When you start a new small business, your hope is that it will grow into a bigger business through a gradual process. This will require consistently marketing your business even when you may not have a very big budget for advertising and paid promotions. Fortunately, the modern digital world offers a number of different ways for you to grow your business in any financial climate. Here are a few ideas to help you create a consistent marketing strategy.
Reduce Your Operating Costs
Growing your business isn’t just about getting new consumers to buy your products. It also concerns providing the same quality of service without spending as much money in operating your business. You should constantly be looking for cheaper suppliers, delivery services, and other resources. If you can get the same quality of service from vendors who are charging lower prices, you can widen your profit margin without sacrificing quality. The extra flow of income will help you reinvest in your business and boost the quality of service you offer to your own customers.
Focus on Customer Service
It’s important to keep in mind that your business’ primary goal is to provide the best possible customer service. This means meeting customer expectations each time they interact with your business, whether they’re buying a new product or inquiring about a product they have already purchased. Using an on hold company to manage phone calls will ensure each customer is able to reach your business in a timely manner. From there, you should have a system for efficiently responding to questions, complaints, or other communications from your customers.
Put a Halt on Customer Churn
If your business is losing past customers, it’s not really growing in spite of a consistent stream of new customers. You can easily stop bleeding customers in this way by reaching out to past customers, and motivating them to return to your business. You can start by collecting phone numbers or email addresses for each consumer that buys one of your products. You can use that contact information to send a follow-up text or email that allows customers to rate their interactions with your business. This gives you an opportunity to see how you can improve customer service, while showing your new customers that you care about their experiences. Later, you can send messages to customers who haven’t returned to your business, and offer them a discount or free gift upon their next purchase. This will get them to return to your store.
Maintain a Consistent Online Presence
You should be spending time each day maintaining an online presence to ensure consumers have regular interactions with your brand. This involves regularly contributing to your website’s blog to allow you to establish your brand as an authority, which will help you rank higher in relevant searches. Additionally, you should be sharing links to your blog posts on your social media pages to make sure your followers are regularly finding your blogs. By using hashtags and keyword phrases in those social media posts, you’ll reach a much broader online audience. When your marketing budget is stretched, using these free online resources can help you consistently reach new consumers.
Reward Your Customers For Referrals
You can create a system for recognizing when a new customer was referred to your business by a past customer. Upon recognizing that customer, send them a discount coupon for your business, or tell them to stop by your business for a free gift. This will help your business grow in a couple of different ways. First, it will ensure a steady influx of new customers through your ongoing referral program. Secondly, it will encourage your past customers to return to your store to get their discount or free gift. Once these returning customers are in your store, they’re likely to look around to see what new products you may be selling. It’s rare for a customer to walk out empty-handed once they have been drawn back into a business.
Conclusion
When you can afford to pay for premium marketing services, you should take advantage of those opportunities. However, you don’t always have to spend money as long as you are consistently marketing your brand and your products. Repetition is the key to any great marketing strategy because it ensures the consumers you target are constantly exposed to your brand. As your brand’s logo, name, and products become more familiar, a greater number of consumers will show more interest in your business.
