Whatever business you are in, it never stands still. Growth is rarely an option, it’s an imperative. Because if you’re not growing, you’re declining. Thinking about change and growth needs to be a core part of your business process. Whether your growth plans are transformative or gradual, here are a few tips to grow your business.
Leverage Technology
Having your business online has become a basic business necessity. At a minimum, you need a website and a social media presence on the main platform where your customers can be found. Beyond that, it is well worth considering what more can you do to take your offering beyond that basic level and make you stand out from the crowd?
Technology means that it’s so much easier to outsource tasks and roles and the associated fixed costs. From marketing and design, to packing, even virtual cfo services, all of those can be outsourced, freeing up your capital for investment in growth.
Could you be making sales online with an e-commerce shop-front or via an appropriate platform? Ecommerce is a no-brainer for product sales. And you can package up services and sell them online too. Automated tools can be utilised for bookings, event management, and customer inquiries.
Another option could be to create an app that complements your product or service. Before starting on this do your research to make sure that it is something that customers will welcome and use. Apps can be game-changers, but they are also often tricky and expensive. Until recently developers would have had to build out the app separately for the iOS and Android operative systems. But Google has now created a toolkit called Flutter, which allows your app to be used across devices and operating systems. This makes the app development process more straightforward, but you will still need to hire a flutter app development company to develop and maintain it.
Build Your Email List
Email lists are a great way to build an engaged audience and promote your business. By creating a list, you can send out updates or exclusives to people interested in what you’re doing. You can also send out messages to groups of people about an upcoming event, coupon, giveaway, or survey. Email marketing can be incredibly powerful, and you can use it to reach your target market, but you need to know how to use it.
- Engaging content is key: All of your emails will need to provide valuable information to engage your audience. If it isn’t compelling enough, you could damage your reputation. Approach each email as if you are speaking directly to your customers and try to keep a fine line between sales and information.
- Promote a contest or run a promotion: Email can be a fantastic place to run promotions or competitions. If you have collected an email from an existing customer, you could offer them a discount on similar items, boosting your overall revenue.
- Create landing pages: These are specially designed pages on your website where you direct visitors from your emails. Suppose you’re running an ad campaign for shoes; you could set up a dedicated landing page that showcases your best offerings and some accessories that go along with them.
- Allow your emails to be shared: Ensure that you add social sharing buttons to each of your emails to enable your readers to spread the message to their friends. This is an easy win that could net you further sales.
Create A Sales Funnel
Once you have set up your email list and have a decent number of subscribers, you could consider a sales funnel. A sales funnel is a marketing technique used to guide a potential client through a series of steps. The idea is that the steps are presented in sequential order, with each step leading to the next, so that the potential client can follow the correct path to reach the final goal. What is the absolute intention? The goal is to make the customer happy with a successful sale.
Analyze The Competition
This option might sound obvious, but you would be surprised how many companies fail to do this task. Many business owners tend to have a laser focus on their own product and service and become oblivious to what their competition is doing. Competitor analysis will also enable you to track and preserve and grow your niche in the marketplace.
Take some time and review what others in your industry are doing. It is essential to include all of your management team and those working on a product you are attempting to grow. Some of the things to look out for are:
- Who are they?
- What are they offering?
- What is their pricing structure?
- How have they positioned themselves?
- What is their reputation with their customers?
- How do they stay in contact with their customers?
- What weaknesses can you exploit?
Once you have answered these questions and others related to your business, you can begin to create a strategy to maintain your position or move ahead of your competitors.
Establish A Loyalty Program For Customers
Building loyalty is one of the strongest tips to grow your business. Loyalty programs and reward programs can be a powerful way of attracting and retaining customers. For a while, in recent decades, there was a strange trend in companies promoting special offers only to new customers as part of an onboarding process. Unsurprisingly this was pretty offensive to long-standing customers and also went against the best marketing research which extolls the value of long-term customer retention. Big business got the message when their most valued customers voted with their feet. Now loyalty and reward programmes are used routinely for all customers. Some famous examples include:
- Starbucks Rewards: This one is quite simple but effective. Collect points for free coffees, perks or preferential service.
- Air miles: build up points to access free flights and other offers.
- Amazon Prime: For a monthly membership fee, users can get unlimited free delivery and access to associated services including Prime TV.
- Uber Rewards: Uber has expertly interwoven their product offerings to create a program that entices its users to use them more.
- The Body Shop Charity Program: They provide their customers with points when they buy a product and offer the chance to donate the points to an animal charity.
The other advantage of loyalty programmes, especially those that operate through an app, is that they will give you enhanced data and intelligence about your customer’s profiles and spending habits.
Getting new customers will make your business grow, but don’t ignore your existing customers. It may be a cliché, but it’s still true; in any business, the customer is king. If you can make your customers feel valued and understood you’ll be ahead of most of your competitors. Build on the advantage and your business will boom.