Digital Sales During the Coronavirus: 17 Tools for Businesses

As we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone who can is working from home. That’s why there’s a stream of articles with useful remote work advice being shared online. But, what do we do about remote selling? That is, selling to remote buyers, particularly if your business model relies on in-person sales. 

A valid question; because apart from the shift in our mode of work, and our concerns about our loved ones, we also deal with buying and selling exclusively from a distance due to the (necessary) measures of social distancing and quarantines. Governments are shutting down stores and people stay in. Customers are increasingly heading online. 

So, what can you do to better  support your customers? The right tech can help. We’ve compiled a list of tools that can help you:

• Attract and sell to prospects online
• Connect with and support customers
• Keep revenue flowing amidst crisis

Some of these tools offer discounts or free options during these times.

Run demos and sell online

With the pandemic at large, customers will probably avoid coming to your store to get a feel of your products. But, you can showcase products via an online demo or prospect meeting to help them decide before they buy.

1) Calendly

A free appointment scheduling software to help you quickly book online meetings according to the availability of your employees and customers.

Calendly has decided to offer free integrations with video conferencing tools till June 30th.

2) Mixmax

A meeting scheduling app that also provides email tracking capabilities, built for Gmail. You can use email templates, set reminders, and see which times are better for scheduling customer meetings.

3) LeadSquared

A sales CRM and lead conversion platform used by industries such as banks, real estate, education, telemarketing, and more.

Offer seamless support

From video calling to live chat, your customers should be able to receive personalized and ‘human’ interactions with your brand online. 

4) Acquire

A conversational customer engagement platform that helps you offer superior customer experience. The platform offers capabilities of live chat, video and audio calling, cobrowsing, AI chatbots, knowledge base and more – everything you need to support and engage customers online. Offer omnichannel services, have better conversations and keep your customer data all in one place.

See more about building better customer experiences.

5) Doodle

A scheduling tool that helps you book meetings with multiple people (e.g. if you want more than one salespeople to be involved in a sale.)

6) GoToMeeting

A desktop sharing and video conferencing platform developed by LogMeIn. It’s also useful for hosting virtual events to invite customers who’re at home.

This tool has implemented free options for the coronavirus outbreak.

7) Hangouts

A free and popular G suite app used around the world. With Hangouts Chat, you can launch video calls with customers and take advantage of the screen share option to provide better support.

Google provides free access to advanced Hangouts Meet video-conferencing capabilities until July 1st.

8) Zoom

A handy video conferencing tool that lets you call with audio and video for free, and host online conferencing rooms (useful for customer training sessions, too.)

Zoom has put together a list of resources that could be useful in coronavirus times.

9) Slack

An instant messaging platform to help your employees who’re working from home collaborate and exchange knowledge quickly.

Slack has both free and paid versions, and currently holds consultations on how to make remote work...work.

Improve your online presence

Online traffic has surged ever since the coronavirus crisis started. Make sure you are providing customers what they’re looking for  on your ecommerce page and marketing site.

10) Shopify

A popular ecommerce platform that helps you set up and run your online store. A good choice if you haven’t invested much in an e-shop before the coronavirus.

11) Sellbrite 

A selling platform specializing in multi-channel exposure of your products (e.g. on Amazon, eBay, Etsy). It can help you in times when you’ll need to increase online revenue to make up for losses in physical sales.

12) WordStream

A software that enhances tour online advertising efforts. With WordStream, you can develop and launch campaigns across platforms (e.g. Google Ads, Bing) and convert more visitors into leads.

13) Google Analytics

A part of Google’s services, this platform offers in-depth reporting on web traffic and user behavior so you can know which digital marketing campaigns work and which don’t.

14) Creatopy

An efficient and intuitive visual production platform, Creatopy delivers a well-crafted experience for communicators, allowing individuals and teams to create engaging advertising visuals for multi-channel creative mediums. Creatopy provides communicators and brands all the necessary tools to keep visual content organized and on-brand. Whether you're looking for an accessible solution for instant design generation, make a banner or improve creative workflows, Creatopy can assist your design affairs at all stages."

Connect proactively with customers

15) HubSpot

A full inbound marketing, sales, and customer service platform. Among its other functions, HubSpot can help you set up landing pages related to the virus (e.g. discounts you offer, webinars), send coordinated email campaigns, or post on social media.

HubSpot offers free tools as part of its regular pricing plans. The company has also implemented a number of changes to support customers during this times like adding free tools, modifying usage limits, etc.

16) MailChimp

A marketing platform that enables you to set up landing pages, email campaigns, and social media ads. Use it to contact your customers with discounts or encouraging messages, and track engagement.

MailChimp offers free standard accounts to eligible local governments, schools, healthcare providers, and nonprofits until June 30.

17) Hootsuite

A social media management and content curation platform to help you schedule, manage, and report on content you share on social media. You can post and monitor posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and more.

Consider also giving time tracking software a try to find out how much time can be saved every day just by realizing the ways we're wasting it!

Stay safe

Business matters, but health matters more. During this difficult time, we hope you stay safe and virus-free. And think of the positive side: if you choose the right tools now, you’ll have a powerful suite of allies once the pandemic is over, and you’ll be closer than ever to your customers.

Nikoletta Bika

Senior Content Specialist

Nikoletta Bika is an experienced content marketer, writer, and editor, with degrees in business and people management. She writes about data, tech trends, AI, and more.