By Matt Casadona
Image by marymarkevich on Freepik
Growing your business is a continual challenge that demands relentless hard work, unwavering dedication, and astute strategic planning. Although there is no universal blueprint for achieving success, seeking guidance and inspiration from accomplished business experts can prove invaluable. This article compiles tips and advice from highly successful entrepreneurs and business leaders, providing actionable insights on how you can keep your business growing.
From dressing your staff in branded, personalised polo shirts, to featuring your customers’ own content on your social media feeds, there are lots of ways in order to gain success as a business this year.
Be Adaptable
Adaptability is a crucial component for any business trying to stay competitive and grow in ever-changing business environments. Without the ability to adjust quickly to changes in technology, customer needs, and trends, companies can find themselves quickly becoming obsolete. However, when businesses are able to not only recognize changes but adapt their strategies accordingly, they’re often able to continue thriving. Many businesses have seen success through adaptation in the marketplace. For example, some companies that started out primarily selling physical products have shifted their focus to include digital services or products as well. This approach allows them to reach a wider audience and capitalize on the growing demand for online goods and services.
- Curtis Anderson, Co-founder and CEO, Nursa
Analyze Your Competition
“The key to keeping your business growing is to analyze your competition continually. You can gain valuable insights into their strategies, strengths, and weaknesses by keeping a keen eye on what your competitors are doing. Studying their marketing tactics, product offerings, pricing strategies, and customer engagement methods can help you identify areas where you can improve and stay ahead. It's important to focus not just on copying their tactics but on understanding how you can differentiate yourself and offer unique value to your customers. Regularly monitoring your competition allows you to adapt your business strategies, make informed decisions, and stay relevant in a constantly evolving market. Remember, staying competitive requires staying vigilant and proactive in understanding and responding to the ever-changing landscape of your industry.”
- Adrian Pereira, Founder and CEO of Ecopeaco.com
Offer Excellent Customer Service
“Providing top-notch customer service is a key factor in ensuring the continuous growth of any business. When customers feel valued, heard, and appreciated, they are more likely to become loyal, repeat customers and refer others to your business. Going the extra mile to exceed customer expectations, promptly resolving issues, and maintaining open communication channels create a positive impression and foster trust. For example, a local bakery that offers personalized attention to each customer, remembers their preferences, and promptly responds to inquiries or complaints will build a loyal customer base and attract new customers through positive word-of-mouth. Excellent customer service builds customer loyalty, enhances your business reputation, and sets you apart from the competition, leading to sustained business growth.”
- Saneem Ahearn, VP of Marketing at Colorescience
Get a Grip on Social Media
“Maintaining a strong presence on social media is essential for sustained business growth. Social media platforms provide a powerful tool for engaging with customers, expanding brand awareness, and driving sales. By actively managing your social media accounts, you can effectively connect with your target audience, build relationships, and stay relevant in today's digital landscape. It's crucial to keep up with social media trends, create compelling content, and respond promptly to customer inquiries and feedback. Social media can also be a valuable source of insights and feedback for improving your products or services. Therefore, prioritizing social media management and strategy is vital to ensure your business continues to thrive in the ever-evolving digital world.”
– Clayton Howard, Director of Analytics at Net Pay Advance
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Develop a Unique Brand Identity
Part of ensuring your business keeps growing is developing and maintaining a unique brand identity. Having a strong brand identity will differentiate your business from competitors while creating a loyal customer base. To start, you will need to define your brand’s purpose, values, and personality that will resonate with your target audience. From here, your brand will have to develop a visual identity that reflects its values and personality, from having a logo and color scheme to its imagery. You can then take your brand to the next level by building a strong online presence through its website and social media channels. These are avenues where your brand can share its message and values with your target audience. It’s important that as you continue to build your brand identity that you monitor how your audience is engaging with it and that you never stray away from your brand’s core values that make up its identity.
