business growth Archives - Page 5 of 17

Breaking Down Your Business: How to Write the Perfect Elevator Pitch

In most cases, marketing your business is not something that you want to rush. You need to take your time, work on your strategy, and craft your message so that prospects really understand what you’re all about. But sometimes you need to deliver that message in a ridiculously small amount of time to get your prospect’s attention, and that’s when all that hard work that goes into crafting your business’ message comes into play. If you can really break down exactly what you’re all about and deliver a perfect pitch in the time that it takes to ride on an elevator with someone, you could have them hooked. So let’s take a look at how you can write the perfect “elevator pitch” that will get a prospect’s attention in around 30 seconds!

What Is an Elevator Pitch?

So what exactly is an elevator pitch? Let’s start with what it’s not. It is not a sales pitch that’s meant to seal a deal on the spot. The goal of presenting your elevator pitch should be to earn a second conversation, not to convince the person you’re talking to that they should invest in or hire your business, or buy your solution. That means it’s not something you should be pasting into emails or bombarding people with as soon as they pick up the phone.

Instead, a polished elevator pitch is a brief, but compelling, breakdown of you and your business. It’s something you can pull out at networking events, conferences, or on warm sales calls. You should carefully craft it, making sure it’s no longer than a minute long (try to keep it to 30 seconds, in fact), and practice it until it becomes second nature (because it should feel natural, and not forced). It should:

Say who you are
Give a reason why your product or service can benefit the prospect, or some important features that would be interesting to investors
Get your listener excited about what you do, so that they want to hear more details
Encourage them to ask questions

Your elevator pitch doesn’t literally have to end with the doors closing on you! Remember to give your pitch, then listen to what your prospect has to say. If things go well, you will both ask questions and keep the conversation rolling. At the very least, offer your business card and ask to connect on LinkedIn.

It can feel a bit daunting to create the perfect elevator pitch: after all, sometimes distilling your message to its most interesting core is much tougher than running on and on about yourself. So how do you craft a brief, natural-sounding message that will get you noticed?

Crafting Your Elevator Pitch

Take a look at the following steps for getting all the info you need into your pitch, without adding too much extraneous bulk.

1. Briefly say who you are

Here’s the thing: research shows that talking about ourselves makes our brains light up in ways that feel really good, especially in stressful situations. That’s one of the reasons having an elevator pitch is so important: it’ll keep you from rambling on and on about yourself, which can spell disaster when trying to get a prospect’s attention. After all, they don’t know you or your business yet, and frankly don’t care about your life story! You need to earn their interest, so all you need to do at this point is introduce yourself with your name and your role/name of your business. If you want to get more creative, you can jazz up your job title with what your true function at your business is (i.e., what problems you solve).

2. Distill what your company does

This can feel tough, but if you know your business really well, you should be able to break down what you do into one compelling sentence. Here’s a tip for helping you to do this: don’t make the mistake of simply listing skills. Rather, you should describe who you serve and what you do for them. For example, “We help X type of business connect with the perfect X.” Essentially, your prospect should know what you do even if you’re cut off after the first two sentences.

3. What value do you offer?

Now we’re getting into the more interesting stuff. They know the who and the what, and now it’s time to get to the why. Why should they be interested in your business? What is it that sets you apart from other businesses? What kind of value can you offer them? Does each account get its own dedicated rep, for example, or have you created an efficiency-boosting tool unique to your industry? You can also use this space to establish your authority in your field.

4. Grab their attention

Hopefully your prospect is intrigued by now – and now it’s time to reel them in! One really effective way to finish your pitch is with an attention-grabbing statistic that relates to your business. For example, you can give an average percentage that you save customers, an amount of time you save, or even a percentage of customers who have a problem that you can solve.

5. Engage with a question

Once you drop your mind-blowing stat on them, you can ask them a question. It could be simply: “Does this sound like something you’d be interested in?” but it’s better to go a more engaging route, and ask an open-ended question, as opposed to a “yes” or “no” one. Try something more along the lines of, for example, “So, how does your organization handle X?” Once you’ve got the ball rolling, be sure to actively listen and engage with their answer.

6. Edit, and consider some unique formats

Once you’ve drafted your elevator pitch, including everything above, you can really fine-tune it. Edit it down to make sure it’s under a minute long, and that you haven’t rambled about yourself, or used overly technical language. Also really think about how you’ve formatted it. Is it easy to remember? Streamlined? Compelling? Unique? Remember, you can stick with the formula of who you are, what you do, what your business does/offers, and a hook, but don’t be afraid to play around with it a bit if that doesn’t work for you. For example, you can consider:

Leading off with a question
Having a surprise ending
Starting with a crazy stat (like how many hours employees spend on X) and how you can help solve that problem
Including your inspiration for starting your business/creating your product, or your origin story
Including a customer story
Mentioning a mutual connection

7. Practice, practice, practice!

Finally, once you’ve honed your elevator pitch you need to practice – and we mean practice it like you’re taking it to Carnegie Hall! You want to learn it well enough that you don’t stumble over it and sound like you don’t know what you do for a living, and practice it enough that it doesn’t sound overly rehearsed. It should eventually come out of your mouth smoothly, with energy, confidence, and enthusiasm, and it should always be ready at a moment’s notice, since you never know who you’ll run into!

