Startups face many challenges, including limited resources, time constraints, and intense competition. They often face the challenge of limited resources and funding, which makes it essential to keep their startup costs low.
By leveraging the right tools, entrepreneurs can reduce operational costs and streamline their workflows, allowing them to focus on growing their businesses.
Check out our list of startup tools and resources that can assist you in expanding your startup in the current year.
Website Creation Tools
Technology has definitely changed the way things operate. Now having a digital presence is necessary for any brand to succeed. The first step in doing so is creating a website. If your budget is tight, you can create a website yourself. Some platforms, website builders and tools allow a user to create a website without making much effort.
They provide features that allow the user to manage each and every aspect of their website. Plus, they offer continual support in case the user gets stuck at any point. They have multiple themes that make it easy for users to have a website of their choice. Here are some of the top websites that you can choose to create websites.
Bootstrapwebsite.com
This website offers the Brizzy tool for easy website creation. Just sign up and click on the new project to set up your own website. You can edit the project with all the elements you wish to add. The website offers blocks that you could consider as sections of a webpage. Alongside are complete layouts that you could use and get a well-created website.
Web. dev
This website is Google’s creation to help developers create a website on their own. It offers all the resources required to accomplish the task. They have a compilation of web apps that detail each and every step towards making a new website. Separate sections are guiding on each aspect of a website. Going through each would simplify the process for you.
Marvel App
The Marvel design platform is created to give you all the functionalities required to make a perfect website. It is basically a design tool that helps make websites, wireframes, mock-ups, and app prototypes. There are millions of stock ideas, images, and other assets needed to make the website that looks unique. The tool is simple and intuitive, and even a newcomer can use it without any problem.
InVision App
The InVision App is the one place where your entire team works together. Its Whiteboard is where you can jot down your pointers for everyone to see. You can curate all your projects in one place and let others collaborate with you. Plus it offers all the features at a very reasonable price. It comes with pre-built templates, interactive widgets, and reactions; the app offers a lot more for everything to work together.
Voog- (Edicy)
Voog was previously known as Edicy and is a simplistic tool for making websites. It offers multiple beautiful templates for the users to select from. The tool is translated into 15 languages to offer users a choice of their language. Plus, the website made would be mobile responsive, thus garnering more attention. The tool is extremely customizable, and even developers can use it to make their own websites.
Webs.com
Another powerful tool, it offers a drag-and-drop interface. All you have to do is to choose the elements and shift them to the website. The website created would be SEO-optimised and mobile-friendly. Their talented designers keep creating new templates. You can pick up to get that professional-looking website. The tool also comes with a Flexi support system to help satisfy any queries you have.
Strikingly.com
The Strikingly tool offers the user the benefit of making their website themselves. This tool is simple, and no prior experience is required to make your own website. You just have to edit and publish the website. There is also the benefit of making it an E-commerce store. Just add PayPal and make it a store. To manage the users, you can choose features like sign-ups, live chat, forms, etc.
Squarespace
The Squarespace tool is an amalgamation of many features. It offers multiple templates, fonts, and color choices to help make that perfect website. The website is suitable for creating an e-commerce store with all the features needed. You can even market your website through social media and email marketing. They also offer a logo tool to make one that matches your brand. There is 24*7 support provided in case the user gets stuck somewhere.
Wix.com
Wix.com is a platform that offers multiple possibilities for a user to experiment with. There are more than 900 website templates that you can select from. You can also create your own website with a blank template. The platform offers features like setting up your own blog, selling products online, and even marketing your website. It comes with a drag-and-drop feature and thousands of different design capabilities. The platform comes with Multi cloud hosting, which means there are fewer chances of downtime.
Pixpa
Pixpa offers a unique platform for creative people to showcase their work to others. You can save a lot of time with this simple-to-use tool. It has 150+ templates that are responsive for use on mobile. They offer 24*7 live support for the users to get their queries resolved. The pricing plans are affordable to enable even a new business to set up its website.
Pagelines
The pagelines website allows users to create websites within 5 minutes. It has a drag-and-drop interface to help you make the website. The point-and-click feature will enable you to edit the website. You can use the tool to customize any WordPress website. There is no need for any coding. With the platform, you can just create better-looking websites even if you have no experience.
Gozoop
Gozoop’s tool Zozolo gives you details of your brand’s online performance. It holds details of the monitoring of the e-consumers, their social media use, and lead generation. Zozolo also helps in setting up an online e-commerce solution. The Zozolo checkout feature enhances the social experience of each of your consumers.
Google Sites
The Google site is an initiative to guide people into creating their own websites. There are templates offered that the user could adapt to get that perfect website. The right side of the page provides all the tools that are needed to make the necessary edits. You can also add multiple pages editing them as you move ahead. The Google benefit means you will get assistance at every step of your work.
