If you’re a small, medium and home-based business owner, it’s time for you to rejoice! Access and integration of online meeting tools have become more accessible and cost effective with the help of the internet.
Online meeting tools allow business owners, prospects, and clients to connect virtually and face-to-face nearly anytime and anywhere. They eliminate travel expenses, reduce overhead, and provide flexibility. The versatility of these tools is perfect for small to medium businesses who are still securing a permanent office space or consultants who work from home.
If you're hoping to evolve your business, adopting digital and online tools to your operations is a great place to start. If the world of digital and online tools are completely foreign to you, we’ve created a high level overview of the top 4 online meeting tools you can consider using within your businesses.
Go-To Meeting
Created by Citrix, Go-to Meeting succeeds by concentrating on the fundamentals of online communication. It's not the flashiest program from the bunch, but it performs core tasks fluidly and it can be integrated with many respectable programs.
- Simple user interface that is great for businesses who don't want all the bells and whistles.
- Hassle-free trials and free basic plans
- Seamless integration with Salesforce, Outlook, Gmail, Zapier and other leading office tools.
Fuze
Fuze is social-media savvy and allows for unique URLs, allowing your audience to connect to your broadcast in seconds, without complicated logins and passwords. Its mobile interface makes it easy to stage those on the go presentations.
- Promote your public presentation or seminar on social media if you have a content heavy business that benefits from exposure.
- VoIP support allows you to make audio calls or broadcast over the internet with ease.
- Fuze acts as a virtual secretary with comprehensive presentation scheduling and a clean contacts list transfer feature.
Cisco WebEX Meeting
Robust and excellently maintained, WebEX Meeting is backed by effective customer support and Cisco’s experience in the field.
- An excellent free-trial version is perfect for young and new businesses.
- Plenty of features and options for the presenter mean more adaptability to your client’s varying needs.
- Bundle WebEX Meeting with other Cisco collaboration services as your business grows and needs dictate.
Skype Business
Years of consumer market success have made Skype a global powerhouse and a trendsetter in video-call UI. Skype Business is light in features but also in cost and integration, with user databases that make this platform quite versatile.
- Up to 250 attendees per meeting! A social media golden ticket that can boost your exposure.
- The integration with Skype's user database works wonders for internal communications, and makes adding employees to meetings easy.
- A user base that is 300 million strong assuring Skype’s worldwide reputation and great performance.
Adopting new technologies and digital tools is critical for all businesses. As technology continues to advance, businesses will need to adopt these tools to ensure their business is adaptive to industry standards. These tools are effective not only for client meetings but also internal communications.
If you’re hoping to prospect to clients virtually, alongside to adopting online communications, you should also have a well versed online profile to show your clients before meeting them. LinkedIn is a great way to introduce yourself before setting up an online meeting with clients and prospects. If you’re not using LinkedIn yet or if you think your profile could use some extra strength, consider reading our blog post, LinkedIn: Why It’s not Just another Social Media.
