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When you own a small business, it becomes the foundation of your life. While everyone depends on their job to bring in money and provide security, a small business is an extension of the owner.
When you create a small business, you're putting a part of yourself out there. Its success is a direct reflection of you. Sadly, nearly 50% of small businesses fail in the first five years.
The question is, how can you avoid this outcome?
While it's important to learn about manageable growth, you must first learn how to grow your company using effective marketing strategies. You won't need to worry about growing too quickly if you're not generating leads and making sales.
We can help. Keep reading for the top nine most effective ways to advertise your business.
In the modern business world, if you don't have a website, you might as well not own a company. The majority of consumers shop online to find the best products/services for their needs. If you don't have an online presence, you're going to miss out on endless sales opportunities.
However, simply having a website isn't enough anymore. You must have a user-friendly website that provides a positive customer experience. This is essential in learning how to grow your company.
But what makes a website user-friendly?
A user-friendly website, at its core, is intuitive and easy to navigate. Website visitors shouldn't get lost on your website or have trouble finding the right page. If your website is difficult or frustrating to use, a consumer is likely to leave your site and become your competitor's customer.
Your website must also be visually appealing. This means using an attractive color scheme, graphics, and images. However, you must keep it relatively simple, as too much visual stimulation can also be off-putting.
Next, consider your website optimization and loading times. Your site needs to be optimized for mobile devices, as over 81% of Americans use smartphones. This will ensure proper formatting and quick loading times.
If you're wondering "How do I grow my business?" The answer lies in search engine optimization.
No matter how impressive your website is, you can't maximize its potential if you aren't driving traffic to your site. This is where search engine optimization comes in. SEO is the coding used by search engines (like Google, Bing, and Yahoo) to find relevant content online based on keyword searches.
For example, if you operate a local bakery, you need to build up your SEO coding to ensure people in your community are finding your website. If someone Googles "local bakery near me," your website needs to come up in the search results.
Nearly 88% of consumers conduct research for products and services online using these types of searches. If your SEO ranking isn't placing your business at the top of the search results pages, you're losing potential customers.
The next question we need to answer, then, is how to grow your company through SEO marketing. Start by researching effective keywords in your niche and industry. Additionally, think about what consumers in your target market would be searching for regarding your services or products.
Then, work on boosting your SEO by:
Learning how to implement SEO on your website takes time and practice. If you're a relatively new business, it might be a good idea to work with an SEO agency to put your company on the map sooner, rather than later. They can also help you create relevant content for your blog.
Referral programs are some of the most effective and inexpensive business growth strategies for businesses of all sizes. The key is learning how to use your current clientele or customers to market for you.
In return, they can earn free products/services or valuable discounts. You must offer a powerful incentive that will motivate them to go out of their way to bring more customers to your business.
However, you must also give the new customers (the ones being referred) an incentive to visit your website or physical location. For example, you can give your current customers referral coupons on which they can write their names. The new customer can use the coupon to receive a small discount while the referrer is given credit for helping you make the sale.
You can use a similar system with online sales. Just make sure you are giving both the old customer and the new customer a reason to participate.
When it comes to referrals, one of the best advertising strategies is encouraging your customers to review your company and publishing those reviews online. You can have them review your brand on Google Reviews, Yelp Reviews, BBB Reviews, The Yellow Pages, or any other listing source.
Then, copy and paste those reviews onto your website and social media pages. This is essential for building brand credibility and trust among consumers. If prospective customers see glowing reviews from other people who have invested in your products or services, they'll be more inclined to invest themselves.
However, if you're using this strategy to learn how to grow your business, you must also learn how to respond to reviews, good and bad. If a customer leaves a bad review, for example, you can't respond with negativity. This shows a lack of professionalism and willingness to ensure customer satisfaction.
If learning "how to grow my business online" is one of your top priorities, you must invest in content marketing. Content marketing is one of the best business growth strategies designed to:
The goal is to provide consumers with valuable content they want and/or need. The content you create should help the reader solve problems, find solutions, or answer questions. You should create tutorials, tips, advice, instructions, and guidance.
