Launching your own small business was no easy task. You had to find the funds, work long hours, and overcome many obstacles.
Now that you’ve established your company, you want it to flourish. Your goals might include opening new shops, offering more products and services, etc.
Unfortunately, growing a small business can be just as tough as launching one. You have to put in a lot of hard work to build your reputation and attract new customers.
If your business is facing stagnant growth, this guide is for you with tips from a business coach. We go over some of the best tips for scaling your company and taking it to new heights.
1) Get More Site Traffic
These days, when people want a product or service, most look online. You can capitalize on this trend by making sure potential buyers find your website.
But, how do you get more traffic? Getting more traffic will require you to launch a comprehensive search engine optimization (SEO) campaign.
To optimize your pages for search engines, you will need to take steps such as the following:
- Conduct keyword research
- Incorporate keywords into your content, headings, title tags, etc.
- Improve page speed, time-on-page, and other relevant metrics
- Build backlinks
- Optimize your pages for mobile devices
Of course, these are just a few recommendations. SEO is a very involved process and requires constant tweaks.
If you need help with your campaign, talk to an experienced business coach. They will be able to suggest the best tips and score more traffic for your site. You can learn more about this at Profit Trans4mations.
2) Focus on Lead Generation
Implementing SEO will help boost your site’s traffic. But, more visitors doesn’t necessarily equal more customers.
You need to make the most of your new traffic by focusing on lead generation. With good lead generation, you’ll turn visitors into paying customers.
Give your campaign a good foundation by using rock-solid copy on your site. Copy should convince users why they need your products or services.
Copy should also be engaging, short, and to-the-point. Most importantly, it should clarify what you want your users to do (buy a product, contact you to get a free quote, etc.).
Other ways you can work on your site’s lead generation include:
- Implementing attractive, user-friendly web design principles
- Incorporating forms to collect info from potential customers (phone numbers, email addresses, etc.)
- Offering freebies or discounts when a user completes a certain action
- Following up with all inquiries
3) Take Advantage of Social Media
So far, we’ve focused on how to grow your business via your website. But you can also use social media to score new customers.
Social media is a powerful marketing tool that lets you reach thousands of users. By posting about your services, potential customers can find you.
These days most social media posts are a self promotion and that isn’t engaging the follower. These types of posts don’t add value to the reader who sees dozens of different posts in their news feed.
There neess to be something catchy, interesting to the reader, emotionally engaging or stimulating for them to react and a reaction is what the platform is looking for.
Think about how you will stimulate their emotions with your post. Will it shock them, make them laugh, excite them or fulfill them? When your content achieves any of these then they will give your post a like or make a comment and that’s an indicator of a successful social media post.
You’ll also build your reputation and brand awareness by engaging with users, posting useful/entertaining content, etc. Focus on the results of engagement with your posts and it will bring you far greater success.
4) Build Strong Relationships With Your Customers
The tips we’ve discussed are perfect for getting new customers. But don’t get so caught up with finding new customers that you forget about your current ones. As a small business owner, you should build strong relationships with your customers.
Offer excellent service and prioritize their needs. Ask for feedback, and even get to know them on a more personal level.
Ask for Google Reviews or product reviews and read every one of them. Be sure to thank them as well for making the effort.
These actions will set you apart from the competition. Your customers will remain loyal, keep coming back, and even recommend you to others.
5) Form Partnerships With Other Companies
Partnering with other companies can be one of the smartest business moves you ever make. All parties will benefit from the relationship by building each other up.
For instance, you might notice that many customers ask you for a service you don’t offer. So, you partner with a company that offers that service and refer your customers to it. In return, the company will refer its customers to you.
Other businesses may not provide all the services your business does. Yours may not deal with commercial customers while another one does for example. Approaching competitors to ask them what sort of work they do and don’t want is a way to potentially provide leads to each other even though both businesses operate in the same industry.
Look for businesses to align with that customers use before or after your own. If you provide services to home owners think of the 10+ other businesses that also do the same, like carpet cleaners, blind manufacturers, interior designers etc.
Make a list of businesses that are similar to yours by industry and then go looking to make contact to ones in that industry using Google search or LinkedIn.
You might also strike a licensing deal with your business partners, which lets them sell your products and gives you a cut of the money. Both parties will profit, and you’ll gain more exposure.
Bottom Line
Scaling your small business can be tricky, but with these five tips, you’ll be one step closer to the growth you’ve been longing for.
Consider reaching out to an expert with growing businesses and marketer for more great tips.
Nicola Holder