, has become popular recently because it makes writing more straightforward and accessible.

Of course, AI-generated content is still in its infancy and can be robotic and might not be super clear, especially if you didn’t edit the generated content. This content is oftentimes not very engaging or fun for your customers to read. This is why the best way to use these tools is to use them to assist you, only do some of your work for you. Alternatively, consider employing undetectable AI rewriting tools that can humanize AI-produced text in a virtually undetectable manner.

small business owners

You can use these AI writing tools to generate content, which you can edit or use as a starting point. You can also use them to help you brainstorm some ideas. Some writing tools can also be grammar or editing tools by suggesting paraphrasing your sentences to make them more readable. 

AI writing tools can benefit small businesses, as they don’t need to spend so much time writing and editing content for their blogs or websites. Of course, make sure you are using them wisely. 

Chatbots

Chatbots are another AI-powered tool that businesses are using to grow their businesses. You can see them on company websites, social media platforms, or e-commerce sites. 

Chatbots can be used in sales, customer service, or in marketing. In sales and marketing, chatbots can gather information about customers and convert them into buyers by asking them questions to give personalized recommendations or correctly lead them to their next step. 

In customer service, chatbots are used to answer commonly asked questions. This gives customers prompt responses instead of waiting for a customer service representative.

Chatbots can be very useful for small businesses, as they can lessen your staff’s workload. Since chatbots can handle more mundane questions, you and your staff can focus on handling more complex questions that might need more detailed investigation or responses. Chatbots can also provide 24/7 service, reducing the need to work long hours to respond to customers. 

Various chatbots can be used depending on your business type or your needs. Make sure to consider which will work best for you carefully. 

Logo Generators

A well-designed logo is one of the most essential things your small business needs. Nowadays, with the help of technology that is always evolving, you can use an AI logo generator to easily and quickly come up with professional and memorable logo ideas. It signals to your customers that your business is credible, professional, and trustworthy. Your logo is also your way of communicating to your customers what your business is and what you can do for them.

A great logo follows the five principles of logo design: simple, memorable, timeless, appropriate, and versatile. Your logo should also be created with your brand image (what you want your business to be perceived as) plus your target audience (what their preferences are and what design they would connect with) in mind.

There are many logo makers online that small businesses can use. Most of these are free, but some offer premium subscriptions to add more visual effects or animations or unlock more editing features. These logo makers usually provide templates created by graphic designers or generative AI, so you don’t have to start creating your logo from scratch. 

While this should help you easily create a logo, even with a small budget, you still need to ensure that your final design is suitable and beautiful. 60% of people will NOT accept businesses with logos that they find odd or ugly, so make sure your design appeals to your target audience. 

Marketing Automation Tools

TechTarget defines marketing automation as “a type of software that enables companies to effectively target customers with automated marketing messages across channels including email, websites, social media, and text messages to generate sales leads.”

Marketing automation tools are various software and technology businesses can use to automate repetitive tasks such as sending emails, sending feedback forms after a purchase, creating campaigns, or tracking data. This way, you don’t have to spend so much time and effort manually doing these tasks. 

Various marketing automation tools are available, depending on your business and which task you want to automate. Some platforms like SyncApps sync and integrate your sales and marketing data from Salesforce or NetSuite into your marketing systems, like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, ActiveCampaign, Klaviyo, and others.

To choose the best automation tool, consider your budget, goal, audience, and software integrations. 

Wrapping Up

Adapting to new technologies is more critical than ever in our digital landscape. This is even more vital for small businesses, which can significantly benefit from the convenience and efficiency that technology can give them. 

Investing in tech tools can give small businesses an edge over their competitors. Research each tool before using it to ensure that it will work well with your current setup and target goal.