How to grow a small local business

by | Grow Your Business

Helpful tips to add to your business strategy

Let’s be honest, opening, running, and maintaining a small local business isn’t as easy as it sounds. To achieve your business goals, you need to understand how to grow local business. That doesn’t mean that you can’t sustain local businesses, as small businesses have some major advantages over big brands and supply chains. 

Unfortunately, the odds are stacked against small businesses as almost all small businesses tend to close up after a few years. That can definitely change if you know how to expand your business locally. In this article, we will be sharing how to grow local business, follow the local business guide we have mentioned below for achieving your business goals with ease.

Increase Customer Retention

It’s not enough to just get new customers for your business. You also need to keep your existing customers coming back. When you increase customer retention, you’re building customer loyalty, which can increase sales.
 
Considering it costs five-times as much to get a new customer than it does to keep a current one, focusing on retaining customers means your business won’t spend money on something that isn’t a guaranteed investment.
 
You can increase your customer retention by:
 
Prioritizing customer service: If you don’t treat your customers right, they won’t want to support your business. Making sure you address their concerns and give them the best experience possible shows you value them as a customer.
 
Using a customer relations management (CRM) system: CRM systems help your business manage relationships with existing and potential customers. They help you maintain customer information and identify sales opportunities. One of the biggest benefits is that the data gets stored in one place, so you and other employees who need it can access it.
 
Creating a customer loyalty program: These programs reward your existing customers for supporting your business. They can also help you attract new customers or get back those that left your business.
 
Launching an email campaign: Using an email campaign can help make sure your business stays on top of customers’ minds. It’s also a great way to move existing and potential customers through your sales funnel.
 
Engaging with customers on social media: Your customers may reach out to your business on social media with a question or to share feedback, pain points or complaints. Taking the time to respond and engage with them shows you value their thoughts and take their concerns seriously.
 
Keep your promises: No one likes feeling forgotten. If you tell a customer you’ll follow up with them with more information or contact them at a later date, do it. If you don’t, it can give your customers a bad impression of your business.

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Ask for Referrals

Of course, attracting new customers to your business is never a bad approach. One way to do that is to ask your current customers for referrals.

These customers are already your target market, which means that people in their social or work circles are likely to be your target market as well. This makes them a strong access point to new customers

However, assuming that your customers are passing the word about your business  isn’t going to increase your customer base. You have to actively seek referrals. Depending on the type and size of your business, you can:

  • Incentivize referrals with a discount code.
  • Encourage customers to share and tag your brand on social media.

Content Strategies for Local Businesses

All you need is a well-thought-out content strategy, which is more than often a cost-efficient way to grow the reach of local businesses. Here’s a list of content strategies that you can follow to gather more customers:

 

  • Building a local business website, having a business website is the first step on how to grow local business.
  • The second step is to create a blog. Having a blog helps your business to stay in touch with potential customers.
  • Create an instructional video. A video is a next step on how to grow local business and increase sales. It is known that videos attract more customers than written content. 
  • You should also build e-books and case studies, these will help in showing potential clients the way your business works and how it can benefit them.
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Get Reviews From Customers Online

One of the best ways on how to grow local business is to get as many positive reviews.

As we’ve mentioned before, reviews on Facebook, Google, and other platforms matter. In today’s time, it is so much easier for customers to share their good experiences from a business. That’s why online reviews have become so important in the world of business and marketing. Here’s how you can get reviews from customers online:

 

  • You need to start by asking your customers for online reviews, according to reports, almost 70% of people will leave a review if you ask them to. 
  • You can also use reputation management software to monitor all your reviews.
  • You can respond to positive and negative reviews from the comfort of your home.
  • Using all the email IDs you have collected during Email marketing strategies, you can send a customer satisfaction survey to your existing customer. If you receive a positive response, you can use the reviews to show off on our website
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Practice Corporate Social Responsibility

Many customers want to do business with a company that matches their own values. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) means you recognize the impact your business has on all aspects of the community. Letting the public see what your business is doing to have a positive impact can help your business’ bottom line.
 
Some examples of how your business can practice CSR are:
 
Going green: The benefits of running a green business go beyond having cheaper utility costs. It shows the public you’re serious about reducing your business’ impact on the environment. Go green and make changes to reduce your carbon footprint, such as getting Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design(LEED) or pursuing energy efficient projects
 
Giving back to the community: Encourage your employees to volunteer in the communities they live and work in. Whether it’s working at a food bank or cleaning up open spaces, these kinds of activities show that your business is serious about investing in the area and people.
 
Producing sustainable products: Find out if there are ways you can change materials or your process to create more environmentally-friendly products.

Final Take: How To Grow Local Business?

Measure what works and refine as you go.

While there are a variety of strategies you can use to grow your small business, it’s important you measure what’s working. For example, if you create a customer loyalty program and find it’s not improving customer retention, you may need to change your strategy.

Maybe it’s getting a CRM and engaging with your customers on a regular basis, or engaging with them through an email campaign or on social media.

Want to keep track of your marketing efforts? Consult us today. We have a team of experts that will help Boost your business