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24 Powerful SaaS Tools Every Startup Should Have
Starting a business is no walk in the park.
But with the long list of technology innovations available at practically anyone’s disposal today, there’s no better time to be an entrepreneur.
This article takes a look at 24 Powerful SaaS Tools every startups and budding entrepreneurs can explore to help them better manage their businesses:
Analytics Tools
1) Crazy Egg
Crazy Egg is a conversion optimization tool that lets you visualize how users interact with your website.
It’s more than just an analytics tool, in that its proprietary heatmap functionality gives you actionable insights into why your site visitors are hitting the back button.
It lets you optimize your web pages so more of your visitors convert into leads, subscribers, prospects, or paying customers.
Google Analytics is a web analytics platform that arms you with the traffic data you need to turn your website into a lead generation and conversion machine.
The app lets you keep track of the metrics that matter to you, such as new versus returning visitors, the operating system and browser types often used by your visitors, the country they’re from, and the type of content that resonates the most with them.
3) Mixpanel
Mixpanel is a mobile analytics tool that supplies app developers the data they need to understand how their app is being used.
It provides you with vital engagement statistics, such as how many users are inviting their friends to the platform, which music types are the most downloaded, which photo filters are popular among certain user segments, and so on.
Collaboration Tools
4) Trello
Trello is an organization tool that can be used for personal and collaborative purposes.
Essentially a task management app, it provides users with boards where cards containing the details of each task can be dropped onto lists.
Collaborators can be added to boards and dragged to cards, and lists can be reordered as necessary. Updates to tasks and projects show up in real time.
5) Basecamp
Basecamp is a project management app that combines six essential tools so teams get things done together without switching between solutions.
The tools it carries are:
- campfire for brainstorming sessions,
- message board to keep discussions on point,
- to-do lists to organize tasks,
- scheduler to keep everyone aware of milestones and deadlines,
- automatic check-ins that post questions at regular intervals,
- and a document manager to store and share files.
6) Slack
Slack brands itself as “team communication for the 21st century.”
It keeps all team communications in one place and allows users to create channels to better organize their conversations.
Channels can be created for just about anything – teams, projects, or topics. Private channels can likewise be created for conversations you want to keep between you and just a few users.
Startup promotion Tools
7) BetaList
For startups looking for early users to test their product, consider getting listed with BetaList.
It showcases a catalog of newly launched Internet startups – approximately 100 every month. The homepage displays the startups that are trending, featured within the week, the previous week, and so on. Startups can also be filtered according to region and market.
Clicking on a startup’s thumbnail takes you to a page with more details about it, including similar startups within the BetaList database.
8) Product Hunt
Remember that startup offering to glitter-bomb your least favorite people in the world? It got featured on Product Hunt and then took a life of its own from there – until the founder auctioned it off for $85,000 a few days later. Well, according to him, he couldn’t take any more stress.
Product Hunt categories include tech, games, books, podcasts, and collections. It’s a place to discover new apps, projects, and websites.
9) StartupLi.st
StartupLi.st is a place where early adopters congregate to find, recommend, and follow startups.
Users create a profile, follow an activity stream, discuss and share their viewpoints on a startup, and even recommend them to peers. One startup gets featured on StartupLi.st every day.
Idea generation Tools
10) Box Notes
Box Notes is a Box feature that lets you take down notes, create documents, and share ideas with friends or colleagues in real time. It requires no additional software to create, view, and edit notes and documents.
The app is native to Box, so if you’re a Box subscriber, all your files, documents, photos, slideshows, videos, music playlists, and brainstorming notes can be accessed from one cloud-based location.
11) Skitch
If copious note-taking isn’t your thing and you’re more visually inclined, Skitch by Evernote is an app that allows you to snap and share any image that captures your fancy. Built-in markup tools are available so you can add shapes, sketches, and annotations to your images.
Once done, save it to Evernote and share as you would any image – through social networking sites, email, or even Evernote.
12) Germ.io
Germ.io is an app that helps you nurture an idea to execution.
It allows you to take note of ideas in free-form text and expand upon them using images, URL previews, and attachments.
Colleagues can be invited into the app for idea validation and to pinpoint which of the ideas make the most sense.
Market research Tools
13) Google Trends
Overall business success has a lot to do with a company’s ability to listen to the pulse of their target audience.
