9 Tips to Grow Your Business Online – Quick Guide to Growing Small Business with Limited Budget
Launching a business is only a half task done; you must work harder and smarter to sustain it in the long run. The business market is highly competitive as every industry has saturated with multiple businesses. In such a situation, your business can only survive if there is consistent growth.
Internet and technology have come out as one of the best aids for businesses to reach out to their potential customers, boost their growth and stay ahead of the competition.
Businesses are, therefore, making a paradigm shift to online that supplements their offline business growth and multiplies their revenue.
36% of all businesses are now making their sales online.
However, a part of the business community assumes marketing their business online would require a huge budget and therefore refrain from doing so. But to your surprise, you can boost your business online even with a small limited budget. Here is a quick guide on how to grow your business online without spending a lot of money.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. IDENTIFY THE NICHE & TARGET MARKET
There are millions of people on the Internet and thousands of businesses in hundreds of industries. Among these, you must figure out where your business belongs. Identify your industry and the business niche to understand the scope of your business, and your target market and define the marketing strategies.
Once you figure out which industry you best belong to, identify your target market - whether you are selling to businesses(B2B) or directly to the consumers(B2C or D2C), etc.
The target market for your business is nothing but a group of real-time people who might be interested in your product/service or to whom your business ideally caters. To better understand your target market, perform competitor analysis and find whom your competitors are targeting.
2. DRAFT YOUR BUYER PERSONA
Once you identify the target market, the following step is to draft the buyer persona. The buyer persona is nothing but a semi-fictional descriptive representation of your ideal consumer backed by extensive data and research.
There is a significant difference between your business's target market and the buyer persona, and hence do not compromise on any.
A target market is your business's customer base whereas a buyer persona is a fictional representation of an individual having the traits your ideal customer might have.
To draft a buyer persona, brainstorm to whom your product ideally caters and then jot down their demographic and psychographic information. When you draft a buyer persona, you realize whom you are selling to and dig deep into their needs and pain points, catering the best to their needs.
For example, assume you run a travel agency and sell a luxury holiday package, your target market might be people interested in travelling. However, your consumer persona would target certain demographics like age, occupation, social media habits, the purpose for travel, challenge in travel, favourite travel destinations, etc. When you answer these questions, you niche down to a single person representing your ideal customer rather than a group of people sharing similar interests.
3. DEFINE THE VALUE PROPOSITION OF YOUR BUSINESS
After you identify the ideal consumer persona, you must showcase the value proposition of your business to attract those consumers to your business. Drafting the value proposition of your business also helps you set the right narrative.
A value proposition is beyond the generic product/service description. A value proposition of a business is how it resonates and solves a consumer problem via its products/services. It entails the USP of your business.
Show your potential customers how your offerings are different from others in a similar industry earning your business a competitive edge. Hubspot has ready-to-use templates to help you brainstorm and write winning value propositions for your business.
For example, Apple does not market iPhones by their features but by presenting a solution to users' privacy problems stating iPhones do not hinder users' privacy. Apple does not boast about the camera quality or other features that every other brand is advertising about. They highlight their unique USP that solves a major consumer issue and stands way apart from the crowd. Thus sell solutions and not features.
4. CREATE A GOOGLE BUSINESS PROFILE
Google loves to support small businesses and hence provides online real estate to every business, however small or big via Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business listing).
Using Google My Business, you can promote your business online for free and appear at the top of the local search results. 84% of searches are discovery searches like a business 'near me' and hence having a well-optimized Google Business Profile means boosting awareness and driving new customers to your business, thereby tapping into the untapped market.
Navigate to Google My Business, sign in with your Google account and enter your business name, address and contact details. Out of over 4000 categories available, select a primary category that best suits your business. You can also add additional categories for your business.
If your business is already listed, you can claim it otherwise you can make a new listing. Google sends a verification code to your business location, and once you enter this code, your account gets verified.
Post verification, you can add your products/services, business timings, and business details like logo, website address, etc., for users to get in touch with your business.
More than 50% of Google Business Profile visits further navigate to the business website, thereby boosting the chances for lead generation.
Similar to posting images on social media sites, you can also promote your business with posts on your Google Business profile. You can answer common queries regarding your business via the FAQ section so that visitors get to know better about your products/services.
ADVANTAGES OF GOOGLE BUSINESS PROFILE
A GMB profile brings the following advantages to your business: