Let us say that you have found a great and novel idea for building a small business or a startup organization that you are absolutely confident to succeed, or maybe are you already running an SMB and is stressed to find out how you can make it grow.
Now whatever be the fact, in either of these scenarios both startups and SMBs face a lot of challenges in their up-hill climb for business growth.
We say this since it has been recorded in several statistical observations that 9 out of every 10 or more simply speaking 90% of all startup ventures fail in their growth path.
Therefore, even though you must be wondering by now that if this is the hardcore reality faced by startups, how can you find your way for survival in this cut-throat marketplace, where most businesses die in their infancy.
Nevertheless, although running a new startup can seem to be an uphill task if you stay up-to-date on the latest industry trends like adopting an easy to use CRM and embrace these top growth hacking tips, we are sure that your businesses’ chances for survival in this competitive marketplace will be much higher than if you do not.
Therefore, in this article, let us uncover some of the most used tips for business growth in 2020 so that you can use them, and hence, most likely outperform your competitions:
1. Automate As Much As Possible
Now one of the most critical steps that an owner of an SMB can ensure to its organization for maintaining optimal productivity is to buy a business management software that will help to automate time taking manual processes within the company.
To be candid and truthful, you can consider the above-stated fact as one of the most pertinent growth-hacking best practices that we can recommend for your small and medium business this year.
Hence after you have evaluated the needs for your business try to research and decide on the type of software that would aid in promoting and growing your business on an immediate basis.
While there are a plethora of business hacking software solutions in the marketplace nevertheless these two, in particular, are must-have for all businesses irrespective of its size or the industry they are in.
– CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
If you know what is CRM, be it Salesforce the most popular enterprise-level CRM software in the CRM space or any other Salesforce Alternative CRM platform, CRM is a software solution that not only helps in automating loads of manual tasks, but it also aids in permitting all your teams (marketing, sales, accounts, production, and support) to work with the same data stored in the CRM database, providing all its users the ability to find a 360-degree view of each leads, prospects, partners and customer contacts in the database, and more.
Now you can adopt a cloud-based all-in-one CRM for SMB, which includes automation for marketing, sales, and support, all in the same platform.
Additionally, apart from automation, you can integrate loads of apps (using built-in plugins) like email, telephony, document management software, accounting software (like QuickBooks CRM) and many more with your CRM software so that you can complete nearly all your tasks using the same tool.
In the present times, startups and small businesses are increasingly vying for this option in most easy to use CRM for small businesses since it not only saves time, but it also increases collaborations within and outside the company and reduces the investments involved in purchasing separate siloed technologies.
– MA (Marketing Automation)
Now that you have finalized on an easy to use CRM you must also find a CRM solution that has an integrated MA solution, which will help in nullifying the need for purchasing a stand-alone or a silo MA system for your company.
Since, if you do not do this, then you need to spend in a disconnected marketing automation solution to drive and automate your marketing and support efforts of your company.
MA solutions not only streamline your business processes but also increases brand awareness by automating tasks and make it easier for businesses to attract leads.
With built-in features like landing page builders, preconfigured email marketing templates, lead generation web-to-lead forms, metrics, analysis and more, marketing automation when it is installed in easy to use CRM or used just as a siloed software is even a critical tool for hacking on to your competitor’s marketing growth.
2. Train Employees On The Software You Use
When you invest in technology to streamline operations and automate your works, it is obvious that you must fully train your staff on how they can efficiently and successfully leverage that solution.
Hence, invest in software solutions that provide high-quality free onboarding and training during installation and implementation of the software platforms, which will help your employees to use the system with ease and make them ready to leverage the technology to its fullest extent seamlessly.
3. Prioritize on customer experience and satisfaction
According to studies conducted by multinational research agencies, it has been found that in the present time Customer Experience (CX) is overtaking product and pricing as the key factor influencing the consumer’s decision-making process.
This, in other words, means that consumers are prepared to spend more for any brand or organization if they find that the customer experience delivered by that company is of ‘world-class’.
Well, it is natural that great CX (customer experience) of any brand also increases customer satisfaction of the consumers of its offerings.
Therefore, as satisfied customers stay longer and spend more on any brand, it is necessary that as an SMB you must increase your level of customer satisfaction for the consumers of your offerings as it is 5-10 times more costly to get hold of new customers than to keep a hold on to your existing ones.
4. Dive Head First Into Social Media
It is a well-accepted fact of the modern times that Millennial(s) are steadily becoming the members of the largest demography across the world, those who are practically addicted to social media which they use for harvesting information from every place across the globe.
Hence becoming active on social media websites and platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and others are one of the other most vital tips for the prosperity of any startup or small business.
Therefore below are a few most important tips to make your business succeed with its social media presence:
– Join social media groups to share important insights and grow your reputation
– Share your inbound marketing contents in the social media channels
– Ask questions in your businesses’ social media posts to encourage engagements
– Incorporate CTA (Call to Action) in your social media posts
– Use social listening tools
– Run contests on social media platforms, and…more.
5. Measure Your Results Constantly
Measuring your efforts is one the most significant growth hacking tips, especially in times when your business is in its early stages or you have just launched your business.
Now, with all the best small business CRM software, you have excessive access to metrics and CRM reporting that can help you in your decision-making processes.
Metrics found in easy to use CRM solutions not only aids in monitoring your small businesses’ sales pipeline, but also measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, gain forward-looking revenue estimates, and a lot more.
Now, we say this since all SMBs need to take up and ensure data-driven decisions to uphold and sustain its growth.
Hence, the analytics and metrics offered by your best small business CRM software solutions provide the numbers and insights you require to make informed decisions for your business growth.
Conclusion
Hence to be a part of the 10% of startups and small business that succeeds, following the business growth tips laid out above, will not only make you prepare your business for success in 2020 (than those that do not), but it will also set your brand apart from your competition and prepare your company to confront the initial storm that most small and medium organizations face for sustaining rapid and consistent business growth.