Google Trends is a web-based resource that identifies trends by how often search terms are entered into Google. Trends are spotted across different languages and various world regions.
14) CrunchBase
If you’re looking for innovation-focused companies, including the people who founded them, CrunchBase is a community-powered startup discovery platform composed of end users, CrunchBase partners, and investment firms.
Referred to by one user as “the Wikipedia for startups”, it brings valuable data and market insights to a wide range of businesses and users from around the world.
15) SimilarWeb
SimilarWeb is a site that generates insights for any app or website.
It gives you a glimpse of the traffic stats of your competitors, allowing you to adjust your marketing and other initiatives accordingly.
It comes with a browser extension for Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Opera, so you can instantly analyze website traffic and engagement statistics in just a click.
Marketing Tools
16) HubSpot
HubSpot is a marketing platform and sales software rolled into one.
It takes care of various inbound marketing activities: blogging, social media, SEO, website optimization, lead management, calls-to-action, landing page creation and optimization, email marketing, analytics, and CRM syncing.
The sales software is equipped with a free CRM and the Sidekick app, which delivers insights into who your clients are via their social profiles and whether or not your emails have been opened and links within emails have been clicked.
17) MailChimp
MailChimp is an email marketing solution that allows users to send emails that push your conversion rates higher.
It lets you set up campaigns, customize built-in email templates, and understand how your mailing list responds to your campaigns. It monitors trends, tracks opens and clicks, and generates real-time subscriber activity reports.
MailChimp also reports on users who don’t open your emails, allowing you to tweak your emails accordingly.
18) Customer.io
With customers that include The Economist, Shutterstock, and Olark, Customer.io is an email marketing service that manages all of your messages in a single dashboard.
It provides features such as automation, segmentation, analytics, user profiles, triggered messaging, A/B testing, conversion tracking, and message delivery scheduling.
Data segments can be implemented to focus your messaging. Segments can include pageviews, events, email activity, and attributes.
Subscriptions Tools
19) Chargebee
Chargebee is a subscription and recurring billing software that keeps your subscription data in one cloud-based solution.
It allows you to manage multiple pricing tiers, and add and delete add-ons without affecting existing subscriptions – all from within the same dashboard.
Data can be shared among teams, and clients are awarded the freedom to modify their subscription packages via their very own customer portal. The system also comes equipped with invoicing and payment capabilities.
20) Recurly
Recurly is a subscription billing app that supports multiple payment schemes: credit cards, PayPal, Amazon Payments, and ACH. Once set up, it lets you import current subscriber data from third-party sources.
It manages subscriptions, simplifies the billing and collection process, and uses powerful analytics tools to help you gain essential business insights, recover lost revenues, generate in-depth reports, and automatically manage credit card payment declines.
21) Zuora
Zuora is an enterprise-grade end-to-end business management solution for subscription businesses.
It takes care of various processes that include subscription management, recurring billing, global payments, ecommerce, recurring revenue, insights generation, and quotes/estimates management.
From initial estimates to closing your books, Zuora’s integrated tools have your back.
Product demo Tools
22) Appetize.io
Appetize.io is a tool that runs dedicated iOS and Android simulators in the browser.
The app allows you to stream your apps anywhere, embed them in websites, or send them to clients and beta testers for demos and testing. The device being simulated can be customized (Android device, iPhone, or iPad), including its color, scale, and orientation.
23) Dunnnk
If you need design prototypes for your meetings or presentations, Dunnnk is a web-based service that provides high-resolution mockups of your designs.
Choose the device you want your designs to show up on, such as smart watches, Androids, iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, and iMacs, and the mockups will be sent to your email address.
24) Explainify
Created in 2012 because of the founders’ distaste for conventional, cookie-cutter agency videos, Explainify is a service that creates explainer videos to boost a company’s search engine ranking, conversion rates, and sales figures.
With short, animated videos, Explainify aims to accurately tell your unique brand story to your target audience.
Conclusion
With the fast pace at which customers now expect businesses to address their various needs, cloud-based apps and services are no longer “nice to have”.
To compete and stay relevant in a competitive marketplace, tools are an essential ally.
The post 24 Powerful SaaS Tools Every Startup Should Have (Guaranteed) appeared first on Cloudswave Blog.