Get tech-savvy

As a business owner it can be intimidating to try to understand how new technologies can help your business.access provides useful tools to help your business.

Talk it up
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) refers to the transmission of voice communications over the internet.  The technology is becoming more and more popular because of the cost advantages compared to traditional telephone networks.  Most South Africans pay a flat monthly fee for their internet services, so using your internet connection for both data traffic and voice calls allows you to piggy back off the same monthly payment.  You pay less for making a call because it’s over the internet.  You also don’t pay per-minute for long distance calls and reap huge savings on international calls.  Some operators even offer you rebates on inbound calls, which means it actually pays to have your customers call you. Since you don’t pay for inbound calls anyway, it’s a good way to earn extra revenue.

Watch and listen
There’s nothing like a face-to-face meeting with clients for the personal touch, but as the recession has put pressure on businesses to find ways to cut costs, videoconferencing is becoming a genuine alternative to the real deal.  Apart from saving on travel costs and accommodation, benefits include being able to conduct briefings from your laptop, record video and voice conferences and share the files.  It’s important that you have a good quality webcam that delivers a high-quality image and the most fluid motion for videoconferencing to be a success.  Also consider a separate microphone so you come through loud and clear to your clients. Even more expensive technologies also allow remote participants to appear in high-definition in life-like size.

Text it
With all of the hype about social media and other digital marketing strategies, SMS, one of the most effective forms of marketing is being neglected. About 70% of recipients of SMS marketing react to the message, compared to 30% for email.  However, avoid “cute” text message lingo and spamming customers – they’re more likely to sign up if they think they will get exclusive access to something.  SMS campaigns can be linked to other marketing efforts, such as promotional competitions or website campaigns. 

Tweet away
You can do more on Twitter than tell the world about what you ate for breakfast.  Some companies are using it not to talk to customers, but to listen.  Not so much Twitter participants as they are Twitter “listeners”, companies can use easy search tools like search.twitter.com or desktop applications like TweetDeck to keep track of what’s been said about them, their products or even their industry as a whole.  Smart companies are tuning into these micro-conversations to get early warnings of problems and to collect feedback on product issues or ideas. 

Face up to social media
Facebook was originally designed for individuals to personally network online, but more and more companies are using it for business-to-business related marketing too.  Benefits of using Facebook to build your brand include establishing yourself as a thought leader and creating a group or fan page so that customers have another channel to interact directly with you.  Just as personal users’ profiles grow friend by friend, so too does your business’ community.  Now that Facebook has a new vanity URL (or personal address) feature, it’s even more interesting for businesses to use as a marketing tool.