Weebly
With customizable website designs and valuable tools, any novice can create a website at Weebly. There are templates and themes that make it easy to set up the website. Plus, the guides provide a step by step guidance in case of any confusion. They also have powerful e-commerce tools for the users to experiment with. Their integrated marketing tools simplify the process of integration with Facebook ads and email marketing.
Yola
Yola is another easy-to-navigate website creator. It has a drag-and-drop facility, and advanced users can also edit images online. They have thousands of professionally designed styles that users can customize. Moreover, there is the facility to add videos, photos, maps, etc. You can manage domains, hosting, online store, etc., all in one place. With the website reporting feature, you can see the analytics data for your website.
Render
Render is a cloud app that helps you host your website. It offers free TLS certificates, private networks, auto deploys, etc. There are multiple services, and you could choose one that suits your requirement. The pricing is reasonable and not a burden on the pocket. In the beginning, you can start with the free package and later on move to pay.
Cloudinary
Cloudinary is a cloud-native platform where you can manage your website with all its features. You can store and transform your media assets. Later on, use them to make your website artistic. The platform can integrate with multiple other tools. With the huge gallery of media assets, you can make your e-commerce store attractive. Customers go through images and videos of products to see the actual product.
Market Research And Survey Tools
Companies need to know what their customers think about their products. With this information available, they could make changes in their product range. Or if a product is not doing well, they can shelve it and think of something else. Finding the customer’s opinion also forms the basis of future product launches.
Market research and focus groups provide this information making it easy for companies to innovate and excel. They are able to implement what their customers expect from their brand. Such changes modify the customer’s perception of the company and build up a level of trust.
If you are a company wanting to make big in the market, here are market research firms that would help you do so.
Google Surveys
Google surveys are a cost-effective way to know what your customers think of you. It delivers market-based insights that companies could use to make suitable decisions for brand success. With Google, surveys improve your understanding of what your end customer wants from your brand. The surveys can be integrated with other data. Companies can link their audience lists and find out their opinion about things.
Zoomerang
Zoomerang has now tied up with Survey Monkey and is in the business of providing customer-centric surveys. They offer a variety of template surveys to choose from. Or you could even create a survey of your own. Apart from that, there are various other services like sample size calculator, NPS calculator, Scheduling polls, etc. The company offers three different plans, and you can pick up one that suits your company.
Qualtrics
The Qualtrics website offers multiple products to match the company’s requirements. With their software, you can ask the right questions and find out what the customers need exactly. Not only that, there are tools to determine employee satisfaction details. The ProductXM tool helps businesses find details about their product and increase their market share. There is a Brand XM service that lets you get more customers and raise their awareness about the brand.
Amazon Mechanical Turk
Mturk is actually a marketplace where you can get someone to do your essential tasks. As part of this platform, you can assign people to do jobs like conducting research and compiling the data found. What is interesting is that the people you hire can be from any part of the world. Thus you can get worldwide coverage when you want to seek popular opinion. You can divide the task into small jobs and provide it to different workers for better response.
Qualroo
The Qualroo platform offers customers feedback about various things like products, branding, logo, tagline, etc. They provide exciting templates to choose the kind of survey you want. With the app, it is easy to conduct surveys. They also offer exit surveys to discover why potential customers are not converting to your product.
Remesh
The platform helps companies to interact with multiple users at one time. With AI, it is simple to organize all the data and find what the customers want. This information can then be used to make changes in the decisions and use them for further betterment of the product at hand. More than 1000 people could be engaged in conversations at the same time. They also offer the facility to discuss issues of national-level importance with the audience.
Userinput.io
With this platform, companies start seeing their product from the customer’s perspective. The company gets to deal with real customers and unfiltered responses. This guides them in making informed decisions about the product. You can also know what is lacking in your product and make changes accordingly to get better customer response. It is easy to conduct surveys and find what changes are required on the website as well.
Pollfish
Pollfish is a DIY market research service. It works on a mobile-first approach and offers the company’s opinions of 250 million customers. They have an extensive distribution network and work on a narrow targeting methodology. This allows the companies to reach out to a specific segment of people. They also offer different types of research like A/B testing, advanced questionnaire format, etc.
Survata
Survata has now been changed to Upwave. This is a platform that works to provide brand-optimized results to the company. With all the details available, they can decide which advertising platform offers the best results. These insights are updated daily to give an idea of the impact on the customer. You can create various visualization of the data and add them to presentations as well. Their optimization feature gives an idea of which advertising platform is working and which is not.
Wufoo
This platform provides a cloud-based form builder. With it, you can create any kind of form like employee surveys, customer surveys, payment forms, etc. There are various plans offered, and it is simple to pick one that matches your requirements. The form builder has an award-winning interface, galleries, templates, and customization features. Using and creating the forms is easy, and no training is required to do so.
