If you're running a small business, you know how hard it can be to keep up with all the marketing, sales, and customer service that goes into it.
We've compiled a list of our favorite tips to help you grow your business in 2023.
Stop Doing What Isn't Working
You have to stop doing what isn't working! This can be difficult for many people, but it's also one of the most important things to do to grow your business.
That's because if you continue to do something that isn't working, you're wasting time and resources on something that won't make you any money or provide any value for your customer or client base.
It would be best if you also focused on what is working. This means looking at everything going well in your business and figuring out how it can be improved, making them even more successful in 2023 than in 2022!
By reallocating your resources towards these areas, you'll see results faster than if you were doing anything else—and those results will lead directly back into growing your small business!
Finally, it would help if you were ready for the challenges that come with growth. If you've been in business for a while, you know that challenges will always be there—and the bigger your business gets, the more challenges it seems to face!
Stand Out From the Competition
Understanding your audience is one of the most important ways to stand out from the competition. If you know who your customer base is, what they want and need, and how they think about your business, it will be easier for you to create content that resonates with them.
- Define Your Target Audience - Who are they? What do they look like? Where do they live? These questions help define who exactly makes up your target audience and what kind of people they are. Once this information has been collected, it's time to start thinking about how best to reach these people so that when those customers arrive at your site or storefront door (or come across one of your ads), there should be nothing stopping them from making a purchase decision!
- Get the Word Out - Once you know your audience, it's time to let them know that you exist. This is where social media comes in handy. Not only can your business set up an account on Facebook and Twitter, but there are also niche-specific sites like Pinterest, Instagram, and LinkedIn that cater specifically to one type of industry or another.
These sites are also a great way to connect with other businesses in your niche and build relationships, which can lead to partnerships or joint ventures. They're also great for getting the word out about any events you're hosting and sharing new content your team has created.
Be More Consistent with Your Marketing Efforts
- Take a look at your calendar and plan out the month ahead. Look at what you have going on in your business, then create a timeline for what marketing efforts need to be done and when. If you aren't sure how much time each marketing activity will take, estimate based on past experience or ask someone who has done it before.
- Make sure that everyone involved in the marketing process knows their responsibilities and can get them done on time. For example, if you're planning out an email sequence campaign, but one of your team members has other work they need to prioritize first, let them know so they can adjust accordingly or find another way around getting it done (like delegating tasks).
- Please keep track of everything you do to measure its impact later. This will help clarify which activities are working well and aren't worth repeating next year!
Start a Blog
If you want to grow your business and get more customers, blogging is one of the best ways to do it. In fact, blogging can be an excellent way to gain the trust of potential customers, generate leads, and convert them into paying customers.
Blogging can help you build your brand by giving readers an insight into who you are and what makes you unique—while also helping them understand how they can benefit from working with or buying from you.
Develop a Content Strategy
Content strategy is the process of creating and curating content that aligns with your business goals, helping you achieve them.
What is a Content Strategy?
A content strategy is an organized plan to help you create, manage, and distribute content across all platforms. When developing a content strategy, your goal is to generate leads and increase engagement with customers and prospects.
Educate people about your brand and services, build thought leadership in your industry/niche/industry verticals or even establish yourself as an expert in your field (to help others grow their businesses), etc.
Your content strategy should include:
- Strategies for measuring the results from your efforts A content strategy is vital because it helps you create a roadmap to follow when creating, publishing, and distributing content across all platforms. By having an organized plan in place, you will know what kind of content to create, how often it should be published, and where it should be shared.
Create a Marketing Plan
A marketing plan is a comprehensive document outlining how to use marketing to achieve your business goals. For most small businesses, creating a marketing plan isn't optional; it's an essential part of growing their business.
According to Entrepreneur magazine, more than 90 percent of companies don't have a formalized marketing strategy and instead rely on instinct and intuition for decision-making.
This can be disastrous for small businesses trying to compete with more prominent brands—they've got better financial resources at their disposal. This means they can afford expensive ad campaigns and national promotions that smaller companies can't match in terms of scale or scope (think: Super Bowl ads).
To combat this disparity between large and small companies, entrepreneurs from all walks of life must develop solid plans for each stage in their growth cycle—and create strategies around them to ensure they're long-term successful.
Don't Forget About Customer Loyalty Programs
If you're not offering a loyalty program for your customers, you're missing out on the chance to retain them. A reliable customer loyalty program is an easy way to increase brand awareness and make it easier for people to share their positive experiences with others. The best loyalty programs also reward loyal customers with discounts, freebies, or special offers that keep them returning for more.
When creating a loyalty program for your small business:
- Make sure that it makes sense with your overall business goals and vision.
- Be aware of what other businesses in your industry are doing so that you don't accidentally copy their ideas (and give away all their secrets).
