With the new year comes a groundswell of new hopes, aspirations, goals, and resolutions. With that in mind, we have compiled a list of the must-have digital tools your business needs to succeed in 2018. They were selected from our wide array of business partners, inspirational sector leaders, services we’ve vetted ourselves, and even some competitors. The following digital tools your business needs to succeed in 2018 were selected to be the quintessential, must-have assets for any modern business looking to achieve great things in the coming 12 months.
Digital Tools Your Business Needs to Succeed in 2018
The following list of digital tools are ones that are going to be the deciding factor for many businesses to make or miss their goals for 2018. This isn’t just because they’re great tools that deliver what companies need to succeed in 2018 and beyond, but also because in many instances, they also offer vast cost savings over traditional alternatives. That’s because digital tools that are hosted in the cloud are inherently more efficient, faster, and far less expansive than in-house or proprietary options. So without further ado and so you can get started on your path to achieving your goals for the next year, here are the must-have digital tools your business needs to succeed in 2018.
- Google Docs This is one of those times when the biggest player in the game actually has the upper hand over other options. We’ve reviewed some online document collaboration tools in the past, but the proof is in the pudding with Google Docs. G-Docs has all of the same functionality that users will recognize from popular Microsoft Office applications but they are living, online documents that can be collaborated on in real time, have in-doc chat features, and even come with some handy offline functions, as well. Honestly, we don’t have much bad to say about G-Docs at all and for businesses looking to save on overhead, paper waste, and time, it’s at the top of the must-have digital tools for success in 2018.
- Google Meet This is a fine segue into the other Google property that is a must have for modern mobile teams, Google Meet. This is Google’s video conferencing software and it’s crystal clear with a good internet connection and super simple to use. With just a couple clicks, users can share condensed and secure links to people already in their email address books for videoconferences. These virtual meeting rooms come with one-click methods to share screens, documents, toggle mute, and more, and are an essential tool for remote or mobile workforces in 2018.
- Slack Okay, we have been all aboard the Slack train for a while now and have written multiple times about how healthy they are of a company from a fundamental analysis standpoint. An aspect of their operational efficiency seems to come through in the elegant simplicity of their online business collaboration tool, as well. With the perfect combination of standard functionality and plenty of opportunities to create open-sourced integrations, the Slack interface balances professional potency and personal expression better than any other digital tool out there. In fact, you could even call Slack the mullet of business tools because it’s business in the front, party in the back. Or just call it one of the must-have digital tools for your business to succeed in 2018. They’d probably prefer that over the mullet thing, anyway.
- Salesforce CRM Customer relationship management software is one of the largest categories of SaaS products out there for businesses, and Salesforce CRM is the leader in that sector for a reason. One of the most comprehensive sales automation tools out there, Salesforce can sometimes get a bad wrap because it isn’t inexpensive. But, because one of the criteria we used to create this list of digital tools was cost-savings, it’s important to point out that the opportunity costs of replicating all of the tasks that are automated by Salesforce software would be prohibitively expensive to recreate with working hours alone. Plus, considering that these automations can also be scaled quickly and seamlessly, it’s tough to argue that there is more cost-effective way to operate a powerful and agile sales-driven organization.
- Dash Business VoIP Tying together all of the benefits of the above tools in a way that keeps your business humming should be an advanced, cloud-based business telephone system. No pother system out there has the ability to do that with more simplicity in the interface and power in the backend than the award-winning Dash Business Telephone System. Plus, because Dash already has Salesforce CRM integrations, Slack-enabled webhooks, and even G-suite integrations either fully up and operational or already in beta-testing, it’s poised to way more than a must-have digital tool for your business to succeed in 2018. These integrations and the VirtualPBX history of innovation are sure to keep modern businesses saving money and streamlining operations well beyond simply the next 12 months.
- SEO Intelligence Software We’re actually including two options in this category because unlike the other items on this list where we’ve selected a clear winner, SEO strategy is different for every company. Sure, there are some tasks that should be evergreen and ubiquitous like optimizing for your target audiences, but because the levels of proficiency and resources to invest in this department vary, so too do the needs from any given SEO intelligence software. That said, <sarcasm font> because we’re not likely to see this whole internet fad die down anytime soon </sarcasm font>, it will be critical for a business to continue to focus on their online content strategies. To do that, we recommend leveraging the business intelligence from either Moz or SEMrush. They each have the customary trial periods and guided tours that you’d expect from an online partner, so play around with each and see which one works best for your particular team. Either way, the insights and tools that you or your digital marketing contract partners gain from these platforms will be invaluable in maximizing the potency of your online ad and marketing budget.
- Strong Internet Connections What is the one thing that everything above has in common? They’re all products or services that require a reliable connection to the internet in order to keep your business humming. Part of getting the best connection is having the right network equipment to maximize and optimize bandwidth for the needs of your business. While not quite digital tools, getting either the right network hardware for businesses or enlisting a professional Network Bandwidth Assessment Service will ensure that all of your digital tools are fully up and operational and at the ready to drive your business forward.
What Other Digital Tools Do You Use?
There are still plenty other arrows we keep in our digital tool quiver, if you will. But in order to keep this list as helpful as possible, we had to distill it down to the absolute essentials, which we have. It’s almost a certainty that, with the above tools in your business toolbox, you’re already ahead of your competition in achieving what you want in 2018. Because we do have other niche assets that we rely on, though, we understand you probably have some favorites that didn’t make the cut, too. What are they? We’d love to hear from you on Twitter or Facebook with the other tools you’d add into the mix. Either way, please take this information with our best wishes for a successful and fruitful 2018 and beyond!