This type of content will make it easier for consumers to trust you and your product/services. It will also make you more relatable and personable.
Strive to be genuine, compassionate, and helpful. They will see you as more than just a company trying to make money. As consumers are regularly drawn to your content, you will develop a stronger, more meaningful relationship with them.
Content creation includes blog articles, emails, social media posts, videos, and more.
If you're looking for tips on how to grow your company, you cannot overlook the prevalence of social media. Facebook alone has over 2.7 billion users worldwide. If you add in all the other social media platforms like YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, TikTok, and Linked-In, nearly everyone on the planet is connected.
Take advantage of these platforms to increase your brand awareness. This is equally beneficial, regardless of if you own a small local business or an online business that caters to international customers.
Social media platforms allow business owners to publish content, connect with consumers, and build an online presence. There are two routes you can go - organic social media marketing or paid social media advertising.
Organic social media marketing encompasses everything you do to increase brand awareness for free. The goal is to create engaging content that draws people to your page. Over time, you can build your following to become more and more visible online.
You can boost your social media growth by running contests and giveaways. For example, run a three-week promotion where users can earn points by following your profile and commenting, liking, and sharing your posts. Those points can be used in a raffle to win free products, services, or massive discounts.
The more people engage with your content, the more exposure you'll get for your brand.
Alternatively, consider paying to expand your brand awareness on social media. The different platforms offer different types of advertising options.
On Facebook, for example, you can create an ad (from scratch or using a template) and choose exactly how much money you spend per day. The more money you spend each day, the more people will see your ad in their feed.
Furthermore, you can dictate who sees your ads based on certain demographics, such as age, gender, location, hobbies, interests, etc. This ensures your marketing message is hitting the right audience.
Finally, paid social media advertising provides incredible insight into your ad performance. You can see how many people saw your ad versus how many people engaged with it (likes, shares, comments, link clicks, etc.). This breakdown also shows you the demographics of people who engaged with your ad, as well as when (time and day).
These insights are crucial for learning more about your target audiences and the efficacy of your marketing message. Through trial and error, you can learn how to streamline your ads. We recommend experimenting with A and B ads simultaneously.
Next, remember that most consumers need to see a marketing message multiple times before they invest in a product or service. It doesn't matter if they're new customers or repeat customers.
As such, a compelling email campaign is going to be one of your best advertising strategies. Is a type of retargeting method designed to remind consumers of your brand and what you have to offer. As a side note, you can also use your email campaign to request reviews for previous customers.
Most importantly, when you have a list of email subscribers, you have a direct line of marketing to people who have already shown an interest in your brand. This is a primed audience who is quite likely to invest money (or more money) in your business.
You can learn how to grow your company by gaining subscribers through:
The key to gaining subscribers is providing a strong incentive. What reason are you giving them to join your email list? You could offer valuable discounts, sample products, a free consultation, exclusive access to online content, etc.
If you want to know "How to grow my business" as a new entrepreneur, you might need to look into paid services to fast-track your online visibility. It takes time to grow your online presence organically.
Paid advertising methods like PPC advertising can give you a quick boost. It will help you generate more leads and make more sales. For example, PPC advertising on search engine sites ensures your website comes up at the top of specific search results pages.
You pay the search engine a predetermined amount for each click your site gets from users. You can set a maximum capacity to make sure you don't go over budget.
Finally, learning how to grow your company means learning how to reach out for help. While this can certainly include working with professional marketing agencies, it also means affiliating with other business owners and entrepreneurs.
For example, work with several other small business owners and blog curators to guest post on one another's websites. This will get you credible backlinks and expose you to other audiences.
You should also consider working with social media influencers. They can shoutout your company to their followers (with whom they have considerable pull). You can pay them a certain amount per post or exchange products/services.
We understand the importance of learning how to grow your company. As a small business owner in this business climate, if you're not thriving, you're falling behind. Implement the marketing strategies listed above to make sure you're expanding your brand awareness and generating more leads.
If you want more help, check out our services to help you grow your reviews. And if you're not sure what to think, we offer a 14-day free trial. What do you have to lose?
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