As the owner of a small business, growing your business should be at the top of your list of priorities. However, we all know just how challenging this can be. When funds are scarce, you might grapple with finding a sufficient budget for big marketing campaigns. As a small business owner, you might not have the time for SEO campaigns or building relationships with potential customers as you navigate through your day-to-day operations to keep your business running.
However, you need not despair, as this is where growth hacking comes into play.
Simply put, growth hacking is the process of rapid experimentation and a constant journey of trial and error to determine the most effective path of growth for your business in a short time frame. As opposed to traditional marketing strategies which are often costly, growth hacking provides a low-cost alternative. In this piece, we explore five simple growth hack strategies which could implement as early as today for your small business.
1. Content Marketing.
We've all heard the saying "Content is king", and this could not be truer in today's landscape. Content marketing is less expensive than traditional marketing and generates as much as three times more leads. Content marketing is an invaluable strategy for small businesses.
An excellent place to start is by having a blog on your website, which features engaging and informative content. Blog posts generally lead to increased traffic on your website, conversions and higher ranking on search engines. But perhaps, most importantly, the presence of thoughtfully written and engaging content will present your business as an industry thought leader and ultimately contribute to a trust relationship with your audience.
2. Automation.
Due to growth-hacking being a time-sensitive process, you'll have no time to waste. Marketing automation is the technology which manages marketing processes and customer journeys across several channels automatically. Marketing automation simplifies and streamlines many of the time-consuming day-to-day tasks which small business owners might have to perform, including emails.
It's common knowledge that email exists as one of the most effective marketing strategies for reaching existing and potential customers. An obvious reason as to why email marketing is so effective is that it makes it easy to connect to clients without spending too much cash. Furthermore, emails are highly engaging for most people, and more so when they're relevant and engaging.
In the old days of the Internet, business owners would have to send out welcome emails manually to anyone signing up for their service or products, but this is no longer the case. Thanks to marketing automation software such as MailChimp, you can draft sets of emails (for example, welcome emails, thank you emails, and weekly newsletters) just once, and send them to different people at various times when they require it.
3. Google My Business & Knowledge Panels.
As the owner of a small business, it's imperative to dominate local searches. When customers search for your company via Google, they might encounter information displayed about your business in a right-hand panel box. This panel is known as the Knowledge Panel or business profile. If you're seeking to up your SEO game, having a knowledge panel is extremely valuable. With a Knowledge Panel, your company will stand out in the search results when people search for it, and this will ultimately lead to many clicks to your site.
However, Google decides whether it will show your business in a Knowledge Panel. Of course, there are steps you can follow to increase your chances of scoring one. This is where Google My Business comes in.
GMB is a free-to-use tool which enables you with the ability to manage how your business appears on Google Search and Maps. You can utilise GMB to add your business name, location, trading hours, photographs as well as monitor and respond to any customer reviews. It's without a doubt, the fastest and easiest way to drive traffic to your physical office or store. The more relevant information on GMB profile, the greater your chances of gaining a Knowledge Panel.
PPC Marketing.
Pay-per-click or PPC marketing is the practice of placing ads on ad platforms, and paying a fee every time someone clicks on your ad. While the above mentioned three growth hacking tools are designed to garner traffic organically, PPC is a method of purchasing clicks to your website.
Search engine advertising is arguably the most popular form of PPC, as it allows business owners to bid for ad placement within a search engine's sponsored links when someone searches using keywords related to your business. Every time someone clicks on your ad, a visitor is sent your site, and you'll pay a small fee for the click. When PPC works effectively, the cost per click (CPC) becomes irrelevant, as the visit to your site is worth far more than what you'll pay for a click.
For example, if you pay R5 for a click to your website but that click results in an R200 purchase, then you've made a notable profit.
Facebook ads and retargeting.
It's no secret that most customers will visit a website several times before making a purchase. Simply put, messages are more effective when repeated. Your audience won't only remember a duplicated message, but they're more likely to believe it and understand it as popular opinion. It's this mantra which makes ads targeting a valuable growth hacking tool to scoop up purchases you might otherwise have missed. Ad retargeting uses pixel technology, which places a small piece of code on your website, which enables you to serve targeted advertisements to users who have visited your site before.
Furthermore, as previous visitors to your website browse other sites, they'll encounter ads for your business which entice them to return to your offerings.
With retargeting, your goal is to ensure that every visitor to your website return. That being said, we strongly advise that you ensure that your business is always at the top their minds by enticing them back via Facebook retargeting.
Conclusion
If you're interested in growth hacking your small business to success, each strategy you administer and each tool you implement should be driven by your appetite to grow. Only you know what will work best for your company. Growth hacking happens swiftly, so you need to gauge which of the strategies we've discussed here works best by experimenting with them, tossing out the ones that don't work and sticking to the most effective tactic.