Vizir
Vizir helps you create chatbots that can answer recurring questions. This helps as your employees are saved from typing the same response again and again. The chatbot can also directly respond on platforms like Slack, MS Teams, Cisco Webex, etc. With MS Excel, you can find how much money and time you save with the chatbot. They also provide a demo chatbot for you to realize how much helpful it could be.
Typeform
Typeform offers multiple types of form templates. You can pick up one that matches your needs the most. There are questionnaire templates, for instance, for employees, customer satisfaction, and concept testing templates. Apart from that, they have unique templates like that for schools and Non-profit organizations. You can also select from the quiz templates that are present. The platform offers three different plans, and each comes with different features.
Formstack
This is a platform for creating multiple forms for businesses. It automates the creation of documents, PDFs, and other types of files. With premade templates, you can quickly get your work done. Along with there are 100+ integrations to use the data generated in various ways. They have an easy interface that offers a drag-and-drop feature. The information collected can be put into custom documents and processed further.
Formcrafts
Formcrafts also has loads of templates to make your pick from. The website offers headers, each of which has 5-6 templates. You can go through them and decide which form would work for you. They have three different plans to choose from. Each one of them offers additional benefits. Post-filling of forms, they provide analytic features to know the response of such forms.
Aytm.com
Aytm, as a platform, offers the technology to get an idea of what people want. They maintain a customer of over 100 million respondents. This survey platform has a survey authoring tool and a real-time reporting dashboard. Here you can have a look at the analytics of the survey conducted. The platform also provides advanced research support for those who want more profound insights.
Ethnio
Ethnio is a CRM software that keeps track of all your customers. You can manage the participants with tags, notes, filters, and segments. Plus, you get the benefit of recording these interactions. You can customize the research sessions and integrate them with other platforms like zoom, outlook, etc. They can provide incentives to participants in more than 80 countries, thus helping you reach out to more people.
SurveyMonkey
The Survey Monkey website is a global leader in the survey industry. Every day their questionnaires lead to 20 million questions being answered. There are three plans that help the client select the one that would suit them. They offer a vast collection of templates with surveys related to customer feedback, employee engagement, product website, etc. The platform also provides various toolkits that depend on multiple headers.
SmartSurvey
Smart Survey offers an easy-to-use tool that anybody can work on. They have the facility to do your own survey or pick from the huge template collection available. Plus, there is a theme manager that helps in designing surveys as per your branding requirements. If necessary, you can change the survey’s URL, theme, and layout per your need. The results of each survey are displayed instantly so you can use the information for other purposes.
Form Titan
Titan offers a set of enterprise applications that can integrate with your Salesforce data. You can create customized documents like contracts, proposals, etc., with ease. The platform provides multiple formats that would be useful. It is easy to create your own surveys. You can track the progress of each document and know how much work is pending. The integration with Salesforce helps automate the organization’s digital workflow.
QuestionPro
With QuestionPro, you can design your own survey and add as many features to it as you like. There are over 88 features and templates that help set up the survey pretty quickly. Apart from that, they have a research suite that gives your responses as per the various tests. This includes A/B testing, MaxDiff, and Conjoint tests. You can get answers from 22 million respondents to know the global feedback.
Snap Surveys
The platform offers engaging surveys that can offer customers’ viewpoints. The surveys can be provided both online and offline as per requirement. They also offer an interviewer app that syncs whenever there is an internet connection. You can reach people through their devices by email and SMS and get faster responses. There is also the facility of multi-lingual forms that can help you reach out to a broader base.
PickFu
Pickfu lets you start a campaign and get an idea of what the customer feels almost instantly. You do not have to look around for information. The platform provides reliable feedback that you can use to set up any project successfully. The results of each survey are displayed on the same day within hours. They even share feedback that is different from the regular data style.
SurveyGizmo
Now renamed to Alchemer, this is a platform that makes every customer’s opinion important. It offers one of the best software in the industry that comes with flexible plans. The feedback generated could be used to understand the market scope and type of audience. Companies can engage with their customers on a higher level. Their dashboard has all the information that is required to build a rapport with the customer base.
123formbuilder.com
You can use the same platform to build any kind of form. The free online form builder helps create registration forms, application forms, order forms, and much more. They offer 2000 + form templates, and the user can pick as many bases information as they need to find. More than 35000 companies trust this form builder to have a go at knowing what their customer wants.
SmartSurvey
The platform allows companies to create online forms, surveys, and questionnaires. With the information, companies make accurate decisions that prove helpful for their company’s growth. The platform is easy to use, and students, companies, charities, and Public sector organizations use it regularly. They offer multiple plans, and each of them comes with separate features. With enterprise plans, you can explore data and in-depth analysis of the same.
