Merry Monday my good friends!
I am in a great mood today because I am making real headway on my New Year’s resolution. If you remember I wrote to you several weeks ago about my desire to grow my business in 2011 through new product development. I have opened my ears to my customers and have heard what they are asking for. I am excited to tell you that in the future I will be able to further help you develop your small business with some helpful tools and techniques. Stay tuned for more info in the coming weeks!
Since my focus as of lately has been on growing my own business I thought it would be poignant to talk with you about strategies you can use to grown YOUR business. Here are five that could put your business on the fast track to growth.
Embrace the biggest trend of 2011, on-demand experiences. Companies that offer mobile or instant gratification can create real value for customers. Customers want it all and they want it now, so offer it to them. Develop apps for their cell phones, make products downloadable when possible, or offer location-aware services. For example, if you sell fishing or boating products you could create an app that tells the depth of any lake or river. Make the applications and software you develop natural extensions of your existing product lines, things that will enhance the use of your products. Companies that are embracing this technology are creating better brand awareness and gleaming better insight into the needs of their customers.
It is also smart business to find ways to keep your customers constantly coming back to your website. Provide relevant content that draws in buyers and leads to keep your name on their lips. Staying with the fishing/boating example, you can write articles that detail great fishing or boating spots across the country. Allow users to pick their location and show well known boating areas and fishing spots in that area. Or write tidbits about upcoming appearances by gurus in your industry or new books that are coming out that have to do with your niche. You want to publish content that will excite, inform and continually draw customers back to your website and company. This strategy not only keeps your company on customers’ minds it increases your traffic which can increase advertising revenue.
A third strategy for business growth is one that I am currently using. I am diversifying the products and services I offer. The key to diversification is similarity. You want to look into developing new products or expand your services that complement your current ones. Focus on the related needs of your existing products and/or services. A business that sells eye glasses might also sell cleaner and cases, for instance. Or a maid service might also offer organization services for their client’s closets and storage areas. These additions are natural fits for expanding the product lines of their companies. Doing so will allow you to generate more money from your existing customer base.
You should also make your existing products and services as personalized as possible. Allow customers to choose options that customize what they buy from you to stave off that mass produced, mass marketed feel. Offer your products in varieties of colors, proportions, styles, etc. The more options and customization you offer the better. If you own a business selling t-shirts, allow customers to create their own message on whatever color t-shirt they desire in every size possible. It’s also nice to include handwritten thank you notes with each purchase that specifically address the customer by name and refers to the specific product they bought. Personalization and customization services will help you stand out from your competitors.
A no-money-down strategy to grow your business is to partner up with other business owners. Consider doing joint ventures with like-minded companies. A joint venture is an agreement between two businesses to run an advertisement for a specific product or service to each other’s customer list. You run a promotion for one of your products to another companies list and vice-versa. Most first time joint venture partners just split whatever profit they make from the advertisement with the other company 50/50. After they get comfortable with each other’s offers, each company usually keeps whatever money they make off the ad they ran. Another strategy is to run an offer for a free report in exchange for the customers email address. Joint ventures are a great way to reach new customers without any upfront money. To learn more about joint ventures check out Instant Internet Income on the product page of this website.
Whether you sell knives or news, fishing lures or exotic tours, any business can use these five strategies to successfully grow their business in 2011.
Best Regards,
Ethan Warrick
Editor & CEO