Running your business is one thing, selling it is quite another. There’s definitely an art to making your pitch, and part of that art is knowing how to strike a balance between saying too much and simply answering the question “what do you do?” But if you’re ready with a well-crafted elevator pitch, you can really wow your prospects, and turn them into eager customers.

It’s All About the Follow-Through:Strategies for Following Up with Your Leads

It takes a lot of work to start a small business, but that’s nothing compared with the long, long process of generating leads, turning them into qualified prospects, converting them into customers, keeping their business… Phew, we’re tired just thinking about all that. But that whole process is what keeps your business going and growing, so it’s incredibly important that you’re fully engaged in every step, and aren’t forgetting how vitally important it is to follow up with leads, both in the short-term and long-term. Far too often, small business owners give up on leads too quickly, when just a little bit of (or a lot of!) follow-through could make all the difference. Why? Let’s check that out below, and then take a look at some strategies for following up with your leads.

What’s the Big Deal About Following Up?

We’re just going to put it right out there: if you’re giving up on prospects too quickly, you’re giving up on growing your business. One of the most eye-opening stats that we’ve seen regarding the importance of persistence and following up is this: 80% of completed sales require 5 follow-ups, but 44% of salespeople give up after just 1 follow-up! Let’s break that down further, and look at some other stats that prove the importance of following up:

Only 2% of sales are made during the first point of contact. This means businesses stand to lose potentially 98% of their sales leads if they do not follow up. In addition, only 3% of prospects will sign up on the second contact and only 5% will say yes on the third try.
92% of salespeople give up after no sales on the 4th attempt, meaning only 8% of salespeople get to that 5th follow-up. And 60% of customers say no four times before saying yes.
50% of buyers choose the business that responds first.
On average, high growth organizations report 16 touch points per prospect within a 2-4 week timespan
Salespeople who follow up with a lead within five minutes are 9 times more likely to convert them.
At any given time, only 3% of your market is actively buying, so you need to be there when your prospects are ready to buy!

Those numbers make it clear that it really is all about the follow-through – and that it’s not just the early bird, but the super persistent bird, who gets the worm. So what should you be doing to follow up with each prospect and get them to the point where they’re ready to buy?

Strategies for Following Up in the Short-Term

When you’ve generated some leads, the first thing you can do is segment them. After all, not all leads are going to be hot and ready to buy, or even warm! So, depending on how they came to you (e.g., through an email opt-in form, versus someone who filled out a contact form on your website), you’ll want to classify them as hot, warm, or cold, and then move them around as necessary as they move through your sales funnel. So once you know who you’ve got (be sure to have a system in place for tracking your leads), and how much warming they’ll need, it’s time to implement your short-term follow-up strategy. Try these steps:

1. Immediately send out an email

Any leads who come to you via email, fill out an online form, or who you meet at an event, etc, should get an email welcoming or thanking them ASAP. We live in a world where automating everything is possible, so take advantage of it, just don’t forget to personalize your communications.

2. Call if you can!

Email is great, but a phone call is even better in some circumstances, especially if you can place a follow-up call from your first contact within 12-24 hours. Most leads will need to have their questions thoroughly addressed before they commit to buying from you or hiring you, so sometimes your best bet is a good old-fashioned phone call to go over all the details. But remember: research shows, the sooner you pick up the phone, the better!

3. Schedule a follow-up call

If you’ve made contact with your lead, great! But always keep in mind those statistics from above, and remember that you’ll probably need to talk to them more than once, or twice, or even four times. So give your prospect the info they need in your first call, but don’t hang up the phone without trying to schedule a follow-up call appointment, so you know you’ll have a second point of contact with them.

4. Send a thank-you note

Things are getting serious now! Up your game by sending out a handwritten thank-you note, instead of a follow-up email.

5. Send out a reminder

note with the word reminder on it and a happy face magnet — *Setting a reminder can be helpful for you and the customer.*

It can be tough to gauge how much contact is too much, but it is generally worth it to send your lead a reminder email before your follow-up call. You won’t get anything out of an appointment that your prospect has forgotten about!

6. Make the follow-up call

Keep your appointment with your prospect, and use this time to review the info you went over with them in your first call, answer any new questions that have come up, and get a feel for whether now is the time for a call to action. They might not be ready to buy at this point, and you might have to start the process again with new information, but most prospects won’t buy unless you ask!

Hopefully you’ve landed yourself some ready-to-buy leads at this point, but even if you haven’t, it’s not time to give up. Start the process again, giving your lead some new information, and/or shift to your long-term strategies for following up.

Strategies for Following Up in the Long-Term

As we’ve already seen, not everyone is going to buy on the first, or fourth, attempt – and you know what? Some leads need even more time, so now we need to take a look at some tips for having more long-term follow-up strategies in place. These longer-term strategies aren’t necessarily going to have the same first step, second step, etc cadence of your short-term strategy, but they are things you need to think about when trying to play the long game in sales. And remember: it’s playing the long game that wins you customers in the end.

