Small businesses everywhere. Hellooooooo, Yooohooooo… Here you go.
- You would be amazed how many free business listing websites are available on the internet. If you are a local business, and you are not on a majority of the below mentioned sites, keep everything aside and do that right now.
Check out this link to see the list of websites.
2. We can not emphasize how important this is.
From our experience, more than half the local businesses we reach out to have their contact information mentioned wrongly. Or they have inconsistent information all over the web.
You could avoid a similar situation with some discipline. What you could do is, prepare a spreadsheet with all the sites your business is listed on. And every time, there is a change, you ensure it is updated on all the sites.
Remember: Every customer that dials a wrong number or visits a wrong address is a customer lost.
3. As a small business, when you lack budgets for big marketing, the most valuable asset you have are your loyal and regular “happy” customers.
Ensure you have a database of your customers with their updated contact information. If you do not, set it up now. It is never too late. Reach out to them and request them to leave you positive reviews online. Even if it is just a line or so.
How to do it efficiently without being a pest:
- Make the reviewing seamless for the customer by setting up a process
- Send them links to leave the review
- Instead of bombarding them with links, send them a link once a week
- If you feel they might not entertain multiple reviews, request if you can post it on behalf of them. Get a formal approval by mail, if possible
- Share what all you need covered in the review. For instance, you could request them to mention what they experienced when it came to your customer service, proximity or location, trouble shooting capabilites, variety of offerings, product quality, etc.
FREE CUSTOMER REVIEW PROCESS AND TEMPLATES KIT
Reach out to us for a full-fledged customer review process and templates kit. We are giving it away for free. Not to anyone and everyone, but the ones who truly discover this blog.
4. Email marketing. We will talk about this till it is officially dead. But as of now, it is king. You make approximately $38 for every $1 you spend on email marketing. That sort of conversion is astronomical.
Of course, this conversion rate is for an email marketing campaign that has all its pillars intact, such as, objective, thought, choice of platform, creatives, copywriting and most importantly, the right target audience.
Give it a shot, what do you have to lose?
FREE EMAIL MARKETING CAMPAIGN
Get in touch with us and we will run you an email marketing campaign for free and show you how it works. Again, not for any TDH, for the ones who really want it. And the ones who really want it, will find it.
5. Pfffft….as if you didn’t know this. NO, you didn’t.
Customers always want more. There has never been a customer who has ever said, “I am done, don’t give me anymore, unless you are serving them food and they are full”.
Every customer is used to the run-of-the-mill marketing tactics brands use to delight them. Try and floor them with something unexpected. Don’t worry, you would be surprised how cheap it costs.
Get in touch with us to discover unique and novel ways to delight your customers which would skyrocket your positive reviews and WoM (word of mouth), in turn, your sales by at least 40%, if not more.
6. We doubt there are any business out there, post the COVID-19 pandemic, that does not offer mobile payments.
If you are one of those, nothing to be ashamed of, it’s never too late.
Apart from the usual suspects, try Simpl, the one-tap payment solution that’s taking the fintech world by storm.
Businesses that have implemented Simpl have seen a substantial jump in conversions and drop in abandoned carts within the very first month.
7. Have you ever heard of Social Listening? It’s nothing earth shattering, just sounds cool. It basically means to keep an eye or ear out for feedback on social media from people who have used your services or in some cases, trolls.
This could either be in the form of a review, podcast, video, testimonial, WoM (someone telling you they heard something about your business), etc.
When it comes to being abreast with what people talk about your brand online/offline, you ought to be consistent.
Find them, understand the issue, resolve it in the best way possible. If it was genuinely the customers fault, make them understand and ask them to remedy the review. If they don’t, try and remedy it yourself.
There is nothing wrong in defending yourself.
8. Very few businesses indulge in this and it is one of the key tactics that still works wonders in the offline world. You could do outdoor ads, press ads, tv/social media commercials within your vicinity or catchment, but nothing speaks more to your customers when you are there for them as a helping hand.
It might not be connected to your business, but if you are there for them when ‘your’ local community needs help, you can rest assured that goodwill will not go unseen.
Humanity, empathy, kindness and encouragement are still the best ways to command brand loyalty.
9. After reading through such a beautiful and helpful post, being a small business, if you still don’t wish to work with us, then we have failed you.
Get in touch with us and let us buy you a beer or a coffee. Yes, you read that right, on the house.
All we ask for in return is you have that beer with us, in person, obviously with all the necessary precautions (COVID-19).
Wish you all the success.