9 Proven Ways to Grow Your Small Business

Building a thriving business can be difficult — especially when working with a small team or doing most of the labour yourself. But, hitting your business goals and building up a brand that people love is also a fulfilling experience. After all, that’s surely why 365 thousand new businesses entered the Australian market in 2021.

As a business owner, the best thing you can do to grow your small business is to learn from those who’ve done it before you. So, if you’re prepared to roll up your sleeves and get first-rate results, the following are the top proven strategies you can implement to do just that.

Know Your Audience

Having a clear understanding of who your audience is, their pain points, what they want from a brand such as yours, and what benefits they prioritize is the basis of any successful venture. Yet, it’s mindboggling how many small businesses get this step wrong.

Instead of doing proper research, they develop products and services that have no sales potential in the real world.

The fortunate thing is that this is a mistake you can easily avoid when trying to grow your business. By simply relying on easily accessible data — like that which you can acquire through Google Analytics — you can learn all the relevant information about your customers: their age, location, gender, etc.

And, if you’re ready to take things a step further, you can even conduct customer surveys to learn about your prospects’ pain points and buying journeys, as well as to figure out what it was about your brand that attracted them in the first place.

Be Clear About What Your Brand Stands For

Data shows that an increasing number of consumers make purchasing decisions based on ESG values. In fact, PWC’s research discovered that:

30% of all buyers choose what brands to support based on environmental factors.
40% make purchases based on social factors like diversity and inclusion.
41% consider governance factors (like transparency and regulation compliance) when choosing what products to purchase.

Knowing this is the case, one of the essential things to do in 2022 is to determine your brand’s values and be clear about those on your distribution channels.

Look up to businesses that already do this successfully. Ben & Jerry’s is a great example. However, keep in mind that you don’t have to be as outspoken as this particular brand. Instead, you just have to hit the right balance between communicating your brand’s values and keeping the focus on your customers and how your products/services can solve their particular pain points.

Build a Website That’s Delightful to Use

How your website performs says a lot about your business. And experience shows that most consumers won’t put up with a poor browsing experience.

Factors like aesthetic design, page loading speed, and accessibility all impact your business’ success. Nail them, and you’ll position your business as credible, trustworthy, and user-oriented. But let them slip, and your audience will slowly start turning away from your company and taking their money to your competitors who understand the importance of website UX.

Investing in UX doesn’t have to be rocket science. Choosing the font colour for your landing pages, using visuals and videos to help your audience grasp complex concepts, or diversifying the payment methods you accept can all make shopping with your business more appealing to your audience.

And the best thing is that a happy website visitor is a precious source of future business. And that’s not just because they’ll be likely to convert into a customer. More importantly, satisfied clients tend to recommend brands to their friends and family, generating social proof and providing you with free marketing for your business.

Focus on Delivering an Exceptional Customer Experience

You’ve probably heard that customer acquisition costs 5x as much as customer retention. But how, exactly, do you generate customer loyalty?

The answer is quite simple. All you have to do is focus on delivering an exceptional customer experience. So, how do you go about making your buyers feel happy with their purchase? It’s simple: just find out what consumers want.

For example, Jungle Scout’s Consumer Trends Report for Q2 2022 shows that most consumers prioritize the following three factors when choosing what brands to shop from:

Convenience
Affordability
Free/low-cost shipping

Other reasons people go with particular retailers include the availability of product options, discounts, flexibility, payment methods, and good product reviews.

So, as you explore ways that will help you grow your small business, consider the different ways you can meet consumer wants. Whether that’s using services like Klarna that will make shopping more convenient for your target audience, showing reviews and ratings on product pages, or simply hiring an experienced customer service team to ensure every customer inquiry is handled to your client’s benefit.

Produce and Distribute Content

When building a future-proof business, you have to be prepared to invest in marketing. The only problem is that there are so many advertising strategies available to small businesses. If you don’t know which ones to utilize, you’ll burn through your marketing budget in the blink of an eye.

Fortunately, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist (or even an experienced marketer) to secure a high ROI on your marketing efforts. All you have to do is choose the right tactics for your brand.

Now, while every single business needs a well-developed marketing strategy to reach its goals, there’s one particular method that works for most companies wanting to invest in their future: content marketing.

