When you want to take your business to next level of growth, online is one way to do it, as it provides you with a very scalable environment with no ceiling. While this sounds great to most, it’s limited budgets that prevent most businesses from ever reaching their full true potential.
So, how do you grow a business online without breaking the bank? While it will take more time than if you had a large budget, it can still be done. Here are some very simple things to focus on that can help you grow online with limited funds.
Focus on a single service or product
Every business is going to have a specific product or service that is their best seller. This is what you should focus all of your efforts on. If you have a proven winner, scale it rather than trying to promote a handful of products and services. Once you have enough revenue coming in to support expansion, you can then put your marketing dollars towards pushing everything. Use your proven winners to give you leverage.
Build a sales funnel
If you wish to quickly grow and develop your business then you need to build a sale funnel. If you fail to build the sale funnel, you are missing out on sales. Why is a sales funnel important? Because it can automate your business and allow you to scale and grow quickly.
“Every business, from service provider to retailer, can benefit from a funnel,” says Darryl Howard of NuWays MD, a medical spa in Boca Raton. “Lay out a path, from lead to converted sale, and then build systems to nurture that lead until they turn into a customer.”
Make use of a customer management system
If you wish to scale quickly, you will need a solid customer management system. When you are able to track all of your leads and customers, it allows you to market specific offers to them depending on where they are at the purchase cycle. When you truly understand your customer’s buying patterns, a CMS can be leveraged for explosive growth.
Create customer loyalty programs
Customer loyalty programs are great ways to multiply your sales because they make it easy for your business to sell products to your existing customers. A customer loyalty program also helps your business to retain customers and keep them coming back, rather than going to a competitor.
“Setting up a customer loyalty program is easy, and there are several plugins available to help, allowing you to get rolling with little to no technical knowledge. The key is to make the program attractive enough that your customers want to participate. You have to make it worth the effort. Consider offering frequent discounts to keep the orders coming in,” offers Christopher VanDeCar, CEO of Optimally Organic.
Identify new opportunities
You can identify new opportunities for your business by understanding your customer base and industry. “When you fully understand your customer base it allows you to find additional ways to monetize them, by offering additional products or services. Often times you can increase revenue by introducing new options to your already existing customers,” says Jake Braun of Harley Davidson motorcycles website ChopperExchange.
Build email lists
This is considered one of the most effective forms of online marketing, and it has been for some time. “When you build an email list, you are creating an asset that you can tap into at any time. You can send special discount codes, one time offers, and announce pre-sales. The opportunities are endless. Every business that has an online presence needs to be actively building an email list,” says Luqman Khan of best water purifier review website Wireloo.
