10 DIY Tools To Help Your Tech Startup Grow

The momentum of the Pakistani IT industry is shifting from where it stood in the 90s. Today, its growth rate suggests that it will exceed the 11 billion USD threshold in the next 5 years. Given that the Pakistani Tech startup industry reserves a fertile domain for growth, VCs such as ePlanet Ventures, Adobe, Motorola, and Innovacom1 are aggressively expanding their reach.

10 DIY Tools To Help Your Tech Startup Grow

It’s even reported that the tech companies in Pakistan are growing at a rate of 30% each year. The industry is pacing at quite a speed and the economy platform keeps attracting oligopolies that depend on networking – mainly to introduce innovative tech as well as improving the overall user experience.

From social networking on Facebook to e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Alibaba, tech startups are actioning their resources to make their place in the hustling cyberspace market. Unlike the bigger names in the tech field, smaller ones may find numerous challenges that could be daunting and discouraging. But the only way to step forth is to deal smartly using the ready-made tools.

The focal point of using these tools is that these tools are cheap, are the best bang for your buck, and might probably be the ones used by your competitors. You can find hundreds of tools at your disposal, but the ones listed own below offer the premium quality service that you expect. Read on to discover how these tools can skyrocket your tech productivity.

WordPress

Wordpress       

There’s a probable chance that you must’ve come across business sites created with WordPress. It’s one of the most popular and the most comprehensive as well as an open source web developing tool. To have a professional website developed, you don’t need to be a technical expert. Big names, such as Sony, BBC, MTV and The New Yorker to name a few, use WordPress for their websites.

You have the advantage to set up an online store which includes installation of customized plugins and themes, unlimited cloud storage, Google Analytics as well as real-time concierge support. The price for this online custom store opens at $25 monthly. However, if you’re opting for a personalized domain name and other features detailed per your requirement, you can have plans adjusted.

The best part about using WordPress for your tech startup is that is it extensible, safe, and secure. Plus, it’s one of the best DIY tools out there and it would be an injustice not to try it!

Hootsuite

Hootsuite

Running your tech startup can be overwhelming once you plunge into the social media side of your business. You need to produce, curate, organize and schedule your postings, which is why Hootsuite helps you save time and resources on all your social media activities.

It lets you schedule your posts all across your social media accounts, allows free-floating content curation and management, measure the impact made by your social media campaigns. For instance, Dacia is an automotive subsidiary of Renault, which used social media campaigning to generate leads and create brand awareness. The results? 45% reduction in the costs per lead and +6 points in brand favorability and purchase intent.

Both technology and social media might seem intertwined, but an organizing tool as Hootsuite can easily automate the whole process, saving you both energy, resources, and time.

Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo

For all the startups and businesses out there, Buzzsumo is one of the leading interactive tools to help you get started with your digital marketing and SEO campaigns. This tool lets you analyze what type of content works best for your industry and connects you to the influencers in your niche. You not only get to reach the targeted mass but can also trace the digital footprint so to develop smarter content strategies.

Depending on what your product specializes in the tech field, Buzzsumo helps you search and identify content that is working well in the industry or among your audience. For example, if your company specializes in delivering products made with 3D printing technology or creating drones with custom features, Buzzsumo enables you to explore and analyze the local and global content related to your business. You can also monitor and find influencers as well as discover the most recent trends in your industry. The package at Buzzsumo starts at $79/month, but the services you get are worth the price you pay.

LogoDesign.Net

LogoDesign.Net

Tech businesses are no exception when it comes to having a logo that validates the business’s identity. A logo defines where a business stands and the standards it deals in. Anyways, for business as stern as the tech one, having a designer craft your identity can cost you a hefty sum.

Since it’s all about the DIY thing, the most cost-effective option is to use an AI-driven logo maker that caters to professional designs. LogoDesign.net is one of these online logo makers that give you an opportunity to choose your desired design from a catalog of +5000 logo articles.

All you have to do is to browse and select a template, edit and customize your symbol, and download it within minutes. The quality of these designs is highly versatile and adaptable to any platform. Just a few minutes and you can have a professional logo at your disposal!

Google Analytics

Google Analytics

If it’s not the gifted intuition, then it’s Google Analytics. Being one of the leading tech giants leverages an overall advantage of keeping the market insights attuned with this very tool. And this tool becomes a business’s source of understanding your target audience as well as gaining an upper-hand in elevating the business experience.

