4 Smart (Not So Obvious) Ways To Grow Your Business
In essence, there are only three ways to grow your business. Increase the number of customers, increase the purchase frequency, and increase your average transaction value. However, there are a number of not so obvious ways to increase sales and make your business more profitable. Here are four of them. Ready? Then let’s go!
1. Automate processes to increase efficiency and reduce cost
Today, there are thousands of tools out there to help you automate repetitive business processes. Simply automating a few things can help you significantly reduce wages and free up valuable time. When looking for ways to grow our business, we often overlook areas that don’t directly contribute to your profit. Here are a few things you can automate quickly and easily that could put money back in your pocket.
- Social Media Posts
- Invoicing
- Email Marketing
- Online Advertising
- Lead Generation
- Sales Processes & Follow Up
- Internal Task Management
- Review Management
Tools like Zapier and Integromat can help you connect various services and software to make processes even more efficient.
Some examples:
- When you have a new lead -> automatically add a contact to a list -> then send a follow-up sequence
- After a customer makes a purchase for the second time -> send an invitation to review on Facebook
- When a purchase is made on your website -> automatically create an invoice in Xero
2. Launch a re-targeting ad campaign
Many business owners already use ads to attract new customers and generate new business. However, if you only run direct ads, you are missing out on a huge chunk of potential customers by ignoring this simple strategy. Re-targeting ads are a powerful tool that allows you to show specific ads to people who have already interacted with your content in the past, adding continuity to your customer experience and significantly increasing the chances of turning them into customers.
Se if you can offer them something of value in relation to certain pages or blog posts they have visited on your website.
Example: A yoga studio might show a re-targeting ad for a free yoga pass to people in their area who have read blog posts on the benefits of yoga on their website. When people see the ad, they can enter their email address to claim the free yoga pass and automatically be subscribed to an evergreen campaign. (See next point)
3. Stop focusing on one-off promotions and develop an “Evergreen” campaign instead
The majority of business owners think of marketing and promotions in terms of one-off activities. It might look something like this:
- January -> Promotion #1
- February -> Promotion #2
- March -> Promotion #3
While this might work well, it also requires you to continuously come up with new promotions, which can be exhausting and feel like you’re always running behind.
Instead, create an “evergreen” funnel that sends new leads or customers a series of pre-designed offers from the moment they join your list. Then keep adding new offers to that sequence. Over time, this strategy allows you to develop a marketing machine that continuously produces sales without ever having to worry about what your next promotion is going to be. You just need to make sure that offers in that sequence are timeless and not seasonal.
All you need is a good email automation tool, like Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign, and there are many more options available.
4. Make Partnerships “evergreen”, too
Partnerships and joint ventures with other businesses that complement yours is a powerful strategy. You might have already partnered with another business in the past to run a one-off campaign promoting your products or services. Maybe you’ve asked the other business to hand out vouchers to all their customers.
See if you can turn this strategy into an evergreen campaign, too, like in the previous example. Look for businesses that already have an evergreen funnel and see if they are happy to plug your offer right into it, while you can do the same for them.
Example: One of my clients owns a massage clinic, while another owns a yoga studio. I got both of them to add an email to their existing evergreen sequences promoting the other business. Now, everyone who receives a massage at the massage clinic also receives a complimentary yoga gift card, and everyone who joins the yoga studio receives a discount voucher for a massage a month later.
There you have it. Four (not so obvious) ways to grow your business over the next few months. All four are “set and forget” strategies that you only have to set up once and will benefit from forever.
David Lee-Schneider is a digital marketing consultant and the founder of FlySocial Digital. Based in Brisbane, Australia, he helps business owners improve their online presence and increase sales using clever marketing strategies and automation tools.
FlySocial Digital
How do I automate customer reviews?? Do you mean just write fake reviews??? That’s stupid I would never do that
Hi Nuala, thanks for leaving a comment. I would never suggest faking reviews, as it’s not only unethical but your customers would most likely pick up on that pretty soon, too. What I’m suggesting is that you automate the process of inviting your customers to review you on various platforms. For example, if a customer has bought from you a second or third time, it’s a pretty good indication that they liked your product or service. That would be a good time to automatically send them an invitation to rate/review your business on Facebook, for example. I hope this clarifies things. Regards, David
Some of these ways are really not that obvious but still so needed in order to run a good, proficient business. I never even thought to automate an email asking for a Facebook review after the service. I will be doing that as soon as I head to the office tomorrow. Thanks!
Great tips! I’m going to bring these up to my business partner tomorrow and see what he thinks.
Adding offers for other businesses at the end of your emails or a special offer is genius! One question though, what programs or websites do you suggest for email subscriptions?
How do you go about automating social media posts? Is there a way to schedule posts or something? Or can you get a program that actually posts for you?
Thanks for leaving a comment, Frederic. I have actually written a step-by-step guide on how to do just that! It shows you how to smash out a social media content strategy in a couple of days and never have to worry about posting again. You can download it for free here: https://davidleeschneider.com/blueprint
Hope that helps!
You evergreen campaign idea is perfect! I had never heard of it before. It is going to make it so much easier for me to keep up with my promotions.
Love your article. Has some amazing tips for the new businessman.
Thanks Ben. I’m glad you found it helpful.
Is there a way to get a program that does all automation within just one app/program?
Hi Jamie, thanks for your comment. I don’t there’s one software that will handle all of the above. Email automation is different than social media automation or task management. I’d be more than happy to have a chat with you to see what you need in your particular business. Just book in a time that works for you: https://davidleeschneider.com/schedule/
The email partnership is a great idea. However, would you suggest setting up a contract of some sorts in case they don’t follow up on their end of the deal?
Good question, Brad. I would say that depends on the scope of the partnership. In my experience, if you choose the right businesses to partrner with, a contract won’t be necessary. It’s a simple transaction of you adding an email to your autoresponder to promote them and vice versa. You could of course draw up a simple agreement outlining the scope of work and have both parties sign it. It’s never wrong to have things in writing. Hope that helps. Dave
I am going to go straight into work tomorrow and make sure we have a re-targeting ad-campaigns running. I never thought to try and re appeal to our previous customers.
Your tips list is great! I’m glad I came across your article. I’m currently working on a new start-up and these tips are really going to help the business.
hi your tips really help.your a very great teacher.:) #dad. love you daddy keep making people successful