The challenge for each business whether it a start up or an existing enterprise is the challenge of continuing to grow. This ongoing challenge is repeated every day. It doesn’t matter if it is an online store or a bricks and mortar enterprise the principles remain the same.
Here are “Seven Ways To Grow Your Business” and some tips and examples on how a well designed and featured online presence can help you in all seven areas.
1. Attract new potential customers (lead generation)
Website solution example: Provide online enquiry forms on your website and blog that allow people to easily enquire about your services by sending an email to your business in just 60 seconds by filling in a simple form on your website
2. Turn more of those potential customers into customers (sales conversion).
Website solution example: Provide informative compelling and valuable content on your website that keeps people and prospects coming back time and time again until they are so compelled by your expertise and passion for your industry, products and services that they want to buy from you because they see you as the best in your industry
3.Keep more of those customers from defecting to your competition (retention rate)
Website solution example: Continue to add value to your clients through forums, user groups and online resources via a secure area of your website that they don’t even think about leaving
4.Get those customers to do business with you more often (transaction frequency)
Website solution example: Design and implement an informative email newsletter (not high pressure sell, sell sell emails) that is integrated with your blog posts that continue to remind clients (by keeping you top of mind) so that they will buy from you more frequently.
5.Encourage them to spend more money with you each time they buy (‘average sale’ or ‘transaction value’)
Website solution example: An example of how online technology can assist with this is the new eCommerce platforms such as Magento that provides the latest technology that automates reminders while the online buyer is filling in the shopping cart or browsing to buy another item.
6.Reduce the Cost of Goods Sold (profit improvement)
Website solution example: Automating processes using your website while improving your customer service can be achieved using online forums where other customers provide crowd sourced answers to other clients questions that can reduce the load on your service staff and can significantly reduce staff costs.
7.Reduce the Expenses (profit improvement)
Website solution example: The ability for brochures to made available online can significantly reduce expenses by minmizing expensive printed marketing collateral that can be distributed electronically even while you sleep with no postage costs.
Which of these areas do you focus on the most in your business and could some of these do with some improvement?
If you’re like most people, you spend most of your time focusing on point number 1 – attracting new potential customers or generating leads.
And while you focus all your attention on this area, you can end up neglecting other areas which are potentially even more profitable for their business.
Moreover, while you focus all your time on attracting new leads, you’re actually missing ‘big picture’ sales and profit opportunities that often take far less effort but can have a much bigger impact.
That’s because small, incremental increases across several of the seven ways listed above actually leads to a disproportionately large increase in total revenue and/or profit.
The business growth formula looks something like this:
· Leads generated X Conversion rate X Retention rate = Total customers
· Total customers X Transaction frequency X Transaction value = Total sales
· Total sales minus Cost of goods minus Expenses = Profit
So, do you need to integrate and implement online elements such as email marketing, a website or a blog with a call to action and valuable content that continues to bring visitors back again and again or is your business making so much money that it doesn’t matter. Would love to read your comments below.
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To grow a business it requires a lot of skills and presence of mind. The points mentioned here are absolutely right and considering these points I am sure anyone can set his business growing.