10 (+5) Best Business Apps To Improve Your Marketing Strategy

Take a look at the app stores. Today, there is quite an abundance of tools that promise to help marketers and entrepreneurs in taking better - and timely - decisions. We have all come to rely on mobile devices to manage daily tasks and increase the quality of our output.

Since the smartphone has become the privileged companion of our private and professional life, mobile business apps represent the essential compendium to stay connected 24/7 with what matters most: your brand and your customers.

Mobile technology has not only shaped the ecosystem we all live in; it has also contributed to the dawn of a new category of clients, the digital customers. In the last few months, the smartphone has officially achieved the ‘first-screen’ status:

• Mobile searches have surpassed desktop searches in 2015;

• Mobile optimization has become a primary parameter in Google’s algorithm;

• Apps account for 86% of total time spent on mobile devices.

Digital marketers find themselves in the dual position of publishers and customers. The question is simple: In a world where customers are betting heavily on mobile, why shouldn’t marketing professionals do it? You would do well to focus on native apps, investing time and money in optimization practices to better your strategy and improve efficiency.

When you get a glimpse of the productivity apps around the web, it’s easy to see that there's no shortage of tools for digital marketers. Whatever is your specific need - social media, SEO, advertising, project organization, time management - you can easily find the proper tool with a few taps.

Long gone are the days when the most popular utilities were only available to geek scanners, as desktop software applications. Productivity apps have conquered the stores in the name of ‘omni-channel’ and cloud, so much that it is sometimes difficult to choose between dozens of options.

The search for the best business app - the one that will help you optimize your time - can be extremely time-consuming. A paradox we want to solve, to pick up 10 of the best mobile business apps that really deliver on the promise to make your life easier and help you organize your daily routine and tasks more effectively.

POCKET

The Internet is full of juicy contents if you are looking for insights to improve your marketing skills or develop an amazing customer experience. You are constantly under the risk of content overdose, and that’s where Pocket comes into play, allowing you to save the best articles online to read them later, on any device.

EXPENSIFY

On the official website, Expensify is described as the “hassle-free expense reporting built for employees and loved by admins”. And that’s true. Whenever you need to track your business expenses, you can count on this helpful app, that makes capturing receipts, tracking mileage, business travel and creating expense reports quick and easy.

SLACK

If you work within a team, you know how hard it is to keep track of all the tasks assigned to different members. Slack is a team communication platform - integrated with other apps like Dropbox, Drive, and Asana. You can channel for various topics, and fill them with contents so that everybody is on the same page.

BASECAMP

Apps have disrupted many business silos, and project organization and management is surely one of those. Basecamp allows you to organize the whole project and assign tasks to people, managing workflow and keeping everyone communicating with one another. It is fully integrated with the desktop version, and it’s completely free.

TODOIST

If your daily agenda is so full that sometimes you can't make sense of your meetings and things to do, Todoist is the answer to your problems. It is a productivity app that allows you to stay on top of your personal tasks, across all devices. You can organize your list with tags and categories, so you know what you need to do, and when.

GO TO MEETING

How can you manage your meetings when you’re out of office or on a business trip? GoToMeeting is one of the best services to join meetings and call with clients and colleagues. The perfect addition to the web version, the app facilitate collaborations from anywhere, including your mobile. You only need a mobile connection.

IFTTT

Automation is becoming the standard in all things marketing. How can you automate your content strategy? By setting actions that trigger reactions. IFTTT (If This Than That) does exactly this, by connecting the most-used services, and automating with ‘recipes’ many of the routine operations you used to do by hand.

BUFFER

Do you want to reply to your customers in real-time? Do you want to schedule a post on the brand official page while on mobility? If you haven’t set-up a social media platform yet, Buffer can be your best mobile app solution. You won’t need a desktop computer to manage your social accounts, review analytics or create a long-term media plan.

GOOGLE ADS

Search engine marketing today revolves around Google Ads. The newly-launched official app lets you check your campaign status and statistics; update ads, bids, and budgets; get real-time alerts. AdWords is essential if you're running a pay-per-click campaign on Google.

GOOGLE ANALYTICS

In the era of Big Data, analytics is the new business, differentiator. Predictive analysis studies past behaviors to anticipate future. Google Analytics (also for iOS) is the main source to understand your customers’ online and mobile behaviors. With the official app, you can access all of your reporting profiles from your smartphone/tablet, leveraging data to deliver the best customer experience.

Honorable Mentions:

STREAK

If you own a small business and you use Google Apps (and Gmail above all), Streak is one solution to your sales problems. It is a pocket-sized CRM that lets you keep track of your contacts, and manage where you are in your relationship with them. The good thing? For personal use it is completely free.

NIMBLE

We all know that social media can be - and should be - used for sales purposes, but how can you manage the neverending stream of data coming from Facebook & Co.? Nimble is the answer, a social sales and marketing CRM suitable for all businesses. The pricing starts at 25 dollars per user/month.

SQUARE

"The POS software that's simple, powerful and simple." The claim sounds interesting, and Square Register does not go back on the promise. If you are a small business with point of sale, just plug in the small card-reader to your smartphone or tablet, and you can swipe credit cards and process payments without hassle and at a low price.

RESCUE TIME

Timing is everything in business. With Rescue Time you will learn to avoid the distraction of the digital life, improving your time management and finding a better work-life balance. The app, in fact, automatically tracks the time you have spent on appa and websites, and sends you detailed reports based on your activity.

SKYPE FOR BUSINESS

When it comes to video-conference, Skype is the standard. We all know the basic version but Skype For Business has many perks that could appeal marketers. In example, it is now fully integrated with Microsoft Office 365, and can manage meeting with up to 250 attendees. Plus, it adds a security layer to all your business accounts, just in case.

Now it's your turn. Tell us what are your favorite business apps, the ones that you can't live without.

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