- Joe Acosta, Digital Marketing at BBQ Galore
Stay on Top of Industry Trends
As a business owner, it’s important that you keep up with any industry trends, especially if you are looking to grow in a constantly changing market. You need to keep learning and stay on top of industry trends so that you and your business can quickly pivot and adapt to any changes in the current market. Of course, you can stay up-to-date by reading industry publications, following thought leaders in your industry, and monitoring social media as these are ways you can see day-to-day changes or updates. However, for more in-depth information about any changes in the industry, you may consider attending industry events or even conducting your own market research. These are both ways you can learn from other professionals in your field and gain insight on customer needs, preferences, and behaviors. By staying on top of industry trends, you can begin to identify opportunities for growth, anticipate changes, and stay ahead of competitors in your field to keep your business thriving.
– Bill Lyons, CEO of Griffin Funding
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Increase Customer Retention
Retaining existing customers is as important as acquiring new customers, as it builds customer loyalty and increases sales. Customer retention is a more profitable strategy because it costs five times more to acquire a new customer. Strategies to increase customer loyalty include prioritizing customer service, using a CRM system to manage customer relationships and identify sales opportunities, creating loyalty programs, running email campaigns to stay on top, engaging with customers on social media, and delivering on customer promises. By implementing these strategies, businesses can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty and ultimately drive sales growth.
– Matt Gehring, Head of Marketing at Dutch.com
Know What Your Customers and Clients Want!
“One of the easiest tips for keeping your business growing is to simply know what your customers and clientele want when looking at your products and services! Customer retention is key to any business and if you want to keep your customers coming back, you need to consistently produce relevant and creative products that your specific target audience wants to see and make that audience want to come back for more. An easy way of producing these results is by asking customers about their buying and product experience. Some options to come up with sufficient data can be sending email surveys that ask questions about specific products, website feedback, and email subscription feedback, along with links to specific feedback pages you create that they can send anonymously. By getting to know your customers and knowing what they would want with future products and services, this strategy will always generate great reviews and word-of-mouth to spread your brand’s name and help it grow in revenue, online presence, online conversions, and positive reviews!”
- Chris Hunter, Director of Customer Relations at Service Titan
Create Resources
“In order to create a growing business, one of the things you need to do is provide resources for your audience. Whether or not these resources are products, services or simply blog posts, you should be adding value to your target audience. If you are creating new content regularly, you should be able to continue to grow your business. Creating resources will bring your customers back to your website or collateral material even after they purchase your product or service. In turn, this creates customer loyalty and brand awareness. Based on what resources perform well with high customer engagement you can see what your customers are interested in, and then use that information to create more resourceful content and even products. Creating a growing business persona is a huge part of creating sales and at its core is based on the relationship between a customer and business. One of the most impactful ways to create this relationship with your customers is to create resources that your customers can utilize and reference in times of need.”
- Peter Reagan, Financial Marketing Strategist at Birch Gold Group
Foster a Strong Company Culture
“One great way to keep your business growing is to focus on fostering a strong and inclusive company culture. Creating a positive work environment that aligns with your company's values and goals can have a significant impact on employee morale, productivity, and retention. A healthy company culture can also help attract top talent and build a positive reputation in the industry which can be vital to keep a business growing. To achieve this, it's important to prioritize communication, recognize employee achievements, and encourage teamwork. By investing in your employees and creating a culture of inclusivity and collaboration, you can create a strong foundation for sustained growth and success in your business.”
- Hilary Kozak, Vice President of Marketing at LivSmooth
Utilize Search Engine Optimization
“Search engine optimization (SEO) is a powerful tool that businesses can use to keep growing by improving their visibility in search engine results pages. To utilize SEO effectively, it's important to start by conducting keyword research to identify the most relevant and high-traffic keywords for your industry. Once you've identified these keywords, you can incorporate them into your website content and other on-page elements. Additionally, building high-quality backlinks from reputable websites can help improve your website's authority and visibility in search results. By investing in SEO and continuously monitoring and adjusting your strategy, you can attract more traffic to your website, generate leads, and ultimately drive business growth.”
- Lev Berlin, Founder at Recipal
To sum up, the business realm is a dynamic and ever-changing arena that poses both obstacles and prospects for entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, by taking into account the wisdom and perspectives of experienced business professionals, you can arm yourself with the requisite knowledge and resources to propel your business towards ongoing growth and success.
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