1. Qualify your leads

If you’re finding that you’re not getting a whole lot of bites after going through your short-term strategies, make sure you’re qualifying your leads. This way you’ll know who is most ready to buy (or the “hottest” prospects), and who needs to be put into your follow-up system. Remember, even if they don’t have the motivation and means right now, don’t write them off!

2. Get to know your leads’ preferred contact channels

As you get to know your leads better, you can hone in on exactly how they like to be contacted and what type of communication they respond to best, so your long-term efforts will be more likely to pay off. Try email, phone calls, social media, text messages, etc.

3. Have a schedule

Creating a follow-up schedule will help you stay consistent with your communications and prevent you from letting the leads you worked so hard to generate fall through the cracks. Try to create a schedule that helps keep you in your leads’ minds, but doesn’t annoy them! For example, try emailing once a week, calling once a month, and offering to meet up with them once per quarter.

3. Make it personal with the help of a CRM

One of the best ways to keep leads in your orbit is with the help of a content management system (content relation management software, or CRM). You can take the leads you’ve generated, and who you want to put into your long-term follow-up system, and plug in important info about them, like their birthdays or other personal tidbits, so you can send out super personalized communications. If you don’t want to invest in this software, you can also keep track of your prospects’ info with spreadsheets and calendars, it’ll just be a little more labor-intensive.

4. Use valuable content to keep leads interested

Part of your long-term strategy to keep your business on your leads’ radars can be expanding from just emailing and calling to capturing their interest with some valuable content. Blog posts, infographics, helpful stats, success stories, and downloadable guides are all great options – you can even use a downloadable guide or a video tutorial as a “baby step” to getting your leads to buy your product or service.

illustration of a person with ways of communication around them — *Asking for a referral can help get your business out there more.*

5. Ask for referrals

Most people are actually willing to give referrals, but only a small percentage of sales people actually do. Even people who aren’t quite ready to buy will often be willing to refer you to someone they know who is, if you’ve taken the time to build a relationship with them.

6. Know when to back off

Sometimes it’s just not meant to be. If your prospect has made it clear that they’re not interested after multiple attempts, it’s time to respectfully thank them for their time and back off. You never know, if you’ve made an impression on them, they might come back to you in the future.

When it comes to making sales, and growing your small business, it really all comes down to the relationships you build with leads – and hopefully the work you put into building these relationships will turn those leads into loyal customers! Just don’t be afraid to be persistent – it’s that fifth phone call that your competition didn’t make that could make all the difference!

New Entrepreneurs: Make Your First Sale, Fast!

This is it. You’ve done it, taken the plunge: you’re finally following your dream, and you’ve got your new business up and running. You’ve been planning and perfecting, but now it’s time to invest all of your time and attention into the most important thing: getting that first, real customer (or hopefully, customers!) to start buying what you’re selling.

No problem, right? You’ve got a great idea, and you’re ready to share it with the world – and there are so many ways to share your business with the world. In fact, there are so many channels for getting your business out there that you might actually be finding it difficult to figure out the one(s) that make the most sense for your business, and that will get you the results – and the paying customers – you’re looking for. So if you’re feeling a little unsure about the next steps, check out our handy dandy tips for getting you your first sale, fast!

Getting Started

paper with a light bulb on it, a pencil and eraser — *When you are first starting, it is important to come up with a plan.*

Here’s the thing: you don’t have customers yet, so you don’t have a steady source of revenue, so you don’t have much money to spend on acquiring customers… And that means you probably also don’t have the money to hire an agency or marketing department. It’s up to you to earn your first customers at a time when your product or service probably isn’t perfect yet, and you aren’t in a position for it to sell itself, because you don’t have the name recognition.

That means you’ve got to make the constraints of limited time and money work for you. But remember, the same constraints that limit your options can also keep you on track for success. When you know exactly how much money you have and where revenue needs to be, you can be laser-focused on optimizing your sales approach to reach the target.

So where do you start? Not with Super Bowl ads and lavish launch parties, but with the basics, of course: let’s meet your prospective customer.

Get to Know Your Customers

1. Create your ideal customer avatar

Your first customer is out there, but who are they? You need to know who they are before you can go looking for them. While you want to acquire customers, you also need to be sure you’re acquiring the right customers – the ones who will stick around and bring in more customers. So ask yourself: who is my perfect customer, where do they hang out online, what are their pain points, and how can I provide solutions to them? Informal focus groups and a little online market research can help to ensure that you’re selling the right way, and giving your ideal customer what they want.

2. Network with your target customers

Now you know who you’re looking for, reach out to them! Get online where they hang out, and hang out with them. Head to the online forums and social media groups where your potential customers congregate and tell them what you’re all about. If you can, meet them face-to-face, as well, by attending trade shows and conferences, where you can make some vital connections. Consider this example of face-to-face connection success: Etsy got off the ground by traveling to craft shows and convincing vendors to sell on their site.

