Tips to Grow Your Small Business
Small businesses have an incredibly important role in the economy of the USA. In fact, a large majority of all companies within the country are classified as small businesses. These companies range from restaurants, top construction companies to IT firms and everything in between.
However, no matter what industry you’re in or what product or service you sell, one thing that many small businesses struggle with is growing. In fact, many small businesses will fail within their first couple of years of operation.
Thankfully, your company doesn’t have to simply be another statistic. There are several different things you can do to give your company a good chance of growing. With that in mind, this article is going to go over a few tips to grow your small business in 2020.
Customer Service Should Be a Priority
In order to have a successful company, you need customers. However, with so many different businesses in your space, there is a lot of competition for these customers. As a result, your customer service needs to be top-notch. You could have an outstanding product or service, but if your customer service drives people away, you will fail.
You need to take every step you can to make your customers feel special and valued. Be sure to respond to any issues and questions as soon as possible, and be as helpful as possible. Ensure your customer service staff is knowledgeable and well-versed, and also kind and friendly. The better customer service, the more likely your customers will recommend you to their peers.
Employee Engagement is Instrumental for Success
Another thing that is instrumental in the success of your company is your employees. If your team is made up of lackluster employees, your products, projects, and services are likely to fall flat. As a result, you need to make sure that your team is made up of high-quality employees capable of getting the job done.
However, hiring and retaining these types of employees is difficult, unless you engage them properly. Employees want to feel challenged, respected and want to be compensated fairly for their work. Be sure to appreciate all of your employees and also take what they have to say into account.
While all of this can take a bit of time and money for your company, the results will be more than worth it. Without helping your employees grow and mature in their careers, growing your business will prove difficult.
Use Technology to Your Advantage
In 2020, technology will play a bigger role in companies than ever before. There are dozens of different apps, platforms, and tools that can help nearly every business area at your company. There are tools to simplify HR, to speed up invoicing and accounting, to keep your business secure and even manage data.
Of course, the value of having your company on social media is still incredibly high as well. It is one of the easiest ways to reach out to potential customers. Also, things like automation and AI should also be considered, as they can optimize your processes and save you money. You could also use a virtual assistant to help you with your outreach.
In conclusion, the tips within this article will be able to help you successfully grow your small business in 2020. Some very experienced people would have very good tips and ideas:
Roundpeg – ‘In our 2020 Digital Marketing Study we see business owners gravitating toward platforms, which take less time such as Instagram but are also less effective than the less glamorous but significantly more beneficial, Google My Business.’
Then, you want to take into account how each generation communicates. Put simply, different generations have distinct preferences. In order to persuade them to buy your products, you need to provide information relevant to them, through the communication channels they appreciate the most.
Here are a few relevant and marvelous tips and ideas that will help you to grow your small business in 2020.
1. You must have an exclusive website for your business which is more users friendly.
2. Hire some professionals of digital marketing to rank your website on search engines through SEO and other techniques of online marketing.
3. Do not forget the importance of social media for the growth of your small business.
4. Data collected from consumer behavior analysis will help you to take relevant decisions for your business by keeping the needs of customers in mind.
5. Set an active channel of conversation with your customers to address their complaints.
6. Keep some lucrative offers and loyalty points for those who are your regular customers.
7. Sending customized newsletters according to the customers’ previous purchasing history can also work very well for the growth of your business.
If you will hit these tips for the growth of your small business venture in 2020 then you will definitely be able to flourish your business to a certain height.
Give it a few weeks, review your Pinterest data along with your Google/Bing Analytics data to learn more about your audience without spending any money!
Analyze your response on these networks and opt for the paid promotions options, plan your campaigns keeping in mind the goal you want to achieve through it and the audience that might be interested to know about your business.
- Start by knowing exactly who you’re selling to.
- Develop a content marketing plan designed to inform, educate, entertain, and inspire consumer actions that eventually result in sales.
- Focus on video content – blogs, video ads, social media sharing like updates, photos, memes, ads – and include CTAs for connection and engagement where appropriate, like follow, sign up, tell us what you think, contact us, and of course buy now. Decide which content to share organically (free) and which to share via paid channels like Facebook, YouTube TikTok, Instagram, Twitter…
- Optimize your website for conversions, for a smooth customer experience.
- Track results, determine what’s working and not working, and do more of what’s working!
Splento – A great way to gain business growth is by implementing new content marketing strategies. Develop several approaches with fresh content for your blog and on your website and give special attention to visual, mobile-friendly content.
Videos and photographs on these pages are proven to attract more visitors, will improve your bounce rate, and can have a dramatic effect on your Google ranking over time. It needs monitoring and some experimentation to find the right content that works for you. Stay agile and analyze the data you get after your experiments – but keep going and you’ll soon discover what is working best. Then – scale it!
Magnificent Marketing – Before you spend any marketing or advertising dollars on spreading the word about your products or services, you need to know what’s important and to who… And although the human creative element is important, it will be out of order if you don’t know exactly who your target customers are and what is most important to them. This is where predictive marketing and analysis comes in. You must go deep before you define your messaging and targeting. It takes a bit more time and investment at the beginning, but this time and money will be made up 100 times over as you decrease marketing to the wrong people with the wrong messages.
QuanticMind – Know Your ROI! The return on investment from the budget you have spent on marketing can be difficult to prove. As an example, around 60% of small businesses continue to report challenges proving the value of their social media efforts (HubSpot). Calculating the ROI of your digital marketing initiatives empowers you to deliver stronger results by shining a light on what works best for your business while providing tangible proof of contributions to the bottom line. But how do I do that? Set SMART goals for your marketing efforts and go beyond vanity metrics when gathering data.
