There is no substitute for hard work when it comes to growing a small business. With that said, you can benefit from things like a marketing resource guide or by following some of the strategies that have worked for other businesses like yours.
Beyond that, there are a lot of simple things you can do to boost the results of your marketing and grow your business. By making these minor adjustments to your strategy or the way your business operates, you can realize quick results without having to spend a lot of time or money on the effort.
The following are fifteen quick tips that can help you grow your business.
1. A Simple SEO Trick to Increase Traffic
A steady flow of fresh content is one of the keys to a successful SEO strategy. The obvious way to meet this need is to continue creating new content on a regular schedule, but there is a way to get more the content you already have.
If you have existing blog posts, you can go back and update them regularly. This will give the content a newer date for the last update and it will help it rank better in search engines. Additionally, people often look for the newest content when they search. This means that they will be more likely to click when they see a newer date on your post.
2. Automate Your Social Media
Social media is one of the most important tools for engaging with customers. The only problem is that you have to be there to post regularly and interact with customers.
Obviously, you have a life and a business to run, so you can’t be there 24/7 to meet the needs of your customers. To meet the demands of social media marketing, you should use social media automation tools to enhance your efforts. These tools can take some of the work off your schedule, and many of them allow you to get started for free.
3. Boost Your Sales FOMO
The fear of missing out (FOMO) is a real psychological effect. If people see everyone else interested in something or if they believe that they might not get to have something if they wait, they will be more likely to act.
One simple way to do this is with a limited run of a product. If you are only selling a limited number of something or if the product or service is only available to customers that meet certain guidelines, it will be more attractive.
4. Unlock the Power of Free
A small change can make all the difference. This is especially true when it comes to the idea of giving something away for free.
As an example, think of a place that sells pizza. You could sell two large pizzas and a bottle of soda for $20. However, a more attractive option is to sell two large pizzas for $20 with a free bottle of soda.
From the perspective of the business, it is the same deal. The only difference is that you are saying the bottle of soda is free instead of being a part of the package deal. This use of the word “free” makes the deal more attractive to the customer while not changing the price or the value of the deal for the business.
5. Increase Perceived Value
Price cuts can be a good way to drive sales, but there can also be value in selling your product for a higher price. Consumers often use price as a signal of quality, so you can increase the value of your brand by increasing the price of your products. In some cases, a business can even boost its sales and revenue by charging more.
This sounds counterintuitive, but it is backed by science. In one study, researchers gave participants the same wine but randomly put different prices on the bottle. When marked with a higher price, participants reported that the wine tasted better than it did when it was presented with a lower price.
6. Save Abandoned Shopping Carts
An abandoned online shopping cart represents a lost sale. The customer was interested, but for one reason or another, they did not complete the purchase. You can pull many of these customers back simply by sending them an email the next day. Just by reminding them of the items in the cart, you can get some of the customers to come back to complete the purchase.
If the first email doesn’t work, you can follow up a week later with a limited time offer. Entice them to come back by sending them a voucher for 10% off the items in the cart. Make it clear that the voucher is only good for a limited time to create a sense of urgency.
7. Boost Your Search Rankings with Wikipedia
Wikipedia is one of the most popular sites on the internet. If you can get your site links from Wikipedia, it can do a lot to move your pages up in the search rankings.
If you can find pages that relate to your industry or area of expertise, you can find ways to get links. You don’t want to be too obvious by promoting your products or business on the Wikipedia page, but you could add relevant information and then link to one of your blogs as a source.
8. Try Downselling Instead of Upselling
Upselling is a popular tactic for getting customers to spend more. You get their attention by showing them a cheaper product and then you get them to spend more by selling them on the features and benefits of a similar product that is more expensive.
An upsell can be effective, but you can also work this process in reverse. Start by showing the customer the most expensive product in the category. Once they have seen that, you can then show them similar products that cost less. After seeing the one that costs the most, all of the other offerings will seem like a better deal.
9. Get Customers to Refer Their Friends
Loyal customers can be a valuable resource for reaching new customers. If you offer them something of value for referring friends, you could find that it opens a significant new source of customers.
Just don’t get greedy and require them to refer to a lot of friends. If they have to refer to five people, it might seem like a bit much. However, most of your loyal customers should be able to think of at least one person they would refer to your business.
10. Create Urgency with Limited Time Offers
Similar to FOMO, urgency can be a great strategy for getting customers to act. The easiest way to do this is with a limited time offer. If customers see that a deal is going to end soon, they will feel like they need to buy before they miss their chance. This can be very successful if you can target the offers to people that have already shown interest in the product.
11. Put Written Content in Images
Text can do a lot of things, but images have the ability to connect with users quicker and on a deeper level. If you are planning posts for social media, try to find ways to combine the text with an image. The image can help to set the tone for the post and it can help the message come across with a greater effect.
12. Find New Blog Topics
Blogging can be one of the most valuable parts of your online marketing strategy. It can be used for SEO and it can also be a way to build trust and authority. With that said, it isn’t always easy to find new blog topics to write about.
If you are struggling to find new blog topics, look to see what your audience is talking about. If your customers are asking questions or having a conversation about something on social media, try to write a blog about it. You can also look to Q&A sites like Quora to find popular topics that may be related to your industry or area of expertise.
13. Increase Sales with Recommendations
Recommending products can be a great way to get more sales from the customers you have. With that said, the quality of the recommendations can make a big difference. Focusing on products that are popular among all customers can drive sales, but the best results come from personalized recommendations. If you can use customer data and analytics to find the products each individual is most likely to buy, you can increase sales considerably.
14. Pay Attention to Customer Feedback
Customer feedback can be valuable in many ways. If you have good feedback, it can be a signal for other customers that will help them with their purchasing decisions. Along with that, you can also look at feedback (both good and bad) to find insights that will help you improve your business and your products.
Beyond standard feedback on product pages, you could also ask your customers for feedback on social media. Ask them what they like about your product, if they would change anything, if they would like to see any specific features. According to Usersnap’s CX survey, companies listening to customer feedback and actively work on customer experience have 3x higher expect growth rate. This not only gets you the feedback you need, but it can also be a way to engage with your customers and show them that you care about their opinions.
15. Cover the Competition
It might seem like you would be working against yourself by mentioning the competition, but it can actually be a way to prevent customers from doing independent research. If you provide a comparison, many customers will feel like they already checked the competition out and that they don’t need to go to their website.
You still want to talk about the benefits of the competition and some of the drawbacks to your products, but you can craft the content in a way that favors your offerings. Maybe talk about a benefit of the competing product but discuss some of the ways your product achieves a better result. Mention your drawbacks, but find ways to spin them into a positive.
Hazel Raoult is the Marketing Manager at PRmention, a digital PR agency for SaaS and Tech Businesses.