When approaching content marketing, play your cards right.

Aim to produce content that gives your audience unique value and helps them solve their pain points (note that this means prioritizing audience value over making sales). By doing this, you’ll effectively position your brand as an industry authority and a trustworthy resource.

Add to this the fact that great content also drives organic traffic to your website, encourages your audience to share your content, helps you nurture relationships with existing clients, and sets you apart from your competitors, and it’s easy to see why you should do your best to create resources your audience will enjoy.

The one thing to keep in mind in 2022 is that blogging isn’t the only successful way for small businesses to drive growth through content. In fact, producing videos, podcasts, interactive content, and gated resources could provide startups with that extra edge, helping them stand out and attract more consumer attention. Just look at how well it worked for Dollar Shave Club, a brand that took its industry by storm thanks to a creative approach to content production.

Adopt a Growth Mindset

If your goal is to invest in your brand’s expansion, you must be ready to adopt a growth mindset. But what does having a growth mindset even mean?

Well, being ready to evolve means accepting your shortcomings. It also means understanding that you must continually invest in your own skills as a business leader. And it means being aware of the changes in your industry.

This can look like an overwhelming list of to-dos. The good news, however, is that investing in your leadership skills (and consequently the growth of your brand) doesn’t have to be complicated.

Simply decide to do everything in your power to continue working on yourself as a business leader. This can include staying updated about current market conditions, working on new skills, and being prepared to learn from your mistakes (of which there will be plenty throughout your professional journey).

Delegate

One of the biggest mistakes small business owners make is that they think they can do everything by themselves. And, sure, this isn’t impossible. But, it does often prevent business growth.

Taking on every single task in your organization thwarts success in several ways:

It wastes the finite resource of time and forces you to waste your expertise by having you do low-value tasks (such as administrative jobs).
The practice is unsustainable in the long run, seeing that the average human can only work productively for 4-6 hours per day. Everything more than that is just asking for mistakes and poor performance.
It leaves your brand with subpar results, seeing that you’re not assigning high-value jobs like marketing or SEO to the people who are true experts in the field.

So, if you’re looking for ways to grow your small business, learn how to delegate. Yes, it will be difficult (especially if you’re particular about how you want things done). But in the end, this will allow you to direct your energy towards the actions that will help your brand evolve. Moreover, it will allow your team to gain precious experience and become more independent, significantly reducing the number of fires you have to put out.

Keep Your Team Happy

Did you know that employee satisfaction directly impacts your business’ success? That’s right. Employees who are happy at their place of work are more productive, likely to contribute to a good customer experience, and tend to put more effort into meeting team goals. So, if you want to grow your small business, it might not be a bad idea to focus on your team’s happiness.

According to a survey conducted by Gallup in 2022, employees want:

Financial compensation and benefits.
Great work-life balance.
Stimulating work.
Job security.
A workplace where policies align with their beliefs.
A diverse and inclusive work environment.

With this data in mind, it’s easy to conclude that one of the keys to growing your small business is to keep your key players invested in your organization’s vision and mission.

Look for tactics to motivate your employees and make sure you’re offering sufficient compensation for their work. As for the hiring process, take special care and look for candidates whose values align with those enforced by your company.

Streamline and Automate Processes

Lastly, as you explore strategies that will help you grow your small business in 2022 and beyond, don’t forget that doing more work doesn’t necessarily yield better results. Sometimes, the way to reach success is to cut back on how much you and your team do.

By streamlining your processes and employing automation wherever you can — by using CRM software or signing up for an email marketing automation solution — you can free up more time and mental energy for you and your team to do exceptional work.

Just make sure that any process you decide to change, you’re ready to lead your team through the required onboarding process to ensure the expected results and prevent wasting precious budget resources on solutions no one in your company uses.

Final Thoughts

Running a small business is a challenging task. With budgets and workforces that are often limited, owners have to take on a huge amount of responsibility to turn their vision into reality.

But, with the right strategies, even the smallest organization can turn into an industry leader —.as long as you know how to drive growth. Just look at Apple, which started out of a garage.

The strategies discussed in this guide can help you on your path. But to ensure maximum success, make sure to align them with your brand’s specific needs and the state of your industry.

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by Sarah Kaminski