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Non-Executive Directors: The Owner Entrepreneur’s Underplayed Ace?
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Now, more than ever, SMEs need creative cross-border payment strategies
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Investor Q&A: Mike Stevenson, Fuel Ventures
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Life after RLS
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How innovative financial products meet the needs of online businesses
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Marketing in the Era of the Cloud
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Property finance
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Invoice discounting
Invoice discounting helps thousands of businesses in the UK to turn unpaid invoices into cash in…
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The point is that it gives you something to hold on to as you go, and something to measure against…
by Ian CornerFounder - Corner Finance Directors & Business Advisors
How fear can help drive success
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Growing up, I wanted to be a dancer
I began by choosing people, not just companies, who I wanted to work with. Their core values: wise,…
isme|&|conversation...
Rhona Morrell talks ESG
Rhona is a regenerative consultant and much more besides. In this episode she discusses the challenges and opportunities in the sustainability arena for growing businesses.
isme|&|conversation...
Alistair Stewart talks litigation & legal advice
Alistair Stewart, Partner at Loney Stewart Holland, discusses the mistakes businesses make at every stage of development from a legal perspective. Revealing the pitfalls, the practical solutions to these problems and best of all how to avoid them.
Coming Soon. More valuable and insightful content.
How to grow your business safely in
the "new normal"
Ideas to help grow your business
Whether you’re new to the world of business or have years of experience, understanding how to grow your business is an important learning curve for any business owner.
Most, if not all, businesses will have challenging periods – and that’s okay! Your company might be struggling because you haven’t had easy access to the guidance and advice you need for growing your business.
isme|&|co was set up to provide easy access to the business advice needed by owners and managers of small and medium businesses in the UK. Advice and insights to guide you and help you to learn how to grow your business, develop future plans, and create strong strategies to achieve the goals you identified in your Business Plan.
One way to take your business to the next level could be to update your marketing strategy and plans.
Updating your Marketing strategy and plans
So you have a strong business model, brilliant products, and a lot of ambition – what’s missing?
Having a strong business marketing strategy will help you grow by increasing your exposure to potential customers. You’ve already proven your business has what it takes to succeed as you’ve come this far. A clear and precise marketing strategy will help you present your range of services and or products, and your credentials, to your target market.
An effective marketing strategy will establish the PR, outreach, and advertising campaigns designed to promote your business and its products and or services. It should also contain clear details on how you plan to measure success, target audience (consider putting together a profile for your target audience for each campaign) and the goal for each campaign.
Here’s some points to consider when preparing your marketing strategy:
Value proposition
A clear statement that introduces your brand to potential clients. Summarising your Value Proposition in order to explain why they should buy your products or use your services, ahead of those offered by your competitors.
Data
Research is key! Sometimes overlooked, research can play a crucial role in defining a successful marketing strategy. Using the data you’ve collected and analysed, your marketing strategy should identify your target market (a group of people you would consider as potential customers) and include data on them. This will help you create campaigns that are more likely to convert potential customers to paying customers. Leading to increased sales and increased customer satisfaction. Which in turn can lead to referrals and repeat business.
Brand messaging
What do you want potential clients to think of when they hear your business’ name or product and see your branding? You need to ensure your brand messaging is relatable to your target market and encourages them to want to buy your products or services. Whilst reflecting your brand identity and values.
How digital marketing can help grow your business
An increasingly important part of marketing is digital marketing. As the world moves further into the digital era, you need to make sure your marketing tactics cover both traditional and digital marketing.
If you’re thinking about how to grow your business using digital marketing, here are just a few ideas:
Digital adverts
Create adverts online that are targeted to the correct audience. Doing so will increase enquiries and help build rapport with potential customers. Being able to recognise your business from your adverts is also more likely to make customers trust you.
Social Media
There’s around 53 million active social media users in the UK. Being able to reach millions of people through social media marketing is a great way of increasing sales and introducing your brand to potential customers. Be sure to leverage the social media channel that is most suited to your business and the audience you want to reach.
SEO
Search Engine Optimisation makes your website more visible to potential customers when they use search engines, such as Google. Through market-led research, you can create content and enhance your website to appear higher-up the search engine’s results page. The higher up you are, the more likely you are to bring in traffic to your website, attract new customers, and increase conversion of site visits to sales.
PPC
Pay-Per-Click advertising is another digital marketing strategy that can help grow your business. You can run an advert on a platform, such as Google Ads, paying a fee in return for every click you receive.
Ideas to help increase sales
It follows that boosting your sales and revenue will – if you are operating efficiently – improve your profitability. Generating funds that can be reinvested into your business, and helping fund more opportunities to grow as a company.
Aside from introducing marketing strategies based on your existing activities, you could also consider some of the following to increase sales in your business:
● Expand into new markets
● Create new product lines/ new services
● Offer rewards to existing customers in recognition of their loyalty
● Run offers to tempt new customers
● Consider responding to seasonal trends, in terms of sales and promotions.
And, think about customer surveys. Asking them for their thoughts and feedback on your business, your products and or services. You can use this market intelligence to consider what other changes you could make to increase sales.
Consider how best to communicate as a business. If your customers hear your views about your business, the industry you operate in, the community around you, and the planet, they may be more inclined to buy from you or use your services. Assuming of course that they like what you say!
Define what success looks like for you
What does success mean to you? What does success mean to your business? And what does it look like to your customers?
Success means something different to every type of business. Your explanation of how to succeed in business is likely to differ from your competitor’s definition. Referring back to the objectives and goals you set out in your Business Strategy and Business Plan will help keep you aligned with your definition of success.
You can measure the success of your business by looking at how well you met these targets.
Whether you’ve met your goals or not, there is always room to grow and to continue learning about how to succeed in business.
Of course, when needed, review and update your objectives and goals in line with any changes in the market and or your circumstances.
Regardless of what your definition of success looks like, here are some suggestions to consider when thinking about ways to grow your business:
Plans
Planning and forecasting are key to success in business. Being organised and having (realistic) timelines will keep you on track and help you meet your targets. Plans can also be used to highlight to existing and potential stakeholders, such as investors, that you know your business. Allowing you to demonstrate your progress to date and explain how and why actual performance varied from previous plans. And what you have done, or plan to do, in response.
Development
Clear and actionable development initiatives are what will take your business to the next level. This could take the form of new products, re-branding, trying a new approach, commercial partnerships, acquisitions or anything that moves you on from where you are currently.
To learn and grow
Constantly learn and grow from your experiences. It is often valuable to get a trusted external perspective on your business. Someone who can help you step back and see what is and isn’t working. They can help you put steps in place to learn, develop, and improve. As well as helping you identify new opportunities that may not have been immediately obvious to you.
As a business owner, we expect that you’ve put your heart and soul into creating and running your business.
isme|&|co was set up to provide you with easy access to the quality of information and external help that your business deserves. Including ideas and suggestions on steps you can take to grow your business.
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