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How To Grow Your Business Faster

by OnDeck Australia,   Oct 14, 2020

Top Tips & Tricks to Grow Your Small Business Fast

 

Growing a small business can be a daunting process, and let’s face it, it takes considerable effort. Like anything in life, you must put the time in to reap the benefits.

 

Growing your business successfully will depend on your efforts to grow profits and ensure that every aspect of your business gets attention. From marketing to employee training, there are several steps you must take to move your business forward in the right direction.

 

Although rapid growth does not happen overnight, there are ways to grow your business and improve profitability. We share with you some tips and tricks to grow your small business quickly and efficiently.

 

Create a Strong SME Business Plan

 

The first thing you will want to do to grow your business is have a business plan in place. Although this may sound daunting, writing a business plan is not as hard as it seems. Simply create a roadmap that outlines your goals for the business and how you plan to make them a reality.

 

You will also need to identify who your target market is, as this should be at the heart of everything you do and include them your plan. If you can understand everything about your target market and what their needs are, it will make it a lot easier to grow your business fast.

 

Think about what your target customer may look like, how old they are, their gender and their interests. After all, if you are not successfully meeting their needs with your products or services, then growth will be slow.

 

Make sure to set out some business goals and write them down. If you remind yourself of them often and be ambitious in achieving them, you will likely speed up the process of growing your business.

 

View tips and tricks for developing your business plan from the Australian Government to help you get started.

 

Build a Sales Funnel

 

The next thing to consider is a sales funnel. It will be hard to grow your business without considering this from the start.

 

Sales funnels can help you to automate your business and allows you to scale and grow quickly and efficiently. Obviously, there is some front-end work involved, but once you have a clear strategy you can start to reap the rewards.

 

Take into consideration different funnels The free-plus-shipping funnel offers visitors to your website a free physical item or product, usually asking only for an email address, shipping address and the payment for the cost of delivery of a product. A high-ticket sales funnel is a series of automated steps to allow online visitors to access a series of email messages. If an email subscriber purchases something, they move further into the funnel where more useful (and larger value) products can be found.

 

Research the Competition

 

Once you have decided who your target market is, you are going to need to research the competition in order to get a better understanding of the competitive landscape and how you can differentiate your products or offering to your targeted consumers.

 

There are many free tools out there which allow you to delve into your competitor’s landing pages, ad copy, content, links and more.

 

Some tools you may want to check out include SEMRush, Moz and Ahrefs. It may be a good idea to try some of the trials for these tools to see if it can help your business before committing to a Pro-purchase.

 

Identify New Opportunities

 

Learn to get a better understanding of your demographic in order to discover new business opportunities. For example, look at possible distribution channels and what your direct competitors are doing. You may also decide to analyse foreign markets and other potential industries to see if there are any opportunities which you can pursue immediately with the right analysis.

 

You may choose to explore the opportunity of collaborating with relevant companies. Introduce your products or services to a wider audience by teaming up with small business owners to run relevant promotions or campaigns. This creates an opportunity to boost your bottom line and increase your growth as a business.

 

Strategic partnerships with the right companies can allow you to reach a range of customers quickly. Identifying the right partnerships is not necessarily an easy task, but the key thing is to make sure that you look out for companies that complement your own. Get in touch with them and propose opportunities for how you may be able to work together and it be beneficial for both parties.

 

Encourage Customer Loyalty

 

It costs more to acquire new customers than it does to sell to an existing customer, and so customer retention is incredibly important for your business to be successful. So how can you keep your customers coming back for more? Create a customer loyalty plan; consider offering discounts and sales only available to members.

 

Loyalty programs are great ways to increase sales and not only help you retain customers but help you to attract new ones as well. Create a clear incentive for your customers to spend more money with you and watch sales skyrocket over time.

 

It is important to let your customers know that they are valued. They will remember great customer service, not average customer service. Make sure you show them that you are a cut above the rest by being attentive but not intrusive. Try to answer their questions and address their issues as quickly and fairly as possible.

 

Develop a Social Media Strategy

 

You will want to make sure that your business has a social media account on every channel. With billions of people using social media across the world, any business not active on social media is missing a trick.

 

However, it is not just a case of being active on social media, you will need to manage your social accounts effectively and test different strategies to see what works. Engage with your customers in comments, promote your products and services plus any sales or promotions. Get your name out there and drive potential customers to your website and you will grow your business in no time.

 

Encourage reviews on social media as these help to establish a good reputation and word-of-mouth sales. They are also good for boosting how you appear organically in Google’s search results. Unfortunately, customers do not tend to leave reviews often, so they need some encouragement. You may choose to give an incentive such as a discount to encourage them further.

 

Build an Email List and Create Regular Newsletters

 

Building an email list is a powerful thing, and one of the best and most effective ways to grow a business quickly. However, it’s a strategy that is often overlooked by many small business owners. In order to build your list, you need to create a lead magnet to encourage people to subscribe to your mailing list.

 

Offer irresistible freebies in exchange for an email address, such as a free eBook. What you offer will largely depend on your target audience and what their wants and needs are.

 

It is important that you keep your email subscribers engaged with your brand from the moment they sign up. Send frequent email newsletters, at least fortnightly, sharing important updates, sales, or promotions. Think about who your target audience is and what content they would like to see. For example, you may not necessarily serve the same content to a young audience as you would to an older audience as they will likely have different consumer behaviours.

 

Unlike your social media subscribers, email subscribers can easily be exported and moved across to a new email management system if you choose to do so later.

 

Expand Your Business

 

Looking at ways to expand your business can help you grow fast. Consider whether you may be able to take your existing offers and scale them internationally. If you have a converting offer, international expansion could be a quick way to grow your business. Of course, there will be costs involved, but the potential profits could be huge.

 

If you are at a stage where you can hire employees, this can be highly beneficial. It pays to hire the ‘right’ employees, so do not rush the process if possible. Focus on managing your team effectively, as well as providing them with relevant training and support for them to develop their skills and in turn, help to grow your business faster.

 

Don’t Be Afraid to Get a Small Business Loan

 

Although there are plenty of things you can do to help grow your business, there may come a point where you need a boost in finance. Applying for a small business loan can be a great option to grow your business.

 

If you’re a small business owner, check out our industry specific content for more tips and tricks to help boost your small business in your industry, and also make sure to keep up to date with our small business blog!

 

Find out more about how we can help you boost your business growth with an equipment finance loan or a small business loan.

 

 

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Prepared by OnDeck Capital Australia Pty Ltd ABN 28 603 753 215 (“OnDeck”) for general information purposes only. Content may belong to or have originated from third parties and OnDeck takes no responsibility for the accuracy, validity, reliability or completeness of any information. Information current as at October 2020. You should not rely upon the material or information as a basis for making any business, financial or any other decisions. Loans issued in Australia are subject to the terms of a loan agreement issued by OnDeck. Loans are subject to lender approval. OnDeck® is a Registered Trademark. All rights reserved.

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