Many startup owners think they need fat wallets to turbo-charge their performance and scale their enterprise.
That can’t be further from the truth.
Budding entrepreneurs can now take advantage of advanced technology, virtual offices, and other modern – yet low-cost – trends to catapult their business.
Here are five tactics to supercharge your business performance without overflowing your budget:
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1. Design a stunning, functional website
Your website acts as your virtual store or business office – your homepage is your storefront, and the gallery page is like your product display section.
Like your brick-and-mortar shop, you want your website neat, attractive, and functional to entice customers to buy and return.
To build your website, you need site builders such as Bigcommerce and Shopify. These platforms offer various packages with monthly or yearly subscription options. However, their price tags are often expensive.
An ideal alternative is an open-source eCommerce site builder. This platform offers robust security, flexibility, and community support. It also loads pages fast, enhancing your user experience and website performance.
Open-source platforms are free of charge and rich with themes, plugins, and hosting options. Depending on your provider, you can even build headless websites that support omnichannel strategies.
Remember the following tips once you’re ready to design your site:
- Showcase your branding identity consistently throughout the website
- Simplify your navigation
- Add search buttons to help visitors quickly find what they’re looking for
- Publish jaw-dropping product photos
- Keep your interface clean and beautiful.
2. Offer first-rate customer service
Treating your customers well is foundational to your startup’s success. When you don’t care for them, they’ll grow dissatisfied and choose a rival that better serves its buyers.
Provide first-rate customer service to make consumers feel valued and encourage them to stick to your brand.
Follow these tips to do that:
- Make your business processes speedy and convenient
- Provide round-the-clock, responsive support
- Be courteous in your customer interactions
- Listen to buyers’ feedback
- Empathize with your consumers and understand their needs
- Exceed customers’ expectations
- Hone technical skills related to your products and services
- Personalize messages and packaging
- Keep your promises
- Offer genuine value, and others.
Additionally, leverage free customer service tools to ease and centralize your buyer relationship management.
Customer service software can gather, store, and organize consumers’ contact details, including their interests, website activities, etc. Use this information to enhance your marketing campaigns and product development.
You can even communicate with buyers through the software. It documents interactions, complaints, and the steps taken to resolve issues. This simplifies tracking your support interventions.
3. Implement cloud-based processes
Digitize your business processes and documents to make things more convenient for you, your team, and your customers. Moving your systems to the cloud is among the best ways to do that.
Let modern rental companies illustrate an example. They use electronic equipment inspection forms for pre- and post-rental asset examinations.
With the forms on the rental company’s app, technicians can tap checklist options and attach videos and photos (saved automatically on the cloud for the team’s access).
Technicians can then submit their accomplished reports from the app. The software notifies managers who can view the forms on any device and work on necessary repairs. Customers can even sign the inspection reports electronically anytime to acknowledge the results.
With these cloud-based processes, people don’t need to upload files with USB drives, head to the office to complete tasks or risk losing inspection papers. Digitization speeds up transactions and saves everyone’s time, productivity, and money.
4. Partner with influential brands and leaders
Collaborate with popular brands and authority figures to catapult your startup’s visibility and marketing reach. Choose those that complement your products and services well.
Get in touch with these brands and see which activities you can implement together (in line with your marketing objectives). Ensure that your agreements are a win-win for you and your partner.
One excellent activity for your partnership is an online conference. This event gathers representatives from specific sectors (e.g., life coaches, nutritionists, etc.) to deepen their knowledge and exchange ideas.
Organizing online conferences lets you and your partner brand or resource speaker educate target audiences and introduce your products. The activity also enriches your opportunities to network and grow your mailing lists.
If you and your partner are up for it, do the following to launch a successful event:
- Plan your online conference at least three months ahead.
- Announce your event on email, social media, your website, and other channels.
- Highlight enticing elements (such as freebies, reputable speakers, and contest prizes) to increase attendance.
- Ensure the technical aspects are ready and functioning properly
- Send post-event, thank-you emails to your resource speakers and attendees.
- Publish photos, quotes, video snippets, etc., on social media to entice more people to join next time.
- Share copies of the files you promised to give your attendees.
5. Run email and social media marketing campaigns
Social media and email marketing can increase your sales, conversions, and engagement and foster customer loyalty. They are cheap but powerful strategies. You can create business email and social accounts for free or at low costs and yield substantial returns. The platforms you can use also offer robust promotional, selling, and other features – including analytics.
For example, signing up for Google Workspace starts at over $4 a month. Statistics reveal an email marketing ROI of $42 for every dollar spent. You can even leverage free powerful platforms, such as Sendinblue, for your campaigns.
Make the most out of your email and social media marketing efforts. Share high-quality, relevant content periodically (not too frequently, or you’ll annoy your audiences).
Integrate the two channels as well to ensure engaging both your followers and subscribers. Apply the following tactics:
- Publish social promotional posts with links leading to unique opt-in landing pages
- Offer something of value on social media (groups, stories, live videos, etc.) in exchange for followers’ email addresses
- Run competitions and giveaways
- Work with influencers
- Encourage subscribers to share your emailed content
- Import email list on Facebook, etc.
Grow your startup without overflowing your budget
Don’t let limited resources hinder you from boosting your business performance. Begin with these affordable tactics, monitor your strategies, and improve based on your analysis findings. Don’t give up too quickly as well. In time, you’ll meet your business goals and successfully scale your startup.
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