Form Assembly
Form Assembly is a proper workflow system that makes it simple for companies to keep the work moving ahead. Instead of manual data entry, you can use the platform to streamline the collected data and analyze it. The platform follows all safety protocols, so all the information remains safe. Plus, the forms can be linked with Salesforce, Pardot, MailChimp, Google Sheets, etc.
Sogolytics
Sogolytics is one of the very secure feedback and experience-providing platform. It provides exceptional and accurate reports along with back-end support. Their survey tool helps companies create professional surveys within minutes. Along with the intuitive survey, the maker is equipped with intelligent features and analytics that help companies figure out about their products. You can integrate the results with another platform to use them appropriately.
PollDaddy
PollDaddy now goes by the name crowdsignal. It offers a drag-and-drop interface that helps users create surveys in a few minutes. It sounds very simple but the features offered are unique and powerful. Companies can customize the look of the survey to match it with the brand’s colors. The surveys could be put anywhere, like Twitter, WordPress, and Facebook. In fact, there is the benefit of sharing interactive surveys through email.
Surveynuts
Surveynuts is an easy-to-use questionnaire maker and survey builder as well. Their software allows them to prepare forms and collect all types of data. It has an intuitive interface, and creating surveys is a breeze. You can also see the preview of the survey as you build it. There is the benefit of filtering the results for one specific subgroup of respondents. The dashboard can generate charts and offer percentage information that is useful.
Insiterzly
Known as Informizely helps companies understand the why of the consumer’s reactions to their brand. You can survey the customers and get insights into the customer’s intentions. If a new product is launched, you could find the customer’s perceptions about the same. Each survey offers marketing insights that could further be used to improve the product.
Product Launch Tools /Landing Pages
For any company launching its product is a difficult task. The chances of the product not achieving its goals are pretty high. With already so many competitors offering something that makes you unique is very important. Despite planning everything, the number of products failing in the market is high enough.
That is why it’s essential to use tools that streamline the product launch process. These launching tools ensure your product gets visibility as soon as it enters the market. Here we are sharing some landing page website creators and product launch tools that you can use. With the tools at your disposal, the launch of a new product becomes pretty easy.
Launchrock.com
The launchrock.com is a platform that helps businesses create landing pages for new products. They have a block-based builder where you can make changes per the requirement. With such a focused and creative website, the customer instantly engages with you. It has a WSYIWYG editor, so even a novice could easily use the platform.
Prefinery.com
Prefinery is mostly for tech websites and their products. It helps you create a waitlist for the product launch. You can contact these people and generate a level of hype for the brand. Its viral referral system encourages each user to share information about their product on various social media platforms. They also let you limit the access the consumer has to your product. Plus, it integrates with other web tools and CRM software to provide the best reach.
Launcheffect
Launcheffect is a WordPress theme that is mainly aimed at creating buzz for new product launches. Those who visit them just need to sign in and register for the campaign. Post that, they get a link that they can share on their social media platforms. More people get an idea of your product, and this increases the product’s visibility.
Unbounce
Unbounce uses AI to help you build marketing campaigns that make your product reach more people. They have a web page builder that is easy to customize and offers personalized recommendations that you could use. Since you can create your copy that could be used in various forms later on.
Instapage
Instapage offers six products and multiple features that can help in increasing advertising conversion rates. Use the platform to create relevant mobile responsive posts without the help of a developer. You can optimize the post-click landing pages and get more conversions along with the analytics. It helps to visualize ad campaigns that convey messages effectively.
Kickofflabs
With Kickofflabs, you can create a giveaway campaign for your new product in minutes. Fans can earn points and rewards for referring the product to their friends. They provide various contest templates which you can customize accordingly. There is a leaderboard to show which lead is getting the most referrals for you.
Landerapp
Landerapp helps you create landing pages for free. They provide more than 100+ landing page templates. The visual editor is intuitive and makes it simple for anyone to create a landing page. With the A/B testing tool, you can find which landing page is better than the other. You can integrate your pages with the Facebook page for better reach.
Wordsafety
Wordsafety offers you insights into whether the name you have decided for your product is suitable in all languages. It checks the word against swear words and unwanted associations in almost 19 languages. The input is not logged and monitored so that you can browse freely. Plus, it has around 3000 words and various phonetic variations to check through.
Product Demo Videos
Whenever we buy a new product, we want to ensure it is installed correctly. That is why companies create product demo videos that would detail each and every step of the installation correctly. Once the demo video is created it is circulated on the internet so customers can have access to it. This would ensure a reduction in the chances of any problem with the product’s operation.