3. Make the first move

We know you’ve got an amazing service that should sell itself, or a product that should be walking off the shelves, but it doesn’t always work that way. Again, you’ve got to go out and meet your customers, and also introduce yourself to them, and one way to do that is with some good old-fashioned cold calling. Hey, Uber began by cold calling limo companies! Reach out to prospective customers in the way that makes most sense for your business, whether that’s online, by phone or email, or even by stopping by an office with donuts! And remember, cold calling is most effective if you’re using it as a way to mutually get to know each other, NOT as a way to immediately start in with the hard sell.

4. Use your existing network

Ok, maybe you don’t want your first customer to be your mom, but starting with your existing network is never a bad idea, since you already know them (and you know what? It still counts if your first customer is someone you know!) People you already know are a great source of info and can help you expand your network further: you can comfortably ask them about pain points and what they want and need, as well as ask them to share your business with their network.

Get to Know Your Tech Tactics

Acquiring your first customers is all about meeting people, and doing so online is a big part of growing any small business these days. So you need to know where to go and how to drive traffic to your business.

Start free and easy

social media network — *Social media is one sure way to get noticed and make a sale!*

You’re on a budget, so the first thing you should take advantage of is social media and other online communities (think: Reddit). First, figure out the best platforms for your business. You already know your customer, right? So you know where they hang out, but make sure you’re also matching your business to the platform. For example, businesses that sell products and would benefit from glossy images should definitely have a presence on Instagram.

Next, think of some ways to drum up interest, maybe by offering a promo code targeted to the specific customers you’re looking for. Just be sure not to blast out spam: low-quality promos are no replacement for trying to make authentic connections.

Finally, remember to use social media and online communities as ways to drive traffic back to your website. Always include your URL in your bios and any content you post.

Join a community

You can get involved in online communities that your customers are likely to be members of, but you can also join groups to get help and support from experienced entrepreneurs. Check out the following communities, for example:

r/Entrepreneur
r/ecommerce
Shopify Entrepreneurs Facebook Group
Grow and Sell Facebook Group
Bright Ideas and Entrepreneurs LinkedIn Group
Shopify Community

Spend a money to make money

You might also have to put a bit of your budget aside to do a little paid advertising. This is a great way to get targeted advertising, and if you’re taking advantage of online advertising platforms, you might be surprised by how little you have to spend. Since many paid advertising channels allow you to pay per click, in some cases you can start with a budget as low as $10, and scale up from there if you find paid ads necessary and effective.

So where should you be putting your money? As we pointed out above, every platform is different, and you should choose the right one for you based on who you’re targeting and how the tools allow you to reach potential buyers. Remember too, that you should have a presence on a social media platform before you start advertising, so there’s something for your target audience to check out when they do click!

Some paid platforms to consider include:

Facebook advertising – According to Pew Research, Facebook is one of the most popular social networks with the most diverse user base in terms of age, income, gender and ethnicity. That means you’ll be able to use Facebook’s targeting options to really hone in on and reach your ideal customer. You can even narrow them down based on interests, so if you truly know your target market, the money you spend on Facebook ads could really get you noticed.

Instagram advertising – Instagram has one of the most engaged user bases among social networks, according to data from Smart Insights. It’s a great platform for reaching a huge number of Millennials, for influencer marketing, and for displaying your own visual ad in others’ feeds to drive traffic back to your account and website.

Google Ads – What’s the first thing that a lot of people do when they want to buy something? Google it! So you might want to try paying to advertise on Google – it can be a bit complicated, but if you’ve got a product or service with a high search volume, it might be worth it.

Have a Few Tricks Up Your Sleeve

So now you know your customers, and how to reach them. Now it’s time to make sure you have a bag of tricks up your sleeve to entice them. For example: illustration of a laptop with a website on it

Be interesting – Ha, more easy said than done, right? But to entice customers, sometimes you need to get yourself out there and tell your story. Start a blog, or offer to guest blog, and don’t be afraid of affiliate marketing.

Be creative – Cliched as it is, you need to think outside the box: advertising is fine, but you need to cut through the noise. Try hosting a contest with your product as the prize, offering to partner up with a complementary business and send samples of your product with theirs, sponsoring a local event, or asking for reviews from bloggers.

Be generous – Nothing gets people on board with a business like free stuff! You can offer free samples, a generous discount code, or a freemium upgrade. Don’t forget about using viral loops, or offering incentives for customers to share your business with their network.

If you’re just starting out, and waiting (im)patiently for your first customers to start banging down your door, this is a super exciting – and scary – time! Will you find your ideal customers? Will they stick with you? We’re feeling pretty confident that you’ll be pulling in prospects in no time – you just need to follow the tips above, and pretty soon you’ll be making your first sale. Just remember to treat those first customers well, and use those first successes to get your business growing!

How to Grow Your Business with Your Existing Customers

If you’re a small business owner, you’re probably trying to find ways to get just a little bit bigger, and you might be doing this by trying to acquire as many new customers as you can. But if you’re focusing too much on getting new customers, you could be ignoring a better and cheaper way to grow your business: customer retention. After all, now that every business has an online presence, it’s a crowded world out there, and competing for new clicks and conversions can take a whole lot of time, energy, and money. So when was the last time you thought about your strategy for keeping your existing customers, or spent time marketing specifically to them? If you hesitated when thinking about your answer, it might be time to check out some ways to build your customer retention strategy.