We Are All Connected – Today, few things are as vital to business growth as a well-designed website. It is your handshake, and in many cases, the first impression you make on a potential client. What’s more, it is the only digital home that your business actually controls and a key success factor in social media and ad campaigns. Your SEO efforts, email campaigns, Google ads, many of your posts on social media, will all lead people back to it. So, when they arrive on your site, it needs to offer a positive experience, whatever stage of the buying journey they are at.
A well-designed website prioritises the user experience (UX). It clearly signposts the routes that can take your user from interested visitor to signed-up customer through the thoughtful use of calls to action and links to helpful content. It is easy to use across devices; it is structured in a way that supports SEO to help your rankings in search engines; its design represents your unique brand personality and appeals to your audience; it showcases and surfaces your high quality content that makes your target audience feel heard and interested in finding out more about your products or services. In essence, a well-designed website takes time and resource, but it will more than repay the investment.
Zoek.UK – Ensure your customer service is exceptional and go the extra mile when you can. Loyalty is rooted in trust. Customers can trust humans more than the ideas and image of a brand. By interacting with your customer service team, customers will develop and maintain life-long relationships with your business much easier. In doing so, they won’t only remember great service, but it’s also more likely they’ll refer others to you. Great customer service is a unique way to differentiate your company from competitors, instead of simply relying on the exciting features of your products or service.
AutoConversion.net – Business growth occurs by acquiring new customers and retaining existing ones. So keeping customer churn low and new customer acquisition steady are key. Depending on your product offering and your industry, acquiring new customers for your small business could be a short simple process or it may be a long one. Regardless, you need effective ways to create awareness of your product, spark interest in your company, and generate demand with decision makers. One effective way to do all these things with both existing and future customers is with a media strategy that engages not only customers but also employees and strategic partners. An effective media strategy is one akin to a traditional or new media publisher. Avoid thinking and acting like a vendor trying to sell something, and instead think and act like a publisher offering up dynamic engaging content that appeals to your prospective buyer.
1. Customer Personas – How well do you know your customers? Can you build a profile of a typical customer and then target all of your messaging toward catching their attention? This works, so try it for yourself.
2. Buyer’s Journey / Customer Life Cycle – Have you mapped out your marketing efforts across the full customer life cycle, from awareness of your name/brand to familiarity, then consideration of your solution and finally a decision that will hopefully go in your favor? If all of your messaging jumps right to “buy” messaging, you’re missing the opportunity to nurture customers properly and may come across as over eager or too salesy. This will help balance that disconnect.
Masterful Marketing – Today every small local business is looking at ways to change the way they market their business. The best way to successfully grow is to move your marketing online. When people need local services, they will go online to find a suitable provider. Which means, you need to do what it takes to be found in a crowded local market.
In order to be successful, you need to build a strong foundation and a powerful web presence to make an impact. Don’t take shortcuts in this important area as people will judge your business by what they see. At a minimum:
- Have a professionally developed, responsive website built in WordPress
- Implement local SEO strategies
- Claim and verify your local business listings on Google My Business (GMB) and Bing Places for Business
- Select your social media platforms based on where you can connect with your target audience
- Research other industry directories and claim your business listing on those that make sense
- Ask for reviews and testimonials from happy customers
- Create content that educates your audience and shows them you are the expert they are looking for
Your social media platforms and local business listings in conjunction with your website can create a powerful information network that makes it much easier for you to be found. Promoting your content on these social platforms can get you more visibility with the right audience.
For local small businesses, changing the way you reach your target customers can have a big impact on your bottom line.
Hoot Design Company – Investing in culture is one of the best ways that small businesses can grow. If your organization is strong internally, clients and customers will be more likely to want to work with you. Businesses are built from the inside out, so never overlook your team.
CAD Pro – Grow your small business with CAD Pro. CAD Pro has helped thousands of small businesses’ such as realtors, builders, contractors, and remodeling companies streamline their business. CAD Pro is used by NARI professional remodelers and contractors and the NRCA roofing contractors as well as the National Home Builders Association. Cad Pro is an affordable and easy alternative to other more expensive home design software and will help any small business with budget limitations.
BizEpic – If you’re low on online marketing budget, I’d suggest you to do ‘guerilla marketing’ on Facebook. It’s effective in driving traffic to your website and/or generate inquiries that can potentially lead to sales – and it’s free!
What you should do is to join several Facebook Groups related to your business niche (don’t join a general business group.) Make sure that the Groups are active and heavily moderated (you don’t want to join a spammy Group!)
Your first post would be introducing yourself and what you do in a new post/discussion. Then you should participate in the conversation – responding to other members’ posts with your opinions and insights, be helpful, etc. Don’t sell anything just yet, but when the opportunity presents itself (i.e. Guys, where can I find… ?) You should answer the call.
IdeasPlusBusiness – Growing a business is not a one-time thing. It is a process. It is a journey. One strategy that has worked well for us over the years is that we focus on the core products of our business and refine the production process until it is almost perfect. It is by refining our processes that we discover new ways to scale our business to the next step. The aim of any business is to make a profit and the big profits come from your main products. And in the process of refining your main products, you will discover the magic that will push your business to the next level.
The Grable Group – COVID-19 has created an imperative for organizations in every sector to reassess and redesign their operations.
One way organizations have been rising to the challenges of the pandemic is by pivoting events to virtual platforms and organizing more online meetings to handle their work and communicate. With more and more organizations shifting their planning into an online-meeting mindset, new virtual meeting trends are emerging as well.
Cayenne Consulting – Figure out the one important and difficult thing you can do that nobody else in your market can do as well, and build your business around that. That is your core competency, your value proposition, your competitive strength, and the center of your marketing message. Refine it. Perfect it. Delight your customers with it. Craft your business plan around it. Soon, you will be outdistancing your competition.