However, if you are a multi-product company creating demo videos for each product could be challenging. It is wise to use platforms to create product demo videos in such a situation. There are many websites that help you in the process. Creating demo videos on such platforms is pretty easy, as most of them provide templates to do so. Here we will share with you the names of such product demo video platforms to make it easy.
Moovly
Moovly is a simple-to-use platform that allows users to create any kind of video for their company. It has a variety of video types like footage-based, cartoon, or doodle style. They have many templates you can choose or create the video from scratch. You can even create the video in your company’s brand style.
Renderforest
This free platform offers you all the design tools in one location. You can create videos, presentations, branding, graphics, etc. They have various toolkits, and you can pick one that matches the type of video you need. With so many design tools available in one dashboard, it is simple for companies to create amazing branded content.
Whatfix
Whatfix helps in the content creation of various formats. Not only use videos, but you can also use them to create guides that help consumers use the product. The platform is an amalgamation of services that help all the teams work in sync. Moderately priced Whatfix is an answer to any kind of Brand related requirement a firm may have.
Apptamin
Apptamin is a platform that creates videos explaining the use of an app. After a free consultation they explain how that video would boost the installs for your app. Next comes the synopsis and the timeline for creating that particular video. They are also into social media campaigns for various platforms.
Switch Video
Switch video is your go-to platform if you want to create an animated video. These animated videos can be used to create explainer videos through which you let the whole world know about your product. They also help with split testing so you can know which concept is going to be liked more by the customers. Each video uses storytelling to engage the customer it is targeting.
Grumomedia
Grumomedia is a platform that helps in the creation of explainer videos for businesses. These videos can be used to attract the attention of clients. Especially aimed at start-ups, they have created videos for a lot of businesses till now. Plus, the explainer videos they make are easy to understand, and even customers can use them to grasp the products working.
Loose Keys
Loose keys offer the art of storytelling in the form of videos. They use eye-catching visuals and audio to entice the audience. They have a fantastic team of editors, designers, and storytellers. Each video is an amalgamation of their skills and is visually creative. The videos use sound effects, graphics, and animation to give the required results.
Breadnbeyond
Breadnbeyond creates engaging videos for the users to enjoy while understanding the product usage. By now, they have delivered 3000 plus projects which have received 3.8 billion combined views. They offer a wide variety of video types for companies to choose from. The pricing remains reasonable, thus allowing small businesses to use the service.
Motifmotion
Motifmotion is also an animated video creation company. They do everything from deciding the concept, story, illustration, and final video creation. Through visual storytelling, the company explains all about the product and its working. Apart from video creation, the company also provides digital marketing services. The videos are engaging and thus guaranteed to grab attention.
Piehole.tv
The platform makes interesting explainer demo videos for companies. Their services include ideas, conceptualization, planning, and final execution of the video. All videos created are easy to understand and have all the required information. They have various price points, and you can get a video created as per your budget.
Explainify
Explainify, as a platform, helps companies create detailed and explanatory videos. These can then be used for product demos, training, and sales purposes. Videos are responsive and can be used on any device with ease. With their videos, they explain every problematic concept. Your audience is able to grasp what you are trying to say.
Levitate
The Levitate team uses the power of video to impress the audience you are targeting. They have a knack for producing live and animated videos without issues. With the help of project management tools the company keeps the clients in loop at every stage of video making. The platform has assisted many companies in creating the kind of video that would grab attention.
Sandwich
Sandwich creates commercials that would entice the audience. They make the complex aspects of the product look easy, and that is how they depict it in the video. The company started with making explainer videos and later moved on to commercials. Sandwich also creates animation videos and documentaries for clients.
Firestarter
The Firestarter platform helps clients get animated videos that are creatively designed. Not only that, their studios have created content for various platforms like TV, Film, animation, etc. They can create any kind of video like social media campaigns, product launches, explainer videos, and Government agencies based. Firestarter does the concept, design, and final creation all on its own.
Lessfilms
Lessfilms believes that a good idea would increase the sales of any product. The videos they make explain the product and its qualities so customers can understand its usage. The company has been working since 2010 and has created 500 plus videos till now. Their team is efficiently dealing with video creation starting from scratch.
Simple Story
The platform has a knack for telling stories, which is what they use for creating videos. Not only that, but they also devise a strategy, produce the video and distribute it at the right places. They can also help you get a fully integrated brand story that would impress the customers. The different types of videos created are explainer videos, brand videos, product videos, etc.
Kasara Design
The company has been into the creation of videos for a long time. They offer a variety of videos like explainer videos, commercials, 3D animation for YouTube campaigns, etc. The platform works with companies from all over the world. If the customers are from a different language, Kasra design can translate the content accordingly.
Pandamotion
Panda motion is into making various types of videos and animated logos. With the skills of their expert team, the company devises video ideas that would impress the customers. Each video they create is unique and in resonance with the theme of the Brand in question. They also make explainer videos that would help in understanding the product.