Why Work on Retention?

First of all, what do we mean when we talk about customer retention? It’s not just hoping that the power of your product or service will keep people coming back for more! Customer retention means focusing activities on increasing the number of repeat customers you have, and increasing the profitability of each existing customer. You offer value to your customers so you can build a customer base (acquisition), then you need to work to continue to get value from your customers. You do this by not only continuing to offer value to them, but by building relationships with them. customer retention infographic

If you start spending a little more time on customer retention, you’ll be in the minority, but you’ll be in the very smart minority. Did you know that, while 44% of businesses focus on customer acquisition, and only 18% focus on customer retention, studies show that almost 65% of a company’s business comes from repeat customers? Seems like something is a little wrong there! Not only that, but:

The probability of selling to an existing customer is between 60% and 70%, while the probability of selling to a new customer is only between 5% to 20%.
Existing customers are 50% more likely to try your business’s new product.
Existing customers are 31% more likely to spend more on their average order with your business.
The average loyal customer spends 67% more in their 31st to 36th month with a brand than in their first six months of the relationship.
A 5% increase in customer retention can boost profits by 25% to 95%.
82% of companies agree that retention is cheaper than acquisition, and studies show it costs 5-10 times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain one.
An average of 68% of new customers come from current customers.

By now, you’re probably ready to get out there and start selling to your existing customers! But, before we get into that, a quick side note on how much time you should spend on customer retention. It all depends on where you are in the life cycle of your business:

If you’re just starting out (no sales), you should be focused solely on customer acquisition.
If you’re at around 1-5 sales a week, you should be beginning to think about customer retention strategies, so spend about 15% of your marketing efforts on retention.
When you hit a more consistent sales level (at least one sale a day), start spending closer to 30% of your time on retention.
Once you’re established with about 10 sales per day, consider splitting your time 50/50 between acquisition and retention.
And when you’ve hit that milestone of being well established, and are making more than 10 sales a day, you can tip the scales and start focusing more of your marketing efforts on retention (say around 60% or more, depending on your business).

Measuring Up

And one more thing before we move on. When thinking about what customer retention means for your business, remember to keep tabs on the following metrics:

Repeat customer rate, or the percentage of customers willing to make a second purchase from you.

Purchase frequency, or how often customers are coming back to buy from you.
Average Order Value (AOV), or how much your customers are spending when they buy from you.

You can find online tools to help you calculate these metrics, and you can then use them to find your customer value, which helps you understand how much each customer is actually worth. Experts suggest you do the following calculation to find out this useful info: Customer Value = Purchase Frequency x Average Order Value.

Now it’s time to look at what you can do to keep those customers coming back for more!

Customer Retention Strategies

1. Build trust

Just because a customer has bought something from you doesn’t mean they automatically or instantly trust your business. But 81% of customers say that “trust” is an important factor in their decision to make a purchase. That means you have to consistently follow through on each and every one of your promises, or make things right if you don’t or can’t, so you can build what is perceived as a trustworthy brand.

2. Start a feedback loop

In order to retain customers you have to please them, right? And in order to please them, you have to know what they want, and how satisfied they are with what they get. That means starting a customer feedback loop, which can include a system for collecting, analyzing, and distributing customer reviews and surveys. Try using online tools to create and collect surveys, or consider conducting focus groups or asking customers to participate in user testing.

Once you’ve gotten the info, make sure you analyze your results, and look for customer trends that can help you address criticism, focus on your strengths, and improve customer experience – all of which will help you boost retention rates.

3. Encourage customer accounts

Customer accounts are a great idea, but you do have to be careful with how you encourage them on your site. Giving your customers the option to create an account when they make a purchase can make the sales process easier next time, so the hope is that they’ll be more likely to simply click and buy. But some people can be put off by the prospect of taking the time to input all of their info and create an account, so they will simply use the option to checkout as a guest.

So how do you get customers to create an account, and become likely repeat customers? Offer the option to create an account after checkout, so that they can simply save their info for later. Another option? Send them an invitation to create an account after they’ve made a purchase with you, which leads us to…

4. Keep in touch

Don’t underestimate the importance of staying in contact with your customers. Now, we don’t mean you should be up in their business all of the time, but you don’t want them to forget about you, either! Research shows that a great way to keep in touch with your customers is through email. After all, Shopify data shows that, relative to other sources, email has the highest conversion rate at 4.29%, followed by search in second.

And email is not just great for making that initial sale: studies show that email marketing is 56% more effective for customer retention than any other method, making it the most effective approach. How to use email effectively? Follow-up emails can make customers feel appreciated and entice them to come back for more. For example, you can send a follow-up email a week after a purchase to thank your customer, and make them feel appreciated and good about their decision to do business with you. You can then send emails that offer valuable content like product recommendations, info on upcoming sales, and discounts.