- Keep in mind who exactly will be using this particular loyalty program. If they're primarily children or teenagers, then there might not be any point in having "points" because they won't have access to or understand what they are yet.
Keep it simple. A loyalty program doesn't need to be complicated; make sure it's easy for people to understand and use.
Automate What You Can
Automating your business is a great way to save time and money, so you can spend more on growing your business. Whether you're automating tasks in the office or automating processes for customers, automation can help you succeed in 2023 by saving time and money so that you can focus more on growing your customer base.
Embrace Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising is a great way to reach new customers and promote specials. It's inexpensive, easy to set up, and can be used to test new products or features.
You can target ads to specific audiences based on their interests and location. This means you can get the right message in front of the right people at precisely the right time.
An ad for a hiking boot company targeting people who live in Montana will be seen by about ten times as many people as an ad for hiking boots shown only in California.
The ads are also much more dynamic than traditional media channels because they're designed specifically for social media platforms.
Get organized.
When it comes to organizing your business, there are a few areas that you should focus on. First of all, if you have any loose paper lying around and not in a file cabinet or binder, get rid of it!
You don't need to keep old receipts or canceled checks from years ago. There are plenty of ways to keep track of the crucial documents in another way—like storing them digitally or having them printed out but in a filing system that makes sense for you.
Second, make sure you have an updated contact list where all contacts are categorized into different groups (i.e., clients versus vendors) so that it's easy for anyone who needs to reach someone about something related to your business without having any trouble locating their information quickly enough before they forget what they were looking for all together!
Thirdly, keep organized on social media platforms like Pinterest, TikTok, or Facebook because these platforms provide many opportunities for networking and promoting yourself as an expert within your industry, which can help build credibility amongst potential customers down the road.
Fourth, keep track of the goals you set for yourself at the beginning of a year. If they aren't being met, figure out why and make adjustments as necessary. For example, if your goal was to increase sales by 25% but only saw 5% growth, think about what could have been done differently to reach your desired outcome.
Finally, learn how to delegate responsibility and delegate it often! For example, if you have a website and want it to be updated regularly but don't have the time to do so yourself, then hire someone else to manage it. This will free up more time for other areas of your business that need attention.
Meet your customers where they are.
Using every channel available to connect with your customers and ensure they get the most out of their experience with your brand. You can't just be present on social media; you must also listen.
- Facebook Messenger
- WhatsApp Direct Messaging
- Word of Mouth
- SMS Messaging
- Website Chat
One of the most important ways to engage with your customers is through direct messaging. It's a great way to get answers from them, ask for reviews, or provide support when something goes wrong with an order.
Keep it simple, silly.
You may think you have a short attention span, but that's not the case. Your audience is just as busy as you are, if not more so. If your content is too long, too complicated, or too wordy, it will likely be ignored by most people who come across it. The solution? Keep things simple!
Keep it simple:
- Keep it short (don't go on and on) - keep your message concise and to the point. People don't want to read long-winded paragraphs of text if they can help it; they'll skim over them quickly instead. So keep your paragraphs short and punchy, so they're easy to digest.
- Keep it sweet (don't make them sick) - this means avoiding the overuse of jargon or buzzwords that only certain people understand and using language everyone understands (even if some business terms are thrown in). If you need an example of jargon gone wrong, look no further than any major corporation's mission statement, which usually contains lots of jargon and meaningless phrases like "we respect our employees," etc...
Improve your products and services.
This is the most obvious step to take, but it's also one of the hardest. We all want to improve our products, but how do we do that?
- Develop a new product or service.
- Improve your existing products or services.
- Improve how you deliver your products or services (e.g., delivery methods).
- Improve customer experience (e.g., customer service).
Figure out how to scale your business.
You need to know your numbers and how they're growing. It would be best to determine what you need to do to grow. If you want to scale your business, then it's time for a partner. To find the right one!
Look for opportunities online and in your community, as well as other industries that could benefit from your offer.
Set aside time for self-improvement.
This year, resolve to make time for self-improvement. Learn new skills, take courses and read books. It's easy to get comfortable doing what you already know how to do, but it's essential that you keep learning and growing so that your business can continue to evolve with the times.
If you're an entrepreneur just starting out, find someone who has been where you are now so they can mentor you through the next step of your journey (if they'll let you). If they don't let you help them in their business, try looking online for mentorships or partnerships - many people are willing to share what they have learned when approached right!
If all else fails, start teaching yourself by reading blogs/articles on whatever topic interests them most (e.g., marketing).
Conclusion
With these tips in hand, you can start the year on the right foot. Whether your business is brand new or has been around for decades, taking time to stay ahead of trends and capitalize on opportunities will help ensure continued success into 2023 and beyond.