Noble Digital
Noble Digital is a digital marketing agency that handles everything from Brand planning to the execution of marketing campaigns. However, they also create videos for firms. Their unique videos boost the conversion of a brand. This, combined with all the other marketing efforts, ensures the product reaches the audience.
Thinkmojo
Thinkmojo is another company that provides various types of videos for companies to use. They turn a company’s real idea, like the brand value or product story, and express it in video form. Thinkmojo has worked with big companies, start-ups and businesses. They understand the concept of the product and accordingly create videos.
Epipheo Studios
Epipheo Studios is a video production agency that helps clients by making explainer videos. Their concept is to create epiphanies in the minds of the customers. This later leads them to understand the products working and complete their purchase. Working since 2009, they have created nearly 5000 + videos that have grabbed the attention of customers.
The Video Animation Company
The video animation company creates explainer videos that are unique and guaranteed to get noticed. With a high level of expertise, they can create a variety of videos like animated, training videos, sales videos, interactive video production, etc. If the clients are unhappy, the company makes as many revisions to the video as wanted.
Tongal
Brands use Tongal to create unique videos that bring the company’s main brand idea to the forefront. They also handle other work like Instagram posts, YouTube videos, and feature-length documentaries. They work on a subscription plan basis. With the subscription, the companies get access to all the tools and teams.
Wistia
Wistia not only helps in the creation of videos but their marketing too. They have video marketing experts that handle all the aspects of video promotion. You can get details of how your video is performing across all the channels. If there is any issue, you can contact the Wistia team for further assistance.
Customer Development Tools
For any product to succeed, companies must know how to impress their customers. Customer development is a four-step process that allows companies to identify their market beforehand. It is only when the customers are convinced they will buy the product. For that you must first understand what the needs of your customers are.
The four stages of customer development are identifying what the customer wants, checking if you have a product that will satisfy the needs, determining how the product meets the requirements, and building the company to support the demand.
Some tools accelerate the process of customer development for any company. With the help of the tools, companies can decode their customer’s mind space. Read on to learn some of the best customer development software you can consider.
Strategyzer- Value Proposition Canvas
This tool comprises of two blocks from the business model canvas. These are the value proposition and the customer segment targeted. The tool helps you expand both of them and get a better impression of your customer’s needs. With this tool, you could find a Value proposition that would convince the customer that your product is the only one to satisfy their expectations.
ConfirmKit
This is the tool that companies can use to talk to their users in an efficient way. With the help of this tool, companies find out what the customers are looking for. Conducting the interviews with ConfirmKit is simple and all the data retrieved is stored, organized and analysed at one place. You can create an interview guide just once before you start. The rest of the work would be handled by the tool.
Business Model Generation Handbook
With this great handbook created by Strategyzer, it is easy to craft your own business model. It has all the practical tools needed to implement a new business model or reinvent an old one. The handbook is curated by 470 practitioners from 45 countries and contains the valuable guidance a company would require.
Wistia- Steve Blank Customer Discovery Checklist
Available in video format, this is a collection of small videos. Each video guides the user into understanding his customer and deriving maximum benefit from associating with them. Each video is pretty short and contains just the required information. Overall the companies get a simple gist of what they need to do.
Stanford.edu
Stanford University has compiled many resources on its website for users to comprehend. All the resources are varied and not just limited to the customer development segment. It is easy to go through the resources that are relevant to your concern. They also offer the benefit of searching through the library if you need anything specific.
Founderssuite.com
Founderssuite.com is the one place where companies can raise capital for themselves. With the tool, companies can bring structure, speed, and efficiency to investor relations. There is an investor database that companies can search to get an investor for their firm. If required, companies can prepare a full-fledged investor list for use.
Mapovate
Mapovate can help companies chalk out customer journeys with ease. It helps in creating customer personas that define the journey of every type of customer. You can specify the stages and touchpoints and show the value moments that define a customer’s movement. There are methods to track the performance of each journey. Also, receive email alerts and create follow-up actions.
Build Static-Site Blogs
Your website is the online presence that would inform your customers about your brand. The website is the first place any customer goes to. Most people form their impression of a brand basis the manner in which the website is made. However, there can be any kind of website, and each has its own share of benefits.
Static sites are those that are delivered to the guest as they are created. They are quick to create and easy to use. Not only that, they are cheaper as compared to the dynamic versions. Plus, you do not need to have any technical knowledge to set up a static website. There are a lot of static generators that help in making your task easier. Here we will tell you some static generators that can be put to use.
Jamstack.org
This website has innumerable static generators that you can use. You can sort the generators based on language, templates, licenses, and GitHub stars. Plus, they have given all the details of each generator. So you can choose which one would suit you as per your need. There are more than 300 generators for you to pick from.