And did you know that you can use online tools, like a communication calendar, to keep track of customer communication? These calendars can tell you the last time that a customer reached out to you, and alert you when existing customers haven’t interacted with your business. Keeping on top of who you need to communicate with can be invaluable when it comes to customer retention, as it will make sure that you’re reminding customers of things like when their subscription is about to expire, and that you’re removing any roadblocks to purchasing before customers even know they’re there.

5. Be humble

Two of the hardest words to say can be “I’m sorry,” right? But if you’re running a small business, you have to know when and how to apologize to your customers. After all, according to HubSpot Research, in cases of company error, 96% of survey respondents would continue buying from a company they regularly purchased from if they apologized and rectified the situation. That means you need to develop a plan for those mistakes you are going to inevitably make, which means knowing how you are going to apologize and how you are going to solve things quickly, so you can move forward and retain your loyal customers.

6. Work on your customer support system

chat bubble with 3 dots in it — *Try to be there for your customers with a support channel for them and live chat.*

Customers these days expect a totally smooth and seamless purchasing experience, as well as instant and helpful support. If you can, try having a support system, like live chat or a help desk, so that you can quickly turn a complaint or problem into a resolution. If you can’t offer real-time help, be sure that you’re easily accessible via email, messaging, or phone, since an effectively resolved complaint or problem can turn an unhappy customer into a loyal, repeat customer.

And never forget the power of surprising and delighting your customers. Your support team should feel empowered to give benefits and thank-yous to customers who are in need of a little encouragement to become repeat customers, or who are about to cancel a membership or finish up with a free trial.

7. Start a loyalty program

Loyalty programs are an effective way to increase purchase frequency because they motivate customers to purchase more often in order to earn valuable rewards. They are easy to implement, and just check out these numbers:

58% of customers belonging to a brand’s loyalty program buy from that brand at least once per month.
69% of customers choose their retailer based on where they can earn customer loyalty rewards and points.
50% of customers change their habits just to get to a higher tier of a loyalty program they participate in.
46% of customers agree to spend more after they join a loyalty program.
83% of people say joining a loyalty program will keep them making purchases at that business.

Loyalty programs can simply mean rewarding customers after they make a purchase, or they can involve an app that rewards your customers – they can even include gamifying bringing in more customers.

Offer discounts for repeat business

While experts often warn against starting a race to the bottom, or devaluing your product/service, by constantly offering discounts, sending a thank-you discount to a first-time buyer can do wonders in boosting customer retention, as can sending a surprise discount to a customer who hasn’t purchased in a while. Consider offering more than the standard 10% off to help you stand out from the crowd.

Maybe you were already aware that keeping customers is cheaper than going out and getting new ones, but now you know exactly how important customer retention is, and just how much of an asset your existing customer base is. Your existing customers know you and your brand, and they appreciate your service and what you have to offer. That means it’s time to focus on them, and use the above tips to improve their experience, so you can deliver more value and give a big boost to your bottom line!

Should You Take the Plunge on a Podcast?

There’s no doubt about it: content is king. Yes, we know you’ve heard that before, but it’s worth repeating, because these days, no matter what type of small business you’re running, you also have to be a content creator if you’re going to compete and grow. So what’s your content of choice? Are you blogging, blasting out email marketing, posting videos on social media – or all of the above? Those are all great ways to drive traffic to your website, and bring in more leads, but have you thought about a totally 2022 way to get more people interested in your business? Have you thought about trying your hand at podcasting? It’s a lot easier (and cheaper) than you might think, so you might want to take a look at the following compelling reasons to start a podcast to grow your business.

Why Podcasts?

Before we get into some hard numbers, and some more reasons that a podcast is doable – and maybe even necessary – for your small business, let’s look at an overview of why podcasts are actually a great form of content for small business marketing purposes. With a podcast, you can:

Build a strong following for your brand – If you can nail your podcast, and release episodes on a regular basis, you’ll find that you’ll get some loyal listeners, who can become loyal to your brand.

Become an authority in your field – Regular podcasting with valuable information and creative ideas will help you establish your business as an authority in your industry. Just be sure to bring new ideas in your podcast: when asked to select the reasons why respondents listen to podcasts, 66% of respondents from a Nielsen survey selected “to learn something new.”

Be everywhere with your audience – Podcasts allow your customers to passively consume your content, meaning they’re more likely to engage with your content than if they had to sit down and focus only on that one thing. With a podcast, you can be in their cars while they’re driving, or in their ears while they’re running or making dinner.

Be everywhere for your audience – Your audience can take you with them everywhere, and you can also be found in multiple places: your website, social media, podcast-hosting sites, etc.

Get an SEO boost – Looking for another way to show up in search engines? Your podcast can be another way to sneak into those search results, and maybe even to bump you up the list.

Bring in more traffic – It’s never a bad thing to have more than one way for customers to find you! You can use your podcast to link back to your website and bring in more traffic.

