As a small business owner, it’s easy to become so preoccupied with the day-to-day operations of your company that you don’t feel like you have any time, money or resources left to grow it. Of course, growth is critical if your business is going to survive and thrive in the long-term. Without it, customer churn will slowly eat away at your customer base, gradually eating away at your company’s revenue. So, how can you continually grow your business without making a major investment of cash and a larger staff? You should leverage growth hacking techniques.
What is growth hacking?
The term “growth hacking” was first coined by Sean Ellis, the CEO of GrowthHackers.com when he saw an absence of growth tactics in traditional marketing and described those proficient at the practice as, “a person whose true north is growth.” Growth hacking helps you stand out in a crowded marketplace while staying ahead of your competition with a minimal investment. It is a process that involves experimenting with various marketing and product development methods to quickly adjust based on immediate results to find out what is most effective for your specific business and customer type.
Why is it important to use growth hacks?
Growth hacks are an effective approach to grow your small business in a short time without major capital investments in paid social, paid search, high-end marketing tools and other costly marketing tactics. It allows small businesses to compete in the marketplace even though they don’t have the huge budgets of enterprise corporations. Containing costs means that you employ innovation and creativity to scale your business instead of large amounts of cash.
Through the use of various marketing tactics, growth hackers grow their customer base and keep them coming back for more. And isn’t that the goal?
7 simple growth hacks
So, what growth hacks might you leverage for your small business or startup without a sizeable investment? Here are seven growth hacking methods to help you grow your business:
Retargeting
According to AdRoll generally only 2% of shoppers convert on the first visit to an online store. The goal of retargeting is to bring back the other 98%. To implement this strategy, create targeted Google and Facebook ads for users who visit your website without purchasing. By placing a JavaScript tag in the footer of your website, a list of site visitors is created through the placement of anonymous retargeting “cookies” in their browser. This list triggers your retargeting vendor to display your ads to these potential customers as they surf the web.
Exit intent pop-ups
When users are about to leave your website offer them a coupon with a discount code for their next purchase. This should entice them to return soon and helps you build a healthy email list for additional marketing purposes.
Lightbox pop-ups
Pop-ups asking site visitors to sign up for your newsletter are very easy to set up and have proven to be quite effective when it comes to collecting emails and new leads. They can be set up so they appear only to certain visitors such as first-time site visitors who have been on the site for a predetermined time. Plus, this approach not only assists with the creation of your email list, but it’s also an excellent way to stay in touch with prospects and customers. Just don’t forget to comply with GDPR and other such regulations when doing so.
Social proof
People tend to buy from brands they trust. In fact, according to Statista, when asked how important reading online
reviews were before purchasing a product, 38% of respondents answered “very important” and 19% responded “extremely important. A good way to build trust is by adding social proof to your website. A quick and easy way to do this is by adding some of your customers’ logos to your site. Another option is to request quotes from happy customers about their experience with your product or service to add to your site along with their photo if possible.
Free piece of content
Offer a free piece of content to your website or blog visitors in the form of a short guide, checklist, educational paper or reference piece to download in exchange for their email address. Make sure it’s in the form of a pdf so anyone can easily view it after download. An easy way to do this is by adding a pop-up to your blog posts where visitors can leave their email address and instantly download the free guide. Alternatively, it could be sent directly to their email address for easy access at a more convenient time or on a preferred device.
A/B test your website
Split testing is an easy and economical way to increase email subscriber sign-ups, “Buy Now” button clicks and other types of website conversions or results. There are many tools available to facilitate A/B testing on your website with only a few simple clicks. You can test numerous things on your site such as homepage header copy or images, button colours or copy, page layouts and more.
Feedback
You can quickly assess your business performance and identify areas for improvement by asking your customers for feedback. An easy way to do this is by creating a brief survey and sharing it with your customers via email, social media or by adding a pop-up to your site that directs visitors to your survey. There are various free survey tools that allow you to easily create a survey within minutes. And improved customer service or user experience can have a significantly positive impact on your bottom line!
You don’t need to spend a lot of money, invest large blocks of your time on ineffective marketing strategies if you follow these growth hacks. Plus, there’s no need to add personnel to use these strategies either. Just taking these simple actions can have a significant impact on your business growth. Give them a try to see which ones work best for your specific business and watch your company flourish!
