11 Great Small Business Tools from Google

Small Business Tools: Education

Learn with Google: This site is packed with information on digital marketing and advertising. It also has several how-to guides on various topics related to building your online brand.
Cost: Free

Think with Google: A website dedicated to helping small businesses grow by providing data on consumer trends, marketing insights and industry research. The site also includes tools to help plan your company’s online marketing efforts.
Cost: Free (some services are paid, ex. Google Consumer Surveys)

Google Trends: Find out who, what and when people search with Google Trends. Check out the screenshot below for a preview. A great starting place for any small business owner.
Cost: Free

Small Business Tools: E-commerce

Google Shopping: An advertising platform designed to promote retail sales for your small business. Google Shopping will display an ad featuring your product directly in their search results. When a user searches for a product you offer, your ad is displayed. You only pay for actual leads to your website. This is a great way to jump-start a digital advertising campaign.

Google Offers: Like Groupon or LivingSocial, Google Offers is a daily deal platform for your business. Getting started is easy, Google will help create a deal that is best for you and your business. Then they will promote it through their websites, email, and mobile apps. Once people starting buying your deal, Google will help you develop relationships with your new customers.

Google Offers for Maps: Think of it as Google Maps meets Groupon. Offer deals directly to mobile users on Google Maps for Android.

Small Business Tools: Management

Get Your Business Online: A partnership between Google and Intuit, Get Your Business Online is a small business tool to help owners establish an online presence. Businesses can receive a year of web hosting, a custom domain and access to a powerful website builder all for free.

Google Apps: Tired of paying hundreds of dollars for Microsoft Office only to use it a few times a month? Google Apps is a complete cloud-based office suite, email service, calendar and more. There is a 14-day free trial, after that, it costs $5 per user a month.

Small Business Tools: Social Media

Google + for Business: In about 10 minutes you can get your business listed on Google Maps, Google + and Google search (including mobile search). If you do move forward with any suggestions from this post, make sure you sign up for Google +.
Cost: Free

Google+ Hangouts: A group video chat service. Host promotional webinars and showcase your business to all of your customers. Best of all its free.
Cost: Free

Youtube “My Business Story”: A free service from Youtube and American Express, ‘My Business Story’ helps small businesses get noticed. Simply shoot some video of your business, employees or anything you wish to showcase and upload the video to Youtube. Once uploaded, access Youtube’s vast selection of free music and graphics to enhance your video and share your story online.
Cost: Free

Check out the Daysmart Salon blog for more interesting business articles!