Small business owners have a ton on their plates.
Even with a great team, sometimes it feels like there just aren’t enough hours in the day to keep up. Learning a new system that claims to make your life easier seems overwhelming when you already have so much to do.
But, the right business app could be the secret sauce to your company’s growth. A few essential mobile apps can help you maintain your sanity, keep your business on track, and free up your time, right from your Android or iPhone.
Thankfully, you don’t have to test every productivity app in the App Store to find what works for your up-and-coming company.
In this article, we’ll show you which must-have small business apps can make your marketing, sales, customer service, and HR project management easier than ever.
Small business apps for marketing
We all know that businesses need marketing to grow, but spending precious time on social media, email, paid ads, and SEO is draining when you don’t see results.
When you don’t have a big team or budget, maximizing your marketing hours is a must to move the needle.
If you’ve been dreading marketing, you’re not alone. In fact, 86% of business owners would rather spend their time on accounting, sales, HR… literally anything to avoid marketing.
These same business owners give their marketing 5 or fewer hours of attention a week, which opens the door for competitors to swoop in and dominate the industry.
But at the same time, you know you don’t have endless hours in a day. So what do you do?
Having a plan to build out your brand this year can be simple with the right project management app up your sleeve. No 100-hour work weeks required.
#1. monday.com
monday.com can help your team run an entire marketing strategy from 1 dashboard. Even from your iPad or Android device.
Forget aimlessly scrolling through Facebook or Twitter and trying to decide what to post. From tracking campaigns to planning content, monday.com makes your 5 hours a week way more productive.
When 50% of business owners say they don’t have a marketing plan, it’s pretty easy to see why they may not be hitting their sales goals. Our marketing calendar template can help you create a plan and give your productivity a boost.
Seeing your marketing plan in one place takes the guesswork out of how to promote your business.
Leave the multiple to-do lists and productivity apps behind. Dropping your ideas into our easy-to-use template can help your team members know exactly what you want, even before you ask them.
#2. Mailchimp
When it comes to ROI, many marketers think of email marketing as the holy grail.
In 2020, 80% of marketers found an increase in email engagement, with response rates up 10-20% since April. If your email game is weak, it’s time to step it up.
The handy Mailchimp iOS app makes sending newsletters, sales emails, and sequences super easy, even on your mobile device. The robust free version is a perfect fit for companies just starting to tackle email marketing. Setting up your first Mailchimp campaign won’t be a problem at all.
Plus, Mailchimp’s monday.com integration shows email stats right in your dashboard. No need to wait for Carol’s weekly report to know if people are opening your emails.
Automating your emails doesn’t have to be hard. Mailchimp is the perfect mobile app for up-and-coming businesses to excel at email marketing.
Small business apps for HR
Managing employees can feel like a full-time job, especially when you’re used to a lot more face time. If it feels like your Google Calendar is swamped with video calls, you’re not alone.
Remote work is becoming the new normal. While that’s awesome for many employees, it can also bring up new HR challenges for a business owner like you.
Whether you’re a team of 1 (like 41% of business owners) or you have a dedicated HR team, keeping track of hiring, payroll, invoicing, training, and performance reviews can be daunting.
Let’s face it: HR isn’t a walk in the park, but that doesn’t mean it has to take up all your time. The right small business app can make handling HR feel like a leisurely stroll.
#1. monday.com
Searching for top talent can feel like playing roulette.
You post a job listing, take a gamble interviewing a few candidates, and maybe get back to the best one before they’ve accepted another offer. Or maybe not.
Good recruiting goes far beyond posting job listings. The right HR app can help any business owner compete for top talent… and win.
But before you win, you need to have a strategy.
The recruitment tracker template helps you see all your viable candidates in one place. Plus, the monday.com mobile app can help you stay on top of hiring wherever you are.
Having all the data in front of you helps you make a decision fast, so you don’t miss out on top talent.
#2. Bottlenecks
When79% of employees leave their jobs due to lack of recognition, that’s enough to make any small business owner’s hair stand on end.
Once you’ve hired top talent, keeping those employees is a whole other ball game. Providing valuable feedback helps your team grow and expand, but only if it’s actually helpful.
Bottlenecks can help you see which employees are completing tasks the fastest, how long those tasks are taking, and where projects are getting held up. This must-have small business app offers project management at its finest.
It’s the perfect resource to help distribute work, see your employees’ strengths, and figure out where your teams need extra help, right from your monday.com iOS app.
Bring on the compliments!
Small business apps for sales
Small businesses depend on driving sales to stay afloat, so every relationship matters. But, that means you might be spending hours every day tracking down your leads and customers.
Did they leave a voicemail? Was that order in an email? I know I have their number somewhere…
There’s a better way. And it’s easier than you think.
When 31% of business owners call driving new sales their top goal, finding a better way to manage sales helps you stay ahead.
These essential sales apps for small businesses can make getting new sales a breeze. Before you know it, your bank account will be exploding.
#1. monday.com
When leads get lost in the pipeline, sales and customers fall through the cracks.
And let’s be real: sometimes that “pipeline” is actually just a notebook on your cluttered desk.
monday.com can show all your leads and customers in one place. Plus, you can have all the information you need to score a new client right at your fingertips.
Our sales pipeline template is just what the doctor ordered.
Good leads are worth their weight in gold. Stop wasting valuable prospects by forgetting to follow up.
Move your leads through the pipeline and turn prospects into paying customers right from your iPhone or Android device.
#2. Clearbit
Researching leads can be a major productivity killer.
We all know giving a lead’s website a quick once-over won’t cut it if you want to win the deal.
But spending valuable work hours scouring Google isn’t the best use of your time either. That’s where Clearbit comes in.
When you add a lead’s email to your sales pipeline, Clearbit automatically pulls data about your prospect into your monday.com dashboard.
You didn’t start your own business to do hours of research every day. Stop wasting your time and start getting more appointments on your calendar app today.
Small business apps for customer service
There’s nothing better than customers who come back for more.
Focusing on retention often pays for itself with recurring invoices, even though it’s a step that business owners often ignore.
But when70% of customers say they prefer proactive customer service, you may want to go a step beyond support calls.
Providing excellent customer service is just one way to continue surprising and delighting your customers after their first purchase.
Anticipating customer needs is what exceptional service is all about. But we promise, you don’t have to spend all day glued to your iPhone to make it happen.
These small business apps can take you from drowning in support calls to blissfully serving your clients.
#1. monday.com
Staying on top of your business helps your team deliver stellar customer service.
Nothing is better than giving clients a clear look at the progress of their order. No matter what your industry, tracking work progress is a must to keep your clients happy.
One of the best things about our client management template is that you can easily add ongoing follow up tasks for each client.
Sharing a project with your client can cut down on status calls by keeping everyone up to date and accountable.
Cue the sigh of relief.
#2. Zendesk
Keep calm and keep customers happy.
Support requests don’t always make it to the help desk, which can be frustrating for both customers and employees.
Zendesk is a support ticketing small business app that integrates perfectly with monday.com. Now, customer support tickets always make it to the right person.
Plus, sharing the ticket with your client and the rest of your team keeps everyone in the loop.
So now you don’t have to email your IT guy 17 times for a status update. If that’s not something to feel zen about, we don’t know what is.
Ready to grow in 2023?
Sifting through a ton of mobile apps can be exhausting, but once you find the right small business apps, they can save you a lot of time.
Every small business team could use more free hours in a day, and the right project management app is essential to help your business run well.
No matter what you’re trying to accomplish, monday.com can help. Our apps marketplace can help you find the right integrations to keep track of your business… all from one dashboard. Amazing, we know.
Check out our apps marketplace today!
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