12 Ways to Grow Your Small Business
You will need to do a lot of thinking and a lot of work to make it happen! However, it is also not something impossible.
After all, we see business not only survive but thrive in the economy on a daily basis! So, how do you do it? How do you turn a small business into a prospective empire? Step by step – of course!
Today, we take a look at 12 ways to grow your small business!
1. Create a good business plan
In order for you to start growing fast, you will need to know what your business is about. This might seem silly, but a lot of people flail aimlessly in their market without knowing what they want to accomplish. To do this – all you need to do is to create a good business plan.
This doesn’t need to be something too big. Even a one-page business plan can do the trick! Simple sit down and write the basics of your business. Who are you, and where do you see yourself going? What resources you have, and what will you need from your shareholders?
Simple questions like these will help you define and shape your business well. From there, you can pick the path to walk towards business growth with ease!
Think about it as a written elevator pitch. If you were to talk about your business with investors, how will you present it in sixty seconds? This is what your business plan needs to do!
However, it’s also a smart idea to keep the business plan flexible. You will want to come back to it and change some things up.
Only flexible companies are able to resist the challenges of an ever-changing market. The best way to achieve this is by having a flexible business plan to rely on!
2. Sales funnel is essential
What is one of the basic ways in which your business can grow? Better yet, what is one thing that you cannot grow without? It is the clients! In order to get and grow your client list, you will need to convert your quality leads. And the way to do this is through sales funnel.
Setting up a quality business funnel is one of the fastest ways to grow your small business. This is because it automates the process with ease. All you need to do is locate the leads (which we will discuss a bit later) and take them to the funnel.
However, before you set it up, you need to plan it well. Talk to your marketing department about different funnels in order to make your pick.
Focus on what your business offers and how you can attract more people quickly and easily. From there, you can sit back and watch the numbers grow!
3. Understand your clients
Creating new clients can be easy when you have a good funnel, but if you cannot retain them, then your business will not be able to grow. Luckily, there are multiple ways in which you can retain your clients.
First, you will want to understand who they are.
Spend some time researching your clients’ needs. Then, work to develop products and services that meet these needs and make your clients satisfied.
Encourage your clients to also give feedback after every purchase. This way, you can create personalized services for every client – which will help you keep them as regulars.
However, make sure that your surveys are not annoying for people. This can easily turn them against you – as you might know from personal experience.
While surveys are the best way to gather data, keep them short and simple. You might want to include a small reward at the end – or it can be a part of the loyalty programs.
4. Nurture client loyalty
Working with your clients and meeting their needs is important to building their loyalty. You will want them to trust you and to always come back for your services happily.
This is called brand loyalty and can raise your retention level as well as grow your small business with ease.
What’s more, client loyalty can also take part in your marketing campaign. If someone loves your brand, they will more likely recommend it to their friends and colleges. And since nine out of ten people pick the brands that have been recommended to them, this will ensure that you get even more clients just by being good to those you already have!
There are many ways in which you can do this. Sometimes, it can just be creating, building, and working on your brand and image.
However, the best way to do this is always through loyalty programs. Through them, you can fully focus on your clients and reward them for choosing you over and over again.
5. Create loyalty programs
Loyalty programs can be an amazing opportunity both to grow your small business and to increase your sales.
What’s more, after you create them, they can often be a self-sufficient system that will just keep retaining your clients and growing your business by itself.
There is much that you can do in the loyalty programs. This really depends on what kind of product or services you offer.
Generally speaking, though, these should invite them to spend more money with you, and in return, get benefits in the long run.
Things like special offers, discounts, and coupons often work. You can also get their discounts to raise the more they spend with you, or offer early access to some services and products! Be creative, and your business is sure to start growing fast!
6. Build your brand
However, you cannot really work on client loyalty if they do not really know who you are as a company. Just look at any bigger company, and you will see.
You know exactly who brands like Coca-Cola and Pepsi are, and what their differences might be. The same applies to Nintendo and Sony, for example, and so on. This is why you need to start building your brand as early in the process as possible.
This starts the moment you sit down to create your business plan. You will want to define your vision and your goals, as well as how you plan to achieve these. Then, you can share your vision statement with your clients. This way, they will know what you are about as well.
