3 Ways To Boost Your Small and Medium-Sized Business In 2021
Some Tips that Small and Medium-sized Business can adopt in 2021
What happened in 2020 is something that will live forever in the annals of the business world. Small and medium-sized businesses had to contend with turbulence and challenges that landed on their doorsteps due to the pandemic.
According to reports, 92% of small businesses had to “reinvent themselves” to avoid succumbing to the effects of the Covid-19 crisis.
However, just like when starting a business and finding people telling you “that niche/market is already saturated,” you’ll hear voices about 2021 being even worse.
But that may not be the case; we might see the slightest light at the end of the tunnel.
In light of that, it’s sensible and rightly so to share some insights that small and medium-sized companies can adopt to up their sales game in 2021.
1. Pay attention to building lifelong relationships.
What would make a good product not sell once it attracts the eyes of a consumer?
Now imagine what will happen when you combine both your good product and strong relationships with your customers.
I bet your guess is as good as mine: more sales!
As a small business, once you adopt this concept of putting people first in your business, you’re not investing for the present but the future.
And if you’re offering a service, then you’ll continuously be able to provide more value to your clients moving into the future.
In today’s age and time, consumer’s trust is at its all-time low, and therefore, it’s crucial to invest in building meaningful relationships with your customers.
Statistical evidence shows that 55% of customers do not trust companies they buy from as much as they used to. Additionally, 69% of customers iterated that they do not trust advertisements.
Here’s the thing, more ads and products are competing for customers’ attention more than ever before. In fact, the cost of customer acquisition is on its ascendancy to over 50% for the last five years. However, the majority of customers trust family and friends over advice from a business.
What does this mean?
Right from when you’re building your business, you must strive to at least treat your customers like family. Push yourself to go above and beyond in customer service.
Find deep down in your business to make your customers feel valued, demonstrating that by creating an experience far and beyond the ordinary norm. Learn the act of listening to what your customer say and think.
“Wonder what your customer really wants? Ask. Don’t tell.” — Lisa Stone, Co-founder and CEO of BlogHer.
2. Develop a connection through communication
If you’re thinking of connecting with your customers and potential clients, now is the time to think of direct messaging outreach.
Nowadays, Instagram DMs are as customary to look at as people’s text messages.
According to reports, 47% of Millennials use Instagram as a messaging app. As a small and medium-sized business, this should form part of your social marketing strategy in 2021.
It is one strong point of leveraging direct social media communications as a way of driving sales. Having that personal connection with your customers should be your business philosophy.
It doesn’t stop at direct messaging but goes as far as engaging in comments and responding to customers on social media. Ensure that you build this concept into your business model and make it a priority.
For businesses that have formed the norm of engaging with potential clients and customers on social media, make it a point of always being available to respond by lighting up a conversation immediately.
3. Know and concentrate on your key customer
Inasmuch as there’s the competition of customers’ attention, it’s crucial now than ever to know and focus on customers and clients that genuinely have an interest in your products or services.
Knowing your key demographic gives you a better angle to focus your marketing strategy towards them.
For you to be able to achieve this, it goes back to data. By creating your own list of customer profiles from past customers, you can map out customer psychographics. Through social media analytic tools, you can easily map out these data.
This entire data will help you have a holistic picture of what your core customer demographic looks like.
Final thoughts
As a small and medium-sized business, what would be your takeaways from the year 2020? With the pandemic and the economic turbulent, was there anything to smile about?
Well, the answers to those questions are best known to you. The truth is you have to contend with some major upheavals and challenges that came along with the unprecedented period.
Companies that took the steps to “reinvent themselves” during this period waded through the stormy waves of the pandemic. Those that focused on building a lasting, lifelong relationship with their clients through their product made it easier for themselves.
Businesses that identified their core demographic and focused their marketing strategies efforts towards them got their attention.
Subsequently, brands that effectively communicated their brand identity by reaching out and engaging with their customers on social media saw some positivity.
