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5 Tips on How to Grow a Small Business

Facing the challenging business climate of 2024, discover five key strategies to help small businesses thrive and grow, from optimising sales funnels to harnessing the power of social media.

Did you know, around 7,000 UK businesses are predicted to fail every quarter in 2024?1 To stay afloat in this challenging climate, increasing your sales and growing your revenue will be important goals to focus on. While there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to growing your business, there are some strategies that can help you give your business the best chance of success.

We’ve put together our top tips that could help you learn how to grow your business below:

1. Improve your sales funnel

Your sales funnel can help take your business to the next level. Your sales funnel is like your customer journey - when customers enter your business or visit your website, they’re at the top of your funnel. When a customer buys something or signs up for a service, they go through the funnel.2 To optimise your sales funnel, try exploring new ways of moving customers through the funnel, such as offering a sign-up discount or getting their contact details to send them newsletter updates on your business.2

2. Customer retention is as important as attracting new customers

Did you know it can cost five times as much to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one?3 To improve customer retention, why not try prioritising customer service - an unhappy customer is less likely to support your business in the future. Show your customers you value them by addressing their concerns and giving them the best experience possible.2 Creating a customer loyalty programme is one way you might reward your existing customers for supporting your business and win back those who may have left your company.

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3. Join community groups

You may want to recommend your company to local community groups on Facebook. Invite your customers to join these groups too, letting them become brand ambassadors for your business. If you have a brand referral programme, this will increase the likelihood of customers going out of their way to promote you.4

4. Harness the power of social media

Thanks to social media, businesses can connect with a wider audience for free and build relationships that lead to sales. Social media can also be used to create content to improve SEO, leading to more website traffic.4 More than a quarter (28%) of small businesses in the UK are now generating more sales from social media than from any other channel, including e-commerce and brick-and-mortar stores.5 Our article on Growing Your Business with Social Media has even more advice on how to use social media effectively.

5. Automate repetitive tasks and processes

You could free up time to focus on selling, relationship building, and growing your customer base by automating repetitive marketing or sales tasks.4 AI can be an important tool to help you automate these processes. Read our article on How AI Can Help Your Business for more information.

Expanding your business involves looking at your business plan, regularly monitoring your progress, and making updates as you go.2 Optimising your sales funnel and focusing on retaining happy clients or customers are low-cost ways to build and maintain relationships and bring in more revenue to help you grow. You may want to join community groups or use social media to expand your audience. Using AI and other tools to help you automate tasks can free up more time to focus on all the other tips above. For more information that may help you expand your business, read our article on Staying Up To Date On Business Trends.

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