Podcasting by the Numbers

The above are some excellent general reasons for getting your small business into the podcasting game, but who’s actually out there listening? You might be surprised by the following statistics:

55% of the US population (155 million people) has listened to a podcast – up from 51% in 2019.
50% of all US homes are podcast fans, and 16 million people in the US are “avid podcast fans.”
37% (104 million people) listened to a podcast in the last month – up from 32% in 2019, and 24% (68 million people) listen to podcasts weekly, up from 22% in 2019.
27.1% of listeners are subscribed to over 70 different podcasts.
45% of monthly podcast listeners have household income over $75K, versus 35% for the total population.
48% of listeners listen to podcasts more than they did last year.
Small business owners are out there listening, too: more than one-third (39%) of owners of SMBs listen to podcasts, and 65% listen at least weekly.

Podcast listeners are out there, and they are pretty easy to find:

Podcast listeners are much more active on every social media channel (94% are active on at least one, versus 81% for the entire population).
Podcast listeners are more likely to follow companies and brands on social media.

And not only are a lot of people out there listening, they are listening a lot:

Podcast listeners listen to an average of 7 different shows per week, up from 5 in 2017
82.4% of podcast fans listen to 7 or more hours of podcasts each week, compared with 76.8% in 2018. 22.4% of respondents listen to more than 22 hours each week – more than 3 hours per day.
59% of respondents spend more time listening to podcasts than they do on social media.
66% report they listen to podcasts more than they watch TV.
When podcast listeners tune in to an episode, 80% of them stay tuned in for most or all of the episode (with 44% listening to most of it, and 42% listening to all of it), meaning a podcast could help you keep customers engaged with your brand for 20 minutes or more.

Finally, the icing on the cake: these listeners do get influenced by the podcasts they listen to:

Last year, 48.8% of respondents said they purchased an item after hearing it advertised on a podcast, and this year that number grew to 55.6%.
76% of listeners say they’ve taken action after hearing a podcast ad, which could include visiting a site, making a purchase or taking out a subscription.

Why a Podcast Can Work for You

Podcasts are a great type of content to add into your arsenal, and they can reach a lot of potential customers, but when it comes down to creating one, can you actually fit it into your budget and your schedule? Well, creating a podcast:

Doesn’t have to be time-consuming, or require a ton of technical knowledge – Podcasts are actually easier to create than you might think. You don’t need a lot of technical knowledge: you can create a podcast by using the free tools that are available on the web. And you don’t even need to have a lot of extra time on your hands. Depending on your time, interests, and the money you want to spend, you can outsource everything from booking guests, editing, publishing, transcription, show notes, and promotion. You can simply be the host of the podcast – and that’s the fun part!

Doesn’t have to break the bank – If you do want to get some help with your podcast, professional services that take care of things other than hosting can start at just $500 a month, depending on how often you publish and how much assistance you need. But if you want to get all the benefits of podcasting on a shoestring budget, all you really need is a microphone (which can run under $100), and a podcast hosting service, which typically only costs around $20 a month.

Podcasting Hosting Services

If all of this sounds intriguing to you, we’ll leave you with a little technical help to get you started on your podcasting journey to growth. We mentioned podcast hosting services: a host acts like a middle person between the podcast and its subscribers. It also works as a centralized, online storage facility where you can keep all your audio files in the form of a single webpage, the RSS feed. Platforms like Apple Podcast and Spotify are great places to find new subscribers, but they do not let you store the podcasts on their servers. They use your podcast RSS feed links to display the content. A podcast host will create your RSS feed for you, so your podcast can be found on those popular platforms.

If you’re looking for some good podcast hosts, check these five out:

Buzzsprout – Great for beginners, free to get started
Spreaker – One-stop shop for podcast hosting
Captivate – Created for independent podcasters
Transistor – Refined podcast platform built for pros
Podbean – Unlimited storage and bandwidth

You might not have gotten into business to get into the content game, but these days, some creative content with a well thought out strategy can really drive growth, so you’re going to need to just go with it. And you know what? You might as well have some fun creating it, by spending just a few extra minutes and a few extra dollars on a podcast that delivers valuable content to your customers.

Is “Shiny Object Syndrome” Slowing Your Growth?

Having a lot of good ideas is great if you’re an entrepreneur. In fact, your creativity, imagination, and ability to see what others can’t is probably what got you where you are. But is there a downside to having a brain that’s constantly churning out ideas? Unfortunately, if you’re running a business, there might be: you could end up constantly chasing what’s new and exciting for your business, and your core business could fall victim to “shiny object syndrome” (SOS). Let’s take a look at what that means, how it can negatively affect your business’ growth, and how you can avoid it.

What Is Shiny Object Syndrome?

There are certain illnesses or conditions that people tend to be susceptible to, for whatever reason – genetics, lifestyle, etc. And, while it isn’t something that your doctor can diagnose, shiny object syndrome is something that plagues a lot of entrepreneurs, simply because of the qualities that make them unique. If you’re in this special group of people, you’re probably:

Highly motivated
Someone who craves innovation and new developments
Unafraid of starting new projects
More likely to attempt to bring an idea to life

All excellent qualities, right? But the dark side of these qualities can lead to shiny object syndrome, which is marked by a tendency to:

Become distracted
Lose interest in a project and go after something else that captures your attention
Start projects based on ideas without properly assessing the long-term goals, feasibility, and sustainability of the projects, which in its most extreme form can stop you from completing anything
Feel a sense of guilt that compels you to chase something that might just around the corner, and is bigger, better, and more exciting to work on
Get overwhelmed and stressed out by how many projects you are in the middle of

All of the above are the essence of SOS. Suffering from it means that, instead of focusing on the big picture tasks that fuel your business’ growth, you’ll end up getting side-tracked by a new business idea or project that feels new and exciting, similar to a child who gets distracted by every “shiny object” they see. But for you, it won’t be a shiny new toy that you’re chasing, but things like business objectives, marketing strategies, clients, or even other business ventures.