Hugo
Hugo is the world’s fastest framework and offers open-source static generators for use. Hugo can build your website in less than a second with the speed and flexibility it provides. The platform supports unlimited content types, menus, taxonomies, etc. They offer pre-made templates so work like SEO, commenting, and analytics can be done quickly.
Forestry
Another static site generator facility Forestry makes the process of website creation relatively simple. You can either import your entire website or start building from a fresh template. They offer a friendly user interface where the users can add the content they wish to use. There are multiple editing fields that you can incorporate into your pages.
Jekyll
With the Jekyll platform, you can convert any plain text website into a static one. There is no moderation, databases, or updates to deal with. You can use any kind of template website, and the return would be an entire static website. The service is relatively quick, and your website is up and running within seconds.
Vuepress
Vue is a powered static site generator that has a minimal setup requirement. This helps you focus just on the writing part of your website. The Vue webpack has custom themes that you can use for your website. The tool would generate pre-rendered static HTML for every page. It can also run as a SPA while the page is getting loaded.
Hexo
Hexo comes with an extremely high speed, and it takes only seconds for hundreds of files to build. Plus, it supports all the markdown and Octopress plugins. There is only one command you need to run, and your entire website will be deployed. Some many APIs and plugins support multiple template engines.
Gitbook
Gitbook helps companies tell their user’s intuitive information that they need. This website is the place where the technical teams can document their progress. You can make all the decisions you think are critical for your company from one location. Thus each team member contributes positively to work irrespective of whichever team he is part of.
Middle Man
Middle Man is another static generator that uses all the tools needed for web development. They provide all the docs so you can see what each directory is doing and how to customize them. You just have to install the generator and can create a new middleman site. There are a lot of open-source deployment solutions that help in making your site live instantly.
Pelican
Pelican does not require a database or server-side logic as a static site generator. The builds they provide are fast and exceptionally well laid out. There is the provision for writing the content in various forms, like restructured text or chronologically. It allows the publication of articles in multiple languages.
Blogging Platforms
The internet is a treasure trove of information. That is why we turn to it for all our questions and queries. This particular dependency on the internet has led to the rise of blogging. Those with a specific interest in any topic can offer their opinion on just about anything. People love to read such content, so blogging has become so popular.
However, blogging also means setting up your own website. Without the website, there is no credibility to the content you are posting anywhere. There are quite a few platforms that help you set up a decent website for you. Most of them are pretty easy to use, and even a novice can start operating. Let us have a look at the top blogging platforms available to people.
WordPress.com
WordPress is the first name that comes to mind when we talk about blogging. The platform offers drag and drop feature and with the intuitive built in editor you can set up the website. There are multiple themes and one-click layouts that you can use. There are various packages at different prices, so you can select which one you want to work on.
WPengine
WPengine is an easy-to-use free tool that helps speed up your WordPress sites’ work. With their eCommerce solution, users get flexible, performant, and secure hosting while ensuring that the clients get maximum success returns. There are site monitoring features that notify you if there is any issue in the uptime.
Tumblr
If you do not want to set up your own website, then Tumblr is the platform you should be at. Here you can write small posts on any topic that suits you. Add hashtags to create more visibility for you. You can also post videos, images, and gifs, and people can add their notes to them. The more notes and likes, the more viral your content is.
Disqus
Disqus is a comment plug-in that helps publishers to add life to their content. They can start colorful discussions, moderate the comments and create communities with high engagement. Casual readers can join the conversation and give their input. Plus, the audience analytics feature help the publishers gain audience insights, thus allowing them know their interests.
Contact Customers Tools
Getting your business rolling in success is not easy. Apart from the market and promotion, you need to understand what your customers exactly want. What better way to do that than to speak to the customers directly? Since everything is digital these days, customers also spend a decent time online. There are, thankfully, tools that are available easily. These tools help companies contact customers and know their opinions. It is based on the research that companies can decide what the future products will be like. The need gaps must be fulfilled for the new products to succeed. Read on with us to learn how to contact the customer’s tools and choose your favorite one.
LinkedIn Alumni
LinkedIn alumni is your place where you can find loads of contacts easily. There are groups of famous courses and colleges. There is the group’s directory where you can search for any particular educational institution that you want. If you know the people you want to target, you can search for them on the LinkedIn Alumni section.
Artofemails.com
A lot of customers do reply to cold emails sent to them. However, if you do not have email templates finding what to say to them could be confusing. To avoid that, you can visit artofemails.com. They have multiple cold email templates that you can use. With the templates, you can directly contact your customers and ask them their opinion.
