Many business professionals and companies are dealing with the impacts of COVID-19. Both business owners and employees are searching for new and virtual ways to communicate, collaborate, and engage in marketing initiatives. Fortunately, there are many free digital tools available to help you and your team navigate the remote working world. Many companies have even stepped up to the plate to offer premium tools for several months until things get back in line.
Here is a list of free digital tools and resources that can help your business during this time:
Communication Tools
1. Google Hangouts Meet: Google is offering its premium video conferencing features in their popular app until September 30th. You can have up to 250 people per call and steam to 100,000 viewers which should be more than enough for most organizations.
2. Lifesize: This is another video conferencing alternative you can use. The company is offering unlimited use of its platform to impacted organizations for up to six months.
3. Comcast: With everybody using the Internet, you may possibly deal with downtime depending on the provider you’re with. Fortunately, Comcast is offering free Xfinity WiFi hotspots for everyone. Simply see if the Xfinitywifi network is in your area and switch your connection to the provider.
4. Dialpad: Dialpad is offering two months of its Dialpad Talk Pro subscription. This VoIP service is a great way to funnel your call centre to a cloud platform to support social distancing measures.
Collaboration Tools
1. Atlassian: The company responsible for Trello is offering their project and business management tools available for free. This is a great platform for those that are in the tech space.
2. Microsoft: Microsoft is making Office 365 E1 available for free for six months. This new online-based apps includes collaborative functionality.
3. Zoho Remotely: The CRM company is making its suite of Remotely apps available for free until July 1st. These apps include a wide range of products to help work more productively and collaborate with team members.
4. Dropbox and Box: Both cloud storage companies are offering a free service for up to 3 months. Dropbox is making it available for those involved in fighting COVID-19 while Box is making it available for all users.
Marketing Tools
1. BirdEye: The company is making its customer communication service available for free for a limited time. It’s a great way to step up with your customer interaction and support.
2. Hootsuite: If you want to step up your social media marketing, Hootsuite is making their pro account available until July 1st. Social media is vital to communication right now when everybody is social distancing.
3. GoDaddy: The company is making its website builder available for free. It comes integrated with various marketing tools to help business owners during the crisis. You can set up a website, set up email marketing, accept payments, and more with this package.
4. Unbounce: Landing pages are vital for marketing campaigns. The company is being generous by offering three months of access to their landing page creation platform which normally runs from $79 to $399 a month.
5. Shopify: The eCommerce platform is offering a 90-day trial for new customers. Normally this trial only lasts for 14 days, so you have plenty of time to build your store and test out the platform.
Finance Tools
1. Wave: This is an all-in-one financial platform that can help you take care of everything from accounting, invoicing, to budgeting. The company is offering its platform for free for an undisclosed amount of time.
2. Bill.com: This cloud-based billing service is offering a free 90-day subscription to new customers. It’s a great way to manage your finances if your business deals with clients.
Free Digital Tools that Will Always Be Free
If you don’t like the idea of having to subscribe or don’t want to get attached to paid tools, there are plenty of options that will remain free even after the pandemic passes. Here’s a quick list:
1. Trello – If you prefer a simple but effective collaboration and project management tool, Trello is one of the best solutions. It offers many of the features you’d find in other expensive platforms. This is one of the free tech tools you can’t go without.
2. Canva – Canva is one of the best graphic design tools for non-designers. You can quickly grab templates, images, and create outstanding designs in minutes.
3. MailChimp – The email marketing company is still offering a free basic account if you want to manage a small email list. They’ve expanded its free features and added in landing pages, basic CRM analytics/tools, and surveys.
4. Evernote – It’s still the same great, free note-taking app that you can use for your business. The company continues to add more features to make it easy to manage your everyday life and business.
5. Grammarly – You’re going to be communicating online more than ever, so why not pick up Grammarly? It will help you communicate more effectively by checking your spelling and grammar.
6. SoGoSurvey – You may want to take surveys to collect feedback from employees and customers. SoGoSurvey is one of the best free survey tools that you can use due to the number of features it offers.
7. Join.me – If you want a basic but reliable video conferencing option that you can use for a long time, Join.me is a great choice. You can have up to 10 participants, share screens, and even stream to other users.
8. Zoho Desk – Zoho has offered its help desk software for free for quite some time. If you need help managing customer support, using this solution is a great way to be more efficient, track cases, and keep your customers happy.
9. LastPass – You’re going to be logging into many online accounts working from home. LastPass makes it easy to remember your usernames and passwords for all your accounts across every device. It’s done in a secure manner to protect hackers from getting a hold of your passwords.
Out of the many digital tools available, these are the very best that you should make use of during COVID-19. Many large tech companies are making an effort to support business owners during this difficult time. By leveraging these tools for remote work, you can create a great deal of value for your business.