How Can Shiny Object Syndrome Affect Your Business?

We’re not saying that wanting to update your business and keeping your eye out for interesting possibilities are necessarily bad goals. But uncontrolled shiny object syndrome can, unfortunately, be a real growth killer. Jumping from project to project, not completing projects, or being unable to focus can lead to some serious consequences, like:

Wasted resources – Research has shown that entrepreneurs who jump too quickly into new ideas without thinking them through end up costing their companies thousands of dollars in resources, time, and productivity. Think about it this way: unfinished projects won’t make you the money to pay back their costs. Your business could also suffer from wasted opportunities, because these dead-end projects waste your time (or the time of your employees) when you could be working on more productive endeavors.

A hit to your health – Constantly worrying that you need to chase the next “shiny object” (otherwise known as fear of missing out, or FOMO) can lead to stress, fatigue, and sleep issues.

A confused and stressed staff – You’re not the only one who will be affected by constantly switching between goals or business directions. If you have a team, they won’t be able to keep up with the changes, their workflow will constantly be disrupted when they’re forced to learn new things, and they will see their goals become unpredictable and even irrelevant. This could eventually lead to stressed out employees, who are less loyal and productive. In fact, 41% of employees say that switching between goals in this way is a leading cause of workplace stress.

Poor planning and directives – If you’re constantly jumping from plan to plan, you’ll never stick with a plan long enough to properly test it. And even if something does work in one of your new plans, you won’t actually be able to put your finger on why it worked. There simply won’t be enough data to model from if you’re switching things up week-to-week.

What Can You Do to Avoid Shiny Object Syndrome?

So if shiny object syndrome is so dangerous for the health of you, your staff, and your business, what can you do to beat it? Try the following strategies:

Understand that you’re prone to it – Yes, the first step is to know that you are prone to it. Once you’ve done that, sit down and assess the way you work, and focus on the strengths that you can build on.

Ditch the FOMO for proper planning – Once you’ve assessed your work style, you have to get better at assessing the potential of all of those shiny things that cross your path. Sometimes you do need to jump on an opportunity, but before you do that, stop! Assess the potential impact on your workload or business, and be objective about it. Doing so will help you identify whether the product or service will be helpful to you or your business and improve decision-making. You might also want to test out your idea, whether it’s a new product, or a new service like an online workshop. Remember: not every trend is the next big thing, so don’t operate your business based on the FOMO model!
Know your goals and what matters for your business – Similarly to assessing each idea to see if it’s really right for your business, you also need to assess your business’ goals to know if your new ideas fit in with them. Try using Warren Buffett’s three-step exercise for being more in tune with your goals:
- Make a list of your top 25 goals
- Review this list and pick your top 5 goals from the total 25 goals
- Start working on the top 5 goals list

As for the remaining 20? Warren suggests you ignore them like the plague. This is your ‘avoid-at-all-costs list.’

Other experts recommend another exercise for focusing on what really matters in your business. Determine what 1% of your business produces 50% of your results and work on that for a few hours every day, without any other outside distractions.

Remember, if you’re jumping from shiny object to shiny object, you’re going to have a hard time sticking to your core goals, so be very careful how you start branching out. two hands shaking with words of communication and teamwork on them

Communicate with your team – It’s important to sit on ideas before you act on them, but it’s also important to talk to your team members about them before you make any moves. Ask them what they think, and listen to their perspectives, concerns and needs. Talking to them might help you realize when you’re moving too fast, and if you do decide to go through with your decision, they’ll be happier with your decision, since you came to them first.
Set goals – and don’t abandon them! – Every project you take on should have clear short- and long-term SMART goals, with projections on how long the project should take, and shorter term milestones that can keep you and your team focused. And unless there’s a serious change in circumstances or finances, stick with each project until you reach your goals.

Don’t forget the little things – There are also a few more little, practical things that will actually go a long way in helping to fight SOS, like:

- Limit your time on social media (it lies!)
- Give yourself a limit on the number of projects you can take on at a time
- Make a checklist of all of your successful projects, as both an incentive and a roadmap to further success
- Get comfortable with your niche, and know that it’s your true calling

Shiny object syndrome is a productivity and growth killer, not to mention a drain on you and your employees. While it’s great that you’re just bursting with ideas, the next time one (or two, or three) hit you like a thunderbolt, don’t rush into anything! Stop, breathe, and ask yourself all the questions that need to be asked so you can determine if the idea is worth your time and resources, and if it fits into the bigger picture of your business’ goals. You CAN take control, so if you’re feeling overwhelmed and distracted, use the tips above to help you get more focused and productive.