Rachel Klaver is a marketing coach, podcast host, and author at Identify Marketing. She provides regular feedback.

opinion: Even as a marketing strategist, I don’t always argue that marketing is the best next step when it comes to growing a business.

One of the big differences between a marketing strategy and a digital marketing strategy is that a digital marketing strategy takes a more global view of every business and how it is impacted by enabling marketing. I know that many of my clients are often surprised by questions in strategy. This is because we often talk about areas where we see the current health of the business and how it might be impacted when marketing takes effect.

Marketing is what amplifies everything that happens in business. Marketing will grow your business healthily if your offer is profitable, you have the right systems in place, and you have the ability to grow. Marketing can be further complicated if there are gaps in the way you deliver your offers, if you have pricing issues, or if there are organizational internal issues.

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One of the reasons we look at your business globally is because as a small business owner, there is often no one else who can see everything with fresh eyes. Starting a small business in New Zealand is relatively easy, but growing a profitable business can be more complicated than it looks. Especially in the early stages when you have to juggle several complex roles such as operations, management, marketing and sales.

Before looking at the five levers you can press to see your progress, it’s helpful to know your end goal first. If you’ve had a few difficult years, or if you feel like your prospects and sales are slowing down this year, it’s easy to influence how you think about potential. This may include what kind of growth you would like to see, what you would like to receive from the business, or what new markets you would like to develop.

Take the time to write out your business goals for the next 12 months and beyond. Be as specific as possible, such as your ideal profit target, what you personally get out of the business, and the type of work or products you primarily sell. Writing down these goals will not only help you be proactive, but it will also help you see your business grow.

To help your business grow, here are five key ways you can focus your business. For me as a strategist, I have to see some of them already working well.

profit

There are two things you can do to increase your profit. The first is to raise the price, the second is to lower the cost. Regardless of the sale of a product or service, it should be priced in such a way that each sale represents a profit.

One of the mistakes sole proprietors and start-up manufacturers make is setting prices without considering future growth, and putting costs on others involved in creating, marketing, and managing. This is also the mistake I made when I started Identify Marketing eight years before him.

I initially had no plans to grow beyond myself so I set the price at the freelancer’s rate. It took us stressful years to fix our pricing and grow our team to be more profitable.

Although counterintuitive, improving profits can also include spending. For example, if you’re doing everything and can’t spend more time on income-generating tasks, adding a part-time team member or virtual assistant can help increase capacity. there is. Other times, a subscription to a particular app can provide hours of service each month, reducing the need for additional pairs. You can improve, increase visibility and sales, and improve your bottom line.

All of these costs may seem a little counterintuitive, but they can help you get more out of your account by quickly recouping your initial investment.

customer spending

It feels a little strange to ask more people to spend their money when many are going through a difficult time. I don’t like manipulative sales methods, so I call this “how can I get them to know what they need and help them choose more of what I have to offer?” I like to think. I know it’s a little thin, but it helps me sleep at night!

If I ask you what your average order value or purchase value is per customer, would you immediately know? is a very important metric to understand.

To grow our business, we can get our current customers to buy a few more on their first purchase. Cross-selling is selling complementary items to what you buy (like pens and notebooks), and upselling is selling more expensive options (like vegan leather-bound notebooks).

For ecommerce businesses, it’s as easy as offering free shipping on purchases over a certain amount. Or bundle together special products that benefit buyers and boost average order totals.

Service-based businesses can also bundle services or package them in ways that encourage longer engagement. purchase, etc.)

traffic

Once you have a clear idea of ​​where the profit should come from and how much the average customer should ideally spend, it’s often time to turn to marketing. Second, find ways to increase the number of people who come to your website, store, or another place of business.

To put this in a digital marketing framework, I like to imagine ideal people in a giant train station. Your job is to create “decorative trains” such as Linkedin trains, TikTok trains, Facebook trains, etc., to reach out to your ideal customers and ask them to come on board. You can also use more expensive trains such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, or non-digital methods such as radio or print. Riding these trains is your chance to build trust that they’re on the right train and to generate interest in your website or another place to make a buying decision.

That crowded station also has all the competitors doing the same. Traffic is always there. Our job is to help you get on the train. That’s essentially what marketing does. If your marketing isn’t getting you the right traffic, you need to improve your trains and make sure they’re running consistently.

repeat business

This is the 4th resort, but if the client has very few, put this on top. Repeat business is a sign of a healthy business. We, as humans, are creatures of habit. we like simple things.So when people buy from you and never come back, it’s a warning sign

By doing a great job and delivering on your promises, you increase your chances of getting repeat business. Don’t be like the company they said!)

You can also improve repeat business with these congested trains (people who like to ride the same train twice if the journey is good) or keep in touch via email. Email marketing is one of the most underrated and neglected ways to increase repeat business, but it’s an incredibly cheap and effective tool.

Referral business

Like repeat business, referral business is a sign of business health. When someone trusts you enough to share your business with someone else, you’ve delivered on your promise.If no one mentions you might be doing an average job, but no one is doing anything to put that reputation on the back burner

Not only do you do a good job and make your customers feel valued, but you can also use third-party referrals to attract new customers. or working with clients to develop detailed case studies that can be shared with prospects.

As humans, we feel safer choosing a business that someone else has had a good experience with. If we’re not someone we know firsthand, reviews and case studies help build that trust. .

I love marketing, but I know that taking those trains at that busy station might not be the best bet any time soon. You may have to look at a few areas and pull a few different levers.