Salesforce.com Essentials
Essentials from Salesforce help you manage the data better. It can automatically sync your customer data from your email. Divide your relationships into various stages and manage the multiple customers according to the stage they are in. You can always provide support to your customers through email, chat, phone, and self-service help channels.
LinkedIn sales solutions
LinkedIn offers a sales intelligence platform just targeted at sales professionals. It comes with 40 plus search filters and helps them look for the ideal customers. You can monitor real-time alerts like recent job changes and mentions in the news and prioritize the relevant information. Use the InMail feature and talk to a broader base of customers.
Sende.rs
It is the platform that helps companies turn their emails into clients. Evercontact ensures that the companies never lose contact as each one of them means additional revenue. It uses natural language processing and converts email signatures into contacts. There are different plans to suit teams and individuals separately.
Data Axle USA
Data Axle USA maintains a list of various customers and suppliers that help companies. It has comprehensive lists of customers and businesses which can be searched through zip code etc. These lists can be used for email campaigns, direct main campaigns, digital marketing purposes, etc. They also offer solutions to target these people in one go.
Thomasnet
Thomasnet is like an industrial search engine. Here you can search and find suppliers and customers as per your need. There are suppliers in more than 70,000 categories, and more are added regularly. You can even upload CAD models and get instant Quotes from those who can work on them. Buyers can also register and get details of clients dealing with the product they want.
Screencasting Software
The world over has seen a lot of digitalization. So much so that customers are having their best time ever. Companies are offering them various ways to have a look at the products. Screencasting software helps companies make their videos, edit them and share them with customers. This gives them better choices and the opportunity to get the best deal.
A video has more visibility than any other content form, and companies have accepted it. The screencasting software has features like a screen, camera, and mic recording, video filters, etc. There are various screencasting software available, but only a few of them can handle the work efficiently. Here are some exciting screencasting software options that you can choose from.
Telestream.net
The telestream.net is a very powerful video editing software. It has screen and mic recording, video filters, and multi-app recording. This helps the users create top-quality videos that attract customers. The videos can then be saved for any masterpiece or shared on a social media platform, website, or cloud easily.
Snagit
When you have to capture and use something on your screen, you need software like Snagit. With this feature, you just have to clip and share the same with your team. Plus, you can mark these screenshots, trim the video, use the template, and create guides for everyone to see. You get to create an editable copy of the video and share it across social media too.
Camtasia
Camtasia is an easy-to-use tool to create videos, tutorials, software demos, etc. You can pick up a template or just record the screen and add your effects to it. There are themes, shortcuts, favorites, etc., that you can choose and start creating the video. The simple drag-and-drop editor makes it simple to add, remove, and trim sections of the video or audio.
Screencast-o-Matic
With the screen capture tools, the Screencast-o-Matic platform helps you in the creation and editing of videos and images. Students can capture their screens and share them with their other classmates. The tool can capture the screen as it moves and then add effects to the same video. You can even add narration and customize the video created.
Screenflow
Screenflow is an extremely powerful video editing and screen recording software. Its features are multiple, like screen, camera, mic recording, multi-app recording, video filters, etc. You can also animate the graphics, title, and logo with the collection available. Even someone without a clue about screen video creation can use the tool efficiently.
Screencastify
Screencastify can be used as a chrome extension, making it more straightforward than the other tools. Teachers can use the tool to have one on one interactions with the students. Business professionals can use the screencastify tool and interact with their clients. Students can create their assignment videos and share the same with their teachers.
Clipchamp
Clipchamp has an easy drag-and-drop feature that helps in creating amazing videos. You can edit any size video in the browser itself. Then add special effects, text transitions, music, etc. Record the screen and webcam and get advanced features like overlays, AI voiceovers, etc. With the huge library of templates, making the perfect video is not challenging.
Conclusion
Starting and managing a startup can be a challenging task. However, with the right set of tools, entrepreneurs can simplify the process and enhance their performance and reporting.
It’s important to note that not all tools are suitable for your startup. When it comes to tool adoption, startups should prioritize the key areas of their business rather than opting for what seems trendy or entertaining.
In our opinion, the ideal tool stack should include CRM, analytics, collaboration, automation, and sales tools, as these can significantly enhance the major aspects of your business such as customer relationships, revenue, data analysis, workflow, and productivity.
By utilizing these tools effectively, you can boost your business prospects and achieve sustained growth for years to come. Our team is doing regularly extensive research and evaluation of startup tools, and we’ll update you with more such startup tools and resources.
If you believe we have overlooked any valuable tools or resources, please share them in the comments section below to help us make this resource even more beneficial for fellow startup owners.
The Team Compare BizTech is made up of people from marketing backgrounds, digital marketing & content marketing backgrounds, each with unique experiences and nuggets of wisdom to share with you. The team is passionate about creating unique, accurate, and engaging content.
