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5 Ways to Grow your Business in 2022

Published On: May 11, 2022 | Categories: Advertising and Marketing, Blog, Branding, Public Relations |

Businesses across all industries struggle with the same ongoing challenges—effective growth strategies and opportunities for improvement. At Strategic America (SA)—one of the top 4% of independent agencies nationwide—we’re committed to finding a better way always for our clients and delivering strategic insights designed to spur business growth.  

STRATEGY 1: CREATE A CUSTOMER LOYALTY PROGRAM

  • Why is customer loyalty crucial?
    • It is up to seven times more expensive to get a new customer than it is to keep an existing customer.2
  • How can customer loyalty increase your business?
    • Increasing customer retention by just 5% can improve profitability by up to 95%.2
    • Loyal customers can turn into strong brand advocates in their communities.
  • What are some actionable ways to increase customer loyalty?
    • Don’t underestimate the value of a personal touch.
      • Consider sending customers handwritten thank you notes.
      • Schedule in-person follow-up visits to see how customers are doing and thank them for their business.
    • Consider a point system or punch card to encourage patronage, repeat purchases and cross-sell opportunities.
    • Look at how your pricing structure could encourage loyalty.
      • Reposition a service or product cost as a monthly subscription or an annual agreement.
        • Ex: Annual memberships that have tangible benefits or discounts.

STRATEGY 2: IMPLEMENT OR OPTIMIZE A CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM) SYSTEM

  • What does a CRM system do for you?
    • A Customer Relationship Management system houses all your sales and customer data in one place.
  • Why are CRM systems important for businesses?
    • They help you get a holistic view of your customers.
    • You can identify and create opportunities to:
      • increase retention
      • increase loyalty
      • up-sell
      • cross-sell.
  • How can CRM systems grow your business?
    • Increase sales productivity by 36%.1
    • Increase sales win rate by 26%.1
    • Increase revenue by 30%.1
    • Optimize internal processes.
    • Generate customer-centric reporting.
    • Improve customer relationships.
  • What is an actionable way to use a CRM system to grow business?
    • Track relevant information about customers.
    • Setup automated email and text campaigns for regular customer communication.
    • Enable personalized content to send customers relevant and timely information.

STRATEGY 3: ASSESS YOUR TARGETING AND SEGMENTATION, IDENTIFY EMERGING SEGMENTS

  • Why does customer analysis matter?
    • Customer analysis allows you to identify your most profitable customers and generate strategies to retain and attract more of them.
    • You can identify emerging consumer segments in your market for further growth opportunities.
    • Identify prospective audiences who have the highest chance of becoming customers.
  • How can you analyze your customers?
    • At SA, we leverage third party data to enhance our clients’ customer data.
      • Through data, we learn about the customers’ demographics, behaviors, lifestyles, channel preferences, and messaging motivators.
    • SA also has a proprietary process of cross analyzing customer data against the local market to identify segments with the highest conversion chances.
  • What are some real ways customer data analysis can expand your business?
    • SA has used customer data analysis to create optimized, highly targeted campaigns to specific segments.
      • Target campaigns decrease cost per lead up to 43%, and increase return on marketing investment up to 160%.
    • Consider applying exclusive offer campaigns to specific customers.
      • Senior discounts
      • Military discounts
      • New mover discounts

STRATEGY 4: EXPAND YOUR GEOGRAPHIC TERRITORY

  • Why is geographic expansion useful?
    • You can expand your services in under-served areas near your market.
    • Create growth opportunities in highly competitive markets.
  • How should you approach geographic expansion?
    • Add new zip codes, cities or counties to your marketing territory.
      • SA has seen our clients’ target potential increase by 28% after adding markets.
    • If you can’t expand outward, look at your market and determine if you should be breaking it into sub-markets.
      • Submarkets can optimize your existing area to capitalize on different demographics and customer segments.
      • SA increased leads by 10% and sales by 25% year after year by creating sub-market strategies for our clients.
    • Consider opening a new location.
      • New locations offer potential customers another opportunity to interact with your business.

STRATEGY 5: GROW BRAND AWARENESS WITH A BALANCED MARKETING MIX

  • Why is brand awareness important?
    • Brand awareness is the extent to which consumers are familiar with the distinctive qualities of a brand.
    • Industries are competitive, so your brand needs to be on the top of customers’ minds when they want to buy.
    • Without brand awareness, 20% of customers who feel satisfied with their purchase will switch companies in the future.2
      • All businesses need to stay relevant to increase customer retention and loyalty.
  • How can you increase your brand awareness?
    • It takes 7-10 marketing touches through at least 3 channels to move a consumer to action.3,4,5
      • It’s important to have high frequency in your marketing strategy and a diversified omni-channel strategy to reach customers.
    • Have a mixture of marketing activation and brand building in your marketing strategy.6
      • Marketing activation generates direct action though:
        • direct mail
        • digital SEM ads.
      • Brand building creates awareness through:
        • channels on TV
        • digital video.
      • You need both to have a successful marketing strategy with long-term growth.
  • What are the benefits of a balanced marketing mix?
    • SA has seen clients with a balanced marketing mix see conversion rates grow 20% higher than those who focus too heavily on just one strategy.
    • SA’s clients who keep a consistent presence in the market have seen 20% higher appointment rates.

With these strategies in your back pocket, your company can start on a solid foundation of marketing efforts to build up your business. If you would like to learn more about mixed channel marketing strategies, or if you would like to contact Strategic America directly, visit us at https://www.strategicamerica.com.

Sources:

1 Salesforce, 2014, What is a CRM

2 QuickSprout, 2015, 7 Ways to Gain Lifelong Customers after Making a Sale

3 Stevens, J. (2018) The Rule of 7 … The Balance[AM3] 

4Sumiga, D. (2017) How many times … PromoSapiens[AM4] 

5Schmidt, S. & Eisend, M. (2015) Advertising Repetition … Journal of Advertising

6Binet & Field, Media in Focus: Marketing Effectiveness[AM5] 

 

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