As a small business owner, you have to pay attention to every dollar you spend. Sometimes, it can seem impossible to make money and increase your customer base without spending a fortune. But, rest assured you’re in good company with many business leaders all over the country. Fortunately, there are some small business hacks out there that can help organizations such as yours increase your bottom line in ways that’ll make sense for your balance sheets. Here are four ideas to get your wheels turning.
1. Support Social Causes
Partner with a few social causes that align with your mission, values, and brand. In doing so, you’ll leverage the advertising efforts they’ll tout on their own marketing materials while they benefit from your generosity. Supporting social causes in your community is a win-win and it can come with big opportunities for your bottom line as well. As it turns out, consumers are more willing to spend their dollars with businesses that support social causes that are important to them. Global market intelligence and research agency Mintel discovered published the majority (84%) of consumers think it is important that a business supports charitable causes. This not only brings goodwill to your brand, but it opens up avenues of additional channels that drive awareness [and interest] of your business that wouldn’t otherwise be available to you.
Here are some ideas:
- Donate a portion of your proceeds to your charity. You can designate certain items or services to benefit those organizations at all times, or maybe just choose one day a month in which a portion of your total sales goes to your chosen non-profits.
- Sponsor your charity’s fundraising efforts. Most non-profits have one or two big fundraising events each year. Become a sponsor so your logo is on the signage and collateral, or simply donate some products and services to their silent auctions.
- Pay your employees to volunteer one day a month. While the idea of being paid to volunteer is counterintuitive, you’ll be contributing to your charities’ needs while still taking care of your employees. Be sure they take photos and have a lot of fun. That’s fuel for many social media posts and future website content!
If you’re not sure which charities to partner with, talk to your team. You’ll likely find they have several organizations close to their hearts. If not, you can brainstorm together, which is a positive team-building experience.
2. Be Active With Your Business Blog and Social Media Posts
Speaking of your online activity, make sure you keep an active blog and social media engagement up and running. While these don’t cost money, per se, the idea of keeping up with these tactics can be simply overwhelming. With that said, they’re both vital pieces of the business puzzle in today’s digital landscape. What’s key is offering a benefit with your content to your target audiences. To get started, create social media accounts where your customers are spending their time. Unsure if that’s Instagram or TikTok? Ask your customers! Focus your efforts where you know you’ll get the greatest number of eyeballs.
Additionally, encourage customers to share their experience with your organization on social media, too. Offering a monthly drawing for gift cards and other small gifts for those who post is a great way to generate more social posts about your business and require zero effort on your part. And be sure to have fun with your posts. Add videos, introduce team members, post events and specials, etc. with the intention of encouraging people to come in and experience your business for themselves.
As far as blogging goes, if you find you can’t keep up with one or two posts a month, consider hiring a content writer to fulfill this need. Outsourcing a writer is one of many virtual services that can help your business grow. It’s an inexpensive exchange for the type of publicity you could get if Google begins to recognize your page as an authority in your industry. Search engines require regularly posted, useful content that their searches see as valuable. If your blog is stagnant, you’re hurting yourself more than you know. There’s an entire niche of freelancers who write companies’ blogs for them, using the brand’s own voice, tone, and personality.
3. Try an Answering Service
To create a business that customers want to be loyal to, you have to respond to their questions and inquiries in a timely manner. That’s not always possible when you’re already wearing 15 different hats as a small business owner. However, a small business call center can help alleviate that burden. Small business call centers offer a variety of services, including:
- Answering overflow calls when you simply can’t get to all the calls coming in
- Order-taking services so your customers can have a direct line to purchase products and services without impeding your day-to-day business flow
- Outbound calling services to follow up on customer satisfaction, schedule appointments, or anything else you may not have time to do yourself
- Bilingual answering services based in the US so you can assist customers with whom you might otherwise have a language barrier
- 24-hour message acceptance and delivery, ensuring your customers never feel as if they can’t get ahold of you, even when after closing time
- Online chat help for customers who don’t have the ability to call you or stop by your place of business.
According to Hubspot, 90% of customers agree an immediate response is crucial to support or sales inquiries. However you want to provide that support, there are many tools and services at your disposal. So, don’t miss out on the opportunity to increase revenue, customer satisfaction and loyalty just because you can’t get to the phone.
4. Leverage a Loyalty Program
A great loyalty program will help you keep customers knocking at the door. Additionally, it should highlight which parts of your business keep them coming back. Rewarding consumers for their continued patronage will help them to develop an emotional connection to your brand. This, in turn, binds them to your company and facilitates referrals to their friends and family members, as well.
Hopefully, these four small business hacks spark some ideas for how you can begin to do more to grow your customer base and their loyalty. If you’re looking for more information on answering services for small businesses, be sure to read this article. And if you’re ready to talk with someone to learn how Customer Contact Service can specifically help respond to your prospects and customers when you can’t, contact us today.