For startups, one of the best investments you can make is in automating as many of your business processes as possible. But beyond that, there are many more solutions you can apply in order to take your company from traditional to digital real quick and real efficiently.
But applying digital solutions isn’t just about using bots; it’s about applying the best and latest practices to your business that not only streamlines and error-proofs your work, it also takes away the monotony of certain business process and increases your chances of being found in an increasingly digital world.
What’s more, digital solutions help you use your startup’s capital more efficiently. Digitally transforming your business means doing away with a lot of traditional startup needs like massive amounts of office space, physical servers, heck, even office supplies (those things add up, you know!). By doing away with unnecessary expenditure, you’re ensuring your business survives with as minimal brick-and-mortar space as possible.
Future-proofing your business by applying digital solutions means your startups don’t just survive the digital revolution, it means that it will thrive in this brave, new world of automation, digital marketing, and more. Here are some digital solutions you can apply to your startup:
Optimization for Mobile
We’ve discussed before how mobile technology is good for business, but that advantage means so much more for startups. On the surface, mobile technology makes your business more accessible to more people; with millions of people now using mobile more than ever, and with the technology advancing in such a way that it’s made it easy for people to break into the market, there’s really no reason to optimize your products and services for mobile access.
Of course, developing proprietary technology to make yourself mobile-friendly (i.e. creating an app for your brand, or developing in-house fintech to manage your e-commerce) can get expensive, but it’s an investment worth making, especially at a time when pretty much everyone’s armed with a smartphone and is more than willing to transact using it.
Just make sure to have a UI/UX (i.e. User Interface/User Experience) that is both mobile-friendly AND easy to use. Nothing can sink a mobile app more than a confusing interface/having too many steps for a simple transaction.
Digital Marketing
Whether it’s applying SEO to all your digital channels, managing your social media platforms, or staying in touch with your existing clients (or reaching out to new ones) via e-mail, digital marketing is essential in the online world. Nowadays, simply having a website isn’t enough: that’s really the bare minimum of doing business in the 21st century.
Startups have the unique opportunity of working with full-service digital marketing agencies that take care of their digital presence in the most effective and appropriate way possible. This frees up your startup to focus on more important matters, like growing your business or reinvesting resources into more productive endeavors.
Ideally, your digital marketing campaign should include search engine optimization, content and e-mail marketing, social media management, and Pay-Per-Click ads. Each of these digital marketing aspects will have its own data analytics, so you’ll be kept up-to-date about how your customers behave online.
Robotic Process Automation
Ok, this doesn’t actually involve real robots (bummer), but what Robotic Process Automation, or RPA for short, does is pretty impressive nonetheless! RPA is a term people use to describe the process of applying automation systems to every step of your business process and other tasks in the office. This can include both generating automated replies to clients depending on their need, or to simply triggering a response in your operating system whenever an employee saves a file or uploads a document.
RPA is pretty much the future of business: it takes away mundane, repetitive tasks away from your employees, leaving them free to busy themselves with creative or critical tasks. In a way, it very much negates the need for a large workforce, reduces redundancy in the business process, and reduced errors in the workflow, all the while increasing productivity and business growth.
Robotic Process Automation involves implementing multiple programs in your system, and while a majority of them can be extremely helpful, you don’t necessarily need all of them. Consult with your digital transformation provider to find out which systems you’ll need. You might just need an invoice automation system or a cloud-based ERP algorithm, or, if you can, you could get a full-on automated system that takes care of reaching out to clients, onboarding them, preparing pre-designed digital marketing schemes, and automatic implementation. The choice is yours.
