6 Tips to grow your business in 2020

Are you aiming to grow your small- and medium-sized business (SMB) this year? It’s not an easy endeavor, but with the right support and approach, you can successfully scale up your company.

Here are some steps you can take to help you win customers, increase your profits, drive productivity, and ultimately move your company forward.

#1. Utilize a customer relationship management (CRM) system

The customer is the foundation of any business success. That’s why you should leverage a digital CRM system to help you manage customer relationships efficiently and effectively. It compiles customer data from your company’s various communication channels (e.g., website, telephone, email, live chat, and social media) so that every customer preference, contact detail, question, service request, purchase, and interaction is easily accessible. With an organized system for managing customer data, you can better understand your customers and tailor-fit your cross-selling and upselling efforts to their needs. This also allows you to personalize your marketing initiatives to bolster customer retention.

What’s more, a CRM system will give you clear visibility of your sales pipeline, so you can track where you are in converting potential leads into customers.

#2. Reward loyal customers

Did you know that acquiring a new customer costs five times more money than selling to an existing one? Not only that, loyal customers spend 67% more than new ones and they even share their positive experiences with family and friends. This means that one of the most cost-efficient ways to boost profits is to build a loyalty program that will help you retain customers.

For example, you can use a simple points-based system wherein frequent customers earn points, which they can use to redeem a discount, freebie, or special customer treatment (e.g., early access to sales and deals). This could be as simple as getting free coffee after purchasing 10 cups of coffee.

You could also explore rolling out a tiered loyalty program that offers better rewards as you go up the different loyalty levels (e.g., bronze-silver-gold memberships). So the more they buy from you, the greater the rewards they’ll receive.

#3. Encourage satisfied customers to post reviews

In a world flooded with “alternative facts” and “fake news,” customers are more skeptical and are less inclined to immediately believe the promises that brands make. No wonder 93% of consumers now read local reviews to help them decide if they will do business with a company. Customer reviews promote confidence and trust in prospective buyers, so you must come up with ways to get happy customers to talk about their experiences of doing business with you.

Make it easy for them to provide testimonials by enabling a customer review function on your website and other popular platforms, such as Facebook and Yelp. Solicit a customer review after they purchase from you, enjoy your services, or refer another customer to you. You could also create incentives. For example, Zappos gives out 100 points to those who write them a review.

#4. Build your email list

Even if there are new communication channels available to reach customers, 59% of marketers say that email is still the medium that gives the biggest ROI. A 2019 Data & Marketing Association (formerly Direct Marketing Association) study also says that for every $1 that you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $42. So if you want to grow your SMB in 2020, you should expand your email list.

To get subscribers, create email registration forms on your website and social media pages. You could also offer perks like a free eBook or coupon in exchange for signing up.

Once they’re part of your email list, make sure you’re providing them quality content that’s worth their time. It’s best to segment your email list to make sure that your customers only receive content that’s relevant to them.

#5. Allow flexible work arrangements

To keep your customers satisfied, you must make sure that the staff they interact with are more than willing to serve them. In other words, you need to keep your employees happy and productive. One effective way to do so is to offer remote working options.

A Stanford study reveals that working from home is a productivity boost. It turns out that work-from-home employees found it less distracting and easier to concentrate at home. They worked 9.5% longer and were 13% more productive than office workers. Remote workers are also happier and stay longer with their companies than on-site employees since they are able to achieve better work-life balance and avoid the stress of commuting.

Thanks to mobile devices, the internet, and cloud-based solutions, you can easily keep in touch with your remote workers wherever they are.

#6. Adopt automation

Review what processes of your operations are repetitive or monotonous, then use technology to automate them so you can free up some of your staff’s time to work on more strategic tasks. Automation also allows your company to accomplish more tasks in less time since computers work lightning fast and are incredibly consistent.

You could apply automation to expedite a wide array of business tasks such as invoicing, providing tech support, and answering customer inquiries. For example, when a customer fills out certain forms, they will immediately receive a follow-up email without the need for any human intervention.

Growing your business demands considerable effort and your full attention. That’s why you need a partner like IT Mgmt Solutions that can free you from the time-consuming tasks of managing your IT. When you work with us, we’ll eliminate all of your IT worries so you can focus on what really matters — your business. Contact our experts today.