Google Analytics doesn’t just dig deep down the market algorithms; you also get to learn where your visitors are and what they’re interested in. It includes all the metrics that are deployed in your business to deliver the overall outside user data connected to your site. For a tech business, metrics and key figures matter more for accessing the consumer database and devising future marketing strategies, which is why Google Analytics lets you analyze the details and analytics regarding your customers.  

Marketo is a leading marketing automation software company that used Google Analytics to combine the company’s market analysis with the insights gained from customer data based on the business vertical and conversion stage. With services from Google Analytics, Marketo saw an increase of 117% in qualified leads with over 130% increase in multi-touch opportunities.

In such a way, any tech startup – regardless of where it’s operating from – can refresh its marketing strategies as well as optimize its campaigns. Plus, Google Analytics is free to use.

MailChimp

MailChimp

MailChimp is the application that every business requires to create unique campaigns, automate the business process, integrate new tools, and optimize every move smartly. MailChimp can be incorporated with more than 300 apps, has served millions of customers in +175 countries, sends 6 billion emails a week, and has free and paid plans to make your marketing campaign a success.

This astounding tool took off as an email marketing app, but now offer a multi-line product to cater to different needs of a business. As a tech business, it helps you hone your marketing skills with advanced automation processes and connect every app to make your business easier to handle. 

Hubspot

Hubspot

To use this classy SEO tool, you don’t entirely have to be a technical expert. For SEO content optimization, Hubspot promises to deliver cutting-edge technology to help you land the topping search results. It is a software program that aims to nurture your tech startup by accelerating your sales, generate leads via CRM tools, and personalize communication.

Care.com is an online healthcare market where people can find and manage family healthcare. Though being the largest platform of its own kind, the sales team required a concrete platform to connect with the outside world. The business was growing but the upscale reps were missing. Coming across Hubspot enabled them to set real-time notification alerts regarding how their prospects engaged with their business. The business was scaled using the Hubspot marketing tools as well as to measure the impact of the leads generated.

As it’s already a software, integrating other Hubspot tools can help increase the traffic, connect closer and manage leads, and provide additional support. Apart from Hubspot CRM tool (which is entirely free), you can get a demo of the marketing, sales, and service hubs offered. And for what it’s worth, these tools do need to be tried!

Adwords

Google Adwords

Every startup penetrating the internet and racing forth to integrate search engine marketing (SEM) is a tech startup. Whether you want to advertise on a local or international level, Adwords lets you advertise using a variety of media on various targeted sites.

There are several models of payment for your ads, such as Cost per click (CPC), Cost per acquisition (CPA), and Cost per mille (CPM). You can also use Pay per click (PPC) as a part of an overall digital marketing strategy. You can also customize your preferences based on geography and consumer demographics.

At first, you might feel terrible at Adwords, it might take a while to get the hang of how it works. Nonetheless, keeping check of the basics, such as keywords and long-tail phrases, bid management, and A/B testing ad copy can help you develop a better understanding of an extensive ad campaigning platform. Just set your budget and you’re good to create ads using highly searchable keywords.

Facebook Ads

Facebook Business Ads

After Adwords, comes the most popular advertising platform: Facebook. There isn’t any business niche that isn’t benefitting from the social media domain. It is one of the best ways to upscale your tech startup all by yourself. In fact, advertising your business on social media is the most prominent method of attracting leads and generate sales in the shortest time possible.

Here, you can choose from various types of ads after you set a goal for your ads, define your target and budget, choose your ad placement and order the ad. The best feature of the Facebook Ads is that it can be integrated with various tools to boost the campaigning. As a solo technopreneur, you can deploy ads on social media as your lasting resort and improve on that.

Dropbox

Tech startup

Dropbox is like a storage file on your PC, except that the files you save are stored on a cloud-based system. It connects your account and syncs all your files on a 2GB free storage, saving you of the clutter. Not only that, but it also gives you the flexibility of operating the application on a multitude of platforms.

The basic plan costs $0, but for businesses and enterprises, it streamlines their technology workflow by offering additional features. These features include increased storage capacity and live chat support, which can be attained at a cost of $12.50/month for an individual user. The app is user-friendly and requires no prior expertise.

Wrapping It Up

All the hype these days is to become a serial entrepreneur with a DIY vibe just about the personality. We listed 10 exclusive DIY tools that are used by millions across the globe for the ease and accessibility they offer.

No, you don’t need technical expertise to figure these tools out. And with that, it’s also important that you should make these tools a part of your business regimen and watch your tech business grow with a full bloom!

By Ayesha Ambreen

I am a veteran blogger, social media strategist and digital media consultant.