What’s more, building a brand can also help you attract new leads and clients. People love investing in brands that they agree with – or using their services.
If you clearly state what you stand for, then the like-minded people will be more likely to use you than your competition. This can also help you grow your small business with ease!
7. Research your competition
While on the topic of competition, we should address them as well in relation to the growth of your business. When you are in an open market, the competition will affect the way in which you grow.
If they are “more attractive” than you, then you will grow slowly, since everyone will be drawn to them. Conversely, if you attract more people than your competitors, then you will grow faster than them – which can help you steamroll them with ease.
This is why you need to research your competition before hitting the market. You can examine their funnels and maybe get some great ideas out of it. Try to emulate their longest-running ads – these usually have the highest effect on their business growth.
Of course, it’s important to note you should not aim to simply copy them. Just figure out what works for your competition and apply it to your business as well!
8. Look for opportunities wherever you can
Now that you know just who you are competing with, you can analyze opportunities for getting new leads. To do this, though, you also need to research the demographic you are working with.
There is much to learn when understanding the market. You will not only need to pay attention to your competitors but to distribution channels as well.
Sometimes, you might even want to expand your scope to the foreign market as well! There is much to learn from your overseas competitors as well. Also, learning how demographics there work is always insightful and interesting.
This all has the purpose of bringing new leads and growing your small business. You never know the opportunities that will pop out when you analyze the market. Just make sure to keep your eyes open and pursue every one!
9. Create an effective lead magnet
Of course, once you analyze the market, you will want to attract people and get them to contact you. You can do this through a lead magnet.
Basically, the lead magnet is a thing you will offer potential clients in exchange for their email address or similar contact information.
There are hundreds of different lead magnets to explore and research. Most of the time, it will be a piece of digital content. For example, companies give away PDF guides, reports, eBooks – even music, wallpapers, lessons, videos, and similar!
Again, you will want to think carefully about your business to create an appropriate lead market. Work closely with your marketing department in order to ensure better quality – and the best magnet lead.
10. An email list can help you grow your small business
Through your lead magnet, you will hopefully collect an email list. This will be one of the primary ways for contacting your leads and turning them into clients (remember the lead funnel we mentioned?).
This is one of the easiest yet most effective ways to grow your small business. Once your leads subscribe, you can start managing the content they get and prompting them to become clients.
What you will want to focus on here are the ways in which you convert your leads.
You want high-quality content for your leads, so think about getting a team to focus only on that. This is important – how well you manage your email list will play a huge part in how you grow your small business.
Another important thing to point out is that you should not spam your clients either. While it is important to stay relative and in their peripheral vision, too many emails will only lead to them unsubscribing or filtering you to their spam folder. Contact them too little, however, and they can easily forget about you.
So, finding the right balance will be a challenge. But it is striking that gold balance that will put you right on track! Thus, this is another task for your content team to handle.
11. Do not underestimate social media
Now, let’s focus on other ways that you can generate leads. Usually, this is best done through marketing campaigns. And one of the most powerful tools for advertising is social media.
Through social media, you can promote your business easily and fast – all it takes is a couple of clicks. What’s more, social media allows you to get a great insight into your client structure and demographics. You can learn about the way they behave, identify different keywords you can use, and notice any trends to follow.
However, you will need to be smart with the way you approach your social media. This is why your content creation team might be best equipped for this as well. You should also provide them with analysis tools so that they can provide you with better service.
12. Your blog is another amazing lead generating tool
The second amazing lead generating tool that every business – small and big – need to use is a blog and website. Sadly, not have a blog is a mistake many smaller businesses make. They believe that, since they are still unknown, no one would be interested in reading what they have to share.
But it is through this content you share that you can gather a lot of leads! For example, you post a blog about something relevant to your services.
A person runs into it, reads it, and decides to share it with their friends. Just with that, you have gathered dozens of potential leads – from only one reader.
What this means, though, is that you will need to focus on producing high-quality content. Have your team make something relevant, yet general enough for people to share! In no time, you will be growing your businesses and generating leads with ease!
Conclusion
To conclude, there are many ways to grow your small business. In this article, we showed you only a dozen – but there are many, many more!
We strongly encourage you to research different lead funnels, as well as lead magnets.
There are so many different ways in which you can cast attention to your business and then grow it through the processes we described.
Good luck!
