Launching a new small business and not knowing how to scale it up can be challenging for up-and-coming company owners. Fortunately, numerous small business growth strategies can directly increase your revenue and multiply sales more effectively instead of using overly expensive or time-consuming methods. You should always know your audience, strengthen your ability to build relationships, pay attention to popular trends, and start with a plan. No two businesses are the same, which is why you can try to mix and match approaches that best fit your entrepreneurial needs. You can expand your small business and reach more customers by implementing the following tips.
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Key Small Business Growth Strategies
Request Referrals
One of the most powerful tactics in any small business growth strategy is word of mouth. For that to work, you should consider to request referrals. After your clients have had a wonderful experience working with you and receiving your products or services, you can then insert that they are welcome to refer any of their friends or family members to you. They would be happy to help if they feel what you have to offer will benefit others. You can ask for that by simply speaking to them in person, by phone, or email. Another method is through surveys or with business cards. Providing a reward or discount can be a bonus that encourages them and will help you to reach more customers.
Streamline Business Processes
Before you expand, you will want to minimize how long it takes to produce certain results by automated, repeatable activities. This allows workflows to happen more quickly, allowing services like Printful or unit items to be easily streamlined into production. Increased cost-effectiveness and productivity will make it easier to expand a small business without being overloaded by work activity.
Increase Market Reach
Another way to help expand your small business is by learning about new distribution channels so that you can deliver your marketing campaign in new ways and thereby reach more customers. For example, you might decide to market by contacting customers directly, through a retailer, or even a wholesaler with special pricing. Finding new and innovative ways to engage with customers can help you discover how to reach more people and therefore boost small business growth. Becoming a sponsor at charities, creating workshops that demonstrate how to apply your project, and showing up at conferences or outdoor events will get you more exposure.
Go To Trade Shows
At trade shows, you have the opportunity to demonstrate your products to large crowds and showcase how great your services are. Trade shows attract hundreds to thousands of people, so it’s a great way to get new clients and customers on board with your company brand. It is also easier to engage new customers with a product because they attend trade shows for that purpose. You can get new leads easily by requesting customers sign up on the email list to receive free samples or other bonuses.
Diversify Products
Instead of sticking to one or two product lines, consider diversifying products to appeal to customers in new ways. For example, if you sell funny socks, you can diversify by selling funny slippers and matching robes to customers who are already fans and sock wearers. Creating products that function together or compliment each other is a great strategy to make a business grow bigger.
Recapture Existing Customers
Small business growth is only about winning new customers? Of course not. Retaining existing customers is just as important, if not more important to harvest customer lifetime value. For customers that already experienced a product or service from you, you can recapture them by advertising to them. If they purchased one time, they are more likely to purchase products again in the future because they already had a positive experience. You can advertise sales, discounts, group package deals, and more. Introducing new products or versions of a previous product to existing customers can help increase sales during a new launch.
Reduce Costly Practices
Every sustainable small business growth strategy needs to be cost-effective. Therefore, if there is a more efficient or effective way of getting work processes done, you should consider revamping old and tired practices that aren’t cost-effective. For example, you may want to use digital receipts instead of paper receipts because it eliminates the use of paper and ink. Go through what are the most expensive practices in your company and discover ways to do it more cheaply. This can help you save money and redirect that money to areas of your business that you need to expand and scale up.
Start A Blog
An incredible way to make your business well-known and grab more customers is to create a blog. The blog can help educate customers on topics they want to learn about. In addition to this, you can also market your products by writing about their benefits and how they are of value. You can answer questions about your product line in blogs and dive into similar topics that may be relevant to your company. Being a source of education and information may help build trust between yourself and your audience, making you an authority figure in your industry.
Use Social Media Campaigns
Social media should have a key role in any small business growth strategy. Social media is one of the top ways to reach customers locally and internationally by creating a following and building a reputation online. You can use social media to update customers and attract new potential customers. Engaging social media followers through activities and competitions helps get people excited about your products and expands brand awareness.
Use Email Marketing Campaigns
With email marketing, you are able to touch base with many customers through email blasts and thereby reach more customers. You can also use email capture forms on your website to help hook new customers who are unlikely to return to your website. Email capture forms keep customers in the loop and warm them up to future purchases. It’s also another way to update customers on when new products are released.
Apply Affiliate Marketing
If you are having difficulty marketing your own products, try affiliate marketing. This is when you promote through expert marketers who take a small percentage of your sales. They use landing pages, PPC ads, blogs, and a variety of other mediums to attract traffic to your page. Their job is to get people to convert to buying customers and get traction from different avenues. A larger number of people visiting your page means that you are more likely to get sales, as a small percentage of this population will take action somehow.
Reach Out To Influencers
Social media influencers already have large followings and may be able to boost your company’s visibility simply by mentioning or even demonstrating some of your products. You should work with influencers who already have thousands to tens of thousands of followers. That’s not all; the followers should be highly engaged and involved in the online community so that you aren’t only getting views but also sales. The influencers should be posting topics relevant to your industry so that their followers are already interested in what you have to offer.
Partner With Other Companies
Another way to reach more customers is to partner with a slightly similar company that offers you an opportunity to reach their audience. For example, if you sell health food drinks, you might partner with a health food snack company and create a large BBQ to attract local community members while promoting both products. A partner can also refer you customers and vice versa, and should therefore be an integral part of your small business growth strategy.
Strengthen Branding
Make your brand stand out from other companies by making yours more distinct. Contrasting colors, unique shades, symbology, imagery, and other ways that make your brand different from competitors can help make your product memorable. It also sets you apart from other companies, so you become more well-known. A strong brand is helpful for when you pass out free samples or items to your customers that can be worn. This will promote who you are and creates intrigue around your product line.
Outsource Unimportant Processes
Instead of focusing on work that isn’t important to your company’s progress, outsource it. You can work with third-party companies who can get work done for you expertly and at a fair cost so that you aren’t wasting precious time wearing multiple hats. This also can save money wasted on roles that you don’t need at your company. For example, you can outsource tasks that would normally go to employees. Employees, in general, need health benefits, a salary, and more, which you don’t have to worry about if you work with third-party organizations. Additionally, these companies are often better at completing these tasks since they are entirely devoted to their field. One great example is to outsource all billing and financial transactions to a digital finance company that can perform all these tasks for you, which means you won’t need a billing or finance employee or department to do it for you.
How Do You Know These Methods Work?
Pay attention to the analytics concerning the response you get from your customers. If these methods don’t work, you should throw those out immediately. For the methods that do work, amplify these tactics and replicate them in different ways. You can apply these methods to your e-commerce shops, blogs, or regular websites, to help increase your sales and accelerate small business growth. Experimenting with and trying these new approaches will help you get out of a rut where you see no growth and no influx of new customers.